The Tapeball

I will ask Sharon about this monster, it predated me at Store 9 and I don't remember how it died...more to follow

Autographs

Store 9 had a stage located at the back of the space. THere were three windows on the stage that looked out at the alley and the grubby rental houses that housed students behind the peanut barell. When I got the store 9 the stage was full of signatures, from all the bands that had gigged on stage and recorded it in silver ink. It was something to see, very impressive in my eyes, and I can remember the day that I peered into the old store space and saw that they had painted over all that history. Sad day.
We had our share of people there, not as many as the old corner store, but enough. One band that played on the stage was Train, who at that point had yet to have any radio hits. I don't know what casino they're playing in now but at the time they played and did a good job, 19 Wheels was their opening act, and they did a great little set, nice bunch of guys, signed some shit and were off to someplace I've forgotten. I snagged this picture, signed, and when Meet Virginia and the rest of their songs became hits I would remember that they played in our store. I always thought that was cool.

This obviously came from the epochal Verve Pipe event that started the beginning of the end of the chain. THink about it. Huge event, huge turnout. But the chain was splintering and by the early 1997 there were 6 stores and things just weren't the same. The only thing that seemed to be keeping us afloat were the amazing silver disc bootlegs that chris managed to get into the store. At 24.99 a pop we were turing over quite a few a week, which helped tremendously. So that instore was a high water mark, when people in East Lansing, students, still believed in buying music at local shops in great quantities.

Of all these guys the ones that we saw the most of were Donny Brown and downtown Doug Corella. They were actually great customers who got the discount(we were liberal with who got that treat) and were around quite a bit. Donny Brown was always mr.talk talk talk. My favorite memory is him coming in the store, jawing with mary for a while and then getting ready to leave. He said goodbye mary looked at me, paused, and then said take care man and split. THe next time he came in all he did was call me by my name. Mike this Mike that...I wanted to call him drummer, or something, repeatedly. I get it I get it. You learned my name congrats! I just remember it being a funny story that revolved around those guys, back when there were local legends.

Ticket Request - late 90s

Towards the end of my tenure at the store the Chemical Brothers released their third disc, Surrender. I loved them at the time, had since I moved over to store 9 and would play the shit out of their first disc and sell it fairly consistently too. I had missed them in concert twice since 1996 and this time I was determined to see them. I sent this request to Frank and got the tickets. You would write on this pad and send it along in the envelope or whatever for Frank along with stock suggestions, paper work and other beggings. I found this slip in the bottom of a CD case with Chemical Brothers music on it, I had no clue that I still had it. So sometimes burying your own treasure can yeild results.
I went with Tom, both of us thinking that the other one knew how to get to St.Andrews Hall. Easier said than done. At one point we were on the corner of the one way street in front of the gig. I could hear the boom chick boom but couldn't find out where the hall was. At another point we ended up in deepest, darkest downtown Detroit. And this is not to denote some sort of sly comment, where we were there were no street lights!
After some trying we finally made it there, turning off the Hank Williams Jr tape I had brought along for the ride(Hank, stay away from The Air That I BReathe..your version is hideous...) and made it up to the club. We saw half the gig but it was amazing. As we slowly moved into the hall I ended up standing by one of the back speakers. Damn thing nearly stopped my heart the bass was so loud.
For the encore (the private psychedelic reel - fantastic) we got up onto the balcony. I was leaning over the side, watching out when suddenly a flashlight shined in my eyes. Security, they thought I was pouring beer over the rail. I had no beer and when I think back I was rather sweaty but I doubt it was pouring off my stomach down onto the blonde beneath us. But who's to say. The gig ended and it was amazing.
When Tom got married in 2003 he requested, and they played, Block Rockin' Beats at the recpetion sealing his wedding as the coolest (until mine...cough...) and it just made me smile. I haven't been to St.Andrews since but I do know how to get there now. Best to go early, during the daylight, so you don't end up in either Windsor or 8 Mile.

Employees - in and out of focus

Here are a few more inside the store shots of our fearless leader, Mary. I cannot accurately date these pics but probably could if I tried.
One of them, the crooked one, is probably just me making a goofy attempt at a photograph. THe second photo I think is from a Sunday. I was trying to win a free CD and three hundred bucks and I concocted this monsterous display for a mix CD. I'll have pics up soon. I didn't win. Bastards. But I did get mentioned in the letter telling me I didn't win. I would come in on my days off to put this beast together and maybe I was done as why else would I have a camera with me to take pics of a half completed display?
In the photo we see the increasingly reclusive Chuck, Mary behind the counter and Tom's head right in the shot. I think it was a Sunday as Tom generally worked Sundays and Chuck's posture was that of "I'm just stopping by" on his way to Ned's, where he gave himself a hernia one fine day.
Things I find funny in the photos(which I think do date from 1999) are the copy of Eminem's first CD near Tom's head and the bottle of Lipton iced tea in the solo shot of Mary. I drink so much of that stuff now it can't be properly described, have for years, and I always like to see where I leave bottles.

June 1994

This is really a silly thing to have kept for 12 years and I wish I could tell you just why I still have it. I mean now it has some sentimental value but think about it for a second.
Putting aside the fact that I have saved a scrap of paper for over a decade take a look at the thing. Every Monday is cassette day. Every Tuesday you saved 2 bucks. Wednedsay it was buy one, get one for ten bucks. Look at the small print on that one and see the highest price you could use this deal on. 15.99. Those were the motherfucking days!
Thursday is FREE singles day aka get these fucking things out of the store please!
Just another item to make the store special and seem special to the customers, deals all month to get you into the store on or around new release day to pick up more and more music.
On the back, and I didn't scan this, is the written tracklisting for the then newest Pearl Jam LP, Vitalogy, which I was so hyped up for when I got that job. I wrote down all the tracks. Why? Don't remember. Just excited I guess.

Location Location Location

This wallet sized card ended up in my hands for reasons I cannot remember. From looking at it though it shows the reach of the chain, I don't know that I would call it the peak of the chain but certainly it was a high water mark. From two stores to the full ten(I think). This little business sized card has them all and it is a pretty intelligent plan when you think about it. Why just have one card for one store, get them all onto one so when someone happens to be out on the south side of town they could see that they didn't have to drive all over town to get that Ugly Kid Joe or Another Bad Creation disc. They could just whip out the card, see what was close, and drop some coin.

JAM

This the only photo I have of JAM music. This is taken from the back of the store, from the Lloyd station. That is, in fact, an inside joke. Jeff, if you fucked up, called youLloyd.
Once Jeff took the register and I helped Chris check in the shipment. Jeff walks back and grabs an armful of CDs to keeper and put on the floor. Well he gets the discs and as he turns his arm gets caught and he drops all the CDs.
I look at Chris. He know's what I'm thinking.
Do you want to say it or should I?
No, you do it.
Lloyd.
I crack up and I musta laughed for 15 minutes. This eventually pissed off Jeff as he said if you keep it up you can go home.
I had tears in my eyes but it was worth it.
Good times at the end of the century.