No music, no afterlife

I spent much of my adolescence shopping for music at the Tower Records stores on Watt Avenue and the K Street Mall. In college, I practically lived in the back-of-the-shop cassette section at the Broadway store. Throughout the years, I religiously read Tower’s corresponding music mag Pulse! These days, I drive by that old haunt—now occupied by another local chain—and still can’t believe it’s been nearly six years since the Sacramento-born institution shut down. But, just as Tower’s slogan implored “No music, No life,” its legacy lives on by way of the Tower Records Project, which aims to preserve the international chain’s history through the donation of Tower-related goods to the Center for Sacramento History. Through September, project organizers are also accepting donations that will help fund the digitization of old audio and video footage, posters, photos, articles and band interviews, etc., for inclusion in a permanent archive set to open in 2013. www.towerrecordsproject.org.