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(people chattering)

(jazz music)

(fire engine honking)

- Other Music was the quintessential place

in New York City for people
that appreciated music.

It just was a place where you were able

to kind of search out things
that you had never heard of.

- If I was in New York,
I would always make sure

that I would be at Other Music

within the first day of being there.

Per square meter, it probably
had more interest value

than any other shop that I
had ever been in in the world.

- To be stocked on their shelves

meant that a band was in good company.

- What they did was
invaluable for people like me.

- Write a great song in a basement,

go play it at that club,
next thing you know,

it's gonna be in that store.

- People have awesome
experiences at record stores

all over the country,

but Other Music just cracked my head open.

It just was like (imitates
explosion booming).

There's a whole world that
you have no idea about

and get ready to learn.

(people cheering)

- Do you remember this band?

- Yeah, it had something to do...

- Hi Rob, hi Puloma, what's going on?

- Hey Josh.

(funky quirky music)

- Other Music, this is Josh.

- Azonto?
- Azonto.

- It's kind of like fast
house tempo but dancehall-y,

but with African sort of rhythms to it.

- Before the internet and
before iPhones or any of that,

people trusted other people.

- These were two tracks

that were on a deluxe
CD set of greatest hits.

- Yeah, he did vocals
on the original track,

the Sam Kerridge one is really good.

- They're kind of like
a bit Darkness vein.

I like the Darkness, don't judge me.

- I have a soft spot for the
Darkness, I can appreciate.

- Talk about me when I leave.

- The most exciting in the world for me

is to be around people

who have devoted a massive
amount of time to something.

Someone listening to you,

and hearing the stuff
that you like musically

and then saying, "Do you know this?"

- This is more experimental.

It's a cool record, but
it's not his new pop record.

- The place is reverberating.

It's like vibrating because
you just... what you can see,

and what you know is there
beyond what you can see,

and it's like, whaaat?

(speaking in foreign language)

- I want to buy a lot.

- Okay.
- Yes?

- Getting your records

into good record shops is very important.

They're the hubs for music communities.

(speaking in foreign language)

- And also people who just like
listening to records all day

deserve to have a job
where they can do that.

People who work in record
shops are always weirdos.

Weirdos need jobs.

- If anybody sees me and I'm
not listening to records,

what I want to be doing
is listening to a record.

Even if it's a record

that I don't necessarily
like or care about.

I don't like to take records
off even if I hate them.

- I still love the smell of records.

- We can't hire anyone
over a certain height

because the ceilings just won't allow it.

- This has not changed pretty much

in the 15 years I've worked here.

(upbeat soul music)

(electronic music)

- Coming to New York and just
going to shows sometimes,

it wasn't enough.

I wanted to be bombarded constantly,

I wanted to have my ideas challenged.

And I wanted to be fucked with, you know?

- It was a place that I loved to go

whenever I wanted to find something new

or something I didn't know about.

I knew that there would be someone there

who's pretty invested,
who had listened to it.

- We tried to have more of
this kind of a holistic view

of all these different
things happening in music,

in new music.

Even if it was reissues.

It was definitely like trying

to be on top of what's happening now.

- To go find out what was new

and bands in the area and all that stuff,

Other Music was where you had to go.

When there was a whole batch
of new stuff on that shelf

with a bunch of new cards
that someone had written out,

that was a good sign I
was gonna be listening

to something pretty exciting.

- I would never trade
the handwritten signs.

It's done from a place of,

"I had to write about this right now

"when I was listening to it
because I loved it so much."

It's the first thing people
see if the record's new,

so I want to come in with my personal,

passionate endorsement,
as soon as possible.

- Maybe this is the
best "From NYC, Made in NYC"

hip hop album you'll hear all year.

Solid, thick, and punchy production

with a firm and meaty lyrical style.

- Sammus is
Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo.

Her latest EP "Infusion"

explores the screwed-up world of academia,

finding peace through
video games, and more.

Afrofuturism vibes that
carry us to the year 3000.

- The epitome of DIY,
the couple who ran the label

out of their Bristol home
upheld more of a punk ethos

than many who claimed that distinction.

- Recorded live at Matik-Matik,

Bogota Colombia's experimental music hub.

Folk, free jazz, tropicalia,
spoken word, it's all in there.

- A perfect menage a trois of voice,

sonics, and texture.

Soaring and emotional.

Political and pure.

- If you only ever
buy one record ever again,

this would be a fine choice.

- I like curators, you know.

I like people that are
gonna comb through it all

and really are passionate enough

to write 100 words on a little card

and make sure it stays stuck to the shelf.

- A lot of the stuff that
we feel really special about

or personal about are things

that we have such limited quantities on

that you can't present it
to the whole 30,000 people

who are reading our emails

because we might only have 10 copies.

And that handwritten sign
is going to turn more people

on just coming off the street.

- Hello.
- Hello, there's a box here.

Other Music, it's kind of
like a religious experience

a little bit coming here,
picking up new sounds.

After a while they get to know your taste

and sometimes I come in here
and just say, "Pick them."

- This is the original cover of it,

but I remember there was a
reissue on Rhino Records.

I mean not Rhino, Alligator, years ago.

My first job in a record store was,

I was in high school
and it was career week.

I loved the record store I used
to shop at when I was a kid

and I'd been working a
retail job at my Aunt

and Uncle's gift shop since I was 14.

I love retail and I love music, I'm like,

that's the perfect thing.

And so I went up to the record store

and the guy I used to shop at and I said,

"It's career week next week.

"I could work for free, for a week.

"You need some help?

"You know, I'd love to do it."

He was like, "Sure, come on in."

And I've been doing it ever since.

♪ Judy and the Dream of Horses ♪

♪ Dream of Horses ♪

♪ You dream of horses ♪

- Wasn't that beautiful?

That was Belle and Sebastian.

We have some guests with us today.

From Other Music, Chris
Vanderloo and Mr. Josh Madell.

The reason we chose that particular album

is that is apparently the
biggest selling record

they've ever had in the store.

Is that correct, gentlemen?

- It is, yeah.

That's from our biggest selling album.

We've sold a few thousand copies
of that one over the years.

- And it still continues to flow.

Now for people that are
not in New York City,

'cause we have to tell everybody,

Other Music is an institution
that I buy records from

for the last 20 years and
I'm really sad and pissed off

that you guys are leaving.

(droning music)

- Our plan is to close
Other Music on June 25th.

I guess we have about six weeks left.

- No, that's the truth,
closing on the 25th.

- When we first announced it,

a regular customer told me

"It was the Tweet heard around the world."

- It's sad.

It's like a home for a lot of people.

- So they're definitely gonna close?

Oh, that's really a drag.

Wow, what a drag, fuck.

- The way things are and
the way people consume music

is on a certain trajectory

and it does not favor Other Music.

- When's your last day?

It sucks the store is closing.

- The 25th.
- The 25th?

- Yeah.

- I've been coming here since I was 11.

- Wow.

