infobong.com

I wonder how Waterloo is doing? Rumor has it, not so well, despite its ample supply of indie and obscure stuff.

Occasionally the chains harbored nuggets of quality and independent thinking amid the uniformity. One of those was the classical store-within-a-store that my old Stillwater friend Russell McCulloh ran until recently inside the Wherehouse AKA Sound Warehouse around 50th and Burnet or so. Russell knew his stuff and was passionate about it -- in high school he used to call me up to give me lectures about Shostakovich, and his knowledge matured considerably in the 25 years since then.

Wherehouse went belly up and now Russell has nowhere to take his expertise. If Waterloo had two nickels to rub together and an ounce of sense, they'd hire him and let him build them a classical section.

This is all said no doubt much better in today's Chronicle (not online yet or I'd link to it), but then the Chronicle didn't sit near Russell in junior high band practice.

33 Degrees would make a better comparison to AKA than Waterloo, although AKA has at least six times as much inventory as 33 Degrees. What I love about AKA (and, conversely, dislike about Waterloo) is the way Mike breaks down the genres. He's got a huge section of indie-rock, imports, and back-catalog rock, a large Jazz section, and an equally large "Experimental" section filled with avant-garde classical and un-dance-able electronica. There are also smaller country, soul, and dance sections. I sort of resent having to bump elbows with SUV-driving Kelly Willis fans at Waterloo.

I wonder if your friend could find work at Tower. The flagship store in Philly always seemed to be hiring for a classical buyer, so I imagine those skills are in short supply. When I first moved to Philly, they had a separate classical store across South street from the main store. When they opened the flagship store on Broad, they shut down the classical-only store and moved it to the upstairs of the flagship.