New Kensington record store reopening over Labor Day weekend at new location

A New Kensington record store will reopen this weekend in a new location designed with social distancing in mind.

AJ Rassau, owner of Preserving Underground with his wife, Sarah, is spreading his store’s grand reopening over the Labor Day weekend to keep the crowd from becoming overwhelming.

Preserving Underground is now located in New Ken Social, a former Presbyterian church on Fifth Avenue that until recently had been used by the Salvation Army as its worship and service center.

Preserving Underground opened as Preserving Hardcore in April 2019 in the basement of District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.’s building. Rassau said he changed the name within six months to better suit customer interests.

“We primarily focused on hardcore, metal, punk and the likes,” Rassau said. “We currently specialize in almost all forms of underground music ranging from hip-hop to alternative to indie rock.”

After closing in March because of state covid-19 mandates, Rassau said they used the downtime to get their inventory online before reopening in the original location.

“It was very apparent, however, that social distancing wasn’t very feasible in our location that we were in,” he said.

The New Kensington couple bought the church next door from the Salvation Army, which moved to the former Fort Crawford Elementary School. They closed again in June for the move.

Rassau said they spent two months getting the building cleaned out and up to code.

While using only a fraction of New Ken Social for the record store, Rassau said it’s more than triple the size of the original spot.

“We’ve nearly doubled our inventory that’s available on the floor for customers to browse,” he said. “We have nearly 10,000 CDs, over 5,000 records, nearly 1,000 band shirts and even some cassettes on the floor for customers to browse.”

The store includes a small concert venue for performances.

“The PA system and stage rivals that of any venue in its size range within the city of Pittsburgh and will surely be attracting both touring and local acts whenever live events return,” Rassau said.

Hours for the grand reopening this weekend will be noon to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Rassau says Preserving Underground will serve as the anchor store at New Ken Social, which he hopes to turn into a complex of independent, special interest businesses.

Rassau said he hopes to make New Ken Social “a true destination location and to help bring life back in downtown New Kensington.”