Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

Steve Wiley, who co-owned Hoodlums Music and Movies in addition to writing a Phoenix New Times music column, died Tuesday, Dec. 30, of a heart attack. He is survived by his wife, Beth, and five children.

Wiley was part owner of Hoodlums, an independent record store on the Arizona State University campus and later in south Tempe.

"He was a great person for this Valley," says Zia Records general manager Brian Faber. "We've all been talking to each other all day. It's a tough one."

Wiley was working at Wherehouse Music when Faber met him.

"I was this 20-year-old kid," Faber says. "And Steve was the guy who taught me to stand up at meetings and say things you believed in and to fight for those beliefs. One of the reasons I stuck in this business was to try to be like Steve Wiley.

"Over the years, he was my boss at Wherehouse. Then he went to Zia and we stayed friends and competitors and ... by the time I came to Zia, he had Hoodlums. But we always talked shop. We were swapping notes on Facebook just a few weeks ago. He was just a great guy."

Wiley also blogged about music for New Times in a column called Record Store Geek, sharing "stories of great music and wacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always zany music biz."

New Times music editor David Accomazzo says, "Steve's importance to the music community has always been evident ever since I met him, and it was a pleasure getting to know him both as a writer and a person. His passing came too early, and is deeply saddening."

In a recent column titled "Is the World of Music Better Now or Better Then?," Wiley wrote:

I'm closing in on a half century of existence — an existence immersed in the world of entertainment — and sometimes I just sit back and marvel at technology. My phone is a computer. I can fast forward commercials. I've got music and movies and everything in between right at my fingertips.

We've got it pretty good.

Notice I didn't say, "You damn kids don't know how lucky you've got it." I haven't hit that stage yet.

He ended up concluding that some things are better now (tools for musicians, sound quality), some were better then (musicianship, album length) and some are pretty much the same (impact on the soul, glorious artwork).

So he was that guy.

As Faber says, "He was one of those guys who had such strong beliefs, he inspired you to believe in things strongly. They didn't have to be the same things Steve believed in. In fact, I think he liked it when people had different beliefs and opinions. He wanted to talk about those differences with you. That's a powerful thing that not a lot of people have, that make you want to take a stand. It doesn't have to be a big thing. It could be an album. But he brought that out of you."

He was a very supportive presence on the Valley music scene. As promoter Stephen Chilton of Psyko Steve Presents recalls, "He was super helpful when I first started promoting shows. I'd go to Hoodlums every week when I was in college and talk to him about music for hours. I would end up missing class because I was talking about the Replacements or something."

Jason Shoff, a musician who's also an A&R rep for the local label 80/20 Records, posted a tribute to Wiley on his Facebook page.

"I don't think it's hyperbole to say that I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for Steve Wiley," he wrote. "When I was a student at ASU in the early/mid '00s, his music store there, Hoodlums, was my first exposure to some of my favorite artists (Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, Big Star), and whenever I had free time in-between classes I would go to the listening booths and listen to artists that felt like hidden treasures to me, bands that I thought few in the mainstream were privy to at the time (like, and this is aging myself a bit, Kings of Leon and the Black Keys). In fact, I traded and spent so much music there that he often called me "his dealer," which is no exaggeration. ... So wherever you are Steve, thank you for all the wonderful memories and music that I may never have been exposed to otherwise, and may you rest in peace."