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.

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.

Steve takes down the brown paper in the window.  It was good to see the light again.

Whew!  We finally opened on Saturday.  What a relief.  Kristian and I (along with Beth, Laura, Joe, Andy, Justin, Wasef, Maria, and a bunch of family and friends) have worked our tails off to make sure we pulled it off by our announced September 20th date.  It took every bit of effort we had, and the relief of actually pulling it off was like a literal wave of emotion (for me anyway, I can’t speak for everyone else).

Thursday and Friday night prior to opening, we were the last cars the parking lot… just like a lot of nights since we started our mission in late July.  It wasn’t until I was driving home at about 1:15 AM on Saturday that it truly hit me that we would be ringing up people again in the morning.

At least I hoped we would.  There’s no doubt that the thought of “what if nobody shows” entered my head… in spite of the overwhelming support we’ve felt since we announced the store. Hopefully it is just natural human paranoia, I thought (either that or I have in fact lost my mind).

Luckily, it was paranoia.  Lots of people showed… starting with legendary Music Junkie Tim Handley at 9:30.  We were holding stuff for him, and he wanted to order a copy of the obscure Frank Marino CD I had used as an example on our Special Order page (complete with a “hover” note for Tim).

Over the weekend, we saw tons of friends and Music Junkies.  We bought and sold a bunch of records, CDs, and DVDs (I was so busy that I forgot to take any pictures beyond the pre-opening shots).  People picked up our new t-shirts, and were really encouraging about the store.  It was great.  Thanks to all of you that showed up and made us feel so welcome.

We’ve got a long way to go to get to full strength. Mainly, we need to learn what our customers want.  But we learn fast, and we try hard, and we know you are going to help us figure it out.  It will be a lot of work, but we don’t mind. We love peddling entertainment.

There may be some hard work ahead, but I’m ready.  After all, Saturday night was the first true night a sleep I’ve had in about two months… so I am getting my strength back.

Check out the rest of the pictures.  Better yet, come down and see us.

A shot from the back of the store before the paper came down.  Opening day about 8:30.

We’ve got more space, and we filled it with CDs, Records, DVDs, and art for you.

Our expanded DVD section has tons of classic movies, concert videos, and new releases

Six hundred of my contributions were jazz, blues, and world.  The last section I did was my Blue Note CDs.  I love my Blue Note CDs.  I have them in a special  CD rack.  They all have the same white spine, and there are 225 of them… and it makes me happy just to look at them.

Did I say there “are” 225?  I meant there were 225.  I didn’t want to do it.  I had to do it. You can’t build a great section without Blue Note.  Any good jazz fan knows that.

In case you aren’t a jazz fan… Blue Note is a label.  I don’t mean “label” like the profit-driven’, customer-suing, high-pricin’ conglomerates of today – I mean a founded-by-jazz-lovers, independent label of yesterday.  It purveys mainly hard-bop, a swinging, jamming type of jazz just meant for generally rockin’ tempo kind of guys like me.

Anyway, it took a long time – but when I was done – sixty of my beloved Blue Note CDs were in the box on the way to the store.

How will I cope?  Starting September 20th, I will sell those Blue Notes to customers and get them hooked on the awesome power of hard-bop done right.

But for now I am going to make a list – because record store geeks like me love to make lists.

Here are sixteen Blue Note CDs that would NEVER leave my collection under any circumstances.  Note: Don’t worry, we’ll have them at the store new… and they are priced to sell.

Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else (recommended by the Eastside gang over a dozen years ago)

Art Blakey – Moanin’ (One of my first; one of the most obvious; one of the best.  You’ve probably heard the title track).

Kenny Burrell – Midnight Blue (That great groovin’ guitar on the intro – I can hear it in my head – so now I must play it while I type the rest of the list)

Donald Byrd – Live at the Half Note (I had it in my car to test it out, and on the way home Blaise at KJZZ played “Jeannine”.  I looked at the CD on my passenger seat and knew it was destiny)

Sonny Clark – Sonny’s Crib (Sidemen: Coltrane, Byrd, Fuller, Chambers, Taylor… how could it not be great?)

John Coltrane – Blue Train (Coltrane’s only Blue Note album and some say his personal favorite.  I always think of the scene in Singles where Campbell Scott is lying on the floor hating life, and the title track is blaring).

Lou Donaldson – The Natural Soul (There’s more than one Lou that will stay, but this is the tops)

Grant Green – The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark (The mighty Grant will always be my favorite Blue Note artist.  The man can groove with a guitar like no one else.. oh, ok, Wes.)

