HEADBANGER HEADPHONES

When I was a teenager I used to spend my summer and winter vacations working in my dad’s guitar store, where a motley crew of whacky sales people inevitably shaped my taste in music. There were the usual assortment of characters that would come into the store regularly, among them a man we lovingly referred to as “Dudeman” because he’d begin every sentence with “Dude, maaaan…” like an aging Pauly Shore. Dudeman was a balding, skullet-donning man in his 40s who always wore a Wayne’s World baseball cap that was two sizes too big and a stone-washed denim jacket that was two sizes too small. Dudeman was constantly stoned and always had on those cheap Sony headphones, the kind that came with every Walkman, with the adjustable metal bracket arched over his head and bent into an upside-down “V” on top to compensate for his hat and enormous, shiny dome.

ANYWAY, MetalSucks Maniac Mark Schenkel sent in this commercial for NYC electronics/music retail mainstay J&R in which all of the dudes therein remind me of Dudeman. Dudeman, wherever you are, I hope you’re well and still rockin’ out. Long live the dudemans of the world.