That's re-opening, no less. Dave James (aka Dave Noise, the man behind the now-defunct Noise Noise Noise) is opening Factory Records tomorrow, at 440 East 17th St., Costa Mesa, behind Classic
Clipper salon.
Technically it's the soft opening, because their phone system isn't up. So they can't take credit cards yet, but they'll be happy to take your cash. So why is he doing this?
]
Noise Noise Noise closed in 2006 after 15 years of operation. James said, “We got evicted because I was strung up on drugs, fucked up on heroin and speed.” He cleaned up his act (“I've basically been clean for 40 months”), worked at Second Spin for a year and decided to open Factory Records because he had about 20,000 vinyl records in storage still.
Isn't he worried about losing money? “Not really,” James said. “It's a good time to open; there's a huge market for vinyl because it's really trendy for young people right now. Plus, the rent's so cheap that the only thing I had to do was quit my $9-an-hour job to do this. I've got nothing
to lose by doing this. If it fails I'll just get another $9-an-hour job.”
What's the deal tomorrow, then? “No special deals, although I'm always down for wheeling and dealing
with vinyl
junkies who spend a couple of hundred dollars … and you get first dibs on everything,” James said. They'll have vinyl, cassettes (“I heard nerds are into
cassette tapes these days,” James said), t-shirts, and other music
collectibles.
The official opening day is April 28, so take
that, all you naysayers! Who says record stores don't make money in
the age of downloads?
