Fair enough, Ned! (x-post)

I sorta feel like a schmuck for not getting the Maximum Joy ‘Unlimited 1979–1983’ cd I had in my hand right until I got up to the checkout.

lots left in stamford, ct. everything 70% (plus $.50 rap, $.10 singles) so it still added up to a lot of money but i bought almost 70 cds! i justify it by telling myself i’ve not bought many cd’s in many years, am gainfully employed, and the only other thing i waste money on is alcohol.

highlights include:

new Liars

new Grizzly Bear

Arthur Russell, world of

Destroyer’s Rubies

Herbert—Scale

Sung Tongs

Freeform 5—Misch Mash v. 2

Optimo Presents Psyche Out

oh right, and the receipt sez i saved $800.79! who actually bought things at tower at their real prices?

There are a zillion copies of this which really depresses me actually.

Alex, buy that for me and I’ll either paypal you or will pay you directly when I’m in SF next weekend.

Uh, please. (I knew I forgot something.)

it totally is and it’ll be gone when you get back.

— GAWD PVNCH (elle.zabo...), December 16th, 2006.

are you sending confederates to get it.

anybody bogarts my OHM set and i’ll punch yer nose through the internets.

Dont you hate when you see 20 copies of something you already own that you know is great and its stuck among a hundred Herm and Celly Cel Cds and you want to tell everyone in the store about how great Rappin 4-tay’s “Don’t Fight the Feeling” is, and you look around for a cute girl who might be interested so you can simultaneously hit on her and make sure the album gets a good home and doesn’t end up picked up by some dude ready to sell all this shit on ebay?

“Alex, buy that for me and I’ll either paypal you or will pay you directly when I’m in SF next weekend.”

Done. I bought a second copy just in case anyone else is interested in one the half dozen greatest labels evah. They were $6 including tax which is 1/3 of what I paid new :(

Deej, I do. And now I want to go buy Rappin 4-tay’s “Don’t Fight The Feeling” haha.

Deej, I have a hard time stopping myself from buying those records to give to friends (who likely won’t appreciate them, but, whatever). In fact, I bought a bunch of copies of that Rappin’ 4-Tay album when we clearanced them for 95 cents online last Christmas. “Playaz Club” is my jam!

If you’re going to apply Deej’s pickup technique, might I recommend you use the latest Jolie Holland album? Every Tower I’ve been to seems to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 copies of it, which is depressing, frankly. It’s one of my favorite albums of the year and is probably more lady-friendly than some mid-’90s Bay Area rap.

sounds of monsterism island—$9

The two of these I left when I snagged my $12 one were still there, and this time I didn’t even bother putting another disk in front of them. Extremely picked over now, but I found a Parliament best of, a jazz disk that looked interesting (Kidd Jordan with Hamid Drake and William Parker, I think Jordan’s been mentioned on an ILM jazz thread), and the Daevid Allen/Gong disk with the horrible cover. There’s still a couple I’m waiting for %80 off before I splurge.

i was in sherman oaks today and stopped by the tower at ventura and sepulveda. i dropped $60 and picked up:

larry young—into somethin’

the knife—silent shout

kylie minogue—impossible pricess (2 disc import)

luomo—the present lover

esg—a south bronx story

wolf eyes—human animal

comets on fire—avatar

carla bozulich—evangelista

gwen mccrae (a 2 albums on one CD import)

american amp and alternator—s/t

nao wave: brazil post punk 1982–1988

the free design—kites are fun & one by one

very nice haul!

I wonder how many of us picked up Nao Wave. I know I did.

a few of those were gifts: my dad likes blue note jazz so he’s getting the larry young, my brother is getting silent shout, my mom’s getting esg. that was my other login name, btw

My latest haul:

Love as Laughter Laughter’s Fifth

Built to Spill You In Reverse

The Delgados The Complete BBC Peel Sessions

Make up Sound Verite

Be Your Own Pet s/t

Brainiac Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

Judy Henske & Jerry Yester Farewell Aldebaran

Total cost: $35.70 (this is at 70% off)

Oh yeah, I totally got Nao Wave earlier on—talk about focusing on that all importent ILM demographic with laser-like precision...

y’know, if anyone else finds an extra henske/yester for cheap and would like to help a brother out... i’ve got paypal. or you could have this drexciya cd i got at tower.

