200+ Voltage: Fashion Amplified 2005 CDs stolen

It took me a full day to admit this because it partly due to my own negligence. In any case, here is the story.

Yesterday morning (Tuesday, June 14th) just before 9 a.m. I walked to my car parked in front of my house in South Minneapolis and noticed an odd thing. A Voltage: Fashion Amplified poster was hanging out the bottom of the back passenger side door. On closer inspection I saw through the window that the glove box was open and all the manuals and my insurance card, etc. had been spilled onto the front seat floor.

As I was going through the papers and cleaning up I noticed that the back seat was a lot emptier than it had been. Yes, one and a half (possibly two and half -- it's hard to be sure) cases of shrink-wrapped Voltage CD's (100 to a case) were gone. Why the door was possibly left unlocked, and why the CD's were not safely in the trunk I can't intelligently account for, but nevertheless, this is how the dice fell.

This thief, however, was not too smart. (Thieves is actually more likely as one person can't easily carry 3 boxes of CD's away on foot, and someone in a car would not have been likely to notice an unlocked passenger side door.) In the center island compartment between the seats of my car were the brand new Beck album Guero and Brendan Benson's Alternative to Love, which would actually have a small re-sale value. And even a lone one dollar bill! But nothing other than the Voltage CDs appears to have been taken. They also left behind the new album by local band Terramarra. (Suddenly this scene is reminding me of the one between "The Dude" -- Jeff Bridges-- and the Police Officer in The Big Lebowski regarding the "Credence tapes.")

I seriously wonder what someone is going to do with 250 identical shrink-wrapped local music compilations. If someone tries to hoist a case on you, consider this: The only place to obtain non black-market copies of the album are at your favorite local indie record shops (where the distribution is all being done through Electric Fetus Onestop), from a few of the fashion boutiques in Minneapolis, or direct from me or Voltage Producer Anna Lee.

The saddest thing about all this, of course, is that these CD's were sponsor and musician-subsidized product, and the sales were earmarked for charity (Youth in Music.)

It also means that we have a substantially smaller number of CD's left now to re-stock the record shops when they run out. This is no publicity stunt, but they will be gone a lot quicker now, so if you want one, stop into the Fetus or Cheapo or Roadrunner Records and buy one before they are gone for good.

Any information that could lead to the return of the discs would be greatly appreciated. My email is editor@howwastheshow.com