- Just wanted you to know, I
made a special trip from L.A.

to come by.
- Oh really?

- Just 'cause I'm gonna miss you guys.

- Wow.

- You guys should have a therapist here.

- Yeah.

- Every person wants to
talk to me for 10 minutes.

They wanna know what I'm gonna do now.

- To me this store is synonymous

with everything that's
cool about New York.

Bands were probably formed
because of the music

people got exposed to at this store.

I think you can't quantify it.

- Let's go
back to the early years.

Where did you guys meet?

- We all met and we all actually worked

at Kim's Underground.

- And what
was Kim's Underground?

- Kim's was a video chain.

Pretty much it was always
video rentals and sales.

- Mr. Kim was a businessman.

He had a dry cleaners.

Somehow this really crazy
New York film buff guy

convinced him, let's do a
little video store here.

Everything from experimental
film to, you know,

just the history of indie cinema

and they would even bootleg videotapes,

you know if they couldn't
find real copies.

The store was very successful.

But I think Mr. Kim just saw it

as an opportunity more than anything

and Kim's had a video
store and a record store.

We were in the back of
a popular video store.

- At the height of Kim's success,

there were I think four locations?

And I'm pretty sure on the books,

he had about five employees.

And these were stores that were open

from like noon to midnight
every day, seven days a week.

So, you can imagine
that there were probably

a few more employees than that.

And when Chris moved here
and got the job there,

and Mr. Kim was like, "We
pay cash", or whatever,

he was like, "No."

He was like, "What if
the IRS comes after me?

"I can't be working under-the-table."

- That really just
speaks to the difference

between the two of them,

because I remember Josh
was working at Kim's

and he was like, "Look at
all this money I have."

He just had wads of cash everywhere.

- So then you met this
other character, Josh.

- Josh was working there.

When I moved to New York Josh
was already working there

and our other partner Jeff
Gibson was working there as well.

Jeff and I had always talked about,

we could do this ourselves
and do it even better

and with more freedom to buy

what we wanted to buy
and carry more things.

I think I just told Kim that
I was moving on, you know.

I didn't tell anybody about our plans.

I called him afterwards and
told him we were opening.

- He really freaked out
Jeff, our partner here.

Jeff was I think genuinely terrified

that Mr. Kim was gonna try to kill us

when we left and started this place.

I don't think Mr. Kim was
considering killing us.

- By the time we came
to Josh about joining us,

we had already kind of picked the space.

Obviously we wanted to be downtown

with all the other record
stores around here.

- It is significant, the actual location.

Astor Place is kind of the
village green of that hood.

Downtown New York, above SoHo,

the kind of commercial
side of the East Village.

But also if you keep going west,

you're heading into kind of
old school '60s bohemia land,

and to your east is Mercury
Lounge, isn't very far away.

Brownies wasn't very far away.

It's also NYU, you feel
this sense of the energy

of downtown New York City.

- Got a sublease on this
place on East 4th Street,

and painted the floor,

put some racks up and just
started buying records

and it took off very quickly for us.

- Here it is.

This is the very first sales
we ever did, handwritten.

We did $362.98.

- So, what do these guys go and do?

They decide to open a record
store across the street

from the biggest record
store in New York City

at the time called Tower Records.

An institution!

What madness led you to that location?

- I had a guy come in, he was like,

"So what are you guys selling here?"

And we were like, "We're selling music."

And he's like, "Have you
looked out your window?"

- There was a giant Tower Records

literally across the street,

so, you could buy anything
that a major label

had to offer at Tower
Records across the street.

(indie rock music)

- Hello Tower,
hello Tower, hello Tower,

hello Tower, hello Tower, hello Tower,

hello Tower, hello Tower, hello Tower,

hello Tower, hello Tower,
hello Tower, hello Tower!

- We had a ton of
people coming here all the time

saying, "How can you do
it? "It seems so crazy."

And it always seemed like
they didn't quite get it.

- I always thought of it as
kind of like the curated,

cool place across from
this massive mega-store.

- I was like, "This is genius."

That's so smart of them.

It was subversive in its
geographical location.

And from that day forward,

I never went into Tower Records again.

- It made East 4th in between
Broadway and Lafayette,

that little block was a
very important music block.

- Music consumers and music
lovers from all over the world,

Tower was a magnet for them.

And we just happened to
be across the street,

so they came to us too.

- Jeff came up with the name

and he said that that was
how he always would describe

what he was into to his parents' friends.

"I listen to other music, something else."

There's a sense that underground music

or something is for the snotty kids.

But we try to have a little
more sophisticated look

at what that could mean.

There's such a broad spectrum
of experimental music,

from jazz and classical to
noise to electronic stuff

that may come out of dance
clubs, but pushes boundaries.

We just always wanted to be on the edge

of what was happening in culture.

(krautrock music)

- Growing up going to Other Music,

I literally discovered genres

because of the way they
would organize the music.

You know, you'd go to other record stores

and you might go to the world section.

Whereas Other Music had
these more specific ways

of dividing up music.

- We needed a
different way to organize it

that was the way record
collectors thought.

That was the way people, you know,

passionate fans bought music.

It wasn't just a list.

- A lot of international music,

a lot of European pop.

- Electronica, krautrock, experimental,

and then whatever the hell called "In."

- "In" is where you would find what?

I don't know, Galaxie 500?

- The first section I
walked into was "Out."

- What was "Out?"

- "Out" was where you'd find Stockhausen?

Okay, good, I got it, I got through that.

- "Then", which was bands
that do not exist any longer.

- And I was like, "What,
what the heck is this?"

And I just couldn't figure it out

and I got so freaked and I just left.

- In that "Then" section,

there would be classic punk
along with folk reissues.

It's just trying to find a different way

to both cater to the
passionate fans that came in

and also I think just
kind of surprise people,

shake them up,

make them think about
music in a different way.

I think our most famous
section in that realm

would be "La Decadanse."

- The "Decadanse" section

was thoroughly confusing to me at first.

I really didn't know what that was.

- Jeff was particularly
passionate about Serge Gainsbourg

and was married to a Belgian,

so he was much more familiar
with a lot of European music

and he would bring in these imports

and they were very hard to come by

and he was just so excited about it

he basically made everyone at the store

love Serge Gainsbourg.

I didn't know about him
and that's how I found out,

and then eventually the
records got reissued.

- It was like a strange
configuration of French pop,

and easy listening was
kind of coming back then,

so stuff like Martin Denny or Esquivel,

things like that we sold so many of.

(French pop music)

(singing in foreign language)

- The early days,

they didn't have any paid
employees for quite some time.

- We still were slow in
terms of hiring people.

We still were working seven days a week.

We hired people when we had to,

but we it's not like we had deep pockets.

So it was just trying to make it work.

- We had just started
dating, so he would be like,

"Well, come to the store.

"We'll have a store date."

Which was kind of like
asking me to work for free.

- You had to have a store date

where you came and you had takeout

and you stood at the counter.

