Musicwhore.org Great. Another music blog. (2005-2013)

404 Pi´ikoi St. was a popular address back in ’80s. Located across the sprawling Ala Moana Shopping Center near Waikiki, 404 Pi´ikoi was the antithesis of its behemoth neighbor. The parking lot was marked with potholes, and the building itself had seen better days. It couldn’t really rise to the level of "strip mall".

For a time, 404 Pi´ikoi housed a number of independent music stores — Jelly’s, Records Hawaiʻi and Froggie’s. Before Jelly’s moved in, a local discount retailer named Job Lot aired annoying commercials that turned the address into something of a jingle.

404 Pi´ioki is no more. The property was bought up by developers to turn into the parking garage of a building built in the early ’90s — the Nauru Tower.

Spiny Norman, a Honolulu rock band from that era, recorded "Nauru", a scathing indictment of the city’s overdevelopment. The Nauru Tower became emblematic of a Honolulu losing its natural assets in its quest for growth. The building already garnered its share of critics, and the shuttering of 404 Pi´ikoi was the last straw for some.

Nauru Tower is now more than a decade old, and I’m not sure who really remembers 404 Pi´ikoi.

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