Community

You know, Albini's place, Electrical Audio, is very similar to Trax East.

I usually find myself disagreeing with Steve Albini, mostly with his opinions about digital audio and how, exactly, the record business works. But in this Tape Op interview (addendum here) I think he made an interesting point that New York City "suffers" (my word, not his) from a lack of community in the music scene because there's so much competition.

That's a problem with New York. It's a problem in the theater scene too -- something we tried to correct with Manhattan TheatreSource. To create a community. And it actually worked. Of course, the people who were least a part of the community -- the Board of Directors -- trashed it. But while it was running it actually worked.

Ahem. I got sidetracked there for a moment.

But yes. Community. It's really hard to make one in a town as big, and with as much talent, as New York City. That isn't to say there aren't some places which do make a decent community. Seems like a rehearsal studios do the best job.