I Need That Record...

Watching the film, I Need That Record, an awesome movie about independent record stores in America. It's an enlightening tour of the past twenty years of our music loving lives, and it's both depressing and inspiring, if that's even possible.

I buy records. I download music. I buy digital music. I purchase CDs. I spend both money and time on music, and I want to do all of that the way that I choose to. The music industry, and the overwhelming bulk of it's monster retailers, tell you what to listen to today, or at the very least, are willing to only sell you certain things. That's not how I want to listen to my life. I want to establish a kinda sorta groove when it comes to the things that I like, and then I want to to own those things.

I like Ryan Adams. I like Chris Isaak. I like My Morning Jacket, and I like Bruce Springsteen. I like the Grateful Dead and Coleman Hawkins. I like Jay Malinowski and I like Pearl Jam. I like The Josh Davis Band and Josh Rouse. I like Mayer Hawthorne and Paul Westerberg. I like Ray LaMontagne and Sam Cooke. I like Tom Waits and Train. I like Wynton Marsalis, Alison Krauss, Led Zeppelin, and Lou Reed. I like being able to buy what I want, when I want, and not when Sony or WalMart tells me to. That's fine for televisions and undershirts, but not for music, not for art of any kind.

Here's an awesome list that Rolling Stone Magazine compiled of the best record stores in America. Some of them are within remarkably easy striking distance. Who wants to make a road trip? Think of it as sweetening up your children's inheritance.

Zoey...some day you're going to need to find space for a lot of records.