DRASTIC PLASTIC

Drastic Plastic has been the alternative culture music store in Omaha since 1982.

Drastic first opened its doors in April off South 24th Street, when Michael Howard borrowed the name from the Be-Bob Deluxe record and started selling punk rock wax from a poorly lit room on “N” Street. It was the first record store in Omaha to focus on punk rock and alternative music, the first in a long line of firsts. In 1983, it found new digs on South 13th just off Howard Street in the Old Market, where it became the first store in Omaha to sell the hardcore era skateboards, Doc Marten shoes, spiked wristbands, and continuing of course to sell the best imports and punk rock the world had to offer. Drastic also promoted some of the first alternative shows in Omaha such as Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Dead Kennedys and Toxic Reasons, a fact immortalized on the cover of Black Flag’s live album Who’s Got the 10 ½? where one can still find the store’s telephone number. Drastic also started one of the first record labels, Fat Bat Records, releasing the Apathy LP, Out the Window.

Continuing to specialize in all things alternative, unique, subversive, and deviant, Drastic moved again in 1993 to Howard Street proper, where it took its small screen-printing t-shirt business national eventually spinning it off as Impact Merchandising, a company that licenses a variety of properties making some of the most unique and quality t-shirt prints in the industry. Such semi-exclusive licenses include The Velvet Underground, Joy Division/New Order, Parliament/Funkadelic. Other licenses include The Ramones, Misfits, Pink Floyd, Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop/The Stooges, Frank Zappa and many, many others.

Recently Drastic has evolved in the digital age by launching a vinyl reissue label, appropriately named Drastic Plastic Records, which has released classic albums by The Clash, Agent Orange, Motörhead, The Exploited, The Birthday Party, The Undertones, The Damned, and several others. Our store carries over 300 t-shirt designs including tons of rock from The Adolescents to Frank Zappa, political, movie, horror, comic book, and lifestyle shirts, and, perhaps most significantly, our extremely popular and funny Omaha/Nebraska themed shirts. Rest assured you can still find plenty of vinyl, CDs and quirky gifts as well.

Official Website