Record Store Visit: Kim's Video & Music - New York, NY - 11/21/12

Record Store Visit: Kim's Video & Music - New York, NY - 11/21/12, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

The last stop on the record buying trip was to Kim's Video & Music on 1st Avenue. I'd actually never been to this particular version of Kim's before; though I am intimately familiar with Kim's. I've been going to their stores since the early 90's,

The old Mondo Kim's on St. Mark's
Place. A hell of a store that I miss.

It started out with Kim's Underground on Bleecker Street being the go to location. Then after a while they got a huge space on St. Mark's Place and became Mondo Kim's. Mondo Kims was 3 floors of wonderful chaos. CD's, Vinyl, DVD's, crazy import movies and their infamous VHS rental business that housed some of the most insane movies ever created, The fate of Kim's rental business has been well documented on countless websites, but since I didn't live in NYC, I never was a member. I can tell you that I bought an awful lot of music at the old locations and even purchased my first region free DVD player there so I could buy more British comedy DVD's. Lot's of great memories over the years.

Current Kim's is still a pretty great store. Not as big, but just as good, particularly their video section. Awesome imports, wacky exploitation movies...if it's weird, it's at Kim's. For me, Kim's was the only other location where I actually bought a record during this outing as I picked up a used Heavy Vegetable 7". All in all, not a particularly impressive haul for the day, but I was purposefully trying to spend as little as possible with the holidays coming up and all.

This will wrap up my week long record store discussion here on the website. I hope you enjoyed it, but if not, no worries, it'll be back to records on Monday. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about all of these stores, missing closed down shops, hunting for picture of the places I spend my formative years. It all makes me a bit sad, truthfully. But I do take solace in the fact that there are a handful of stores still trying to keep the record shopping experience alive in New York City, because I'll be damned if I'm going to go all the way to Brooklyn just to buy some records.

Record Store Visit: Rebel Rebel - New York, NY - 11/21/12

Record Store Visit: Rebel Rebel - New York, NY - 11/21/12, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Again, this particular photo isn't mine, so if it is yours and you want me to remove it, just get in touch. I forgot to grab a shot of Rebel Rebel when @swamipat and I stopped on our record store run. This is another hold out from the old Bleecker Street and is another shop I've been frequenting for a long, long time.

Rebel Rebel was always my go to store for import singles. Over the years I can remember picking up Ash 7"s and Beck remix 12"s and that sort of thing. It was never a store where I bought a lot of quantity, but certainly a good amount of quality. It was usually my 2nd stop as a youth. Coming off the Christopher Street PATH train I would typically hit up the Kim's that used to be on the corner of Christopher and Bleecker (long gone and not to be confused with Kim's Underground that was on Bleecker & Thompson). I'd then start the trek down Bleecker heading towards Generation records hitting all the stores in between.

Today, Rebel Rebel is a mess. A legitimate, cartoon character of a record store like you'd see in some bad 90's movie. Boxes of shit everywhere. It's nearly impossible to look through everything; or at least I don't have the patience for it anymore. I don't even know where they keep their 7"s these days. It's a cool store with a great vibe, a total throwback. I'm sure they still have some great records, but they could really use some spring cleaning in this place. I'm afraid I'm going to knock something over and break stuff.

Record Store Visit: Bleecker Street Records - New York, NY - 11/21/12

Record Store Visit: Bleecker Street Records - New York, NY - 11/21/12, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

I don't really have as much to say about Bleecker Street Records as I do about several of the other stops on the record tour. It's not a shop that stands out, and it's not a shop that I have a long history with. Don't get me wrong, Bleecker Street Records has been around for a while, but for me it's always been over-shadowed by the other stores in the area.

First thing's first, I have to commend this store for holding out and staying open on Bleecker Street. Bleecker Street used to be one of the coolest streets in the city, but it has been completely taken over by high end fashion shops and other assorted bullshit. What was once a really interesting part of town is being turned into a mall, so the fact that Bleecker Street Records survives is to be commended,

The store itself is kind of middle of the road. They don't specialize in anything, but they have a really strong cross section of stock. You can find pretty much anything here if you are looking for bands that have a decent following. They have a huge used section and stock a lot of older records from before the 90's. I didn't buy anything on this day, and truthfully, I've never really found much here throughout my visits over the years, but I go in this store every time I walk by it. It's just one of those things that you do.

Record Store Visit: Generation Records - New York, NY - 11/21/12

Record Store Visit: Generation Records - New York, NY - 11/21/12, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

The 2nd stop on my trek through New York City brought me to Thompson Street and my favorite record store in the city, Generation records. I've been going to this store since 1995, it's by far the best "punk" store in the area, though they stock significantly more than just punk rock.

I remember the very first time I went to Generation. It was before the big crackdown on stores selling bootleg live CDs. I bought a Beck bootleg here called I'm A Schmoozer Baby that still sits in my CD collection to this very day. It's also been a key store to buy some of the best punk around. I remember back when they kept the 7"s on the front counter and you had to stand right next to everyone checking out to browse through them.

Picture of Kim's Underground
from: http://www.betterphoto.com/
gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID
=1067608&catID=&style=&row
Number=9&memberID=127768

Generation used to be the best store in an area PACKED with great record stores. Kim's Underground used to be right at the end of the corner on Bleecker Street. That was another store that I spend countless hours in, combing through the stacks, sometimes buying albums based purely on artwork. They mainly had an indie rock lean, but I bought so many things by so many different bands over the years that I couldn't classify them as indie exclusively.

Right around the block on Sullivan Street there was another store called Second Coming. This was another big booleg store, though on my very first trip there I found the 2nd pressing of the Beck 10" A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight (Notice I was really into Beck in the mid 90's?), so it is a store that also will always hold a special place in my heart. Both of these have long since shuttered their doors and the village is a worse place because of it.

Old entrance to Second Coming Records
I wish I had a picture of the old awning
That was right outside this shop.

Back to present day Generation records. Now the 7"s are downstairs with all of the used CDs and they are still absolutely worth digging through. I always find something of interest and on this day I picked up a Midway Still 10" and a Spatula 7". @swamipat did even better and picked up a several LPs and a rare Hot Snakes Tour 7" that was hanging on the wall.

For me, no trip into NYC is complete without a trip to generation. it's still the best store in the city and one of the best stores I've ever had the privilege of going to.