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Kim's Underground (NYC Wrecka Stow) Raided By the Cops! ...this will be of great interest to NYC music geek orgers...
From Gawker.com: Kim’s Video Invaded By The 5-0
Filed under Culture : Crime From a tipster: kim’s video on saint marks (possibly one of the most venerable independent video/music retail/rental stores in the country) was raided by the cops (or maybe even the feds!) yesterday. they confiscated computers and arrested all employees on the ground floor. apparently, the authorities seized all store computers to determine what pirated material was floating around (not much/any - as far as i can tell). the owner, the eponymous mr. kim was not at the store at the time, but was really pissed the cops didn’t arrest him instead of his employees. (i learned this when i tried to rent a dvd later that night, and the clerk told me there was no computer to look up titles for me The person who answered the phone at Kim’s Video in St. Mark’s a little bit ago confirms that the office was raided by “feds, cops, everybody” about 2 p.m. yesterday. Phone Dude wouldn’t say why they were there, but that they “found what they were looking for.”—WL this is truly shocking to me...kim's underground is one of my most favorite wrecka stows in new york - in fact, the first job i had when i moved to NYC was at the kim's on bleecker and laguardia - i just can't imagine the st. marks store getting raided. | |
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Geez. Bleeker Bob's better take notice. They're such an awesome store and I would hate for them to shut down.
This has been going on for quite awhile in Detroit. I can't even tell you how many of my favorite stores have gotten busted and then had to go out of business. Or near misses. And record shows have become almost a joke anymore around here. It's sad. I miss the 90's. | |
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Kims doesn't have pirated material. What were they looking for Kim's is not even my favorite record store on st.marks, but that sounds like some bullshit.
Blecker Bob is way better than Kims. Lots of Prince boots, esp pre napster. | |
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i love all the stores on st. marks - sounds, mondo kims, joe's records - when i lived in nyc, i could always get new record releases the day they came out for like 7.99 - 9.99 if i scoured the used bins enough at those stores.
as far as bootleggage goes, in my opinion there were a couple of stores in the village that were far better than bleeker bob's for that kind of stuff, but i'm not gonna name any names. | |
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Yea, I'm in sounds often. Kims uptown is pretty good (esp for movies), near columbia, I wonder if their still open. | |
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Anxiety said: i love all the stores on st. marks - sounds, mondo kims, joe's records - when i lived in nyc, i could always get new record releases the day they came out for like 7.99 - 9.99 if i scoured the used bins enough at those stores.
as far as bootleggage goes, in my opinion there were a couple of stores in the village that were far better than bleeker bob's for that kind of stuff, but i'm not gonna name any names. | |
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TRON said: Anxiety said: i love all the stores on st. marks - sounds, mondo kims, joe's records - when i lived in nyc, i could always get new record releases the day they came out for like 7.99 - 9.99 if i scoured the used bins enough at those stores.
as far as bootleggage goes, in my opinion there were a couple of stores in the village that were far better than bleeker bob's for that kind of stuff, but i'm not gonna name any names. well, i don't want 'em getting busted or nuthin'! | |
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Anxiety said: well, i don't want 'em getting busted or nuthin'!
I know. But isn't it sad that this is an actual threat now. | |
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kims is better when you try to sell used stuff, bobs doesn't wanna give you shit for you used vinyl or disc. | |
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TRON said: Anxiety said: well, i don't want 'em getting busted or nuthin'!
I know. But isn't it sad that this is an actual threat now. yeah, very sad. i think the whole RIAA fear tactic bullshittery thing is barking up all kinds of wrong trees. the wrong people are getting punished and nothing really seems to be getting accomplished other than a lot of hard feelings and paranoia. | |
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dorgish said: kims is better when you try to sell used stuff, bobs doesn't wanna give you shit for you used vinyl or disc.
i always used to sell my used stuff to venus records, which of course hasn't been on st. marks in quite some time... | |
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maybe it was someting a little bigger than pirated music? as long as bleecker street records and revolution records is still around on my trips to nyc, i'll be a happy kid. | |
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SassyBritches said: maybe it was someting a little bigger than pirated music? as long as bleecker street records and revolution records is still around on my trips to nyc, i'll be a happy kid.
