Dallas: Good Records

The best record store in Dallas isn’t a warehouse. It’s a room with astroturf on the stage — and a quarter century of arguments about what great music sounds like.

Good Records Dallas first opened on Good Latimer Boulevard on February 7, 2000. Polyphonic Spree frontman Tim DeLaughter launched it alongside his own Good Records label. It stepped in where Last Beat Records left off as Deep Ellum’s go-to music shop. When DART broke ground for light rail in 2006, Good Records moved to Greenville Avenue. They also picked up a bigger room in the bargain. Then in 2019, they settled into their current home on Garland Road in East Dallas. Still, the astroturf stage moved with them each time.

Live From the Astroturf

That stage is the whole story. Good Records hosts one or two in-store shows every week. National touring acts, rising locals, and artists who just wanted a real audience — all of them have played that turf. On October 6, 2015, the original Alice Cooper band set up and played eight songs. Good Records released the recording on November 23, 2018. Earmusic then gave it a worldwide release in 2022. Live from the Astroturf became Alice Cooper’s twelfth live album. It was recorded not in an arena, but in a Dallas record store on Garland Road.

A record shop that generates its own live album is like a honky-tonk that outlasted the bar — it means the music took over. The bins hold about 40,000 items. The stock leans toward indie rock, but it runs deep in every direction. Fela Kuti, classic jazz, Motown box sets, metal reissues — it’s all in there. Good Records is the kind of shop where what you came for costs nothing. But what you didn’t expect is what gets you. For another DFW institution that’s been at it even longer, Fort Worth’s Record Town opened in 1957 and never looked back.

Dallas has always had a record store worth the argument. Good Records is the current one to beat.