The Thing is, for all intents and purposes, a junk shop – the Greenpoint, Brooklyn institution is piled high with scuffed-up furniture, moth-eaten clothes, vintage porno magazines and scrap-heap stereo components. So what’s it doing on Counter Intelligence? Since opening in the late ‘90s, The Thing has developed a reputation as a gargantuan record-digging spot, with a back room and basement that could house as many as a million records; there’s no stock list to speak of, so no one knows for sure. Whatever your estimate, the collection is awe-inspiring, as much for its size as its sheer disorganization and griminess. (Regular customers know that surgical gloves and dust masks are a must for those planning to do more than a walk-through.) William Burnett, who’s been in charge of vinyl at The Thing since the mid-‘00s (in addition to running W.T.
