Long gone are the days of walking into your local record store and spending long endless hours sifting through CDs. Your local Mom & Pop record store usually had some bootleg live album or a B-Side collection of your favorite/marginal band. As a teen, when I had nothing better to do, which was more often than not, my little hang out spot was the Tower Records in West Cochina.
Tower Records, Virgin Records, Blockbuster Music & Circuit City were all major CD retailers that have gone down! Few Mom & Pop record stores are still around. Locally, I have a Rhino Records in Upland that I frequent, or Fingerprints in the LBC, but it still isn’t the same. I also used to frequent Amoeba Records in Hollywood. This is the ultimate record shop. I could walk in there and literally get lost! I loved waking the aisles and shopping for any CD that caught my fancy! So why am I writing about this? Well, I hate to sound like that Uncle or Aunt who always says, “When I was younger Blah…Blah…Blah.”
Amoeba is going digital, well almost. The store that takes pride in offering Indie Albums will now start selling music online. The good news is that they will still sell regular CDs! Maybe I’m the weirdo, but I still love opening a new CD! I Love looking at the artwork, reading the credits and seeing if they include the song lyrics. I miss the days of buying a CD and immediately playing it in the car. But we must change with the times, many artists only release their albums digitally. Inara George released her last album “A Special Invitation” strictly for digital release.
I embrace technology, after all I do have a BS in Computer Science. My car stereo doesn’t even have a CD player! A digital release is considerably cheaper (at $10) than a regular CD (about $12-$15), so I get it, plus you can download it immediately, instead of having to drive. So it all boils down to personal preference. Me, I prefer owning a CD, because if something were to happen to my computer, I still have a hard copy. Thanks to our little Sara for sending me this article!
You know, when I go into record stores without a set album/artist in mind, I get lost. I was never really a fan of sifting because I never knew where to start. It was frustrating because I felt like I was closing myself off. I had been to the Hollywood and San Francisco Amoebas, but it wasn’t until recently when I visited the original Amoeba in Berkeley that I decided, “You know what? Stop limiting yourself, little Sara! Sift, dammit!” So, I did. And I came home with 2 CDs from bands who I’ve never heard of. Unfortunately for me, I’m discovering the sifting process late, but now that places like these are beginning to eliminating that option, that thrill of taking a risk on that little CD that meant nothing to you before will be gone.