The Portland store does have a couple more copies of Farewell Aldebaran, although I don’t know if I’ll make it back in time.

I had fun today at the U District Tower, I did.

There can’t be much left at this point. Are they (u-district tower) at more than 70%? Maybe I’ll go by tomorrow.

i would be willing to send money for either the clifton chenile or the brazil post punk...no tower here (any in canada?)

I think I saw Nao Wave and was thinking about checking it out, but somewhere along the line I lost track. (It might have gone too early in the sale to be relevant though.)

i downloaded nao wave when it came out and never upgraded to CD. if i manage to get back to tower before it closes maybe i’ll still find a copy.

I was able to hit up West Covina Friday night, and it seemed the only section that wasn’t completely dire was the dance section. Picked up Villalobos’ Thé au Harem d’Archimede, two Get Physical comps, Optimo’s Psyche-Out mix, a Drexciya album, the first Run the Road comp, the Soul Jazz Arthur Russell comp, The Glimmers’ DJ Kicks, two Herbert albums, a Dizzee single, and a Tiefschwarz single.

There was still a copy of Superlongevity 4, and quite a bit of M.A.N.D.Y./Get Physical stuff there.

And for something like $10, you could have every reggaeton song ever recorded!

And for something like $10, you could have every reggaeton song ever recorded!

I saw a lot of reggaeton compilations that should never have been bought in such quantities. (Cuban reggaeton, yeah, there’s a big demand for that in Philadelphia.)

There can’t be much left at this point. Are they (u-district tower) at more than 70%? Maybe I’ll go by tomorrow.

They’re at 80% and there wasn’t much left but I still made some good finds, as did donut.

All these CDs are like soooo bottom of the barrel, well *I* will making a killing buying those 79 cent cd singles just for the cases, man. 8 cents each. Boss.

Downtown Chicago Tower was completely picked over. After 45 minutes of browsing I only found Kid Creole & the Coconuts—Doppleganger. Tower on Clark, however, was amazingly full of goodness. Pretty much all the imports I had my eye on were still there—

Shortwave Set—The Debt Collection

Joy Zipper—American Whip

Kelley Polar—Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens

Wildhearts—Must Be Destroyed

Duran Duran (never heard the first album in its entirety, heh)

Some other gag gifts like Cinderella.

They still have a bunch of Associates albums too.

They still have a bunch of Associates albums too.

I noticed a couple of copies of Sulk at the U District one. Someone needs to get those.

the OHM set was gone from the blossom hill tower!!

=(

but i did find a this heat box set there!!!

=)

also grabbed

gary numan—pleasure principle reissue

popul vuh—nosferatu ost

os mutantes—mutantes

big youth—screaming target

v/a—i:robots italo classics

slam—nightdrive dj mix

an absolutely ancient jungle compilation mixed by grooverider

for five bucks each

the OHM set was gone from the blossom hill tower!!

=(

Ha. I have one cheap courtesy of donut.

but i did find a this heat box set there!!!

=)

GRR.

Pasadena—more toothpaste in the tube!

Felt—Ignite the Seven Cannons

Nathan Fake—Drowning in a Sea Love

DJ Rogers (3xCD import)- It’s Good to Be Alive/On the Road Again/Love, Music, & Life

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice—The Flood

Ellen Allien—Thrills

Chelonis Jones—Dislocated Genius

Donald Fagen—Morph the Cat

Candi Staton—His Hands

$48.00, which is something considering the bs import prices on most of them.

All hip-hop is $1.00. I’ll probably go back for the outlawz cd.I was gonna buy a rap cd from “Law and Orda” for the hell of it, but come on now, a dollar’s a dollar. Couldn’t find the Tom Moulton mix they had plenty of last week, oh well. Coachwhips got nothing on “HellRaza”, there must be 100 copies of his album scattered throughout the store. LAST DAY IS WEDNESDAY, and everything will be 90% off that day according to cashier dude.

