Hoodlums Music and Movies

Two nights ago, Chris at Mac’s asked me if we would be carrying the new AC/DC CD, or if it was true that it was only going to be available exclusively at Wal-Mart.

At that point, Chris and the four other poor souls sitting around the bar had to listen to me get worked up on the subject for about the next ten minutes.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, if there’s one thing I can do - it’s rant about the idiocy of the music industry.  You don’t want to get me started.

Then again, that’s what blogs are for, right?  So consider me officially “started”.

I’m upset with AC/DC.  But more importantly, I’m disappointed.  Disappointed to lose another of my favorite bands to a complete and total sell-out to the corporatocracy.  Why do I say “complete and total”?  Because selling your CD exclusively at the world’s most boring department store is about as rock and roll as eating toast with your Grandma.

AC/DC isn’t the first of my favorites to weasel into this kind of a deal.  The Eagles were the initial instigators of this particular business model (for the same reasons - which I will get into later) - which was another mutation of prior corporate-loving maneuvers by the Stones, U2, and a ton of other big bands.

But AC/DC… at Wal-Mart?  Holy hold-the-rebellion, Batman.

This is a band that I looked to when I was continuing to learn how to rebel, and they set the example that a rock band is supposed to set for young, impressionable little trouble-makers.  The former AC/DC lead singer, Bon Scott, used to say being a bad boy ain’t that bad.  Bon gleefully bragged about being a problem child.  I still remember reading the “letters to the band” on the back of High Voltage album cover…. now that made trouble look like fun.  AC/DC helped teach me to be a hoodlum.

The first time I saw them was in Minneapolis with Fastway.  The boys and I drove nine hours from North Dakota.  It was one of the highlights of my young life.  Since then I’ve seen them numerous times.  I was even fortunate enough to meet the entire band on Valentine’s Day (my wife was cool enough to go with me after the initial show had been canceled due to Brian Johnson’s father’s death).  They were super gentlemen and incredible professionals, as I have told anyone who would listen since.

So it killed me when I heard that they had gotten in bed with the all-time champion of retail blandness and, in my opinion, one of the leaders of our country’s movement away from non-American manufactured product (read “No Logo” by Naomi Klein).  I am proud to say that I haven’t been in a Wal-Mart since 1992 (when I moved from Flagstaff), but now AC/DC says I’m going to have to visit again if I want to buy their CD.  Sorry Angus, but I don’t intend to go to Wal-Mart unless it is the last store on Earth (which might be their mission statement for all I know).

Trying to be fair, I said to Kristian, “Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on AC/DC.  It isn’t like they are the only band to sell out”.  He said, “Sure you should be.  Just imagine what they would have said in the late seventies if someone would have asked them to sell their album exclusively at Sears?”  Wow, that’s a great point.   I’d like to think of Bon punching someone.  That’s the AC/DC I know and love.  Rough, rowdy, and rebellious.

But that AC/DC doesn’t exist anymore.  Today’s AC/DC is scared and safe.  Old and totally willing to not-rebel.

You see… with this deal they get paid no matter what.  They don’t have to put the album out in the open market - and let it stand on it’s merits.  They’ve made their sale… to the company that won’t sell your album if there is “objectionable material” on the cover.  Oooh, that’s rowdy.

But wait, there is another layer of safety.  On the open market, the album isn’t being used as a promotional tool to sell toilet paper and Holiday decorations, so it would be priced based on Columbia’s (their label) still-ridiculous superstar list price of 18.99, which requires more consumer risk.  Since Wal-Mart’s main concern isn’t profit on the CD itself, it will get peddled for roughly ten bucks, which requires less of a financial decision on the part of the consumer… essentially making the CD an “impulse” item.

This is incredibly important for one reason: AC/DC doesn’t seem to be able to make good albums anymore.  That’s the real reason that all of these old bands are making these deals.  They can’t cut the artistic mustard anymore. - and they don’t dare fail in the open market.

In my opinion, AC/DC made a bunch of great albums with Bon, but the only truly great album they made with Brian was Back in Black.  For Those About to Rock was half-ass at best (which was apparent the minute you heard the title track), and it was still the second best post-Bon effort.  There have been a few good tracks here and there, but even though I consider myself a lifelong fan, I no longer own any of the subsequent albums.

I don’t want to say it.  You might not agree.  But to me, that’s the way it is.  And the reason they made this money-making, yet disgraceful, deal.  Because people like me, who buy albums and are AC/DC fans, haven’t been buying AC/DC albums, and they want to get paid.

That’s what I call a sellout.

Does it mean I won’t listen to Powerage again?  Hell no.  It just means that I will never look at the band the same again.  Just like the Eagles… and U2… and the Stones.

Blog Note: In spite of their claim to “exclusivity”, it is actually quite easy for a scrappy little record store like ours to carry the Black Ice CD without ever setting foot in corporateville.   The question is, knowing our personal feelings on the subject, do we stock the CD for customers that really want it?  After all, many people don’t feel the way we do, and they want to hear it.  By stocking it - we do move one more sale from the corporatocracy to a local merchant - but we do reward a band that sold out.

