Atomic Records to Close

The shoe finally drops. Atomic Records, for decades the Milwaukee's premiere independent music store—nationally recognized thanks to word-of-mouth from touring musicians, and also because of their iconic T-shirts, which were fashionably worn by alt-rockers like Dave Grohl and Billy Corgan in the '90s—will be closing shop this winter. Owner Rich Menning posted the announcement on the store's Web site yesterday:

Rich from Atomic Records here.

It is with great sadness and more than a little difficulty that I have to announce that Atomic Records will be closing in February 2009. The reasons for shutting down are many -- and I'd hate to bore you with wonkish details of shifting demographics, downward market trends, changing consumer habits, etc. -- but the decade-long (and running) decline of the music industry combined with the recent economic downturn have made it impossible to continue doing what we love to do.

Thank You !

First off, THANK YOU! It has truly been a pleasure serving the music lovers of Milwaukee for the past 24 years. Much gratitude goes out to our customers. The recent words of encouragement -- the likes of "hang in there," "please don't go out of business," "what would I do without you?" -- mean more than you can imagine. I only wish we had the wherewithal to continue on. But for the next couple months the current members of Team Atomic shall keep on serving you as best we can.

Everything in the store is now 20% off; in January there will be further sales and reduced hours, and by February the doors will be closed for good. The Shepherd is always hounding you to buy local. This is why.