Save Earwax Records!

Earwax Records is one of Brooklyn's premier local and independently owned record shops. We got our start in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1990. It all started with an idea to open a
record shop on Bedford Avenue.  One year later,  Earwax moved into the first of four locations it's had over the years in Williamsburg.

In 1991 Williamsburg was a relatively unattractive, infrequently visited area of Brooklyn, home to warehouses, industry and pockets of ethnic and working-class citizens. It's hard to imagine today, but in 1991 there were very few new businesses on the north side of Williamsburg, let alone restaurants, clubs or music venues (except for the illegal, underground spaces that seemed to pop up on a monthly basis).

Since the 1990s, Earwax has been there to support and nourish that group of people who needed a place that spoke to them, gave them a place to engage with others and to find new music.

And if they were musicians, they might also bring by copies of their latest efforts on CD, vinyl or cassette, and we would sell them. Among some of these artists were TV on the Radio, LCD Soundsystem, members of Pavement and many others who were -- and still are — regular visitors to the shop, buying records while contributing their own music from the very start of their careers.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs sold their first EP in our shop when they were still self-releasing it on CDRs and hand-delivering batches to us for sale. The late Genesis P. Orridge would stop by often to discuss her various ongoing projects and occasionally drop off new material.

Artists stopped by regularly to pick up music to help keep their heads focused on their own work: Alexander Hacke (Einsturzende Neubauten) was a DJ at the opening party at our current location. Artists Tony Conrad, Gary Panter, Thurston Moore, Questlove, Bjork, JG Thirlwell (Foetus), Keiji Haino, Michael Gira (Swans), Kid Millions (Oneida), Jimi Tenor and many, many others have been visitors and/or contributors to Earwax's evolution. Matt Caws (Nada Surf) was an employee at Earwax. Many have helped us grow and many have benefited from our affiliation.

Today, Earwax, like many small businesses in New York City right now, is suffering from the closure forced on us by necessity due to the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated our cultural and economic landscape. We need to pay our rent, our insurance, our creditors and distributors, our quarterly taxes, the electric bill, the phone bill, the credit card processor, the bookkeeper.

We have been closed since March 17, and the bills have been piling up with *no income* during this time -- not a good scenario by any standard for any business. In short, we’re in a very difficult situation right now, and without some support from somewhere, we're in danger of shutting down permanently.

If you've been a regular customer of Earwax, or just a music lover who appreciates records and what independent record shops represent to our culture and our city, we're asking you to consider supporting us with a donation, however large or small that may be.

And we want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has come through Earwax over the years and supported us in whatever way you have.

Fabio Roberti,
Owner, Earwax Records