I don’t mind admitting that I pretty much buy all my music on amazon.com these days (hey, I do buy music) and it’s been so long since I stepped inside a music store that I forgot how fun/wallet gouging it can be to just browse shelves and stumble upon music you didn’t even know you wanted.

Stinkweeds

stinkweeds

I’m currently vacationing worlds away from my New Jersey homebase in the ‘ZONA! …I mean, Arizona. Phoenix, to be more precise. (I’m here for all fun and no work, unless you count eating as work…and it is partially work, but work of the awesome tasty kind, not the, “Oh god I hate my life please kill me,” kind.) My friend Alex brought Lee Anne and me to Stinkweeds, which he said is the only indie music store in the area, a very nice one at that (and happens to sit between a vintage clothing store and designer toy shop). We oogled their letterpressed business card, OH HOW WE OOGLED THE BEAUTY OF THE RECESSED TYPOGRAPHY.

store interior
store!

Anyhoo, while browsing the store and thinking, “Gee, there isn’t anything that I want,” I ended up taking Les Ondes Silencieuses by Colleen, Pan Or Rama by Console and the latest Interpol into my squishy arms. I didn’t know what the Console album sounded like at all (not that I knew what the other ones sounded like either, but if I really like a particular artist I figure I will like everything that they’ve churned out) so the nice guy managing the store unwrapped it and popped it into the stereo for all of us to listen to. Bleepy bloops filled the air with melodious bleepy bloopage.

“I like this. …Um, I’m going to take this from you,” said Alex.

With each passing day I honestly feel more music-lazy than ever (as in, too lazy to seek stuff out myself or go to live shows), but…I really shouldn’t be so lazy. Yeah. Shouldn’t.

Stinkweeds
12 W Camelback Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85013