by Joe Wallace
One of my favorite Midwestern indie record stores is the Toledo, Ohio-based Culture Clash Records. The shop is friendly, fun to browse, and I always seem to find wonderfully weird records there like the Jannik Top robodisco project Space.
On my last visit to Culture Clash, the day before HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinatti, I was chatting with people in the shop about doing an interview for the Turntabling WTF Record Guide, when I was handed a copy of Magnet Magazine.
Apparently Magnet has been off the newsstands for a while in favor of an all-digital version, but has since returned with a print edition. That is a good thing–while I’ve not followed Magnet in some time, it was nice to see them back in print.
I took the mag, browsed it piecemeal for a week and forgot about it.
But today I picked it up again after making a discovery I’d missed all the previous times I’d read the mag–I had never glanced at the back cover until today. Imagine my pleasant surprise to find Magnet has done something quite interesting and cool with their selected listing of Indie Record Stores In Your Backyard.
The list includes several shops currently on the Vinyl Road Rage Four list (which will be announced next week) and I was very pleased to see some other familiar names there, too.
Magnet was good enough to list Culture Clash, Grimey’s in Nashville, Guestroom Records in Norman Oklahoma, the wonderful Landlocked Music in Bloomington, Indiana, plus Luna Music in Indianapolis, Shake It Records in Cincinnati, Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis and several other worthy vendors.
I have no idea whether this was done as a service or as a paid advertisement (I’d like to think it was in support of indie shops that carry Magnet on the newsstands again). Regardless, it was GREAT to see these stores that I love given national advertising and exposure. The economy sucks, times are hard for everyone, and indie record shops truly need and deserve support right now. Sure, as a record seller myself (horror conventions, Discogs.com, etc.) I am a bit biased…but record stores, like any small business, truly are the backbone of America, don’t you think?
With the closure of big stalwart record shops like Ear X-Tacy in Louisville, Kentucky and others, I always feel like it’s a good thing to urge people to support their favorite vinyl record sellers wherever they may be. Magnet Magazine, thank you for throwing your two cents into the mix with this back-cover listing of excellent record shops. I hope this is a trend that continues as there are MANY deserving and wonderful record shops that could use the exposure.