They've had tax problems in the past. I was a little floored when the Ave. A store closed. My BF was like, um, ok, NOW we can move to Brooklyn. The clerks were so mean ("You're renting THAT movie?") but that was part of the fun. Always found the St. Mark's stores CD prices a little high though. [Edited 6/9/05 21:02pm] | |
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MendesCity said: SassyBritches said: maybe it was someting a little bigger than pirated music? as long as bleecker street records and revolution records is still around on my trips to nyc, i'll be a happy kid.
They've had tax problems in the past. I was a little floored when the Ave. A store closed. My BF was like, um, ok, NOW we can move to Brooklyn. The clerks were so mean ("You're renting THAT movie?") but that was part of the fun. Always found the St. Mark's stores CD prices a little high though. [Edited 6/9/05 21:02pm] funny...i always thought tla video had a monopoly on movie snobs, lol! | |
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MendesCity said: SassyBritches said: maybe it was someting a little bigger than pirated music? as long as bleecker street records and revolution records is still around on my trips to nyc, i'll be a happy kid.
They've had tax problems in the past. I was a little floored when the Ave. A store closed. My BF was like, um, ok, NOW we can move to Brooklyn. The clerks were so mean ("You're renting THAT movie?") but that was part of the fun. Always found the St. Mark's stores CD prices a little high though. [Edited 6/9/05 21:02pm] yeah, i never bought new stuff at kims unless i ABSOLUTELY couldn't find it anywhere else - and usually other music had the rare stuff for cheaper than kim's...but they had some pretty good prices on used stuff, and as far as i'm concerned, it's THE place to go for rare/obscure video stuff. when i worked there, kim's was voted the rudest store in manhattan by new york press in its "best of manhattan" issue. i was so proud! | |
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SassyBritches said: MendesCity said: They've had tax problems in the past. I was a little floored when the Ave. A store closed. My BF was like, um, ok, NOW we can move to Brooklyn. The clerks were so mean ("You're renting THAT movie?") but that was part of the fun. Always found the St. Mark's stores CD prices a little high though. [Edited 6/9/05 21:02pm] funny...i always thought tla video had a monopoly on movie snobs, lol! TLA are pussycats by comparison! There was one guy in the Ave. A store who was in some trashy sub-CBGG band with this stringy rocker hair and stirrup pants (altho, to be fair, now that I think about it he was quite ahead of his time). He was the biggest snotty jerk EVER, like he wouldn't look at you unless you were renting Italian splatter movies. And then my BF swears another guy was the nerdy brother from Welcome to the Dollhouse, which is kind of perfect and sad at the same time. Our big joke was that we'd sign our receipts "Fuck Off"...bet that ALWAYS made you laugh, Anx, huh? And now I miss it all. Netflix in Brooklyn just isn't the same. [Edited 6/9/05 21:27pm] | |
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MendesCity said: Our big joke was that we'd sign our receipts "Fuck Off"...bet that ALWAYS made you laugh, Anx, huh? And now I miss it all. Netflix in Brooklyn just isn't the same. [Edited 6/9/05 21:27pm] oh hell, i was on the customers' side about 90% of the time when i worked at kim's...i just thought the whole thing was hilarious. you know, the computers at the counter have profiles for all the customers with a field where the clerks can write comments about the people who have video memberships, and some of the nasty shit that i'd read about people....whooo!!! but yeah, i worked with the snobbiest of the snobs, the geekiest of the geeks. tell ya what, though - i learned a lot about movies during the time i worked there. | |
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Anxiety said: oh hell, i was on the customers' side about 90% of the time when i worked at kim's...i just thought the whole thing was hilarious. you know, the computers at the counter have profiles for all the customers with a field where the clerks can write comments about the people who have video memberships, and some of the nasty shit that i'd read about people....whooo!!! That's really hilarious! Someone should publish those in a coffee table book that they could sell in the glass cases at the counter. It was an amazing selection, definitely. Think it was the first place I found Sign o the Times even. It is just really sad that mom and pop video and record stores are dying out. The Kims guy was supposed to be pretty cool too, did a lot of activist/artist support stuff in the E. Village. | |
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MendesCity said: Anxiety said: oh hell, i was on the customers' side about 90% of the time when i worked at kim's...i just thought the whole thing was hilarious. you know, the computers at the counter have profiles for all the customers with a field where the clerks can write comments about the people who have video memberships, and some of the nasty shit that i'd read about people....whooo!!! That's really hilarious! Someone should publish those in a coffee table book that they could sell in the glass cases at the counter. It was an amazing selection, definitely. Think it was the first place I found Sign o the Times even. It is just really sad that mom and pop video and record stores are dying out. The Kims guy was supposed to be pretty cool too, did a lot of activist/artist support stuff in the E. Village. it would be total schadenfreude and a half if the smoking gun or something posted some of the more scathing customer profiles, especially considering there were a few famous customers who were members at kim's...oh, and what they'd write about people who were regular porn renters...EVIL. i'd better shut up now. | |
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Anxiety said: you know, the computers at the counter have profiles for all the customers with a field where the clerks can write comments about the people who have video memberships, and some of the nasty shit that i'd read about people....whooo!!!
