THE NEW WORLD

As Tower’s bankruptcy sale winds down, it is interesting to see what kind of merch continues to clog the racks even at near-giveaway prices.

The rows of Poison CDs speak of a store buyer too confident that hair metal was due for a comeback, and a hard comeback at that. Perhaps somewhere a Duane Reade is overstocked with Aquanet...

And apparently not even the most ardent jam-band fan needs a live CD of every show that the String Cheese Incident played in 2005. Imagine that.

But I do have to confess to a certain sadness and resignation when I see all the unsold copies of the first three X albums.

I want to get on the PA and make an announcement:

“Hello. Do you people realize that you can get a copy of Wild Gift, with bonus tracks, for $5.20? Back away from that David Gray CD very slowly, and meet me over here at the end of the alphabet.”

But still it remains the unheard music...