Rockit Scientist Records East Village New York City
Closed – 33 St. Marks Place, East Village New York City 10003
Ah back in the day. You could spend the whole day on St. Marks Place looking at records. Sounds, Venus, Rockit Scientist and round the corner Vinyl Finyl and See Hear. I always had good luck in the outdoor bins here – the inside was not as large as the others, so he supplemented his space with outdoor bins. They were supplied by another vendor. Got all my Ramones records here and many more.
Rockit Scientist was open from 1996 to 2012. The first store was on Carmine Street, also then the home of House of Oldies (now also closed). It moved to the St. Marks location in 2003. The store was run by John Kioussis, who continued selling records online and by mail order after the store front closed. Records were on one side and cds on the other. The store specialized in Classic rock, 60’s Psych, Garage, progressive, Krautrock, reggae, soul and jazz.
Rockit Scientist was always a port of call whenever I went on record hunting excursions. In my CD-centric days, I grabbed many psych classics from the Carmine Street location, many of which are still in heavy rotation in my collection. I had also gotten to know John (the owner) who was both very knowledgable yet did not suffer fools gladly. Both qualities I admired and have adopted in my subsequent career as a record store manager. By the time I started collecting records in earnest, I never stopped finding gems at Rockit Scientist. I miss that shop and seeing John (though we still occasionally chat online) yet I will never forget it!