Grant Green -  Idle Moments (I just said he was my fave, so he gets two on the list.  As it is, I could have put Blue Breakbeats or Live at the Lighthouse on here as well, as both were instrumental to my love of Blue Note.  The Green section will always be stocked).

Freddie Hubbard – Open Sesame (I saw Freddie at Birdland.  He was a bit nutty… but it was cool to see a legend.  Many great albums… on many labels.).

Hank Mobley – High Voltage (Hank has more critically-acclaimed albums, but I couldn’t care less, because this one jams the most for me).

John Patton – Let ‘em Roll (Recommended by a customer in 1999, this has Grant Green on guitar… and it for me is the ultimate Hammond/Guitar delight  Except for the one sappy ballad… all Blue Notes have one… the other five songs just fly)

Wayne Shorter - Adam’s Apple (On Kurt Elling’s live CD, he calls Shorter “one of the three greatest composers of all time”.  I don’t know who the other two are – or if I would go that far – but this CD will show you how good he is.  The first song has given me twenty dollars of happiness by itself… with Wayne and Herbie just workin’ it).

Horace Silver – Song for My Father (Horace is my close second fave behind Grant.  The fact that Steely Dan musically used the title track adds an extra dose of cool to this CD – but there are about nine Horace albums that I love)

Jimmy Smith – The Sermon (3 songs; fantastic players; recorded on my birthday – the day, not the year… I ain’t quite that old – it is obvious pick of many fine Jimmy CDs on Blue Note)

Stanley Turrentine – Rough and Tumble.  The song “Feeling Good” is one of the greatest songs ever.  The ensemble, featuring Grant, Pepper, Blue, and Duke and the mighty McCoy (who just sprinkles in the sweetest little fills on the song) is outstanding.  The puppy songs (2,5) are really puppy, but the four that jam… jam enough to make it a keeper.

The new sign pretty much spells out what we think we do best.  We figured it was going to attract our kind of music lovin’ people… which are very often the same people that love movies and art.  Once we get ‘em in the store, then we can hook ‘em.  The thing is like a beacon.  I think you can see it from space.

Oooh, new CD bins too.  Yeah, even though they aren’t as big as the albums, we wanted to bring the album art back into view.  That is one of our favorite parts about albums.

Oh yeah, the stage is done.  Once we get our P.A. – we’ll be ready for artists.

Stay tuned…

Gutting my personal CD collection to help build up the store’s used CD Sections!!

The first time, when we opened Hoodlums in 1998, it ended up being 1,500 CDs – a little more than half my total collection (built since the mid-eighties, including eight years managing/working at Wherehouse and three more at Zia).  The second time, when we expanded the store in 2001, it wasn’t as drastic, about 500 CDs, but due to the improved nature of the overall collection, it was still a batch of beloved CDs.

This time it could get even uglier.

My collection has grown again… and (I dare say) improved in quality, so the damage could be more significant than the first two attacks.  This is particularly true because the new store is going to have bigger jazz, blues, and world music sections.  That means I have to go hard at three sections that I have worked hard to build over the seven years since I did this last (see geek in picture).

Oh yeah, we’ll have a ton of used rock CDs in our used section – so those’ll need to get hacked too.

Luckily, my buddy Paul at Twist and Shout told me how many times he’s had to pull from his collection – including a recent pull that doubled my entire collection but barely dented his – and made me feel better about what I am about to do (see the “Oracle Paul” post).

One more small note of comfort: Kristian has to pull too – so I at least have a partner to share my pain.

Anyway, if you are a customer – come in and take advantage.  In the meantime, I’ll probably whine my way through the process on the blog.

- Rush on 2112*

So if you need answers… if you need inspiration… you gotta go to the top of the mountain.

So I did it.  I went to Twist and Shout Records in Denver, to visit the Oracle: my friend and Denver quasi-celebrity, Paul Epstein (and his lovely wife and partner, Jill).

If you are a fan of music, video, and record stores in general – you have to see this store.  They have been in Denver forever – but the beautiful new location is less than two years old.  Pound for pound, it is simply as good as you can get.  With 11,000 square feet… that’s pretty damn good.  Plus, they are next to a great indie book store, just like us, so they know the value of good neighbors and shopping at the indies.

