LAist: Sea Level Records Bites The Dust

May 18, 2007

Sea Level Records Bites The Dust

sea level record store in better days

The Wherehouse, Licorice Pizza, Rhino, Tower, Moby Disc, Aron's, Penny Lane, db Coopers... and now you can add Echo Park's Sea Level to the list of once-essential local record stores that have thrown in the towel.

The LA Times Buzz Bands blog has the scoop:

the independent outlet that in 5 1/2 years had become a locus for Los Angeles' Eastside music scene, will close June 30, owner Todd Clifford said. "It's not so much competition as the fact I want my life back," said Clifford, 32, who runs the store, at 1716 Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park, with the help of just one part-time employee. "Yes, it's been a struggle. But each year has been better than the last. It just got to be too much for me."

Doesn't that sound like all those athletes who say they want to hang 'em up so they can spend more time with their family? Hopefully this too will be as fleeting as a Roger Clemens retirement, though it's hard not to think that Amoeba, iTunes, Best Buy, and Amazon isn't partially to blame.

photo of Sea Level in March via Myspace

By Bachelor Bob in Arts & Events , Miscellaneous | Link | Comments (7) | Recommend this! (1) |

Tags: Amoeba, Angeles, Bands, Best Buy, Buzz Bands, echo park, Echo Park, echopark, LA, LA Times, Licorice Pizza, Los, Los Angeles, Music, music, Myspace, Pizza, Pop Culture, Roger Clemens, Sea Level, sea level records, sealevelrecords, Sunset, Sunset Blvd, The LA, The LA Times

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Comments (7) [rss]

By andy

[1] | 05/18/07 09:28PM
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this fucken sucks. thanks Sea Level for keepin it real.

By Short Attention Sp

[2] | 05/18/07 10:48PM
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So very very sad. At least Family on Fairfax takes up the real-keepin' slack.

By Sydney

[3] | 05/18/07 11:53PM
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"it's hard not to think that Amoeba, iTunes, Best Buy, and Amazon isn't partially to blame"

It's music buyers (all of us) who are to blame. Sorry to hear it's shutting down.

By Candide De Luge

[4] | 05/19/07 01:34PM
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So did they bite the dust or throw in the towel? Find a chestnut and run with it, that's what I say.

The South Bay lost the great Go-Boys Records in January. The owner said that folks stopped buying CDs at some point in 2005 and business never picked up again.

It's hard to compete with free, harder to compete with "now." iTunes (and soon Amazon) offer the consumer the option of not getting off their ever-widening asses and driving to the store. Your various p2p sources offer free AND now. Personally, I'd rather have it now AND in decent fidelity.

By tony

[5] | 05/19/07 02:22PM
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fine then, they bit the towel :)

By ramoncito

[6] | 05/20/07 12:12PM
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that sucks!

By jill

[7] | 06/24/07 11:33AM
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at least there's still Poo-Bah's in Pasadena... though i cried when the left the original location...