In between ringing up customers,

you might actually talk for a minute.

- Yeah, we just sat there

and taped a lot of records and hung out.

- Weekends, Lydia and Dawn
would work the register

and we would be out with customers.

Josh and I would be out with customers.

Jeff would be pricing used things

and other stuff that had just come in.

- With the Monks, it is not
in print in the United States.

It's available only from a
German label called Repertoire.

So we have to get them when we can.

- Jeff was incredibly
knowledgeable about music,

really passionate, constantly
finding new things,

always finding some new
obscure reissue or something.

Chris dealt with the business

and also was just very customer-oriented.

He's always been someone
who can spend all day

just talking to the
customers, helping people out.

He's very service-oriented.

- They incorporate a lot
of brass instruments,

and their earlier stuff

used to be a little more
eastern European sounding.

- That was a little harder for me.

I don't think I was instantly
as personable and easy-going.

- Josh was always
sitting at his back desk,

listening to people who came in and out.

He did all the training,
he was very strict.

- I don't think he had any hair then.

I think I think you just shaved your head.

- Oh yeah, I had a super short crew cut.

- He kind of had
that D.C. look about him.

- Josh was always looking for ways

to have the shop help the community.

In-stores, releases that
the shop could put out

that maybe no other labels would.

- He's two steps ahead of you

when you're presenting something to him.

He's very linear, already has
it worked out in his head.

He's just like, "Let's go."

- I'm thinking about going outside

and trying to get that flag down.

- I don't know
if I would, I don't know.

- Today is the day to do it.
- I mean it's, yeah, try, try.

- In some ways they're polar opposites,

but they've both been
really great to work for.

I mean, I would not have
been here for 15-plus years

if I didn't like working for them.

- Is there some ceremonial way

you're supposed to fold a flag?

You can't just throw it on
top of a garbage bag, can you?

- It's one of those things
where it transcends a job.

These people become your family.

(dance music)

- Duane worked at CMJ.

- He was my intern.
- He was an intern at CMJ

and so he would review
pretty much anything.

He could find an angle on everything.

For a young kid that
was pretty surprising.

- I was just so excited and happy

that a store like this existed.

So immediately after Lydia
told me to apply here, I did.

- All of them had
encyclopedic music knowledge,

but Duane was definitely full-spectrum.

Like, "Just get Duane,"
because he's gonna know.

- Check this out.

The original version of
"Bette Davis Eyes" is on here.

- What?
- And it's a country song.

- Shut up.
- Yeah, Jackie DeShannon.

She wrote "Put A Little
Love in Your Heart"

and did that really cool
Laurel Canyon album.

When I came in, I wanted
to learn about the sections

that were there.

But then what was also great

was that there was a lot of room

for me to bring my aesthetic in.

It was really, really cool to be able

to build a hip hop
section from scratch here.

(Beans rapping passionately)

- Beans worked here
before Anti Pop Consortium

put out their first record.

The day Beans arrived,

everybody was like, "Who
the fuck is that guy?"

- Beans would sit there in the corner

with his huge mirrored shades

and you could never see
where his eyes were ever.

And he would just be like, "What's up?"

- Beans is a hero of mine

and the fact that I could just walk in

and be like, "Oh I can't.

"There's Beans, I can't talk to Beans."

- He was the only staff
member I think we ever had

who would just relentlessly
suggest his own music.

It just didn't matter what
you said you were into.

He'd always be like, "Have you checked out

"the new Anti Pop Consortium?"

(Beans rapping)

- This is the type of business

where it encouraged
artists to be on staff.

It encouraged artists to be artists.

- It was great at first 'cause
the exact amount of time

I could take off from Other
was the amount of time

we would go on tour.

Just in the beginning, three
weeks or something like that.

- People who work here
don't make a lot of money,

but working here enables
them to do other things

that they might be connected with,

and this maybe helps them.

- Other Music was a
tough place to get a job.

It was really stacked with people

who'd been there for a decade or more.

- What we did all day was talk
about records on the floor.

You had to wanna do that and
you had to have deep knowledge.

- I know dance music, I know
soul music, I know reggae.

But I didn't know indie rock so much.

So I was a little nervous
going into the interview.

But aside from that,
I knew I knew my shit.

One of my all-time
favorites, Keith Hudson.

Super spooky reggae,

but a no less spiritually-minded
left-of-center vocalist.

- You sold me on that one right away.

- Absolutely, classic record.

The first couple years,

it was like nowhere I
had ever worked before.

It was crazy.

Just from the amount of personalities

you had to interact with on the staff

and then the amount of people

that would come into the store,

and that amount of traffic
coming to you all day long going,

"What do you like?" or
"What does this sound like?"

It was just like, "Oh
my God, I'm exhausted."

- Do you need anything?

Yeah.
- Do you have Depeche Mode?

- On vinyl?
- It's none of these.

- Yeah, it's
not these unfortunately.

Depeche Mode, it's the one
with the crazy beak person.

- I'm not seeing it.

- It looks like a bare-chested person

and the beak is crossing like this.

Can you tell me the title one more time?

Chris, "Walking In My Shoes."

Is it possible it's a single?

It is on this record.

- It's a specific thing I want.

- No, I get it,
because you want that cover art

and there's remixes or something?

Oh no wonder, it's a collectible.

It's a $75 record.

- Okay.
- Yeah.

- Over time they knew what
was in your record collection.

They knew what excited you.

You knew what excited them.

So the conversations just went
to deeper and deeper levels.

- People love stories.

People love a good story.

That's one thing I learned
from Duane Harriott.

If people love the
story, they would buy it.

- The vocalist from the Spinners,

it was one of his last 12-inches

that he made before he died,
because he died on stage.

He had a heart attack on stage.

That's pretty gangster.

That's some gangster shit though, come on.

- It wasn't putting your
taste on someone else.

It's really about talking to the customer

and getting what they're looking for

and understanding where
they're coming from.

And being able to take what they tell you

and recommend something that they'll like.

- Holy shit, this one is amazing.

- Martin Newell is the gentleman

who is in Cleaners From Venus.

It's like a lo-fi, kind
of indie pop thing.

- I'm looking for something
that's like Lou Reed,

but I probably never heard of.

- Something by Loud Reed?
- That's like Lou Reed?

- That's like Lou Reed.
- Oh, like Lou Reed, okay.

- Oh do you have that?

It's kind of like Gina X Performance

but with more of a Grace
Jones sort of feel to it.

- What else you have?

Give me something fresh.

You have something fresh?

- If you really wanna be good out there,

you've gotta be really
up on so much stuff.

Even just being away for a month.

You can just be like, "I
don't know, it looks good,

"it's on a good label or something."

- The rite of passage
for the new clerk at OM

was to start at "In," grab a legal pad,

and write down every single
band in every single section.

(upbeat music)

- I wrote every card in the entire store.

I think it took me like two days to do it

or something like that.

- Just that alone was just like, "Whoah."

I thought I knew a lot.

