Record of the Issue: Thomas Sweat (from TLV #154)

As cheesy as it sounds I really don’t have enough good things to say about Oxford’s new record store, The End of all Music. I had an excellent experience my first time there. Not only did I get to hear Dead Gaze play a free show, but I also found some Donavan records that I had been wanting to replace for quite some time.

My dad had the records when I was growing up, but after years of me toting them to and from our cabin they had fallen into disrepair. His great aunt owned the record store in Corinth when he was young so I was born into an extensive record collection that I grew to love immensely. Among my favorites were Donovan’s Greatest Hits, and Barabajagal. I can vividly remember being in third grade and listening to Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” and Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” on repeat, and my dad getting mad, saying that I was scratching his records and I should just listen to a side all the way through. However, I would rarely do that, because when I got stuck on a song I was hooked. I feel for my family who probably liked those songs as well until they heard me play them a thousand times. Nevertheless, it has been awesome having those records again, and reliving all those old memories.

My second trip was equally as eventful. I walked in wanting to check out the local and Fat Possum sections when I heard something great over the speakers. I immediately asked the guy behind the counter what was playing and he told me it was Japandroids. He then told me a story about how they played an amazing show at The Blind Pig when it was at its old location. I thought it was pretty awesome that I could walk into a store and hear a great band that I’d never heard before and then hear a cool story about them playing locally. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the record playing but he did have another one of their albums which I picked up along with a Dent May record, and he ordered me the record I heard, which was called Post-nothing. Needless to say it was a good experience and that’s what going to the record store should be. Some of my fondest memories come from browsing the isles of CD stores, meeting people, and learning about new music. It’s a shame that most of them have disappeared over the years, but that’s just another reason why it’s so great to have The End of All Music in town.