Robert Christgau's records are going back into circulation. Academy Records, the used record shop on East 12th Street, has announced that it has been entrusted with buying and selling the collection of the longtime music critic, and the first pieces of it are in buyers' hands this weekend.

What Academy has

The shop has been sorting through Christgau's storage space, and it says the collection covers nearly every genre there is, with famous titles and obscure ones in about equal abundance. In its announcement on Instagram, the shop described Christgau as arguably the most important American music critic and called going through the records a privilege, given how much of music culture passed through his ears.

Where to find it, and when

The collection is arriving in stages. Academy brought a limited selection of 45s and LPs from it to the WFMU Record Fair, which wraps up today, Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street in Chelsea. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The fair, which ran three days this year, has more than 200 tables of records, CDs, clothing, books, zines and art, plus a Sunday screening of the Billy Preston documentary That's The Way God Planned It at 1 p.m. and a live set from the band Erasers, also at 1 p.m.

After the fair, the shop says it will put records from the collection out at its 12th Street store gradually over the coming months, rather than all at once.

About the shop

Academy LPs opened in 2001 as the first offshoot of Academy Records and Books, and moved to its current address on East 12th Street in 2008. It also runs Academy Record Annex in Greenpoint, which recently moved two blocks to 242 Banker Street. Both stores are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, and both buy used records, from a handful of LPs to whole collections.

How to go

Academy Records is at 415 East 12th Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A. The L train stops at First Avenue, about two blocks away. The phone is 212-780-9166.

Sources