Record Shop Lady: In Chicago with Permanent Records’ Liz Tooley

By Amy Kaufman
Published: October 28th, 2008 | 12:30pm

“I cannot remember a time in my life without music,” said Liz Tooley, co-owner of Chicago’s Permanent Records. “To say there was music playing in our house 24/7 would be an understatement.”

Tooley’s mother, a single parent of six children, raised the family in southwestern Missouri on a mix of “50’s oldies, classic rock, and swingin’ country.” It wasn’t long before Tooley, at 17, stepped into her first record shop. “Having grown up in tiny towns across the Bible Belt, cultural institutions were few and far between. Most of the music I grew up with came from flea markets and garage sales or were taped from my favorite radio program via my sweet boom box.”

After trying her hand at an array of odd jobs — from donut maker to car stereo tester and janitor to sawmill worker — Tooley packed her bags and moved to the big city of Joplin, Missouri. “When I left home at 17, I bought my first record player from a homeless guy on the corner. I would site that purchase as the single best purchase of my life.”

She scored her first part-time record-shop gig at Vintage Stock, a record and comic book shop, and she’s been in the industry ever since. “That was the first job I didn’t want to quit, and I figured that must make it a good fit for me.”

In October of 2006, Tooley and friend Lance Barresi, both working as managers of separate branches of a local record shop, Slackers, in Columbia, Missouri, decided to pack up their bags and open up their own shop, settling down in a cozy corner of the Ukrainian Village. “We both loved what we were doing, but knew we were ready to start our own thing and focus more on vinyl and the genres of music we loved.”

With two years as business owner and a brand new record label (Permanent Records) under her belt, Liz Tooley takes some time to “nerd out” with Venus Zine readers about the five albums that changed her life.

Metallica
Kill 'Em All (Megaforce Records)

This is the first album my sisters ever shared with me. Such a wild record for a gaggle of girls living in the middle of nowhere! I was 11 when they decided to let me come in their room and bask in the glory of their teen-ness.

Metallica was like nothing I’d ever heard. My virgin ears happily drank it all in. Guitars so fast you could barely catch your breath, throbbing base lines, rebellious, mind-warping lyrics, and lightning-quick drums made for an interesting entry into womanhood.

We’d sit around the stereo and smoke cigarettes (if they so deemed me worthy of a puff or two) and dream of different ways we could make it out to L.A. to see them slay in person. “Kill 'Em All” is by far my favorite metal album and was my first introduction to the goose bumps that have since plagued me whenever I hear something that really butters my biscuits.

Roxy Music
For Your Pleasure (Virgin)

This righteous classic from British rockers Roxy Music was their second album and the last one to feature sound manipulator–synthesizer genius, Brian Eno. This album came to me via a live performance of “Do the Strand,” which was featured on an old music show called The Old Grey Whistle Test. I had grown pretty tired of the current state of pop music and had really been going back in time, spinning lots of Bowie and T-Rex. How had I never heard of this band!

The album made it to #4 on the UK charts, but it was definitely obscure to me. Full of driving beats, synthy glitches, saxophone, and quirky yet smooth-as-silk vocals via one Mr. Bryan Ferry. This album was more than an answer to my current pop doldrums.

And not to ruin the surprise for anyone, but I will always stand firm in my belief that “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” is the best anthem anyone has ever written to a sex toy!

Roxy Music really ranks high on my list of all time faves, and the first four albums are must-owns, even the forth one with the super hot cover that was sadly made without Eno.

The Birthday Party
Prayers On Fire (4AD)

We had this poster of Nick Cave hanging up in a record shop I used to work in. In the photo he’s standing there with his arms behind his back, long, black hair spiked out, seemingly posing to show off his cartoon T-shirt that read “I Hate Every Cop.” Such attitude in that face on the poster, and his painted black poster eyes would follow you everywhere you went. Let me state for the record that I fell in love with a poster.

I knew of Nick Cave and had heard some of the Bad Seeds’ stuff. I was keen on their album Murder Ballads, but was somehow unaware of the prior project, the Birthday Party, the era of Cave in which this lovely poster/photo was taken. I had to find out more.

The guy I was dating at the time loaned me his copy of Prayers On Fire, and before I even flipped the record, I was done for. This music had so much rhythm, sex, anger, and screaming — glorious screaming! It was like Nick was going to break through the speakers and: A) Rip my throat out and bathe in the blood or B) Tear my clothes off and have his beastly way with me.

Listening to that album is like sticking a fork in the wall socket over and over again and loving it! I am and will forever be a fan of Nick Cave due to the panty-melting abilities of his earlier work. And yes, I did take the poster with me when I left that job.

Warhammer 48K
An Ethereal Oracle (Permanent Records)

Lance and I knew these dudes from Columbia, Missouri, and had seen them all play in amazing bands over the years. Warhammer 48K were an integral part of an incredible DIY scene going down in mid-Missouri and had already released one terrific album called, Uber Om. They had just self released An Ethereal Oracle on CD in 2006, and, after hearing it, we anxiously awaited a vinyl pressing. We waited, and waited, and waited. Seems they had a few bites, but no real leads on a label for the vinyl pressing.

After much deliberation, we decided that the album was too good to let it go without a vinyl release, thus Permanent Records, the label, was born. After all, what kind of record nerds would we be if we let one of the best things we’d ever heard slip through the cracks?

We talked it over with the band and they were stoked. Problem was, we had just opened our shop, so money was tight and we had no idea where to even start! Vinyl mastering, sleeve printing, record pressing, it was such a whirlwind ordeal. But when it was all said and done, we ended up with a 180gram, gatefold masterpiece that still blows our minds to this day.

The music is an incredible mixture of Hawkwind-meets-Karp with a dash of Crass, all coming from an amazing group of free-thinking, drug-taking dudes with hearts of gold. It’s an album and a band that we are more than proud to have had as our first label release.

Method Man/Redman
Blackout! (Def Jams)

My nephew Daniel came to live with me when he was 15. He was a highly entertaining kid who could quote a million lines from his favorite movies and was super infatuated with the latest radio hip-hop-pop. He was big into Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and Nelly and would sit in his room for hours listening to his CDs while attempting to impregnate his teen girlfriend. It drove me up the wall! I eventually made him leave his bedroom door open, for preventative measures, and in turn a great many beats ended up floating out of his room and into the house.

It was from this incident that I discovered I enjoyed the strong rhythms involved in hip-hop but hated the message and production behind these particular radio hits. It was a record store co-worker who would play Blackout! for me and forever alter my view of rap music. The lyrics were goofy, with songs about cereal killers (spelled correctly) and getting high, but were spat out with ease and grace to a backdrop of genre-spanning music.

New to the hip-hop scene, I would soon learn that Method Man and Redman were originally in a group called Wu-tang Clan, whose production and style were much inline with Blackout! I then found bands like Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest, Dr. Octagon, De La Soul, and countless others that would be added to the list of rap that I could feel good about loving.

It was strange how I had heard of many of these artists, but I had never really heard them. I definitely have Method Man, Redman, and my horny teenage nephew to thank for sending me off on that fantastic voyage. HO!

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Permanent Records Web site: http://www.permanentrecordschicago.com/