as i was waiting for my bagel at the coffee spot this morning, i spotted this article below the front-page fold of today's Star Ledger. as everyone should know, i don't read the Ledger (Bergen Record stand up), but i threw down the extra fifty cents to read this inevitable piece of comedy. yet another fluff piece lamenting the death of the brick and mortar record store (does the mainstream media have like a once-a-month quota on this story? for real!), this time cloaked in the "Record Store Day" concept which some indie shops are getting behind today - yes, like today, April 19, 2008. inspired by the "free comic book day" concept now (apparently successfully?) employed by many comic shops (another floundering niche-market, but for worse reasons than the indie record biz), basically stores are trying to reel in customers with various gimmicky promotions throughout the business day. of the many obvious jokes that could be made in light of this, a good one is that, aside from Ledger readers i guess, the only people who would probably even know about this "day" are the people who already go to these shops anyway. whatever, the whole idea is so caveman-dumb that it doesn't warrant any more talk. the real point of this post is just for me to complain again about these totally fucking oblivious dinosaurs, the middle-aged-and-beyond record store owners. all these clowns should ask for a Business 101 textbook for their birthday. apparently basic concepts such as staying in-touch with your marketplace and adapting your business model to fit the current climate of that market place are totally alien to these ignorant fatsos (or at least limited to complaining about things they barely have a grasp on, at best). i mean really, i know for years and years you could eek out a nice one just selling new releases, but that aside, it's not like the record business hasn't always been an ever-changing game, right? at least if you were/are even half paying attention it is. seems as close any of these clowns gets to any contact with the contemporary reality is complaining about an ipod or talking about how they've added t-shirts to their store and how they sell more than records (they're called 'lifestyle' products douchebag). i think i'm nearing a real 50/50 split in my desire - as much as i want as many stores to remain open as possible, i want them all to burn to the ground just the same. hey assholes, if you wanted a bulletproof gig you should have opened a liquor store or a funeral parlor. you all fucking deserve it.
