Bruce educates us on some new tunes, explains why Rick James rocks so hard, and teaches us the wonders of working in a record store.  Its a lot like the movie High Fidelity of course.



buffaBLOG: how do u decide who gets to play their choice album at work? draw straws?
Bruce: We actually just take turns. Whoever gets to the store first when we open plays the first album, and then we all get a turn until we start over back at the first person.

buffaBLOG: what should we be listening to these days? 
Bruce: There are a number of recent releases that i have been very excited about. The new Holy Fuck album, "Latin", is less chaotic and more structured than their earlier work and i am surprised to say that that is a good thing here. Also the new Black Keys album, "Brothers" is possibly their best work yet. Loose, fuzzy blues grooves like the Black Keys are known for. This one isn't recent but it's free for legal download so you can still feel good about yourself, Revolution Void's album, "Increase the Dosage". I saw the cover art at the store, it is of girls in a psychedelic landscape holding gigantic pills, and my interest was piqued. After a little hunting (very little) i found it. Call it a fusion of Jazz and Break Beat and Electro. Seriously skilled instrumentalists take Jazz in a direction i haven't heard before....and, get ready, most definitely the first Jazz turntable solo...maybe ever.

buffaBLOG: craziest or weirdest thing that's ever happen in Record Theatre? 
Bruce: Ok...so the people who frequent the University Plaza on Main st. are some of the most interesting characters one could ever imagine. So this story could probably be topped or at least matched many times over. Here we go. Big guy comes in, i can smell him already, he is as drunk as i would like to be if it was say...friday at 3am, or at least his breathe indicates this. He wants to talk about Rick James, he doesn't want me to show him where the Rick James music would be, he just wants to stand at the counter with me so we can agree with each other all day how awesome the Super Freak himself is. So he is telling me about a concert he saw, Rick James, who would have thunk it? And he proceeds to tell me how he really, "Rocked the house." "Yeah," I say, "I never got to see him but I'm sure he put on quite a show."
"YEAH! YOU GOTTA ROCK ROCK ROCK ROCK ROCK THE HOUSE!"
yes....he is now screaming at me.
"ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK THE HOUSE!"
i raise my hand and open my mouth to interject...
"ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK THE HOUSE!"
Mind you this man has no lost eye contact with me. His bleary and glassy eyes are dead locked on mine and i cannot look away.
"ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!....." you get the idea, this went on for probably 2 or 3 straight minutes...which is longer than you think. Than he kinda walked out with saying anything else....i had been at work for no more than 5 minutes.

buffaBLOG: whats the best thing about working in a record store?
Bruce: The best thing about working in a record store is getting to talk to all sorts of different people with all sorts of different tastes and points of view on music. I must hear of maybe 10 or 20 new bands every month, and while maybe a handful or less will be bands i really enjoy, that's still quite an in flow of new music to try and stay on top of. That's a lot of back catalogs to get familiar with. Also i really love being able to play things in the store that i am excited about. And mainly because when i am excited about something, especially musically, i want everyone else to be as excited as i am. So i suppose a shorter answer would be i just love the free flow of information, the employees sharing our music with the customers and the customers in turn sharing what they are into with us. Everybody, everybody, knows at least 5 great bands you never have, and you know at least 5 great bands that most other people never have.