Encore Records Closing

Encore Records is closing, and likely by the latter half of September, owner Charles Lokey tells “Playback.” All merchandise has been marked down 20%.

The 33-year-old mainstay Austin music business, which long occupied strip mall space on Anderson Lane before moving downtown in 2012, faced a litany of challenges: being enveloped by construction, lack of available parking, a national reckoning of physical retail, and landlords priming the store’s property for redevelopment. Taken together, it’s simply too much for Lokey, who’s just plain worn out after three-plus decades of retail and its inherent difficulties.

Late last week, a sign went up at the 809 E. Sixth record emporium: “Store Closing: Everything Must Go.” Sunday, yours truly stopped in to pay his respects and do a little shopping amongst a still robust inventory of brand new vinyl. I picked up represses of Tom Waits’ live bow Glitter & Doom and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ The Boatman’s Call, both significantly cheaper than I could buy them on Discogs. I might come back next week for a Watain record.

Encore, which also sells new and used CDs, DVDs, patches, and shirts, long catered to heshers, headbangers, and the like. It won a “Best Metallurgy” Critic’s Pick in the Chronicle’s 2008 Best of Austin reckoning. Hometown metal hero Jason McMaster, singer for Watchtower, Dangerous Toys, Broken Teeth, and Ignitor, worked there for years. More recently, ex-Mala Suerte vocalist Gary Rosas has manned the cash register.

With Encore Records’ reaching the end of the line, Lokey closes out a lifetime of entrepreneurship. Since his heart nearly gave up on him in April, one of Austin’s most soulful record salesmen deserves a rest. He hopes to sell his epic screenplay Carlisle Park, which details his misadventures as a young clairvoyant surrounded by death and mayhem in Lubbock.