Easy Street Queen Anne is everything an independent record store should be: It's well-stocked, keeps late hours, and is staffed by smart music nerds. Be sure to take advantage of their punch-card program, and don't miss their frequent in-store concerts.

If you're put off by the cluttered feel of most record stores, you'll love Easy Street's West Seattle location. It's an airy open space, and the racks are easy to browse -- used CDs are upstairs, new CDs downstairs. Plus, there's an adjoining cafe that serves a great, heavy breakfast.

This Northwest chain is as good as its name: It serves your everyday music needs, and serves them well. Their selection of used CDs and DVDs is extensive.

Specializing in international, dance, and rare import titles, this is a cool little niche store where they're always eager to order anything they don't have in stock for you.

Whether you come to Jive Time to sell your vinyl or to buy more, the staff of this top-shelf record boutique works hard to ensure you a high-fidelity experience.

Don't wander in here looking for Justin Timberlake, unless he's joined Cradle of Filth since this blurb was written. This is the only store in Seattle that caters exclusively to goth, industrial, darkwave and electronic music.

The locally-owned chain is known for its deep catalog covering all genres of music and movies, including rare and hard-to-find items. In recent years, the stores also introduced listening stations to allow customers to listen to 30,000 full albums and clips of all other albums.

Browsing this mammoth Silver Platters location is both a pleasure and a vigorous workout. This is a huge space, and it's virtually packed solid with new and used CDs, DVDs and vinyl LPs.

This vinyl-happy and well-stocked store is the epicenter of the punk rock scene. Looking for '70s, '80s and '90s punk or ought-punk recordings? Your search is over.

Ballard's Sonic Boom offers thousands of CDs and LPs both new and used. They sell tickets to shows at many local venues, and have frequent in-store appearances by local and national artists.

If you're looking for the most recent album by that band you saw at Neumos or want to get your hands on some of the funky beats you heard last weekend at Chop Suey, Capitol Hill's Sonic Boom will set you up right.