Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk records


Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby Welly » Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:35 pm

Fuck it.
Last edited by Welly on Wed Jul 06, 2016 1:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby the mean » Wed Jun 22, 2016 9:53 pm

Yeah, this was a good read. Worth picking up.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby FlexMyHead » Thu Jun 23, 2016 6:27 am

Sam knows Bob much better than I, but I did visit his store in Brandon several times. I haven't read that book so I don't know how he comes across or how/if he talks about his record store in Brandon much, but I do have some thoughts on it.

I first heard of Bob by way of his scene reports that he'd write for the Tampa Bay area in MRR and he always had an ad for his Distro as well. I remember that one of his early band's, "Flaming Midget" had one of the most brutal reviews in MRR, they just fucking tore it up and in a later issue they used the review and tried to spin it as a reason to buy the record. I also remember that Bob had some vague "jokes" about women in one of his scene reports and Karin Gembus inserted a comment "You are fucking gross" several times into the scene report, which I think made Bob write a letter to the editor and caused a bit of MRR letter drama (which it was infamous for). Once I moved the Tampa area, his store was one of the first I visited. It was a typical smallish store in an old U shaped strip mall kind of deal. At the time I had gotten a bit tired of the "Dis-" punk and street punk stuff and unfortunately that is what he was most interested in and carried. He had a massive amount of 7" records, bootleg t-shirts, CD's and reading library (full of old zines) and every time I was there were a few young kids hanging around being silly and fun and Bob would often be playing records and talking about the bands/bits of punk trivia etc. Like a punk-rawk "pay it forward". So, often I went to the store straight from work so I was in a full on work suit and tie and when I'd walk in I'd get the "Terminal Yuppie" stare from the kids, which made me laugh. Bob was always talkative and knew that I was more into poppy-shit and I'd scour his selection for SOMETHING to buy besides just a MRR or Punk Planet or something. I usually end up buying a reissue of something old, but I want to spend at least $20 each time I went.

Anyway, he put out a free zine (with a 7"!), had shows in that space, had record swaps, provided a space for punk kids to hang out, socialize and feel like they belong. I always wondered how he got by as he kept his selection limited to what I think he personally enjoyed and listened to and stayed away from the Hot Topic Pop Punk records which I think could have brought in a lot of extra traffic and dollars. I know that had I been a teen, I'd have love to be apart of what he was doing and I'd have helped out/shit-worked/volunteered as much of my time as I could, I dunno if other kids realized what they had going on there.

I didn't really know him well, but at times he could come across as a little bitter and frustrated that the sheer amount of effort, time, energy and heart that he had devoted to the local music scene didn't really seem to be allowing him to provide basic needs for his family and his life etc. That is just speculation on my part to maybe 10-15 conversations I had with over several years.

Anyway, I'd gonna buy the book for sure and see what his take was on this. Thanks for the reminder that it is out there!
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby SamDBL » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:35 am

Weird guy. I could go on for days. I remember he kind of had kind of a holier than thou scene guru attitude that turned people around here off, considering no one remembered seeing him anywhere until probably the early 90s. He had these little kids that constantly hung around his shop that seemed almost cultish and played into his stchick that the rest of the outside world were total posers. I remember everyone that did anything beyond a horrible sounding demo that was distributed only to friends was something of a sellout. Yet, the guy was bootlegging shirts by the box loads and selling them out of his store (he got more than one call from legendary bands him to cut it out, iirc). I remember he came in to my studio with some of the kids he was in a band with to record a demo or something. He literally wanted it to sound as bad as possible. He requested that. I thought that was funny. He's an ok guy, I suppose. I haven't read his book. But I am told there is no mention of Matt odechuck in it. Which was 'the' punk/record guru in Brandon that schooled every person in this town including bob, which doesn't bode well for a book written in the setting of Tampa. It would be like some punk store guy in 1980 dc writing a book about his adventures in the scene and forgetting to mention any crossings with Ian mackaye.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby MXV » Fri Jun 24, 2016 9:02 am

I've never met Bob in person but have corresponded with him on and off for a lot of years. I always found him to be a good dude. I've bought and traded records with him, spoke to him on the phone a couple of times and had countless emails with him (and facebook messages). I read his book and found it to be more of a personal story than a book about record collecting, the mentions of records seemed to be the into to whatever story he is telling which as a record collector and a huge music fan, I can tell you all kinds of stories as well based on certain records or songs. The music will spark the memories of the stories which is why I found the book interesting because in many ways that's how my memories of events work too.

