Other Music is the best record store there is. However, Used Kids Records, in Columbus, Ohio, is my favorite, a distinct and important difference. Used Kids doesn't equal Other Music's unparalleled selection, but Other Music's existence is predicated on having impeccable racks. It's the premier record store in the world's most (culturally) important city. If you can't find the indie record you're looking for, there's a problem.
Everything else, though, works in Used Kids' favor. It's a wonderful bastion in Columbus, a Midwestern city that, as much I love it and believe it's wholeheartedly underrated, doesn't exactly have an extensive indie scene. The clerks are nice; the store makes a concerted effort to stock a solid catalog, new and old, across genres; and the plastered posters lining the staircase leading to the store, some old enough that they've laminated themselves onto the walls, lend an ambiance that can only come with hard-won, truly earned recognition and time. (In the above photo, see if you can spot Firehose, Man or Astroman and Sun Ra.)
My girlfriend and I, on our annual pilgrimage there, bought used copies of Beachwood Sparks' self-titled debut, the reissue of Pavement's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," the Go-Betweens' "Oceans Apart" and Comets on Fire's "Blue Cathedral," all for $28! As its name implies, the store's biggest strength is its used section. It's reasonably priced and full of quality records that you never got around to buying when they were initially released but certainly are enticing at a reduced price, as opposed to the late-90s major-label detritrus one usually finds in used sections.
If only Boston had a store like Used Kids.
Update: Worth noting that Virgin Records is closing all of its U.S. "megastores" by the end of the spring. I don't mind, as long as it doesn't hurt indie record stores. It was also a pain even to walk inside of the megastore in Times Square.
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