More Rock and Roll Superhype

There's once again, a whole lotta SPIN going on in the rock world, and I'm not talking about the platters in the players or the wax on the turntable. I am talking about Fucking Blondie getting in the Rock and Roll Hall of Lame.

Blondie: 6 albums in 8 years, four or five hit singles [Heart of Glass, Call Me, Rapture, One Way or Another, Tide Is High.. maybe Dreaming] and nothing NEARLY as influential or important to the world as, oh, the Clash's London Calling, Elvis Costello's This Year's Model, Television's Marquee Moon, that first Pretenders or the first few Ramones albums. And don't give me this 'best selling band to come out of the CBGB scene' bullshit. They went blatantly crossover and disco with Parallel Lines, though they went a little less commercial with my fave, Eat to the Beat, then right back to commercial with Autoamerican, which is a cruddy record. Blondie were not punks. They may have been a spearhead of something Seymour Stein had the genius to call New Wave [the argument was radio stations don't play Punk, so he said 'It's not Punk, it's New Wave.'] but I would say the Cars beat them to that punch as well.

Look, it's great the people in the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family Generation are finally getting some of their bands in Jann Wenner's Diluted and Distorted Rock and Roll Worship Pile, but let's face it again: The Hall of Fame has become more and more the Hall of Lame. Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Eric Clapton and George Harrison [for their solo work?] and now Blondie. THESE ARE NOT LIFETIME ACHIEVERS. THESE ARE NOT THE PERFORMERS WHO NEED TO BE REMEMBERED IN 100 YEARS.THESE ARE FRIENDS AND HEROES OF HEAVY CONTRIBUTOR JANN WENNER AND HE'S FUCKING UP THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME JUST LIKE HE FUCKED UP ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE. [Think I have an opinion on that?]

How can you have BLONDIE in the RnRHoL and NOT have the Cars in there? The Cars were around the same period as Blondie, they had only 6 albums, but they had a PILE more hit singles and airplay. And EVERYONE likes the Cars!

If Blondie gets in, why not ELO and Styx and Boston? They had about the same influence on the history of rock and roll as Blondie! How long until Journey gets their award?

I know, I know, I am flogging that old dead horse again, but who's going to say it if I don't?

But while I am on the subject, I think we can all skip Todd Rungren, Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes' NEW CARS. When I saw this the first time, I was under the impression that Ric Ocasek was going to have something to do with this. Now an Ocasek/Todd led reformation of the Cars, with Todd playing bass and doing Ben Orr's bits, now THAT would be cool. But it is not to be.

Todd and Elliot and Greg have Ocasek's blessing, but doing this as the New Cars... well, that's like Easton's other project the last few years: Creedence Clearwater Re-Visited. There's supposed to be new material in the offering, which gives Todd a chance to write something a little more pop/mainstream, which is great, but why not just do Todd featuring -- or revive Todd's old pop band Utopia featuring -- ? Why bring the name of the Cars into this? Oh, name brand recognition.

Hear me now and remember me later. Ever watch the VH1 Behind the Music on Steppenwolf where the two guys who played keyboards and bass or whatever bought the name Steppenwolf from John Kay about 1979 and gave up their rights to everything in the future for the name and didn't get a red cent from the CD re-issues? The Cars catalog is in serious need of clean up and remastering, now known as the Rhino treatment; think Ocasek is still smart enough to say 'Okay you can do this, but you have to give up that'?

All I am saying is this: Don't trust bands that go out with one or two of their main guys missing, you're in for a MAJOR MAJOR disappointment, unless you're not old enough to know better. Or you're too old to care and just want to try and relive a flickering moment from your past. Did you see the Band or buy any of those 90s records without Robbie Robertson? Want to see Queen without Freddie Mercury? See ELO II with no Jeff Lynne? The Doors of the 21st Century?

And once again, don't get sucked into the re-re-re-remastered trip foisting the same ten damn songs on you [Mr. Leone!]. They're trying to trip you up this time by adding a remix of Blondie's Rapture meets the Doors Riders on the Storm [hey CROSSOVER NOSTALGIA!]. DON'T DO IT. Buy Roseanne Cash instead. Save your concert ticket dollars and buy the Left of the Dial box set and hear something you missed the first time around. Go to a used record store and just buy something that has an interesting cover for three bucks!

You don't have to listen to me... but you will have to hear me say 'I told you so' again and again and again and ....

NEW COUNTRY?

