The Perfect Dream Record Store

When Tower Records closed a few years back, it took with it one of the last true music culture retail havens left to go shopping in. Yes, there are other stores that carry music. But the sterile environments, the major release only stocks, and the lack of listening opportunities at stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy leave me feeling empty. Heck, I even tried purchasing the new Darius Rucker the day after its release at Best Buy and the guy behind the counter couldn’t even tell me if his store had any on order. Wal-Mart wasn’t any different. This was the #1 selling country album that week! While store like Barnes & Noble have the listening stations, their stock just isn’t nearly as deep with off-mainstream artists for my tastes. And being one of the last remaining music listening dinosaurs that prefers his music NOT delivered digitally into a small box with white headphones, this retail lamentation is not likely to change anytime soon. I want a store that I can immerse myself into the music. I want to discover a new artist and album that I hadn’t ever heard of before, look at and purchase past recordings of an artist I just recently found, find wicked cool autographed memorabilia on the walls that I can drool over and wish that hung in my office, be inundated with posters of new releases, find used gems and have tons of staff recommendations. I want to meet aspiring artists and buy autographed cd’s, hoping that someday I’ll be able to say, I was “in the know” before they were big. Heck, make it a concert with occasional live music, sell me food and drink so I can stay longer, and offer the latest concert tour t-shirts and posters for sale so I can walk out advertising my favorite artists. There’s something exciting pulling the plastic wrapper off as fast as you can walking quickly to your car so you can pop your new music into your car CD player in the store parking lot. Do you remember Chevy Chase in Caddyshack? “Be the ball, Danny.” I want to “be the music.”

It was with great interest that I read about Waterloo Records in Spirit Magazine while travelling from Phoenix on a Southwest flight this week. Located in Austin, Texas and named after London’s underground Waterloo station, this 6,400 square foot music store was nearly everything I dreamed of. A treasure trove of CD’s and vinyl classics, the huge stock ranges from local country artists to today’s monster stars, all arranged alphabetically, not by genre. Amen. You can listen to any album before you buy and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, the music-savvy staff will order it for you. Hallelujah. And there’s a stage. As the store begins to sell multiple kegs of Shiner Bock, artists like Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and the Los Lonely Boys take the stage to perform the latest songs off their new albums. Holy. Toledo. If this place rented hotel rooms, it just might become my favorite vacation destination. Heck, most of the staff are aspiring musicians themselves, happy to sell you or promote their very own albums on the stores shelves- or at least give great recommendations of albums you might not have ever heard before. It’s pure rapture.

As I finished up the article, it was with great satisfaction that my dream shop really exists- or at least comes pretty damn close. It’s always a welcoming feeling knowing that you’re not completely mentally camping in left field. It will necessitate a trip to Texas soon. Although, it may be a tall order talking the family into scheduling a vacation around a retail store. “Kids, I know you wanted to all go to Disneyland this summer, but Dad really wanted to look at out-of-print Johnny Cash albums on vinyl.” Yeah, not so much. As understanding as she is to my music affliction/addiction, I just don’t see this flying with my bride. I guess my perfect dream record shop needs to be directly next door to the world’s largest scrapbook store. I’ve got to go look up Austin Yellow Pages online… let’s see… c for crafts or s for scrapbook stores…