Still Running

In yersterday’s rememberance of the Carmine Street iteration of Freebing Records, I rattled off a list of names of record and CD shops that formerly held court in the immediate Greenwich Villlage vicinty, citing them as all since-vanished. But longtime reader and Flaming Pablum friend Mike Joyce -– no, not the same Mike Joyce that played drums for The Smiths –- quickly corrected me that Record Runner over on Jones Street is still “alive and well.”

To his point, Record Runner is still there. That’s it up top, with my kids, circa summer 2015.

Back in the day, so to speak, Record Runner was a safe bet if you were looking for the latest UK indie releases from bands like Ride, Blur, The Wonder Stuff and such, to say nothing of their impressive collection of collector’s vinyl from `80s pop acts like Culture Club, Duran Duran and Madonna. Despite their location, you may not find a lot of Bob Dylan there (Jones Street was featured on the sleeve of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), but if you were looking for a rare 12” by Dead or Alive, they’d have ya covered.

These days, while still operational, it seems like they do most of their business by appointment or possibly by mail order. I don’t believe they get too many walk-ins anymore.

In any case, my apologies to Record Runner in wrongly casting them as closed. Run on, Record Runner, run on!

Meanwhile, this is a fine opportunity to extoll the merits of Mike Joyce’s own page, Swissted, wherein he re-imagines gig flyers from the halcyon days of punk, New Wave and hardcore in the style of Swiss typographic style posters. It sounds odd, yes, but the end results are striking (see below). I think they're fucking brilliant, but then, I would, wouldn't I?

 Check out his site -– and buy a print or two -– here.

Comments

[Mike Joyce]

Hey Alex,
I check out the great Flaming Pablum on a daily basis and was thrilled and honored to see my work mentioned in your post. Very cool of you and greatly appreciated! I still remember running into you in the Village and talking about the much under appreciated Dr. Feelgood. If you're ever looking to fill up a blank wall or two, just let me know and I'll send you some Swissted prints free of charge. Keep posting cool stuff as I know you will.
Mike

[Alex in NYC]

Ah, man, you are entirely too kind. Any one of the four I cited I would happily frame and put up on on my office wall (most notably that Iggy Pop/Ramones one and/or the Devo one).

[David George]

Glad you posted this--I'm wondering if RR was closed at some point: I'm sure I was there in the last year or so and it looked gone for good.

[David George]

I realized later I was thinking of Subterranean on Cornelia. Will have to visit RR though.