December 18, 2007
Loop's Streetside: Gone on 12/24
The sad trend continues, as another legendary record store goes under. Passed along by a friend of a friend:
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For those of you for whom this was THE source for music (before Vintage Vinyl, of course) I thought you may want to know that Streetside Records in the Loop is closing its doors forever effective Dec. 24th.
Streetside Records on Delmar, the venerable record store that for 30 years was one of the finest locally owned record stores before being bought out by the corporate behemoth, Trans World, is apparently closing its doors for good after Christmas Eve, to be replaced by a couple shitty chain restaurants. Just what the Loop needs, right?
Playback STL (www.playbackstl.com) plans to have a musings and remembrances spot on their site. It should be up by 12/22 if not sooner.
Any time a record store closes, it's bad for record stores. I sure hope all the loyal Streetsiders will wander down the extra 2 blocks to Vintage Vinyl and I'll try my best to make them feel at home.
Throw in the the fact that the Market in the Loop will soon be converted into a giant Racanelli's pizza parlour, and things are starting to look bleak! No Wong's? WTF am I gonna do?!?! Soon the Loop will be filled with low-budg Mexican joints and flavorless pizza (Pizza Haus? Racanellis? Really? Come on, now!)
Really a shame.
-James
Posted by James on Tue., Dec 18, 2007 at 2:40 PMI wonder how long Euclid and Vintage Vinyl can hang on competing with Amazon's pricing and the ease of digital downloading? But then again I'm amazed that the Record Exchange on Hampton is always bustling thanks to the resurgence of vinyl.
I rambled on about the loss of music stores back in 2004 on The Commonspace btw, and this still sums up how I feel:
"As digital music begins to take over I've become nostalgic for my old record store days. iPod, MP3 and Amazon.com have become the Wal-Mart to the local record store. It ate them up and spit them out — and would Jeff Tweedy be the same Jeff Tweedy without his stint at Euclid Records? Who knows, but pretty soon there won't be a local record store to waste a couple hours in and Steve Pick will just be that tall guy in front of you at the Yo La Tengo concert. And wouldn't that be a shame?"
http://www.thecommonspace.org/2004/05/source.php
Anyone who has any rememberances of Streetside or reaction to the closing that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to pass it along to me, as I'm the one corralling said musings and rememberances. E-mail them to me at jason[at]playbackstl[dot]com. Thanks!
Posted by Jason Green on Wed., Dec 19, 2007 at 9:59 AMthe record exchange and euclid records do solid business online selling rare/desirable vinyl to buyers. that helps keep the brick-and-mortar businesses afloat. (vintage vinyl also sells stuff online, on eBay.)
randy roberts wrote a story on this phenomenon:
http://search.riverfronttimes.com/2006-06-07/news/last-year-s-model/
Posted by Annie Zaleski on Wed., Dec 19, 2007 at 7:43 PM
Sadly I haven't been keeping the record stores alive as I'm out of the loop on good stuff to buy anymore (fortunately Pandora is reviving some of my desire to buy music again). As a former Streetside & other record store employee, it is truly sad that the #1 Streetside (at least in my day) location is closing its doors - that feeling of going into stores & browsing & browsing through all the amazing possibilities (and realphabitizing them) of new-to-you music is a great pasttime that appears sadly soon be forever gone.
Posted by c- on Thu., Dec 20, 2007 at 11:52 AM