Fringe Records NYC in Ridgewood is becoming the noise hub for North Brooklyn, Queens, and beyond. Credit: Andrew Hurtado

Andrew Hurtado started collecting punk and hardcore records at age 13, hitting up local shops like Generation Records. As he grew older, he got into “more bizarre” and experimental genres, ultimately making his own industrial music and playing in a metal band. At age 35, he finally has a home for his tapes and records — and for a welcoming community of music appreciators and curious neighbors. 

Fringe Records NYC, which opened last summer in Ridgewood, has become a go-to for those seeking underground music collections. While it caters to everyone, it’s proudly queer-owned. 

“It’s a lifelong dream of mine,” Hurtado said. “I’ve always wanted to have a little shop of my own, and it somehow came together. It’s kind of crazy to me.”

Hurtado saw the rental sign in the window of the future Fringe Records space while walking down the street one day. 

“This started as a small DIY distro, … a hobby business at first, and now I’m in an actual storefront — it’s fantastic,” he said. In underground music subculture, people have been running small ‘distros’ dating back to the late ‘70s, Hurtado says. He recalls, as a young teen attending hardcore punk shows in the suburbs, always seeing someone running a distro table selling and trading CDs, tapes, and vinyl.

Andrew Hurtado grew up collecting punk and hardcore records. Credit: Jay Escobar of Barbed Wire Beauty

It was baked into the business from the start: Hurtado started Fringe by carrying titles from friends and contacting labels that released industrial, metal, and goth music curated to his taste. While Hurtado had been selling his music this way for years, the ins and outs of opening a business, things like the commercial lease application, business license and store setup, were foreign to him. 

Still, the core aspects of running the shop were long in the making. Hurtado had been hustling at the fringes of other niche markets, both online and in person. He has been a regular at record fairs and punk rock flea markets. 

And he has kept his entrepreneur hat on while also making music. That includes an industrial dark ambient-type project called DSM-III (he and a good friend are on their fifth release). He also plays in a metal band called M.R.S.A. and Pink Mass, a queer metal band with a BDSM aesthetic. He brings crates of records to the shows to sell. 

“So this didn’t happen overnight, learning so many different facets” of the business, Hurtado said. “I’m totally hands-on here; it’s only me.” He has to curate the selection of records at the shop and navigate relationships with wholesale labels. When people bring him merchandise, he has to price it and figure out what he’s going to pay. 

While Hurtado manages the shop solo, it’s helpful to have a partner, Anddy, who helps bring people together for events such as a screening of “200 Cigarettes” for New Year’s. Anddy runs a queer comedy night at the shop twice a month called Fruit Basket Comedy. 

Hurtado’s partner, Anddy (pictured left), runs a queer comedy night at the shop twice a month called Fruit Basket Comedy. Credit: Andrew Thomas

“It’s becoming the noise hub for the North Brooklyn, Queens area,” Hurtado said, mentioning friends who make industrial noise music, dark ambient music, goth, and extreme metal like black or doom metal. But Fringe Records also attracts people from Manhattan, New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and beyond. That includes like-minded musicians from the West Coast and as far away as Japan, where Hurtado traveled last year for a big festival hosted by a label he works with. 

“It’s a very niche thing, but it’s an international community,” Hurtado said. Apart from metal and experimental music, the shop carries genres like Italo disco, house music, queer dance music, and old-school boogie disco. 

Despite the eclectic musical and event offerings, the store has a clean aesthetic: five rows of records, a few bookshelves, music posters, and Ephemera memorabilia. Hurtado shares the space with a friend, an aesthetician who works in the back, “so it can’t be jumbled and crazy-looking and it can’t be a dingy basement,” he says.

A friend performs at Andrew Hurtado’s record store, Fringe Records. Credit: Andrew Hurtado

One event that cemented Hurtado’s belief in the business as a hub: a market hosted by Fringe Records a few weeks ago to sell the work of local artists. Seeing friends connect while selling their handmade clothing, books, and records was everything. It captured the way the community had supported Fringe Records since it opened. 

“All the people who have come in here over the past few months have been like, ‘I’m so happy you’re doing this,’” Hurtado said. “Honestly, it kind of shocks me. I didn’t know how it would be received. I had no idea.”

Fringe Records NYC

656 Woodward Ave in Ridgewood, Queens

Mon, Th, Fri, Sat, Sun 12-7 p.m.

(917) 547-4487

Follow on Instagram at @fringerecordsnyc

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