Earwax

Inside Williamsburg's Music Store

by Travis Drageset

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On the October afternoon I stopped by Earwax the front window displayed record jackets from albums by the Slits, Kraftwerk, a New Orleans artists set featuring Lee Dorsey, and an African rhythms compilation, hints of the eclectic, handpicked, tasteful amalgam that can be found inside the store. On that day the store had anything (non-bootleg) by the Beatles, some things by Cat Stevens, they had Buck Owens, Charley Pride, Hasil Adkins—but no Ryan Adams, Tim Buckley, Noam Chomsky, Pierre Henry, Robert Mitchem's "Calypso Is Like So…", Daft Punk, Squarepusher, Furry Lewis, Charles Mingus, RL Burnside and Big Bill Broonzy, Ella Fitzgerald and Ori Kaplan, Gastr Del Sol, Love, Harry Smith but no Harry Connick, Nancy Sinatra, Charlie Feathers, Arlo Guthrie, the MC5, the Monkees, the Kinks and the Knoxville Girls, Motorhead, Momus, Betty Davis—but no Erika Badu, Air, ABBA, and AC/DC, but no Christina Aguliera. As far as vinyl goes there are soundtracks, reggae, Latin, avant garde, Neil Young, Skip Spence, Afro beat, electronica, jazz, disco, blues, soul, funk, new, used, Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye. Tucked in the back of the store is a case full of choice box sets—mostly blues, country, jazz, the Yardbirds and Bob Dylan, alongside their back stock of records, boldly displayed, but with a sign asking customers not to touch. The Louvin Brother's "When I Stop Dreaming" played over the sound system, segueing into Scott Walker's It's Raining Today as dusk descended. The staff, comprised of owners Tom Schmitz and Fabio Roberti, as well as Miyki, Michael, and "a few transient employees," is uncharacteristically knowledgeable and will display a fair amount of enthusiasm with the right prodding.

When it opened in 1989, Earwax was an extension of an apartment Tom Schmitz had in Greenpoint at the time. The apartment came with a storefront that he decided to use, and, having been a record collector for many years opened a used record store. In 1991 he moved the store to Bedford Street in Williamsburg where it enjoyed several locations up and down the street. Tom, who holds an MFA from RISD, is also a painter. Fabio Roberti, a former member of the "corporate graphic design field" who is now a part-time DJ at WFMU, has been a partner since 1996.

I spoke with the two of them separately and then as a team, where they bounced off one another, Fabio playing straight man to Tom's taunting witticisms. Fabio, wearing a vintage maroon pullover and black jeans is the hipster/beatnik of the two, while Tom sports more of a regular Brooklyn guy look, and their musical tastes correspond accordingly, with Tom having no apparent interest in knowing what's of the moment and Fabio taking up the slack, albeit in a somewhat cynical vein.

TD: Do you think it's a relatively good time for the music business?

FR: No, I think the recording industry is in a lot of trouble. I think there's a narrowing of tastes going on right now in the mainstream, a kind of control over the listener from behind the scenes. And there's a lack of knowledge among young people today. I don't think they're encouraged to explore. And even if they were, nothing—even in the underground scene—is groundbreaking these days because it's all derivative. The record companies put all their money into a few safe things and 95% of all the new releases are terrible. Since the mid-eighties the recording industry has been going through a period of despair. There were a few years in the early 90s when hip-hop was showing some promise, but now it's become as watered down and mainstream as most of the current soul music. As far as the current indie scene goes, there's the Strokes, Pattern 25, the White Stripes, which I like, but they're all banking on a style that was accomplished a long time ago. To me great music needs to have a deep obsession or soul to it. But so much of the new stuff is so laden with irony it's pathetic. We try to tailor the store to what we like, but we sell our share of bad music, too, because it sells. But we won't carry artists like Madonna. If people want that stuff they can go to Tower or wherever for it.

TS: I know that we sell more old stuff than new… but I've never considered myself a part of the music industry. I have heard that stores like Tower and HMV are having some trouble right now, though.

TD: Pop culture has a way of at least staying afloat, and in some cases flourishing, during times of recession because it's a relatively inexpensive way to escape, what's your opinion on that?

FR: Entertainment does okay during wartime and in times of economic recession. During WWII film was very big, and the period during the Vietnam War was also huge for film. And there is a potential for music to do well in times like these, I guess. But I think the distributors have been affected negatively so far. And as far as the store goes, we've been bracing ourselves for an economic downturn and will just have to wait and see what happens like everybody else. Our sales right now are much less than we would have expected them to be last year at this time. But we can't adjust our pricing. It's already as low as it can go. I don't like it but we don't have any control over it. A store like HMV sells a new CD for $20, which is just incredible to me.

TS: I think people will definitely be going out less. And someone said to me the other day that maybe people will be enjoying more home entertainment, and therefore buying more music. But I don't pay attention to pop culture. I'm more interested in getting Anthrax or nuked or whatever right now. I do know that I couldn't survive without the extra income from the store. But, if I moved out of the neighborhood I could, so it keeps me here.

TD: What about Williamsburg's reaction to the state of the world?

