Record stores, as a concept, are cool. We can all just agree on that, right? And the cool record stores are a whole different level of special. For those of us (I'm talking to you, if you're reading this) who like to dig, there's nothing quite like a good shop, out of the way, with a worker/owner/proprietor kinda lurking behind the counter pretending to do something important while they watch you dig...wondering if you're one of them. And when (if) you can break that seal, the distance evaporates and conversation immediately turns into "if you like this then you gotta check out THIS" and "have you heard that?" and then you're just talking to an old friend because you get each other, you know? That happened to me a few months back at LongHair Records in Albuquerque. Extremely cool small shop that focuses on the fringes of metal and experimental sounds without making your regular ass rock shopper feel alienated. I brought the dude a stack of records (good stuff - not "valuable" in the monetary sense, but also not dollar bin fodder) and left with a stack of excellent tapes. More importantly, I left knowing that this was the store I need to visit every time I'm in Duke City, because everything felt right. Regular ass store in a strip mall, next to a smoke shop and a bunch of empty store fronts. In the non-Covid reality they host gigs inside and/or in the parking lot. Heavy emphasis on freak VHS tapes and new age tapes (ask me for the story he told me - it's genius and you will be amazed) and this brutally raw black metal tape from PROFANE GRACE. I basically said all that other shit just to tell you that I got this PROFANE GRACE tape there - but the other shit was probably more important. I also snagged the Artspace Quarterly tape, and a bunch of Krshna chants. I just needed an excuse to blab, apparently. It was a really good visit.
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