We’re winding down another year at the shop. We celebrated our 12th year in business in March of 2024. We also celebrated our 7th year on the Square in Oxford, while our Fondren location, down in Jackson, turned 3 years old in October. That’s pretty mind boggling!
To wrap up the year, instead of listing our favorite records, we’ve decided to list our favorite moments at the record shop in Oxford. There are plenty of year-end list out there to see what folks consider the “best” or “worst” records of the year. We figured it’s more important to celebrate our community around the shop. So here are some highlights from 2024 at your local record store. Thanks for, yet again, another great year!
p.s. It was a great year for being in our Record of the Month Club. Check out our year in review write-up about that, right here.
January:
👉 It snowed… a lot!
👉 We made a pair of shorts!
👉 Not one, but two, Cocteau Twins records came back in print.
👉 It snowed… like, a lot, in Oxford.
👉 We hosted a listening party for Radiohead side-project, The Smile.
👉 We hung up a new photo of KATE BUSH in the shop.
👉 Clay Jones helped out at the shop all year long. His birthday is January 25th!
👉 We made a new bumper sticker in homage to David Cloud Berman. We gave these away for free to anyone that asked for one.
👉 Our pal, Dick Waterman, passed away at age 88. Dick was one of our favorite story tellers around. As I write this, the new Bob Dylan biopic is just out in theaters. The film ends at the Newport Folk Fest when Dylan went electric. Dick was there and captured Dylan in photographs. Dick was a legend.
February:
👉 We gave away a ton of free buttons this year, like this one that reads “I saw the best show at Proud Larry’s.” We saw a lot of great shows at Larry’s in 2024 as always.
👉 Lou Reed’s wind meditations record was released by Light in the Attic as part of the ongoing Lou Reed Archive Series–a beautiful record.
👉 Sonic Youth continued releasing some amazing archival stuff, like this live album, which is an absolute ripper.
👉 The brilliant classical conductor, Seiji Ozawa, passed away on February 11.
👉 Thou released one of our favorite records of the year. Blessings of the Highest Order is a collection of Nirvana covers and it rules.
👉 Mississippi heroes, MS Paint, released their album Post-American on vinyl 🤘
👉 We DJ’ed happy hour several times down in Taylor, Mississippi at the Wonderbird Gin Distillery. Our pals at Wonderbird are making fine spirits and it was a ton of fun spinning records at their beautiful distillery.
👉 WE WERE IN THE FREAKING NEW YORKER!
Our pal, Amanda Petrusich, mentioned us in her column in the New Yorker in late February.
👉 Big Star’s Radio City turned 50 years old in February.
March:
👉 We celebrated our 12th year in business!
👉 Our pal, Jack Pendarvis, DJ’ed in the shop on March 1st for our 12th birthday. We then partied at City Grocery.
👉 R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough both received Blues Trail markers in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
👉 The Rebel Radio DJs held a meet-and-greet at the shop in late March.
👉 Kurt Vile came by the shop before his show in Oxford.
👉 We hosted an after party for the Oxford Film Fest screening of “Please Ask For It” on March 22. Mr. Caldwell, the owner of Aikei Pro’s Record Shop in Holly Springs, MS stopped by and hung out. Film Director, Allison Waid, also hung out. The film was great and Mr. Caldwell’s record shop is legendary.
👉 Andre 3000 released his first “jazz” album as a flutist. New Blue Sun is a stunner. No bars. We still have copies in stock if you need one.
👉 Rosali made one of our favorite albums of the year. Bite Down dropped on March 22nd. It was also the Record of the Month Club pick for March. Rosali signed and doodled on our copies.
April:
👉 Our pal, Lenny Kaye, came by the shop for a visit. He signed copies of his legendary psych-rock compilation, NUGGETS.
👉 Our pal, Cedric Burnside, performed in the shop to celebrate his new record, Hill Country Love.
👉 R.E.M.’s album Reckoning turned 40 years old on April 9th.
