Record Store Day 2013's Tragic Success

Photo by Jolie Ruben.

The sixth annual Record Store Day took place last Saturday on April 20 and experienced its most successful year yet.

Vinyl record sales in the United States during the week of Record Store Day reached 244,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Sales increased 36 percent from last year's event.

Each year, exclusive releases are made available for purchase in participating record stores across the U.S. Some of this year's artists included Flaming Lips, White Stripes and Notorious B.I.G.

Spin sent out photographers to independent record shops in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago to capture the turnout, but what they uncovered something else—the fallout of one of New York's most famous record stores.

Kory Grow's article following the finals days of Bleecker Bob's is amazing from start to finish. If you love vinyl records, reading the article is like watching a loved one die on their deathbed.

Grow begins his article with an incredible lede anecdote:

"The aromas of must and dust were what stuck with you when you exited Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies Record Shop, the dumpy yet iconic LP store in New York City's mercurial post-boho Greenwich Village. The scents wafted out the door, where they lingered in that no-man's-land between Ben's Pizza and Village Psychic. The collected fetor of decades-old cardboard, vinyl, and plastic all comingling, the whiff of oldies begging to be rediscovered."

Bleecker Bob's holds more history than just being your typical attempt of reviving record collecting as a trend. Fred Armisen filmed his Saturday Night Live intro of him flipping through Sex Pistols and Style Council LPs. Joey Ramone showcased the shop as a part of New York magazine's 1994 "Where to Find It" issue. Hell, even Robert Plant and Jimmy Page visited the shop.

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at Bleecker Bob's. Photo by Bleecker Bob's.

The most insulting part of the story, however, is that Bob's is being shut down to make way for a frozen yogurt joint—as if New York doesn't have enough of those.

The story of Bleecker Bob's is typical of any small business in Greenwich Village. Frozen yogurt is in; record collecting is out.