Record Store Tales

Part 68: The Fucked-Up Tooth

You think you’d remember something like losing a tooth at work.

So it was weird one day, when while cleaning the store, I found an old rotten tooth behind the counter!  Like, way behind the counter, like where the dust bunnies multiply at the edge of carpeting and corner.

I didn’t know it was a tooth when I picked it up.  I thought it was a stone.  I picked it up and turned it over and half of it was black and/or missing and it was obviously a molar.   But where the fuck did it come from?  I was perplexed!  This is the store that I opened, have always helmed, I knew everybody that worked here, ever.  Where the fuck did this tooth come from?

I mean, we were a CD store!  It’s pretty straightforward.  Lots of discs, lots of cases, lots of paper sleeves.  Not a lot of teeth.

Today, I can only really see one plausible scenario.  Since we bought and sold discs, when we bought ’em, they often came in big boxes or bags that have obviously been sitting around.

So, imagine this:  Scuzzy crackhead man or woman walks in with a big brown cardboard box full of shitty scratched up Steve Miller discs.  In the bottom of the box, God knows how, but in the bottom there’s an old rotten tooth.  When the staff get the boxes in, they often temporarily stash them behind the counter, right up against the wall where the dust bunnies roam.  Tooth gets dislodged, only to be found on the next thorough cleaning…

That’s just my theory.  You’re welcome to come up with your own.  Bottom line though, how the fuck does an old rotten tooth end up in the carpeting of a CD store?  That’s the biggest mystery I ever encountered.

The answer now is probably lost to the sands of time.  Like the tooth.  Which I threw in the trash seconds later!

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Part 67: Klassic Kwotes VIII!

1.  “Can I return this CD?” said the man who handed me an empty CD case.

2.  One Boxing Day, I helped a lovely family of four (dad, mom, two boys) pick out roughly $100 worth of music.  They got gift certificates for Christmas.  It took about an hour to help them, as (of course) they wanted to listen to everything first.  I collected all the discs from the players, rang in the order, and they handed me a gift certificate for a different fucking CD chain.  When I explained to them, “Sorry, no, we’re not that store.  We’re [insert name].”  A perfectly reasonable response would have been, “Oh man, sorry…sorry to have taken your time.”  But no.  No, the response this time was, “Well how the hell was I supposed to know that?”  Well, maybe by looking at the fucking sign out front before you walk in!

3. Once, we caught a little thief trying to sell us discs that he had just stolen from HMV an hour before.  Tom was on the phone with a cop at the HMV when Tom asked, “Hey, uhh, while I’m talking to you, do you have any Willie Nelson over there?” 

4.It was always kind of funny when people pronounced names wrong, in certain cases.  So when a guy asked me if I had any Bruce Cockburn, I can tell you that it rhymed with clock-burn.  Figuring that I should probably tell him how to pronounce it so he doesn’t go around all over asking for the CD that way, I politely corrected him.  His response was, “Yeah, great, thanks that’ll come in handy next time I talk to him.”

5. “How do I get in there??”  This desperate question was asked by a woman, banging on our windows, not 10 feet away from our actual entrance.

6. “Can I get each of these in a separate bag?”  A guy bought 10 empty CD cases.  He wanted each one bagged on its own so it didn’t get scratched.

7. “Can I ask you a question?  Are you a believer?”  We were also frequently handed pamphlets from Jehova’s Witnesses.

8. “Got bad news for you buddy.  Somebody ripped you off.”  The customer then opened a CD case and showed me there was no disc inside.  Apparently he didn’t notice the signs that said, “All cases are empty”, nor all the discs in storage behind me.

9. That “All cases are empty” sign was more trouble than it was worth.  Multiple times, people would say to me, “So, I have to pay $12 and I just get the case?  Where am I supposed to get the CD?”

10. “Can I use your phone for a sec?”  A common question, in the pre-cell-phone days.  But this guy used the phone for 10 minutes!  And then when the call waiting went off, instead of handing it to me, he answered it!

Part 66: The First Time I Heard Marillion

 

RECORD STORE TALES PART 66:   The First Time I Heard Marillion

Winter – spring, 1999.  The last couple of years had been a messy string of bad dates, break-ups, and bad music.  Heavy metal, at least in this town, spent most of the 90’s in a coma.  I had been stretching out and selectively buying different kinds of music, just due to the sheer lack of quality and selection in new metal music.  I don’t think that really changed until Iron Maiden roared back with Brave New World.  I noticed a seismic shift, a growing pulse, in metal at that time.

