Scrapped about like ransom letters from a fleet of pop culture villains, a leotard work-out girl high kicks a hand-scrawled advert for 50-cent LPs, while a section in the rear categorizes DVDs and books related to the "robacalypse," that is, everything robot, rocketship and UFO-related.

So the quirks go at this dusty-finger haven, run for over a decade by John Laurie and his rotating cast of clerks that have included Smoking Popes members and Chicago Reader columnists. For they are the ones keeping the buy-sell-trade format alive, with everything from new Morrissey albums to Johnny Cash action figures, while focusing equal attention on the record store as a community, slathering new and used CDs and vinyl with one-liner reviews and guest DJing around town.

Centerstage Reviewer: Gavin Paul