FEB 27, 2025 | FEATURES | By Maddie Dimetrosky (Staff Writer)
On a given Friday afternoon, you’ll find Sean Ostrow working at the counter of What’s Left Records, a store notable for its community space and colorful murals on the brick walls outside.
Ostrow and his brother, Bryan Ostrow, both grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo. and started What’s Left Records as a zine around 15 years ago. They opened the store in August 2020, after losing their jobs due to the pandemic. They moved to their current location in September 2020. The store is located on East Platte Avenue, just seven minutes away from Colorado College’s campus.
“We just love community and wanted to get back to music,” Ostrow said. “We love the Springs a lot and we definitely want to give cool stuff to the Springs so that’s the reason why we stay here and try to make sure it’s a cool community spot for everyone.”
“I think some people come out and don’t really know if there’s a scene here, so we love to be able to let people know what the Springs has to offer,” said Ostrow.
The store hosts shows featuring a variety of music genres: rap, metal, punk, hip hop and indie rock, including noise shows, ambient shows and more.
“We try to do a lot of underground stuff…a little bit of everything,” Ostrow said. Recent shows included the rapper Sandman and Weekend Nachos. There are at least six or seven shows each month.
When describing Colorado Springs, Ostrow said that the town and the music scene have changed. When he and his brother were kids, it was hard to book shows and few new bands were in town. The scene has exploded since then, though it remains a tight-knit community; Ostrow said he appreciates small scenes like this one, as there is still variety in genre and sound but everyone enjoys going to any type of show.
“As long as music’s coming in, people aren’t too cool for anything. They just want to experience fun music.”
Apart from the fun murals and live music, customers browsing the store can find classic rock, jazz, soul and many other genres of records and CDs.
When asked to describe the store’s purpose, Ostrow said, “We just want to have a cool community spot for people.” Their goal is to offer people a venture “ to be able to put their art in spaces.”
“It has been an adventure the whole entire way, we’ve met so many crazy friends from being here that we would have never pictured,” Ostrow said. “Now they’ve become our best friends who get to come here, so many different weird bands play.”
