Vinyl Is Alive and Well

The 9 best record stores in Dallas-Fort Worth to celebrate Record Store Day

If you keep up with trend, you may be under the impression that record stores, along with records, have gone the way of the Dodo bird. Not necessarily.

Vinyl especially is experiencing a reemergence. According to Vinylhunt.com, global vinyl sales are at their highest since 1997: $151 million of vinyl sold last year, up more than 50 percent from 2011. Really, if you love collecting music, take a look at the list of special releases from artists of all sizes, shapes, flavors and eras, in honor of upcoming Record Store Day on Saturday, April 20.

Whether new sounds, inexpensive old ones or rare collectibles, much of the inventory in these top Dallas-Fort Worth record stores won’t be available for very long beyond this Saturday. So get some fresh air and expand your music selection — without clicking.

Good Records
Every day is Record Store Day at Good Records on Greenville Avenue. Owned by Tripping Daisy/Polyphonic Spree/Preteen Zenith frontman Tim Delaughter, Good Records is to Dallas what Amoeba Music is to Los Angeles: a music mecca, with a delicious selection of limited-edition vinyl, box sets and fascinating used stuff. Inside, acoustic stage “Live from the Astroturf” hosts 12 hours of live music. Store opens at 7 am Saturday for the collector rush.

Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Ernest’s original shop opened in Nashville in the ’40s and is nothing short of legendary in the world of traditional country. In Fort Worth, Ernest Tubb Record Shop owner Jerry Kay Weeks has been at it more than 20 years at this location. The shop specializes in traditional country, honky tonk, swing, Texas Red Dirt country and gospel, with hundreds of vinyl titles for $1 and special collectibles. For Record Store Day, Weeks is giving away red 45’s by Dale Watson, singing “I Lie When I Drink” and “Thanks To Tequila,” while supplies last. Oh, and live music from the Brazos Valley Boys from 1-4 pm.

Mad World Records
Record stores in Denton are part of the lifeblood of the town. Mad World is well-known and smartly stocked. Live music starts up at 5 pm Saturday, with Spooky Folk, Kurt Baker and more.

Recycled Books Denton
The music collection at Recycled Book in Denton is also regionally famous, and the stores hosts live music Saturday from noon-5 pm, starring well-known RTB2 frontman Ryan Thomas Becker, Tony Ferraro and local spice faves Mariachi Quetzal. For Record Store Day, everything in the store is 15 percent off — books too.

Cloud 8 Records
Tucked inside Dolly Python on Haskell Avenue is collector (and Eight Track Museum curator) Bucks Burnett’s operation, Cloud 8 Records. Burnett counts Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of Talking Heads fame among his close friends, and Burnett was recently Pete Townshend’s special guest on The Who’s Quadrophenia Anniversary U.S. Tour. There are some magnificent finds hidden at Cloud 8.

Bill’s Records
Bill’s Records has been a Texas institution for more than three decades. His original location at Spring Valley Road was a bit larger, but it still has all the great idiosyncrasies, a music stage in the back and, most important, Bill himself behind the counter damn near every day. Fittingly, Bill celebrates his birthday on Record Store Day with 12 hours — and 26 bands’ worth — of live music.

Forever Young Records
At 11,000 square feet, Forever Young Records in Grand Prairie claims to be the third largest independent record store in the country. It’s an impressive experience: It’s structured entirely to resemble a huge jukebox (including a full Wurlitzer replica entryway), and the vinyl inventory comprises around 30 percent of its total stock. At roughly 5:30 am Saturday, collectors can line up outside to get a lottery number good for dibs on the most wanted limited-edition stuff. Among the hot items: an orange and red 7” vinyl of Iggy Pop’s “No Fun,” with the Black Keys on the flip side covering the same song. Only 7,000 exist, exclusively for Record Store Day 2013.

CD Source
CD Source celebrates its 20th this winter and touts an inventory of 125,000 CDs and 11,000 vinyl titles. On Saturday, the store hosts 12 hours of live music, starting with the songbird voice of Becky Middleton at 9 am, followed by local biggies Fox and the Bird, Home By Hovercraft, Dead Flowers and many more. Along with music, we hear free food will also be in abundance. The store opens at 7 am Saturday, and owner Lance Price also tells us he’s getting in “double the quantity of special releases we got in last year.”

Movie Trading Co
Although not every metro location of Movie Trading Co is participating in Record Store Day, the one on Greenville Avenue has a fine music selection, and it is offering “buy two get one free” on all used CDs and vinyl, as well as special-order editions released for Saturday.

Forever Young Records in Grand Prairie claims to be the third largest independent record store in the country.

Forever Young Records in Grand Prarie Exterior

Charles Baker & Forever Young Records

Forever Young Records in Grand Prairie claims to be the third largest independent record store in the country.

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Movie Review

Lust eclipses romance in new adaptation of 'Wuthering Heights'

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is one of those classic books assigned in high school English classes, and it has received a number of film adaptations over the years, each of which differ in numerous ways from the source material. Purists won’t receive any reprieve from Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation, with a title that is stylized as "Wuthering Heights” for good reason.

Cathy (played as an adult by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have known each other their entire lives, with Cathy’s alcoholic and inveterate gambler father (Martin Clunes) taking in Heathcliff on a whim when he was a boy. The two bond as they grow up together, although Cathy always seems to have an eye on moving up in society from their relatively impoverished lifestyle.

Cathy finally gets her wish when the rich Linton familyled by Edgar (Shazad Latif), moves in down the road, Despite discovering she has feelings for the now grown-up Heathcliff, Cathy sees Edgar as her way out and agrees to marry him. A scorned Heathcliff flees, returning years later as mysteriously wealthy. His reappearance ignites something in Cathy’s soul, and the two engage in a perhaps unwise affair.

Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) infuses the dusty material with an energy that’s not typically present in stories set in this particular time and place. Aside from the occasional Charli XCX song (the singer created a whole concept album for the film), the film looks and feels like a period piece, albeit one that doesn’t get bogged down in the drudgery that can sometimes come from films set in the distant past.

Much of that has to do with the lust the filmmaker puts into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with Brontë’s book, you can rest assured that Fennell has strayed far from the text, giving Cathy and Heathcliff thoughts and actions unthinkable in the 19th century. Fennell plays with expectations by opening the film with audio featuring creaking noises and a man grunting, conjuring up a situation far different than what is actually happening, and she also makes liberal use of rain, sweat, and tears to make the actors enticing.

What she can’t do, however, is make the two lead characters compelling. Cathy is a striver who never seems to know what she wants out of life, and Heathcliff goes from a bore to a brute over the course of the film, with no clear indication that he likes anybody, much less Cathy. Anyone expecting some kind of grand romance will be disappointed as Fennell is much more interested in making the film weird, like having the walls of Cathy’s room look like her skin, complete with freckles.

Robbie and Elordi do well enough with the material, and it’s clear that both of them are committed to bringing Fennell’s vision to life. Their styles tend to balance each other out, and if the story had been committed to their characters’ relationship, they might be lauded for their chemistry. In the end, though, the supporting actors feel more interesting, including ones played by Hong Chau, Alison Miller, and Clunes.

This version of Wuthering Heights should never be construed as an alternative to reading the book for any high schoolers out there. While Fennell makes the film interesting with her technical filmmaking choices, the story never finds its footing as it fails to sell the one thing that it seems to promise.

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Wuthering Heights opens in theaters on February 13.

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