Spoke with Chris Penn down at Good Records last week. I called wondering if anyone from that fine store was going to be attending the Noise in the Basement Indie Record Store Convention in Baltimore next week.
“We’re part of a coalition called AIMS [Alliance of Independent Media Stores] and people from our board of directors will be going,” explained Penn.
It seems, however, that not a single AIMS board member is from Dallas. Penn said that the AIMs convention is set to occur in Nashville next year and most indie stores can’t afford send reps to more than one conference.
“That [Noise in the Basement] is just getting started,” says Penn. “Maybe next year, more folks from here can go.”
Jeff Webb, manager of CD World, didn’t know about the convention and was certain no one from that store would be attending.
“Mike [Schoder], the owner, might have gone to one of those things in the past, but not anymore,” says Webb.
Kevin Meyers at CD Source says that owner Lance Price attends the NARM [National Association of Recording Merchandisers] convention, but conceded that the upcoming event in Baltimore was “all news to me.”
Lydia Sherwood, promoter for the event, sent me an email saying that she was inquiring whether or not a single person from the Dallas area would be in attendance. That inquiry seems to be going nowhere. All of which is a shame since Noise in the Basement looks to be a cool affair. Musical acts include: The Pretenders, The Hold Steady, Tom Morello, Unearth, Black Kids, Noah and the Whale, The Pink Spiders, Nappy Roots and many more.
With various film debuts and gaming system demonstrations, this conference would appear to be a good chance for an area rep to hobnob with some cool folks. Oh well. Maybe next year. --Darryl Smyers
