The City Paper has an enjoyable cover story about the slow disappearance of jukeboxes in D.C., and how jukebox junkies are reacting.
Today, D.C. Vending operates about 125 jukeboxes, about half of them in bodegas and other Latin-music joints. “They stopped playing music like they used to,” Tom says. “There’s not as many ‘Cheers’ around….That’s given way to the T.G.I. Friday’s, the big places.” The big places like to supply the music for free, via a piped-in, CEO-approved soundtrack. It’s good for corporate branding, bad for the Deoudeses. “They have killed the jukebox business, those kind of places.”
Classic jukeboxes may be fading away, but we’re actually a fan of the digital, Internet-enabled jukeboxes that we’ve seen popping up at bars here and there, where you can download tracks that might not yet be on the machine. We performed an informal survey of the DCist staff, and decided that the following are host to some of the best jukeboxes in town:
>> Tonic
>> The Red Room at the Black Cat
>> Fox & Hounds
>> Pharmacy Bar
>> Wonderland
>> DC9
>> Stetson’s
>> Dr. Dremo’s
>> Garrett’s in Georgetown
The Ghost of Gordon Sumner elaborates, stating that “the jukebox at Chief Ike’s is pretty good. The Black Cat’s is great. Bedrock Billiards is surprisingly great (and I took advantage of that one this weekend; nothing better than having the option of playing “Left of the Dial”). The Raven’s is alright, more classic rock.”
What about you, D.C.? Where do you get your jukebox fix?
