where you buy your records and how you feel about it

in person: reckless in chicago when i can get there. i used to go to parasol in urbana when i needed something. i cant really think of any great record stores in the suburbs.

online: any number of independent psych distributors for records and some cds (usually time-lag, eclipse or fusetron), musicstack.com, or ebay. if i am buying a large amount of cds, i go through cduniverse.com because they have good prices.

i dont really think that much about where i buy... it has gotten to the point where only small, independent places will carry most of the stuff that i want.

when in LA, i shop primarily at amoeba. how i feel about it:

a) clearance section is gigantic and mostly crap but always good for a laugh or some good old fashioned armchair pop-sociology

b) store is easy to get to on the red line or the #2 bus

c) can only find about four out of every ten CDs i'm actively looking for, which i guess isn't so bad considering that i'm not the most conventional music consumer out there and that i don't tend to go around with a list of stuff i'm "actively looking for"

d) wish they had bigger/more eclectic folk and country sections

e) their used selection is often respectable and the prices are generally fair

f) i once had to leave because the volume at their afternoon in-store was really too freaking loud and the band was horrible

This thread I just started relates to some of this discussion:

Europe's biggeest 2nd hand record store closing

Amazon.com or Best Buy if the record just came out, they're always marked down the first week so sales will be bigger.

My local store, Compact Disc World closed about five years ago. Now in NJ there's just gigantic chains like Best Buy, or heading down the Parkway to Exit 130 to Vintage Vinyl, the best independent record store in NJ.

Chicago Brick & Mortar (that would be a great name actually) -- Reckless, Hyde Park Records, Evil Clown, Laurie's Planet of Sound, Hard Boiled, Dusty Groove, Virgin)

Online -- Deep Discount, CD Universe, Amazon, Insound, Aquarius, Wayside, CD Wow! -- see my Guide to Online Shopping.

How do I feel about it? I try no to think about how what I spent in the 90s alone would have paid off my student loan and put a downpayment for a house. Well, that or a pack of cigarettes, cup of coffee and/or a 40 ouncer a day.