The closing of Eastside Records on University Drive and Ash Avenue, a 23-year-old record shop renowned for its expansive collection of underground punk rock and hip-hop collection, left much of its avidly loyal customer base heartbroken.
However, the store has risen from the grave after a year-long hiatus from the Phoenix music scene and undertaken slightly new ownership as the aptly named Ghost of Eastside Records.
The original location closed in December 2010 and is now located on Mill and Southern avenues.
Mike Pawlicki, who held partial ownership of Eastside Records, has sole ownership of Ghost of Eastside Records. His love of music and the record business began as a teenager growing up in the late 1980s.
“I was young and into the early punk scene here,” Pawlicki said. “It was a really great time for music. That’s the time when bands like Black Flag were brand new and were coming and playing here for the first time.”
Gilbert resident Drew Carson owns a collection of more than 300 records — 75 of which he acquired from Eastside Records.
“When I found out they were closing, I didn’t believe it. I was heartbroken,” Carson said. “There really wasn’t an artist that I couldn’t get there. They’d have Ella Fitzgerald (and) John Coltrane. They have a great reissue department with a lot of punk records like Dead Kennedys and Talking Heads.”
Pawlicki said although the store is known almost solely for its punk rock and hip-hop collections, those genres aren’t everything Ghost of Eastside Records is about.
“People regarded (Eastside Records) as a punk rock store,” Pawlicki said. “I never saw us that way, but it’s something I knew very well.”
While Pawlicki’s retail does include punk rock classics such as The Germs, The Clash and Black Flag, he also holds a vast collection of original pressings of jazz and blues classics.
“It’s not something I was really comfortable with, thinking we were just that,” he said. “We carry a lot of other things.”
One 50-year-old pressing of blues guitarist Kenny Burrell included cover art by Andy Warhol and sold for $1,000.
“When things go out of print, that’s when they’re worth money,” Pawlicki said. “That’s what people kind of come in here for — crazy or out-of-print records that they aren’t finding.”
Carson said the store always had a really great collection of obscure records in good condition.
Employee Joe Dempsey said he has been working for Eastside Records for 13 years, but has been hanging around the establishment since the opening in 1989.
“I was hanging out there as a kid and those people turned people onto lots of music that they maybe wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise,” Dempsey said. “They had shows that were really crazy. Other stores weren’t really dabbling in that.”
Dempsey said without the influence of Eastside Records as a teenager, he would probably still be listening to whatever he heard on the radio.
“I was hanging out with guys who were skateboarding and were into (punk music) and introduced me to the staple punk rock things — Black Flag or whatever,” Dempsey said. “I met people in bands that hung out in or around the record store.”
Pawlicki said the shop’s location is tentative and he plans to relocate to Los Angeles in the near future.
Reach the reporter at kmmandev@asu.edu
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