Blog Note 2: AC/DC, after feeling the backlash of this deal, attempted to make right by giving the vinyl version of the album exclusively to an indie distributor.  For the record, we don’t think any CD or LP should be exclusive anywhere… but we have learned to live with the sad reality of the practice over the years.  In spite of vinyl’s resurgence, its still no where near the popularity of the CD, so in this case it was too little; too late.

Blog Note 3: I could have posted a similar take on the Guns and Roses deal… but GnR couldn’t even put together two solid albums when they were hot, so you already knew that album was going to need some corporate help.

When Bob from Changing Hands gave me a copy of the annual New Times “Best of Phoenix” issue - I said thanks, asked him if they won again (they did), and put it in my bag.  I knew I would read it later (it’s a tradition after all), and we were busy.

I didn’t give a second thought to the possibility that Hoodlums might be in there.  After all, we haven’t even been open for over ten months!  Besides, after being at ASU, which is essentially a community of its own, all of these years - we’ve grown accustomed to people out in the real world (like New Times writers) not even knowing we exist.  We’ve never felt slighted or anything - in fact we totally understand.  People from off-campus just don’t go on campus just to shop.  That’s why we didn’t do much advertising on the street at the old store.

Anyway, later in the day Kristian said “Do you know that we are in here?”.  I thought he was joking.  But when he showed me the category, even though I wasn’t aware such a category existed, I knew it was our destiny.

So hoka hey, our first New Times award.  Pretty cool.  Next year, we will try to give our great fellow indie stores a run for their money in the more traditional categories - but for this year - we’ll gladly accept Best Addition to a Strip Mall.

Last Wednesday, I had an opportunity to interview author Tom Moon about his new book, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.

I might have to rethink some of my wariness about critics.

I was a bit nervous prior to the interview.  You see, I ain’t James Lipton.  I have absolutely no interviewing experience.  In fact, I’m not even a very good listener.  Yet I was about to interview a guy who had himself interviewed guys like Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, and Tom Waits.  To further increase the tension… there was a really good-sized crowd.  Our friends at Changing Hands said they had been getting calls all day, and that they had increased the set-up size of the event.   But I was armed with three pages of questions… and I loved the book, so I figured “Hey rookie boy, you can do this”.

Back to the wariness.  I’m not anti-critic, I just think that critics tend to be music elitists, bound by a certain set of unspoken rules about their art that doesn’t allow them to get down in the trenches and enjoy music like the rest of us.  You know, the ability to like what you like, whether others like it or not.  They seemingly can’t like McCartney better than Lennon (a few might agree to go with Harrison… but they just can’t go with the cute, poppy one that co-wrote most of the songs and had the most post-Beatles success… until Wings broke up anyway).  They can’t like Gilmour better than Waters.  They can’t say “That Dylan album was weak”.   You get my drift.  Accordingly, even though there was no trace of it in the book (OK, the book included Lennon and Harrison albums… but no McCartney or Wings), I was prepared for pretentiousness.

Anyway, when Tom Moon walked into the backstage area (read: the offices at Changing Hands), I knew I was wrong.  Within minutes, we were talking about the sad “non-available” status of so many of the great recordings in the book and his earlier visit to our friends at Easy Street Records in Seattle.  Janet from CH had to tell us to save it for the audience.

Once we were introduced and I got through the initial nerves of opening the interview, things started to flow.  Tom was very talkative and very much into what he was doing.  He was everything I wish more critics would be: Positive, uplifting, passionate, and totally willing to admit to the trials and tribulations of building such a list.  Most importantly, he was promoting good music from all across the spectrum of time and genre… instead of whining about bad music or the music industry (which tends to be the general angle of many critics and reporters these days).

Tom talked, and I listened.  It was great.  I still had two full pages of questions when they gave me the “go to the audience questions” sign.  When I did go to the audience, hands shot up everywhere.  A half hour later, when I got the “wrap it up and let Tom sign autographs” sign, there were still many, many audience questions left unanswered.

After the signing, Tom came over the store and we talked some more.  He was totally blown away at all of the titles from the book that we were featuring (including 36 in our listening posts),  and very excited about the interview format of the event (he said it was a refreshing change from just “presenting” on his own).

I could have asked him questions for five more hours, and we tried to get him to have a beer with us so we could do just that, but unfortunately he had to go.    So we set him up with one of our new Hoodlums shirts, and sent him on his way.

If your out there Tom - thanks for the great night - and the fantastic book.  As a fellow music fan, I cannot recommend it enough (it’s available at Changing Hands).

Last but not least, if you want a recording from the book, on CD or vinyl - we will be providing a 10% discount on all 1,000 titles from now until our Grand Opening Party on October 11th.  If you can’t make it by then - don’t worry - our prices are still sweet, and we always stock this kind of quality music.