Headphones On

Rob Gordon: I will now sell four copies of "The Three EPs" by The Beta Band.
Dick: Go for it.
[Rob plays the record]
Beta Band Customer: Who is this?
Rob Gordon: The Beta Band.
Beta Band Customer: It's good.
Rob Gordon: I know.

I'm sure you've all seen High Fidelity and remember the above scene. I caught a bit of High Fidelity the other day, just long enough to hear that scene and have it remind me of the wee Swedish/Italian band Daybehavior.

During the late 90's when I lived in Grand Rapids Michigan, I did all musical shopping exclusively at The Best Record Store In The World™¹. Because I was in there ALL THE TIME² I was frequently consulted before the international orders were placed. "Oh do you want the new ___ album?" or "What do you know about ____ band, should we stock them?". Well when I heard that one of my favorite record labels North Of No South (NONS)³ had signed a new Swedish band with a half Italian singer who supposedly sounded like an angel, I had to have it. So onto The Best Record Store In The World™'s international order it went. I pulled into the parking lot during my lunch hour a few Tuesday's later and walked into the store to hear beautiful downtempo triphop floating through the PA. Sure enough, Dave had ordered himself a copy as well because he was always curious about my taste in music. As I picked up my copy of 'Adored' and poured through the other new releases, I didn't think anything of it.

The next Tuesday I was back in the store going through the as-yet-unpacked box of international new releases. Low and behold there were at least twenty copies of the debut Daybehavior record in the mix. Apparently as the store had been playing their copy of the record over the PA during the week everyone wanted it for themselves. I guess sometimes all it takes is a bit of exposure, no matter how small. A dozen plus people in Michigan became fans of a tiny Swedish band simply because I had faith in the record label.

¹ Also known as Vinyl Solutions to anyone who lived anywhere in West Michigan.
² Believe me, the caps are necessary in this case. It was several times a week at minimum. The store was on my way home from work so I could be known to pop in there as often as five days a week.
³ Not at all famous for signing bands like Komeda, Ray Wonder, Pinko Pinko, Cloudberry Jam, etc.
⁴ Side note: The photo above has no relation to this diatribe. It was something I took at the Museum of Contemporary Art earlier this week.

Buy some: Daybehavior