The bell has tolled for Tower Records. I remember taking long trips on the bus from the Valley to pay the Tower on Sunset a visit...the one in Sherman Oaks was within walking distance, but it wasn't the same. The Tower Records on the Sunset Strip was a place of pilgrimage. This was the store the stars shopped at. It was a few blocks from the Whisky and the Roxy and a few blocks in the other direction from the Continental Riot House and the Chateau Marmont. For a rock-crazy kid who grew up in the 1970s this was Jerusalem, Al'Makkah and The Vatican all wrapped up in one.
Unfortunately the place was doomed. It's all au courant to blame the accelerating demise of the record store on the iPod, but there's a whole lot of blame to go around. Overpriced CDs, the reprehensible antics of the RIAA, revelations about just how screwed musicians get by the major (and some indie) labels, the rise of mega eCommerce sites like Amazon, the rise of evil big box brick-and-mortar stores, etc...there is so much that is utterly fuxored about the music industry all I can do is just throw up my hands and give up. And stop buying my music new.
Stick a fork in it, Tower Records is done. The whole chain has been sold to a liquidator. I suspect that for old times sake I'll do some holiday shopping there. Tower Records won't be benefitting...the liquidators will. Oh well.
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