I remember when Bob still had his store/mailorder he had a copy or two of the F - You are an EP 12" for sale or trade that were unplayed copies he got from someone associated with the band. I talked to Bob on the phone and asked him where he got them and if he knew if the person had any more. Now most record vultures wouldn't share that kind of information and keep that supply for themselves but Bob gave me the name and number of the person who had them, which was the guy who recorded/engineered the record with the band. I cold called this guy and explained who I was and why I was calling and the guy was super nice. He shared stories with me about making that record and told me he had only a few left, and of those few maybe two copies that the band hadn't peed on the covers (apparently the band urinated on many copies of the record). He asked me which I wanted and I of course took the unsoiled one. The dude sold it to me for an extremely fair price, far lower than the going rate for used copies at the time. I'll always be grateful to Bob for putting me in touch with a guy and think about it every time I look at or play that record.

Anyway I found the slightly critical stories in this thread about him a little shocking as I've always thought highly of the dude and still do.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby SamDBL » Fri Jun 24, 2016 9:37 am

Like I said, he's totally cool. Iam being hyper critical. I'm sure we've all known some Johnny come latelys that believed themselves to be the only non poser in a 200 mile range the day after they got their first dead Kennedy's record. I kind of viewed him like that, to some degree. And to see him writing books and doing speaking authoritatively about such things gives me a little chuckle. The same way I would chuckle when I walked into his store and would get snickered at by clueless little kids that had just been introduced to crass a week before for mentioning big drill car, or something. But these are silly little things. He's a fine guy. And I'm glad he's doing stuff successfully.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby FlexMyHead » Fri Jun 24, 2016 2:01 pm

MXV,
I don't know if you thought I was being critical, I was just speaking about my personal experience visiting his store, I didn't intend to slam him or anything. I was (am) truly amazed that somebody was (is) willing to commit to something (keeping a store, distro going despite $$ problems) that much. I mean, I love music and punk, but fuck man, I also want nice shit and the ability to travel and experience life with those around me so when it came down to it, I wanted a career that I thought could reasonably achieve that for me. Based on my very limited conversations with him, it seemed like all the great things he did with that store (as I mentioned, shows, zines, record label, distro, record swaps, library, friendship, mentoring etc) brought him a lot of stress. I think I remember him saying his wife worked in the library or a school or something and it was getting harder and harder to justify keeping the store going. You might not be able to tell on this board, but I'm the type of person that likes to asks questions and get to know people a bit, so when I went in the store, I'd ask how he was doing and things about running the store and hurdles and obstacles that he faced etc. I also asked about his thoughts about branching out the music selection etc. I grew up in Europe and as a teen I did all of my shopping from Zed Records or Toxic Shock or Blacklist or MRR ads, so having a local punk rock store was something that I never had and, not having it, I always was a bit jealous/sad that it seemed like the kids in Brandon might not have supported his store as much as I would have. Again, this is based on my limited experience obviously some people cared hence the collective zine and free record label etc. I am not friends with him and had no interaction outside of me visiting his store, I didn't mean to judge him or anything. If anything, I think I said a lot of positives about him. If it came out another way, that wasn't my intent.

Anyway, the same could be said for those people that went and did bands, ran clubs, put on shows, roadies, did labels, did distros etc. When I was in college going to shows and saw people my age on stage and "working" I thought to myself "I wonder if in 5 years when "the crowd" is graduated and has jobs, if the band is going to say, what the fuck did I spend all that time riding in vans, sweating my ass off, playing music for people that in 5 years are going to barely remember how much of myself I gave. I was their temporary entertainment and now I'm a distant thought". I dunno, it just seems weird to me that even fairly popular band members from my youth might not have been able to enter the working world or are able to support themselves from all their creativity/musical output that meant so much and really inspired and propelled me to the place I am at now. I guess I just think weird shit.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby the mean » Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:46 pm

MXV wrote:He asked me which I wanted and I of course took the unsoiled one.

This was a very disappointing part of the story.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby MXV » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:16 am

the mean wrote:
MXV wrote:He asked me which I wanted and I of course took the unsoiled one.

This was a very disappointing part of the story.



The anal retentive record collector in me could never allow a peed on record to enter the collection.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby Welly » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:35 am

Fuck it.
Last edited by Welly on Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Book review: "Crate Digger," an obsession with punk reco

Postby Welly » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:02 am

Fuck it.
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