Features

Culture Clash owner Pat O’Connor
and store clerk Zach Weinberg.

Culture Clash is on the move, giving up its digs in promenade of the Westgate Shopping Center and heading a mile down the road, to a bigger, much more visible location at 4020 Secor Rd. on May 2.

As the demolition of the Westgate Shopping Center looms and stores scramble to find new locations, Pat O’Connor, owner of Culture Clash, is already packing boxes in preparation for the move – a move he hopes will turn Culture Clash from a tiny record store hidden in an alley to the centerpiece of the local music community, much as O’Connor’s old store, Boogie Records, used to be.

Culture Clash, as was the former Boogie Records, is a mecca for independent music, offering albums from independent labels that cannot be found in big box and chain stores and catering to music fans looking for a personal touch and professional insight from like-minded music lovers.

In addition to a wide variety of CDs and vinyl records, Culture Clash also carries a vast array of music-themed merchandise like books, posters and T-shirts as well as novelty items, toys and few other things you may not expect to find in a conventional record store.

Culture Clash also specializes in hunting down hard-to-find and out-of-print music.

“One thing that we have been very successful at is getting things that are out of print,” O’Connor said

Culture Clash clerk and drummer for the local band Uncertain 5 Zach Weinberg agrees.

“Pat’s been in the business so long that we’ve been able to build up so many contacts with independent labels from all over the country,” he said. “We’re able to just give them a call.”

“No one has the experience. No one can get the stuff. We are able to cipher somebody’s weird wants and tell them, ‘This is what you want; this is what you are looking for,’” O’Connor said.

With a new location and a little more space to spread out, O’Connor hopes the future will hold bigger and better things for Culture Clash and the local music scene.

“Basically, we’re looking to offer a music and art type of atmosphere,” he said. “We are going to be very much a community center. We are going to put aside some space for community stuff, flyers and stuff like that, as well as trying to develop the consignment-type thing and get more local music in the store.

“We are in an interesting location, too. I think on weekends we may be able to do things outside of the store, which is pretty exciting for me too.”

Culture Clash will continue to play host to in-store performances by local and out-of-town acts.

“We hope to do a lot more in-stores – be somewhat of a space that allows kids to try out first to get their chops before they go to Mickey Finn’s or whatever,” O’Connor said.

Culture Clash is planning to offer local musicians an opportunity to make some extra money in cyberspace by offering their songs for sale online through the store’s Web site.

O’Connor hopes to offer the downloads by summer.

“If they have a single they want to get out we can just put it up there, and hopefully people will take advantage,” he said. “It will get charted too, through SoundScan and through CMJ. As far as an industry thing, hopefully it will be noticed.”

Culture Clash’s Web site is a fully functional Web store, allowing patrons to shop from home and listen to samples of music.

Despite some of the record industry’s fears about technology, O’Connor has not been shy about utilizing the Internet and views it as an important tool to help educate his customers and allow them to explore the ever expanding realm of independent music.

“(The digital revolution) is a double-edged sword. It’s definitely helping, but the way the record companies approached it hurt it,” he said. “They were so scared of Napster that they didn’t realize the positive power of it.

“That was probably the last time we were selling massive amounts of nutty, crazy stuff that nobody’s heard of because they were finding out about it on Napster.

“People weren’t just downloading it for free as the record companies feared, they were going out and experimenting and getting turned on to all of this stuff and then buying it.

“I don’t really think that there is much fear now, although a lot of other record stores will tell you differently. I don’t think the downloading revolution is still climbing; I think it kind of dropped off and is becoming part of, but not solely, the record industry.”

And like any good businessman worth his salt, O’Connor knows an opportunity to further serve his customers when he sees it.

“(Culture Clash) is benefiting from technology. We’re taking control of it and finding music for people, using it to turn it people onto music,” O’Connor said.

The new Culture Clash, located a mile north of Westgate Shopping Center at 4020 Secor Rd. just past West Sylvania Avenue, will open on Tuesday, May 2.

“We are going to approach this new Culture Clash as a little temple of music where we try to offer a little reverence to the holy record format,” O’Connor said.

Even after more than three decades of turning people onto great music, O’Connor is still as enthusiastic as ever.

“What cooler thing can you do? Hang out, play with records, talk to people who are into music. It’s like not working, but you have to work really hard at it. It’s great,” O’Connor said. “I’m really am blessed for being able to this for that long.”