Viva Record Revolution

Hey gang. Many of you know me from DeKalb. In fact, some of you know me from my short stint as record-slinger at the local hipster music supply: Record Revolution. This past Saturday, the owner/proprietor put on a fantastic party to commemorate 35 years of service to the music-lovers of DeKalb County.

I saw folks that trained me and folks I helped to train. There was one guy that now works for Harpo Productions, my friend Kate with her own guitar store, and tons of other great stories. The party was catered by Taxco (great Mexican food) and there was free beer. (Margaritas, too!) Psychobilly Kadillaks provided the live entertainment - their drummer worked at the Rev, too.

Past and present employees introduced themselves to the crowd at one point, introduced by the Chief (Mark) and Bobbo capped off the speeches with one that belied his true eloquence. I think a lot of people tune out a few minutes into one of his tirades in the store, but I was pretty fortunate to actually listen. I think a lot of how I perceive politics is based on his no-nonsense, practical, useful view of how things should be run. I always thought he should be on the city board in some capacity.

Anyhow, the point of making this public (the party was invite only) is to mention that Mark made a reference to what might be the end of the store. He said he'd "try to keep it open through December of '08" which is pretty ominous.

Even as a former employee, I've been a terrible customer of the Rev - a store I worked in because I was already a customer in 1990 and hoped against hope that there'd be an employee discount. (There was.) Along the way, I learned about running a retail business, everything you ever wanted to know about Phil Spector, details, and Thai food. I learned about music distribution and watched the last great fleecing by the RIAA as everyone re-purchased their LPs as CDs. I digress.

I'm calling out to everyone who reads this blog to spend the extra dollar or two (or maybe much less if you can find a used copy) and support Record Rev with your next music purchases. It may not keep them open into 2009, but it'd be a fitting tribute to another DeKalb institution that could be gone in a few months. At the very least, send a note to Mark and Bobbo and the crew at either the MySpace page or the web site.

You might even learn something about the upcoming election...