RIP Rhino
BeardedD
770 Posts
Can't say I have the same regret about this one as with Aron's... Obviously this is no surprise for anyone whose been in there... Um since I first went to their location closer to UCLA like ten years ago... Just seemed like the records went through about 50 filters before they got to the store and shit it was just depressing in there -- LA Times Any stories? Anyone ever find any real heat at Rhino?
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Rhino was the best independent store in L.A. for many years. The cut out bins were staggering, the parking lot sales were as bad ass as Arons. No one even noticed that it closed. It was a sad death.
I used to take the bus to Westwood from the Sades back in 1982 and 1983 just to go to Rhino. My friends and I would get our buzz cuts at the Iranian barber shop next door and hit the Punkers Ahoy bin. My entire punk collection came from Rhino. All the rare 7" stuff... Early Dischords, Negative Approach, Necros, Jerry's Kids, Deep Wound, United Mutation, all the Nardcore shit and on and on.
This place was a totally legendary shop only to be rivaled by Arons. It is so telling that they both went out of business at the same time.
My family and I are living in a duplex at Pico and Beverly Glen right now and have been here since May. I walk over to Pacito Mas to have dinner two nights a week. I always hit " The Big Chill " ( super Jewish American Princess frozen yougut spot that is as ledgendary 80's as Rhino itself ).
Rhino is a few doors up. I never bother to go there it is so pathetic. The records on the wall are worse than Arons. These guys have no clue as to what a good record is. No one has found anything good there for at least a couple of years although I found a 99 cent Street Dancer a year ago.
I decided to take a post Big Chill stroll up to the shop about a week ago. Got to the front door and the sign read " Lost our Lease ". My mind went back to those cut out bins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, punkers ahoy and being 14 and rad.
RIP Rhino... I will miss you long lost friend.
ap
I would like to meet the foll that would buy that spot and try to keep it alive. I have some oceanview property in Banning that I would like to sell him.
It's sad. It's also very telling about Soulstrut and Rhino in regards to how few people are responding to this thread.
I know soulstrut is realitive newjackdom and all that but I think it is more a representation as to just how shitty Rhino has been for the past 10 years. Fug, with the rep they had they could have bought all kinds of collections. That place died on the vine.
Arons is totally lamented on Soulstrut but no one even knows that Rhino was just as important of a spot back in the day due to the fact that it is such a peice of shit now.
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Granted Rhino the label deserves props. But as far as the record store goes, do those of us who weren't in California in the 80s get a pass? Because if we don't, I want to take this opportunity to son everyone who doesn't know about legendary NC record dealer John Swain (RIP) you soft batches.
i'm not saying that place is dead already, but shopping there made me feel like an extra in the thriller video....
add one more dead shop to the list- UPON SHOP: is either remodeling or closing up shop. they only had about 300-400 records in there anyhow.
since i've moved here one and one half months have passed, 3 record stores have closed. wtf?
Record Surplus is totally solid in terms of business. They actually win the prize fight in that they outlasted all other Westside stores of any merit ( were not talking about shit like Platapus or House of Records ). They are thriving in the post Amoeba age.
Neil figured out the worth of records and priced them accordingly for the sale. He is shrewd and will not allow employees to rip him off. He hires people who do not collect, saves his best records for the sales, prices them $10 to $40 and sells 80 to 90 percent of them.
They have a very dedicated customer base. People who have bought only from Surplus. They are nice to the customers ( unless you are a stack em up at the listening station rude ass beat head jerk who thinks the place is a library and never spends any money with them ).
People are pissed about Surplus because they cant get Roy Porter out of there anymore for $1.85 ( t.sherman did it on more than one occasion ). I say hey at least they stay in business. I have found some cool Spoken Word, Folk, and off-beat shit for my personal there in the past year or two. I'm down with Neil and I am so happy they are still in business.
ap
Indie music stores are
excellent. let me throw the wizards name in the ring while were at it.
The only time to go to Surplus is during the sales. They save all the new records that come in for the sales that happen four times a year.
In L.A. it certainly is not about the stores. The stores suk ass and it has been that way for about 5 or 8 years now.
I bought a sealed Leo Kottke "12 String Blues" LP there last year for $4.99.
And several copies of that Tony Newton "Mysticism and Romance" LP.
I always hit this shop when I am in LA, it will be missed.
thats cool. 6 and 12 string is a sleeper. i actually wanted to dress up like dude on the cover of mysticism and romance for holloween but i could not find the doubleneck.
you sure were there on a good day my friend. i try not to be a naysayer about the quality of the finds in places like that but i got hurt too many times by gordon lightfoot.
Not the common Takoma, I pulled the rare MN private on Oblivian (Kottke's first).
You have nine months to find the double-neck:
AP I used to get the mahi mahi at the Poquito Mas, nice place. The skate shop down the block sux. Wesssside Pavilion is also close, get your Clueless on, holmes.
The only time to go to Surplus is during the sales. They save all the new records that come in for the sales that happen four times a year.
In L.A. it certainly is not about the stores. The stores suk ass and it has been that way for about 5 or 8 years now.
When do the sales usually occur?
I'll be rolling to 33Third's shop this weekend.
I really do miss Aron's. I could always find (except for maybe the last 6 months) dope late 70s/early 80s shit for like $3.
when they moved to the new location they set up a large room of 45's for about a week or so. pulled some gems from there.
oh well, one less store
Ahh times were good. A Godzillaesque collection had just arrived and the guy who was pricing didn't know jack shit. I scooped up the entire (including nodlew) Weldon catalogue in one swoop alogn with countless other records that I still cherish. If you guys thought the parking lot sales were good, you should've seen the storage containers on the wesside that the stuff came from (ap I'm sure you problem ransacked em anyways). god. the stuff of dreams.
