The last independent record store (and maybe record store of any kind) in the East Village is at 130 1st Avenue. When I lived lived and worked in NYC, there were pocket music stores all around both the West and East Village. Like the dozens of wonderful old bookstores along 3rd, 4th, and Broadway, they've disappeared. And Rainbow Music is just barely hanging on.
Rainbow Music is a typical, cluttered indie shop with stacks of CDs, tapes and videos on every square inch of floor and table space. But the owner know where to find everything. The shop doesn’t even have a cash register; the owner, known as The Birdman (a former Wall Street analyst), does not actually know how to use one. The former Wall Street analyst keeps Rainbow Music alive, for now.
A Brooklyn filmmaker Jessie Aurritt put the Birdman’s story on film. This is pretty cool.
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