Remember the zine era? Those stapled, Xeroxed, cranked-out-in-someone’s-basement homemade magazines lined the shelves of independent bookstores and music shops through the 1990s.
One of the best places to browse and discover a new zine was at See Hear, inside a gritty basement storefront on East Seventh Street between First and Second Avenues.
It’s hard to imagine now, in our message- and media-saturated world, but See Hear contained a treasure of independent voices that, in an era before blogs, tweets, and Instagram, would otherwise never be heard.
Testimonials to the store’s incredible variety and the thrill of discovering something new there are all over the web. Just a few months ago, Alex at Flaming Pablum paid homage.
See Hear is firmly etched in the 1990s for me. Yet they opened years earlier. This ad comes from the February 1986 issue of the East Village Eye.
Zines still exist, but See Hear does not. They shut their doors in the early 2000s [Top photo from Yelp].
Tags: 1980s East Village, 1990s East Village, defunct bookstores of New York City, East Village before the Internet, East Village Eye, indie stores East Village, See Hear East Village, See Hear Zines
Ephemeral New York 
January 6, 2014 at 7:15 am |
When I visited the Brooklyn Book festival, there were a few tables that sold zines. More like Poetry and short stories. Some were authors giving away their work for free too. That was cool.
January 6, 2014 at 7:26 am |
I’ve never been to the Brooklyn Book festival but zines can still be found. I head over to Printed Matter on Tenth Avenue to browse.
January 6, 2014 at 6:18 pm |
In the US, See Here was distinctive as being a store for obscure music magazines and books. You never knew what would show up. The NAMBLA magazines were there for 1st Amendment purposes, but they kind of weirded me out. People don’t make zines anymore anyway, they post mirror images on facebook and wait for other mirror images to say, hey look, a mirror image!
January 6, 2014 at 10:57 pm |
SEE HEAR was a good place to find interesting things and they helped indie publishers get their stuff on the shelves, but they NEVER paid anyone!! He must have sold HUNDREDS of SHADOWs there and he never paid us — he always had an excuse. Ultimately, their failure/refusal to pay rent (and burning too many people) resulted in their losing their space….
January 7, 2014 at 5:21 pm |
I used to love See/Hear – they had stuff nobody else had and you could always find something interesting. I recall buying “Answer Me!” there, my signed copy of “Rat Catching” by Crispin Glover (which I still own) and who knows what else. It had the air of potential despite being a dank basement. Good stuff.
May 2, 2014 at 10:38 pm |
We had most of the 13 issues of our zine, Ugly American, on the shelves at See Hear at one time or another when it was out from 1988-1999. I don’t remember if we had any problems getting paid. If you missed us then, we’re (slowly) putting our archives up online now, check it out at :
http://www.uglyamericanzine.com
February 15, 2017 at 4:51 pm |
I am looking for a Star Trek novella called Song of the Stars by Betsy Fisher Published in 1988 by Abode of Strife #13
April 28, 2018 at 4:38 am |
I remember quite well. My cousin and I would trek from El Barrio and go to Astor Cuts ( So fresh and So Clean ). Shop for the latest in B-Boy Fashion. I was a bit different, I would also go to Mano a Mano for 80’s bespoke fashion. We would hit the record shops, head shops, DJ Pools and fill our bellies before heading back uptown only later to go back downtown to the Lime Light, The Tunnel, Studio 54, CBGB’s, sticking up your fingers with the amount of people in your party, etc ( The flyer the girls were in your party increased the chance of you getting in or standing outside all night long ). Man I don’t know if todays youth has anything as bad ass as this?
April 18, 2019 at 4:24 pm |
Wow, I loved this place. Hear, hear.