by Davis Coen
This year marks the 12th anniversary of the opening of beloved local record store End of All Music, located on the northeast corner of Oxford Courthouse Square, on the second floor of the Duvall’s building.
End of All Music opened on March 12, 2012, at its original location, about a mile and a half up the road on North Lamar Boulevard in a small building that had formerly been a Mexican grocery store.
Owner David Swider, along with friends Bruce Watson and Patrick Addison, who both worked at local record label Fat Possum, had been discussing how Oxford needed a record store.
Swider would complain that he had to drive to Memphis to go to record stores, because there were none in town. There had previously been Hot Dog Records, which went out of business in 2006.
“There was a pretty good period of no record store in Oxford, so I had the idea, and Bruce had the money,” said Swider. “He didn’t have the time, but had a little money and some records. And I had the time, but no money. We got together and found a little spot on North Lamar. They were moving, so we got the place.”
Swider recalled the basic, metal structure as being “hilariously built” but “super cheap.” Also, the building was horribly infested, so they first had to gut it then paint it.
He was the only employee at first. And while Watson was the owner, Swider was the manager, and every year moving forward he would gradually buy a piece of the company until around 2015, when he finally owned the whole thing.
“So without Bruce there definitely would be no End of All Music,” he said. “He was the early brains behind it with me. I really didn’t know what I was doing.”
Swider had been working at Square Books downtown, and had urged owner Richard Howorth to start selling records there, but he wasn’t having it. “Richard didn’t want to go into the record business, so I figured I would try.”
Although the initial location was off the beaten path, Swider described it as “perfect, with low overhead,” and that most of their original clientele consisted of “real record heads.”
The only way to draw customers was to maintain a good stock, due to lack of foot traffic in that part of town. “That ended up helping us a lot when we moved, because we were already used to catering to real record people, not just everybody,” Swider said. “Which was great.”
He said one of the store’s historical highlights was in July 2016, when USA Today published an article in its travel section, called “Vinyl lives! 10 great record stores for a musical treasure hunt,” which included End of All Music, along with seasoned institutions like Amoeba Music in Los Angeles and Grimey’s in Nashville.
“It kind of blew my mind, and was just an absolutely crazy thing to see in USA Today,” said Swider.
Although not a musician, he has always found himself an avid collector from a young age, beginning with comic books and baseball cards. “I always took really good care of my stuff,” said Swider.
He credits his older sister, who turned him onto some of the popular music of the 90s, such as Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Alanis Morissete for his eventual transition to collecting records instead.
“That kind of scratched that ‘collector itch’ for me,” he said, as he would eventually seek out entire catalogs of classic artists like John Lennon or Frank Zappa, among other common favorites for audiophiles.
“That’s where I think my record buying habits were formed,” said Swider, which eventually blew up in high school and college. “I’m probably my best customer, to be honest,” he laughed, “I try not to tap into my own supply, but you know, it is one of the main reasons why I opened a store, because I like to shop for records. Now I can go straight to the source, which is awesome.”
End of All Music has hosted numerous events over the years, and some of his personal highlights include in-stores, which would invite local bands to come to play. In the first location, bands and DJs come set up in the front parking lot. Swider fondly remembered one day having three bands play, when he brought his Weber grill from home and served hot dogs to visitors.
“Those were very memorable,” he said, of these events that were all not only free and open to the public, but also kid-friendly.
Record Store Day was also a big draw at the original location (and continues to be), which Swider calls “the perfect start to our business,” and provided great experience when it came to opening the downtown store.
“It just blows my mind to think it’s been twelve years,” he said. “Sometimes it still feels like one or two.”
The 12th anniversary will be on Friday, March 1, and the DJ will be local writer Jack Pendarvis, who had also done so in the early days.
Also artist Josh Burwell, who has been sharing artwork at the store since it opened, will be presenting a new t-shirt. Later that evening, all the clerks from the store will DJ at City Grocery, upstairs at the bar from 7 pm until close, doing all-vinyl sets.
“I have to thank Oxford for keeping us open for twelve years,” Swider said. “I’ve met so many amazing people that have now become really good friends, just from the record store being there. Also people like Richard Howorth, for opening Square Books in 1979. And Ronzo (Ron Shapiro) and Bill Ferris’ legacies. Those people that came thirty or forty years ago that have made Oxford what it is now. I kind of consider End of All Music to be keeping that torch going for them.”
Also, Record Store Day is coming again on April 20, at both the Oxford location and its sister store in the Fondren neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi, which opened in October 2021. The Oxford event will have an afterparty at Circle & Square brewery.
