In case you blinked and missed it, lovable mop-top Jamie from records on K had a good letter printed in last week's news and review in response to their article on record store clerks. Here is is:
Where are the indie clerks?
Re “Clerks” by Noel Neuburger (SN&R Feature Story, March 2):
Just felt compelled to vent my displeasure regarding SN&R’s “Clerks” article.
I’m writing because I’m baffled that we at Records, at Seventh and K streets, were never contacted to partake. This shop has served downtown Sacramento for over 30 years and boasts the largest selection of vinyl and music memorabilia in the area. Our logo was personally designed by Robert Crumb. We were featured in the hip-hop documentary Scratch, and our interior graced the cover of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing album. Our staff includes local musicians, DJs and promoters, and the event coordinator for KDVS, as well as some of the most knowledgeable music fanatics and collectors in town.
Yet, we remain unacknowledged.
This also comes at a time when the business is being threatened by the current K Street redevelopment plan. We are a completely independent, family-owned and -operated business that has survived since the early ’70s. I feel as though we would have been the most qualified and deserving choice to feature.
Instead, you chose businesses, like Tower Records, that only serve to sell whatever status-quo flavors happen to be hip for the minute. The article suffered from regurgitated clichés as opposed to offering opinions from “individuals” who actually live their lives with music at the forefront.
Jamie Smith
Sacramento
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I was just at Records & I guess that once again, they ARE moving. The block renewal is in high gear. The city (I think it's the city) is paying for their entire move which is at least something. Also, I guess I just missed the Franz Ferdinand drummer who was in there buying the whole Badfinger section. A move he totally stole from the Biz. He put Jamie on the guest list for tonight's show which was nice.
miller
moving to where? is the franz ferdinand afterparty at the mansion?
That place can't move! I've been going there for 22 years! Granted, not so much lately given that I don't actually live in Sacramento, but good lord -- the location practically IS the record store...
i love that shop. i love its location. i always find cool shit their. i love that gross cat that hangs out. man, i don't want it to move.
That place is the first record store I ever shopped at in Sac. They ALWAYS (well, usually) whack the tax off and do not exude that hipper-than-thou 'tude. And, I love that the cat is like Gary's short-haired cousin, I fear that the move might stress the little turd out so bad that he'll be too scared to stink up the new place by pissing on all he observes. Poor kitty. When I read the letter, I was like, Amen! Those lazy "journalists" ought to go back to class and become communications majors.
Ed
I'm confident they'll find another good location. They survived one move (from further east up K St) already. They have a good sense of what makes the store work & I doubt it involves moving out of downtown. I'm just glad the forced move didn't make them decide to shut down the store. In my opinion, it's better than ever right now. Cheaper prices & a more knowledgeable staff.
miller
Great store -- when I was killing time one summer afternnon a few years ago before having lunch with Connie I walked down K Street and thought "oh, that store's prolly long gone." But there it was. Half the records I got for under $2 in the 1980s are likely from that place. I hope wherever they land they still thrive. And come to think, I wondered why that article didn't include them. Stupid journalists. It's just a quick slip from that to fabricating New Republic articles, really...
amen to Jamie for writing in. thanks for posting it Hecka, i'd missed the letter.
but hey, in all fairness, did you really think the SnR would leave out Tower Records? it's local boys gone international,
I enjoyed that article on so many levels - primarily for the hip, timely "Clerks" allusion. Additionally, I love the dream date described by the one guy (a man I like to call Saint Pompadour McTool) where Tom Waits drinks whiskey (whoa!).
- Patrone
Man i hesitiate to get involved in a thread on the virtues of Ed's (r.i.p. you beautiful old bastard) Records. May it never die! I could go on:
The first record store i ever went into.
The two 25-cent bin copies of the mexican record with the Cymande cover song.
Endless drunken discussions with Miller about Ed's pricing philosophy.
At age 15, going up to the counter to ask what they knew about a Man Parrish record I'd found, and having the clerk tell me, "That's the record the faggots are always trying to shoplift for their faggot parties."
The insane deals, alternating with total ripoff pricing.
Walking in one day and seeing Biggert working there.
Where do I stop?
I can't remember the name of the association that my grandpa started but it was, I believe, the first coin-op association in the U.S. They were responsible for the installation & subsequent popularity of jukeboxes & as a result he got a ton of free records. My dad always tells me the story of how every friday my gramps would come home with all the new singles that were coming out the next week & give them to my dad - which apparently made my dad very popular. When my gramps died, he had long gotten rid of 99% of his no-doubt very valuable records (and left his entire fortune to some televangelist - thanks gramps!) but one that was left over was this 50's record by Ned Miller (probably kept it for the last name!) called 'From A Jack To A King' which was pretty common except this copy was on striped red, yellow & green vinyl which was pretty out there for the time. I brought it to Records when I was, like, 14 & Ed looked at the cover & said "no we can't use that" so I showed him the vinyl & he goes "oh, ok, I'll give you $10" so I went to look around for something to buy with my new fortune. A couple minutes later he says "make that $20". Psyched! A couple minutes later "make that $30". So I left with $30 - which was a ton of cash as far as I was concerned. Next time I was in there it was on the wall behind the counter but I couldn't read the price. Next time I went, it was gone. Good ol' Ed. That store still suffers from it's rep as being overpriced but the prices have gone WAY down. It's funny too because Ed used to price the records on the back & now they price them on the front so often, you still get to see the old, crazy price. I recently got a record there for $15 & the price on the back was $68.95!! I hated it at the time but now I'm glad nobody could afford anything because that's the only reason so many great records sat there in the basement forever - because almost nothing was being sold to make room for the overstock. When Nathan moved here from Knoxville a few years ago, he was staying at my house until he got a job & he came home from his second day of job-hunting & goes "you know that record store on K St? I got a job there going through the basement & repricing everything". I just laughed!
miller
Now I want to go to records. Too bad I'm stuck in Davis. Maybe I'll go to aardvark or armadillo or whatever the fuck. Psyche!
Many overpriced records did sit there for years, but on many occasions I'd see collectors from Germany, Japan, Brazil, England & Scandinavia come in and gladly pay for them. I used to whine to Ed that he should drop the prices on alot of his shit, so that common folk can afford to buy some of it. He basically said that he didn't give a shit about them because he was waiting for bigger fish to fry. And that he did. Collectors would bring up a pile of 80 or 90 records and Ed would make up prices for them off the top of his head, totalling the records close to 2 grand, and fuckers wouldn't even flinch. Me being rat-boy, I was able to buy lotsa cool shit off of the street dudes that got turned downed from him. Scored some of my best funk & jazz records @ 50 cents a pop. Miller bought Can's "Future Days" lp for under 5 bucks. I didn't realize it was hanging in the window and I was so jealous. If I wasn't so busy spending all of my money on weed & LSD at the time, I'd probably have a better music collection.
Larry
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