Abracadabra Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Tower Records going out of business A bankruptcy judge Friday approved the sale of Tower's inventory to a consortium led by liquidating firm Great American Group. Going out of business sales will begin Saturday, Great American president Andy Gumaer said. He said the sale will probably take eight to 10 weeks. Great American paid about $134 million for Tower's inventory. Great American barely outbid Trans World Entertainment Corp., an Albany, N.Y., retail chain, following a lengthy closed-door auction in Wilmington, Del., that began Thursday morning, went through the night and into Friday morning. "I am deeply saddened to report to you that after a very significant 29 hour effort, Great American has outbid (Trans World) at the auction," Tower Chief Executive Joseph D'Amico said in a note to employees. "My heart goes out to each of you who have poured your hearts and souls into this great company." Tower's Web site is being sold separately, although details weren't immediately available. Trans World and lawyers for the major record companies argued that Trans World's bid should have been accepted, even though it fell slightly short, on the grounds that keeping the business alive would have been better for the creditors, who are owed a total of more than $200 million. The sale ends a sad chapter in the history of Sacramento - and the music industry - closing out a company that began 46 years ago with a single store on Watt Avenue. At its peak it was a worldwide icon with 200-plus locations. But the company struggled mightily for the seven or eight years, the victim of fierce competition from the Internet and big-box merchants. The company filed for bankruptcy Aug. 20 for the second time in two years. The company was 85 percent-owned by its bondholders, with the rest owned by the family of Tower founder Russ Solomon. The news brought shock and sadness to current and former employees. 'I think the liquidtor purchase is the saddest result," said former corporate employee Mike Farrace. source i've purchased many a graffiti magazine in tower records in 3 different countries. this is pretty sad, and is seriosuly going to hurt graffiti magazine producers as it was one of the larger distributors of graff mags in what is essentially a mainstream outlet. rip tower records Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Of Hell Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Re: tower records - out of business Wow. Ditto on the graff mag history. 99% of my graff mags were Tower bought, including my fist two. Skills and Styles for Miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weapon X Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Re: tower records - out of business I used to clean the place out. They had two big ones in my city. The one close to me closed down soon after it opened (and had a much better graff mag selection), and then the other one. Those were the only two Towers in Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joker Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 I used to do airbrushing for them years ago. Back when they had in-house artists to recreate album covers really big. I sat in a 4x8 foot room for nine hours a day, five days a week for five years. Airbrushing all day long. My pay... $5.50 an hour. This was late 80's early 90's. The pay sucked bu the benefits were awesome. I constantly had record reps coming in trying to push the new albums. Wanting me to paint this or that. Their means of kissin' up to me... a rather large box of promo CD's. I had at least three reps a week coming in. All I would do is keep the two or three CD's that I really liked and sell the rest at the local music store. That's where I made my money. And selling the album artwork when I would take them down. I also have horrible memories from there as well. Treated like shit and contest winnings stolen from me by several different managers on several different occasions. Being forced to do side projects for said managers for free. But mostly... having to sit in a 4x8 room for nine hours a day for five years. It's amazing that I communicate with the public at all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abracadabra Posted October 7, 2006 Author Share Posted October 7, 2006 that sounds pretty bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Huxtable. Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 no surprise there. you can thank bootlegging, mp3 players, limewire, and legal mp3 downloads. it's actually pretty sad because back in say, 99, or even 00-02 i never would've thought tower would've gone out, and that it'd be here to stay. 5 years ago the area around my college was filled with music stores, tower records, wherehouse music, and various independent record stores... the area was synonymous with music. now, the tower and the wherehouse closed down, as did 90% of the indie record stores. it's too fuckin easy these days to get shit for free and bootleg. i wonder if dvd will go the same route. it's sad to see em go though. back in high school heading to the record store to cop that new album was it. now i don't even pay them no mind. i remember that huge tower records in tokyo that's like 5 stories... i wonder if they'll go out too. same with all those HMV's i'd see overseas. but i was reading about how these music distributors need physical retailers to market in the physical form rather than just downloading. gotta wait and see how it all plays out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Quickwood Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 never been in a tower records... cant say i give a fuck. it just started raining though which is cool. then it quit by the time i finished typing about it, fuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth MontgomeryOner Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 well that just sucks. guess i'll have to order peel now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smart Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 I was in a Tower records once... in Manhattan in '87 or so, I bought a GBH ep and a Subhumans lp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony from Brooklyn Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 The magazine/dvd section in Tower was so fucking easy to clean out, theres usually some dumb birds behind the counter, too engrossed with laughing at the movie on their tv to see that your stuffing shit into your jacket. Ohh well. Peace tower. Not that big a deal though, graff mags are obsolete, and stealing movies on the internet is much easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetodestro Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Fuck Tower! I was on a date with a bitch back in highschool and we ended up in Tower and she tried to talk me into buying her some CD