we did that at tla, too. | |
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Anxiety said: MendesCity said: That's really hilarious! Someone should publish those in a coffee table book that they could sell in the glass cases at the counter. It was an amazing selection, definitely. Think it was the first place I found Sign o the Times even. It is just really sad that mom and pop video and record stores are dying out. The Kims guy was supposed to be pretty cool too, did a lot of activist/artist support stuff in the E. Village. it would be total schadenfreude and a half if the smoking gun or something posted some of the more scathing customer profiles, especially considering there were a few famous customers who were members at kim's...oh, and what they'd write about people who were regular porn renters...EVIL. i'd better shut up now. | |
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Anxiety said: yeah, i never bought new stuff at kims unless i ABSOLUTELY couldn't find it anywhere else - and usually other music had the rare stuff for cheaper than kim's...but they had some pretty good prices on used stuff, and as far as i'm concerned, it's THE place to go for rare/obscure video stuff. when i worked there, kim's was voted the rudest store in manhattan by new york press in its "best of manhattan" issue. i was so proud! I think Bleecker Bob's won that award in The Village Voice poll a few years later. Bob can be an ass sometimes. He yelled at me once for always walking in his store with bags from the competition and never really buying anything in his store. So to make him feel happy, I bought His Name Is Alive's 'Mouth By Mouth' CD. He said "You're buying that???" He must have had a slow goth-sales day. | |
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TRON said: Anxiety said: i love all the stores on st. marks - sounds, mondo kims, joe's records - when i lived in nyc, i could always get new record releases the day they came out for like 7.99 - 9.99 if i scoured the used bins enough at those stores.
as far as bootleggage goes, in my opinion there were a couple of stores in the village that were far better than bleeker bob's for that kind of stuff, but i'm not gonna name any names. I got names for ya. | |
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sextonseven said: TRON said: I got names for ya. i bet you do. be nice and orgnote 'em, will ya? i like those stores too much to risk getting 'em in trouble. | |
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When I used to be touring in the States a few years ago, I'd always have to check out Disc-O-Rama in NY. I even remember picking up a mint copy of Soft And Wet (12" promo) for $10 there! | |
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jjam said: When I used to be touring in the States a few years ago, I'd always have to check out Disc-O-Rama in NY. I even remember picking up a mint copy of Soft And Wet (12" promo) for $10 there!
that's another good place for el cheepo new releases. good stuff there. | |
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Anxiety said: sextonseven said: I got names for ya. i bet you do. be nice and orgnote 'em, will ya? i like those stores too much to risk getting 'em in trouble. Of course. If I was a meanie, I would have posted them already. | |
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Anxiety said: TRON said: well, i don't want 'em getting busted or nuthin'! I don't blame u, I know just the stores ur talking about. It's a shame so much has changed. It's nothing like the late 80s/ early 90s anymore. | |
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Anxiety said: when i worked there, kim's was voted the rudest store in manhattan by new york press in its "best of manhattan" issue. i was so proud!
Snobs, god forbid u buy a cd from a commercial artist, they look at your Cd like and then they think their so cool because they play music no one has ever heard of. | |
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lilgish said: Anxiety said: when i worked there, kim's was voted the rudest store in manhattan by new york press in its "best of manhattan" issue. i was so proud!
Snobs, god forbid u buy a cd from a commercial artist, they look at your Cd like and then they think their so cool because they play music no one has ever heard of. Tell'em Lilgish. | |
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