Purposely gaping aisles big enough as to deter “butt touching,” says Carrot Top Records’ general manager Allison Wasilewski, this longtime label and distribution company gets the economical upturn gift of space. Housing the first record shop in Logan Square in over two decades, the place has enough room left over to run all other operations on the second floor of an old window shop.

With the neighborhood well into the boom of gentrification and music-nerd demand high, Saki, named after the owner’s late cat, delivers a broad range of mostly new indie vinyl, a smattering of CDs, and some low-circulation magazines loosely tied to the Carrot Top ethos that bars “rap, urban contemporary, lite jazz, teen pop, commercial alternative rock, metal, punk rock, eight-wave ska, and other currently profitable genres.”

As with any post-music industry collapse shops, the communal thread is strong, cued by a small stage devoted to weekly in-store performances and an Eastern wall splaying a monthly cast of local visual artists. The Saki logo is credited to The Sea and the Cake's Archer Prewitt, and all employees slather one-liners over staff picks like "The orange-splatter on clean vinyl is WICKED."

Centerstage Reviewer: Gavin Paul