Community of Friends was a punk and hardcore record store located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The store focused solely on the genres of DIY that stem originally from punk and hardcore. The ultimate goal of the store was to promote and sell underground punk and hardcore to the Las Vegas area. This was important, because anything that the store was involved in must ultimately have been in relation to that idea, supporting our punk and hardcore community. An underlying goal of the store was to give local punks and hardcore kids a place in which they feel comfortable, a place that they can buy or listen to music, see shows, volunteer to work, or just hang out.
The store was run by volunteers, and no person ever got paid for working at the store. All profits made by the store were used to first, pay all the stores debts, second, increase the stock of the store, and third, used to fund a record label directed at releasing records by local punk and hardcore bands which will be used to trade with other labels for material to stock in the store while promoting Las Vegas' punk and hardcore bands. With nobody getting paid and all the money recycling into the store, the idealistic vision was for the store to really have no "owner" so that it can become its own entity and a central figure in our scene.
The store lasted one year, the length of our lease. We had great volunteers who never complained and always showed up. If you want to start something like this, know that it was not due to lack of committed volunteers that the store closed. We did several shows, pot-lucks, and games of SKATE, and ultimately take good memories from the existence of the store.
Community of Friends: A Punk and Hardcore Record Store
Las Vegas, NV 89103
(702) 646-PUNK (not in service anymore)
[email protected] (still checked sporadically)
It was fun while it lasted!