- I didn't know really a single artist

in the soul/funk section.

I was like, "I guess I'll learn."

You would start to become familiar

with all of the names of
the artists in the shop.

So if someone came in and they were like,

"Hey do you have Chrissy Zebby Tembo?"

You'd be like, "Oh yeah."

- I just knew everything in
the store right off the bat.

Just kidding.

- The music that we carry here

is often obscure and confusing,

from the sounds to the
packaging to the distribution.

Although our buying philosophy

is not to simply unearth the unknown,

our passion for new
music and new directions

often leads us into
uncharted waters where,

frankly, we feel most comfortable.

One of our main purposes is to make new

or forgotten music available
to a wider audience.

- Even in electronic music,

an area where I thought
I was quite well-versed,

there would be stuff that
I had never heard of.

And I often found myself buying stuff

that was completely different.

- One thing about our store,

we always hired people partially

because they were into
stuff that was different

from what we were into

and they could add another
side to the selection.

- It kind of reminds me almost
of Bill Fox or something

where it's sort of Dylan-y
but with tons of hooks.

I think you'll love it.

They always gave me a ton of freedom

to just figure out what
I was interested in.

They were never like,

"Oh you gotta order this,
you gotta order this."

They're like, "We trust you
and we trust your taste."

(acoustic folk music)

- Jackson C. Frank was a
tragic '60s folk singer.

He had a pretty miserable life

but he made one absolutely
flawless beautiful record.

♪ Catch a boat to England
baby, maybe to Spain. ♪

- I just remember seeing
it in the bin one day.

I was like, "Let's check this out."

And just as soon as I put
on, within the first note,

it's just like, "Oh my God."

♪ Send out for whiskey baby ♪

♪ Send out for gin, me
and room service honey ♪

♪ Me and room service
babe, me and room service ♪

♪ Well we're living a life of sin ♪

- Michael Klausman brought

a lot of cobweb reissue
vibes to the store.

- Dan Hougland and Chris
O'Rourke who was a manager there,

kinda went up to Michael
and they were like,

"You know you can play some CDs,

"you don't have to play NPR all day."

- You could live in kind of
a dream world of esoterica.

- Stuff like Le Orme, an
Italian psych band I got into.

I think Duane recommended it to me once.

- Os Mutantes, at one point

we could not keep those
things in the store.

- I found that solo Masaki Batoh record.

I was so excited and I grabbed that like,

"Oh my god, I can't believe this exists."

- We would also stock everybody
from Pantha Du Prince,

Blossom Toes, Peanut Butter Wolf.

- A CD by Tristan Perich, but
instead of a compact disc,

it had components that made a loop.

We sold hundreds of them.

♪ In Canada ♪

- B.J. Snowden.

- "Songs In The Key Of Z."

- This Morton Feldman recording.

- The Shintaro Sakamoto,

the Nude Beach record, the Ex Cops record.

- 75 Dollar Bill.

- Quasimoto.
- Oneohtrix Point Never.

- Julianna Barwick.

- Karen Dalton, Vashti Bunyan.

- The Vashti Bunyan reissue.

- Vashti Bunyan, "Just
Another Diamond Day."

- Dungen, we reviewed Dungen.

- That Aphrodite's Child record.

- Arthur Russell, minidiscs,
cassettes, CDs, whatever.

- Digital experimental
minimal music, you know?

But patterned, patterned minimal music.

- Harmonia, Cluster, even that
Velvet Tinmine compilation.

- Other Music is the only retail store

where somebody would put on Diamanda Galas

to clear the floor at closing
time to get everybody out.

- Hey guys,

we're gonna be closing
up in a few minutes.

- That foghorn record.

- I loved that foghorn record.

- There was a record of foghorns
and it was so beautiful.

- It's suddenly so quiet.

- Let me flip this record.

(techno music)

It's nice how it steps up,
it just like, steps up.

- The art of learning what people

wanna listen to at a certain time of day

and putting records on the stereo,

it's such a difficult thing
that I feel like no algorithm

will ever be able to recreate.

We would be constantly
listening to records in the shop

and as soon as people heard it,

they were just, like,
this is something I need.

(calypso music)

- Excuse me, do you know
who sings this song?

- What's that?

- Do you know whose song this is?

- I don't, what did you just put on?

- Is it for sale?
- It's for sale.

If you want it, I can
take it off the turntable.

- Thanks!

- So good it sold right away.

- Yeah, aren't there no more rock stars?

- He didn't get the message,
he's one of the last ones.

- Him and Dave Grohl are fighting

to be the very last one ever.
- Exactly, those two are.

They're two sides of the same coin.

- I just come sometimes to
look at the wall of vinyl.

It gives me this great warm feeling.

I grew up as a girl collecting records

from when I was very, very small,

and there was always
a lot of way older men

than me being condescending about records.

But I didn't get that vibe here.

- There were girls there, you know.

There were girls there

and they hired women and it was great.

- That's a rarity at a record store,

as an employee and as a customer,

to have ladies behind the counter.

- You would definitely see way more men

walk in through the doors, but
whenever a woman walked in,

it wasn't like, "She doesn't
know anything about music."

- I would compare
it to dark synth type stuff.

- I would go there and do research.

I didn't know any other people

really who were as nerdy as I
was about music, as obsessive.

I had this rock encyclopedia

and I would get in bed
at night and read it,

and going to Other Music
was an extension of that.

It was like, "Okay,
I've done some homework

"and some reading and
now I can go to class."

- Hello.

Excellent choice.
- Oh yeah.

- You can tell she's from New York.

- I could see that you're from New York.

- She can see that you're from New York?

- Visually, visual culture happening.

You, me, cats, I went
to college in Queens.

- Managing Other Music, it was
like herding a bunch of cats,

but super nerdy weird cats.

- Do you wanna do push-ups?

- Yeah, bro.

You wanna get swole bro?

I got this bro.

Alright, we're gonna clap
our hands when we get up.

- I remember so often I would walk in

there and be like, "How
did you guys get hired?

"I know you don't have a resume.

"How are you all here?"

- I think what we weren't
as good at sometimes was,

we would always try to see,

do they have any retail experience?

Trying to figure out if
they're gonna be responsible,

on time.

We famously have hired a lot of people

who could never show up to work on time.

- Everyone brings their peculiarities

and I think that the store
has been a home for everybody

who likes any weird number
of sub-genres of music,

in addition to struggling
with other aspects of life

where they maybe wouldn't fit

into a nine-to-five corporate job.

- Excuse me, do you have any
new concert tickets on sale?

- Yeah there's this new
Devendra Banhart concert,

it's gonna be in a
dumpster on 32nd Street.

We just got a couple
of tickets in for that.

- A dumpster, that sounds gross.

- Sorry it's not gonna
be in Wembley Stadium.

- Yeah, it's gonna be an intimate
little gig in a dumpster.

- Dumpster.

- I understood that.

- The concert's gonna be in a dumpster.