So I’m flipping channels last night between periods of the Stars/Vancouver & Ducks/Coyotes games [see below as to why I am not out on a Saturday night] and I flip to CMT and the video they’re playing is this Trent Tomlinson – Drunker Than Me. Anybody else seen it? The guy looks like a cross between Paul Stanley of Kiss and Little Steven/ ‘Miami’ Steve Van Zandt [when he was a musician, not being one of the Sopranos]. He’s got his do-rag and he’s strokin’ a fine fine Gibson Les Paul, his bass player has one of those six string specials like the dudes from Korn / Limp Dickie / whatever throw down and the drummer is shirtless and doing all his Tommy Lee / Rikki Rocket twirling moves all over the place. And the SONG! It sounds like something Dan Baird / the Georgia Satelites could have done!

Now granted, country couldn’t stay like Willie and Hank and Hank Jr. and George Strait forever. But all of a sudden, it’s starting to sound and look like 80’s rock and roll. And just like the 80’s it’s becoming a whole lot more about how you look than how you sound. Keith Urban, that skinny dude married to Renee Zellwigger for about ten minutes, hell, even Sheryl Crow is getting play on Country MTV.

Is this the aftermath of CMT’s Crossroads? Is this the ‘Kid Rock/ Garth Brooks Factor?’ The kids doing their thing ater growing up listening to Garth and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Poison and Kid Rock and Bocephus and Led Zeppelin and Toby Keith and Tom Petty? Is there really a dividing line anymore between genres or is that an old concept?

Speaking of blurring the line, went to see Ed V [no, not THAT one] and the Jasper Stone boys throw down at ‘Five Star’ Fred’s Texas last night, seeing it was Ed’s birthday and all, and they haven’t played in quite a while. Well, as I am turning off 7^th Street, there’s some fire trucks screaming down the street behind me. I came up the back side and I turn the corner and there’s flames shooting out of the roof of the bar/kitchen! [That’s the second time in two years, isn’t it?]

Fortunately the band was playing in the ‘beer garden’ and they were breaking down when I parked and no one was hurt. But the boys were lamenting only getting to play a 30 minute set and not getting to their new, patented XXZ/Working Man Rush Medley. Lot’s of smoking / fire / burning the place down jokes going around and we came up with a few songs for the new patented Fire Medley: Jimi Hendrix’s Fire, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s Fire [maybe get John Lord from Deep Purple to add organ; they’re broken up again, aren’t they?], the Neville Brothers Fire on the Bayou, Charlie Daniels Fire on the Mountain, the Cult's Fire Woman [since they were in FW last night, Mar 10]...

Not much of a birthday for Ed. Hope that’s all the bad stuff out of the way early this year. Having seen that and run across a fresh accident with the PD/FD not on scene yet on 121 into downtown FW, I decided AGAINST going to Dallas to catch Nate Folwer's Elixer at the Double Wide. Sorry, boys, catch you on the flip side!

OH YEAH: Who at VH1 Classic decided that Dave Gilmour's new album/video get schilled every hour on the hour? And they're playing Bob Weir's Ratdog doing the Dead classic One More Saturday night every time I turn it on, too. Who is in charge?

And it's pledge drive time at KERA, Dallas's 'public TV', so they're hitting the baby boomers hard again with Doo Wop and Sixties 'Peace Love Dope' retrospectives and British comedy Specials [Can you say Monty Python and Fawlty Towers?]. Anytime you need money, push those buttons, guys! Hit the rewind button for the baby boomers to pretend they were at Woodstock again!

My .02 on the NHL Trade deadline deals

Yes, the one you've been waiting for... all of 24 hours.

Edmonton: Acquires a blazing fast scoring winger in Samsonov. Acquires mediocre goalie in Dwayne Roloson from the Wild. Roloson was snakebit in Minnesota, phenomenal save percentage, 0 goal support... kind of like Roger Clemens pitching his brains out in Houston and losing 2-0, 2-1 games. But Edmonton has a history of okay to mediocre goaltending: Tommy Salo, Curtis Joseph, now Roloson, but they lack defensive discipline. Sure they can out buzz you and fly four lines non stop, but in the end, they make some gaffe and blow up. There's a reason they're habitually low playoff seed [7-8] and exit early. This does not SUBSTANTIALLY improve that lot. Still love Ryan Smyth, though.

