Bohemian Rhapsody! FIVE15: A New Indie Place for Avant-Garde Lit, Music, Movies and Gifts in Downtown Royal Oak Opens September 15

Business Wire, Sept 6, 2007

Store Has a "Left Bank" Feel

ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- FIVE15 (http://www.five15.net/), a new independent book, music, movie and gift store with a "Left Bank" feel is officially opening September 15. The store, located at 515 Washington Street in downtown Royal Oak, will disprove the much parroted line that indie stores are DOA in the 21st century. The address might say Washington Ave., but the vibe is more Greenwich Village or Haight-Ashbury, wired for our generation.

This store, the brain child of owner Gary Baglio, will saturate itself in the liberating impulses of the '60s yet surround its patrons with the multi-media innovations of our time. Interesting things are happening in the arts and popular culture right now and the store will be a reflection of these modern thinking sensibilities while its leading edge technologies will be geared for today's pulse.

FIVE15 will have the most eye-popping and thought-provoking merchandise around - literature, music, movies and gifts that people don't see at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.com. The store will go to great lengths to bring both the east and west coasts to the area. Indeed, FIVE15's owners are obsessed with making sure that the store isn't stagnant and even intends to nurture the scene by hosting events several times a month.

"Metro Detroit really needs a place like FIVE15, especially in Royal Oak where the recent explosion of chain stores and a "food court" mentality threatens to turn a unique community into just another generic suburban neighborhood. By bringing together so many different elements--books, music, and a continually changing calendar of cultural happenings, FIVE15 promises to be a fitting addition to the hip part of Motown I call home," states the arts & culture critic Vince Carducci.

FIVE15 will be celebrating its opening by declaring this month Jack Kerouac Awareness Month. It's the 50th anniversary of the publication of 'On the Road,' and the commemorations featured in the store include--among many others-- 'On the Road: The Original Scroll,' the New York Times reporter John Leland's book 'Why Kerouac Matters' and a memoir, 'You'll Be Okay,' from Kerouac's first wife, Edie Kerouac-Parker.

The Metro Detroit arts and popular culture scene will be galvanized by this new indie store with avant-garde roots. FIVE15 has the potential of becoming the most exciting commercial space in Metro Detroit - where a real scene can emerge and come together. Baglio adds, "We want FIVE15 to work as a hub, a creative clubhouse where people can see and feel our aesthetic."