Archive for the ‘lps’ tag
Manifest CDs & DVDs, 1563 Broad River Road Suite A: January 2019 3 comments
I used to be obsessive about many things, well, I guess I still am though the things have changed over the years. One of them was records in general, and record stores. Since I spent most of my teenage years broke, after I discovered rock music in 1975 or so, I was all about the "cut-outs" and used records. At garage sales, I would flip through every album, at record stores, or even Woolworth's and Kmart I would look at *every* LP in the cut-out bin.
If I recall correctly, I first visited Manifest when it was on Main Street somewhere near Jefferson Square (though on the other side of the street). Two items I recall in particular buying there, were a The Nails album with one version (there are at least 3) of 88 Lines About 44 Women (nsfw), and Songs Of The Spires by The Gleaming Spires.
By the time the moved to Boozer Shopping Center, I was living out of town and listening almost exclusively to CDs (more accurately, to tapes of CDs in my car). In its way, this was sort of a Golden Age, because I had a job (and spending money), and used CDs, if they would play at all, sounded just as good as new CDs. When I was in town, I spent many hours flipping through all the "used" bins, as well as buying some of the more interesting "import" CDs which usually only turned up at Manifest or Sounds Familiar in Myrtle Beach.
The Golden Age didn't really last too long. By the end of the 20th Century, it was clear that the future of music was digital, and unclear where record stores fit into that future. In the event, it turns out that they more or less don't. Carl Singmaster, the founder of Manifest sold the store in 2004, and as I recall there was a closing scare at that time, or not long after.
Also, at some point, the name of the store changed from Manifest Records & Tapes (or at least that's the way I recall it) to the current name of Manifest CDs & DVDs. Unfortuneately, the bottom dropped out of the DVD market not many years after CDs crashed and burned, and that puts us here in the twilight of an era.
UPDATE 5 February 2019 -- Now closed:
