EP 41: Bruce Lee Gallanter Speaking About His Beginnings with the Downtown Music Gallery and the Future of Music Retail - a podcast by Musicians For Musicians, MFM

"I find Joy in Discovery All the Time!"

Our guest for this episode of MFM Speaks Out is Bruce Lee Gallanter, the owner and proprietor of Downtown Music Gallery (DMG), a Manhattan based music store that specializes in new, used, hard to find, and out of print CDs, Vinyl, DVDs, and books. DMG was started in 1991 by David Yamner & Steve Popkin, with Gallanter working for the store. They remained in their first location on east 4th street in Manhattan for 12 years until 2003, and started having weekly free concerts, an idea that Gallanter had started with Manny Maris when they worked at Lunch For Your Ears. Gallanter became the owner in 1997. Around the time. he and Emperor Mike started the DMG newsletter, In 2003, they moved into a new store on the Bowery, not far from St. Marks Place, Tower Records, and Other Music. This was their most popular and successful location. They are presently located in Chinatown.

Their concerts at their different locations included musicians such as Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Joelle Leandre, John Zorn, Rod Poole, Ivo Perelman, Marc Ribot, Eugene Chadbourne, Haino Keji & Loren Mazzacane,  Gong, Hatfield & the North, Present, Dr. Nerve, Kramer, Luscious Jackson, Fibre, Machine Gun, Thinking Plague, Dark Carnival, members of Henry Cow: Fred Frith, J.D. Parran, Tony Levin, Michael Moore, and many others. The Sunday night in-store series continues to this day. 

DMG  also devotes an entire 700-CD display to the Tzadik label (founded and owned by John Zorn), and operates the mail-fulfillment for the label. They also provide the telephone information service for The Stone performance space. 

Gallanter is also a valued contributor to doobeedoobeedoo.info,  
 

Topics discussed:

His beginnings with Downtown Music Gallery, the in-store concerts DMG presents, becoming the owner of DMG, DMG's relationship with John Zorn's Tzaddik label, the DMG/ARC label, DMG's relationship with The Stone, Arts For Art, and the VISION FESTIVAL, DMG's business model and how they survive as a brick & mortar store in the age of online music purchasing, Gallanter's views on musician's rights, his  writings for doobeedoobeedoo.info and DMG's alliance with MFM, and the future of music retail.
 

Music on this episode:

1. Jamie Branch, Thomas Helton, and Michael Evans (recorded live at the Downtown Music Gallery Concert Series May 2021)

2. Sandy Ewen, Chris Pistons, and Nate Wooly ((recorded live at the Downtown Music Gallery Concert Series May 2021)

3. Francisco Mora Catlett & Same Newsome (recorded live at the Downtown Music Gallery Concert Series April 2021)

All tracks courtesy of Bruce Gallanter / Downtown Music Gallery

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