Tower Records -- the continuing collapse

Anyway things I will miss about Tower:

1) Buying Riddim magazine. Now I have to find a Barnes & Noble who stocks it or buy it from VP's record wing.

2) The Market stores fantastic bargain bin which was a treasure trove for imports (esp. Soul Jazz stuff.)

I went over to the Tower in Santa Monica the Thursday night before they closed to see if they had anything decent at the 70% off discount. Not only did they have decent stuff, they had a lot of great metal CDs that nobody else was getting because they had never heard of the bands. After much agonizing, I trimmed my purchase down to about $60 worth of stuff. I brought it up to the front counter, and the guy scanned a couple things in and told me that the total was $27. I blinked. He asked me if I had anything else that I put aside, and I nodded quickly and rushed over to where I had left the discard pile. I brought that up front, he scanned the top CD, and gave me about $100 (after the 70% discount) worth of merchandise for $32.50. Since he was losing his job in two days anyway, and any profit was going to the liquidation company that purchased Tower, he had no real reason to care. What were they going to do, fire him? Hell, they cost him his job.

I went back on Sunday morning, since the store was closing and had everything at 90% off, and ended up getting another 27 CDs for $40. I called my friends to let them know, but just as they walked through the door, the guy up front announced that the store was closing and everyone needed to check out. Bummer for them.

My haul, all for a total of about $100 (including a couple CDs that I had purchased at the store earlier for a lesser discount), all brand-new and unopened:

April Wine - Stand Back
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy Revisited
Blackfoot - Strikes
Candlemass - Essential Doom
Candlemass - Doomed for Live
Cathedral - the Garden of Unearthly Delights
Craft -Fuck the Universe
Cronian- Terra
Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin
Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion
Dead Meadow - Shimmering King and Others
ElDopa - The Complete Recordings
Ephel Duath - Pain Necessary to Know
Fandango - Fandango
the Flaming Lips - at War with the Mystics
Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Guano Apes - Don't Give Me Names
Herod - Rich Man's War... Poor Man's Fight
Home Video - No Certain Night or Morning
Kalas - Kalas
Lennon- Damaged Goods
Lullacry - Volume 4
Merzbow - Rainbow Electronics
the Mission - Children
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
My Ruin - The Brutal Language
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb (Reissue)
Passenger- Passenger
Pentagram - First Daze Here Too
Planes Mistaken for Stars - Knife in the Marathon
Point-Blank - Point-Blank
Brian Posehn - Live in: Nerd Rage
Raunchy - Death Pop Romance
Rebel Meets Rebel - Rebel Meets Rebel
Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun
Red Sparowes/Battle of Mice/Made Out Of Babies - Triad
Rumpelstiltskin Grinder- Buried in the Front Yard
Samhain - Final Descent
Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times
Satyricon - Rebel Extravaganza
Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress
Suffocation - Suffocation
The Sword - Age of Winters
the Start - Initiation
Thunder - Thunder
Tito and Tarantula - Hungry Sally and Other Killer Lullabies
Voivod - Katorz
Warrior Soul - Drugs, God, and the new Republic
Witch - Witch
Wizardzz - Hidden City of Tourmond
Yob - the Unreal Never Lived
Yyrkoon - Occult Medicine
Zoroaster - Zoroaster

Yeah, I was a similar beneficiary on what turned out to be my last day in this respect. I wasn't complaining.

Warrior Soul - Drugs, God, and the new Republic

Really, the only great thing on this album is the cover of Joy Division's "Interzone" with the howled "And we rock and ROOOOOOLLLLL!" bit at the very start. Completely ridiculous. That said I admit I can still hum the chorus of the title song after all these years.

I was down in the area of the Costa Mesa Tower today doing some other errands -- no change on the outside of the building or anything yet, just looked forlorn.

they closed the miami virgin sometime last spring, and now the space has got that dreadful 'bodies' exhibit from china. ha!

haha. i would. plus i'd be sure to emphasize AMERICA when i said their name.

Maura - Appreciate the offer, but I need that Warrior Soul CD to keep my copy of WCA's "Climbin' the Walls" company.

Someone should really start a "Warrior Soul/Wrath Child America Appreciation Thread."