BPB Video: The End of Orpheus
Earlier this week we reported that Orpheus Records will end its lease on April 1 and close its doors soon after. Washington City Paper’s Aaron Leitko and Jason Cherkis take a few moments to discuss what this means for local retail in the video below. Click here for more on Medium Medium and here for more on Lungfish’s Sound in Time; click here for Cherkis’ 2001 story on D.C. record stores, in which he dismisses Orpheus as home to “a lot of overpriced records anyone could find at a decent thrift store.”
9 Responses to “BPB Video: The End of Orpheus”
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January 25th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Nice watch there Aaron
January 25th, 2008 at 11:50 am
might be one of the first times ive agreed with cherkis, that store sucked. stuff that should have been .99 was usually around $9. good riddence.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I wanted to hear more from the yellow hi-liter
January 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Its name is Old Yeller, and while he’s somewhat camera-shy, he may be available for interviews in the future.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Cherkis’ thrift store argument has long baffled me. I’ve seen any number of beat-to-heck copies of Herb Alpert records in thrift stores, but never a pristine copy of, well…anything.
But, hey, if you’ve got all weekend to look for a $.99 record in thrift stores–regardless of condition–then be my guest.
Orpheus always seemed like a bargain to me.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Orpheus isn’t overpriced - it’s just run by a guy who knows what he has. Honestly, if you ever took a Goldmine price guide with you to the place, and compared prices by quality, you’d find they were pretty similar.
Are you guys really gonna hold it against Richard that he charges what his merch is actually worth??
January 26th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Orpheus is a great record store. I winced when I re-read my old rant linked above. But I do think that the store did significantly overprice its reissues. You could find the same Toots reissue for $10 in NYC. At Orpheus, it would closer to $30. A minor nerd point–I know.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I’d love to see more of Old Yeller, or at least the occasional post.
(Does it really need to be explained why goods are cheaper in New York? As more vinyl stores in the DC area have opened the general price range has changed accordingly. If you’re looking for something on the cheap, checking a store that specializes in whatever you’re looking for, is generally not the first place to look)
Maybe Old Yeller can interview them handsome shelves in the background!!
January 28th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I have respect for anyone who tries to make a business out of selling old vinyl. That said, I didn’t venture out there much either. Didn’t get a warm vibe from being there, maybe that was just me. Maybe it was the weird pricing. The Stravinsky box set I got was in great shape, just what I wanted, and not unreasonable at $15, I think. When I brought it to the counter, it did come with a could-have-been-shorter rant from a guy (not the owner) which began, “You know, Zappa was into Stravinsky…”. With Sum and Crooked Beat and Red Onion being so nice and so close, I didn’t have a reason to go back. Sad to see any store go, but I can think of stores that I’d miss more.