Guestroom Records

The city of Norman is a college town filled to the brim with cool art galleries, bars, great restaurants, music venues, indie shops and a ton of other stuff that any young hip go-getter can stand behind. While there's plenty of material to choose from, I feel the need to highlight a place that's very near and dear to my heart: Guestroom Records.

Guestroom Records is an Oklahoma hipster* institution, serving the general cool faction of the state since it first opened back in 2003. It's hard to go anywhere in the OKC metro area without seeing one of their stickers on the back of a car or a Guestroom t-shirt being worn by an impossibly beautiful girl with glasses and cute bangs. Hell, I even have a friend who's lawnmower has a few Guestroom stickers on it.

The permeation of Guestroom's image is certainly no accident. Owners Travis Searle and Justin Sowers started Guestroom in college as a humble record distribution enterprise. In less than a decade they've managed to open two stores (the other being in Oklahoma City) and are seeing their sales rise in a time where most other record stores are barely getting by. The guys have cultivated an incredibly loyal clientele of music lovers through love of the game, and good ol' fashioned business sense.

If Size Records is the diggers paradise, then Guestroom is for those with a well planned record shopping agenda. Their catalog is impeccably organized, digitally inventoried, and voluminous. Guestroom reliably carries new releases, and has an excellent track record for keeping the classics stocked on the shelf at all times.

Guestroom also runs a record label from the store under the same moniker, and has put out some wonderful records from locals like The Starlight Mints, Rainbows Are Free, The Boom Bang, and Shi++y/Awesome.

Ten years ago, I used to take vacations just for the purposes of finding a decent record store. Now when I travel, I don't even bother. Between Size Records, and both Guestroom locations all of my record needs are fulfilled inside and out. Whether searching for obscure collectible rarities, or just making sure I have a run of the mill copy of Meat is Murder I can rest assured that my record consumption is taken care of on a very local level.

What I find more comforting however, is that both shops have a deep involvement in our local music scene. Sure, business is business, and there's money to be made, but I can honestly say that my town's record stores care about, and help foster the local counter culture.

-Austin

* I mean hipster in the non-pejorative sense, as in general bohemian types.

Size Records

Kraftwerk next to King Crimson... Kanye isn't working that hard when you think about it.

North Western Avenue in Oklahoma City is probably best known for it's boutique shops and upscale dining, but just a few blocks north, quite literally past the wrong side of the tracks, you'll find one of OKC's most infamous bohemian legends: Size Records.

The story of Size stretches all the way back to the mid 90's, where Size co-owner Jim Paddack ran the indie record store Music Dimensions. Catering to the fringe culture of the time, Music Dimensions was a haven for punk rockers and metal-heads back in the day when being punk was still a pretty dangerous venture. The small store consistently hosted punk, metal, and noise shows for years, helping to solidify a consistent underground music scene in OKC. The store was a popular destination for music fans of all kinds, but eventually lagging sales, location changes, and complaints from neighboring businesses who didn't appreciate loitering punk rockers led the store to close its doors by the early 2000's.

By 2001, a new independent venue called The Green Door would open up on Western filling the void left by Music Dimensions' absence. The Green Door hosted shows from local and touring acts almost nightly, and in no time was the unofficial home base for Oklahoma City's underground music scene.

Jim considered seeking normal employment around this time until a friend and local part-time show promoter, Dustin Wallace, approached him to start a new record store.

In 2002 Size Records opened adjacent to the Green Door selling records to music fans who would pop in to kill time between sets next door. Within a few years the Green Door would change locations to Bricktown, a downtown commercial district catering mostly to families and tourists (needless to say, the move didn't fare well for the Green Door).

Dustin was quick to take over the Green Door's old location, and soon a new venue under the Size team's (including Little Mafia Records owner Gianni Santillie) control would take its place as "The Conservatory".

The Conservatory will get its own post on here someday, but like Music Dimensions, and the Early days of the Green Door, The Conservatory has been an immense part of the underground scene in Oklahoma City hosting multiple shows of all genres every week.

The store itself is a record nerd's paradise. CDs used to take up a fair amount of shelf space in Size's formative days, but they've all been cast aside to a dark corner of the store to make room for the immense amount of vinyl they've collected over the years. Everything from classic rock and country to extreme noise and metal, indie rock of all types and eras, funk, soul, electronic - you name it, Size has it.

Size primarily deals in used vinyl, meaning that the store caters more to "digging" types who like to come to the store with no real shopping agenda. Rummaging through the constantly changing stock means you're sure to find plenty of oddball obscurities you never even new you wanted. This is a blessing for collectors like me who find far more pleasure in discovering overlooked LPs than going straight to the new release rack.

Disorganization is one of Size's strong points. Stacks of records, old concert posters, cassettes, promotional materials, and way more can be found piled in various corners of the store. Since Jim and Dustin are the only employees between the shop and the club, non essential tasks tend go a bit unnoticed. You'll still have an easy time navigating the racks as the records are divided by genre and are more or less alphabetized. Still having the drive to dig helps a lot when it comes to the Size experience.

Size loyalists also get a kick out of the various hand written notes taped to the plastic LP sleeves. Phrases like "OVERLOOKED EARLY 90S EXTREME THRASH NOISE EXPLOSION" and "KILLER DRUG-CORE FREAKOUT ESSENTIAL CLASSIC, HARD TO FIND MUST HAVE!" are fairly typical.

Of course, sometimes its best to get musical advice directly from the source, and Jim and Dustin (especially Jim) aren't ones to shy away from a great musical discussion.

METAL!

Size is a great place to look for obscure and bizarre odds and ends like zines, weird VHS, and tons of other stuff.

Talking to Jim about music is a part of the Size experience...

A digger's paradise.

Soda is Size's newest venture.

More than anything, Size stands apart as a truly DIY enterprise that functions more as a labor of love than a money making venture. Jim and Dustin will be the first to tell you that the store isn't making anyone rich, but as long as they're doing what they love they'll still be in the game.

Honestly, this little blog entry doesn't really begin to tell the whole story of the Size/Conservatory impact on the OKC music scene. There are plenty of important people, places, and bands to discuss... but I'll save most of that for a future post about the Conservatory.

-Austin