Gutbrain Records

Sunday, 08 July 2007

I just rode my bike across 12th street and passed where Footlight Records used to be. It was almost two years ago that I wrote here about their closing. The space has remained unoccupied since they left and the "Footlight Records" awning is still there. If their landlord hadn't priced them out of the neighborhood, he or she would have received tens of thousands of dollars in rent from them by now.

I think of this every time I pass the old Footlight Records spot. After getting home today I decided to check out their website, which I hadn't looked at in a month or so. It turns out that their internet business is closing also. Apparently they got into serious debt trying to keep the store open despite huge rent increases, from $2500 to $5000 to $7000. It was when their landlord wanted to raise it again, from $7000 — to what? $9500? — that they didn't renew their lease.

There are about 10 days left before the website is gone. I just ordered 8 CDs from them: John Barry (3), Masaru Satoh (1), Akira Ifukube (2), Ennio Morricone (1) and, because I wanted to hear somebody sing "Poinciana", Caterina Valente (1).