I mentioned that there was a This Heat box at Blossom Hill on Wednesday. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.

The Portland store was a complete madhouse yesterday, with a whole lot of people filling up shopping baskets at a furious rate. I’m really curious what it’s gonna look like on Tuesday.

yeah, i couldn’t find it the first time but today i bumped into it when i was trying to find the OHM box.

fess up, thief!!

The NYC stores are beyond gutted; I couldn’t find a thing I’d buy for a dollar.

i GOT OUT OF THE u-DISTRICT TOWER TWO MINUTES BEFORE IT CLOSED. tHEY WERE SELLING ALL ITEMS AT 50 CENTS A PIECE, BUT YOU HAD TO BUY TEN. bY THAT POINT, THERE WEREN’T TEN CDS LEFT WORTH BUYING.

Oh wow, caps lock.

Tower clearance sale regrets: I should have picked up the one copy of Maria Rita’s Segundo when it was just a little bit off, since I wanted to buy that anyway and it’s kind of expesnive on most sites. It would have been more worth it than this tiresome Cibelle stuff I ended up getting, even if it was cheaper. (Oh oh, I hope Matt doesn’t see this.) Also, I should have bought the Master Joe & O.G. Black CD I wanted when I had the chance.

I owe you cdrs for those salsa mixes you send me awhile ago. I have a Maria Rita cd. I will finally send you stuff. Really.

I shoulda bought Nao Wave at 40% off I guess, plus some Fania reissues and that Anita O’Day double cd I was gonna get my Dad.

Forks OTM. The War of the Worlds DVDs got their own price listing on the door ($3.99).

damn, I passed that Pasedena store on the way to the airport Saturday. I didn’t think it was even open.

it looks closed from the front but there’s a side entrance that’s open.

no scott walker, ned? :(

My store isn’t closed yet.

Rumor control has it that most of the Southern California stock is going to the Sherman Oaks store which will hang on for another week or so.

Won’t be able to make that, alas. Still, if someone sees a spare This Heat box set around there...

i wrote a post yesterday but it seems to have not posted for some reason. anyway this tower sale forced me to come to terms with my own collectorism and relationship to cds; i keep feeling regret that I didn’t pick up a few other things that I saw earlier, even though I have mp3s of them and could probably even find them used for as much as they were at tower.

yesterday I went to sell about 200 cds at amoeba and there were probably 40 they wouldn’t even take, most of them not dogs either. I told the manager I’d suddenly realized that if I were going to ever get rid of my cds I’d better do it now before the value of them vanishes and he said it’s already happened; it peaked in april, and since then the onslaught of sold-back cds is overwhelming them. they have warehouses full that they will never see the floor in. Ack! Knowing all this, why do I still wish I’d picked up some MORE stuff at tower? ludicrous!

i still want the this heat box set though. actually I’ll settle for JUST Deceit. when are they going to put that out by itself?

xp: the this heat box sets were gone two days after they went out at mine.

yesterday I went to sell about 200 cds at amoeba and there were probably 40 they wouldn’t even take, most of them not dogs either. I told the manager I’d suddenly realized that if I were going to ever get rid of my cds I’d better do it now before the value of them vanishes and he said it’s already happened; it peaked in april, and since then the onslaught of sold-back cds is overwhelming them. they have warehouses full that they will never see the floor in.

This is fascinating. There’s a massive glut of the objects on the market (plus the Tower liquidation had to hurt all other music retailers) and still prices don’t fall. How can music continue to cost money when it can be endlessly replicated for free? The future has to point to music being free.

yesterday I went to sell about 200 cds at amoeba and there were probably 40 they wouldn’t even take, most of them not dogs either. I told the manager I’d suddenly realized that if I were going to ever get rid of my cds I’d better do it now before the value of them vanishes and he said it’s already happened; it peaked in april, and since then the onslaught of sold-back cds is overwhelming them. they have warehouses full that they will never see the floor in. Ack! Knowing all this, why do I still wish I’d picked up some MORE stuff at tower? ludicrous!