- I heard you the second time.

- There shouldn't have been
an intimidation factor,

but there was.

I'm not the first person
to say that, right?

- Do you have the Garden State soundtrack?

That's supposed to be indie-tastic.

- I think we might have that in the back.

- In the back room here?
- Yeah, come on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Wait, this is just a bathroom,

oh my God!
(gun firing)

- I remember asking
someone who worked there

about an album that was in
the staff "We love" section.

He was like, "Yeah, I don't like it."

I was like, "Wow, this is badass.

"This guy doesn't even like
the stuff that they like."

- Every clerk has his day where
they're not in the best mood

and someone asks them for the
third time the same question

and they're irritated and they come off

as not being as welcoming as they could.

- What are we looking for, first of all?

Are we looking for reggae records?

Are we looking for dub records?

What are we looking for?
- Well...

- Let's just go over there.

- Even if you don't have one of these,

maybe what you do like.
- Let's just go over there.

If you come at me being a hot mess

and not knowing what you are looking for,

I'm not always the most understanding.

- I was hungover, I wasn't
meaning to be a snob sometimes.

I just couldn't speak.

- If I'm completely honest, I
was never just chill in there.

I always got that first
day of school feeling like,

"Okay, just don't fuck up."

- They are specialists in a lot of ways,

'cause they're dealing with music nonstop,

all the time throughout the day.

So they just hear so much

and that knowledge base
can be intimidating.

So even what isn't snobby can
be perceived as snobby-ness

just 'cause the knowledge
is kind of elite.

- I never quite understood that,

I would read that sometimes

and I just never quite agreed with it

because that's totally the opposite

of how I wanted things to be,

and how I believe that I conduct myself.

- The only instance of snobbery I ever saw

was this guy came in who was very drunk

and asked Chris Vanderloo if
they had Stevie Ray Vaughan.

And he said, "Sorry man,
we don't have that here."

And the guy stumbled out
and muttered something like,

"They were assholes."

But, yeah, he shouldn't have come.

(electronic music)

- We never had anyone here
who was super into metal,

so if you were a metal-head
and you came in here

then you hated us because
there was no one here

who was super passionate about that.

- There was a lot of chips
on people's shoulders,

I mean are you kidding me?

It's a store in New York

where everybody's supposed
to know about everything.

Any place that has any hip
aura, people come in like,

"Fuck this hip aura.

"I'm gonna challenge this hip aura.

"I'm gonna dethrone your ass."

- I'd rather have somebody
with a really bad attitude

about what music sucks putting
up the stuff on the shelves

than somebody who's just
trying to like sell product.

Other Music symbolized
something that I find important,

which is keeping the bar
on everything high enough.

If your bar on art is high,

then your bar on kindness
is high, you know,

or something like that.

And when art gets dumber,

when movies get dumber and TV gets dumber,

I think we all get dumber
and meaner and shittier.

You should celebrate
the stuff that's better

than the average, you know?

They just made sure

that they weren't selling
the average stuff.

(people applauding)

(electroclash music)

- The cool thing about Other Music was,

it wasn't just a record store.

It was definitely like a
community center in a lot of ways.

- Other Music hosted
in-store performances,

which was a huge way that the
shop supported the community.

They were all-ages, they were free.

Often you would be able
to get a band's record

for the first time, or
before it was even released.

♪ Hey wait ♪

♪ Oh please wait ♪

♪ Don't rush off, you won't be late ♪

- We would move the
racks to the side of the shop,

which is already very small.

And then a band, often
quite a high profile band

or an exciting new band, would play.

♪ Put a penny in the pot ♪

♪ Put a nickel in your pocket ♪

♪ Every nickel that you've got ♪

♪ Is a nickel in the slot ♪

- You basically just have the
store lighting on the band.

You would see everything super clearly,

you can watch the band
playing their instruments.

You could see what was happening.

♪ I am sorry to report dear Paris ♪

- You could also see the faces

of all the other people in the crowd.

It wasn't like you were having
this isolated experience.

- See, this is how we
talk amongst each other

and then we kind of figure
out what we're gonna do.

Any more fashion disasters
that we need to kind of fix?

- It was intimate and
it always sounded good,

and people were really
reverent and respectful of it.

- One of my favorite memories
is the Gary Wilson in-store.

Duane Harriott was talking up this record,

and I don't think anybody
had ever heard of it.

- Someone made me a cassette of it

and I listened to it on my Walkman.

And then I had to take it off

because I was scaring people on the train

because I had these facial expressions.

Gary Wilson was still incognito,

nobody really knew who or where he was,

he just kind of disappeared.

- The store that started
selling the record, Other Music,

they're the only people that
really have this record yet

and they already sold out.

- Oh great.
- We have to go over there

and bring them more records.

They ordered 120.

- It led up to this reissue

of the "You Think You
Really Know Me" record.

And then he came out of
nowhere, found a band,

and just destroyed everybody.

(upbeat music)
- It was a big deal.

This record, I think, because
of Duane's word-of-mouth,

was huge here.

It was constantly playing, and
it was selling really well,

and so there was an in-store.

- First of all, he came into the store

with a blanket over his head
so nobody could see him.

- In the corner of the record
store was this little closet.

And it had a little blue
curtain, and he hid back there.

- And he would wouldn't emerge

until the beginning of the show.

He had doused himself in an
entire talcum powder bottle,

all over his face, then put sunglasses on.

It was just like, showtime.

(people cheering)

♪ Foolish heart ♪

♪ You're keepin' me away ♪

♪ So far away ♪

♪ From all the things that I want ♪

♪ From day to day, from day to day ♪

♪ You keep on lookin' ♪

- It was the most amazing, bizarre thing

I had ever seen in my life.

He immediately became like
top five humans of all time,

for that year.

♪ From shore to shore ♪

♪ Out of repulse ♪

♪ That's what they try to say ♪

♪ I'll just keep on lovin'
you, I'll keep lovin' you ♪

♪ From day to day, from day to day ♪

- Going to live shows is a real,

visceral experience that's hard to fit in

with the rest of your
daily life sometimes.

It's hard to describe.

It's just a way of having
a very sensory experience.

♪ Two headed boy ♪

♪ All floating in glass ♪

♪ The sun it has passed ♪

♪ Now it's blacker than black ♪

♪ I can hear as you tap on your jar ♪

♪ I am listening to hear where you are ♪

♪ I am listening to hear where you are ♪

♪ Two headed boy ♪

- Music, it's a way to
connect with other people.

It's a way to connect with yourself.

Maybe live more in the moment,

and live for a purer type of joy

than we get in our daily grind.

(Jeff Mangum vocalizing)

- Thanks.

(people cheering)

- I'm just trying to
format something in Word

and I don't understand
how to change the font.

- Sure.

- I think you might
know better than me.

- That's adorable, "I don't
know how to change the font."

How's he gonna get another job?

- Look at this.

- I know, it's like fine wine.

Fine wine in a box.

- I'm gonna just keep
cleaning out back here.