👉 Y’all bought A LOT of copies of Taylor Swift’s new album on April 19th.
👉 RECORD STORE DAY! The big day when independent record shops are celebrated around the world.
👉 Lots of folks came through the shop for RECORD STORE DAY on 4/20/24!
👉 Our buddies, Bass Drum of Death, played a set at the Double Decker Arts Fest on April 29th in downtown Oxford. We closed the shop for 1 hour so everyone could go see them. It ruled.
May:
👉 The Oxford Pride Parade was in early May.
👉 Our pal, Dent May, played an excellent show at Proud Larry’s on May 5th. While he was in town he came by the shop to sign copies of his new album, What’s For Breakfast.
👉 Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music turned 10 years old and was reissued with a new edition. This is probably one of our best-selling albums at the shop of all time.
👉 Steve Albini passed away on May 8th.
👉 Our pal, and co-owner of The End of All Music JXN, Patrick Addison turned 40 on May 14th! Here’s a pic of him helping dig out a huge record collection. Happy 40th Patrick!
👉 Tori joined the record store staff in mid May! You can catch her at the shop most Thursday, Friday, & Saturdays.
👉 Modest Mouse’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News turned 20 years old. The record was recorded RIGHT HERE IN OXFORD, and did you know Clay engineered the dang thing!
A true modern classic!!
About the recording:
“Things had to reach a peak of bad news.” Brock told The AV Club in 2004, “Everything had to fall apart in order for us to figure out where we stood. So we decided that instead of recording with someone we knew, we were going to go to the opposite side of the country and record with [a producer] we’d never met before.” The man assigned this uphill task was Dennis Herring, based in his Sweet Tea Recording studio in Oxford, Mississippi. Herring was a well-respected rock polymath who’d previously helmed records by Counting Crows and Throwing Muses. For Isaac Brock, working with Herring required a change of studio mindset, “He’d have me play the same part four hours straight and at about the time I was going to kill him and turn myself into the cops – he’d turn round to me the next day and say that he liked it better when I played it the first time round.” a crotchety Brock remarked.
👉 Sun Ra’s Arrival Day is celebrated on May 22nd.
👉 Bob turned 83 on May 24th!
👉 Scored a nice little batch of Ole Miss garage rock 45s from the mid-1960’s on the Ventura Records label.
June:
👉 It got hot as hell in Mississippi…
👉 Oxford’s own Mr. Rhonnie Cummins came by the shop and snagged a copy of his album Gettin’ Lucky. Notice the cover photo, which was taken in the alley next the Library Sports Bar in Oxford.
July:
👉 Our pal, Auggie, joined us for his radio debut on our radio show, the New New Soft Shoe Show on WYXR in Memphis! Auggie brought some killer records!
👉 We started stocking mix tapes and zines from DOLLAR COUNTRY!
👉 Summer got hotter with this classic New Orleans R&B record by Ernie K-Doe finally reissued on vinyl!
👉 The classic My Bloody Valentine records WERE FINALLY AVAILABLE in the USA… and we got ’em in stock.
👉 brat summer started at the record store in late July.
👉 We made a “washing machine” tote bag in homage to Sonic Youth. These sold out quickly.
August:
👉 We found some crazy record collections in 2024. This haul in early August was particularly great.
👉 Our pals at Circle and Square Brewery celebrated their 1st birthday. We DJ’ed the celebration at their beautiful brewery just down the road from the record store in Oxford.
👉 We hosted our first midnight record release for Sabrina Carpenter’s Short’n’Sweet. The night was really fun and the record is a pop classic.
👉 Oasis is back! Kind of…
👉 We became an “Authorized Dealer” for Blue Note Records… the finest is Jazz since 1939.
👉 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds put out a moving new album, Wild God. It’s one of our favorite releases of the year.
September:
👉 Spencer and Schaeffer played shows at both shops–Oxford and Fondren.
👉 We hosted a listening “event” for the long-awaited vinyl reissue of Aphex Twins second collection of ambient music.
