In line at the check-out counter, clutching a tape of Swing Out Sister's Shapes and Patterns (oh yes, I was---wait, ahem---still am--- suchhhhhhhh a big fan...even thought of naming a future daughter "Corinne" after the sweet/smooth Ms. Drewery), I was amused at just how the bastard in front of me with Creed's Human Clay CD thought he took his rock seriously and had "tha bomb" right then and there, sneering in my general direction and at my Coney Island flavored, 60's inspired SOS album.
Five years after that incident, I am not at all surprised that his Godforsaken band with the cheap imitation Eddie V vocals ultimately broke up.
I mean, at least SOS is still big in Japan.
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One time, I was hanging around the record store when I found copies of Girls Gone Wild in stock.
In the very next counter, a fat boy was begging his mom to get him a newly-released WWF Smackdown VCD. I was tempted---mightily at that---to grab him by the arm and tell him, "But dude, you're too old for that macho slapstick! Try this instead..."
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Before they busted out into the mainstream with their brand of rap, rock and beats, Linkin Park spent the latter part of 2000 and early part of 2001 largely nameless and faceless.
I got my first listen of "Hybrid Theory" in December 2000 in the US and after getting blown away by the mix, I told my sister, "Hey man, these white dudes know how to rock!"
My sister gave me the look and the some white folks got out of the store in disgust: I had actually said it at the top of my lungs.
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The search for a hard-to-find record gets even tougher with ignorant salespeople. It is still beyond me why fastfood kids know their stuff inside-out while most records stores employ freaks who simply don't have a clue about their product (this goes the same for a lot of bookstore people)---the kind who'll tell you to look for Tool under letter T (which is right, but isn't this just why I was asking for assistance in the first place?!?!?!?!) and think that Poe is a collection of classic ballads by the late King of Philippine Cinema.
I'd really have no argument if they sold toyo and suka and couldn't tell me the difference between Marca Pina blue and Marca Pina green but what-the-hey, they don't!
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