Working in the store, I got to try anything I wanted.  I had explored Brit-pop, Australian indi bands, a little electronica, and a lot of mainstream stuff, as long as it had some guitars or aggression to it.

One day, the same guy who sold me that rare Oasis live album  walked in.  He had a whole bunch of remastered albums for sale, among them three Marillion discs:  Script For A Jester’s Tear, Fugazi, and Misplaced Childhood.  These were the remastered versions with the bonus discs.  Absolutely impossible to find in town.  Even hard to get on the leading websites, such as HMV.com and CDnow.

Now, I had definitely heard of Marillion, but never heard Marillion.  I had read about them in M.E.A.T Magazine, and my buddy Tom had a dozen Marillion posters on the wall.  I thought they would be my kind of band, just I had never stumbled upon them before.

I called Tom.

“Tom!  I just got three Marillion remasters in.  Misplaced, Fugazi, and Script.  Do you want?”

“Oooh…he didn’t have Clutching at Straws, did he?” Tom asked.  I replied in the negative.

“Listen,” Tom said.  “You have three great albums there, but if you want to try some Marillion, go for Misplaced, before you try the other two.  You’ll like Misplaced.  The other two can be kind of dense at first.”

I took Tom’s advice, and bought Misplaced.  I brought it to the cottage with me that weekend, and listened to the whole thing on my boombox.

What an experience, immersed in the music at the lake, nobody around, hearing Fish’s smooth voice and sometimes jagged enunciation.  This Fish guy, I didn’t know what he was on about yet, but I was intrigued by three things:

  1. He looked cool.
  2. His lyrics were very poetic, unlike any I’d heard before.
  3. He was Scottish, just when I was starting to get interested in my own Scottish half-background.

“Kayleigh” jumped right out at me on the first listen, but soon “Heart of Lothian” followed.  Then “Lavender”, “White Feather”…the album really spoke to me!  I get it!  It’s about girls, right?

In the same Oasis article mentioned above, I talked about being an obsessive compulsive collector.  Well, after buying Fugazi and Seasons End in short order, I was off to the races.  I went to their website and bought everything.  Every friggin’ thing.

Everybody at work hated Marillion.  Everybody!  I remember being at a record store party once.  This guy named “German Mike” was there, he was somebody’s friend that had flown in.  From Germany.  Anyway, they were on the topic of whatever new bands were happening at the time.  I broke in, saying, “I’ve actually been going back to discover old bands.  I’m really into Marillion right now.”

“Fuck Marillion,” said German Mike.  He later puked potato chips all over his shirt.

Nah, sorry German Mike.  I’ll stick to Marillion, but maybe you should cut the chicken chips!

Pre-Marillion:  douche. 

Marillion is good for you!  

Girlfriend!  Thanks, Marillion! 

Part 65: Vinyl

RECORD STORE TALES Part 65: Vinyl

We’d always dabbled in vinyl.  We didn’t do a lot of vinyl, it was the 90’s after all, and vinyl was dead.  We didn’t buy it used, but sometimes something big came out on vinyl that we had to carry.  For example:

In 1994, Pearl Jam released Vitalogy on LP a week earlier than the CD.  We stocked five and they sold out on day one.

In 1996, Soundgarden came out with Down On The Upside LP a week earlier than the CD, so we stocked that.  I can’t remember how many we stocked, but I do remember it took years to sell them!

My copy, still sealed...that's my handwriting too.

My copy, still sealed…that’s my handwriting too.

A bit later on, my buddy Tom opened his own branch and decided to stock used vinyl.  He was the only one to try it, he had a vinyl room in the back.  They phased the vinyl out rapidly after Tom moved on, as he was the chief expert buyer.  However during the period that Tom carried vinyl, I filled so many gaps in my collection.

Here’s some examples.  You have to remember that at the time, these might not have been out on any digital format at all, and downloading hadn’t hit us yet.

