​Sound Fix's James Bradley is no stranger to the vagaries of record selling business. "I used to tell people to go to the Virgin Megastore," Bradley told us last year, when we asked him what happened when people came by the defiantly indie store inquiring about the Beatles, or Katy Perry. "But now I can't say that anymore," he said, Virgin having been long since consigned to the same graveyard that also holds Tower Records, Fat Beats, and what seems on some days like half of the rest of the city's other music retail spots. It seems Sound Fix, which has been in business on the north side of Williamsburg since 2004 (Bradley moved the store from its longtime location at 110 Bedford to its new home a couple blocks away on Berry Street last summer), might be facing a similar fate. A Craigslist ad posted last Tuesday offered the store up for a cool $250,000, billed as a "true turn-key transaction." Was this real? We reached out to Bradley to ask him.

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I am somewhat obsessed with this song, magnificently unhinged highlight of Spoon's new Transference, delivered here solo acoustic, which robs the tune of its volatile bounce but allows you to focus on Daniels' nonetheless still magnificently unhinged voice. Primal screaming in record stores is only going to get more popular.

​New store, looks a lot like the old store. Sound Fix, the Williamsburg institution founded in 2004, upped and moved--"like Fitzcarraldo hauling that ship over the mountain"--from Bedford Avenue to 44 Berry Street, in a renovated factory near North 11th. The store just reopened its doors. Indications are they brought their distinctive orange shelves with them, though the floors are thus far a bit matte compared to the old place. Though it's not listed on the store's site yet, they're apparently hosting the new space's inaugural in-store this Saturday at 2pm with dream-masters Damon & Naomi. The Mountain Goats broke in the last space, incidentally--real recognize real.

​Sound Fix--the Williamsburg record store founded in 2004 by the former writer James Bradley--celebrated its last day at 110 Bedford Ave yesterday. The location was a landmark to multiple generations of Brooklyn arrivistes, who surely would be surprised to hear that the store was only five years old. Sound Fix isn't closing--in two weeks, the store will reopen at 44 Berry Street, in a renovated factory near North 11th. There, SF will join a burgeoning retail music mafia that also includes Beacon's Closet and the recently consecrated Brooklyn Bowl. Anyone who cares to help the store move its contents one block west, "like Fitzcarraldo hauling that ship over the mountain," will earn Sound Fix's eternal gratitude, or at least become the rightmost bookend to a run bracketed on the other side by the Mountain Goats performance that opened the store, back in May of 2004.

In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you.

photo via

Before James Bradley opened Williamsburg's Sound Fix records in 2004, he held careers as a Wall Street financial analyst, an encyclopedia writer, and a freelance journalist. The 44-year-old is now the owner of one of Brooklyn's most emblematic record shops. "The superstores had become big and impersonal," explains Bradley, when reached on the phone. "The indie stores were dark, unpleasant, and rude to customers." Sound Fix is wide and spacious, with a listening lounge, in-store shows, and listening parties. (On Tuesday, Bradley's doing one for the Dead Weather's new disc, Horehound, and giving away tickets to the band's Terminal 5 shows.) Sound Fix focuses on underground and indie music, of course, "and no Beatles"--"I used to tell people to go to the Virgin Megastore," Bradley says. "But now I can't say that anymore."

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YACHT in Williamsburg, Cinders Gallery

Let out the secret to free shows at Sound Fix Records in Williamsburg, so remember what I said for this weekend:

Aug 17, 2007 8 PM John Vanderslice
Aug 18, 2007 3 PM Black Moth Super Rainbow
Aug 18, 2007 6 PM Simple Kid
Aug 18, 2007 8 PM Okkervil River's Will Sheff solo show + Cameron Hull + Nat Baldwin
Aug 19, 2007 2 PM Page France
Aug 19, 2007 8 PM YACHT

Save me a seat? It's only fair.

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Black Moth Super Rainbow, "Sun Lips" (MP3)

These people did not get there on time; photo by Cami D

Pointer about shows at Soundfix Records: Be punctual. A couple Saturdays ago, while the many of you were watching hi-fi equipment incarnate at SummerStage, about 70-ish of us agoraphobic types trickled into Soundfix's back lounge area to see a show somewhere it wasn't raining balls. The afternoon's excuse was Oneida (new and improved—with a wind instrument and an Ex-Models guitarist!), a longtime band of Brooklyn art-rockers whose hour-worth of meandering guitar squalls and organ-spazz jams, along with a particularly rockin' coke-head taunt called "Snow Machine," were all a rather fine complement to a $5 Hoegaarden at four in the afternoon.

Havta admit, though, I'm a sucker for the place since it's been redone. Sometimes bands list their shows there as "in-store" performances, but it's not like they're serenading CD racks—it's a backroom venue with a bar. Been there twice in the last month and both times they blared Battles' mathy-Black-Diced anthem "Atlas"—never a bad look. Sightlines aren't terrific considering that the band is barely elevated, but the room's laidback, with large sunny windows and a little patio area for smokers. Again, the Hoegaarden.

Back to that tip: get there on time. Got there for Oneida at the scheduled hour and managed to grab a barstool—within 20 minutes, the entire back room was packed, standing-room only. A week or two earlier for Lonely Dear/Sea and the Cake, I got there 15 minutes late, the room was rush-hour L-Train touchy-feely, so I spent Lonely Dear's set with elbows in my body parts. That was a couple degrees of suck.

Anyway, some really great upcoming free shows at Soundfix.

Friday, Jun 29: Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears, 8pm
Sunday, Jul 1: Dengue Fever, 7pm
Thursday, Jul 12: Patton Oswalt, 8pm
Saturday, Jul 14: Balun, 6pm
Sunday, Jul 15: Land Of Talk, 8pm
JUST ADDED, Friday, July 20: Lewis & Clarke CD release, 8 pm
Saturday, July 21: O'Death [time TBA]
Saturday, July 28: Get Him Eat Him, 3pm
Saturday, August 18: Black Moth Super Rainbow, 3pm

Oneida, bad photo by Cami D

On the left, that's Shahin Motia, who plays with Oneida drummer Kid Millions in the Ex-Models

Beach House at Soundfix Records, last CMJ, courtesy of Soundfix

Beirut at Soundfix last summer/before reopening, courtesy this dude