In a classic Chicago storefront space, the size of an average apartment, Permanent Records is the young version of what you’d expect from mom-and-pop joints. Ever-friendly and well-informed Lance Barresi and Liz Tooley are exemplars of the think globally, act locally ethos: the biz plan of the big bad bricks-‘n’-mortar stores has fallen, but the possibility of sweet, unpretentious local enterprise lives on. Vinyl! CDs! Newsletters! Podcasts! In-store appearances of bands you’d likely see drop into joints in the owners’ old stomping ground of Columbia, Missouri! Plus, of course, a cool cat calls it home.
