Hey there:

A bunch of us are heading to NY for the Mission of Burma shows this week end at the Bowery. We have our usual places to go to but one pal was wondering of other record stores etc that one must check out. We are lower east siders/Bowery District/St. Mark's and all but a couple will be going all over the city. Any insight/suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Thank you, kindly!

The best record store in NYC is Academy Annex in Williamsburg, but that can be a pain in the butt to get to from the Bowery area. There's also an Academy location on the lower east side that's pretty great, if a lot smaller (though conversely not as picked over either). There's a really tiny basement store called Gimme Gimme Records that's good too, but has very sporadic hours. I haven't had much luck on St. Marks Place, but people apparently still shop there for whatever reason. Bleecker St has two stores worth checking out--Generation Records for their reasonably priced and wide selection of new vinyl and Bleecker St. Records for their sporadically amazing dollar bin. Please don't confuse Bleecker St. Records with Bleecker Bob's--which sucks ass and isn't even on Bleecker St. Also stay away from House Of Oldies, it's tiny, suffused with the desperate aroma of paunchy aging collectors, and overprices to the point of absurdity--if, like House Of Oldies, I thought I could get $50 a copy for Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream" I'd be too busy gold-plating every possession I own to frequent message boards.

I'll second the recommendation for Academy Annex. Crazy selection and zero attitude.

There are about five or six threads on this subject. All are pretty good.

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