  • Ozzy’s Live EP, still unreleased on any digital format today.
  • Helix’s first two, Breaking Loose and White Lace & Black Leather albums, autographed by the late Paul Hackman.  I think these were in Tom’s 25 cent bin.
  • Hear N’ Aid, Ronnie James Dio’s 1986 charity LP featuring exclusive tracks from Kiss and others.
  • Guns N’ Roses 12″ single for “Patience” with an exclusive interview with Axl on the B-side
  • Kim Mitchell, the legendary Max Webster frontman’s first solo foray from 1982.  Easily my favourite record of his entire storied career, and impossible to find on CD under $100.
  • Max Webster’s Live Magnetic Air from 1979, a hard find on CD for sure.

That’s just a sampling, there were many more.  And that’s just that stuff that I bought.  I’m sure Tom saw many a rare disc float his way.

There was one record I’ll never forget.  This sucker was worth $100 right there.  It was by a band from Oshawa Ontario, called Christmas.  It had a tank on the cover.  I guess they had this cult following and only a small quantity of records were made, let alone survived.  And musically, it wasn’t bad.

I’m glad that vinyl is back in a fairly significant way again.  I enjoy buying it, and I enjoy playing it.

I want a USB turntable for my birthday.  I accept gifts.

Part 64: Niagara Falls

RECORD STORE TALES Part 64:  Niagara Falls

I never was the traveling kind, so when I had to spend a weekend working Niagara Falls, I wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect.  I warmed up to the idea after I met Mike and Greg, the new owners of our latest franchise.

I packed the Deep Purple box set in the car, a box of pepperettes, and hit the highway.  I arrived at the store on a bitter cold Saturday morning, and we worked the day away.  It was a tiring day, as we bought and shelved a lot of merchandise that day.  We were constantly pricing discs.

The best thing about Niagara was the co-owner Mike.  He was a funny guy.  Great stories.  Massive Kiss fan.  Great stories about meeting Gene and being promised all sorts of things on the forthcoming Kiss box set.  Mike also played bass.  He was a long, long time Record Store Guy.

Mike was in this insane punk band called The Legendary Klopeks.  He wore a blonde pigtail wig and went by the name of Lemon Kurri Klopek.  The lead singer, Josh, was Sweet Pepper Klopek.  He is quite legendary today as an extreme…well I dunno what you call it but he bleeds a lot and he wrestles and he is a Guiness’ Book record holder for something that nobody should really do.

Their lyrics were hilarious.  Take, for example, “Ric Flair”:

I wanna (something something?)

I wanna do a “woo” (“WOOO!”)

I wanna be like Ric

’cause he’s so fucking cool

I want a son

who doesn’t suck

That’s the only thing that’s wrong with Ric

So who gives a fuck?

He’s the king, the king of the ring,

He’ll fuck you up just like it ain’t no thing.

Every song on the sophomore album Straight To Hell ends with the words, “Fuck you!”  Even the short ones, like “Where’s My Soup?”  The lyrics to “Where’s My Soup?” are as follows:

Where’s my soup?

Fuck you!

The other owner, Greg, did merch for Blue Rodeo and in fact when he said this, I realized I’d seen him at the last Blue Rodeo gig that I attended.  I bought a shirt from him!

Because of the Legendary Klopeks, Niagara had a bit of, I don’t know how to put this…an entourage, maybe?  All interesting characters.  The most interesting was Gary James Dean. Otherwise known as The Deaner.

The less said about the Deaner, the better.  But I will say this.   He liked to tell people that he masturbated with his Justin Timberlake doll.  And he phoned about 25 times a day.  Not even exaggerating about that.

Anyway, Niagara was a fun store to work in.  They always played good music, and they had great stories.  Today Mike tours with Steve Earle, doing his merch, and I am insanely happy for him and jealous at the same time.  He’ll post a picture on Facebook like, “Me and Steve eating sushi.”  Stuff like that.

The best score that I got from that store was actually a gift from Mike.  It was the Bruce Dickinson CD single for “All The Young Dudes”, the Mott the Hoople cover.  (B-sides:  the acoustic “Darkness Be My Friend”, and the AC/DC cover “Sin City”.)

I’ll always remember good times in the Falls:  Rock n’ Roll, the Klopeks, sushi, and the Deaner!

Part 69: Porn Don’t Go Platinum

RECORD STORE TALES PART 69:  Porn Don’t Go Platinum

Yeah, it happened.  Every once in a while, someone would try to sell porn to us.  Us, a mainstream, family-oriented used CD store.

