Greenpoint’s music scene is growing yet again — this weekend, Razor-N-Tape is opening at 110 Meserole Ave. This opening marks the first brick-and-mortar space for Razor-N-Tape, a prolific and Brooklyn-rooted dance music label that was founded in 2012 by Jason Kriv and Aaron Dae and features a worldwide roster of artists.
The space will be open Fridays through Sundays for buying vinyl, merch, DJ accessories, and more, and will serve as a home base for Razor-N-Tape operations throughout the rest of the week. Starting today, October 21, the shop will feature a weekend of opening events and live music at their boutique DJ booth in-store from 12 to 8 p.m. daily.
Jason Kriv, co-owner of Razor-N-Tape and co-founder of Hot Honey Sundays, describes the birth of the new flagship location as something akin to the kind of fate that only seems to happen in Brooklyn.
“To be honest, [a brick and mortar] was not something that was really on the Bingo card for this year,” Kriv admitted. “The whole thing just kind of fell into place when we found the actual space and saw this place, and it was the right thing in a lot of different ways for us; it just sort of clicked.”
The space itself features custom millwork furniture, a bespoke hifi sound
system, and an oversized aluminum Bill Bernstein photo print donated by the photographer himself, not to mention relatively close proximity to Greenpoint Terminal Market, where Hot Honey Sundays regularly set up shop for open-air dance parties this past summer.
“I’ve been in Greenpoint a lot over the past two years as part of Hot Honey Sundays, and Good Room is a bit of a home base for us. We’ve had great nights there over the years and just had our ten-year anniversary party there,” Kriv explained. “And the proximity to Good Room and sort of this little kind of circuit of record shops over here too, from Captured Tracks and Brooklyn Record Exchange — Greenpoint just as a neighborhood to me feels kind of fresh and exciting. It’s still pretty chill, but it’s got a lot of activity. It feels like the perfect balance of a neighborhood that has some of its historic character and some new energy coming into it as well. So it’s a great spot for us.”
While Kriv is looking forward to the future of the shop from hopeful collaborations with local Greenpoint businesses and artists to growing into an even larger space, he’s also trying to remind himself to be present.
“It’s like the wedding where all of a sudden you don’t remember what happened at all, you know?” Kriv laughed. “But I’m just excited to have people together to show everybody the space. If it leads to bigger and better things, that’s great. But we feel really good about what this means for us as a label in terms of our connection with the community and with our artists, and we’re just trying to have fun, too.”