So why are Amoeba used prices so high then? And why aren’t there more things I want when I go in there. :(

they may not be very good at pulling stock or predicting people’s tastes these days. and like anything else (houses, or the rental market), prices stay high for as long as they can until they absolutely can’t anymore. but i’ve found amoeba’s used prices to be fairly reasonable.

i made my fourth and perhaps final tower run today, while in woodland hills. 80% off! i got all these for $46:

islands—return to the sea

neko case—the tigers have spoken

black heart procession—the spell

moodymann—black mahogani

detroit cobras—baby

annie—anniemal

black strobe—the other side: paris

mountain goats—we shall all be healed

architecture in helsinki—in case we die

excepter—sunbomber

echo and the bunnymen—songs to learn and sing

nao wave

jolie holland—springtime can kill you

the hold steady—boys and girls in america (i don’t like these dudes, but it’ll make a good stocking stuffer for someone)

“they may not be very good at pulling stock or predicting people’s tastes these days.”

Not my tastes anyway.

“but i’ve found amoeba’s used prices to be fairly reasonable.”

Too much stuff for $11, $12, $13 at the SF one. The Berkeley one is more reasonable, I agree.

(i don’t like these dudes, but it’ll make a good stocking stuffer for someone)

haha all my relatives are getting california g-rap in their stockings

I went to the Pasadena store at lunch today, also at %80 off. Managed to still spend $50+. I’ll hit it again Wednesday just for a last look. The Woodland Hills store sounds better stocked than mine. Pasadena didn’t have any Mountain Goats at the beginning of the sale. (Plenty of Mountain Con, whoever that it, though.)

I am buying shirts tomorrow before I go to work, but I might stop by Tower and see if it’s still open. Maybe I can find something worth $.50.

is anyone else seeing dozens of those weird joe montana dvds at every tower?

The porn thing?

Yup the porn thing.

I’m pretty sure that’s just a two hour loop of his “I’ll be upstairs masturbating” sketch from SNL.

80% at my store and what I was able to get at the price I got it at was RIDICULOUS. Tomorrow’s the last day and I’ll swing by to bone-strip whatever’s left of the Six Degrees stuff that looks halfway interesting.

This is fascinating. There’s a massive glut of the objects on the market (plus the Tower liquidation had to hurt all other music retailers) and still prices don’t fall. How can music continue to cost money when it can be endlessly replicated for free? The future has to point to music being free.

You didn’t hear it from me, but there’s a very good rumor that the Virgin Megastores are going to be the next to go in mid-2007. It won’t be a full-on bankruptcy like Tower, but lots of store closures/stock liquidation.

I’m not surprised by that at all. The one around here shut up shop a couple of years back, as did the Moby Disc. With Tower gone now, that leaves Second Spin as the only record store in a three block range where there were once four total — and Second Spin won’t be going anywhere, I suspect.

Today was the last day for the Emeryville Tower, and I picked up a few random things for $1 each. I was basically making guesses based on the label, even though I’ve been burned by some of those labels (ECM!!) in the past. Fuck it, it’s a dollar. They unlocked the door to let me out because I was among the final customers.

When I was a kid, the Tower Records near the sports arena in San Diego was, for me, the ultimate record store, the coolest place in the universe. It feels a little weird to realize that it won’t exist anymore, and it won’t even make a good story for my grandkids. I mean, I even worked at a Tower when I was a teenager.

I’m surprised to see almost no talk at the Amazon Marketplace sellers’ boards about a product glut due to the Tower clearance sales. There’s the usual amount of talk about depressed prices due to downloading, but nothing about Tower.

You didn’t hear it from me, but there’s a very good rumor that the Virgin Megastores are going to be the next to go in mid-2007. It won’t be a full-on bankruptcy like Tower, but lots of store closures/stock liquidation.

