Nathan Ellsworth

Music has never been as easy to attain as it is today. The Internet is… Nathan Ellsworth

Music has never been as easy to attain as it is today. The Internet is obviously the main reason for this. Some artists embrace it and others denounce it, but either way, their albums are going to be available for free, likely before the official release date.

Still, double-clicking on a link to the new album by your favorite artist isn’t nearly as enjoyable as going out to buy it. What is an album if you can’t hold the artwork in your hands, read the lyrics sans typos and read thank-yous to dozens of people you have never heard of and will never meet? With that in mind, here are some places on and around campus where you can acquire these wonderful things.

Brave New World, 406 S. Craig St. – Located at the very eastern edge of campus, you’ll have to proceed up a couple sets of rickety stairs to get here. Follow the signs, you’ll find it eventually. The store is approximately the size of a postage stamp, which can create some problems if it’s crowded, but it has the best selection of the most readily accessible stores, so it’s worth the hassle.

Simple genre divisions of metal, hip-hop and rock form the bulk of the catalogue, with separate sections for new and used. This is one of the few places (OK, it’s the only place) that has a sizable vinyl collection, so if you’re into the turntables, go for it. A small offering of music DVDs is also available, mostly of the metal persuasion. Prices vary, but there are many brand new CDs to be had for $9.99, including normally expensive golden oldies like the Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat. Also, there is a definitive list of all of the best metal albums ever, divided into little-known and indefinable subgenres like thrash metal, in case you had metal on the mind.

CD Warehouse, 3609 Forbes Ave. — Located at the complete opposite end of campus from Brave New World, for your convenience. A recent reorganization into vertical CD racks has made this the roomiest and most navigable option, but the secondhand selection leaves a lot to be desired. Posters for the new Modest Mouse album are currently displayed prominently, but the album’s availability ends there. Also, the new Bjork album is on heavy rotation, as if to taunt you, because you will not be able to get that either. Prices are pretty standard, usually between $11-$14, but said prices are unfortunately displayed in large stickers directly on the jewel case that invariably leave unsightly residue. On the bright side, there is a pretty formidable used DVD collection along one wall, with extremely reasonable prices.

Dave’s Music Mine, 1210 E. Carson St. in the South Side and 2136 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill – The South Side location is a relatively short jaunt on the 54C plus a short walk away from Oakland. It’s a pretty big place, and the fusion of metal and rock means that it’s mostly one monolithic collection, with much smaller sections for soul/hip-hop/R’B, “world” music, techno and others. Most of these are used, and the smaller the chances are that you’ve heard of it, the cheaper it is. There are also new releases sprinkled throughout, mostly at disappointingly steep prices.

There are wooden artist tabs, which make the material easy to sort through, but they also serve to point out the lack of any content from bare essentials like the Pixies and Pavement. Mostly there are a lot of one-hit wonders or long burned-out artists who people realized sucked and immediately sold off, but there a few gems to be found in the ore.

Best Buy, 680 Waterfront Drive at the Waterfront in Homestead – Part of the glorious ode to commercialization that is the Waterfront, it is accessible by the 59U. It may not have the charm or atmosphere of traditional record stores, but Best Buy has got major new releases the day they come out for $7.99 or $9.99, which is hard to argue with. Although the selection obviously tends to be more mainstream than the other options, chances are if an artist has had any level of success he will be found here.

Amazon.com – When all else fails, there’s always this. Just stop for a minute and imagine what one of their warehouses must look like. It’s probably pretty big.

Although it’s not exactly nirvana (utopia, I mean, not the band), there are plenty of places around Pitt to get your hands on some music besides torrents and file-sharing programs. You just have to look a little bit.