Aquarius Records storefront for Milk set.

Aquarius Records was an independent record store in San Francisco, California, established in 1970. Aquarius was known for carrying an obscure selection of psychedelia, metal, and world music, and had an extensive mail order catalog. The store's selection was relatively small and was chosen and annotated by the staff of music aficionados. They claimed to have coined the modern alias dronology for the drone music genre.[1] It is the subject of the documentary "It Came From Aquarius Records" that premiered as part of the 2022 San Francisco Documentary Festival.[2]

History

Store on Valencia Street in 2015

The first Aquarius Records store was located in the Castro area of San Francisco. The first store was on 19th Street, followed by two locations on Castro Street, including one next door to Harvey Milk's camera store. Chris Knab bought the store in 1972[3] and in 1978, he co-founded the independent punk rock and new wave music record label, 415 Records, with Harvey Milk's friend[4] and his, Howie Klein.[5] Around 1983, the store moved to 3961 24th Street, in Noe Valley. In 1996, new owner Windy Chien moved the store to 1055 Valencia Street in the Mission District. Aquarius Records closed its doors in 2016.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ In this catalog page (Archive.org copy of 2002) they claim: "Here at Aquarius, we've coined such neologisms as "dronology" and "fuckery", simply because we hope that such words offer enough connotation even without a lot of context."
  2. ↑ Pehling, Dave (June 2, 2022). "Documentary celebrates, laments beloved SF indie shop Aquarius Records". CBS News. CBS San Francisco.
  3. ↑ "FourFront Media & Music: About Chris Knab". Archived from the original on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  4. ↑ "SFBG Radio: Talking to Howie Klein". Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  5. ↑ Levitin, Daniel. "A Brief History of 415 Records". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  6. ↑ "Beloved San Francisco Record Store Aquarius Records to Close". Pitchfork. 18 June 2016.


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