down and out in fishtown.
Sometimes you just need to drive. Clear the head. Clear the psyche. Clear the plate.
Sometimes you are faced with driving uphill on a bridge and need to sort irrational phobias. Sometimes you catch yourself being foolish.
The greatest part about living in LA, well, the only great thing about living in LA is that when you need to drive fast, with purpose, you might find yourself in Joshua Tree or Kings Canyon, or Yosemite or San Francisco. There is no such scenario in NYC. You drive and you wind up with any of several losing hands, occasionally, you fold and its Philadelphia.
I used to spend lots of time in Philadelphia when I was younger, and then again, passionately, when I was much older and then things change dramatically and then you just dont go back. Maybe ever.
It had been a while since Id been in Philly, maybe six years and it actually was nice to see the place again.
I needed some kind of subtle, subdued adventure and I knew something just on the other side of the bridge would deliver.
One might be wondering why someone who lives in NYC would go to Philadelphia to eat pizza.
Life sometimes is perhaps best sampled via the local color. Maybe its the only way its sampled and we just never slow down long enough to realize it.
Walking around Fishtown was the distraction I needed for sure. As luck would have it, I found myself opening the creaky door to the Milkcrate Cafe and dove head first into one of the addictions I have never overcome: buying records. This place is pure genius as it’s a coffee shop and a record shop, but when you walk in, it’s obvious that a perfect balance between those two universes has been struck. The place is MOSTLY a cafe with an unreal selection of new and used records thrown in.
Its the type of place that is just enough right where you might go and not even flip through stacks of LP’s just because the vibe in there is so chill. The one thing that a great collection of records for sale brings, of course, is the music freaks and this place absolutely did not disappoint.
The biggest drag about living in shitty NYC is paying $19 for a used record that you can buy in better condition in any smaller city in the country for $2. Yes, literally. I can’t remember the last time I even bothered looking at records in NYC. Years. Maybe ten? Really. Any opportunity to buy LP’s when Im somewhere else is always welcomed with open arms and when you find a spot as good as this place, you gotta grab a stack.
After thirty minutes of collecting a small mountain of titles, I plopped my thirteen pounds of vinyl on the counter, ordered a coffee and paid the bill. Each piece of inventory got hand written into the inventory log book with a Bic, a small stock sticker was removed from each jacket and I was offered a discount if I could pay with cash. WTF? Time machine straight back to 1991. Totally amazing old school goodness. Princeton record exchange is legendary in my circle of freaks, but Im coming back to this place next time I have some coin to lay out on LP’s.
As Im standing there, this guy (who’s name I sadly can not recall) came bounding to the counter to inspect what I was about to purchase. Fully out of the blue, let me check out whatchyer gettin’: Lust for life. Easy Action. Hot Buttered Soul. Highway. Rocks. Dream Police. Ola. Crash Landing. The Yes Album. Chicago. Flowers of Evil. Faithful. Smokin’. I got the seal of approval and a very cool high (low) five. He was impressed I had grabbed such an eclectic selection, I was amazed that such an eclectic selection was under one roof. Free, Rundgren and Hayes, in the same bin for a few bucks a piece? Yes please. I’ll be back.
Not before, however, having a passionate seven minutes at the counter, pondering the dollars Todd Rundgren made producing in the 70’s and then connecting all the dots between him, Aerosmith, Zappa and Grand Funk Railroad. My heart really goes out to the current MP3 generation who will never know about record shop culture. People want to make a big deal about the album art or the sonics associated with LP playback, which I wont argue, but its the human element of spending time in record shops, meeting other freaks, discovering and celebrating the shared interest in perhaps the esoteric with a perfect stranger. Thats the magic of life and one thing is for certain, Itunes aint supplying it.
Across from the Milkcrate is Dipinto Guitars
I spent a good part of two hours chatting with Chris Dipinto, its owner and leader, about low wattage tube amps, converting 1950’s micro pa amps into guitar screamers, the ups and downs of small manufacturing and of course, guitars. Worthy of note: this took place in his shop which is lined with zebra and bamboo wallpaper, lucha libre masks and transistor radio’s direct from a Hawaiian motel.
Chris has a special kind of success story, his retail shop served as a spot to turn over oddball offset guitars and facilitate a repair business, certainly not an uncommon model among mom and pop music stores. At some point, he designed some bodies and began to manufacture guitars on a small scale and now he has a pretty wide line of models and international distribution. Awesome.
I sat down to play one and couldnt believe the quality of the instrument he handed me. Needless to say, I accidentally bought a guitar and an old ampeg cabinet that was sitting in the corner.
Events like this dont usually transpire when you go to guitar mart warehouse.
It was really nice to be in an old school guitar shop, something NYC living really makes impossible. Profitability of small, independent retail outlets is one thing small to medium sized US cities will always have over a place like NYC.
Going to guitar shops looking for deals was almost a religion when I was in college, the end of each semester always brought a gold mine of deals when everyone was out of money and had to sell the last cool amp they bought under the same but opposite circumstances the semester prior… It was really really nice to revisit the vibe of an indie guitar shop, it was not surprising that I spent hours chatting with the guy running the place.
If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and want to lay some of that economic power on some really cool people, Dipinto has a vibe all its own and is absolutely worth checking out.
Packing up the car shuffling around records, a guitar and a speaker cabinet it was immediately apparent how well some local business could be doing in Fishtown because one thing is for certain, I didnt need to buy ANY of this shit. Walking into these two joints *inspired* commerce. Mostly overlooked, but looking at how the neighborhood is coming up, its critical not to take that kind of thing for granted. Its totally cool to see there are some guys out there doing it right, especially with the pressure of today’s economy weighing down on everyone.
Unique, no, maybe not. But certainly cool and living in NYC, with our outrageous overheads, its easy to miss this type of thing if you ever were used to easy living in some smaller town, better or worse, somewhere else.
Here’s to right ideas, wealthy afternoons and surprise inspiration. Nice to see you again, Philadelphia.