But more importantly, all day long people were excited to buy music. People would reserve copies of releases a week before they came out. Ozo did an instore for 3 people. I still remember the day Dots and Loops came out, Nuggets, Wild Style reissue... people were lined up. You could feel the excitement with certain records.
Here's to minimum wage, Earth Wind and Flour waffle fries and hanging out in a record store with hopes of actually finding something. Rhino you were loved and will be missed
that was surprisingly touching (no ayo). I felt the same way when i went back to atlanta to discover the hmv i worked at all through high school gone. R.I.P. to the record store. By the time i have kids im sure they will all have gone the way of the video rental store. Technology has some shitty consequences sometimes.
B,
I asked AP the same question back on the "Aron's Dead!" thread. I think the gist of it was: mom and pop stores still have a future but they need to step their game up and can't be stupid about their pricing.
so basicly they become specialty shops. Well okay, but you gotta stock those kind of stores with serious product or else they become like atomic records and shit.
I will still mourn the loss of big unorganized cardboard boxes. Thats really what made this fun for me in the first place.
This is a really interesting question.
The records have always been and always will be out there...but now they will just be bought and re-sold by different people/business. This may or may not be a welcome change depending on your views of the auction process and/or buying privately from a dealer.
As far as a speciality shop goes, it would need a knowledgable staff as well as being able to price thier items to sell. This definately has its perks for the collector and I could still see a store such as this being successful.
Personally, as a dealer I depend on places like A*oe*a with little knowledge on certain genres, which likes to throw away Touch of Class on stack o hits into the dollar bins while they price Isaac Hayes for 17.99
I don't see records as being exclusive to the internet or ebay anytime soon, but a higher number of dealers, buyers, and records are making thier way online. Times are a changin.
I started working in Europe for a company HQ'ed in Fountain Valley, OC. In 96/97 I spent a lot of times working in the HQs. Many evenings and weekends I would drive the 45 miles up to Westwood to check out (mainly) Rhino. The reason why I didn't find real heat was probably mainly due to me knowing nothing. I bought mainly new promos (nobody seemed interested in dancefloor stuff, many new(ish) CDs for cheap and African stuff I had not seen (reissued) before thanks to Nnamdi Moweta who was working in the shop back then.
What igotthatbeat said and what ThesOne wrote... ...is what drew me there most, I think. There was a vibe like you want it in a record store. It's not only about finding good and rare records but actually hearing good music being played, hearing staff talk about (good) music, knowing their stuff having and the odd conversation with other music nerd customers browsing the bin next to you.
Between July 2002 and Octber 2004 I actually lived in LA on Wilkins, between Santa Monica and Wilshire: five minutes from the old Rhino location and less than ten from the new one - cycling distance that is (and two minutes from Rhino Records, the label, by the way). Many a bored evening or weekend I would out of habit go to the shop, but, man, did I regret it almost every time! In my opinion the staff was not knowleable anymore (on anything I ever asked about), played the most horrid stuff most of the time. And of course, what was available was the real let down.
I'll mourn the memories, but I can not really mourn the shop - if that makes any sense.
I have to say, as a specialty store owner myself, that it just ain't what it used to be (or what people tell me it used to be).
You know, everyone's a dealer now. Anyone that can score a small collection, scour the dollar bins for slip-ups or hit the fleas religiously has a living room business selling records. They do the ebay thing or they become middle men for shops lke mine. It seems kind of like a props or glamour thing really - I can't imagine why anyone would do that if not to make a living. It's kind of like selling weed just so you can smoke for free.
But bottom line, at this point, it's really tough to make it *just* being a store. There's just too much of a combination of the following things:
1. fewer people buying records. It's just not as much of a fad as it was when I was coming up.
2. People that do buy records, now only want really top notch high end shit. You can just look at this website - how many people with 1,000 piece collections are fiending for very rare and obscure titles? Dudes that don't have Temptations records because they're common are throwing down hundreds on private issue soul. I make money on high end pieces and cheap records, but the vast majority of GREAT records that cost $25-40, there's not so much money in that anymore. What I see people looking for, and what I see them toting in from other shops, are major pieces that are expensive. So that hurts the business because you can't build a functional storefront around selling $100+ records all the time.
3. People just shop more on the internet. NYC is one of the few places left where a store like mine can exist, and even I need the internet to get by. I couldn't give away CDs for a while - I do a post on soulstrut and I'm instantly sold out. Rather than wait the requisite 2-4 months for the out-of-towners (whether they be from Japan or California) to come through ain't doing it, so you've got to extend yourself out to them.
You know, your store was the only reason I even listed the specialty stores in the village thing. I wanna believe, with all my heart, that a record store that stocks nothing but GOOD music, and is managed by someone who knows what the fuck good music sounds like will be sucesfull no matter what the current trend in shit tends to be.
I personally heard your store is off the hook and i think everyone in the area needs to not take that type of shit for granted. You could hunt dollar bins for months, or you could go to jp's store, drop 80 bucks on mabye 2 or 3 records that are guaranteed to blow your fucking mind. Its your call.
Long Live the Record Store!!!!
the soulstrut factor? keeping shops open!!! what would happen to the national record shop landscape if all soulstrutters stopped buying vinyl???
j, btw, loved the shop and the cd
theres always early mornings at gold western college (sp?)