no longer the tower of power

[sorry i've been lagging on content. i got the new decemberists, static lullaby, spitalfield, cobra starship, bright eyes and a ton of other shit to review, but i had to get cracking on my redefine contribution for the month. now that that's done you can expect reviews of the afformentioned bands maybe]

Tower is dead. Fin. In the grave. It's a bittersweet end for me. On the one hand, having worked at that place, I'd grown to fucking hate it. They had a really lame medical insurance plan, the "discounts" were kind of shitty, and they basically had it out for the local stores by talking shit about them all the time. On the other hand, I have pretty vivid memories of going to some of Tower's midnight sales and in-stores, as well as just hanging out there when I first started buying records for myself. When I'd come up to Seattle to visit my dad, the first place we'd go after he picked me up from the airport was Tower.

Sadly, several groups of people will suffer from the demise of Tower Records, not only its 3000 employees, but also the many people who put out zines and records through Tower. The store had its own system of indie distribution and consignment, which many chain stores do not have. Do you think Best Buy's going to carry your shitty unsigned band? Obviously not, but Tower would.

So while I'm simultaneously cheering on the demise of my former employer (as well as the product I will reap from its clearance sale), as a music fan, it still sucks to see a cool chain store like Tower go down.