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

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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