Tower Is Crumbling

I went back to one of the local Tower Records tonight to see where things stood in terms of their liquidation. Although a lot of the selection had been picked through, there was a surprising amount of CDs, DVDs, and other merchandise that was still available. As going-out-of-business sales will do, they've been slowly lowering the prices, raising the percentage that they'll take off. At this point, they're taking off 40 percent of all CDs and DVDs, which is not bad, depending on exactly where the price started. I got one DVD that will be given as a gift, so I'll say no more about that one, and I got one import CD, ...the corner of Miles and Gil by Shack. Shack is one of the great unrecognized bands. Michael Head was front man and primary songwriter of The Pale Fountains back in the '80s, and they put out two very strong albums before folding under the pressure of their major record label. Michael's brother John joined the Fountains with the second album, and the two of them have kept their partnership in the years since. Shack has mostly avoided the trap of major record labels, but they paid the price of limited availability in the indie ghetto. But Shack has had some prominent admirers, and their latest album is out on Noel Gallagher's Sour Mash Records. If you're over in the UK, this sometimes reclusive band will be heading out on a minor tour at the beginning of the month.

To get back to my purchases, I passed over a couple of CDs I was looking for because 40 percent didn't quite seem low enough. They'll drop further before Tower disappears altogether, and the titles I was considering still had a handful of copies available. It's a bit of a gamble, because anybody else can come in and pick them up, but it's not like the CDs themselves are disappearing. I'll check back and see if I can get them for 50 percent off or even more. However, when I ventured over to the singles rack, I discovered that those were 60 percent off. Since singles start off less expensive than full-length albums, they get really cheap much more quickly. I picked up discs from Franz Ferdinand, Baby Shambles, Hard-Fi, Antony and the Johnsons, Arctic Monkeys, and the Spinto Band. That's a fair amount of listening I've got ahead of me. I was at the store later than I'd intended, so I sort of rushed through the singles rack. When I've got more time, I may check back to see if there's anything I might've missed. And also, once the prices drop a little bit more, it might be worth it to go DVD diving, as well.