beltpop

record store written by husk based on 8. INDIE and 9. METAL from beltpop's 2023 Watercolor Series A record store in a suburban shopping strip or college town. Local vesicle of consumer hell. Big glass window, brick and mortar walls. Aging hipster at the counter with the guitar picks and stickers. Multiple aisles separated by genre, listening stations, racks by the entrance with show flyers and free mixtapes. Sells new releases from industry labels, but small enough to be deemed “authentic.” A nexus of taste, temporally removed. Standing in the aisles, two women. Roughly the same age, dressed in diametrically opposed styles. They entered the store separately and only became aware of each other afterwards. They are both trying, and failing, to focus on the trays of sleeved records. They have never met or spoken. Awkwardly glancing at each other from the corners of their eyes, they unknowingly share a particular agony. --- The indie chick flipped through the stack and