Bye Bye Tower Records

[Not Afraid]

Other than independent stores (which I still frequent the few that are lefr) I was a die-hard Tower fan. I worked at Licorice Pizza and then at a small independent in HB called Map Platter. But, Tower always had the best selection and I could always find those hard to get CDs at Tower. Virgin NEVER held a candle to them and Wherehouse was a joke to me.

I'm really sad, but I knew it was going to happen.

[Alex]

The only Tower Records I ever frequented was the one at Kahala Mall in Hawaii. And then only to play video games while waiting for a movie to start at the multiplex next door.

There was a stor on NPR the other day blaming the demise on a combination of peer-to-peer and the death of the single. Apparently singles were the primary driver of getting kids in the store on a regular basis since they could afford those. When the labels mostly stopped selling singles the kids stopped coming.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Tower always had the best selection ...Virgin NEVER held a candle to them and Wherehouse was a joke to me.

Tower is indeed the class act, and certainly the saddest to see go. It was a long-time coming, but I'm more than usually sad for their employees ... and I feel much more end-of-an-era than I have for any other failed commercial entity that I can recall.

Originally Posted by NirvanaMan

Internet dude, internet. F' borders

That's just it ... with the entire brick&mortar music monopoly in the hands of price-gougeing Borders, I will likely never purchase a piece of music in the real world again. My 93% music internet purchases (or other means of acquisition) will climb to roughly 99% - - and an entire way of life will be gone forever.


Tower Records

[lizziebith]

Seriously, we used to make pilgramages to Tower on Sunset from O.C. Our friend Frank got his transmission ruined by one errant knee on one packed-sub-compact trip... And, no, Licorice Pizza did not sell pizzas...though I'd happily take orders from the crank-callers who tried to pull that when I worked there...I worked with Sub-Lagoon and Boss Radio at the one in Orange, and never learned to like licorice in the 5 years I spent there. Sorry I wrote you guys up! Remember "you get it nicer at Licorice Pizza?" I remember us saying "just be glad you get it at all" once we got bought by the big corporate idiots...

Tower gone = end of my vinyl-buying days makes a headline. But now I only shop Amoeba anyway. *sigh* l love Amoeba...But Tower: RIP old friend.

[Boss Radio]

Originally Posted by lizziebith

Seriously, we used to make pilgramages to Tower on Sunset from O.C. Our friend Frank got his transmission ruined by one errant knee on one packed-sub-compact trip... And, no, Licorice Pizza did not sell pizzas...though I'd happily take orders from the crank-callers who tried to pull that when I worked there...I worked with Sub-Lagoon and Boss Radio at the one in Orange, and never learned to like licorice in the 5 years I spent there. Sorry I wrote you guys up! Remember "you get it nicer at Licorice Pizza?" I remember us saying "just be glad you get it at all" once we got bought by the big corporate idiots...

Tower gone = end of my vinyl-buying days makes a headline. But now I only shop Amoeba anyway. *sigh* l love Amoeba...But Tower: RIP old friend.

You raise an interesting point - even though we worked at a record store, where did we go on our precious day off? To the Hollywood record stores, of course: Aaron's, Renee's, the Sunset Licorice Pizza and Tower. And, of course, the infamous Capitol Records swap meet, where you could find bootlegs, rare vinyl, or in Lizzie's case, giant cardboard Dream Police...