Times Square\u2019s hidden music mecca is still hitting all the right notes. <\/p>\n
Long before soulless glass towers and blinding LED billboards reshaped one of NYC\u2019s most notorious neighborhoods, some of pop culture\u2019s biggest names strutted, sang and even slept in the halls of The Music Building<\/a> \u2014\u00a0one in scores of recording studios around the Crossroads of The World responsible for pleasuring the world aurally over a period of decades. <\/p>\n This one not only survived decades of gentrification \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s still thriving. <\/p>\n Hidden behind a nondescript gray metal door at 584 Eighth Ave. between 38th and 39th streets, amps are still cranked, drums pound, and the spirit of rock and roll never dies.<\/p>\n Behind a plain gray door on Eighth Ave., the amps still roar, the drums still pound \u2014 and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll refuses to die Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n The Music Building\u2019s 12 floors of graffiti-covered halls didn\u2019t just survive decades of gentrification \u2014 they\u2019re still rocking. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Today, young musicians and up-and-coming bands continue to fight for space at the legendary stronghold.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an essential piece of NYC music history,\u201d longtime tenant Chris \u201cTomato\u201d Harfenist, lead singer and drummer of early aughts alt-rock group Sound of Urchin, told The Post. \u201cThis building is the last bit of real rock that is still functioning in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n The next generation of rockers is still fighting for space in the storied rock fortress (above), located at 584 Eighth Ave. between 38th and 39th streets. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Madonna once lived and rehearsed there in room 604 \u2014 without hot water.<\/p>\n Billy Idol wrote what became \u201cRebel Yell\u201d and \u201cWhite Wedding\u201d in studios 1001 and 1006, and The Strokes cut their teeth in cramped spaces like 404.<\/p>\n Just steps from the scuzz of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the graffiti-splashed Music Building has sheltered generations of dreamers since 1979 \u2014 outlasting one-time area icons like the Record Plant (321 W. 44th St.) and Brill Building (1619 Broadway), now bland office blocks commuters hurry past daily, rarely if ever appreciating the importance to rock history.<\/p>\n Longtime tenant Chris \u201cTomato’\u201d Harfenist launched Tomato\u2019s House of Rock (THOR) inside the building \u2014 and even jammed there with Moby and members of Ween. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n The lobby is plastered with glossy band stickers and tabloid-esque flyers. Its lone, nonworking pay phone \u2014 also decked out in colorful stickers \u2014 stands as a shrine to the past.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery musician from the \u201980s and \u201990s remembers this famous phone,\u201d Roget Lerner, the building\u2019s president and chief catalyst, told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll never get rid of it \u2014 Madonna used it, and recently her drummer Stephen Bray and [Oscar-nominated] composer Carter Burwell stopped by and said, \u2018The phone booth is still here!\u2019 Back then, everyone used it to plan their gigs.\u201d<\/p>\n A 12-story maze of 69 rehearsal studios, the building is packed with musicians who often bunk together to keep rent cheap \u2014 and once they move their gear in, they stick around, only leaving after three to five years on average.<\/p>\n The building\u2019s only pay phone doesn\u2019t work, but covered in stickers, it\u2019s a pure rock \u2019n\u2019 roll relic. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cWe get inquiries every week, and we generally run 95% to 99% occupied,\u201d Lerner said of the high demand for space. <\/p>\n A sister site in Jamaica, Queens, home to Metallica, Anthrax, Run-DMC and LL Cool J, burned down in 1996. <\/p>\n He\u2019s now expanding to Chicago with a 115-studio spot he scooped up last year.<\/p>\n Roget Lerner, the man keeping his dad\u2019s dream alive, vows the pay phone isn\u2019t going anywhere \u2014 too many rockers still love it. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Live and Lerner<\/p>\n Roget\u2019s late landlord father, Jack Lerner, passed in 2024. He was known for his big smile, cowboy hat and supportive, music-loving spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tenants all loved him \u2014 I always joke he was probably the only NYC landlord whose tenants came to pay their respects after he passed,\u201d Roget said.<\/p>\n Jack acquired the building in 1979 to create a 24\/7 space where musicians could rehearse, store gear, and make noise without restrictions.<\/p>\n Inside the 12-floor labyrinth of 69 studios, musicians bunk up and split costs to survive in the city that never sleeps. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Since then, Patti Smith, Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, Cyndi Lauper, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, Lenny Kravitz, and members of Interpol and The Fleshtones have walked the halls, heading to their own studios or dropping by a friend\u2019s jam. <\/p>\n Spaces rent for $1,800to $2,500 a month, with many tenants sharing or subletting rooms as mini-studios, sometimes cycling five bands through a single space.<\/p>\n \u201cBring as many people as you want, as long as everyone\u2019s making music,\u201d Lerner said of the flexibility that has helped launch careers. <\/p>\n Room 604 once housed punk-rock Madonna, long before pop superstardom. Getty Images<\/p>\n While Lerner has kept his father\u2019s legacy alive, he has one particular rule.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t live like Madonna.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no hot water here. This place is for making music, not moving in,\u201d he joked. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce you walk in, you\u2019re just here to jam, and that safe space keeps many alumni coming back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Echoland Studios, run by Peter \u201cPiano Pete\u201d Favilla and Ryan Zieminski, is one of the building\u2019s revamped spots where musicians rehearse, record and take lessons. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Maintaining the CBGB spirit <\/p>\n Veterans share floors with newcomers, indie bands with jazz players, and the halls still buzz around the clock with every genre \u2014 but the rebel spirit endures.<\/p>\n