Music News

Doug goes on the record: 5 places in Dallas to buy vinyl

This is what you call a wall of vinyl.

Photo by Doug McGrath

Editor's note: Doug McGrath is a music contributor with four decades of experience as a member of the Dallas music community. This week, he shares five places in Dallas-Fort Worth to buy vinyl records.

If you're into music, you already know that vinyl records are once again everywhere. Vinyl has benefits that other formats do not. It offers an enriched listening experience over cheap, digitally produced music. It lets you own your music and keep it on a shelf instead of renting it. Vinyl has nice artwork. And it comes in fancy preorder packages, bundled with T-shirts and other goodies.

I buy vinyl for all of these reasons. With new music, I often buy an LP after I've already purchased the title on CD or digital. With my favorite artists, I'll preorder vinyl from their label or merchandise site, or retailers like Amazon or Bandcamp. I make about 6-10 preorders per year. For hard-to-find vinyl, you can also buy from individual sellers on discogs.com.

Whatever the reasons and wherever you buy, vinyl LP sales have been on an aggressive upward trend since 2007 (25 years after the introduction of the compact disc), exploding from 1 million units shipped to more than 13 million in 2017.

Dallas-Fort Worth has multiple places to buy vinyl. In alphabetical order, here are my top five:

CD Warehouse Arlington
What's in store: 30,000 items
What's special: Good collection of metal, hip hop, rap, and R&B
CD Warehouse has built a loyal following since it opened near the University of Texas at Arlington in 2012. It's my go-to store for metal; I visit nearly every week. But they cover all genres — rap, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, punk, indie, pop, rock, soundtracks, Spanish, country, local, blues, comedy, electronica, underground — on a broad array of formats, both new and used, including CDs, vinyl, DVD, Blu-ray, cassettes, and games. They also do consignment for local bands.

Good Records
What's in store: 40,000 items
What's special: In-store events, staff
When Good Records opened on Good Latimer Boulevard in 2000, it carried on where Last Beat Records left off as the flagship Deep Ellum record store. In 2006, they moved to make way for a DART rail station, but they got a great, larger space on Greenville Avenue out of the deal. Good Records has hosted more than 1,400 in-store events (including one that I played in 2003), and they’re supportive of local music while also spotlighting national artists. This place is basically the soul of the Dallas music community. And if you shop on your birthday (with proof of DOB), they'll give you 20 percent off.

Josey Records
What's in store: 100,000 items
What's special: Vast collection
Josey Records opened in Farmers Branch in a former Boot Town warehouse right off 635 in November 2014; they've since opened satellite locations in Tulsa and Kansas City. It's a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and limited-edition T-shirts. Aside from their massive collection, they do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl, and are known to host fun album release parties where they even sometimes offer snacks. If you're a crate digger, they have a ton of old and used vinyl, as well.

Off the Record
What's in store: 2,000 items
What's special: Deep Ellum location
When OTR opened in 2014, it was a comfort to know there would once again be a record store in Deep Ellum. Their collection is small with a definite focus on new-release vinyl that's curated by Good Records. As a vinyl destination, OTR is more of a curiosity; but if you're in Deep Ellum and don’t feel like driving to Good Records, you can pick up the latest LP by a current artist. Their distinguishing feature is that this shop is also a bar that hosts great DJ nights and events. They also opened a Fort Worth location in January.

Spinster Records
What's in store: 2,000 items
What's special: Oak Cliff neighborhood
This is a cool, friendly store that services one of the city's hippest neighborhoods. They feature a small selection of current releases, as well as a nice sampling of fairly priced vintage vinyl. I immediately found a copy of a split single by Dallas bands Here Holy Spain and Descender on blue vinyl that I should have bought a few years ago. They also carry new turntables, novelty books, and T-shirts. They have a small stage for in-store performances and like Josey Records, they also have a location in Tulsa.

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Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

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