so I'm listening to Eardrum's 1999 album "Last Night" and i just can't think anything about it but 'man, i know i heard this in other music in 1999' and i'm not just saying that cause the dude who gave me the album has the OM connection, but really, it's the spatial, the skitterstepping, the musique concrete over shifty beats that so characterises the vanguard of this time, like having a post-rock sensibility but being more in conversation with the types of things going on in the idm/underground hip hop world. hrmrm.
that said, I HATE the Morningstide Heights Kim's for the following reasons:
1) it's small
2) there's a ton of space dedicated to DVDs and books, but really not too much space for new albums
3) the dudes who work there don't know very much about music and don't ever want to leave their kiosk perch, which
4) is really lame, like, why did they build it soo tall that you have to step up on a little step just to see the freakin clerk? duh, handicap accessibility and the general melodrama of standing eight feet in the air when you just want to get yr new blood brothers album for 10 dollars and zoom out
5) the replication their dumb filing system uptown (which i understand bc of the whole chain continuity thing) for a store serving a vastly different population and with radically understocked shelves of the so called 'best of' of mainstream music and cherrypicked alternatives. if you're going to have an 'electronic music' section, you know, and be proud of it, you should have more than 200 albums in stock. no?
and while i'm on the subject of 'so 1999', the leaf label is my new nominee for worse website for best label. all flash websites bore my brain and overtax my laptop - what do i want? information!
Here's my review of the Lenka Dusilova and Alvik show.
as a former employee of da mediapolis, i would like to attempt to stand up for the place. i genuinely loved working there, and would probably still be working there if i still lived in the neighborhood, and if they paid just a teensy bit more per hour:
1) it's small
yes, this is true, but is it really any smaller than etherea or sound and fury (r.i.p.) or accidental or sounds or breakbeat science?
2) there's a ton of space dedicated to DVDs and books, but really not too much space for new albums
i disagree. the books department is MUCH smaller than the music department, in terms of both space and personnel. video, however, is the store's bread and butter, so it is given the most space and attention. they do have an excellent selection, though, especially when it comes to music video/dvd.
3) the dudes who work there don't know very much about music and don't ever want to leave their kiosk perch, which
the people who work behind the main counter don't work in the music department. they are all video clerks. maybe nobody told you (which IS lame) that the music people work out of the booth in the middle of the store.
4) is really lame, like, why did they build it soo tall that you have to step up on a little step just to see the freakin clerk?
i never understood the counter height either.
5) the replication their dumb filing system uptown (which i understand bc of the whole chain continuity thing) for a store serving a vastly different population and with radically understocked shelves of the so called 'best of' of mainstream music and cherrypicked alternatives. if you're going to have an 'electronic music' section, you know, and be proud of it, you should have more than 200 albums in stock. no?
i have always hated kim's indie/mainstream filing system, but i suppose they weren't going to change that just for one store.
as for your other complaint, i think the store was quite well stocked with everything other than standard pop music and classical. there are definitely more than 200 albums in the electronic section-- at least 5 or 6 hundred, if the hours i had to spend organizing it were any indication. i think their stock catered to the columbia u. community quite well. when i worked there, it was rare for someone to come in asking for something we didn't have (unless it was the new radiohead album which didn't come out for another week, didn't i tell you that yesterday, doofus???).
i lived up in morningside for 2 years before kim's moved in there, and those were barren times. i, and the entire columbia u. music-loving community, welcomed it with open arms.