Tower Records Reincarnated

Why start a “record” store in this, the age of the iPod, at the age of 81?

Tower Records founder Russ Solomon explains it all in the new June/July edition of SacTown Magazine; the start-up publication scoring a minor scoop-de-jour as the first media outlet to get the notoriously media-shy Mr. Solomon to sit down for an on-the-record chat. Kudos to the new print kids on the block! That was no small accomplishment.

I recall it taking a couple of months to finally convince Mr. Solomon to sit down for a radio interview I did back in the day when FM music radio actually had news departments and ran long-form feature pieces. We talked mainly about music being a positive force for global harmony.

Side note: His passion for music and art, of all kinds, was readily apparent as soon as I stepped into his West Sac headquarters, which was packed to the rafters with paintings, sculpture, vintage music photographs, piles of CDs, and…a wall-of-neckties. Mr. Solomon used to routinely take a pair of scissors to the neckwear of any corporate suits who happened to walk into his office unaware of his "No Tie Zone" rule!

Mr. Solomon confirms for the magazine that the name for his reincarnated venture is indeed R5 Records & Video (“R” for Russ, and “5” ‘cuz it’s his favorite number) and says the new logo (which we reported/speculated about, right here, some two months ago) is the work of a former Sac Bee employee who designed the original iconic Tower artwork.

So what makes this venture different from all the other bricks-and-mortar outlets? "It’s not a Wal-mart,” said Mr. Solomon. “The people who work for me care about music, and that’s an important ingredient…” quotes SacTown mag.

You’ll have to read the dead tree version of the publication to get all the details since SacTown's Web site is not exactly what you’d call “content rich” at this point.

R5 due to open this month.

See you there.

Photos copyright Ken Hunt, www.WholeEarthImages.com