Place For My Head-phones

With all of the different stores in Burrowgatory's cityscape selling their own brand of goods, it wasn't hard to encounter just about anything you could imagine in your day to day life. Novelty glassware and ceramics, freshly grown fruits and vegetables, sex toys fit for any occasion, arrays of clothing stores fit for any and all aesthetics. The list went from daily essentials to niche and specific hobbies. But it was all readily available if you walked around enough. 

Darlet did a lot of exploring in his time around Burrowgatory. He never spent a day at home if he could help it, and it led him to some very interesting spots that he felt were hidden gems. Exclusive to him and the select few others that roamed every back street and sketchy dark path they could find in search of these rare shops. But one spot that Darlet could truly say was his favourite place in all of Burrowgatory, a hole in the wall record shop. It had no named signs, and no real way to tell it was a store aside from the chipped red sticker that was slapped on an old metal door. 'Open'

When entering, the building was long and narrow. The walls were lined from top to bottom in posters, each featuring bands spanning over Burrowgatory's history. Posters that featured some of the first bands ever formed, almost as far back as Murmur's appearance. The shelves on each side housed vinyls, cassettes, CDs, and even had a listening deck to jam out to some of the albums. At the far end was a small sale counter, and behind it was a bun that Darlet had come to know as Icarus. They always wore a hood, so the features of their face weren't ever truly discernable. But they always wore a pair of open back headphones. You could hear whatever they were listening to as soon as you walked through the door, and the lack of mood music that most shops had was instead replaced with whatever album Icarus was listening to that day. 

Today was the day of the concert, and Darlet needed to destress before his opening act. He chose to visit Icarus for a quick jam session before heading to the venue. Entering the store in his new studded leather jacket, he made sure to mind the spikes when walking through the aisle. He'd been here enough times to have listened to most of the albums available on these shelves. He even knew that his own albums were among the discographies sold here, a fact that made him deeply proud of his fanbase. What he really wanted to see was the new stock. Fresh releases, exclusive vinyls, and rare one offs from young and budding artists. These were kept by the counter, where Icarus could inspect and listen to them all before organizing them into the rest of their collection. 

Darlet slid up to the counter, leaning on his folded arms to get himself eye level with the bobbing hooded Icarus. "Yo." He spoke softly. Though he got no response, Icarus very rarely spoke, and even rarer listened. "Yooo. I wanna see the new stuff. I'm bugging out today and need jams to calm my nerves." Again Icarus seemed to ignore his pleas, but without saying anything, they spun in their chair, snatching up a basket by the handle and hoisting it up to the counter top. Inside were a stack of CDs, each with the seal wrapping still on them. This was Darlet's favourite part, picking out a new album to tear open and take it's first listen virginity. "You fucking rock!"

Digging through the stack was always fun. Like judging books by their covers, and in this case, albums by their song list titles. An album named 'Dig Into My Heart' that consisted of various country love songs seemingly named after places you could have sex in. At least that's what he could gather from song names like 'Under the Covers', 'Hay Ride', and 'Lay of the Land'. 

The next album that caught his eye was a neon coloured album that he could assume was some kind of dance music artist. Although the names of the songs seemed somewhat questionable. 'Wut R W3 Hear 4', 'L8tr Bby', and 'Y Sö Srs' didn't really give much of any information on what the songs might be about. But he guessed that was part of the fun of dance music. 

The album that finally got his full attention came from the band that would be headlining the concert that night. A rap rock band that he'd met with at a venue just a few weeks prior, 10-Karat Firing Squad. They had offered him the opener over a few drinks and allowed him to demo some of the new tracks on this album. He knew he had to give the final product a listen. Looking over the track list, he spotted one of the songs he heard before. 'Watch It Burn', which he remembered having an intense chorus filled with heavy screams and vocal distortion. A new song he hadn't heard before caught his eye as well, 'Hell For You To Pay'. The final song of the album was the one that made him the most excited. 'The Army Of Sound'. He was in the studio with them while they mastered and recorded finishing parts of the track. Their workflow placed the songs on the album in the order of their creation, and he got lucky enough to meet them just before the album was complete. 

Darlet raised the CD up to show Icarus, who raised a stubby bun handed attempt at a thumbs up. He moved over to the machine that housed several CD cradels and cassette slots. Popping the plastic wrapping around the case with a nail and carefully pulling the disk from it's slot. He placed the album on the cradel and pushed it into place. Plugging in one of the sets of headphones on the table before placing them over his head. He had his fuel for the next hour, now he wanted to see just what he would be opening for.