On one occasion which, sadly, I was not there to witness, I was told that the video in question was anime “robot porn”.  I don’t know what that really means, in terms of, what you will see on the video screen.  However that description alone was enough to politely turn down the video in question.

Another time, some porn came into Trevor’s store.  Trevor declined it, but the customer left it behind anyway.  At the time, Trev and I were roomates.  We were renting this shitty basement apartment.  Good times for sure, but the hallways of the building always smelled like fish.

I went to the cottage one weekend, and Trev surprised me upon my return.  Upon my bed was that porn tape.  He wasn’t home, so I decided, “What the hell?”  I removed the tape from its cardboard shell, placed in the VCR, and washed my hands.  I thought, “I wonder what kind of porn our clientele are into?”  The store was in Cambridge so I expected the quality to be less than stellar.

Well, what I saw horrified me.  This chick with missing teeth, going at it with four dudes, with the cheesiest piano music in the background, like John Tesh cheesey.  I couldn’t handle the missing teeth though, they were so friggin’ gross…

So:  Apparently, according to a survey of one, people in Cambridge watch toothless cheesey porn with John Tesh sounding music in the background.  Way to go Cambridge!

Part 63: Open Late

One of the best thing about working Sundays that first year was that it was a short day.  We were only open noon ’til 4.  It was usually a quiet day and you coul get a lot done. 

Saturdays, on the other hand, usually sucked.  That was a long lonely day (8 hours, by yourself) and you usually ended the day with more work to do than you started with.  Yet the consolation was when 6 o’clock rolled around, we were closed and I was going home….

Not Easter Saturday 1995!  My Aunt from Calgary had just flown in and had surprised me by meeting me at work to drive me home.  She popped in at around 5:30 and gave me a big hug.

“What time do you get off?  I’ll drive you home.”  I normally walked to work so that was fine by me.  I told her that I’d be done cashing out at quarter after she bought some music (Forrest Gump if I recall).

My Aunt stepped out to wait for me in the mall.  However, even though it was almost 6, people kept pouring in, it looked like one giant family. 

“Can I help you guys find anything today?” I asked.

“No, we’re fine, thanks,” replied the patriarch of this particular clan.

6 o’clock.  I pulled our sign in from  the hallway, and slid the door partway shut.  I went to the cash register and waited.  A last-minute straggler bought a cassette, and I opened the door to let him out, and closed it again.  Incredibly, after I closed the door, some more people from this one family arrived, opened it, and poured in! 

I just kind of stared like I didn’t see it happen.  Like, why do we bother closing?  Hey folks, let’s stay open 24 FREAKIN’ HOURS A DAY!

My Aunt was waiting outside clearly confused.

Half an hour later, she knocked on the store window.  I opened the door.

“How long do you think you’ll be?”

“I have no idea…these people are pissing me off!”

I reminded them that we were closed, and asked if I could help them find anything.

“No.  Just lookin’,” the patriarch replied.

Jesus Murphy!  The clocked ticked on, and finally they were done.  A few of the kids bought some cassettes, and the transactions took forever because kids always seem to pay in change….

I was out around 7.  Luckily having my Aunt in town salvaged what was a pretty rotten Saturday!

Part 62: Creepy Danny (Spice up your life!)

Nobody shall ever forget Creepy Danny. So named, because some of the girls at the store were really creeped out by him. Me, I think he was harmless albeit annoying as hell. Sometimes, I wonder how people like Creepy Danny managed to function (feed, clothe themselves) on a daily basis.

Creepy Danny was this short little guy who somewhat resembled a human troll. He seemed…not right in the head. He had a high, whispery voice with a lisp and stutter, and tended to repeat the same question over and over again in the same breath. And he liked Spice Girls, a lot.

“D-d-d-do you have Spice Girls? Do you have Spice Girls?”

Once you’d show him Spice Girls, the next inevitable questions were (not necessarily in this order):

“D-d-d-do you like Spice Girls? I like Geri. Do you like Spice Girls? Do you like Geri? I like Geri best. Then Scary, Baby, Posh and Sporty. Do you like Spice Girls?  Have you seen the v-v-v-video for ‘Spice Up Your Life’?  P-p-people of the world! Spice up your life!”

There was no stopping Creepy Danny when he was on about Spice Girl.

“I heard th-th-th-that Geri quit Spice Girls. Is that true, is that true?”

He was indeed crushed when I told him that Ginger was no longer a Spice Girl.

