Spoonful Records

We Columbus urbanites haven’t had a downtown record store. Until now. Thanks to Brett Ruland’s week-old Spoonful Records, we have a new place to flip through stacks, play pinball, and yap about music until our mouths fall off.

Located at 116 East Long Street next to B1 Bicycles, Spoonful Records is a zero-pretension-zone named after a Howlin’ Wolf song. Its thousands of records rest in wheeled cases that can be pushed back to host live local bands. The store is (marvelously) as accessible as it is cool. Because we all know that there are two kinds of music people: those who blast you with knowledge avalanches and those who just want to spread musical love. Brett, thank God, is unquestionably the latter. Whether you’re buying a used Martika LP or a re-released Black Heart Procession 7-inch rarer than an albino moose, he’ll grin and suggest a couple of other bands you might like. He may even play you stuff on his iPod. He’s a genuine guy who genuinely loves vinyl. And he’ll custom order any records that are still in print. Spoonful Records is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m.

P.S. This past weekend I made a pants-peeing vinyl purchase at Spoonful Records: The Jayhawks’ first album, which had only 2,000 copies in its initial pressing and has been unavailable for nearly 40,000 years.