Record Store Days: Calamar and Gallo at SXSW


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Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo with "Record Store Days"

There must be many tomes on this vital topic, but it looks like longtime KCRW dj and music supervisor Gary Calamar and LA Times writer Phil Gallo have compiled a definitive history of the record store, entitled “Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again.” It comes out April 6 on Sterling Books, and having taken a quick look, I highly recommend it.  It’s loaded with pictures and therefore has the ability to take us back to that yesteryear, especially in LA, where massive record stores dotted the landscape.  Who will ever forget Tower Records Sunset?  People already have.  I hate to see what’s on the site now.  What about the numerous other large “box” record stores?  How about the little used places in the cracks?  The Calamar-Gallo book covers them all, and I look forward to spending hours in its aisles, digging through the bins.

Thank god there are still a few record stores left!  The implications and poetry inspired by this vital part of being a music fans’ disappearance could take up many hours.  It’s ok to do it in private, inspired by your own copy of “Record Store Days” by Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo!  I took a few pictures of Tower at 66th and Broadway during their final days, I can remember the exuberance from the first Compact Discs, my hometown store with the cutout bin of terrible albums with the stairs my dog was afraid to ascend, etc.

Record store days were good days (unless you bought a “dog” there).  What is the worst record you ever bought?  I think it might have been J. Geils’ “Freeze Frame” in my case.

To score a copy of your own (and it’s only $11.99 – less than a cd or record these days), please click here.

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