I traipsed over to Other Music during Jimbo Lunch today. No significant sales going on yet. I grabbed a few items out of their used bin (Focus - At the Rainbow (Japanese mini-LP) and a Stephen Tintin Duffy comp). Goodly number of shoppers browsing the racks.

If they start slashing prices, I'll likely head over again before they shut down for good.

Focus "Live at The Rainbow" is a Prog classic. A Japanese mini no less. Great find Jimbo!

Rick A.

Jerry's Records to close Bargain Basement with three-week sale
June 14, 2016 9:49 AM

Jerry’s Records will host a special vinyl sale the next three weekends, leading up to the closing of the Squirrel Hill store’s Bargain Basement on July 3.

Vinyl records — both LPs and 45s — in the Bargain Basement only will be 50 cents each and CDs will be $1.

The basement, on the ground level at 1236 Murray Ave., is filled with 30,000 to 40,000 titles, many of them by familiar artists. Owner Jerry Weber says those are records of which he has a lot of duplicates and that they “are just not screened as much,” so buyers should look closely for scratches.

The sale will run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays June 17-19, June 24-26 and July 1-3. The basement will be replenished as the sale goes on. He will also being doing giveaways of 10,000 albums over the next few months. Dates will be posted at the Jerry’s Records website.

Mr. Weber previously said he would close the Bargain Basement by the end of the year, but he’s pushed up that date, noting that the rent was too high for the return he was getting.

The Basement closing and the bulk sale of his 700,000 45s in the main store to a German online dealer has prompted frantic calls from worried vinyl junkies that Jerry’s, one of the premier record stores in the country, is closing.

He insists that is not the case, and that he is continuing to stock up on more records every day.

Rebel Rebel Records Will Close After 28 Years

And the record finally stops. Rebel Rebel Records is closing at the end of June after 28 years in the West Village, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York just discovered. The reason is a tune you've heard before: rising rents.

According to the iconic record store's owner, David Shebiro, the building's management not only raised the rent but also has plans to put another "basic ‘high-end’ clothing store like Intermix in its place." The blogger is speculating that one of the clothing stores next door — either Scotch & Soda or St. James — will expand into the record store's current space.

Sadly, this isn't the first record store closing we've reported this year: Other Music will also shut its doors for good at the end of the month. And last year, the East Village lost Sounds on St. Mark's Place.

Stop by Rebel Rebel to shop before its doors close for good on June 30th

Did anyone else see the store...and Dave...in the movie Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist?

Aquarius Records, San Francisco’s Oldest Independent Record Store, Has Been Sold
By Kevin L. Jones | June 17, 2016
https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/06/17/aq ... been-sold/



The owners of Aquarius Records, San Francisco’s longest-running independent record store and a noted source for eclectic music from all over the world, announced Friday that they sold it and though it would stay a record shop, it will operate under a different name.

In a statement published on their website, owners Allan Horrocks and Andee Connors informed their patrons that they would be selling the store to the proprietors of Stranded Records in Oakland. The tiny storefront in San Francisco’s Mission District will become a second location for the young but growing music retailer.

Aquarius will operate as it is now until July 4, when it will shut down for renovations and remodeling. The new owners plan to reopen the new Stranded on July 29.

In a phone interview Friday afternoon, Horrocks said that both he and Connors decided to sell the store when they realized it needed to be revitalized but they couldn’t commit to it. Co-owners since 2003, Horrocks was too busy with his 2-year-old daughter and Connors has other projects he wanted to concentrate on. The store and its extensive mail order catalog was a “labor of love” that the two found they couldn’t give the attention they felt it deserved.

“We were looking to have someone take it over, and after some searching and discussion, we knew the guys over at Stranded were interested in opening a new shop,” said Horrocks. “This store needed a reboot and we couldn’t really do it ourselves. I feel fortunate because the people we found have similar tastes and attitudes about a lot of the music. We certainly like their label Superior Viaduct.”

Aquarius Records first opened in 1970 in the Castro, and for a long period it was located by the camera shop run by Harvey Milk, an influential gay activist who would become the nation’s first openly gay politician. In the ’80s it moved to Noe Valley, and then it moved to its current location in the Mission District in 1996. Both Horrocks and Connors have been working at the store since it was located in Noe Valley.

Besides the name change, Horrocks says that customers should expect to see more records and less CDs at the store — Stranded is mainly a vinyl seller — and the selection of releases could change. But it will remain a record store and retain its current staff — no one’s getting fired — and to him that’s what matters.

“The new guys will be doing things a little differently but the same staff will be here,” Horrocks said. “It will be different but the same, and it’s a way for it to survive.”

Earshot Records (formerly Manifest Records) in Greenville, SC closed earlier this year, it has no reopened in a new location as Pharmacy Records.

If I'm not mistaken, the lead singer of Eagles of Death Metal used to work at Manifest.

Well, okay, sort of...

This was once our life. I would go to a record store at least once a week. Now? very very rarely.

Just saw this article on LAist.com:

http://laist.com/2016/09/12/noooo_not_amoeba.php

I don't live in L.A. anymore, but, whenever I'm in town, I try to head over to Amoeba Music on Sunset in Hollywood. Let's hope Amoeba doesn't become another "gone but not forgotten record store" in Southern California.