Octopus Records: One Man's Journey from McCartney to Megadeth
Nigel: "I got sucked into the emporium..."
‘Firsts’ is an ongoing Jam Jar spread spotlighting personal stories about local record store owners’ and workers’ first-ever vinyl gems.
I’d spent most of my morning at a record shop down the block, quietly perusing genres, chomping at the bit, anticipating whatever heady origin story the bearded man slumped behind the desk would reveal once we spoke.
But before I could shoot my shot and ask the dude in Elton-esque tortoiseshell shades my brilliant questions, a pot-bellied vinyl-head stumbled in like Sisyphus, his chin tucked and his arms shaking under a collection of used records balanced on the back of his bent neck. He was clearly trying to sell his stuff, make a buck, and, alas, I didn’t want to get in the way. So I paid for a copy of Cindy Lee’s six-sided masterpiece Diamond Jubilee, and left.
Out on the spit-stained sidewalk, clutching my tote, I still craved a chat for this very blog. That’s when I remembered another record store owner — a kind soul named Nigel, and his adorable cat, Emerson — who I’d once interviewed for a story last summer.
I wandered on through Brooklyn’s swampy mid-afternoon heat, and by the time I blew through the door of Octopus Records, my eyes stung with sweat. The store’s air conditioning hit my skin like a hug from Mr. Freeze. Nigel was perched behind the counter, gently sliding a Radiohead record from its sleeve and placing it on a sleek state-of-the-art turntable.
His fingers were covered in turquoise rings, my notepad was stuck to my right ass cheek, and thus our conversation began.
Please enjoy.
What was the first record you bought for yourself?
Man, I think I was looking for a Beatles record, and all they had was Seals and Crofts — which is what my dad was into — and I got Sudan Village. It was either that, or Paul McCartney's Tug of War.
The one with the Stevie Wonder collabs?
Yeah, from the early 80s. Stevie sings on “Ebony & Ivory” and another track on there. But it’s kind of a cheesier era for Paul, not that he doesn’t have a lot of cheesy stuff.
Where’d you pick those records up?
I definitely got Tug of War at the record store in Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix, which they just tore down a couple years ago to build an apartment complex.
How old were you when you bought Tug of War?
I was six. Tug of War came out in ‘82, and two years later we were getting Van Halen’s 1984 as the record store dude was putting it away on the shelf.
My brother was almost five years older than me and he got into KISS and Mötley Crüe pretty quickly. Ozzy — all that.
RIP.
Oh, I forgot. The library near us in Phoenix had records you could check out and I remember going with my mom to pick up a Scott Joplin record and KISS’s Rock And Roll Over.
What a combo…
Yeah, my dad was playing some “Maple Leaf Rag” or something. It’s so funny what you move towards when you’re a kid.
Did you play piano at all?
No, I was a drummer. I was beating on stuff before I knew what rhythm was. By the time I put together a full kit, I was a senior in high school, into prog and metal.
Did you ever play that kind of music for a crowd?
My sophomore year in high school, my friends and I wanted to play “Enter Sandman” in the talent show. There was no rule saying the whole band had to be from our school, so I asked my brother and his friend, Rich, and their band — “Pelvic Meatloaf” — to play with us.
Rich had his hair up in a rainbow mohawk and got the kids all riled up, rushing toward the stage, and 30 seconds later, before the first verse even started, the curtains closed. The school said Rich instigated a riot or whatever. We were disqualified.
That’s epic. Did those first McCartney/Seals & Crofts records have any impact on your personal music evolution?
That early stuff didn’t really have anything to do with what I got into, because I really got into Iron Maiden — like heavily.
And through that Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Slayer, then Sepultura and Tool in college, but also softer stuff like The Cranberries and 311 and other bands I probably wouldn’t want to admit to these days…
Like what?
I had a girlfriend who was listening to Dave Matthews…it was the 90s.
But metal sounds like it was your main influence?
Yeah, it was the album art of Iron Maiden, and the mystery and the Satanism of that shit. Like when Mötley Crüe’s “Shout At The Devil” came out, with the glossy pentagram, I was just like, '“Wow, these guys are pretty dark.” Even though the music was rarely as heavy as the imagery.
Did your parents collect records?
Here and there. I come from a pretty musical family, but in terms of pop, we only had like two Beatles albums. My dad listened to a lot of classical, a little bit of jazz, and some world music — you know who Kitka are? They sing traditional Eastern European music. It’s melodic and folky with crazy harmonies.
When did you start collecting?
As a kid, I went through the evolution of records and tapes, then CDs. But when I moved to LA in my 20s, these dudes — they were pretty prototypical hipsters, from Baltimore — had an Elliot Smith record and a Belle & Sebastian record. I couldn’t believe they were still making vinyl.
That must have been right before vinyl came back into the mainstream?
Exactly. Early 2000s. Amoeba actually opened three months after I moved to LA, in Silver Lake, and it was 15 minutes up the road.
Did you go to Amoeba a lot?
All the time. I got sucked into the emporium — they had everything, every genre I was into back then, especially electronica; and they had a whole jazz room.
I loved the tactility of it. It reminded me of being a kid and, like, staring at the album art for hours trying to figure out whatever the band meant in the liner notes, and who they were referring to.
And you still have those early records in your collection?
I still have them all, yeah, even my original copy of Tug of War.
