Sick City Records tries to 'keep the music alive' as potential closure looms

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Just a few storefronts away from the now-vacant Button Mash, Sick City Records is on the brink of sharing the same fate.For nearly 20 years, therecord shop has offered Echo Park a rocker-themed hodgepodge of rare vinyl, vintage band tees and dapper haircuts from its singular barber shop chair.

But as rent continues to increase and fewer people stop by to browse its sonic selection or get a trim, Sick City Records is struggling to keep its doors open.“We’ve worked so hard for this.We’ve been doing this for 20 years.

We have to fight to keep this place open — it’s what we love to do,” said Jesse Lopez, the record store’s co-owner and resident barber.Lopez and his business partner, Brian Flores, attribute their financial difficulties to an overall rough year.

In January, when the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out, the shop was desolate for around a month.Then, right as summer kicked off — usually a lucrative season for record-collecting tourists stopping by — ICE raids began happening all over the city.

According to Flores, the streets were filled with large fleets of cars all summer, with loud sirens on, trying to scare people.Recent data from the L.A.

Economic Equity Accelerator and Fellowship and the L.A.County Economic Development Corp show that 43% of Latino business owners in the county reported revenue losses of 50% or higher since June.“No one was walking around.

It was June.Nobody’s walking their dog,” said Flores.

“In this whole shopping center, everybody is an immigrant.” The record shop’s finances reached an all-time low in October.The duo was two months behind rent; their inventory had gone stagnant and their once regular barber shop clients had become sporadic.

The prospect of closing up shop and cutting their losses became more real than ever.In a last effort to save their music hub, Flores and Lopez have since picked up a v...