— Elvis Telecom (quartzcit...), December 19th, 2006. (later)

that’s not surprising at all, they’re down to something like 13 stores. newbury comics is a larger chain at this point!

I would like to thank all the customers that shopped at the Emeryville store over the last few weeks for making my job so much easier and buying every single CD in that store. Also, thanks for allowing me to buy my second copy of the Burial album (Wire’s LP of the year, I hear...) on the very last day for $1. I will send it to Eastern Europe to someone that might like it.

How can music continue to cost money when it can be endlessly replicated for free? The future has to point to music being free.

— Mark (mark-...), December 18th, 2006.

So musicians will only make money by performing live? I don’t think so. Will all Pitchfork employees work for free?

I stopped by Harvard Tower today after work, but unfortunately they had already placed their “closed forever!” sign on the door. So I was not able to buy all those low-rent deep/soulful/funky/ibiza house compilations for 1 and 2 dollars. Apparently someone did though...

as long as american apparel hoodies, diesel jeans, griffin music players and chronicle books still cost money, pitchfork employees will get paid

anyway the only indie musicians that *do* make money these days are the ones that sell their music for movie soundtracks and TV commercials.

I see some kind of donation system coming about to supplement live performance and licensing. I’m thinking, say, the programmer who made SpyBot, a “Free” product, probably does all right.

Will all Pitchfork employees work for free?

— cornyrocker

I worry about it all the time, believe me.

Apparently I said my farewell to Tower prematurely. I think the sign said 3 more days to go. Everything is 80% off.

I went back today and picked up:

Nao Wave (which I had forgotten to look for previously, and was very surprised to find)

Legendary Sound, Vol. 1 (which Alex in SF recommends, I thought on this thread, not that I expect much overlap in our taste but I hardly have any drum & bass and was just thinking I might want to pick up a little tiny bit more)

Alright this is going to be my final trek, because frankly there didn’t seem to be much else there and I’m beginning to feel a bit Tower drained at this point. This lot costs me $25:

Dubstep Allstars Vol 2 (3 or 4 copies left, none of Vol 3)

Get Physical comps 1 & 2 (or Anniversary 2 & 4, I can’t quite figure it out.) (one copy of each left)

Optimo Presents Psyche Out (nearly 10 copies of this, I suppose I could wait for it to get cheaper, but $5 seems fair enough.)

Science Faction: Grime (last copy)

Dabrye Two/Three (last copy)

I hear you on the burnout front (not the least for financial reasons), so I’m glad today is it for me! Oh yeah, FWIW — picked up that jungle comp you’d noted a few days back at mine, so roxor.

Haha okay well I don’t know what’ll do with the extra copy I bought for you then.

Which is okay. It’s a nice comp. I’ll save it for a present for someone who really deserves it. ;)

Hahahah! Yeah, sorry about that, but I hadn’t heard from you if you had picked it up or not! You gotta let me know these things! But I’ll buy it off you if you like, I think I can spare the two bucks. ;-)

GAWD PUNCH to thread!

I found a second copy of the Yester/Henske album. Let me know if you still need it. The email address is good.

Haha I said DONE up above, Ned.

SORRY I R STUPID. (Must have been that Seattle trip.)

Which reminds me a bit — you free Friday/Saturday? FAP plans are imminent.

Not sure. This weekend is looking a bit stretched, but I might have time on Friday.

Today is the last day in Portland—90% off with promises of further discounts closer to closing. I don’t know if I’m burnt out exactly, but I have a dim sense that the madness probably needs to stop. I got:

Judy Henske & Jerry Yester Farewell Aldebaran

V/A Fast Product: Rigour Discipline and Disgust (score! I’ve been looking for this for years.)

Chris Knox Yes!!

The Methadones 21st Century Power Pop Riot

The Minus 5 The Trials Postumous of...

The Duke Spirit Cuts Across the Land

The Dambuilders Geek Lust

Chris Cutler & Fred Frith Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington

Godandtexas Criminal Element

fluf the classic years

Alan Vega New Raceion

Batman: OST

The Knife Silent Shout

Arthur Russell The World of...