Carolina: made their move early getting Doug Weight [over-rated] and some defensive depth. Adding Mark Rechhi to address the sudden, heart wrenching loss of Eric Cole to injury keeps them the team to beat in the East, especially with Dominik Hasek out in Ottawa.

Ottawa: Claim Edmonton outcast goalie Mike Morrison off waivers to add some NHL experience behind Ray Emery and Hasek, leave team chemistry alone since cannot acquire # 2 center, with O. Joikenen and Gratton resigning in Fla.

Nashville: Picks up only defenseman Bendan Witt from Washington, steep price, but Witt is a big defensive presence and Nashville has built this team this way, add one key at deadline time the last couple years. Also GM David Poile knows Witt from his time with the Caps. Good pickup. Also, the fire has FINALLY been lit under David Legwand Preds fans, and all it took was Yannic Perrualt going down to do it. Watch this team coming on late.

Vancouver: Gets highly regarded goaltender prospect Mike Noronen from the Buffalo Sabres, who were going to have to undo the logjam at goalie. Add aging defensemen Keith Carney, who Anaheim should NOT have moved, Eric Weinrich and Sean Brown to hold the fort until their regulars Jovanovski and Ohlund and Salo return. Hopefully the Canucks will use Noronen to justify jettisoning oft injured Dan Cloutier. Still can't outwork Calgary.

Colorado: WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Would you trade a rejuvenated and confident David Aebischer to Montreal for INJURED goalie Jose Theodore, who is at least two weeks away from playing? I have thought Colorado has been uninspired all year, but this does nothing to instill confidence if I am in that dressing room.

Tampa Bay Lightning: NO MOVES? Defending Stanley Cup champs mired in mediocrity and in danger of missing playoffs and no attempt to upgrade? Realizing little cap space and need to sign your own next year, Keith Carney or Brendan Witt to shore up your D at least?

Favorite line of analysis: From Scoot Burnside at NHL.COM " Team Nowhere?Toronto. The Leafs added aging defenseman Luke Richardson and then traded less-aged defenseman Ken Klee. Remember the one about the deck chairs on the Titanic? They had Maple Leaf logos on them."

PREDICTIONS: Carolina tough to beat in the East, Ottawa dangerous and lurking when all players healthy. NY Rangers could ride hot young goalie ala Anaheim 2002, Montreal 86... Detroit, Dallas, Calgary cream of the West with Nashville lurking in the weeds to surprise someone. LA Kings in danger of falling out of playoffs - think they rode young goalie Matthieu Garon too hard before Olympic break, finally cracked. Anaheim lurking if the falter, good young team willing to work hard ala Calgary. Pretty good last 20 games coming.

The Difference Between Collector Snobs and Music Snobs

My friend Vicki had some books sent to me last week: Thurston Moore’s The Art of the Mix Tape, The Rock Snob Dictionary and one called Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting. As I plowed thru the mix tape book, I found a few thoughts, but the one that’s set me off is the Vinyl Junkies. Bear with me as I weave two trains of thought onto one track and watch them crash.

First of all, the mix tape. We all know what it IS, but some people wonder why. For myself, I find myself frustrated by my own lack of talent playing a musical instrument [mostly due to lack of discipline to practice and practice and practice and practice some more]. Usually in cases of giving tapes to the opposite sex, I / we [the collective we, the mix tape makers] find it easier to use the words and music of others to try and convey, with varying degrees of success, what our brains will not allow our hearts to scream. The act of giving the tape is the letter or the card that ‘normal people’ would give, usually given with a hope and prayer of the receiver having x-ray vision and awareness of the hidden message. I know in my case I have left song off tapes for being too aggressive or blatant. And Todd Rundgren songs have gotten me into trouble, especially Hello, It’s Me and I Saw the Light.

Sometimes you make mix tapes on spec, like for a Class Reunion [and IF we go, Marty and I WILL be making mix CDs so we don’t have to hear damn Elton John OVER and OVER] or Punk Rock Classics You Have Never Heard or just road tapes. Tapes to help wash away the miles between cities and radio stations. Sometimes I do period pieces like the S.O.B. series of music I was listening to in 1990 or so when Oliver had the experiment in communism apartment known as S.O.B. [Scott, Oliver and Brant]. Then there’s the Anthology tape or the Band Tape for the Car, boiling down your favorite band into 90 minutes because you can’t carry your collection with you. I have boiled down the Stones 45 year career into 3 90 minute tapes, the Beatles and Aerosmith to 180 minutes of essentials and have a pile of 90 minute tapes of the Black Crowes, David Bowie, the Cars, etc. I find you can leave off most of the stuff that get played on the radio and get the really great album tracks. For example, I leave off Satisfaction, Brown Sugar and Start Me Up [which I hate anyway] off the Stones, though I leave on Jumping Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women and Tumbling Dice…

Sometimes I think the music send messages, if only to ourselves, and even then, sometimes it’s not the same message each time. I can only do Metallica when I am way up or way down. I get the energy when I am angry or I get a boost when I am happy. Something like the Doors When the Music’s Over can be really weird and spooky really mind bending or the depth of on a self loathing trip to the bottom of your soul.

