Digressions: Why record stores mattered. One man's tale
Yet another post in the digression series. These are essays, opinions etc on ideas, concepts etc that are not just music focused. That isn't to say there isn't a connection to music. It just might be tangential.
If you see the tag, digressions and don't want to read my rambling thoughts on things like capitalism etc, then skip away.
Up until around 1989, I was almost exclusively into metal (which disappointed my mother to no end). This was San Antonio after all – home of the mighty 99.5 kiss and the godfather of rock n roll, Joe Anthony. San Antonio was a town that lived and breathed hard rock / metal. It also didn't hurt that my best friend, Curt, was into metal. Which was due to his brother's extensive record collection (a tale as old as time). Curt lived up the street and was older than me by a couple of years. I had never really made the connection but Curt is kind of responsible for sparking my passion for music and also for introducing me to electronic music. As it was Curt who influenced me to listen to hard rock. Mostly because he was older and whether or not I realized it, I kinda looked up to him. Getting me interested in hard rock got me interested in collecting and following bands etc (back then it was Scorpions and Pink Floyd). It also introduced me to the joys of a record store. I should probably note that metal back then wasn't the metal you think of today. Scorpions, Maiden, Priest, Saxon etc were metal and bands like Floyd, Deep Purple, Rainbow etc were hard rock.
So it is 1989, I am a senior in high school and Curt is now a freshman in college. I am still listening to 99.5 and one day Curt tells me about this song he heard at some college party and that he got a copy. He put the record on and it was unlike anything I had ever heard. I wish I could tell you what the song was but it was either Blue Monday by New Order or Do the Boogaloo by Ledernacken. Quite the difference lol. Another thing to note is that this memory is fuzzy because in either case, I had the same reaction when I first heard either of those tracks. They are quite different but at the same time they are forging something new (especially when you consider the time)
The odd thing is that the sound instantly hooked me. I was completely bought in and I wanted to own this thing. For a self espoused hard rocker, this was quite the the turn about (many many years later, I would come to find that metal aficionados are some of the most open minded musically speaking people you will ever come across). And so, I asked my friend where he got it and he said at this weird record store called, Eclipse Records.
Eclipse Records was in small retail strip on San Pedro in San Antonio. If my memory is correct, they had a monolith like sign out front (with an eclipse on it) and the windows/door of the small place were blacked out. You would have no idea that this was a record store except for the sign – there were no posters and the usual flotsam jetsam that is attracted to record stores. Upon entering, two things strike out: It is dark and small. There is a cashier's area (more like an high black desk with a bar area) with maybe a couple dozen different CDs on a rack, on the desk itself were turntables and just beyond this area was a black couch w/ a mirrored coffee table. Oh, there were a couple of pedestals with a crate of vinyl on top (less than 50 records each). That was it – that is all that was for sale and usually just one person working.
I will admit that I did not venture into their vinyl section. It was too intimidating or awkward. The whole store felt like a place I didn't belong – like I discovered some opium den (and maybe I had). The CDs however had a sirens call and were full of constant discoveries.
Essentially, Eclipse Records was a store for DJs who were looking for the next thing etc on vinyl. The next thing in this case was the emerging global techno scene, Industrial music (think wax trax), (acid) house and new wave. This was a world I did not know anything about but looking back on it now, the clerks knew this and were more than happy to help. They were full fledged music nerds but I did not know that at the time.
Here is where I first learned about New Order's connection to Joy Division (a band I had never heard of prior), countless Belgian Industrial / New Beat bands, Detroit techno and of course Wax Trax (and their ilk). The funny thing about Detroit Techno is that I did not realize until years later that I had been introduced to Detroit Techno at one of its seminal stages. Unfortunately, I didn't know this at the time and did not dig too deep. My thing was the Industrial / Wax Trax Sound. That wasn't to say I didn't like the techno I heard – I just couldn't afford it. Many of these CDs that I would discover at Eclipse were in the 20-23 dollar price rang because they were rare and/or imports. By today's dollars (2025) that is 52-58 dollars. A typical domestic CDs in 1989 was in the 30-42 dollar price range (today's dollars). So buying anything like this was a splurge and really rare. So if I did buy an import it would be in the genre that I was focused on, industrial. So I missed out on Techno but I did eventually explore the genre and did a deep dive.
Instead of Jeff Mills, Eclipse is where I learned about bands like skinny puppy, front 242, nitzer ebb, a cassandra complex, depeche mode (and remixes), meat beat manifesto, my life with the thrill kill kult, OMD and so on. This music would shape my tastes for years to come and without this exposure, I would never had a record label, release my own music or even listen to what I do today. As there is a clear connecting line between these foundational sounds and where my tastes are now. But to get to now, a bridge was needed.
Which brings us to 33 Degrees and Dan Plunkett. If there is any one store that is responsible for my present listening habits, it is 33 Degrees but really it was Dan Plunket's musical influence and friendship. Without his store, I would never have opened my mind to composers, drone, country, psych, power electronics and so on.
A friend of mine introduced me to 33 Degrees. At the time, I was heavily into IDM and similar. I was pretty close minded to much of anything else. Don't get me wrong, there were some non IDM bands that made the cut but that was probably because remixes introduced me to them (Tortoise comes to mind). The first location of 33 Degrees was quite small but was filled with CDs of all kinds. When I say all kinds, I mean all kinds. There was so much I did not recognize and I wouldn't even be able to tell you if it was new/old or even electronic. I ended up buying a Panasonic (this is before they were forced to change their name) CD only because I recognized the name (I still have this CD today). Come to think of it, this is when I first discovered Panasonic.
Eventually 33 Degrees moved to a larger storefront and more importantly, this location was close to where I worked at the time. Because of this, I would often use my lunch break to go peruse the store. The larger size meant there was more music (on all formats) and because of this, there were actual releases I recognized (and I wanted). A lot of my IDM purchases were made here.
I probably went to the store weekly on average and because of that, I was able to strike up conversations with one of the owners, Dan Plunkett. Over time, Dan would try to steer me to music outside of my comfort zone. I still remember Dan pointing out the composers section and saying (paraphrasing) For when you really want to blow your mind. This statement got me to buy my first Terry Riley CD (The Gift). At one point, I was going to the store so much that I became a trusted customer. On a couple occasions Dan would leave me in the store by myself while he quickly took care of something.
Eventually, I started my record label, Mad Monkey Records and this led to a creative partnership (for lack of a better term) with Ant-Zen . The thing is, I would never have known about Ant-Zen without Dan. He introduced me to the label and this eventually turned into the before mentioned creative partnership. Which further helped my label to get exposure.
So at this point, 33 Degrees has changed the trajectory of my listening habits and was a positive factor for my record label. But all good things must come to an end. Eventually it was time for me to leave Austin for Chicago then Houston and then the Bay Area. In each of these locations I found new sounds and new record stores. In Chicago it was mainly jazz and indie rock. In Houston it was chopped and screwed and finally in the bay area it was psych/drone/all kinds of weirdness.
However, I would never have discovered these new sounds if it wasn't for 33 Degrees. The record store expanded my listening sphere and allowed me to be curious/open to things that I did not yet understand (I am looking at you Jazz). Which brings us to today. My tastes are all over the place and I no longer feel confined to any one genre or concept. It seems with each passing year, my appetite for sound increases and expands. I do not care if it is electronic or the amplified sound of a beetle. It just has to move me.
Postscript
33 Degrees is no more but in its place Dan has opened an even better record store/hifi reseller, End of an Ear. Definitely worth (multiple) visits.
Photo by Daniel De Los Santos, Round Rock TX