What you get when you cut deals with Wal-Mart

A friend of mine just told me about his experience buying the new Eagles album. I’ve omitted his name and the location of the store, but his story was too good not to share.

“On Tuesday, I went to the Sam’s across from our office. As much as I detest these exclusives with these big boxes, 27 years was as long as I could wait for a new Eagles album.

“The store opens at 8 in the morning. I went in there at 1 o’clock. I went to the music department, expecting to see an endcap full of it. There was nothing. I looked in the section – nothing. Okay, maybe they’ve got it in a big dump bin up front, like Garth Brooks had on the palettes. Nothing.

“I went and asked somebody. They said, ‘Eagles? I don’t know anything about it.’

“I said, ‘It’s your damn exclusive! What do you mean you don’t know anything about it?’

“‘Well, let me get the department manager.’

“So I wait, find out the department manager was off – she was sick that day. Ten minutes later, they finally find a piece in a case in the back that hadn’t even been opened. They didn’t even know the damn record was theirs.

“At this point, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. I was the first person at that Sam’s Club to buy the new Eagles record, because they didn’t even know they had it in their back room.”

At this store at least, the Eagles’ exclusive deal with Wal-Mart has made the new album – of which Wal-Mart bought a fixed amount, with a guarantee of no returns – the retail equivalent of bananas. If the bananas don’t go out today, they can always go out tomorrow. Actually, the Eagles are a lower priority than bananas, because if you leave a new shipment of bananas in the back room all day, they might spoil.

SK6ERS in Nashville!

Going to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Tuesday at 3rd & Lindsley (and tonight, at their in-store at the Borders in Brentwood. The SK6ERS' Glassjaw Boxer is one of my favorite albums this year. In no small part, that's because my 4-year-old daughter latched onto "Sweet Sophia" (Sophia is her middle name) as her favorite song. She can now recognize Kellogg's voice when she hears him sing another song, and she's also noticed the similarities in the arrangements of "Sweet Sophia" and Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" (not bad for a 4-year-old). The Springsteen comparison's pretty smart - songs like "Glassjaw Boxer" and "Big Easy" share that combination of romanticism and melodicism that Springsteen does so well.

I got to see the band play about five songs opening for O.A.R. in Long Island this summer, this summer, but Tuesday will give me my first chance to see them do their full set. For a pared-down taste of what I'm looking forward to, here's the band doing "Sweet Sophia" at another Borders a few nights ago:



And here's Kellogg solo, doing a bit that was also a highlight of the Long Island show I saw:

Ohrwurm

"Yesterday's Lie," The Questionnaires. A band that you almost surely haven't heard of if you're not familiar with the Nashville rock scene of the late '80s/early '90s, but their best stuff still holds up for me (maybe it's the memories, but I don't think it's only that). This one has a chorus that reminds me of the old MTV bumper music.



This isn't the song that's been stuck in my head this morning, but for a taste of the Questionnaires, check out this video for the title track of the band's Window to the World album.



And here's the group's cover of the Flamin' Groovies' "Teenage Head."

Steve Vai shreds

Steve Vai, expertly edited into full-on Nigel Tufnel mode.