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Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Bastard stepchild of indie retail thread
  • Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 15:00:26 -0500

Improvement is a slow process; there was a time not long ago when, it seemed, every CD-release party was accompanied by an IOU for a CD that wasn't actually available due to holdups at the pressing plant or whatever. That rarely seems to happen anymore.

I have no actual information/insight into the Raleigh Schoolkids, not having shopped there since the days of Alicia Naples back in the 90s. Is there not a Record Exchange on that side of town anymore? Or is the implication of yr non-mention of it that it's not worth mentioning?

Course, the first-pressing copies of 3x4 have this nutty little pull-tab thingy like a popup book that'll be *hell* to stock in most popular CD-display setups anyway, so . . . have you considered mailorder via the web? On the one hand, it seems retarded, since Pox is in Durham. On the other hand . . .

Hey Chaz, do you have any? If Chaz has some you can wait til Saturday & pick one up during Spazz Fest.


Bryk wrote:
So I was all pumped to pick up that Pox 3 x 4 comp yesterday after falling in love with the Schooner track Ross played on his show last Sunday. I had to go to the Brewery anyways (that's another story entirely) so Schoolkids was finally in my path of travel.

I look around to see if it was racked and/or on sale. No such luck.

I look in the "Schooner" and "Sames" sections. No dice.

I look in the "Compilations" section. Nope.

I go to the counter and ask salesguy #1. Never heard of it. He starts to type it into the computer. I explain it's a local comp on Pox World Empire blah blah blah. "Nope, can't find it."

Thinking maybe he's not super aware of new indie product, I look around in vain for a "Local" section. None to be found. (When did Schoolkids Raleigh lose its' local section? Am I confusing it with the Durham Schoolkids? Part of me feels such sections marginalize local acts, but part of me feels that every half-decent community- minded record store would have at least 2 copies of each notable* local release anyhow, with one of them resting under a header card with that artists' name on it.)

Hmm. I go back to the counter and ask salesguy #2 (politely, as I wait until #1 goes to the back of the store). I volunteer the general info.

Tippity-tap-tap on the computer. No, sorry, don't know it.

Now, I know I can't expect every release to be carried in every single store, but there are only 4 or 5 stores in the triangle that specialize in indie product. And the only one I know of in Raleigh is Schoolkids.

Pox's website says "3x4 is Out!" Out where, exactly? I guess not at the only place in Raleigh I would expect to find it.

I'm not sure who's dropped the ball here, but I was annoyed enough that I put the ($16.98) Amadou & Mariam CD I had been carrying around the store for 10 minutes back in the section before I left. (I know it's probably WMG's artificially high lists for Nonesuch releases, but I would have bought that at Schoolkids. Now I'm going to probably end up buying that, the newish Amy Rigby CD and the recent Richard Swift album on Secretly Canadian from deepdiscountCD.com (Schoolkids Raleigh doesn't stock those either.)

I would have loved to have bought all those from Schoolkids yesterday.

Why does this suck? Am I being a big baby for not wanting to spend $10 on non-renewable resources, AND put superfluous miles on my car with a trip to Chapel Hill?

dB



* Notable = Nationally-reviewed record by artist/band that plays shows to at least 12 people locally, not necessarily every half-assed CD-R on consignment. Or hell. anything the store employees find to be of artistic merit or sales potential.


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