(Photo: Daniel Maurer)

(Photo: Daniel Maurer)

By now you’re probably past the denial stage of grief and it has started to sink in that Other Music is closing at the end of June. New Yorkers began posting teary-eyed tributes to the beloved East Village record shop as soon as it announced yesterday that it was shuttering after two decades in business. 

“Losing Other Music is just as heartbreaking as losing Lemmy, Bowie and Prince,” wrote Flaming Pablum blogger Alex Smith. In a deeply personal eulogy on Noisey, Zach Schonfeld, like many others, remembered the albums he scored there in his youth. Jim Siegel (aka Ning Nong), a clerk, revealed that Benicio Del Toro is one of the many customers who regularly puts his trust in Chris Vanderloo, who co-founded the store in 1995 and “can recall details about almost any record released from the mid-80s until now, but is so humble that you wouldn’t know any of this unless you asked.”

(Photo: Dave Ratzlow for NY Mag.)

(Photo: Dave Ratzlow for NY Mag.)

Mike Sniper, founder of Greenpoint-based Captured Tracks, spoke to the importance of Other Music for indie labels such as his own: “As Manhattan continues to become more and more the Vacation Island for wealthy Europeans on a cultural tour of a place which is losing it’s cultural value day by day,” he wrote, “Other Music has continued to be a place whose tastes you can trust that has singlehandedly broken a new band more than SXSW ever could or a new reissue revival more than MOJO ever could.”

After the store announced on Facebook that its last day would be June 25, hundreds of comments poured in from all over the world. Market Hotel owner Todd Patrick wrote: “You guys kept New York, particularly Manhattan, connected to its musical artistic history for all these years — you will be missed.”

On Twitter, most remembered Other’s clerks as helpful and friendly — a far cry from those at Kim’s Video, and an even farther cry from this Human Giant skit in which a young Aziz Ansari and Andy Blitz play snobby clerks who don’t hesitate to smack Julie Klausner for not knowing what Pitchfork is.

Here’s how others reacted after the news broke on Twitter.

There were throwbacks to OM’s early days.

Some remembered in-store performances and drop-ins.

Musicians, bands, and others in the industry thanked the shop for its support and expert curation.

Fellow record stores and neighboring businesses expressed solidarity.

There were plenty of personal memories.

Many pointed fingers at themselves and others for abandoning the store.

There was snarky speculation about what might take Other’s place on East 4th Street.

There was the usual “NYC is dead” sentiment, from punk chronicler Legs McNeil and others.

But wait, there’s hope!