In the grand spectrum of things, it’s hard to imagine something more trivial than this, but I guess….that’s just what this blog’s about, ultimately. Anyway, here goes...
There was a question on that otherwise relentlessly bleak year-end survey I filled out last week that asked what my favorite TV programs of 2014 were. I cited the genuinely awesome “True Detective” and that old stand-by “Mad Men,” but I completely forgot to mention Dave Grohl’s HBO mini-series with the Foo Fighters, “Sonic Highways.”
I’ve never been a massive fan of the Foos, but I have a ton of respect for Dave Grohl, although probably not for the reasons you might suspect. Sure, I bought their records, but I was never an ardent member of Nirvana’s hallelujah choir. I just don’t think Kurt Cobain was the messiah. Dave Grohl, meanwhile, cut his teeth on the D.C. hardcore punk scene, is a massive music geek (in a good way) and has played drums with members of Flaming Pablum favorites like Venom, Motorhead and — WAIT FOR IT — Killing Joke. For that alone, he earns my undying respect. He also seems like a reasonably intelligent, well-meaning gent.
So, forgiving the noxious similarities to U2’s bloated “Rattle & Hum,” I tuned in to “Sonic Highways” and was very pleasantly surprised. Sure, there were always quibbles (the Los Angeles and New York episodes could have been so much more), but overall, I think Grohl did a great job, and I would totally keep watching if they did a second season (in Europe, maybe??)
Anyway, while multi-tasking Monday morning I re-cued up the Washington D.C. episode to play while I was paying bills and sorting out some shit. It was easily my favorite episode, surpassing even the NYC one. In glancing up towards the end, however, I noticed a strikingly familiar sight that I must have missed the first time around.
For a segment wherein Grohl recounts the first time he bought a Dischord LP, they utilized a bit of video of the exterior of your typical punky/indie mid-80’s record store….and I immediately recognized it as the exterior of 99 Records over on MacDougal Street. Odd that they should use a NYC spot during an episode otherwise dedicated to Washington D.C., but whatever, there it was (see screen grab below).
I wrote about the amazing 99 Records back on this ancient post from 2007, but here’s what I said about it at the time…
99 Records was in the basement level of the afore-mentioned space that housed Route 66 a good decade or so later. The story of 99 Records (pronounced "Nine Nine") is a long and distinguished one, but speaking from personal experience, 99 had the most enviable collection of indescribably hard to find 7" singles from obscure Punk, Hardcore and No Wave bands than you could ever want.
A somewhat cramped, dank, tiny space, going into 99 really felt like you were entering the underground both literally and figuratively. I remember buying a couple of choice Misfits 7"s there (notably "Halloween") as well as The White E.P. by San Francisco's arguably lamentable Pop-O-Pies (they rule, you don't). The guys at 99 were nice enough to give me a lovely promo poster for The Meatmen's We're the Meatmen And You Suck.. but absolutely wouldn't budge when I tried to buy a vintage poster of --- WAIT FOR IT -- Killing Joke from them (which, I'm very sad to say, might have caused me to stop shopping there for a while in protest -- I'm petty like that). In any case, 99 Records shut it's door sometime at the dawn of the 90's. The space was occupied for a while by an Indian restaurant (whose tag-line -- I absolutely shit you not -- was "for When You Feel Like a Little Indian"), and was later taken over by some shitty after-hours bar. I've no idea what it is today, as I walk down that strip of MacDougal as infrequently as possible.
As mentioned above, 99 Records is long, long gone today. I think the space is now a comedy club…or bar of some sort now, the Indian restaurant having also long since gone out of business. In any event, 99 Records was so amazingly cool that it’s now hard to conceive that such a place even existed. I’d love to see the rest of the videotape that this footage was culled from.
Anyway, here it is….I especially enjoy that there's a Killing Joke 7" in the window...
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