However, it wasn’t many months before he started asking the next, inevitable question:

“D-d-d-do you have the new CD by G-G-G-Geri Halliwell? D-d-do you have Geri Halliwell?”

I think I sold about 3 copies of that album in total by the way.

But he was harmless. He just took a lot of babysitting, and time out of your day, and two Advil.

The phone would ring. I’d hear that high stuttering voice. “D-d-d-do you have Backstreet Boys?” Sometimes, I would hand the phone over to someone else. “Brad, it’s for you.” And then hand him off to Creepy Danny.

I have a theory about Creepy Danny.

He was simply too bizarre to have been a real persona. In all my years at the store, I have never met anyone as purely strange yet functional as Creepy Danny. I believe that Creepy Danny was actually a University Sociology masters student, and it was a persona he adopted in public as some sort of elaborate social experiment, to see how people treat those who are different.

I imagined a scenario where I might catch Creepy Danny out of character. I imagined that one night, I would be out for a nice expensive dinner at Charcoal Steakhouse. I would be there with a girl, and at the next candlelit table, there is Danny, with a knock-out babe. He pours the wine. He catches a glimpse of me. A glimmer of recognition. Suddenly, he reverts back to character! “D-d-d-do you like Spice Girls?”

That’s the way I imagined it unfolding. My theory was never proven, nor disproven. But in my mind, a character as weird as Danny was simply had to be cooked up by a student. There’s no other way!

Part 61: Obsessive Compulsive / REVIEW – Oasis Live (1994)

 

I’ve always had a little obsessive-compulsive in me.  This really came out when I started collecting music.  First, I had to have all the albums.  Then when I discovered B-sides, I had to have all of them, too.  Easier said than done.

Nowadays, the picture is so much more complicated.  While single B-sides are much more scarce today, much pricier bonus tracks have now replaced them.  Today, one has the choice to collect Japanese imports, for one or two elusive songs, at premium prices.  Or, you could choose the iTunes version for its own exclusive songs.  Vinyl bonus tracks are becoming more common.  Then, on top of that, Best Buy often have their own exclusive songs.  Classic Rock Magazine gets bonus tracks sometimes.  Occasionally, different countries will have their own additional music.

This leaves the obsessive-compulsive collector in a precarious position.  I’ll give you this example.  Alice Cooper, Welcome 2 My Nightmare.  In order to get every song associated with this album, I purchased:

The regular retail “deluxe edition” with four bonus tracks.

The iTunes edition which had its own bonus tracks…but not the ones from the physical versions.

The vinyl version, which had its own bonus track, “Flatline”, but none of the other bonus tracks.

The single for “I’ll Bite Your Face Off”, which has a live B-side from Download festival.

 

Being obsessive-compulsive about music sucks!  While you can usually get things at a fair price if you are patient and wait, sometimes you will never find what you want that way.  You could hunt every used CD store you ever enter, but will never find some of those Maiden singles, like “Wasting Love”, for under $40.  At least it’s never happened to me.

When you do get lucky, you have to act, and immediately.  One of my biggest scores happened to be a very, very rare item by one of Trevor’s favourite bands.  This was a sticking point.  More on that later….

The guy who sold it to me was one of those customers that nobody liked, except me.  As such, I always caught a lot of grief when these customers came in, because if I was seen chatting it up with them, it was considered “socializing” and not “work” because he was my “friend”.  This was one of those guys.

Well, define “friend”.  Did I go out for drinks with this guy?  No.  Did I ever see him outside work?  No.  Did I know his birthday?  No.  Did he buy stuff?  Yes, which in my mind makes him a customer.  Chatting up customers is called “customer service” as long as it’s welcomed by the customer.  Anyway.  Off topic.

One bonus about having customers who are “friends” is that when they trade, they always bring their good shit straight to your store first.  This guy in particular had just moved in from out west and didn’t like the attitude of the downtown stores.  He, like me, was an obsessive compulsive music collector, so I understood his needs.  Like me, he wanted the stuff to complete the collection, in good condition, and we had similar definitions of “good condition”.

Condition, needless to say, is important to the obsessive compulsive collector.  And what he brought me one day in 1998 was in beautiful, mint condition.

It was a UK promo disc of Definitely Maybe by Oasis.  The bonus here was a complete live album called Oasis Live, recorded 1994-12-10 at the Cabaret Metro.