FR: Speaking in terms of the recession in general, there are stores in the mall here [at Bedford and North 5th] that will definitely go out of business before the year's end because of what's going on.

TS: I'm worried about the neighborhood's economy. I haven't cashed a traveler's check since September 11. And our rent's high and I'm sure our landlord won't consider lowering it. He plays hardball.

TD: What's your impression of the community in general?

FR: This is a peculiar neighborhood. Very broad-minded, very liberal-minded. There are a lot of artists and students living in this section of Williamsburg, so they make up most of our demographic. The cross-section of the community that shops here ranges in age from early 20s to mid to late 40s, primarily. And we get a lot of musicians, because a lot of them live in the general area. All kinds: jazz, rock, metal, electronic. That's why we carry such a diversity of styles. But we don't advertise, don't have a website. People just seem to find us.

TS: I like the community around here, but for a while there, during the times of escalating rents, I felt like the neighborhood was getting away from itself. It was like it was running on it's own hype. Now I think things have leveled off, but my landlord still doesn't seem to think so… and I don't have much hope where that's concerned.

TD: Has the Napster generation affected you sales?

FR: Napster changed the way things were going. There's a moratorium on free music right now, but I think there's a fetishistic value to music buying that hasn't and won't go away. People like buying actively, giving a thing as a gift. So the Napster thing may have affected us when it was at it's peak a year and a half ago, but I don't think it is that much any more.

TS: If people want to stop buying music then I'll do something else.

TD: What sells?

TS: Bob Dylan. The big names. We sell a good amount of country, considering the size of that section. But people buy the big names like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, rather than the obscure stuff. In jazz it's the standards: Coltrane, Monk, Miles Davis. People seem to want to buy something that's familiar, rather than trying something new. But we do carry a lot of artists and titles you can't find in the major stores, so people come in for that stuff, too.

FR: We sell a lot of reggae, a lot of electronica. Roots music, jazz, funk, vinyl. Bjork, White Stripes. And then we'll always sell a fair amount of people like Gary Newman. Death Metal is huge right now with a lot of the European emigrant kids, because that's what they're exposed to over there, but we don't carry it.

TD: Why not?

TS: Because I'm afraid someone will burn the store down.

FR: If we were in Greenpoint we'd have more of a calling for it, but there isn't much of one in this neighborhood. And for what little there is, it's not worth it. The kids come in, hang out, look a lot, and then don't buy much of anything. We don't carry much rap either, because they come in and steal the cases. There aren't any CDs in them, but they steal them anyway. We carry some of the alternative rap, but not any of the mainstream stuff.

TD: What do you guys like to listen to?

FR: Some of the bands I like right now are Experimental Audio Research, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Acid Mother's Temple, which is a contemporary psychedelic band. We're both very interested in lounge music. We used to DJ at a place we called Room Temperature, and we like to carry a good selection of that type of music – electronic pop, exotica, cocktail music, bands like Esquival, Yma Sumac, Dimitri From Paris. Serge Gainsbourg is a big favorite.

TD: Do you have a favorite album?

FR: Out of everything?

TS: How about the Connit Project?

FR: Oh, that's kind of a joke with us. The Connit Project is this four-disc box set that's nothing but sounds from coded number stations. Spy code that's been picked up randomly on short wave. It's not music.

TS: So Fabio's favorite album isn't even music. Can that go down on record?

FR: It's a joke we have. It's not really my favorite album. And we think it's fake, anyway. They also did one called Ghost Orchid. It's a compilation of ghost communications. But we think that one's fake, too.

TS: It's not music, either.

FR: You can't find the actual people who put these records out.

TD: So, do you have a real favorite?

FR: The last Acid Mother's Temple is a favorite of recent times.

TS: They're folky psychedelia.

FR: Well, sometimes they can be hard rock psychedelia, too. Or experimental drone.

TS: But they're high sixties psychedelia, rather than being electronic.

FR: They do these trippy long jams.

TS: But with tambourine and acoustic guitar.

TD: How about something old?

FR: Probably this old double LP called Silhouette Segments. It came out in the late sixties and was made by this Lutheran minister named Pastor John Rydgren. He made all these pieces where he'd just record sermons over these pop songs, like (finds record in bin) "Groovin'" and "Music To Watch Girls By" . . .

TS: And he'd talk in this hip lingo.

FR: . . . "Hippie Version Of Creation" . . .

TS: How about you, Tom?

TS: Right now I listen to a lot of country and roots music. As far as who I listen to, it changes every week. At the moment I've been listening to a lot of Waylon Jennings and Townes Van Zandt. I like the new one by Gillian Welch. Bob Dylan is always a favorite. I'd say Blonde On Blonde would be the album, if I had to choose one. But my wife and I have a new baby at home, so I don't really have a chance to listen to much. And I don't really want to listen to anything but the news right now, anyway. I just can't get excited by a song or an album. I'm not in that frame of mind. The day after the 11th people were coming in and buying B-52s albums or whatever. I can't understand that.

Earwax is located at 218 Bedford Avenue at North 5th Street.

Travis Drageset is a freelance writer who lives in Williamsburg. She can be reached tdrageset@earthlink.net.

Earwax, on Bedford and North 5th Street
Photo by Kirsten Hively

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