Music News
Dallas music veteran to open record store and gear shop in Deep Ellum
Vinyl records have surged in recent years.
For over two decades, creative entrepreneur and arts impressario Mike Ziemer has worn several hats in Dallas-Fort Worth’s music scene: From organizing indie punk pop shows at the Plano Event Center to promoting shows at venues in Deep Ellum to creating the So What?! Festival.
In August, he plans to champion Deep Ellum’s rich musical history with the opening of Corner Store Records, a new record store that will open at 2952 Commerce St. in the space previously occupied by Dope Ellum.
Having spent much of his younger years in record stores like Virgin Megastore and Tower Records, Ziemer has always dreamt of opening a record store of his own.
“I've actually been collecting vinyl since I was like, 17 or 18," he says. "My favorite movie of all time is High Fidelity. And even though [Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack] is kind of a miserable record store owner, I've always wanted to do that."
Ziemer plans to offer all forms of music media, including vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes, and eight-tracks. He's also collecting DVDs and cassette tapes to sell in the store.
Sales of old-school media like CDs and vinyl have risen in recent years, and Dallas has seen some recent startups such as Ladylove in Bishop Arts, and Off The Record in Deep Ellum. Both of those enhance vinyl sales by adding a club component.
Ziemer's unique twist for Corner Store is that, in addition to music recordings, it will sell guitar picks, cables, and other live performance equipment, so that bands and artists who are performing at nearby venues like Trees or The Factory can walk down the street as a opposed to taking the van and going all the way to Guitar Center.
The vision includes listening parties, meet-and-greets, and album signings in stores. He also hopes to implement listening stations — similar to those of the record stores he used to frequent.
"We're also going to carry the new releases from artists, but we will have a very heavy emphasis on used and older stuff," he says.
He imagines Corner Store as a “bodega” for music lovers.
“If you've ever been to New York, they have these electronic stores where it's like a blast from the past,” he says. “You walk in, and they just have everything. You can get older vintage T-shirts from bands, you can get old DVDs and CDs, you can get vinyl. That’s the vision here – it’s like, you come in and you’re walking through a time warp."