I scooped up the disc.  I told Trevor immediately, knowing he would not be happy that I, the lesser Oasis fan, would keep it.  Trevor’s point was valid.  “I’m the bigger Oasis fan!” he said.  “If I got in a Kiss CD, no matter how rare, I would always give you first crack at it.”

He was right.  He would.  That’s why I still feel guilty about it today.  I did tape it for him, and later on burned it for him, but even that is not the same as owning.

I never saw it again, and I don’t know anybody who’s seen it before besides me and the guy who sold it to me.  According to the CD notes it is a Sony UK disc, ESK 6805.  As I mentioned, it was bundled with Definitely Maybe, a UK pressing, EK 66431.

As it turns out, the Oasis live album was incredible and justifiable to keep!  It was from the tour for the first album, and they played loads of those songs and some B-sides.  It has some of those classic Liam and Noel moments.

Liam – “This one’s called Up In The Sky!”

Noel – “No it’s not, it’s called Bring It On Down!”

And, of course, Liam sings his “I’d like to buy the world a Coke…” line during “Shakermaker”.

It’s an excellent recording.  Sounds like a small venue, which I find always seem to produce the best sounding live albums.  The band are playing with the youth and energy with which they began.  Liam sneers his way through the songs and there’s a minimum of talking.  No ballads.  Rest assured, when you see “Fade Away” on the tracklisting, it’s the electric version, not the acoustic!

I love this disc.  I didn’t even buy Familiar to Millions, because this one satisfies.

5/5 stars.

Your track listing:

  1. Rock and Roll Star
  2. Columbia
  3. Fade Away
  4. Digsy’s Dinner
  5. Shakermaker
  6. Live Forever
  7. Bring It On Down
  8. Up In The Sky
  9. Slide Away
  10. Cigarettes and Alcohol
  11. Married With Children
  12. Supersonic
  13. I Am The Walrus

 

Part 60: Back to the Start

Holy crap!  Part 60 already?  I hope you’ve been enjoying the Record Store Tales so far.  For this sort-of-but-not-really-special edition, I’m going to take you back to the start. 

Marko Fox asked me today, “LeBrain, how did you get to be LeBrain?”  Well, it was a unique set of circumstances Marko.

1. Obsession.  Ever since I was a kid I think I was an obsessive-compulsive collector.  I had to have every Star Wars figure, I had to have all their names memorized, I had to have it all.

2. Rock Magazines.  The first rock magazine I ever bought was an old Circus special on Kiss.  All my friends seemed to know all the important details about bands:  Which guy was the bassist and which played guitar, the names of the members, the brands of the guitars.  I decided to needed to catch up and so I started reading magazines.

3. The Power Hour. This MuchMusic show ran for an hour, twice a week.  Two hours of pure rock a week!  I taped them religiously and never missed one until I got my first part-time job.

4. Columbia House.  Remember them?  Buy 11 CDs for a penny, get 2 free, and only have to buy 8 more at regular club prices within the next two years?  We got Columbia House when I was in grade 11, my sister and I, and we split it evenly.  I read the Columbia House catalog cover to cover every month.  So that meant I not only knew who Iron Maiden was, but also Miles Davis, Bell Biv Devoe, and Alan Jackson.

Those four factors sealed into my brain and endless stream of musical knowledge and listening experience that has only grown with the the birth of the Interweeb.

Jump-cut to 1994.  It is July.  I just started at the record store a few days ago.  My boss is having me file discs to get to know the inventory.  He is shocked that I know where to file Miles Davis.  He is surprised that I know which Alan Jackson album has “Chattahoochee” on it.  He asks me how I know this stuff?  I tell him, “Columbia House!”

It wasn’t too long before I was teaching him things, too.  I remember I bought a disc for stock by Pigface (Fook).  The next day he took me aside, holds up the CD, and says, “What is this that you bought?  You paid $4 for this?”  I said, “Yeah.  Side project of Ministry.”  That was when I became known as the guy who knew the side projects from just about everybody.

He was more than happy to stock something if I told him I know it would sell.  With him knowing what was going on with the charts, and Trevor knowing what was happening with new rock, we were a formidable force.

So there you go, Marko.  That is how LeBrain became LeBrain.  You’ll note that two of the four contributing factors don’t exist anymore, so perhaps there could never have been a LeBrain if not for the 80’s!