What am I going to do
with that thing, come on.

Mmm, indie!

There's gonna be some weird stuff in here.

Oh man, the flier from when
we launched the website.

(electronic music)

- We launched the mail
order website in 1998

and the store's newsletter
has been going out since 2000.

- We had an email newsletter
that reached a lot of people.

Tens of thousands of
people read it every week,

where we reviewed music.

- I've been writing
about music for 15 years

and I would obsessively,
every week read the mailers

which are I think the
best in the business.

- Those early days online,

you didn't have Pitchforks and Stereogums

and all these online
sources like you do now.

The Other Music Update at the time

was one of the main sources

for hearing about this
sort of music first.

- Are you writing down

the biggest sellers of all time?

- Top sellers ever.

That's what we're putting up.

- Is Jim Ford in there?
- Jim Ford is not on there.

It's only 100 obviously,
so it's pretty limited.

- I'm surprised at how
low "Ambient Works 2" is.

The big Other Music artists

are Belle and Sebastian, Boards of Canada.

- Stereolab, Broadcast.

- Everything on that list
is from like 2002 and south.

- Yeah, that was, I mean that
was like, serious numbers.

The guy from Ninja Tune
called here one time and said,

"You guys literally sold..."

- More than half of the U.S. sales

or something were just in this store.

- At this one store.

- In the late '90s, early 2000's,

I don't think that people
really have an idea

of just how many records
were sold out of this store.

- Fridays, Saturdays, two registers going,

two back-ups for each register
and just hours of ringing.

Throwing CDs across the room at each other

because we couldn't even
physically make it to each other.

- The whole time we were in business,

the year 2000 was our
highest grossing year.

And 2001 was on course
to be bigger than that.

So we were coming into
September and it was a Tuesday.

I remember a sea of people
walking up Lafayette Street.

The store wasn't open, we were just there,

and people wanted to use the phone.

There were some people who would
splash water on their face.

I remember a dude coming in and going,

"Do you have the new Dylan?"

And I was like, "Do you see
what's going on all around you?"

- We saw the top of the
south tower crack off

and fall from my building
and then we ran upstairs.

So we turned on the
Disintegration Loops really loud,

just went up on the roof

and sat there looking
at this new landscape.

- William came in with
Disintegration Loops,

a CD made as a response to 9/11
and it utterly blew my mind.

Basically it's a tape loop that,

as it winds its way
through the tape player it,

the magnetic tape would flake off.

So as it goes along it's
always subtly changing

with every turn of the reel.

- Each melody just fell away
in its own time in its own way,

and somehow managed to
retain the very core

of what made it special.

And then the fact that I had
managed to record the life

and death of these melodies, to me,

was an incredibly profound thing.

- I wrote a pretty
heartfelt review of it,

and I pushed it on tons of people.

- Nobody knew who I was,

so when it first came out it
was just a little slim sleeve.

- People had to talk about
it once they heard it.

That just connected with a
broad cross-section of the staff

and then the customers.

We sold hundreds of them.

We could just keep selling
those CD-Rs all day.

- Everyone was thinking
about "What do I do?"

I was like, "You're an
artist, make your work.

"This is important."

- You just felt it kick into high gear

because everyone was kind of like,

"Fuck it, what else am I doing?"

♪ You know they're gonna
want some, want some ♪

♪ I'm high in the back room
gonna have a pack soon ♪

♪ With this song you will regret ♪

♪ Just let it be a yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

- It was definitely the
case that post-9/11,

especially immediately post-9/11,
it was really debauched.

- No one was thinking about their future,

and that makes for a
very interesting scene.

- If you were young and your
city had just been attacked,

you're not an adult.

It was sort of just like, "You know what,

"I think I need to get drunk, and high,

"and whatever else I can do."

♪ Fucking for fear of not
wanting to fear again ♪

♪ Lonely is all we are lovely ♪

- The Lower East Side scene
was weirdly fetishized

because of the 9/11 events,

and a very hot spotlight
happened on a lot of bands.

- The '90s were
really dead for rock and roll

at least in New York City.

There was no industry attention

basically in terms of rock and roll.

But Other Music championed
a lot of these bands

really early on.

- Local bands would come in all the time

and drop off their record

with the hopes of us
carrying it in the shop.

- We had this guy Gian Carlo

who ran our consignment program.

He just loved music so much
and was wanting to help them.

And giving them a spot
on the shelf, you know,

a spot on the shelf, that
was prime real estate.

- People kinda made up the
early wave of that scene,

like Strokes, and Liars, and Black Dice,

they all came in here
and they sold their CDs.

They'd burn the CD-Rs themselves.

- Interpol would make demos

and I remember going down to Other Music

and speaking to those guys
about whether they'd be open

about selling it on consignment.

And they were cool about it.

♪ I wish I could eat the
salt off of your lost ♪

- We'd spent so many years

of no one really caring about us at all.

It was one of those early
things within the band's life

that really meant a lot to me personally.

♪ I saw my love with pretty boy ♪

- The first show at Mercury Lounge

and the first time we
got a card in Other Music

we were like, "My band is real,
my band's a real thing now."

- Aw!

My card.

- Okay, ready?
- Ready.

- Two of the members of Animal
Collective, Dave and Noah,

both worked at Other Music
in mail order and shipping.

- I started working at Other in 1998.

I actually worked on the
floor there for a short while

but because my social skills were terrible

I was quickly taken back up
to the mail order department.

When I started working there,

we weren't really doing
Animal Collective stuff.

- I had moved to New York
in the summer of 2000

and Dave said, "Well my friend is here

"and he's looking for work."

- We've been playing
together since high school

in various combinations.

And when Noah moved to New York,

that was when we decided,
let's actually try and do this.

- A lot of times after work

they'd be playing a show and
we'd all go to watch them.

- It definitely started really small,

playing it in the shop, and
they started slowly selling

mostly just on recommendations.

- They were definitely
more underground and avant,

for lack of better words.

It felt like a sinister Fraggle
Rock on acid or something.

- "Spirit They're Gone,
Spirit They've Vanished,"

they were the only outlet for us

to sell the record at the time.

I think we sent it around to a bunch

of labels and nobody wanted it.

- One of them, I don't remember who said,

"This really hurts our dog's ears."

Or, "Our cat freaks
out when we put it on."

- I remember Other being the first place

that gave it a review and put it up

and gave us our first name card.

Just being like, "Yes,
we made it, finally."

That's all I ever wanted
at the time, you know?

- I mean, Dave got fired.

Maybe that made things a little awkward.

- His head wasn't in
the game, at some point.

- He was not a great
mail order supervisor.

♪ Sweet summer night and
I'm stripped to my sheets ♪

♪ Forehead is leaking, my AC squeaks ♪

♪ And a voice from the clock ♪

♪ Says you're not gonna get tired ♪

♪ My bed is a pool and
the walls are on fire ♪

♪ Soak my head in the sink for a while ♪

♪ Chills on my neck
and it makes me smile ♪

- This is where we shopped
since we were teenagers.

