response 1 of 170:

Sep 4 06:46 UTC 1991

  I was in the new Tower for the first time today.  Just from casual browsing,
my opinion is that it has good selection and lousy prices.  I was expecting
the good selection part of that.  I suppose I was expecting the lousy prices
part, too, but was somehow hoping that it wouldn't be the case.
 
  On the bright side, they're having a grand opening sale through October 1
that brings their prices about in line with those stores in town with more
reasonable prices.  I still plan to buy what I can at Wherehouse when the
price is similar (just because they've been decent to me so far and I'd hate
to see them dry up and wither away now that Tower is just down the block)
but I expect I'll probably never buy a disc at Schoolkids again.  It's very
rare that I'd rather shop at some giant conglomerate than at a local,
individually owned store, but Schoolkids is enough to make an exception for.
Some of the employees are very nice and very informative but when it boils
down to it, it's still Schoolkids.

  Strong points of this new Tower compared to other local stores seem to be
about what I expected.  Indies, imports, and singles seem to be about as good
as any other store in town and better than most (at least the ones *I* was
looking for, and on my scale, that's what counts.)  

  So far it looks like the new store gets my provisional "Good Thing" rating
but it will be on probation for several months and could lose that standing
for any number of reasons.

response 3 of 170:

Sep 4 08:15 UTC 1991

  They've done several sleazy things over the years, either to me or to 
close friends, that have contributed to a general distaste for the way they 
do business.  I also don't care much for the owner (Steve What's-his-name).
In particular, *never* special-order anything there if you can possibly get
it somewhere else.

  On the whole, I like a number of the individual employees but don't like
the store much.  Of the 4 or 5 former Schoolkids employees I've known well,
none of them have borne the store any particular love, either.

response 5 of 170:

Sep 4 09:53 UTC 1991

I quit shopping at Schoolkids shortly after Play It Again (now defunct)
opened, due to their policy on imports.  No, you can't order them, and
you want that CD import?  Well, it's DEFINITELY coming in next Tuesday.
Oh, it's still not here?  It's supposed to be in any day now.  Why
don't you just come in every day over the next six weeks to see if
it showed up.  We only ordered two copies, though, so get here early.
PIA never had problems keeping popular indies/imports in stock or
ordering things for you.

response 7 of 170:

Sep 4 18:22 UTC 1991

 re #4:  It's in the (reasonably) new mall on South University, "the Galleria"
(between Church and South Forest streets.)
 
 re #6:  I didn't do any direct comparison shopping, so I can't say for sure.
I suspect they'll run about the same for major label U.S. releases.  As for
imports and indies, who can say?

response 9 of 170:

Sep 5 06:22 UTC 1991

Well, I for one hate it when crap like this happens (and I see it coming).
Big chain comes in, has huge stock and pretty good prices (sales), runs 
competitors out of business, jacks up prices.
I'm all for Tower records as long as they don't hurt everyone else's business 
and then raise prices to mall levels because they are the biggest store in t
town.

response 11 of 170:

Sep 13 07:51 UTC 1991

  I'm warming to several things about the new Tower.  The first thing is
that I like the book section.  Can't think of any other record store in
town that has a book section worth mentioning; Tower's isn't that great but
at least it's there.

response 13 of 170:

Sep 18 06:16 UTC 1991

 No, I mean neither, in particular.  They have a decent selection of books
about rock music and musicians, as well as a reasonable selection of 
magazines.  On the whole I don't read or collect such things but every once
in a while something will catch my eye.  They have a book about Brian Eno,
for example, that has lyrics listed for his albums.  I wouldn't mind having
that (though I'm not likely to pay what they want for it.)

response 15 of 170:

Oct 1 18:57 UTC 1991

  Technically Tower's sale lasts until midnight tonight.  As far as what
sales we can expect in the future, I don't know, except that their front
window (facing South U.) has a banner proclaiming that the top 25 albums 
are always on sale.

  It doesn't surprise me that Tracks is still open.  If it's still open
in another 6 months, *that* will surprise me.

response 17 of 170:

Oct 11 07:25 UTC 1991

Tonight in San Jose, I found myself with some free time on my hands.
The informal evening conference session on Network Management was starting
to get stale after about an hour, so I figured I'd head out to a store
which had an ad in the Downtown San Jose Coupon Book -- ABCD Exchange.
 
