Stick It In Your Ear

Springfield, Missouri’s downtown at night might give the feeling you’ve stepped into a time machine and traveled back a few decades. When you walk down E. Walnut Street toward S. Roberson Ave. you’ll see the light from Hotel Vandivort’s lobby spill out onto the sidewalk. “It used to be a Masonic Temple,” someone tells you in passing. You look it up on your phone and consider its rooftop bar. Something else catches your eye. You turn to look. Another brightly lit interior coaxes you across the street. Maybe you have stepped through a time portal or suffered a time slip. There in front of you is…

Stick it In Your Ear. 

You cross and pass under a stone archway and through the front door. You breathe a sigh of satisfaction. Now this, you think, is a record store.

Located in the heart of the “Queen City of the Ozarks”, Stick It In Your Ear has connected record collectors with records since 1993. This was a time when CDs were king, having blown past records and cassettes in both sales and popularity. The power of vinyl has prevailed. Now, almost three decades later, CDs are a thing of the past, and vinyl has triumphed.

“I’m most proud of the fact that we have been a staple for the community for so many years,” owner Erik Milan beams. “Everyone here knows the name and that we are the ‘go-to place’ for anything music related.”

Posters adorn the walls of the store. There’s AC/DC right above Bob Marley and, in the back, hung at an odd angle, Mohammed Ali stands over Sonny Liston, laying flat on the canvas in 1965. Below these, and all around, are rows upon rows of vinyl records. There’s Montrose’s Paper Money, right next to Dave Mason’s solo debut Alone Together, two albums I haven’t seen in years. This is a time capsule. Time means nothing here. Just ask Milan. “We stay open till 10pm during the week,” he says, “and 11pm on the weekends.”

One gets the feeling that the store has to keep these hours in order to accommodate the next amazing collection or find that might suddenly present itself. “I have seen some really incredible records and collectibles come through here that blow my mind,” Milan laughs. “The things that walk in the door on a daily basis. It’s always something new and different.”

“New and different” is an excellent way to look at it. To some, vinyl records are new and different. To hold music in one’s hand instead of getting to it by pressing a button on your phone is an entirely new experience for some. “You see records being played in commercials and movies all the time now, which makes records ‘cool’ again,” Milan adds.

In the end, it’s all about the music. “I think it’s important for people to have something as unique as their musical taste to identify with and hold on to in this crazy world we live in.”

Life is a journey. So too is record collecting. “Enjoy the journey and wherever it takes you.”

Well said!