I was surprised when i first heard the news that Tower Records had gone bankrupt, and they were bought by a liquidation firm. Here on Oahu, there are 3 Tower locations: Pearl Kai, Ke’eaumoku, and Kahala Mall. Tonight I went with Rich to the Kahala Mall location, and it was really cleaned out. The CDs were 70% off. Hip hop cds were all gone already. The remaining albums didn’t look interesting at all and were only $1.50 since the section had been so depleted. I wandered around for quite some time before finally deciding I’d searched through enough, and found what I wanted. Lots of stuff was already sold-out. I checked for stuff by Bonobo, the Cinematic Orchestra, Boards of Canada, the Cure, hip hop stuff, etc. but they were gone.

Certain artists catalogs like, Radiohead, the Cure, and Rage Against the Machine had all been sold. I made 3 purchases tonight:

1) Caribou : Start Breaking My Heart (Leaf Label)

2)V/A : Exit Music – Songs with Radio Heads (bbe)

3) D’Angelo : Brown Sugar (EMI)

Hawaii doesn’t have many music stores, and I worked at the Pearl Kai location about a decade ago, so there’s a little nostalgia mixed in there as well. But Tower was something that seemed like it would always be around. So I was surprised, and a bit bummed. Hopefully we’ll get another music store out here with a decent back-catalog! I am glad to have had the chance to work at a Tower Records, and can only hope the employees nation-wide were able to find replacement jobs they enjoy.

Here’s a picture of the Kahala store I found online:
All 3 CDs combined came to under $15. The Caribou CD is a great listen so far. One of the most interesting things I’ve heard in a long time. If you like electronic stuff, as well as jazzy, or math-rock stuff, you might be able to dig Caribou. It is not overly experimental to the point of pretentiousness, but also very unique. It’s kinda melancholy, and beautiful. It is definitely a pleaser for a beat-fiend like myself.

Tower Kahala had a sign counting down the number of days left. One more week before its final day. It seems surreal to think they’ll be gone. I heard the Ke’eaumoku location will become a Wal-Green’s… right across the street from Wal-Mart. That doesn’t seem like a good idea on Wal-Green’s part. It’s always weird to lose something that holds memories from the past. I met some cool people there, and remember just hanging out in Tower when I didn’t know what else to do with myself since I’ve always been somewhat of a music fiend. My tastes vary a lot. I still remember browsing for hours just looking through all the racks. Ahh well… Goodbye to Tower Records. It was good while it lasted.