My love of music has existed for as long as I can remember, and my career in the music business really started in high school, when I worked at the “cool” record store in Kansas City, called Capers Corner. During those formative years, I learned everything I needed to know to manage and sign bands, from the Smashing Pumpkins to the White Stripes.
Capers Corner was my personal version of High Fidelity. The cast of characters included Corky, an Oakland Raiders fan in Kansas City Chiefs territory with an encyclopedic knowledge of music and a passion for alt-country before the genre even existed; Ed, a 70-year-old jazz aficionado who taught me the difference between a Lester Young tenor-sax solo and a Charlie Parker alto-sax solo; and the owner, Ben, who was an overweight, adulterous, money-laundering, fencing operator. They gave me the education of a lifetime, preparing and educating me in the ways of the world that are far removed from high schools and college campuses. Below is a playlist of some of the songs we played on the turntable while selling concert tickets, helping stoners buy five-cent screens for their pipes (beyond annoying), re-pricing stolen records from Musicland, rounding up sales tax, and neglecting to ring up cash sales …
Andy Gershon is a Grammy-nominated music executive who has worked with artists from the Smashing Pumpkins to Moby to the White Stripes. He is still an avid Kansas City Royals and Chiefs fan