I called them to get directions -- they were just about eight blocks
from the convention center.  Something in the way they hesitated in 
giving me directions led me to ask if the neighborhood was reasonably 
safe; the owner assured me he never had any problems.  So I slogged 
over to the store, with my gaudy Interop tote bag screaming "CONVENTION
TOURIST" for everyone to see.  Eight or so blocks, the last few a bit 
run down, and then across the street from the store I see four cops 
busting three guys, two of the cops with drawn guns.  Nice neighborhood;
in 16 years in Michigan I don't ever recall seeing an officer with a drawn
weapon.
 
ABCD was, for me, a flashback to the wonderful days of East Lansing's 
CD Emporium, and its "listen before buying" policy.  ABCD's selection
was decent, and I skimmed out quite a few discs I'd been curious about
and sat down to give 'em a spin.  I also picked up some new curiousities.
The rejects:
 
The Triplets: indeed, they are three cute female triplets.  Folk music run 
through an off-brand cuisinart and syruped with excessive strings.  Store
owner told me they used to be a decent folk act before the record company
got hold of 'em.
 
The Textones:  I keep trying to like the Textones, since I kinda like 
Textones' lead singer's Carla Olson's duet album with Gene Clark -- Clarks
final album before he kicked the bucket, incidentally.   But it just 
doesn't work for me.  Oh well.  Probably my last chance at a copy of this 
Enigma disc, since Enigma is bust.
 
Adele Bertai, "Little Lives":  I admit it, I wouldn't have been curious if 
the singer wasn't so *cute*.  Too much synth pop for my taste.
 
Paul Brady, "Trick or Treat":  Brady used to be a trad folkie who went REAL
pop about 10 years back.  I dunno, the first couple of tracks had potential
but after that it got goopy.  Might pick this up in Michigan some day anyway,
it's very available right now.
 
The buys:
The Pogues, "Summer in Siam":  I've been looking for this for about 18 mos.
John Hiatt, "Bring the Family":  Features Nick Lowe on bass.  Might just 
    live up to his buzz as the American Richard Thompson.
Peter Himmelman, "Synesthesia": potentially interesting folk/synth/pop,
    this album's OP now.
Eggplant, "Monkey Bars":  Local Calif. band & label; dumb garage grunge, but
    I like some of the guitar moves and I'll never see it at home.
 
I had a great time chatting with the owners and playing through my stack
of discs; if I wasn't already 30 minutes late for my dinner date with my
coworkers I would have stayed longer.  If another store that allows 
auditioning ever opens in the area, SUPPORT IT!!!  The somewhat higher 
prices are MORE than offset by the chance to avoid dull discs.
 
(One of the big factors in the failure of CD Emporium in East Lansing
was that many folks would audition discs there and then buy them at
State Discount or Where House.)
 
Oh, AB-CD was also playing the CD of "Remain in Light" by Talking Heads.
What a rush of nostalgia!!!  I sang along with the entire disc.  No wonder
there were no other customers in the store.  I'd forgotten how much I'd
loved that album when it was new.  (The Belew guitar parts still grate on
me, too...  :-)  )
 
Anyway, that's the disc-buying report from San Jose.  I now regret a little
having let my tour guide drive past a Palo Alto used store which he 
dismissed as uninteresting, but those are the breaks.  My local guide
also tells me there is a good potential source for used folk albums in 
Santa Clara, but I don't think I'll have time to get there.

response 19 of 170:

Oct 11 13:41 UTC 1991

Re 17.  When I lived in Detroit, I saw police with drawn guns on a number of
occasions.

response 21 of 170:

Oct 15 06:39 UTC 1991

 I don't have "Home of the Brave" so I can't check the credits..  Is the
Askew you mention Joy Askew, who's been backing up Joe Jackson lately?

response 23 of 170:

Oct 16 04:49 UTC 1991

I suspect you mean Down Home Music, Mary Ellen...  sorry my Gaughan collection
isn't deeper, but I'll grub around and see if I can find any Dylan covers.
Any more clues than that?