For somewhere around eight hours on Friday and Saturday, I wondered around… took notes… searched for CDs and DVDs on my personal list…and got excited about the ways that we could try to emulate this awesome store.  Hoodlums isn’t quite as big (1,600 square feet at the new store), but  we have the energy, passion, and talent to pack a lot of punch with a small space.  We’ll be stealing ideas from these guys for sure.

But as impressive as the store was – it was the time with Oracle Paul (upgraded from Senator) away from his mighty store that served to be the most energizing.  Sitting at his house, drinking and listening and watching as I picked the poor dog’s brain for hours… ’twas a fine thing.  His collection was massive, as expected – but it wasn’t the size that made it so cool – it was his passion for it.  As he said as I stood there in awe, “It’s who I am”.

Who is he?  Make no bones about it – and I told him so – to call him a collector doesn’t do the word justice (especially when you figure the store is essentially the biggest part of a store owners’ collection).  He’s the oracle… of record store geeks.

So what do you do when you hit the top of the mountain?  Ask a lot of questions… and take a lot of notes.  What is the best James Gang album?  Which Quicksilver Messenger Service is essential?  Do you have any video of Mick Taylor-era Rolling Stones?  Can I watch that Night Gallery DVD? Should I trust the government?

(Answers: Rides Again, Happy Trails, Ladies and Gentlemen… the Rolling Stones, Yes, NO)

This pleased my endlessly-curious 43-year old mind to no end.  You see – my fellow geek’s prime (but not only) area of passion is the unbelievable period between 1965 and 1975.  As it turns out, that’s my favorite era, and even though I feel I was more aggressive than most 0-10 year olds, North Dakota just didn’t provide deep enough AM radio for me, so I still have a lot to learn.

One thing that hasn’t changed since childhood: the more I learn about music; the more I want to know.  And as I jammed and learned – I realized, as I have so many times in the past few months, that a record store geek is who I am.

I hate dress codes.  I love fighting the corporatocracy.  I like sharing the art and gift of film and music.  Most importantly, I love the fact that everything I just wrote about is work… and even though my wife knows it to be true… she can’t bring herself to admit it.

Gotta go pull from my collection for the store…

* (Hoodlum parental note: Kids dig the story behind 2112 – and the moral holds true today).

We headed for Ocean Beach (which is in Fire Island, NY) to visit family.  It’s a mellow little beach town (except for the huge row of bars downtown… but a town needs bars, eh?).  It is really simple: Eat, drink, read and bum out at the beach.  It’s not fancy, but neither are we, and we feel lucky to be there.

We took a side trip to Boston to visit friends and be tourists.  Plus I visited Heath (see Hall of Fame hoodlums) in Brooklyn, which included a night of entertainment by Zychal and Nadine.  Except for the ill-timed (not that it would ever be a good time) passing of our beloved dog Willie Walter (God bless Will – you were a champ), it was just the kind of refreshing break-before-the-storm that we needed.

Of course, I had to do a bit of record store hopping while I was out there.  As I tell my wife – it’s work.  So I went to see the original, legendary Newbury Comics in Boston, and the new and improved Looney Tunes in Long Island.  As expected, both were really impressive.

I had an especially great time at Looney Tunes – thanks to the touring and commentary of our friend KJ, who co-owns the joint.  Those Long Island guys crack me up, and Looney Tunes rebuilding job (picture links story) was even bigger than ours is going to be, so how could I not be inspired?

But we are opening a new store… with a new concept… in 2008!  It’s like starting over.  I have to PULL FROM MY COLLECTION AGAIN!

So one more trip might in order…

We thought about it plenty when debating about whether to reopen Hoodlums or not – I assure you.  It’s a tough business in a tough economy.  However, when it comes down to it, this is what we do.  After twenty years each in the biz, it’s who we are.  Our passion is entertainment.  Our experience is entertainment.  We are small businessmen, and we like being small businessmen, so it’s worth the risk.

What it really comes down to is confidence.  We love the new location, and we think we can do it.  And we think we can do it well enough to connect with our community and survive.

When we opened in 1998, I remember eating dinner with our then-Sony rep, a friend of ours.  He said, “How are you going to survive during the slow summers at ASU?”  We weren’t sure exactly how we were going to do it, but we were confident we could pull it off.  Ultimately, we did (note: Kristian deserves truckloads of credit for navigating us through all those slow summers).

The same goes for our new endeavor.  We’re not sure exactly how we are going to do it – but we think we can do it.

Thanks for your support,

Steve