Record Store

Following a few weeks of mayhem, I've been spending a lot of time this week catching up on news and blogs and such. I ran across an homage to real record stores in the LA Times last month, which only partly laments the decline of indie shops but recognizes that the author, like me, may be part of a last generation who found our musical educations in these alternative bricks and mortar contexts. There are still a few left from my past - St. Mark's Place in Kearny, NJ; Tunes, Hoboken, NJ; Crazy Rhythm Records, Montclair, NJ; Bleeker Bob's, NYC. I was also surprised to find a number of good record shops left in Pittsburgh a few years ago. By contrast, I found a Wired interview in which indie store owners say that they are doing okay. In reading these pieces, I realized that since moving to Phoenix almost nine months ago, all of my purchases have been through the web, delivered either by mail or by download. I'm going to rectify that this weekend...I miss liner notes and album art.

Record Store, Darren Hanlon
Record Collector, The Planet Smashers
Record Lady, Lyle Lovett

Hmm, I was about to link to mp3s and online buying sites for these... Here are a few directories of indie record stores (they all return different results) instead:
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
Independent Record Store Directory
Groove Guide