Plight of local record stores

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by Earl Blanton Jr., Late Model Champ:
  Basically, what I'm saying is you either need:
 
 1. Low Rents
 2. Hip Population
 
 You need not have both. You must have one. DC has neither.
 
   

The Detroit area certainly has Low Rents and the Hip Population is debatable, but they certainly do know how to rock in that city.  It has better record stores than the DC area, nothing on the scale of Amobea.  
 
  Tower Records has a inventory of new stuff that can rival the LA Amobea, it's a shame thier prices are so high in comparsion and they don't deal in used.

[ccfalzon]

Massachussetts has Newbury Comics which they have franchised throughout the state. The flagship store in Boston isn't really that cool. The stores all remind me of a hastily assembled, overly-corporate combination of the modern Commander Salamander and SMASH. They took all of the annoying elements and combined them into one shop. They sell lots Doc Martens, Manic Panic, overpriced comics/dvd's, and Operation Ivy t-shirts to the overprivileged, wannabee punks. That's the closest thing that I could find in Boston resembling a cool record store.
 
 As for the Amoeba situation, there's absolutely no such thing as low rent in SF, which rivals only NYC as the most expensive city in the country. I bet they got a long term lease or bought their turf in the Haight and Berkeley years before the Bay Area went through the tech boom. The kids who live outside the store begging for change and burritos are all rich and hate their parents. They make great coin from passersby on that corner doing their thing.

[Arlette]

Originally posted by frenchpiece:
  Massachussetts has Newbury Comics which they have franchised throughout the state. The flagship store in Boston isn't really that cool. The stores all remind me of a hastily assembled, overly-corporate combination of the modern Commander Salamander and SMASH. They took all of the annoying elements and combined them into one shop. They sell lots Doc Martens, Manic Panic, overpriced comics/dvd's, and Operation Ivy t-shirts to the overprivileged, wannabee punks. That's the closest thing that I could find in Boston resembling a cool record store.
 

Yea, but back in the day, Newbury Comics was THE place in Boston to hang out and find music.  It was a little hole in the wall and every time I went in there I saw musicians flipping through the bins or talking to the clerks or just being in the scene. Newbury Comics WAS the scene in Boston.  We went there to find good music, new music, hard-to-find stuff.    
 
 And then they expanded, into what you described above.  Sigh.  I'm becomng my parents, clearly, reminiscing about the good 'ole days WAY too often.
 
 Anyway, I used to see Aimee Mann in Newbury Comics all the time. Remember the Voices Carry video?  That is how she dressed regularly.

[ggw]

I have good luck at Orpheus.  
 
 The only problem is that it isn't really a browsing store. You often have to know what you're looking for because it's invariably in a box in the back, at the bottom of a giant stack in the corner, or in that one section on the top shelf that you can't read without binoculars.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

I know how much you guys like my stories, so here's one.
 
 I was in Newbury Comics one time and Ric Ocasek was right in front of me in line. He bought about $120 worth of swag, including albums by Madonna, Social Disortion, Sonic Youth, and others I don't remember. I was close enough to him to see that the name on his credit card was Richard Otcasek. (He dropped the "t" and Benjamin Orzechowski changed his name to Orr.)
 
 Oddly enough, that was the second run-in I'd had with Ocasek; I once saw him walking down the street in NYC.
 
 You just don't have sightings like that here in DC...though I once saw a bloated Jerry Lewis getting out of a limo on Connecticut Ave.

[Venerable Bede]

Originally posted by Etan de Balzac, Footie Ball Player:
 
 You just don't have sightings like that here in DC...though I once saw a bloated Jerry Lewis getting out of a limo on Connecticut Ave.

i saw mario lemieux on a dc street corner once, and he asked me for directions to the men's wearhouse.

[Venerable Bede]

Originally posted by frenchpiece:
 
 As for the Amoeba situation, there's absolutely no such thing as low rent in SF, which rivals only NYC as the most expensive city in the country. I bet they got a long term lease or bought their turf in the Haight and Berkeley years before the Bay Area went through the tech boom.

if i remember correctly, amoeba's s.f. location didn't open until the late 90s or even 2000-2001 (heck, their berkeley store didn't open until 1990).  i'm sure smackie or xneverwherex should be able to confirm or deny that.  all i know is that when i go home i used to only go to streetlight records, now i drive to san francisco to go to amoeba.  course, streetlight is still a good store, but it's stuck having it's largest and best store in san jose.
 
 edited to add- amoeba in s.f. was opened in 1998.

[ccfalzon]

http://www.amoebamusic.com/html/modules.php?name=Amoeba_About&op=amoeba-who
 
 Amoeba SF opened in November 1997. My first visit was in the summer of 1998.
 
 Click on the "The World's Greatest Record Store?" link at the bottom of the page for more details from the RS article.

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  i saw mario lemieux on a dc street corner once, and he asked me for directions to the men's wearhouse.

You'd think mario could afford better quality clothes..?

[godsshoeshine]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
   

Originally posted by Etan de Balzac, Footie Ball Player:
 
 You just don't have sightings like that here in DC...though I once saw a bloated Jerry Lewis getting out of a limo on Connecticut Ave.

i saw mario lemieux on a dc street corner once, and he asked me for directions to the men's wearhouse. [/b]

i once saw mario in a swanky suburban restraunt. he had about 20 people (family most likely) at his table. my brother was 8, mario waved, everyone was happy

[ccfalzon]

I met JC Chasez at Coachella 2005. He had a huge bodyguard with him to protect him from the throngs of humans who were dying to get his autograph. He walked through the crowd like the Hollywood whore that he is because he needed the attention, so I talked to him because I wanted a picture for my B-List Celebrity Hall of Fame.
 
 The only other celebrity that I have seen who was sadder was Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady), who set up a table and sat facing the door with her five friends in the entrance of an empty memorablia shop at Universal Studios in the middle of March 1998, praying for people to notice her.

[ggw]

Gwyneth Paltrow sat at the table next to mine at the Grange in Greenwich Village once.
 
 She kept looking over at me, biting her lower lip, and twirling her hair around her finger. She wanted me.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Gwyneth Paltrow sat at the table next to mine at the Grange in Greenwich Village once.
 
 She kept looking over at me, biting her lower lip, and twirling her hair around her finger. She wanted me.

maybe she has a thing for famous tennis players

[ccfalzon]

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
   

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Gwyneth Paltrow sat at the table next to mine at the Grange in Greenwich Village once.
 
 She kept looking over at me, biting her lower lip, and twirling her hair around her finger. She wanted me.

maybe she has a thing for famous tennis players [/b]

does he look like Richie Tennenbaum?

[ratioci nation]

<img src="http://www.ken.ch/so/alt/schuelerInnen/h3b2000/www.tennis.ch/bilder/john%20mcenroe.jpg" alt=" - " />