I know that I shouldn't be surprised when another record store closes in the end times of physical media, but there I was on Thursday night, staring at the empty space on Woodward Avenue in Berkley where FYE -- a.k.a. Sam Goody, after the corporate restructuring and rebranding -- used to be, finding out that another one bites the dust. And it's not like anyone has a deep and rich emotional connection to FYE, a shrinking mall chain stuffed with "lifestyle" products of which music is a small sliver, aside from the people FYE employs (or used to employ, I suppose). But it was still a bummer.
I was down in the Detroit area on Thursday night for my first concert of 2019 (and my first concert after Michigan had legalized marijuana, incidentally), and I slotted some extra time before the show to hit a record store or three. I started with my first ever visit to Melodies & Memories in Eastpointe, and holy shit is that a great name for what the store offers. A few miles south of where Record Time used to be, Melodies & Memories is a place where you could get lost for hours, and possibly pick up some inhaled bacteria in the process. A maze of vinyl and CD's and tapes (and 8-tracks!) and swag, I really had to tap the breaks before I bought more stuff than I should have. I rubbernecked through the records and tapes, but stuck with the CD's, finding some original pressings of some The The CD's as well as a couple Genesis CD's. Nirvana's induction into the R&RHOF was playing in the background, which seemed apt.
Working my way back to Woodward, I hit Solo Records in Royal Oak. It's not on anyone's "cool list" of stores, but any place that has laserdiscs and a chilled-out lil' dog behind the counter is fine with me. Again, I stuck with CD's, and found a bunch of great '80s first pressing stuff there -- Singles 1979-1983 Volume 1 by Bauhaus, Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, Heavy Nova by Robert Palmer, Eliminator by ZZ Top, Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac -- that doesn't have the "loudness war" mastering of newer pressings. After all, if I want something louder, I can always turn up the knob. I left some stuff on the shelf that I nearly took home (who sells the two-CD Rhino collection of Sparks, for fuck's sake?), but between Solo Records and Melodies & Memories, anything after would be gravy.
After that, I went to two of the hipper stores -- UHF in Royal Oak and Found Sound in Ferndale, both with solid selections and awesome staff -- but being a fundamentally uncool person, my mind kept going back to the FYE store, which usually had a nice selection of used CD's as well as some newer stuff. I was counting on FYE to deliver the two records I had on my mind -- Drift Code by Rustin Man (2019) and Southpaw Grammar by Morrissey (1995) -- but alas, it was not to be. If I had a bit more time, I would have made the trek to Dearborn Music, which might have had one or the other or both, but the show wouldn't wait. So with a Shamrock Shake in my gut and earplugs in my ears, I closed out the night at the Majestic Theatre to see Adult. and Cold Cave bring the black-clad synth-driven grooves, thinking about all those shows and all those stores, pining just a bit for what once was.
I was down in the Detroit area on Thursday night for my first concert of 2019 (and my first concert after Michigan had legalized marijuana, incidentally), and I slotted some extra time before the show to hit a record store or three. I started with my first ever visit to Melodies & Memories in Eastpointe, and holy shit is that a great name for what the store offers. A few miles south of where Record Time used to be, Melodies & Memories is a place where you could get lost for hours, and possibly pick up some inhaled bacteria in the process. A maze of vinyl and CD's and tapes (and 8-tracks!) and swag, I really had to tap the breaks before I bought more stuff than I should have. I rubbernecked through the records and tapes, but stuck with the CD's, finding some original pressings of some The The CD's as well as a couple Genesis CD's. Nirvana's induction into the R&RHOF was playing in the background, which seemed apt.
Working my way back to Woodward, I hit Solo Records in Royal Oak. It's not on anyone's "cool list" of stores, but any place that has laserdiscs and a chilled-out lil' dog behind the counter is fine with me. Again, I stuck with CD's, and found a bunch of great '80s first pressing stuff there -- Singles 1979-1983 Volume 1 by Bauhaus, Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, Heavy Nova by Robert Palmer, Eliminator by ZZ Top, Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac -- that doesn't have the "loudness war" mastering of newer pressings. After all, if I want something louder, I can always turn up the knob. I left some stuff on the shelf that I nearly took home (who sells the two-CD Rhino collection of Sparks, for fuck's sake?), but between Solo Records and Melodies & Memories, anything after would be gravy.
After that, I went to two of the hipper stores -- UHF in Royal Oak and Found Sound in Ferndale, both with solid selections and awesome staff -- but being a fundamentally uncool person, my mind kept going back to the FYE store, which usually had a nice selection of used CD's as well as some newer stuff. I was counting on FYE to deliver the two records I had on my mind -- Drift Code by Rustin Man (2019) and Southpaw Grammar by Morrissey (1995) -- but alas, it was not to be. If I had a bit more time, I would have made the trek to Dearborn Music, which might have had one or the other or both, but the show wouldn't wait. So with a Shamrock Shake in my gut and earplugs in my ears, I closed out the night at the Majestic Theatre to see Adult. and Cold Cave bring the black-clad synth-driven grooves, thinking about all those shows and all those stores, pining just a bit for what once was.
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