Every music fan knows that the record store is a special place. It’s a place where you might meet cool people, where you can talk to the store clerk about music (if he’s not too snobby, and sometimes even then), where you can go to cheer up even just browsing records. And every time you lose a beloved record stores, it’s a big deal. You form relationships with record stores, each has their own character, their own thing that makes them unique. Losing one is like losing a friend.

Today is the last day Toronto’s Criminal Records will be open. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a mourning party there to see it off, and I’d be part of it if I weren’t halfway across the world studying in Israel.

Criminal Records was my favourite record store in Toronto. Soundscapes is great and has that awesome local wall; Rotate Disc is badass; Sonic Boom is huge and amazing – may they all remain open forever – but Criminal was always the place with the cheapest records, the nicest store clerks, some of the best in-store performances, and that great T-Shirt selection of high quality stuff, not the cheap stuff you find in most other places. Most of the records I own I bought at Criminal. My three favourite shirts – my Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Ian Curtis shirts – were purchased at Criminal for $20 or $30 and have lasted a very long time, way longer than pretty much all my other shirts.

I always enjoyed talking to Josh about record sales. He was always really, really friendly and I always found it very interesting to hear what was selling and what wasn’t. Did you know that Fleet Foxes’ first album is their top selling album ever? I thought that was very interesting.

And when I bought a record player there and it didn’t work properly, I brought it back and Josh immediately gave me a replacement, no shlep or anything. That’s the kind of guy he is, and that’s the kind of store Criminal Records was.

A great, great store. It will be dearly missed.

I’d like to dedicate The Hold Steady‘s “We Can Get Together” to Criminal Records, those who worked there, and those who shopped there. It’s a song about people who love listening to records.

Photo: Dylan Leeder

This week’s band loves rock and roll. The band of the week is…

THE HOLD STEADY!!!

I’ve been a fan of The Hold Steady for a long time now, ever since I heard “Cattle and the Creeping Things”. Frontman Craig Finn‘s rambling beatnick stories spewed over classic rock riffs and chord clashes was something I could totally get into, and I did. Then, of course, Pitchfork decided they were like the greatest band of all time, and when Boys and Girls in America came out, it got that huge 9.4, which I thought was a little too much, but it was a good album. And Pitchfork wasn’t the only one: there were tons of sites out there raving about how The Hold Steady was like the greatest thing ever. At the time, I couldn’t quite understand it. I mean, I thought they were good, but I wasn’t fanatical about them. But now I think I get it.

When I saw them on the Colbert Report the other night, talking about how rock music gave people from their generation direction and inspiration in regards to how they live their lives, I got the sense that these guys truly love rock and roll, these guys truly live for rock and roll. And you could see when that writer came up and asked to introduce them, that their love for rock translated into something more, something that fans came to truly love and cherish as well.

With their latest album, Heaven is Whenever, it seems like The Hold Steady have moved on from being the band that’s way cooler than you’ll ever be, to the band that wants to be your older brother, or your dad. I can see how some fans might be disenchanted by the changes, but at the same time, I sympathize more with the band because they want to make music for everyone now, they want to make music for 14-year-olds who’ll be replaying Heaven Is Whenever until they’re 40.

“Heaven is whenever/We can get together/Lock your bedroom door/And listen to your records,” sings Finn in “We Can Get Together”. That’s probably one of the greatest lyrics ever. Hopefully there’s some Hold Steady in that record collection.

www.myspace.com/theholdsteady