White Stripes’ Record-Store Stunt Causes A Bit Of A Stink

noah | June 21, 2007 1:32 am
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When the White Stripes had the idea to rechristen the abandoned Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard “Icky Thump Records” and allow their fans to indulge in a little midnight-madness shopping this past Monday, they probably had no idea that the sheer devotion of their fans would result in a massive opportunity for blindingly obvious puns:

The trouble started when the band announced that the first 200 CD’s sold at the temporary store when it opened at midnight Monday night and re-named “Icky Thump Records” for the occasion, would receive free tickets to the concert.

White Stripes fans began congregating in front of the closed retailer on the Sunset Strip in the early evening Saturday, even though no public facilities existed for them. That was when neighbors began reporting that they were witnessing incidences of public urination and defecation.

Neighbors complained to the city, which sent out code compliance officers, according to acting Code Compliance Manager Jeffrey Aubel. One neighbor, activist Jerome Cleary, reported that as many as a dozen people were continuously “camped out” on the Sunset Strip beginning late Saturday. “The skateboarding and the noise began Saturday night and continued through the weekend,” he said.

According to Thelma Jackson, who lives a block north of the location on Horn at Shoreham Drive, the need for some public facilities became blindingly clear on Monday afternoon.

“I noticed all the people when I left my house on Monday morning. When I went out at 10:30 there were a few, but when I came back at 11:30 there was a crowd,” she said.

She said she didn’t think too much of that until she went out again at 4:00 that afternoon and saw people “laying out in the street, camping out,” she said, without any security guards present. “When I came back up the hill I saw a fellow coming out of a drop off next to my building. He was pulling up his pants and fixing his belt.”

Oh, how the temptation to use the phrase “icky dump” is nearly killing us.

An Icky Situation [WeHoNews.com]