New York - January 2010

Part of No Longer Empty's Never Can Say Goodbye


Curated by Manon Slome, Asher Remy-Toledo, Steven Evans

With special thanks to Dan Cameron who has encouraged and nurtured Never Records from the start.

Featuring the work of over 40 artists including : Jake Berthot, Jason Farrell, Arturo Vega, Doug McQueen, Nicholas Brooks, Allison Hester, Exene Cervenka, Dario Robleto, Olaf Bruening, Jason Losh, Bob Gruen, Stephanie Syjuco, Richard Hambleton, Marylin Minter, Michelle Matson, Ryan Sullivan, Brent Birnbaum, Bill Crandall, Matthew Bradley, Steven Bindernagel, Shane Caffrey, Josh Shaddock, Dee Dee Ramone, Tim Clifford, Brent Birnbaum, Damon Locks, Josh Azzarella, Josh Bernstein, Jon Bush, Jeramy Fletcher, Evan Gruzis, Nathan Gwynne, Bill Fallon, Jay Ivcevich, Spencer James, Michael Joyce, Brandi Merolla, Cliff Mott, Ted O'Sullivan, Rebecca Potts, James Rubio, Dan Sabau, James Woodward, Chris Yerington, Johnny T, Brendon Carney, Tom Sanford, Rashid Johnson, Rho Jae Oon, Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Ethan Minsker, Keegan Cooke, David Correll, Jaqueline Costell, Marissa Bea



Performances by: Azita, Animal Hospital, Cleopatras, Sacred Bones, Jeffrey Porterfield and David Marshall, ((audience)), Loud Objects Noise Choir, Julian Stockdale, All Up In Arms, Da Pantz, Mystie Chamberlain, Matt Madley, Jessen Jurado, Richard Allen, The Antagonist Movement, Brother Mike Cohen

The first Never Records store opened as part of a No Longer Empty multimedia art occupation of the former Tower Records store in Manhattan.  Before the internet transformed not just the delivery of music, but the way we discover albums and decipher their lingo and rate their worthiness, Tower Records was there to supply an infinitely diverse demand with a legendary supply. 

Curated coolness on a massive scale couldn’t survive as a business model, but Ted Riederer refused to believe that the spirit of record stores--whether they were chains like Tower or independents like Yesterday and Today--was bankrupt and in need of liquidation in the digital age.  With or without a ringing cash register, we still crave the opportunity to share the unknown and unexpected groove.  Never Records exists as an idea and philosophy, but also as a physical location that facilitates face to face encounters.  It is open (albeit with irregular hours) to anyone with a teenager’s eager heart starved for new sound. 

Ted was given the chance to build a record store on the other side of the Looking Glass. The result was a loving parody of the marketing-as-decoration aspect of late-era CD shops, live performances, and Vanilla Ice impersonators.  The familiar Never Records bins first debuted, along with the switcheroo album cover advertisements and Jason Farrell’s logo.