Alternative Record Stores Find Success Away From Top 40

The visage of Michael Jackson, all eyeliner and attitude, is a standard sight in your average record store. At BeBop Records in Reseda, though, there aren’t any photos of the ubiquitous “Bad” boy on the walls, and his latest platinum album is nowhere to be found in the J bin.

But the customer doesn’t want Michael, anyway. He wants a recording by Wanda Jackson, an obscure rockabilly singer from the 1950s whose country recordings were a cross between Patsy Cline and Little Richard. The average record store probably hasn’t had any Wanda Jackson albums in stock for 25 years.

“Ah, yes, Wanda Jackson,” said Richard Bruland, proprietor of BeBop. Bruland is used to the kind of requests that draw blank stares from clerks in the shopping mall disc emporiums. “I can’t keep her in stock. If I get a Wanda album, it’s gone within 24 hours. That’s the kind of clientele I get here.”

BeBop is one of the few record stores in the San Fernando Valley described in the trade as “alternative”--catering to people whose needs aren’t met by Top 40 musical selections. Instead, alternative record shops have found success with personal touches: in-store appearances by local musicians, special orders, used records and even art exhibits and poetry readings.

In Los Angeles and West L.A., there are more than a dozen alternative stores, but the Valley supports a few as well, each with its own distinct definition of “alternative.”

“You have to find your niche if you don’t have advertising or any big PR,” said Bob Say, vice president of Moby Disc. Moby Disc is the largest of the Valley’s alternative record stores, with shops in Sherman Oaks, Canoga Park and Pasadena.

In Pasadena, a reconverted home houses Poo Bah Records, which was opened by owner Jay Green in 1971. On a recent weekday, Poo Bah was filled with some two dozen shoppers, browsing through bins of new and used albums, cassettes and compact discs while the store’s P.A. system played the KROQ hit “Pocket Pool Man.” The walls were decorated with kitschy album covers from the ‘50s and ‘60s (“Music to Hunt Men By”), and a variety of promotional posters from bands both popular and obscure.

Poo Bah’s dusty parquet floors fairly groan under the store’s inventory of new and used records in all categories, although rock and jazz predominate. In addition to records, the shop sells domestic and imported music magazines, and a good selection of underground books and comics by the likes of Charles Bukowski, R. Crumb and Gary Panter.

But it was the albums that most of the shoppers were interested in, and a quick perusal of the merchandise revealed bargains that were a real alternative. The new Eurythmics cassette, “Savage,” for instance, retails for $8.98 in the chain stores. At Poo Bah’s, there was an unopened copy in the used section for $4.98.

“Right now, the chain stores aren’t carrying a good selection,” Green said. “The secret is keeping on top of things and staying on top of your inventory.”

For alternative record store owners, staying on top of what’s popular isn’t as easy as monitoring the Billboard sales charts. It’s an inexact science, requiring careful attention to independent releases, which records are popular in Europe and what’s being played on the more adventurous college radio stations.

New Releases

On display and selling briskly at BeBop recently were the new releases by 10,000 Maniacs, a folk band, and the Irish drinking music and ballads of the Pogues.

Compact discs are taking over more and more floor space at the large chain stores, but alternative record stores tend to concentrate on LPs. Poo Bah only has one bin of the more expensive CDs. “I think that LPs are going to be around a while longer. Our customers still buy them,” Green said, citing the hundreds of independent records each year that are still released only on vinyl. “There are a lot of records which are out of print, and it’s just not worth it for the labels to re-release them on CD.”

BeBop Records is as much a gallery or performance space as it is a conventional disc emporium. The store has a much smaller inventory, clustered toward the front of the shop. In the back, straight-backed chairs surround a small stage where local bands perform several nights a week.

On one wall, dozens of handbills designed by Bruland testify to the performers who have been there. It’s a Who’s Who of the local rock scene: Jane’s Addiction, House of Freaks, fIREHOSE and punk-polka band Rotondi among them.

BeBop also has hosted poetry and performance art evenings, with appearances by such artists as Exene Cervenka, Wanda Coleman, Henry Rollins, Victoria Williams and Peter Case.

Bruland opened BeBop five years ago with his then-partner, Rene Engel, who now hosts KCRW-FM’s “Citybilly” show. The two began with their own collections and, from there, the store has grown to include seemingly every genre of music. A Prince album is lumped in with the Primitive Calculators; Waldo the Dog-Faced Boy nestles next to Was (Not Was).

Most startling of all is the juxtaposition of Kurt Weill’s “Lost in the Stars” opera filed next to “I Had a Ball,” an original cast album featuring Buddy Hackett.

“I think it’s the height of arrogance to impose your tastes on someone else,” Bruland said as he put together his latest promotional poster.

Bruland, a painter and CalArts graduate, worked at record stores to support himself before opening BeBop. In his desire to support local artists, he sells poetry books on consignment for any local writers who have published their own works.

BeBop’s walls also serve as a miniature gallery for underground art. Upcoming is a show by artist John Trubee, entitled “Wretchedly Obscene Human Sexuality in the 1990s and Beyond.” (“I’ve seen the art, and it’s not ‘wretchedly obscene human sexuality,’ ” he added emphatically. “We don’t want to get raided.”

The store is both his livelihood and his hobby. He is the sole employee: selling albums, scheduling concerts and even serving as ticket taker and bouncer for the evening shows. “I’ve never had a single fight,” he said. “The police have never come in five years.”

Such a store would seem to be more at home on Melrose Avenue or in the loft district of downtown L.A., but Bruland is happy with his Reseda location. “There’s definitely a market for alternative music in the Valley,” he said. “But we also get a lot of people who drive in from the other side of the hill just to shop or come to a concert.”

Straddling the Gap

Unlike either Poo Bah or BeBop, Moby Disc has carved out its niche by straddling the gap between chain stores and record shops that sell underground music exclusively. This policy has made for a comfortable coexistence with the Valley’s other alternative stores.

“Look, competition always spurs us on,” Bob Say said. “Bottom line is, we’re taking business away from the big chains, not the other alternative stores. When Tower Records opened up down the street from us, we were worried, but nothing bad has come of it. “When you’re as small as we are, you can’t carry a lot of the latest Tiffany albums, but we have cheaper prices and things that the bigger stores won’t carry. We pay a little more attention to the business end of things.”

Moby Disc found the alternative record market so large that other branches have sprung up: A Canoga Park store was opened in 1980, and a Pasadena location followed in 1983.

But growing too quickly or trying to franchise such a unique operation undoubtedly would dilute the charm of these quirky music emporiums and, indeed, the owners of the Valley’s alternative music stores have no designs on becoming the Sam Goodys of tomorrow.

Richard Bruland, for example, likes his one-man operation just fine, spending as much time with his X-Acto knife and rubber cement or booking bands as he does selling copies of albums by Trotsky Icepick or the Feelies.

“I’ve had people come in and ask, ‘Why isn’t this place on Melrose?’ ” he said. “Well, even if it was, it would still be way different than any other record store. I live in Silver Lake, but I drive out here every day. I guess I just like being off the beaten track.”