How Independent Record Stores Built Punk Communities

The episode unpacks the vital role that local record shops played in punk’s first decade—distributing vinyl across borders, hosting bulletin boards for flyers and demos, serving as informal talent scouts, and acting as hubs where fans, labels, venues, and fanzines met to build DIY networks and spread sound. By tracing concrete examples from New York, California, the East Bay, and beyond, it shows how these storefronts stitched together scenes and helped punk thrive without a major label’s infrastructure.

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