Fresno Record Stores.

I used to work at Fresno's Tower Records. It was only for about eight months or so. This was back in 2001. I remember it was 2001 because I went in and talked to the manager a couple days after September 11th happened. It was kinda awkward trying to pitch myself for a job during that time. I was like, "Yeah, that whole thing was really horrible. So... are you guys hiring???" I was compassionate about the whole thing but, at the same time, my ass needed a job. My mom was buggin' all the time saying, "Mitch, when are you going to get a job?!?!"

So, I took some intiative and got a job. At the time, Tower was the only place I wanted to work in Fresno. And one of the only establishments I was qualified for. (This was back when Tower was actually still cool, to a certain degree.) I'd walk in there once a week and ask the manager if they needed anyone. Textbook. I scored big in my Tower interview. Don't you love it when you do really well in a job interview and walk out with a super high sense of confidence? Of course you do; everyone does.

To this day, working at Tower has been one of my all-time favorite jobs. Mostly because I was surrounded by music. Another reason was because I had an excuse to flirt with cute female customers. It was sweet. But that almost cost me my job a few times. My supervisors would say, "Mitch, you need to stop talking to the customers so much." So I'd lower my head, kick the imaginary dust and say, "OK, so and so."

But it was fun talking to customers. I liked asking them what they listened to and stuff. If they liked stupid bands and whatnot, I'd secretly make fun of them in my head. (As most people know, people who work at Tower are music elitists. I guess I was one of them.) I loved peoples' response to: "So, what kinda music do you listen to?" They'd answer: "Um, everything but country!" I didn't love that answer, actually. In fact, I hated it. I guess they just weren't listening to the right country. Throw on some Waylon or somethin'.

It was also interesting to try and play the guessing game with people who heard a song on the radio and couldn't figure out who it was. I loved that challenge. When I actually figured it out, I'd get a deep sense of satisfaction (I'm serious).

One of the best things about working there was the fact that I met some really cool people. (You guys know who you are.) Through certain people that worked there, I was exposed to many many many new and cool bands. Tower was where I first discovered Ladytron. Every so often I'd hear this song come over the loud speaker. It turned out to be Ladytron's "He Took Her To a Movie" from their album 604. Man, I love that song. That's just one example of many.

There's so much to say about working at Tower. Unfortunately, I can't tell every story. But I have to say this before I forget. Many of you know that Tower has a porn section. I used to HATE when I'd work the register and old crusty ment would come up and purchase gay porn mags. I guess it's their right to do so, but it was just kinda weird, as you can imagine. But I did get a kick out of saying, "Would you like a bag for that?" It was funny. But I felt bad for the girls who had to do that stuff. I'll never forget the image of Shannon pricing porno DVDs. Ha. There was also this time a mentally retarted guy was caught doing something really bad in that section, but that's a whole other story you don't wanna hear about!

But enough about the Tower days. What I really want to know is why Fresno doesn't have a cool independent music store? Tower has a decent indie section, but it still sucks, for the most part. I mean, you can't even order CDs because their ordering system SUCKS. It takes like five years to get anything you want. Besides, now that we have the Web, who needs to order music from a record store?

But, yeah. Does anybody have a clue why Fresno doesn't have a decent record/CD store other than Tower? It's kinda sad. Maybe people tried to start them up in the past and ultimately failed. I don't know. It would be nice to have one, though.

Any theories?