Now there’s something I never knew existed. Talk about a medium strangled in its crib by the RIAA. In the end, DAT ended up just being used as a computer backup medium.
Given that it needed a helical-scan transport, its days were numbered even without RIAA fuckery; a CD burner has nowhere near as much mechanical complexity, and flash memory means no moving parts at all.
I never saw one, but (I remember reading in Spin) that the first prerecorded DAT for sale was Wire’s Ideal Copy*.
When I was in college we used DAT in audio production class (either for direct to 2-track, or mixing down from an 8-track Otari), and where I interned in the Dept. of Music they used DAT (and usually no more than 2 mics) to record concerts and recitals. (This was about 29 years ago) They had a 24-track Studer, but I can only remember them firing that up 2 or 3 times during the semester I was there (one of them was to record this).
Bringing it back on topic, that was not long after they opened a Tower in Austin’s old Varsity Theater, famous for its mural. When Slacker came out (in Austin, a year ahead of its general release) there was a scene where a character walks past the mural. By then the Varsity had either closed, or was about to, and the whole audience left out a collective “awwww…” (I haven’t watched in a while but I think that shot was omitted from the general release.) Tower announced it was moving in, and everyone worried what would happen to the mural. Sure enough, scaffolding went up and we got anxious. Fortunately it was just to restore the mural. But, wow, I don’t think it took Tower more than 3 or 4 months to completely gut the inside of that theater, level the floor etc. and move in.
*(Ah! Now I get it!)
could easily kill time at the new york store, and always found something worth buying.
Yup, Wazoo still exists, and so does Encore (they moved a couple years ago, though). There’s been a ton of redevelopment downtown in the last decade, you’d hardly recognize it - there are high-rises everywhere. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before that old mall Tower was in gets redeveloped.
There used to be a Tower Records here in Nashville (Music City, go figure) that was in a historic building–formerly a car dealership–with a great location near Centennial Park and Vanderbilt University, and the kind of staff who, if you asked, could say, “If you like that you might like this” based on actual knowledge, not algorithms. It was a terrible thing when they didn’t just shut it down but demolished the building and replaced it with an overpriced hotel.
At least it’s been replaced, and I’d even say improved upon, by Grimey’s, the place to go if you’re ever in the area and looking for music.
Car dealerships have ramps. Tower was almost famous for ramps. The three I know of in Boston had ramps. Newbury @ Ma Ave, Cambridge in Harvard Square, and Downtown Boston all had ramps. A ramp to the Tower. Rise up to music!
I’m sure they were all always great compared to Sam Goody.
Yeah, that was a nice one! I bought Sonic Geology there. (I don’t know how I remembered that, almost 28 years later, but it’s typical. I’ll remember something like that, but can’t remember why I went to the grocery store.)
Sounds like Nashville in a nutshell, lately… 
(I’ve got familial roots there)
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