INTERVIEW: Owner Jim Furlong Talks 35 Years of Last Vestige Music Shop and How its Made its Lasting Mark

interviewmusic

Dec 26

On Halloween, a staple of the music-loving community here in the Capital Region celebrated its 35th anniversary: Last Vestige Music Shop in Albany has been keeping turntables spinning since its start in 1989.

Shop owner Jim Furlong has been with the store since its humble beginnings, when it was a vinyl phonograph mail order business in 1984. He is certainly no stranger to the Albany music scene. From 1977 to 1979, he worked at Just A Song record store and then at the city’s first used record store: World’s Records on Central Ave. While at World’s Records, he was also simultaneously playing in The A.D.’s, a fairly well-known punk band in the area. The group released three different 45s and an album during their time together.

“In ‘83, the band moved to the New York City area to try and ‘hit the big time,’ as they say,” Furlong recalls.

Unfortunately, the band had some internal issues and didn’t last. Despite this, Furlong stayed in the city and worked at Manhattan’s Midnight Records, a mail order and retail business selling domestic and import vinyl.

Eventually, once back in Albany, he was approached by Roxanne Storms, the owner of the used, funky, kitschy clothing store, Special FX.

“She had purchased, and her husband purchased the building at 176 Quail St. in 1987, from the original owners, who used to have a notorious bar underground in the basement called Frank’s Living Room, which was famous with SUNY students from the early 70s, right up until the drinking age went to 21, and then they closed,” Furlong said.

Storms asked Furlong, who has a background in carpentry, to do some remodeling work. This opportunity would allow him to get his foot in the door with promising, unexpected endeavors to soon present themselves.

One day, in 1988, it was suggested he open a record store, an idea which he was apprehensive about because vinyl seemed to be on its way out and he was doing pretty well with just the mail order business. But, in time, he ended up deciding to take over the space in the basement, opening Last Vestige in 1989.
Just a few years later, Last Vestige moved across the street to a larger building. Previously a laundromat that went out of business, Furlong won the bid for the property after it went on the county auction block. The rehab and gutting of the establishment took about six to seven months, but finally, on New Year’s Day in 1994, they moved everything across the street to their new home at 173 Quail St. January 2nd marked the shop’s grand opening.
Since then, Last Vestige has made a lasting impact on the Capital Region, staying relevant all these years, making many wonder: how do they do it? Furlong says their inventory, mainly used, allows them to stand out from other shops.
“What’s always been a philosophy of mine was to try to have something for anybody,” he said. “I have, and I try to have, genres of every shape and form.”

He has also seen the evolution of customers’ tastes over time and factors that into the shop’s inventory selection. For example, Furlong says they carry an interesting international section after seeing more people digging foreign sounds in the last 15-20 years. So they make an effort to carry whatever they can get their hands on in that department.
“A lot of people do stroll in the store who are Baby Boomers who may have lived somewhere else for a while. We’ll get a lot of music from South America, the Caribbean, eastern Europe, far east Asia, so we try to have that, as an example,” he tells me.
Last Vestige tries to appeal to other audiences as well by having a variety of other sections like spoken word, poetry, plays, political commentary and even a fun children’s vinyl selection. These are, of course, in addition to your typical, more mainstream genres like folk, blues, jazz and rock.
The music shop doesn’t just specialize in vinyl records, though. Beyond the store’s front doors, CDs and cassettes are also available for purchase. Furlong points out that cassettes have made a bit of a comeback, which has been fun. But his team is still sure to be selective with the cassettes, CDs and vinyl they offer to customers so they aren’t sitting around collecting dust.

“We really try to – the hip word these days is ‘curate.’ I’m not so much of a curator as I am a supplier. I try to find things that I think people will like. Some of it lays around forever, and some of it disappears quicker than I expected,” Furlong says.

Another important aspect of the business is their mail order department, of which just about the entirety of the second floor is dedicated to. Lots of their vinyl, CDs and cassettes are sold on eBay and Discogs through mail.

As expected of a business who has been at it for 35 years, there have been challenges along the way. Furlong said the neighborhood the shop is located in has seen good times and bad, but overall, business is still pretty strong with walk-ins. They see a lot of people come from out of town, including out of the state and even out of the country.

Last Vestige is also able to connect with music lovers at the various record fairs they attend each year, locally in Albany and Saratoga and oftentimes even making the trip out to those in Utica, Syracuse and Binghamton. Furlong enjoys the fairs because they help further promote the business and allow the shop to get rid of some inventory they have more than enough of, while also connecting with people who may be looking to sell their collections – an important aspect of the business, for regulars and new faces alike.

“We have a lot of people who’ve been [coming by] since I opened in ‘89 still popping in, as well as a number of customers who moved out of the area through the 90s and the early 2000s, and when they’re up visiting relatives, they still pop in over the holidays or other times to say ‘hi,’ and that really makes me a happy man.”

Furlong jokes that he could open a couple of branches of Last Vestige in North and South Carolina, as well as Florida, and he’d probably get a bunch of customers back. One thing’s for sure: he appreciates all who have come in over the past 35 years and the loyalty they show to the business.

Going forward, Furlong doesn’t see himself retiring full time and wants to keep a hand in the business. But at the same time, he feels confident in his employees that have worked for him for a long time, so he is looking at ways to hand it off to them when the time comes.

“I started the business when I was 35 and now I’m 70. Some people don’t make it that long in this type of business,” Furlong says.

35 years later and Last Vestige Music Shop is still going strong. Stop by the store at 173 Quail St. in Albany, Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.