so I pulled out my wallet and looked inside and played that "ah I don't have enough" card and so we left and some undercover secureity douche hemmed me up right outside the door talking about "what'd you put in your pocket! I saw you put something in your back pocket! So I pulled out my wallet and said "you saw me put my wallet BACK into my pocket after I realized that I didn't have enough money to buy a CD you fucking ASSHOLE!!! After patting me down and finding nothing nigga was embarrassed and tried to appologize. I cursed at him some more and told him how I'm gonna get his ass fired as he slunk back inside. Still appologizing. Fucking douchebag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abracadabra Posted October 7, 2006 Author Share Posted October 7, 2006 graff mags are obsolete gotta say this is the first time i've heard this. do you really think they are? i still love flicking through a new glossy rag with bangers from cover to cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetodestro Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Most of them are European which I couldn't give a shit less about, and the ones that are actually from the states have like 2 pages of freight trains and maybe 1 page of legal walls and 1 page of actual street bombing and the rest is just ads and interviews with rappers and stencil fags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abracadabra Posted October 7, 2006 Author Share Posted October 7, 2006 depends which ones you read. unfortunately very few of the good euro mags are available here. but there are euro mags that have tech wall graffiti and stuff, as well as others with funk styles and trains. but i will say american mags aren't as good as they could be. they're either just like you said, or they're really thin and printed on shitty paper which is unfortunate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serum Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 obsolete? glossy graff mags from europe are like gold to me. ill pay $10 a mag easily. i dont know about the tower records in tokyo but the osaka store closed down weeks ago. i thought it was because of all the graffiti. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony from Brooklyn Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 gotta say this is the first time i've heard this. do you really think they are? i still love flicking through a new glossy rag with bangers from cover to cover. I personally don't care about Euro stuff, and I know a lot of American writers share that sentiment. And like dude said, American mags suck, I would not pay money or take the effort to rack to look at graffiti flicks when I can see much better flicks online, and 99% of the time the articles are worthless. So maybe they are just obsolete in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fermentor666 Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 That's the only thing I'd ever miss Tower for, the graff mags. The one that's still left here in Cambridge even sells videos, now. Unless it's closed already. The only place that actually kept up people's stickers and tags on the magazine rack, too. The one in Boston used to have a whole spinning rack stuffed with graff mags. It's funny that even "underground" chains only carry the "WYWS"'s of graffiti mags and a worldwide chain-store like Tower actually carries indie-graff mags (if you live in New England then you know I'm talking about Newbury Comics, which also has a really shitty comic selection). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
En Sabah Nur Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 never been, fuck em. maybe some small record stores will open up instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUR X3 Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Tower kind of WAS like the small local music store, is what I think people are trying to get across here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Butter Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 i heard they were closing like a year ago didnt think it was actually going to happen........rip tower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Europe Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Wow, bad news. Rest in peace. I bought so many good things at Tower's all over the world, from England, Ireland, Israel, NYC, DC and more... Im going to miss them all for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HydrogenPeroxide Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 The only Tower i've ever been in was in south san francisco, the one near sf state to be exact, and guess what? i bought a graff mag. good store i guess, but i can see how a chain like that could go out of business in this day and age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedish erotica Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 that sucks. i was there yesterday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Of Hell Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 I dunno man, some of the best graff mags were from America, and no, i'm not talking about Scribble, or While you were sleeping. Skills Move Styles for Miles On the Go TIGHT(The International Get Hip Times) I just wish Skills would come back. It was the perfect magazinge. What do you expect from SP.ONE though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.yuck Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Back in the day years ago I really liked CAN CONTROL. Do they even still make this mag anymore.? Personally Im gonna agree with everyone esle. I love the fact that Tower carries mags from all over Europe. Its always cool to see what people on the other side of the globe are doing even if you feel like it doesnt have any relevance to whats going on in your town. I picked up a mag quite a few months ago and saw several 12ozers in it. Guess I wont be doing that anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poop Man Bob Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Damn, no more $19 CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Huxtable. Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Life Sucks Die was the best graff mag ever WYWS' "Ghetto Blaster" magazine was also great, but unfortunately they only made one issue. Does WYWS even have graff anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deterrent Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Sale starts today??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flavicon Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Best magazine section hands down. RIP TOWER! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtorder Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 i bought vapors and 12oz prophet at tower records... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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