This is the reason I am a Music Snob and not a Collector Snob.In short, I collect the music, not the vinyl.

I find the music gives us life and energy, reinforces our emotions, let’s us sing what we cannot say and let’s us cry. Some songs take you back to old girlfriends and ones that were not: Ten Years Gone, Red Rubber Ball, Far Away Eyes, Even the Losers, Straight Into Darkness, Moonlight In Samoa, Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad, Thorn In My Pride, Whippin’ Post, Uncomplicated, Wild Horses, One More Night, Indian Summer, just to name a few from my life. I hear some of these and I smile either from nostalgia or sadness or both of people and times long gone. Nights on the balcony drinking martinis, watching thunderstorms and feeling the cold spray of the rain, listening to the world weary songs of Jerry Jeff Walker or Fred Neil. Starry nights on distant roads with the Grateful Dead, Lime Spiders, the Muffs, AC/DC, Traffic or Lou Reed helping to pass the miles, keeping you between the lines and helping blow the cobwebs out of the mind.

At least that’s what the music does for me. I am always looking for the high I get from finding something I haven’t heard before that gives me a ‘Mental Woody.’ Like finding Roxy Music or BoDeans or the Call and wondering how I missed this the first time around. I replace albums because I like having good clean copies of the music. [Though I will say vinyl at least HAS character; my original copy of Aerosmith Rocks had some vinyl ffffftttt white noise at the end of side one/ Combination that I still hear in my mind even when I play the song from my nice clean 20-bit remastered CD.]

Collector snobs like the music, too, but they become obsessed with mint/near mint copies, labels, label colors, album art, single sleeves, mono/stereo, etc. The search becomes their holy grail. They have piles of vinyl just to have piles of vinyl.

At one times I was obsessive about collecting everything by an artist I liked, but I realized about ten years ago that some of the stuff I was getting was just SHIT and pared down. Over the last five years or so I sold off about five hundred albums/CDs I wasn’t listening to. I still have around a thousand, but I could probably scrape down another 150 if I had to, some of the things I keep only for nostalgia. And it’s not about money. I tell myself when I sell to Half Price that someone may be looking for EXACTLY what I have sold and get that buzz I get when I make a find there.

I still roll my eyes and click my tongue when I see people just leaving their vinyl and CDs lying around loose, collecting dust and scratches. I probably always will. I guess I learned my lesson after trying to clean my Dad’s Cream Fresh Cream album in the sink with soap and water, right Marty? I will berate you for buying the flavor of the month band instead of something I have told you is plainly superior. And I still don’t understand why nobody else gets Superchunk. I just don’t. Maybe it was one of those ‘you had to be there at that time when I first heard it’ things. But that’s okay. I still don’t get [or I am not ready to get] Moxy, Gentle Giant, Rammensteen [?], Yes… but that’s why I am a Music Snob, too.

Vinyl Junkies goes a little into depth about people’s obsessive behavior with collecting, whether it comes from brain chemistry/ serotonin levels or environment, the need to have something to hold on to as a result of unsatisfactory home life, substituting the object for the missing affection. You can take that with whatever grain of salt one deems necessary. SOME would say I have the anal retentiveness of a collector down cold, but again, I digress.

I find it much more like Fairuza Balk / Sapphire talks about in Almost Famous: It’s about going to the record shop and finding something that speaks to you, and whenever you’re lonely you go into another record shop and find a new friend. At least that’s what it is to THIS music snob.

Peace.

A friend of mine passed away Thursday, Melba Renae Childs, and the viewing was today. I had known Renae since fifth grade... I lost her for a while, then she tracked me down in Burleson and we kept in touch over the years. She'd had diabetes forever, enduring one double transplant about 15 years back, kidney / pancreas. They told her she'd get about 10 years from that and she got 15... still, when one gets the call it stops your heart for a second.

