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.

Good Records hosts live music on its in-store stage.

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Movie Review

How to Train Your Dragon remake flies high with fun and drama

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon.

Let’s get it out of the way right at the top: The new live-action How to Train Your Dragon, coming a mere 15 years after the original animated film, serves no real purpose other than to make more money for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures. However, unlike Disney’s approach toward remaking their animated movies, this attempt manages to succeed on its own merits instead of being a half-baked vessel for nostalgia.

As fans will remember, Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives in Berk, a town on a remote island populated by Vikings who constantly have to defend themselves against rampaging dragons. Hiccup’s dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is the community’s vaunted leader, with a legacy that seems impossible for Hiccup to measure up to, especially since he’s stuck in the armory alongside Gobber (Nick Frost).

But Hiccup has a knack for inventions, and his use of one new weapon during a dragon attack takes down a feared Night Fury. Finding the wounded dragon deep in the forest, Hiccup decides against killing it, leading to an unexpected bond between the two of them. Most of the film shows Hiccup trying to prove himself to his townspeople, including the fierce Astrid (Nico Parker), while also nursing the dragon he dubs Toothless back to health with the help of another one of his ingenious creations.

Written and directed by Dean DeBlois (who’s had the same roles on all four HTTYD films), the film is most notable for how engaging it is despite it retelling a story many already know and love. The biggest reason for this is a pivot away from telling a story mainly for kids toward one that feels like an extremely light version of Game of Thrones. Almost right away, there are real stakes for the people in the film, and the way DeBlois and his team stage the scenes, the danger can be felt by the audience.

This sense of “realness” comes through especially well in the scenes between Hiccup and Toothless. The design of Toothless is faithful to the original, but the CGI makes the dragon feel amazingly believable. And when they start flying, the film literally and metaphorically takes off. At multiple points, the camera seems to have trouble keeping them in frame, a smart move toward verisimilitude when the filmmakers clearly could have made it an overly smooth watching experience.

Even though it’s more serious than the original, the film still has plenty of fun to offer. Characters like Gobber (who replaces his two missing limbs with odd contraptions) and the ragtag group of teenagers who come to be in awe of Hiccup’s skills at taming dragons provide more than a few laughs. Hiccup isn’t quite as goofy as he was when voiced by Jay Baruchel, which turns out to be a good thing as his sense of purpose amps up the drama of the story.

Thames’ performance gets better and better as the film goes along, as Hiccup goes from town whipping boy toward hero. He really shines in the last act when he’s given a few scenes that show off his acting range. Parker is equally good, demonstrating the girl power needed for the role, but also the softness of a potential love interest. Butler, the only actor reprising their voice role, is a great presence who sells the outsized personality of Stoick.

Against the odds, this new version of How to Train Your Dragon is equal to the success of the first film, accomplishing the goal of making it feel like you’re watching the story for the first time. If live-action remakes are going to continue to come out, future filmmakers should study this film for how to respect both the history of the franchise and the audience paying good money to be entertained.

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How to Train Your Dragon opens in theaters on June 13.

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