I’m a record whore–pretentious, obnoxious, elitist. Indie-rock scum. I can’t stop buying them: out of print, limited edition, first pressings, alternate pressings; record and CD acquisition obsesses me. I run to the record stores when I hear about new side projects, and faithfully pre-order most releases as soon as their dates are announced. I’m sick. I admit it.

Being stuck in Claremont is anything but conducive to my addiction. Rhino has a decent election of back-catalog indie rock, but the new stuff is usually limited to Shrimper, Merge, Matador and a few others. I want more than that. I need more than that. The LA area has one indie rock megamart, Aron’s, which offers a great selection and price, but tends to be a bit dated.

Other than Aron’s though, there isn’t much around, aside from a few electronic stores that are usually limited to the house and jungle veins, or the ever-popular FatBeats in Silverlake. And if you don’t have a car, or feel like making an hour-long drive in each direction for your dose of wax or digital excitement, you’re fucked.

Unless, of course, you jump on the cyber-bandwagon and join in on the ever trendy e-commerce. The net isn’t just about sports, porn and buying books cheaper than Huntley (the three things every Pomona student should be using their computers for). Over the past 2 years, there’s been a big boom in net-commerce–almost every retail industry has some net counterpart, and prices are usually cheaper. From your very own room, you can order a car, a pizza (roundtableclaremont.com), drugs (drugstore.com, mothernature.com), and even a bride (mailorderbrides.com). Oh, yeah, and you can get records too. Lots of ‘em.

CD-Now (www.cdnow.com) is the most famous front on the net for records, as well it should be. Their site and catalog is massive, spanning multiple genres and offering extensive Real-Audio samples. What CD-Now accomplishes in quantity, though, they lose in quality. Their catalog contains mostly titles released by the large conglomerates and a few well-established independents. Aside from an extensive selection of popular import titles, most foreign labels are overlooked. Their vinyl selection is also pathetic: the selection is small, overpriced, and often special order only. Actually, CD-Now is overpriced in general. Don’t expect to pay less than $15 -$18 for a CD, and on top of that add high shipping rates and taxes. CD-Now also takes forever to ship your order, and unless you pay extra, they ship fourth class mail. That means if you order on Monday, it takes over a week for the post office to get it to your door.

So, CD-Now is relatively worthless, except for its real-audio samples and occasional special offers. Every now and then, they’ll throw a section of their catalog on sale for $9.99, and send out coupons via email for $10 off your next purchase. My advice is to set up a Hotmail account, and use it to post to a widely-read newsgroup. Microsoft will sell your address the first chance it gets, and there are well known programs that stalk Usenet archives for valid email addresses. Before you know it, you’ll be getting offers ranging from lower mortgage rates to free porn to lower mortgage rates disguised as free porn and vice versa. Every now and then, CD-Now will send you a coupon too. Hooray for junk mail.

Insound (www.insound.com) on the other hand, kicks ass. They bill themselves as "indiemogaragepunknoiselectronic + essentials," and offer an incredible website, reasonable prices, and free shipping on orders of 2 items or more. Their vinyl selection is awe-inspiring, they offer full text, digitized versions of popular indie and electronic zines, free mp3s each week, free videos via Real-Video, links to similarly themed webcast radio shows, a photo gallery archiving underground music, and live chats every once in a while. Their "annex" stocks new release vinyl and rare cds, while their regular site offers more standard cds and records. Large and small independent labels are represented, and there are extensive imports and limited pressings.

Taxes are charged only in NY, and it costs $3.20 to upgrade free shipping to USPS Priority (3 day). Add to this next-day processing time, a site that automatically lets you know if your product is in stock or needs to be backordered, and an incredibly friendly staff and what do you get? Quite possibly the most enjoyable and cost-effective record shopping experience.

Other Music is widely regarded as "the" record store in NY, if not the country right now. Their selection and taste is impeccable. Stock revolves around "in" (indie rock), "out" (noise), electronica, and "then" (60s-70s progressive), as well as fine imports, bizarre cinematic tracks, hip hop and just about anything good, trendy or both. The problem with record stores that only stock things you "should" own is that their prices often reflect it. Other Music is notoriously expensive, usually charging $2 -$3 more per item than other independent (owned and stocked) record stores — though they are still far cheaper than Virgin, Tower or other chains. I’d suggest doing what most New Yorkers do — stop by Other (www.othermusic.com) take a look around and see what’s new or what you want to buy, and then go somewhere else and buy it cheaper (and if you’re wondering what it sounds like, stroll over to CD-Now and see if they’ve got it on Real Audio).

Forced Exposure (www.fe.org) is a great outfit out of Massachusetts that stocks a lot of foreign labels, experimental electronica and rock, minimal beats, and some obscure indie rock. Their shipping plan is incredible too–$4.50 flat charge for UPS ground no matter how much you order, which is a real money-saver when it comes to large vinyl shipments. Their turnaround is not as fast as insound’s, but their website reflects only in stock merchandise, and they ship within 4 days making them way faster than most other stores.

Aquarius Records (www.aquariusrecordssf.com) in the Bay area is widely known as "the store that’s old enough to drink." Perhaps the most knowledgeable staff and eclectic selection to ever be assembled, Aquarius is essentially the Other Music of the West Coast–impeccable taste in their selection, loads of in-store performances and the unfortunately high price tags. Still, the selection is awe inspiring. Aquarius is also known for their extensive reviews–they publish reviews of every release they carry in store and online. Sign up for their mailing list, and get 10 pages of new reviews every other month. Cool.

Satellite, from what I’m told, is a little shit hole somewhere on the Bowery in NYC. Nonetheless, their website (www.satelliterecords.com) is perhaps the most comprehensive dance music net-order in the country. They boast 40,000 titles in their catalog that is regularly purged of items out of stock for more than 6 months (though a few occasionally slip through). They provide Real Audio samples of almost everything they carry and their prices are incredibly reasonable.

The only downfall of Satellite is its shipping policy. They only process orders on Sunday nights, so if you order Monday morning, you have to wait 7 days before they look at your order. Satellite is swamped with orders, and can get testy when you ask where your records are. The advice I was given by friends was to just forget about your orders. They’re on their way, so don’t go crazy thinking about it. If you forget, in two or three weeks you get this random box in the mail and you’re happy all over again.

Sandbox Automatic (www.sandboxautomatic.com) is the standard mail-order for hip hop. Not much can be said about it. Despite all the troubles people have had with it Sandbox has the most extensive hip hop selection out there. So deal with it.

Other than these places, you can try ordering directly from most record labels–uprecords.com, kpunk.com, etc. Online record shopping is easy, fun, and you pay by credit card, which isn’t even like using real money! Happy on-line groovin’.