So I went to the viewing and saw her Mom and the funeral will be tomorrow. And I will be sad for a while, but not too long because that's 'what she would have wanted.'

The reason I mention it at all is it set me off looking for some papers, a couple of old letters from WAAAAYYYY back. I did not find what I was looking for, but in the process happened across many other letters and photos and mementos... including, ironically, my 5th grade class picture. I stared at that for a while. Ernest McKnight, also in that photo and who called to gave me the news, and I chatted about some of those good old days and some of those kids. Not all the names come back but surprisingly a few do: Jeff Knapp, Johnny Reese, Jose Medrano, Ed Maston, Patrice Bailey, Shane Sackett, Robin English and Steve Tucker... my neighbor Greg Hill was in the other class with Rena, Mark Lederman, Patti Martinez [who was Greg's crush], Sonia Epps and Claudia Soto... just to see yourself that young and recall half a dozen names from 30 years ago. A few people Renae kept in touch with, most are lost to moves and time.

Also in that box I have wedding invitations, prom picture, several family reunion photos and wedding pictures too big for photo albums and wallet sized high school photos separate from my photo box and books. I found some cards, especially my 30th birthday ones, the Tiny Turban Tribune, which Nate's mom sent to update her friends out when she was battling her breast cancer, letters from Scott from Desert Storm, postcards and other letters... that's what's so hard about email, you can't keep it in a box. That's why sometimes I just like to send cards to folks. I know it makes my day to get one.

Anyway, some of the other letters I found were from an old girlfriend a long time ago. I read them asking 'how could I not see she was brushing me off?' But I was young and inexperienced and I still believed in that Hollywood romance thing.

I read one from [nameless to protect the guilty] that she had 'broken one of her rules' and was returning my stuff to me and needed some time and space. I still admit I have curiosities, wondering if I hadn't been such a schmuck and coming off that Connie heartbreak thingy... but I was and I locked myself down tight and blew that away. There was a series of people around that time I owe apologies and drinks to that I will likely never get to make amends with. A few I have and our friendships continue to this day.

Anyway, the point is to dig that box you have [yes, we all have one] at the back of the closet out and review and call all your old friends out of the blue. It'll be better than hearing that voice from the past and knowing it's not good news, the way I got the message from Monk Thursday. And tell your friends and family you love them, because you don't know what tomorrow holds.

Peace.

Random Noted-
Recovering the Past One Scratchy Licorice Pizza at a Time

With the impending arrival of Kidd Maness last weekend, I had to slightly skew the pecking order for putting things on the hard drive so I can hand off a copy of the album me and a lot of my [weird] friends think is one of the best on 1985: the Rave Ups Town & Country.

The Rave Ups were totally unique then, and one more spin of this high impact record just verified that. A very rootsy, Bakersfield country influenced rock and roll. Lots of twangy guitars trying to sound like pedal steel guitars. Lots of overdriven slide guitar. Lots of 'heard but not distinct' acoustic guitars more for feeling than anything. Singer sounding like a more nasal Dwight Yoakum about two years before Dwight's breakthrough. Well, less drawl than Dwight. Al little more leftist, as all college radio was in the 80s. More humorous, too. Think Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper with Buck Owens band behind them, [Whatever happened to Mojo anyway?] Take Class Tramp for example:

I know him by his Pickway shoes
His belt is white and his new suit blue
He can't be decadent, he just can be a slob
He's in the middle class, he can't get off
Now there's you with your thrift shop shoes
Your look is old and your thoughts are new
You wanna be decadent, you think that might be fun
You're in the middle class and you're a class tramp
Boo hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha CLASS TRAMP!

He hates his job but he loves his kids
His dreams are silly but at least they're his
He checks the man for the bills he has to pay
He checks his wife....
You look at him, you laugh and think he's sad
You know the funny thing is I think that he's your Dad
You check the mirror for the image that you want....

Hard to argue with that stab at the Breakfast Club/Pretty In Pink thrift shop hopping wanna be's. Then there's the cow-punk meets the Ramones of In My Gremlin:

Hopped into my Gremlin
Showed up for my date
Said we're gonna cruise
Gonna make my muscle moves in my Gremlin

And then it goes on to bemoan the AM radio, ape the Beach Boys 409 with She's so fine my 109... it's just so ridiculous it's hilarious. And considering my cousin Sherry HAD a flesh colored Gremlin when she was in high school... if you don't know what the old AMC Gremlin was, it was the Yugo, the Ford Escort, the ... gee, I don't know what the underpowered cheap car is these days... Kia? Dodge Neon? Anyway, it was the gross looking cheap car of it's day, ugly as in Ford Pinto ugly. Even UGLIER really... look it up.

