Bought For A Song: Looking For Deals Under Tower Records’ Deathbed

Now that Tower Records stores around the world are closing their doors, we’ve dispatched some specially trained consumer-crazed hobgoblins to the discount bins, in search of a good deal. Alas, all we’ve found so far is a lot of so-so crap. But it’s cheap so-so crap! If you’ve found a great deal at Tower, send the sales info (see below) and an MP3 to tips@idolator.com.

A visit to the Tower Records on 68th and Broadway in New York City last night was our best deep-discount shopping excursion yet: While the downtown store is pretty much gutted, the 68th Street location still has its import section somewhat intact, allowing us to pick up a pricey double-disc set by British rocker Ginger, not to mention that Aberfeldy record we were looking for last week. But the best find was a batch of albums by Felt, the dark ’80s pop outfit led by Lawrence Felt: Cherry Red Records reissued the entire back-catalog a few years ago, and while we already have more than enough Felt than necessary, we couldn’t resist the half-price price reduction. We scored three discs, including:

Artist: Felt
Album: Ignite The Seven Cannons, 1985
List Price: $16.99
Minus 50% discount: $8.50
Deal or no deal?: Not only a great deal, but a “Blimeny gee!” great deal. The Felt reissues were always an iffy investment: While Lawrence seemed like the kind of prolific nut who would booby-trap his back-catalog with hidden gems, some of the albums contain a handful of songs, and the import costs sometimes came out to roughly $3 a track. But Ignite for under ten bucks is a steal, especially when you consider that it features “Primitive Painters,” one of the best Brit-pop songs of the ’80s, if not all time:

Felt – Primitive Painters [MP3, link expired]

Some other random notes from our Tower look-see: All rap albums are down to $3 each, and the racks are full of gaudy, crunk-art album covers; Neil Young’s Living With War and Thom Yorke’s The Eraser are all over the place; and at some point in our country’s history, we needed a $33 Japanese import of the soundtrack to The Goonies.

Earlier: Bought For A Song: Looking For Deals Underneath Tower Records’ Deathbed