Any avid crate digger will tell you, there is no better feeling than coming across an incredible find buried deep in a bin at your local record store. People who visit End of All Music in the small college town of Oxford, Mississippi might feel the same way, stumbling across a diamond of a record shop who solely worry about the quality of their shop and the relationship they build with their shoppers. Consistently ranked as one of the best record shops in the country across numerous publications, End of All Music continuously goes above and beyond what is expected from your local record shop. They are constantly adding to their selection of new and used Lps while still finding creative means to interact with their local community and avid vinyl collectors around the world.
Glide spoke with David Swider, the owner of End of All Music about their new location, curation process, their Record of The Month club, and much more. Check out the shop’s website and our full interview below:
Oxford, MS has a rich musical history where many albums have been recorded- a fact that many outside the area might overlook. How has End All Music incorporated the local music scene and its history into its store?
Oxford is a small college town. Like most college towns, it’s very transient, and we’re lucky that some of those people coming through town for 4-5 years are really cool folks–artists, musicians, writers. It’s been that way for a long time. We have a really great independent bookstore here, Square Books, and it draws tons of creative types to our downtown. So we just piggyback on all of that and try to contribute by selling good records and being involved in the community as much as we can. We’re also big advocates of supporting local retail. It’s very important to keep the money within the local economy, so we’re always thanking folks for buying local.
Your Record of The Month club is a really cool idea, how did the whole thing come to be? What is the process like for picking out the albums you send out?
The ROTM Club came about around 2015 after we’d been open for a few years. Like we said, our shop is in a college town so folks are always coming and going… We become good friends with people then they move on to the next stage in their lives. Those folks would always reach out saying they missed the shop and could we just send them any good records that we’ve been listening to lately. This list of people kept growing and the ROTM Club was born. It’s a ton of fun and we’ve had some really amazing titles through the years. Maybe the most bittersweet record we’ve picked was David Berman’s Purple Mountains LP on Drag City. David kindly autographed all the copies for our ROTM Club members shortly before he passed away.
Another cool aspect of your shop is your radio show on WYXR, how did that come to be and what sort of tunes can people expect to hear when listening to the New New Soft Shoe Show?
My friend Jared “JB” Boyd is in charge of programming at WYXR. JB also went to Ole Miss in Oxford and used to frequent the shop while he was an undergrad. He got the record bug bad, and we became close friends. He just asked me to do a show one day. I play whatever I pull off the shelf that morning–mostly from my personal stash. It’s a ton of fun and a great way to start the week. My show is every Monday at 10 a.m., and it’s all analog, baby! You can stream the archived shows at wyxr.org.
What are your go-to albums in the past year and for a lack of a better term – what are your “desert island” records?
I really fell in love with the Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn LP, Pigments, on Merge Records. It’s a beautiful record and perfect for these times. I also love pretty much anything International Anthem puts out. They’ve had an incredible run of records over the past few years–Jeff Parker, Alabaster DePlume, Carlos Nino, Anteloper, Dezron Douglas… the list goes on.
As for “desert island” records, I’ve gotta go with Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda and Bob Dylan’s Biograph boxed set–Do box sets count?!?
It is clear that EOAM has a wide selection of used vinyl. Do you guys have any rare/expensive vinyl currently in stock? What is the rarest/most expensive record you guys have sold?
We sold a Furry Lewis 78 one time for crazy money. I literally found the record in a trashcan. We also sold a pretty rare Frank Zappa acetate once. A guy in Germany bought it. He saw us post about it on our social media and he called the shop from Germany. It was hilarious. Those are the top two rare moments that come to mind.
Like other shops, you guys buy used vinyl collections. Has anyone ever brought in a collection that left you shocked in terms of size or great finds in said collections?
Oh man, this happens all the time. You just never know what’s going to walk in the door or what you’re going to find on a house call. I’ve been on house calls where the records were in a refrigerator. One collection came with tons of hand-written notes to strippers tucked into the sleeves. It was like reading someone’s weird diary about the strippers they loved.
Recently, I moved into a new house and was getting to know my across-the-street neighbors. One day the guy asks me if I ever buy record collections. I say “sure!” We walked over to his place and I left with several original Sun Ra LPs on Saturn with hand-drawn covers. I kept those!
What was your memorable customer ever and what did he or she buy?
This older gentleman used to come in weekly. He was in his late 70s. One day he came in wearing a leather biker jacket with a Hell’s Angels patch on the back. Turns out he was a Hell’s Angel. It was a trip! He used to always buy rock-a-billy stuff. One time he showed up and the hood of his car was gone. He said it flew off on the highway while he was driving to the record store. He just left it on the roadside.
I see on your website that your shop is a member of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores. What does that organization mean to you and what sort of perks come with being a member of AIMS?
AIMS is the ultimate brain trust for indie record shops. Sure, we help promote new music in our shops, but just having access to some of the best record stores in the country–and the people that run them–is extremely valuable. We get together in New Orleans every year for a conference and it’s always a lot of fun.
Your shop is no stranger to praise considering how you guys have landed on multiple lists for best record shops in the country, what do you credit all your accolades to, and what makes End of All Music such a unique record shopping experience?
I’ve always tried to make our shop the ideal record store that’s in my head. My dream store. We’re not quite there but we’re really close! Our sign out front says “the record store of your dreams,” and luckily a lot of our customers share that sentiment.
Considering you guys also sell turntables and similar hardware, for beginner collectors, what is your recommended turntable, and for seasoned listeners what do you most recommend?
Don’t skimp on a turntable! Pay the extra $50-100 and get a good one. Get one with a good tonearm and counter-balance system. The standard entry level for us is the Audio Technica LP60 model. It’s perfect for anyone really, especially folks on a budget.
I personally use the Music Hall Classic turntable at home, mainly because it has an auto shutoff feature where the tonearm lifts up after the record plays. No more all-night spinning sessions!
Lastly, you should check out our new shop in Jackson, MS. We opened it in October 2021.
