ICHQ - The Candy Macabre Pop-up Shop
Indoor Condor Headquarters! Come on out to the mall! Remember that place?
Defining Success
I wrote earlier about putting out an album “for real.” Because here’s the thing: Anyone who records music can put out an album, especially in the age of streaming. And if you’ve got a little money, you can press it up on whatever physical medium you please: vinyl, CD, cassette, wax cylinder, whatever!1
The problem comes in if, like me, you’re not playing shows and you’re definitely not touring, nor do you have, like, an audience demanding your album to be shipped to them. In this scenario you’re going to end up with a bunch of copies of your album in your basement. I’ve seen it happen to much better musicians than me! Plus, this is an expensive way to create a depressing storage problem for myself.
So very early on in thinking about releasing the album (Candy Macabre—available May 31!), I got into my head that I wanted to “break even.” Since I record myself, I don’t have the studio costs that usually drive up overhead for an album. My only cost is pressing the vinyl. So the task became: How can I sell enough records to make my money back on the pressing? And without really meaning to, I had stumbled into a definition of success: Move enough units to make back the cost of pressing.
A definition of success is important for me. I have an overactive and highly effective inner critic, and I know from experience that if the goal post isn’t unambiguously established, I will move it as soon as it’s attainable. It is another game I can’t win, and that I have played many times.
The Idea
Around the time I was first thinking about the album, I did something I almost never do; I went to the mall. My son Harvey has an excellent sense of style; they always have. As a toddler they picked out a pair of gold lamé moon boots—and that’s emblematic of their approach. Continuing their tradition of excellent style, they ordered a floral print hoodie from a mall chain, so we were there to pick it up. Standing by the $15-per-ride virtual reality roller coaster, I was struck by the number of empty storefronts. There’s a reflection to be written on the death of the mall, but seeing all those shops with the mesh gate things pulled down gave me an idea.
A pop-up shop in the mall (ICHQ - Indoor Condor Headquarters!), and the only item for sale—in the entire store—is my album on vinyl. The store will be empty except for a crate containing a couple hundred copies of Candy Macabre.
It’s a publicity stunt. I figure that doing this is unusual enough to garner local press attention. And if I get in the paper, I think that’s sufficient attention to move enough units to break even—see the definition of success above.
Along the way, there’s an opportunity for some light performance-art-ish commentary on the end of malls and the death of the public square—of which malls were the last, worst physical manifestation.
The Crazy Thing
The crazy thing is, it’s going to work. Well, it may not work, but it’s going to happen. After going through a lengthy application process that required me to submit a business plan (already had one!) and set up an LLC (Doing It This Way On Purpose Productions), I’ve signed a contract with the Asheville Mall. The shop will be open May 30-June 13.
I’ll share more as we move closer to the end of May, but it’s going to be fun. We’ll have some in-store performances and other shenanigans yet to be determined. For now, this is it! We’re outside JC Penny right next to the eyebrow place. Mark your calendars and come see us!
The dream that indie labels like SST, Dischord, and Alternative Tentacles were able to realize is now accessible to just about any individual with a little money to burn, which is, in a way, a utopia the folks who founded those labels probably couldn’t have imagined at the time when they were sweating out cash flow between pressings. As good an account of the life and times of some of those labels and many associated bands is to be found in Michael Azerrad’s book Our Band Could Be Your Life. The title is cribbed from a Minutemen song, that I myself cribbed in its entirety on the Candy Macabre album.