- I think also in a way it's like,

knowing that all these folks
who worked at the shop,

if we could excite these people,

that felt like kind of an accomplishment.

I think I can safely say I'm
not sure we'd be doing this

still today if it wasn't for the shop.

- Yeah, definitely not.

(audience cheering)

- Thanks so much for being here,

thanks for having us.

- You know what's funny, I
wrote a poem a few years ago

about how I used to love
going into record stores

and hiding whatever I
wanted to buy later on.

So if I found something I loved,

you would put it in the back
where nobody would find it

until you had enough
money to buy it yourself.

- Right.
- Yeah.

- I can relate.

- I was just thinking of that recently.

Take it easy.
- Thanks.

- Daddy.
- Yeah?

- I wanna get the "Hamilton" soundtrack.

- The "Hamilton" soundtrack?

The vinyl is really pricey,

we have to take a look at it.

$90, holy smokes, that's
a lot of money, iPod?

- We can always listen to it.

- Yeah it'll be on Spotify
too anyway, we can stream it.

Are we part of the problem
or part of the solution?

That's what I wanna know.
- Solution!

- Are we?

Yeah, we wanna buy it on vinyl,

so I guess we're part of the solution.

- There's a whole generation of people now

who didn't grow up with the
concept of paying for music.

- I don't wanna say post-9/11,

but, you know, the
early 2000s, 2002, 2003,

things were starting to turn a little bit.

Record stores were growing
mindful of the fact

that their customer base was changing.

- The internet was definitely happening.

But it was more of like,

the nerds that would come into the store

would start their conversation
in these chatrooms online

about obscure crazy weird music.

And then they would come into the store

and they would buy the records
and talk to us about it.

Then I guess that kind
of symbiotic relationship

started to go the other way,

and the conversation online kept going

and stopped happening in real life.

- On Thursday, Tower
Records will sell off its assets

in a court supervised auction.

The money will go to pay creditors

of the twice-bankrupt company.

As NPR's Laura Sydell reports,
Tower's troubles are signs

of larger changes in the music industry.

- The big stores, the big music stores,

like Virgin and Tower and
Sam Goody and those stores,

were having a hell of
a time competing with,

at the time, Circuit City and Best Buy.

They were fighting it
all out for the hits,

low-balling stuff.

We would go to Best Buy
and buy stuff cheaper

than we could buy it from our distributor.

That just destroyed the
bigger part of the industry,

that low-ball stuff.

- When they closed, I
think it was a loss for us.

Both a loss of foot traffic,

but also just kind of a change
in that downtown corridor.

The East Village going from the hub

of the New York underground music scene

to really being completely
disconnected from it.

It's not a neighborhood built
on arts culture anymore.

- I'm just waiting for someone

to go on that rant about like,

"New York is killing
everything," you know?

- Blink Fitness is now across the street.

Yeah the whole second
floor of Tower Records

is now Blink Fitness.

What is going to be in this neighborhood

without Other Music to anchor it?

So Broadway is shoe stores?

That's it?

Is New York going to be only a place

where you go to buy clothing?
- It used to be you come here

and you find something
out of the ordinary,

something you don't find
when you live in Brooklyn

or in Queens or whatever.

Now there's nothing but Starbucks

and tofu yogurt places, and all of that.

It's ridiculous.

- Best of 2000, Other
Music, best record store.

We're number one,

above the Virgin
Megastore-Times Square, closed.

The Virgin Megastore-Union Square, closed.

HMV, closed.

J&R Music World, closed.

Bleecker Street Records is actually open.

(indie rock music)

We opened up our download
store a few years

after iTunes opened their store.

People were buying fewer CDs

and we were trying to stay current,

to see where music was going.

- The first time that
Vampire Weekend's music

was ever officially
available to buy digitally

was in the Other Music online store,

and that was before we'd signed a deal.

♪ Johanna drove slowly into the city ♪

♪ The Hudson river all filled with snow ♪

♪ She spied the ring
on his honor's finger ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

We had all sorts of people
coming to us saying like,

"Hey kids people are gonna try

"to get you to sign a record
deal, don't be a moron."

But Other Music, that
actually was the one deal

that made sense to us 'cause
they were forward-thinking

in launching an independent
digital distribution platform.

- This is something that
we had all the time,

customers coming in and if you didn't have

what they wanted you'd say,

"I think Tower should have
that across the street."

People would go, "I don't wanna shop

"at a big mass market retailer like that.

"The reason I'm here

"is 'cause I love shopping
at independent stores."

But iTunes, you know,

Apple still maintains
this kind of cool factor.

So we never found that most people

cared about shopping online at
a cool, curated indie store.

- So we announced that we
were gonna be shutting down

the download store 'cause
LP sales were picking up.

We wanted to get back into focus

on the more physical formats.

And I got an email from
Lou Reed's manager,

"Lou Reed is despondent.

"He is so depressed

"and he wants to know where he's going

"to be able to download music from now."

- One of the reasons that
the Other Music digital store

didn't flourish was because
people who shop at that store

are so dedicated to the
idea of physical media,

whether it's a cassette
or a CD or a record.

I mean, I never used it.

- This is back, cool!

For me, music has always
been very physical.

I'm really into cassettes
and going out to shows.

And I'm very involved in
that DIY scene of exchanging,

and sharing and being present.

- What's been really cool actually,

since the birth of streaming
and MP3s and all that,

is the rise of vinyl.

And watching younger people
now build their collections

and come in and be like, "I
just got a vinyl player."

As they say, vinyl player.

"I want some records."

- The quality stuff, you want it archived.

The quality stuff, you want
to make a special spot for it.

- I'm such an analog human being.

I can't read a book on a Kindle.

I like touching records
and flipping them over

and looking at every little thing.

- It is a fundamentally
different experience

than lying back with
your laptop on your bed

and just clicking around.

I think there's something important

about the physical nature of it.

- Almost done.

- Yeah.

Your total is $964.26.

- Vinyl has been growing,

and it's been growing
dramatically in the industry

and it was growing for us.

But it never came close to
replacing the loss of CD sales.

- CDs were great because they
don't cost very much to make,

they don't cost very much to ship,

they can be made very quickly.

And all those things are
not true about vinyl.

- The record business

is always a really tough business.

It's a volume business.

You have to sell a lot of records.

You're making just a couple bucks

most things you're selling,

so you need to sell a lot every day.

Even if you're not paying
$15,000 a month rent.

- It's been pretty rough.

You have years where
you do better or worse.

So, you pay your employees
and you take what's left over.

In 2003, they didn't make any money.

And since then, they have not made a wage

that they could live on without spouses

who kept them afloat
for a long time I think.

- We live week to week.

The deposits that we make every
day help us buy more records

to keep going and it's just been tough.

