is the, tongue in cheek, title of a Chuck E. Wiess song. It's not true, Wiess is totally a hep cat. The hep cats who are still around wouldn't let me within 10 feet of them, I don't exactly exude 'cool'. Perusing the window display at Red Cat Records I barely recognized a single CD, ergo, it's probably where cool guys go to buy music. NB. Most of the people reading this are asking 'who the hell is Chuck E. Wiess when he's at home, I've never heard of him?' In actual fact, everyone has heard of him. According to Ricky Lee Jones, Chuck E. was in love with her. Chuck E. Wiess and the God Damned Liars are mentioned in half a dozen Tom Waits tunes. (apologies to all the folks who already knew this)
It's nice to see independent music stores still in business. Once was I couldn't go into a record shop without coming out with 4 or 5 LPs or CDs. I don't want to even talk about cassettes, I consider that an dismal era in the history of recorded music.
I have hundreds of CDs but rarely buy them now. I generally download the specific tunes I want from iTunes and I'm not really doing my bit to keep them in business.
During the time when I was buying a lot of LPs and CDs the place to go in Vancouver was originally Kelly's Music but they were put in second place by A & B Sound and eventually Kelly's was history. When A & B started out they were definitely the best place to go to pick up a James Last LP, some German polka music or one of those awesome Telefunken or Grundig stereo/radio combinations with the big white buttons, turntable tone arms the size of baseball bats, lacquered wood finishes and a dozen different radio frequencies.
As time passed A & B grew into 'the' best place to buy albums in Vancouver and remained in #1 spot until the last five years or so when they slowly faded and recently vanished. I can honestly say I did do my bit to keep A & B Sound in business. I don't think there was any place in the world this side of a Bangkok Street Market where CDs were better priced.
