I need that record-The death (or possible survival) of the independent record store

MVD VISUAL
2009

Young film maker Brendan Toller takes a look at the world independent recordstores and examines the causes and effects of the struggles that many of these stores have had over the last decade. Now I must admit that I was actually hesistant about seeing this film because my fear was that it was going to be nothing but owners and record fans ranting on about how fine their stores are and how wonderful they are because they go to a indie record store. Fortunately Toller digs way deeper than that. Now many of the owners and store patrons do go on about what they like about their shops and why it's important to them. There are also plenty of interviews tossed in with perspectives from Ian McKaye, Mike Watt of the Minutemen, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and many more. However the film is balanced by quite a bit of research as to why 3,000 record stores have closed across the nation in the last decade and what this means for record fans. This back and forth between personal experience and figures from the business world creates a powerful view of what is transpiring and why it's important to notice before it's too late. The thoughts presented here have the origins of the indie record stores woes beginning back in the 90's. The blame is distributed to several sources including radio stations, big box stores and of course major record labels. The motive is greed of course and the tools are dominating and controlling the market. These facts are countered by the stories and views of the record store owners and the musicians. They talk about why they love music and about the importance of sharing views with and how it's great for record fans to have a local record store to go to. If you have or have ever had your favorite record store and spent time searching through their collection, choosing records, talking to the people that work there or just soaked in the atmosphere then you know the feeling. Likely most people that are long time record store fans are the ones who are going to seek this movie out because they already have that connection. Toller does a fine job of pulling facts and personal views together and bringing the film to some sort of closure in showing in something is not done then these stores will continue to go under. I also liked that he mentioned about it not being record stores, but that other speciality type small store like comic book shops and others are also in danger to. That's true that in a world where every town of any size has a Wal-mart that it's more and more difficult for speciliaty types stores to compete and stay above water. The only thing that could have been missing was that not much mention of the sagging economy was mentioned as a possible cause for record stores being in trouble. This film is fast paced, looks fantastic with all of the views of various record stores and brings in lots of sources. So overall a fine job.