Anyway, this is one of those lost classics and I am sure it IS worth $ 50 at Forever Young. But to my little contingent of friends, this is one of those priceless classics we would moan about forever if we ever found the album missing from the jacket, the same way Marty's X - Wild Thing 12" is missing.

Just for the record, the follow up, 1988's The Book of Your Regrets is a good album, but it's a PRODUCED album, kind of like the difference between R.E.M.'s Reckoning and Green or Out of Time; good albums, but there's something about the energy and recklessness and freshness of the earlier album that endears it to the listener... that's MY opinion anyway.

Noted As Passing-
RIP CD Warehouse - Hurst 12/98 - 02/06

My favorite location for buying used CDs [and new CDs because I like to support the small independent shop when I can] closed Monday. While I am glad my CD buddies will still have jobs at the shop across Ft Worth on Hulen, I am sad that my little hang out is gone. Now if I want to just hang out looking for impulse buys and talking to other music snobs and giving employees shit, I'll have to go to Forever Young.

Joe had a bunch of folks gather Monday night for a last hurrah; ex-employees and good customers and friends hanging out telling tales, playing rock trivia and talking music and life. I only had 136 buys, the best customer, with 2100 + got the last buy, Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengence. I bought 5, which is effectively my mad money for the month: the best of Pixies, Three Dog Night- Millennium collection [gee, 70's pop doesn't get much better, does it? I STILL want to know who PRODUCED those records], the Church - Gold Afternoon Fix, Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark remastered [cheap bastards at Warner Bros. didn't include the lyric sheet] and Devo - Greatest Hits [gee, cheesy 80's synth pop doesn't get much better than Devo does it -- it's one of those 'I'll get it later' CDs I had to pick up because there is NO later for this shop... they sold out of the B-52's Greatest Hits or I'd have got that, too...]

I stared at the neon signs and speakers left on the wall, the empty racks and I wondered if Joe and Brian will look back at CD Warehouse Hurst the way I [and several friends] still look back at Sound Warehouse Arlington [either Collins or Cooper but more the Cooper Street store; oddly I remember they were stores 417 and 422, but not which was which] where [the late] Henry Meyer, Ed Voyles, Nate Fowler and Scott Downey of my friends list all put in our time trying to be cool by working in a record store. Hell, when WE worked there it still WAS a record store! You COULD buy albums! They were phasing them out, but you could still get them there until Blockbuster bought them and moved them across the freeway. [cue Springsteen's Glory Days...]

Just to remember some of the characters, both customers like Jan de Bee, the 12 Inch Tornado [inspiration for Audio Assualt's R.I.F.] and other employees like Randy 'Point', Alan 'Skippy' Wise, Francis Hernandez and Linda Gail... who was the 5'5" speed metal drummer who looked like a youger, shorter Tommy Aldredge? I remember the guitar player who also worked there was Angelo... we made friends with the regulars and got some of them jobs, right Nate? As I recall, Fowler was given an application because people were asking him where everything was all ready, so we figured we might as well pay him for it...

We spent hour after hour doing the nothing of youth, hanging out, learning to drink, watching movies, going to listening parties for free booze, hitting up the label reps for promos and tickets...We'd go see all our friends bands because half the people there were in bands. It wasn't a job so much as a lifestyle in those days. Working in a record store was high up on the Cool People food chain. I miss the stores where the people know the MUSIC, it's not just some product they're selling. I know, I know, I'm on the soapbox again... but if I don't say it who will?

We never got any 'closure' with those stores. I was fired, Scott quit to go work in the pet store in the mall right before he graduated and went full time military. A lot of those people quit when Blockbuster took over and deemed 'no earrings, no long hair." [Ever seen Empire Records?] They lost the people who knew the music and brought in Muffy, Buffy and Kiefer to just ring people up at the higher prices. Then Blockbuster sold them to Warehouse Music and a lot of those stores got closed when Best Buy [et al] started selling CDs below wholesale to get people in the doors. The Collins store is a Tacquiera, the old Cooper a bridal shop...

Those were good times, as far as I am concerned; to quote David Lee Roth 'Damn good times.' I hope people like Joe and Brian are enjoying them now.