(acoustic folk music)

♪ Just another diamond day ♪

♪ Just a blade of grass ♪

♪ Just another bale of hay ♪

♪ And the horses pass ♪

♪ La la la la la la la
la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

♪ Just another ♪

- I think he sees the store as like

he feels like he has
responsibility to the customers.

And then I think his other main
hold back was the employees.

I think he just felt like,
"What are they gonna do?"

And I'm like, "Chris, it's
great to think about that,

"but what are you gonna do?"

'Cause he's always at
the back of the list.

♪ Just a word to say ♪

♪ Just another love to give ♪

♪ And a diamond day ♪

♪ La la la la la la la
la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

- XL, XL, papa.

- XL it is.

Kind of our number one customer

broke down in tears yesterday.

Rockstar Rob.
- Really?

- Rob came in yesterday
and he was fully crying.

- Aw.

- I like that you guys have
nicknames for everyone,

like Thursday Michael.

- Rollerblading Mike.

- Rollerblading Mike?

♪ Everything must go ♪

♪ You wanna get on some fly shit ♪

♪ Get on some butterfly to the fire shit ♪

♪ Everything must go ♪

- It's crazy, it's hectic, it's nonstop.

- People are buying stuff so fast

that we can't keep it on the shelves.

- Look at the line.

Hey do you have any more
Radiohead upstairs on CD?

- We close at eight, but
we'll probably be here later.

- Yeah, the store's open tomorrow.

♪ Like it or not ♪

- Thank you.

(dog barks)

- Oh Jesus, I'm so, so sorry.

- See, now you better pace
yourself, pace yourself.

- We don't have any large left.

- I would recommend
ordering from the website.

- Last night we were here
until 2:30 in the morning.

- Should I be saying to people

have a nice night or have a nice life?

"Thanks so much, have a nice life."

Today's our last day.

We have a huge celebration
happening on Tuesday.

- Are you sad because it's the last day?

- I am very sad.

- I have a job, you
could clean up our house.

- We could use some help.

- I could clean your room.

- I've been on the verge of tears all day

since I've been here, but
they're kind of tears of joy.

- I looked it up.
- Awesome.

- It looks like we got three copies.

- She's almost like a classically
trained singer and pianist

who went into more of a
dark rock kind of thing.

It's really beautiful.

If that sounds interesting, to
you, I think you'll like it.

- You have, like, two live
copies of Professor Longhair

in the Blues section.

- No one's picked those up yet.

Someone's gotta get those.

- But when did you get
them in? Yesterday, today?

- We got them in yesterday.

Alright, it means a lot.

- I will come back to the empty space.

- The world is changing
quickly in a lot of ways,

and so much of it happens
in the virtual world now.

And for sure there are a
lot of positives to that.

But the magic of human interaction

and the way it forces
you to be in the moment

and have a real give-and-take dialogue

is something that can only
be experienced face-to-face.

- It's easier than ever to reach people,

but at the same time
you're constantly trying

to cut through a wave of noise

that's coming at people all the time.

- Hey man, how are you doing?

- Good.

- I really feel for musicians

trying to get started nowadays.

It's so much easier to
get lost in the crowd.

Whereas something about
knowing that there are people

at a record store there to
stand behind certain groups

and talk to people about
them that they really like

and get people to get
things, it's different.

And now it's also strange

because robots are
telling you what you like.

- What makes it good?
- Yeah it's good.

It's good but the Leo Zero
mix, he edited it a little bit.

But it's cool.

I was supposed to be a lawyer, you know?

And if it wasn't for Other Music,

I would definitely be a lawyer.

A very bored, unsatisfied,
angst-ridden lawyer.

- Who's the last person to
buy a record in this place?

Is it gonna be you?

Is it gonna be you?

(soft music)

(phone ringing)

Other Music, this is Josh.

We're closed and we're just
cleaning out the store now.

Hey man, is your truck here?

We'll start here, and
anything this way too.

All this stuff.

That's just a little bitty truck.

We've got a lot of shit to fit in there.

Oh yeah, big guns.

It's a lot harder to put it together

than it is to take it apart.

I think that one's loose,

you can do the same on all of them.

- Is the store moving?

- No, it closed Saturday.

This past Saturday.

- Is this how you inherited the floor?

- No, we painted it on
a couple of occasions.

And then over the years, you
could see where people walked.

We used to use the floor as a way

to see what sections were most popular.

The way the floor was worn out more

was where most people stood.

You can see the ghosts
of the records up there.

The seven-inches.
- Yeah.

- Oh my God.

Wow.

Thanks so much, Daniel.

- It's been great, it's been great.

I'm gonna miss it for sure.

- You're a huge part of this place

and made it what it was, you know?

- Say it again?

- You're a huge part of what
this place became, what it was.

- Yeah, I felt that as well, yeah.

You know, you did a really
wonderful thing for 20 years.

And I am honored to be a
part of New York history.

(people cheering)

♪ There were your eyes
in the dark of the room ♪

♪ The only ones shining ♪

♪ The only set I had met in years ♪

- More than ever people being together

is very, very important.

(people cheering)

For me, theaters,
bookstores, and music stores,

record stores, were a type of temple.

And they would have a community.

♪ Rising ♪

♪ Rising together ♪

- We're swinging away from
tangible places where we meet,

and we have things together.

♪ What are you doing ♪

♪ What are you doing ♪

- Maybe we'll swing not all the way back,

but maybe there's a way for the digital

and the streaming and the loving of music

to swing back to a place

where we could still have these temples.

♪ They just said don't go, don't go ♪

♪ Don't go, don't go, don't go ♪

- I would like to introduce,

all the way from the tristate
area, and the boroughs,

Yo La Tengo!

(audience cheering)

- Hey Josh, you around here?

(rhythmic rock music)

♪ Sometimes the bad days
may take their grip ♪

♪ Sometimes the good days fade ♪

♪ But the rain today
hurts the head to drink ♪

- Other Music was that place
that knew what you wanted

before you knew what you wanted.

- Other Music was a
champion of the underdog.

A lot of the artists who maybe
didn't want to be rock stars,

but they wanted to say something.

It was a place where the underdogs won.

When they opened, I don't
think that they even knew

how much people needed it
or wanted it, but they did.

- You carry the spirit of it,
I think, by being curious.

No matter how much music they knew,

there was still more music to discover.

So I think it's everyone's job to,

if you find something you
love, to tell people about it.

- Hey everybody, we just
want to say thank you.

Thank you for an amazing 20 years.

Look at Chris back there,

he's not even thinking
about coming out here.

A place like Other Music
is only about the community

and about the people who shopped
there and about the family.

It's not about buying and selling,

it's about being a part of
something and, oh Chris came out!

(audience cheering)

That is an incredibly special moment,

when somebody finds a record,

a song that means something to them.

It's very emotional.

It's beyond just like,
"That's a cool record."

We were really trying to connect
great art with great fans.

Helping people find great
art, it's a tough living,

but it is a pretty satisfying life.

♪ Resisting the flow ♪

♪ Resisting the flow ♪

(audience cheering)