👉 MJ Lenderman’s album Manning Fireworks dropped on September 6th and quickly became one of the year’s most played, and best albums.
👉 Jake was on the cover of The Christian Science Monitor wearing an EoAM hat!
👉 Galaxie 500 released one of the best archival releases of the year in late September.
👉 These ladies ruled the top sales slots in the shop pretty much all year long.
👉 We went to Gonerfest and put an ad in the Gonerfest program.
October:
👉 Hurricane Helene hit our friends in North Carolina hard. We were very thankful to all the folks that donated supplies to our relief effort. Plenty of work in those parts left to be done… You can still donate to help relief efforts.
👉 The Neil Young Archives was busy releasing stuff all year long. These 3 reissues dropped in October. Keep ’em coming, Neil!
👉 Chat Pile dropped Cool World on October 11th. It’s one of our favorite LPs of the year.
👉 Ole Miss announced it’s first ever class on Bob Dylan. It’ll be available during the 2025 spring semester.
👉 We met Larry Heard a.k.a. Mr. Fingers!!!
👉 We hosted a Halloween party with the DJs from Rebel Radio.
👉 The Cure released their first new album in 16 years and it stayed on the shop turntable for a while. It’s one of the best albums of the year.
👉 We were one of a handful of record shops that got copies of this Yo La Tengo rarity. They came directly from the band and sold out pretty quickly!
November:
👉 There was an election…
👉 This magical LP was released via Fat Possum Records. We also caught a live performance of the music and film at WYXR’s Raised by Sound Festival in early December.
👉 We DJ’d at the skatepark in Oxford.
👉 We had a massive $1 records sale.
👉 Our pals at the Southwest Review released the best music writing of the year in their inaugural music issue, which also included a ripper of an LP compilation. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to SWR–it’s only $25/year!
👉 OLE MISS FOOTBALL
👉 Our pal, Michael Farris Smith, released his debut album, Lostville, on Nov. 8th.
👉 Jake played at Proud Larry’s on Nov. 13. Proud Larry’s is still the heart blood of Oxford’s music scene.
👉 MF Doom’s classic LP turned 20 years old and was reissued with alternate album art on Nov. 14th.
👉 Jeff Parker’s latest masterpiece was released on Nov. 21st and quickly became one of the most-played, best albums of the year at the shop. Our pals in Chicago at International AnthemRecording Co. released too many great records in 2024.
👉 We had an absolutely amazing RSD Black Friday / Egg Bowl weekend in Oxford.
👉 LOTS OF FOLKS SHOPPED LOCAL THIS YEAR. WE LOVE YOU.
December:
👉 We hosted an amazing celebration of Memphis Music with help from our pals at the Oxford American, the Stax Museum, Hi Records, and Chef Jon Davis. Chef JD smoked the best bbq sammies of all time, we sold ’em at the shop, then donated the cash to the Stax Music Academy, and after all that, Chef DJ’d select Memphis cuts on the house turntables. Pals from the Oxford American were in the shop hyping their latest issue–the MEMPHIS MUSIC ISSUE (we still have plenty of copies…it’s a must read/listen). Our friends from the Stax Museum were in the shop DJing and spreading the gospel of STAX. It was a great day at the shop and we’re already looking forward to doing it again!
👉 THE SUNDAYS s/t album finally back in print…
👉 We made a new shirt in homage to Mississippi’s finest, PEAVEY AMPS!
👉 We saw “A Complete Unknown” on xmas day, and enjoyed it!
👉 Luther Dickinson released a beautiful album inspired by the works of Walter Anderson in collaboration with the Walter Anderson Museum of Art on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This record was an excellent way to end the year. It was also our final Record of the Month Club pick of 2024.
👉 The holidays at the record shop are always hectic but really great. Thanks to everyone in our little world that supported us throughout 2024. It was another great year as an independent record shop. We can’t wait to see more buddies in the New Year!
Thanks to everyone that came by the shop this year!
Big love,
David, Clay, Amy, Tori, and Ian
The End of All Music Crew