Musician Reflects on Employment at Ridgewood's 'Golden Hits' Record Store

Remember the Ridgewood record store Golden Hits? Ridgewood natives Real Estate do, with member Alex Bleeker telling Pitchfork.com the indie trio spent much time cataloging records and speculating if their boss wanted to light up with them.

It seems the young owner, Josh, initially paid them in pizza and old cassettes, which might have been music to the ears of a labor attorney a decade ago.

Anyway, take a stroll down musical memory lane and check out what Bleeker wrote:

"When [Real Estate's] Matt, Martin, and I were in high school, we caught wind of a rumor that a record store would be opening downtown. We did what any sensible suburban music freaks would have done: rode our bikes there and begged the owner for jobs.

The subterranean shop, Golden Hits, was still a few days away from opening, so the young owner Josh put us to work. We were paid in pizza and old cassette tapes. The store's initial inventory consisted mostly of Josh's personal collection. We spent a few days alphabetizing and cataloging, telling Josh what labels we were into, and speculating about whether or not he wanted to smoke weed with us.

The only problem with keeping us on as employees was that we made up a significant percentage of his potential customers. There was not much of a market for a boutique record record store in Ridgewood. So our positions were soon terminated and the shop folded pretty shortly after. Still, it was around long enough to expose me to some great music I hadn't yet heard, including Spacemen 3, Olivia Tremor Control, and the Dukes of the Stratosphear."