RIP Record Stores...

I should’ve known sooner that this happened, but a requiem is due for Spaceboy Records, an incredible place where I spent way too much money and unnecessary time. If you ask anyone that frequented the place, as soon as they moved to the new location, something was missing. Their old spot, directly next to Zipperhead, the Philadelphia punk gear mainstay, was a better place – long CD racks lining the walls of a thin store, with a bit more expansive upstairs featuring copious vinyl and used discs. Regardless of the address, I’ll always miss the curmudgeonly clerks, the glorious and painful decision making process and the strange sounds popping out of the soundsystem. (Sample conversation – Me: “Hey, this is nice, who is this?” Clerk: obviously doing noting “Pfffff. Uh, Supersystem” Me: face reddening “Oh.”) It’s a tragic loss for South Street, a once booming area for music, obviously taken over by a less corporeal, much more anonymous setting – the internet.

Not only that, file-sharing can count Tower Records another victim as all 70 stores are now up sale. Say what you will about their stores, but Tower, to me, always had superior selection and a great atmosphere to buy music. I bought all my Archers of Loaf CDs there in eighth grade, found out about great magazines like the Wire, and some great Jazz stuff I didn’t know where else to find.

It’s an unfortunate thing for the (nostalgic) collector, as the physical reminder is being replaced by gigs and drives. No longer do we have a smell, feel or look to a record, a depiction of what may or may not lie inside. Rather, you have a flat page of iTunes, listing everything alphabetically and by play count popularity. It’s really not important but only underscores the fact that music is and always has been ubiquitous and, recently, marketing driven. Now we’ve just taken the pointless stuff away – the artist, the packaging, etc. – to focus on the one thing that matters: the music.

But, damn am I gonna miss the quaintness of Spaceboy.

Second City

Has anyone else seen this? Not only was it my idea (and horribly done) in the first place, but they criminally left all Philadelphia record stores off the list. WTF, yo!

Unfortunately, Philly seems to be the city easily overshadowed by multiple other “more important” cities around it by sloppy and boring writers across America. And mostly for the unimpressive DC, pretentious New York, and white Boston. Blah. But they pad the list with the Princeton Record Exchange (a good store, sure) and some other boring Jersey store in this thing! MF’ers we had the Declaration of Independence written here! We never even considered selling out!

I mean, goddamn. Where’s Philadelphia Record Exchange – one of the best vinyl stores I’ve ever seen? Spaceboy – a solid indie of all varieties spot? Relapse Records – unreal metal selection? AKA Music – a real nice spot with that you could spend hours in and find decently communicative workers?

It’s a repeat pattern and this city’s sick of it. You call it the sixth borough again and I will see to it that all the Delfonics, Todd Rundgren, Man Man, Jack Rose, and, uh, Hall & Oates records go outta print for good. Jerks.

Philadelphia Soul b/w Metal Machine Music

The jam. Check it out. Bonus points cause he rushed himself to the emergency room that was 1/2 a block from my old apartment after getting shot.

Forget Ghostface on "Race the Clock"* -- dude on this record sounds like he needs to mean it, his life's about to be snatched away at any minute. It gets damn thin and stuffy in here towards the mid-point like Sly's Riot -- no one in their right mind could turn away. Also, is that the Neptunes on "Don't Stop"? Wow.

With this and Game Theory, illadelph taking it to the max.

*(Actually don't. This is unbelievable.)

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Bought TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and Mastodon's Blood Mountain. Gotta say I was much more excited about getting Mastodon. Like a kid that scored his first pack of smokes, I'm jammed about it, feel kinda sinister and badass. Don't get me wrong, TOTR is good. But we're talking Mastodon here, bro. Plus they got 10x the name of yr record, artgeeks.