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Let The Music Play
Criminal Records celebrates its 30th anniversary in Little Five Points
By Chad Radford
When asked to relive what the early days
were like when he opened Atlanta’s Criminal
Records in the summer of 1991, Eric Levin
doesn’t skip a beat. “Man, I failed so much
during those first few years,” he says. “I
was living in the back of the store, we were
getting broken into. There were so many
times when I was constantly on the edge of
throwing in the towel.”
Levin has spent much of his life in record
stores. He landed his first job in junior high
at the age of 13, working as the “store rat” at
Atlantic Sounds in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Later, he started his own record store in
Ormond Beach called Secret Service Records.
There is a law, though, buried deep in the
books, that makes it illegal for businesses to
use the name “Secret Service.” ... Something
about avoiding confusion if there is an actual
homeland security issue.
One day, a pair of actual secret service
agents paid Levin a visit and took him to jail
over the name. “They were ultimately nice, if
even a little embarrassed to have to serve such
a dumb task,” Levin says.
Later, while watching the story being
reported on the news, he heard a reporter
laugh and say, “What’s he going to call his
new business, Criminal Records?”
That sealed the deal on the name. At just
19 years old, he moved to Atlanta and set
up Criminal Records in Little Five Points to
build a career selling CDs, cassettes, vinyl
records, comic books, toys, and more.
II there was a discernible tipping point
when things shifted, or gave him any
indication that he might one day be doing
interviews about celebrating the store’s 30th
anniversary, he hesitates at first, but then tells
a story.
Fast forward a few years after opening to
the summer of 1994. Psychedelic country
punk band the Meat Puppets were on the
rise, as their song “Backwater” was
turning out to be an honest-to-
goodness alternative rock hit. The
group was passing through town as a
daytime act on the H.O.R.D.E. Tour.
After their set, they made their way
to Little Five Points for an in-store
performance at Criminal.
The shop was much smaller back
then, located in the storefront that’s
now home to Java Lords Coffee. The
band set up in front to play on the
sidewalk as the hillside across the
street filled up with people who’d
come to watch. “For real, hundreds
of people were there,” Levin says. “It
wasn’t that the Meat Puppets were
a big draw, it was just a beautiful
sunshiny, breezy day, the band
sounded amazing, and the crowd just
grew and grew.”
The band had played just a few
songs when a police cruiser slowed
to a halt in the middle of Euclid
Avenue, between the band and
everyone who’d flocked there to hear
the music.
“I thought, ‘this sucks, they’re
going to shut us down, and I’m going
to have to deal with this.’”
The cops lingered for a few
moments; he surveyed the crowd,
looked at the band, nodded his head
and slowly drove away. The people
who’d gathered on the hillside roared
with applause and the band took it as
their cue to rock out even harder.
“Somehow, I knew then and
there, that everything was going to be
alright,” Levin says.
Over the years, the shop has moved
three times, always remaining in L5P. In
1994, Criminal moved to Moreland Avenue,
into the space that is now Stratosphere
Skateboards. In April 2008, Levin moved
the operation to the much larger location at
1154 Euclid, where it currently remains.
In-store appearances, like the Meat
Puppets show he remembers so fondly, have
long been a part of the store’s repertoire
over the last 30 years. The list of acts who’ve
played or just hung out in the store signing
records and chatting with customers includes
Spiritualized, Mick Jones of the Clash, Pearl
Jam, Danzig, Bill Callahan of Smog, Tori
Amos, Killer Mike, Sleater-Kinney, Frank
Black of the Pixies, Against me! Mastodon,
Janelle Monae, Indigo Girls, John Lewis, Dr.
Octagon, and too many others to name.
Party-starter Andrew WK. once worked
a shift behind the counter there as part of a
promotional appearance before an Atlanta
show in the early aughts.
Over the years, Levin has endured
career highs and lows: As an independent
businessman, he managed to keep the store
alive as the rise of online streaming took a
bite of music sales. He co-founded Record
Store Day which launched in 2008 and is
the president of the Alliance of Independent
Media Stores (A.I.M.S.), which is a
consortium of independently owned record
stores and other media-related retailers that
support each other, and help level the playing
field with media titans such as Amazon.com
and Wal-Mart.
He also suffered a devastating heart
attack. Still, he soldiers on.
For Levin, keeping Criminal Records
going through thick and thin has been a
labor love, and he have it no other way. “I
don’t know what else I would do,” he says.
“I always knew that I would be my own
boss, I don’t have the personality to work for
someone else. My father was an audiophile
whose best friend owned a record store. This
all speaks to who I am.” QH
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