Pretty Girls Make Graves The New Romance

These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant to Hurt You

V/A Wake Up and Listen! A Brand New Generation of Hits (britpop 1995: shitloads of hits)

Young Fresh Fellows Low Beat Time

The Kelly Deal 6000 Go to the Sugar Altar

The Coachwhips Double Death

The Coachwhips Peanut Butter and Jelly: Live at the Ginger Winge

The Coachwhips Bangers vs Fuckers

The Coachwhips Put Yer Body Next to Mine

Trapdoor Fucking Exit Crooked Life/Straight World

The Zodiac Killers Have a Blast

Portastatic Who Loves the Sun

Radio 4 Enemies Like These

Ecstacy Passion & Pain s/t

V/A Optimo Present Psyche Out

Slowdive Souvlaki

The Modern Machines “Take It, Somebody!”

Alternative TV Apollo

Edgar Broughton Band LIVE Hits Harder!

Ditch Croaker Chimpfactor

The Futureheads News and Tributes

Sweep the Leg Johnny Going Down Swingin’

Rahbras Whohm

Total: $60.90

I seriously think EVERYBODY will have all the Coachwhips albums at this point.

I might have time on Friday

Rock. Will call M. White tomorrow night to plot a bit, I think.

90% off with promises of further discounts closer to closing

Mr. Crump mentioned it was down to 50 cents a disc towards the end when he hit the Memphis one. Yesterday was 80% plus ‘buy four get one for a buck’ and by the time I get there I suspect it’ll be 90% plus that. I’m honestly not expecting much but there’ll be some dusty remnants still! (And there were still a huge amount of copies of the new Dengue Fever album, which is quite good, so I’ll get some as gifts.)

‘Yesterday’ referring to my store, not Memphis’s, obv.

For some reason, we don’t have the massive Six Degrees overstock here, so I had to get all four Coachwhips albums to compensate.

That, and I really have heard good things about them.

Yeah, Mr. Matos specifically recommended Double Death so I snagged that up in Seattle. The rest I’ll pick up today assuming they aren’t finally cleared out (which they might be).

I seriously believe that you do not have to worry about that.

They were actually running down to the last six or so copies of each yesterday. Who knows? Then again they STILL had copies of Al Green’s The Belle Album yesterday. And Silent Shout and Pink, all of which I happily snagged.

hey mr. PFS check yr inbox!

thanks!

Mr. Crump mentioned it was down to 50 cents a disc towards the end when he hit the Memphis one.

Hmm, no, twernt me.

Please, run with these lies I’m foisting on your personal history.

xpost

Hey PFS,

Ha! I had that copy of the Alan Vega album in my basket on two seperate trips but put it back both times. Glad to see you got it...

Are there any other copies left of the stuff you bought (not that it won’t be gone by 6 which is the earliest I can get there...)

I wonder if they have restocked because there are multiple things on your list that I would have taken note of (or purchased) if I had seen.

Hey Ian,

(1) They were indeed restocking. I actually saw them do it (and snagged my copies of Silent Shout and Batman from the restock pile). There were

(2) I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to copies remaining (it wasn’t like I’d have any chance to go back later), but I’m fairly certain I saw copies of the Rahbras, Fast Product, Minus 5, Radio 4, Trapdoor Fucking Exit, the Coachwhips (ahem), and maybe a couple others.

but

(3) I heard them say last week that they were planning on closing early today. Call before you go.

Oh yeah, there was yet another copy of Farewell Aldebaren.

I’m going to be at mine by 5 pm at the latest, and if they are closed by then I’ll just get some dinner at a good place nearby, so no loss either way.

PFS—That’s great to hear. Where were the “Farewell Aldebaren” and “Fast Product” CDs? Thanks for the tip on calling first. I live all the way in St. Johns so that would have been a disappointing trip if they were closed (might be a disappointing trip even if they are open!) Hopefully a few scraps remain...