My Morning Jacket's Tom Blankenship on Record Stores: "We Need That Sense of Community"

Speaking of the music scene in Louisville, the legendary record store, Ear X-tacy recently closed down. Surely you have some fond memories of spending time there and browsing the aisles or catching a great in-store.
Oh, absolutely. I grew up outside of the city, which was all farmland and all we had was a Wal-Mart. So, before I was old enough to drive, or even knew that there was such a thing as a record store, I got all of my music from Wal-Mart, because I had no other option. So when I was 14 or 15, I found Ear X-tacy. There was no one else in town that supported local music. I have so many good memories of things like going in and buying [Louisville math-rock band] Rodan’s Rusty from Kevin Coulton, who played drums for them, because the store sold local bands’ albums and all the musicians worked there. It was a great opportunity to interact with those guys. Plus, John [Timmons, owner of Ear X-tacy] has done so much for our band over the years, right from the beginning. I personally owe him so much for introducing so much music into my life, but also a sense of community. We need places like that and to keep them alive. We need that sense of community, whether it’s a bookstore, a coffee shop or a record store. Place that are owned by locals and where people congregate and talk. We really need to keep those places around.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2011/12/my_morning_jackets_tom_blanken.php