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kowalski
Buying my CD's & records there every week.
A Tower Records in Japan :
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georgie48Quote
kowalski
Buying my CD's & records there every week.
A Tower Records in Japan :
From what I can read, that store has been around for only 8 years. Apparently TR is doing well in Japan. My personal experience on record stores in Japan is that the CD sections are shrinking, vinyl is growing and so are computer games.
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Manofwealthandtaste
Those dudes at Tower on Sunset didn't have many days off......
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24FPS
Yes, ONLINE. You can go anywhere and buy stuff online. We have something called Amoeba Records in Los Angeles, and in the Bay Area. It's a huge space, and has used and new actual records and CDs, DVDs, books, t-shirts, posters. It's just like Tower was, without listening booths. (I guess you could go online on your phone and sample cuts on YouTube).
It's wonderful, and we're very lucky to have it. Almost all independents, chains, and Tower, and Virgin brick and mortars have disappeared. Electronics stores are dying. And Covid hasn't helped!
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Hairball
The last time I was in a Tower Records was about 20 years ago at the location on Topanga Blvd. in Woodland Hills in the valley, and lo and behold across the aisle looking at cd's was none other then John McVie.
He had a stack of about 20 cd's to purchase, and seemed that whatever tickled his fancy, he continued to pile them on. The final tally must have cost him a pretty penny, but just a drop in the bucket for him.
I didn't bother him as he looked quite content to be browsing around incognito - plus he looked a bit disheveled and like he had a hangover lol.
As for Amoeba in Hollywood, I just read they're about to have their Grand re-opening at their new location at Hollywood Blvd having moved from Sunset Blvd.
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jbwelda
I too remember the listening booths in the original Tower Records Watt Avenue Sacramento store. Those went away by about 66 or so if I recall correctly. Tower used to be a great store for deep catalogue but then they went the way of mass merchandisers and it was steep downhill from there. The only one I went to after about 1980 was the one on Columbus in SF, they had a good reggae buyer there who would get stuff no one else had, mostly from Fat Shadow in the UK. Not much else even in that store was very unique by then though.
Amoeba was the upstart in Berkeley around that time and drove a couple of better shops out of business (Leopolds and their basement shop for one), but Amoeba soon became the giant of the area. Great shopping but again, by 2000s, had pretty much run its course and moved the good stuff down to Hell-A.
jb
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Fernandobsas
In my case when a was on vacations in places like New York or London i spent more time in Tower Records than in the museums.
We have 2 Tower Records stores here in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
First time I enter in Tower Records was at the Berkeley Store, bought tikets there for an Ozzy Osbourne concert at the Oakland Coliseum.
Bye
Fernando
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timbernardisQuote
Hairball
The last time I was in a Tower Records was about 20 years ago at the location on Topanga Blvd. in Woodland Hills in the valley, and lo and behold across the aisle looking at cd's was none other then John McVie.
He had a stack of about 20 cd's to purchase, and seemed that whatever tickled his fancy, he continued to pile them on. The final tally must have cost him a pretty penny, but just a drop in the bucket for him.
I didn't bother him as he looked quite content to be browsing around incognito - plus he looked a bit disheveled and like he had a hangover lol.
As for Amoeba in Hollywood, I just read they're about to have their Grand re-opening at their new location at Hollywood Blvd having moved from Sunset Blvd.
I don't think they will have as much space as at the old location, tho. Correct me if I'm wrong.
plexi
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HairballQuote
timbernardisQuote
Hairball
The last time I was in a Tower Records was about 20 years ago at the location on Topanga Blvd. in Woodland Hills in the valley, and lo and behold across the aisle looking at cd's was none other then John McVie.
He had a stack of about 20 cd's to purchase, and seemed that whatever tickled his fancy, he continued to pile them on. The final tally must have cost him a pretty penny, but just a drop in the bucket for him.
I didn't bother him as he looked quite content to be browsing around incognito - plus he looked a bit disheveled and like he had a hangover lol.
As for Amoeba in Hollywood, I just read they're about to have their Grand re-opening at their new location at Hollywood Blvd having moved from Sunset Blvd.
I don't think they will have as much space as at the old location, tho. Correct me if I'm wrong.
plexi
From the Amoeba website:
"We're moving to 6200 Hollywood Blvd! We're going to take up a huge ground level space on the corner of Hollywood and Argyle in the new “El Centro” complex in downtown Hollywood.
This is just 2 blocks east and 2 blocks north of our former location, and right next door to the Fonda Theatre so we'll be easy to find"!
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And not sure of exact dimensions, but by the looks of this pic from Spin Magazine, the new location does appear to be huge and filled to the brim with goodies.
More.> Amoeba
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jbwelda
>The original Tower Records was on 16th and Broadway in Sacramento. Next to the Tower Theater which is still in existence I think
No, that is incorrect. The "original" tower "records" at that site was in the Tower Drugs store which Russ Solomon's father owned at the corner of 16th and Broadway. He started a little record sales thing there before expanding to Watt Avenue, the first real Tower Records store. Then the second opened across the street from Tower Drugs at 16th and B'way. That's why there is often confusion about where the real "original" Tower Records was, the closeness of the second store to the real origination of the brand, even though their first true store was ten or so miles northeast at Watt and El Camino.
I know. I was there. Or somewhere close by. Have known more former employees of the place than I can shake a stick at. The Tower Theatre is still there but a shadow of its former self with the space sectioned off into 3 or more theatres and no real spacious theatre space anymore, and always on the block for new owners it seems.
There is a Rasputin's currently in Stockton now.
That "all things must pass" bit of post mortem BS was a real laugh. Saw a number of people I knew or know in it. Most of what was presented was either whitewashed or made up from whole cloth, though if you listen carefully they will verify what I say above about what was "original".
Last I was in Amoeba in SF I was terribly disappointed. The long time reggae buyer for there and the Berk store has long since departed and in their place they have nothing really, so that whole genre of music is underrepresented as never before. Don't know about the berk store but I don't think i will be back to the SF store anytime soon, not worth the trip, for me at least. I might be surprised if I took a good hard look in the rock section, but I don't really have the patience for that so much anymore. More better down in the Rasputin's bargain basement. Still a thrill for the tourist trade though.
jb
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Toru A
from Shibuya, Tokyo