Tower Records in Torrance
October 12th, 2006
Tower Torrance isn't the best record store, but during my formative years it was the place where my dad (inadvertently?) taught me to value music as much as he did. It's a testament to how much we value the place that my father and I have even named the palm tree that we park next to on every visit. As a kid I felt like coming back from the record store was like taking art home with me — something that persists until this day. I've since come to appreciate independent record stores and the Internet as better places to obtain new music, but I don't think I'll be able to forget the place that helped me crawl out of the KROQ-carved mold. Even though it's a chain store, it's a testament to the buyers that the Tower chain employs that I've only recently gone on a visit and had difficulty finding something I wanted to buy. (Target, Best Buy, and Borders constantly fail in this regard.)
Here's what I can recall purchasing at that specific store between ages 12 and 16 that deeply affected how I enjoy music (more for myself than for anyone else):
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
XTC - Skylarking
Tom Waits - Alice
Tool - AEnima
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports
David Bowie - Low
Fugazi - Red Medicine (I hadn't actually heard Fugazi before buying this and it wasn't their only album on the rack, but I picked this one because I liked the cover art; will my kids make their record downloading/buying decisions based on 10×10 pixel .gifs?)
For those interested, I'll be pouring out a bottle of D4 (even though they stopped selling vinyl long before I got there) in tribute from 10 PM - Midnight tonight on the Payola (Scheduling) Scam.
As a side note, this is the first blog entry I've ever written anywhere. Before I got the e-mail about our new responsibility from Laura a few weeks back, I'd hoped that I'd go to my grave without ever blogging. UCLAradio.com: the killer of my most vapid dreams. 
-Giancarlo
October 12th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
noooo. I don’t want to be a dream killer–no matter how vapid the dreams may be!
on a side, more important note: ALBUM ART is SOOOOOO important. seriously. a reason why i dislike how we place our reviews on top of the art at the station. tsk tsk.
October 13th, 2006 at 2:06 am
David Byrne would disagree with you, Laura:
http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2006/05/51406_packaging.html
October 13th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
tsk tsk. I don’t necessarily disagree with anything Byrne says, except maybe “No one stares enraptured at a Downy bottle while doing the laundry or at a Progresso can while opening a can of soup” — ’cause I stare enraptured at labels all the time! Additionally, this whole thing about connecting music to the art is not what I am talking about. I just think it’s important to get the visual art into one’s life as often as possible. To make things look intriguing. I buy CDs based on album art all the time because I appreciate the effort that goes into it as art, not as representing the music in any way at all.
Anyways, did you have this bookmarked or something? It’s a pretty old journal entry of his!
October 13th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
It was the first entry I read at that blog and I’ve been returning since. It wasn’t hard to find.
October 14th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
I wanted to say that David Byrne has recently become rediculous, like when he played a beyonce cover when he opened for arcade fire at the hollywood bowl. But then I read the link and I actually agree album art is not the marketing power it used to be. Plus its so small on a cd. and then you put the CD on the computer and put the cd is a cd case and put the case and album art into a pile of the hundreds of other cds you have thinking you might do something with them and then never do. Its just to small you cant put it on your wall you cant really do anything with it its kind of annoying. Point being their are much more inportant things for graphic designers to do than CD cover. I have seen much better tour posters than most album art i have seen recently. anyways. ok.
-Drew
October 14th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
David Byrne performing that cover was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
October 15th, 2006 at 1:33 am
What are you talking about Carman, David Byrne is obviously rediculous.