Record Numbers
A pictorial guide to the best and strangest places to find vinyl in Manhattan
“So I asked to take this guy Bob’s picture, and he insisted upon taking his hair out of his raggedy-ass ponytail and putting dolls on his shoulders.”- Staff Photographer Molly Crossin
Bob’s Bleecker Street Records (118 W. Third Street)
Due to higher rent prices and the prevalence of digital downloads, many Lower East Side record stores have gone the way of Footlight, pictured here.
Foodlight Records (113 E. 12 Street)
“Our problem is from the real estate angle—hotels and boutiques buying out a neighborhood that used to be satiated with culture. There’s a high-rise on Norfolk Street that kicked out Tonic, that was basically the main live-music venue for our kind of music. Nobody from the real-estate angle or even from the city angle has done any sort of work to help out the arts community in the way that they really should.”-Mikey Jones, mail-order manager
Downtown Music Gallery (342 Bowery Street)
If high rent and other economic factors continue to force independent record stores out of business, this inventory will disappear off the shelves and into boxes.
The Record Shack (274 W. 125th St.)