A new record store in Industry City promises to be a haven for crate-digging Brooklynites.
HiFi Provisions, a passion project from collector Matthew Coluccio, opens its doors in Industry City to wax-spinners this week — making the owner’s hobby official, after 10 years of obsessive collecting.
“It was kind of a hobby gone awry,” said Coluccio. “Records are kind of like cockroaches, more and more of them just keep showing up.”
Throughout his years of collecting, Coluccio often sold records and stereo equipment at the yearly Carroll Park flea market in Carroll Gardens, but never had plans to open up a brick-and-mortar store. Yet, after a conversation at a birthday party with an Industry City executive, he decided to turn his side project into a full-blown business.
Now, he’s set up a space in the sprawling waterfront complex and filled with records and other collectibles, including objects like a vintage fly-fishing rod and piles of old stereo equipment.
The collector says he envisions the shop filling to the brim with records and other items, creating a space where collectors can dig for hours in hopes of finding a hidden gem.
“I want this place to be floor-to-ceiling records everywhere,” he said. “I want records to be everywhere so people have that feeling like ‘I’m going to find a gem here somewhere.’”
Coluccio, who plans to continue working in the advertising and branding industry during the week while operating the shop Thursday through Sunday, doesn’t fit the traditional mold of a record store owner — as he lacks an encyclopedic knowledge of various studio musicians and obscure recordings. Still, he comes to the role as a conservator of the physical records themselves, and the personal histories they carry over from their former owners.
“I just love records, the physical item, how they play music, how they sound in the stereos and how they work, and how my brain can kind of wrap around how they operate,” he said. “I’m more of a conservator of these things.”
He cites a recent purchase he made of a record collection of a man who recently passed away which had been gathering dust in a basement for years. Among the records were rock band posters, newspaper clippings detailing rock concerts, and correspondence with the fan clubs of bands like The Who and Van Halen.
Looking through the records, he found markings in some of the liner notes of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” where the lyrics were printed indicating that the owner of the records had sat with the lyrics sheets while listening to the record, and made markings where the lyrics were incorrectly printed.
“I find that stuff super interesting, and I see that stuff all the time,” he said. “I really enjoy sharing that with people.”
HiFi Provisions, 274 36th Street near Second Avenue in Sunset Park (718 635-1119) hifiprovisions.com. Open 11 am — 7 pm Thursday through Saturday, 11 am — 7 pm on Sunday.
