El Paso: Sound Decay Records

Danny Alcantar bought his first record in 2003 — an emo release by a band called I Hate Myself that almost nobody remembered. His brother Abel started with a Joan Jett 45 that grew into something much larger. Together, they opened Sound Decay Records El Paso in July 2021.

The pandemic gave them time to turn an idea into a plan. Abel’s cousin introduced them to a landlord on Magoffin Avenue, walking distance from the historic Magoffin Home. He died in March 2021 and remains an influence on everything they do. That’s where Sound Decay first opened. Later, the store moved to its current home on S Stanton Street in downtown El Paso. Both Danny and Abel are DJs. They’d spent years hunting punk, metal, goth, darkwave, and Italo disco records that El Paso had nowhere to sell.

From Magoffin to Stanton

Walk into Sound Decay and the walls greet you — about 60% of what’s hanging came from their personal collections. Original posters run from Los Saicos to Bob Dylan, Bad Brains to The Who. A listening station sits in the middle of the floor with headphones, so you can hear before you buy. The brothers drew inspiration from End of an Ear in Austin and Amoeba Records in Berkeley — two stores built around the same conviction. “We want to be a place where you can just go in and find something,” Abel says. “Something that’s going to change your life in some way or another.” For the vintage and Latin vinyl side of El Paso’s scene, Atomic Wax on Texas Avenue has been the other anchor.

Danny Alcantar started with one emo record he barely remembers. Abel Salazar started with one Joan Jett 45 he remembers exactly. Sound Decay is where those collections went.

I’ve been here ♪