Starting tomorrow (Friday), a selection of records from Verlaine's archive will be available for purchase via Discogs, with additional in-person sales planned next month at Academy Records in Brooklyn. (There's also an Academy Records outpost on 12th Street.)
The collection reportedly includes roughly 4,000 LPs and singles spanning jazz, garage rock, psychedelia, experimental music, avant-garde recordings and other genres. The first batch goes on sale online on June 26. Additional titles will be available at Academy Records' Brooklyn location on July 10-11, before more records are added to Discogs later in the month. Records purchased through Discogs will come with certificates of authenticity.
Verlaine, a longtime East Villager who died in 2023 at age 73, emerged in the early 1970s as a central figure in the downtown music scene centered around CBGB. His band Television released Marquee Moon in 1977, an album that remains one of the most influential records of the punk and post-punk era.
Interest in Verlaine's work remains strong. In January, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts announced that it had acquired his archive, a collection spanning roughly six decades that includes lyric drafts, correspondence, photographs, recordings and other materials documenting his career.
Now, fans have another chance to connect with Verlaine's artistic life — this time through the records that helped shape his musical vision.
