Store Review: The Thing a Vinyl Wonderland
Granted we haven’t exactly had a lot of time over the past three years to add to our record collection (above), but our acquisitive juices started flowing a little when we read last Sunday’s story in The Times about the thrift store in Greenpoint that may have the largest collection of vinyl in the city….
Granted we haven’t exactly had a lot of time over the past three years to add to our record collection (above), but our acquisitive juices started flowing a little when we read last Sunday’s story in The Times about the thrift store in Greenpoint that may have the largest collection of vinyl in the city. Strangely called the Thing, the shop has over 100,000 records in its basement and another 30,000 upstairs. And the kicker? Unlike most other stores in the city that mark up their used records depending on their desirability, every record here is a sweet 2 bucks. At that price, we may even be able to justify hiring a babysitter so we can spend a couple of hours going through the bins. Who’s been?
Vinyl Underground [NY Times]
Hey Dan , that’s the gamble that you take when you go diggin’ , why don’t you put your ( big ) mouth where it is and open up your own record store and show every one how it should be done !
Hey Dan , that’s the gamble that you take when you go diggin’ , why don’t you put your ( big ) mouth where it is and open up your own record store and show every one how it should be done !
Hey Dan , that’s the gamble that you take when you go diggin’ , why don’t you put your ( big ) mouth where it is and open up your own record store and show every one how it should be done !
Out here on the west coast, but it is my dream to get to NY area to see the art, and the rest that your culturally rich area has to offer. Anyway, there is a whole new generation of people who are falling in love with vinyl because so much of today’s music simply sucks. Not only that but if you have a good turntable and good software it is now easier than ever to transfer your LPs to CD. One great program is called spin it again by Acoustica (www.acoustica.com), and no I do not work for them. Many older jazz, blues, rock LPs will never be released on CD simply because there is not a great enough profit margin to be earned by the record companies. I have transferred some great bands on to CD such as Perigeo (Italian fusion band) and Dreams (early Billy Cobham group) to CD, and they sound great. I encourage anyone who has any desire to hear their old lps on their Ipods or in their car stereos to give it a try. Peace.
Gregg
Too much junk. I have spent a couple hours looking and walked away with nothing worth spending $2 on. The storage conditions are awful and you can’t even get to most of the records. Everything is packed so tight there is no way to see what is there.
The Thing had it’s glory days. story after story of people finding valuable and rare records, I found quite a few. The store’s owners were rockers, they take the good rock/new wave/punk stuff they get and probably sell it on ebay, or keep it. The club stuff piled up though. Eventually I think a few people started working there who were djs/collectors who knew what’s what, so the finds aren’t quite as good, but I’m sure lots of stuff still slips through. But definately don’t even bother if you’re not into club music from late 70s to 90s! I heard once that a lot of it comes from collections passed on from A1?
Also see Junk on n. 9th and driggs.
nice! thanks so much everyone.
stuy blkbuttrflie —–
for used vinyl check out academy records, there’s one in manhattan (77 e.10th st) and an even bigger store in williamsburg (96 n. 6th).
if you want to shop online then i highly recommend dusty groove (www.dustygroove.com) who, along with a comprehensive site, have a store in chicago. one of the very best new/used rare soul/funk/r&b selection in the country.
There are tons of places to get old and new vinyl in Manhattan and Brooklyn. One really new place is in Clinton Hill on Myrtle between Emerson and Classon. It’s called Dope Jams. They have soul, rock, jazz, rap, electronica, etc…And it smelled like incense when I was there.