Hey David! Off the Record was one of my childhood haunts as well. There were two stores, one near SDSU and another in Hilcrest (now the only one left). Their turntable and what was playing on shopping day is responsible party for ooodles of my collection and musical evolution, as well as the Blue Meanie in El Cajon and of course Aarons of Smogville (at Melrose and Fairfax in the day). I have a similar tale of getting the drivers license and be-lining it to Hollywood for the record shopping expidition, my very first trip on my own in a car after I became legal. The last time I visited Off the Record two years ago they even had an entire section labeled Power Pop and I found in one fell swoop several long sought gems.... God love the indies-- the Parolsols, the Not Lames, Jeremy's, Kool Kats, Rhinos, etc of the world. In fact it was Twist n Shout in Denver that first introduced me to Not Lame, even before I learned of Audities and IPO.... Bob Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 09:09:31 -0700 From: "David Bash" To: "Audities" Subject: Re: New Thread topic Cool music epiphany Message-ID: <001101c33bfd$53d8fd00$5116fea9@david> --- In audities@yahoogroups.com, Bradlee Beard wrote: The third phase came in the mid 80s, after I'd moved to California. I was tipped off to a record store near San Diego called Off The Record. I drove down and as soon as I went in I heard this amazing song. I ran up to the clerk and asked "who is THAT??"" It turned out to be "My Car" by The Direct Hits.