An off the record take on the city’s best vinyl stores

As hipsters stake permanent residence in New York City, technology of the past is experiencing a revival in the form of an LP boom. With artistic covers, clever line notes, and that eternally appealing scratchy sound, students are spending money saved in LimeWire downloads on classic albums.

Hardcore vinyl junkies can hop the ACE to West 4th Street to find the city’s epicenter of record culture, but many stores beyond Washington Square Park also offer something for music-lovers.

Retaining its status as one of the city’s best-known record stores, Bleeker Bob’s Golden Oldies lives up to the last word in its name, but not necessarily the penultimate. The store has a solid collection of rare and collectible records, used CDs and many classic dorm room music posters, but the service isn’t exactly friendly. But for psychedelic rock-and-then-some fans, the store also sells an extensive selection of drug paraphernalia.

The nearby Bleeker Street Records has one of the best selections in New York City. With a focus on classic rock, jazz, and R&B, Bleeker Street Records’s upstairs walls are adorned with rare promos, limited presses, and mint condition classics at capital prices, along with bins of more realistic purchases. But what truly distinguishes Bleeker Street are the two grey cats that wander the store. “They are brother and sister,” explained Peter Kye, manager of the record department, “Their names are Kitty and Keeta. The sister got all the brains though.”

Generation Records is Bleeker Street’s younger cousin, focusing on the grittier genres of music: metal, punk, and hardcore. It also hosts in-store concerts featuring local bands, like a special acoustic performance by the Bouncing Souls last week.

Just down the street from Generation, Record Runner is located on the same block where Bob Dylan took his famous Freewheelin’ cover shot. Diverging from the punk-soul-jazz-reggae repertoire of most vinyl stores, Record Runner specializes in something quite unexpected: 1980’s rock and pop.

Owner John Pita explained, “Everyone [record stores] tries to get their own niche, it’s too difficult to do everything. We cater to a lot of 80’s groups and we’ve become famous all over the world for Madonna, Prince, Duran Duran.” He was quick to add that the New York City Michael Jackson fan club met weekly at Record Runner for a long time.

“Most other stores will look down on you if you sell Cher,... but I’m going to cater to the thing other people don’t think is cool, and that’s my niche,” said Pita. He must be doing something right—Record Runner, which opened in the 1970’s, is the oldest store in the area.

Although the Washington Square Park neighorhood is Manhattan’s vinyl hotspot, St. Mark’s Place staple Rockit Scientist Records is also noteworthy. It fosters a pleasant ambience with records adorning the ceilings and 70’s proto-punk playing in the background.

Rockit Scientist features a solid collection ’60s and ’70s psych, along with newer garage and punk bands. Owner John Kioussis explained the recent popularity of records: “The plus-thirty crowd still buys CDs, but the young kids all buy either MP3s or vinyl.”

Lastly, for the vinyl-dabbler and cupcake aficionado, the Lower East Side’s Cake Shop never fails to please. An all around bakery, café, music venue, and record outpost, Cake Shop hosts live music seven nights per week and serves a delicious array of refreshments to fuel an afternoon of perusing.

While the record selection could be more extensive, the venue’s charming funkiness makes up for the relatively limited offerings. Co-owner Andy Bodor explained that Cake Shop used to have a complete record store, but it fell by the wayside as the recession hit. “We stock a lot of reissues and buy stuff from bands that play here,” he explained. However, this multidimensional venue is thinking outside the box when it comes to record sales. “We might do a records truck, like an ice cream truck, only for records.”

Whatever the reason for records’ spike in popularity, Columbia students have a number of options to fulfill their vinyl obsession. Academy Records employee Sean Rowlands explains what he thinks is the appeal of vinyl, saying, “I’m a DJ and so I’ve always used records. There’s a warmer sound. There’s more of a process to playing them. I like the cover art, the line notes.”

Maybe these stores serve as a sign that New York is stopping to listen.