photo copyright of NY Times

There are two things I have a rough time getting enough of. Record stores and road trips.

And with traditional record shops closing up all over the place, I figure I got work to do. (we won't even get into gas prices for the road trip part.)

This 2006 article from the NY times probably illustrates the music store landscape best.

I, of course, do not envision a day when music will be all download, or a day when record stores will cease to exist. But the fundamental need for them is one that is quickly shrinking, and has only gotten gloomier since the above mentioned article was written.

I understand this better than most, because I work for a newspaper, a business with a future not all that different from music business.

Nevertheless, my personal mantra comes from a little movie called Almost Famous.

"If you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends."

To me, there is nothing like hanging out at a record shop. Even if I don't plan on buying something, it is the most beautiful place to get lost and sink into. It is full of my friends. The dusty smell of used vinyl, the shop clerk painted in the sweetest tattoo art you've ever seen, obscure acid jazz bopping over the soundsystem, or a random Dylan bootleg. People on the floor digging through the bargain boxes looking for a buried gem, discussions on the artistic merits of a certain artist sail through the aisles. You hear the constant click of plastic cases slinking against one another as a browser browses. It all dovetails like nothing else could. It's my type of place with my type of people--random folks hunting for something, even if they don't know what they are hunting for.

It's a totally gypsy way of thinking about it, but it's true. A music shop is the one place you are safe from anything in the outside world. Back in the 70's, when music was more of a spinal chord in culture, these sort of places were bedrocks for entire communities. Going to the store was like going to the show.

Now where do kids go? The mall? To each others house to play video games? Nowhere? Maybe I'm a bit overly nostalgic for that old time vein of what a record store once meant, but I think there is something eternally special--and valuable--about these places, and refuse to watch them disappear from the face of our culture.

And whenever I read about another shop closing, I honestly feel like someone just demolished a house I used to live in to put up a new Walmart.

Lots of great stores have been sucked into the black hole of the 21st century digital age in the past few years and closed doors, but the map remains dotted with plenty of these musical havens, these safe houses for musical wackos like me.

I plan to visit each and every one of these in the coming months, to dig on their digs. I'll document my visit to each and every one right here on the blog, with photos, some history and quirks, reviews, and lists of what I bought. (be wary, nothing is off limits when I purchase used records. I've shelled out for everything from Muddy Waters to silly compilations to David Hasslehoff.)

Why? Well, it's an excuse to jump in on the 2 things I love. AND these are places that, quite ironically, need to be heard to keep making noise. I'd be happy to be your hearing aid.

I will go for A SPIN and visit one record store per week, starting this weekend.

And what better place to start than the new one that just popped up right down the road in Phoenixville--The Creep Industries Store.

Stay tuned for "For The Record" features every week, folks.

I couldn't help but fill with glee when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won the Song Oscar for "Falling Slowly" Sunday night from their movie "Once." If you don't know the past few years of Hansard's life, it's truly wound together as a fairy tale, culminating at the Oscars. He was originally only supposed to write the music for the movie, but when the lead role dropped out, the director pushed Hansard in as leading man since he wrote the music. He was weary at first about it since he had no training in acting, but next thing you know, he's dating costar Irglova, and the low-budget Once slowly takes off, from being received well at Sundance, to winning an Oscar for best original song. Go Hansard! He was no doubt, the happiest man alive on Sunday when he hoisted that golden man in the air.

This week's Top 5 are our favorite music-centered films here at Scene & Heard HQ.

5. SLC Punk
I read somewhere that this movie is what would happen if you crossed "Sid & Nancy" with a John Hughes flick. Couldn't say it any better myself.

4. Spinal Tap
The mother mock-rock-doc of em' all. It's one of those rare movies that turns it up to 11 just because it's higher than 10, if you know what I mean. And you can't talk about music movies and somehow ignore this comedic hair metal extravaganza.

3. I'm Not There
They keep saying it's a Bob Dylan biopic, but that's not exactly true. Quite the contrary, it's about the songs that have come out of the Dylan, not the Dylan that's come out of the songs. And thus, it's one of the most colorful and unique movies ever put to tape, with 6 different people all putting their own spin on Bobby and even more songwriters putting their spin on his music. It's like the Fight Club of music films.

2. High Fidelity
John Cusack owns a record shop, tries to figure out his long and troubled romantic life through Top Five lists and records (and with some help from The Boss too) while waxing intellect with his zaney music-dork employees.

1. Almost Famous
The one, the only. This fictional re-creation of Cameron Crowe's young life is colored with the life any young writer can only dream of. If you don't 'get' why people love music, this movie will change that. If you are looking for a reason to start a band, this movie will give you many. But even more so, in a movie full of rockstars it makes the vastly uncool look like the coolest people of all.