If we lived in pretty much any other college town in the country, I’d be rocking out right now.

After all, this month marked the release of the debut of a band I’ve wanted to hear for a long time. As eager as I have been to get my hands on the release, guess what — I can’t find it anywhere in Ames.

Agreed, the band probably doesn’t have the following necessary to make retailers carry it in Ames, but, in all reality, I think it is probably because we don’t have a record store.

Sure, I have checked those obvious spots around the city. Each time, however, I have found what little hope I had placed in big chain stores was in vain — they weren’t carrying it.

Granted, not being able to find one record is nothing to complain about, but this problem, I’ve noticed, stretches far beyond one release. This is happening constantly and I’m getting tired of it.

Yes, I know that any time I am feeling frustrated about not being able to buy new music I can just log on to the Internet and shop my little heart out and in a few days have every record I could ever want right at my front door. But that just isn’t good enough sometimes.

There is something charming about the atmosphere of an independent record store. I don’t know if it’s just me but I find the smell of dusty piles of CDs and walls covered in band posters charming. I don’t know why anyone would choose to shop in the sterility of an anonymous Best Buy over an independent store with character. I realize that sometimes large chain retailers can sell new releases for a few dollars cheaper than an independent store can, but I’d be willing to pay those dollars any day to see a small business stay afloat rather than support a chain that will remain in business regardless.

Of all the college towns I’ve been to, and I’m talking about big schools like ours, there have been two constants — tons of bars and a record store.

When peddling my pitiful problems like this one to other people, they have looked at me and simply said “Dude, no one even listens to music in Ames.” But I’m not ready to believe that for one second.

When I moved to Ames, all my high school friends warned me that this town was overrun by no-teeth hillbillies willing to run a liberal kid like me out of town. Two years later, I don’t think there’s any truth to it and still think this town is on par with a lot of other college towns, and I’ve met plenty of kids whose music-buying habits make my own look amateur in comparison. I mean, Ames is no Berkeley, but for a Midwestern engineering school, we’re doing all right, so I’m not going to buy that excuse.

The truth might be that we’re just not buying as much music as we used to, thanks to the Internet. I would say more people than not are willing to just download a CD from the Internet and listen to it on a burned CD.

Call me old fashioned, but I still appreciate good album art and liner notes and, the truth is, we should be buying music. I know in this day and age that might be considered blasphemy, but if we don’t support the artists we like, who will?

Whatever the reason, the truth is that this town should have a record store, if not only to validate Ames as a college town.

Have you ever simply walked though Campustown without the intention of finding an amazing drink special? If you have, then you might have noticed there is hardly anything to do besides get tattoos and drink coffee — not that a record store would turn Welch into an awesome spot to hang out, but it would help.

I know there was a record store in Ames that closed in 2001, and I know simply talking about the absence of record store won’t change anything, but these are the kinds of things we should be changing if we want to make this town the best it could be during our brief time here.