Record Stores.

Record Stores are an "Endangered Species". Not really huge news to anyone paying attention out there, but terrifying to those who care. The closest decent record store to me, that i'm aware of, is 50 minutes away in Portland. Now I do feel very fortunate that I live in between both Portland and Seattle, so i'm not left wanting for a good music scene, but still, 50 minutes? That alone has led me to hope to open a record store in this town someday. A great record store, not some mediocre-lets-appeal-to-the-masses store.
I don't even need to bother to ask myself why good stores are so few and far between, (i'm lookin' at you MP3s), but it still sucks. Instead of daily trips to visit the beloved cluttered aisles, day trips are planned in advance with meticulous care. Album lists are made, plans of attack are created. Not saying that an entire day wandering through handfuls of record stores is a bad thing at ALL, but it just isn't the same as the owner knowing you by name. Plus the people at Fred Meyers don't usually care that the new Yellowcard album came out and they don't have it yet. Sheesh.
Sure, i'm not the most qualified music appreciator out there. I can't sort through piles of LP's and tell you paragraphs of background information on each band/artist. But I love music, plain flat and simple. And in my opinion, that's all it takes (As long as your favorite singer isn't a regular on Z100.
So anyways, i'm planning another attack on Portland record stores, so a few albums off my list are(I'm having to play a little bit of catch up here, so bear with me):

• Taking Back Sunday- any and all that I find
• Kings Of Leon- Only By The Night
• Acceptance- Phantoms
• Days Away- see TBS ^
• Motion City Soundtrack- I Am the Movie, Commit This To Memory

Suggestions would be fantastic, open to basically anything. I am nothing if not an eclectic music listener.

"You can't find the beat, until you lose yourself in it." -Rise Against