Independents’ Day In 1982 John Kunz opened the doors to a 1,200-square-foot music store on Lamar Boulevard called Waterloo Records. Austin has changed over the years—for one thing, Lamar had considerably less traffic in those days—and so has Waterloo. While Kunz watched other independent music stores barely stay afloat, and sometimes sink, he saw his own enterprise thrive and expand into an 8,800-square-foot institution with a reputation for memorable in-store performances, a destination in itself for out-of-towners. (Full disclosure: Kunz is the boyfriend of Texas Monthly‘s senior associate art director, Kathy Marcus.) This month Waterloo celebrates its twentieth anniversary. How does one commemorate such a feat? “We’re going to make everyone sick and tired of the word ‘twenty,'” Kunz promises. The festivities include twenty events in various clubs from March 16 until April 7, culminating on the final day with a free outdoor show featuring twenty acts. If you cannot attend the anniversary in Austin, you can still pay tribute to your local independent record store. Some places of note around the state include Cactus Records and Video in Houston, Hogwild Records and Tapes in San Antonio, Record Town in Fort Worth, and All That Music in El Paso. For specialty items, try Top Hit in Houston (rap and hip-hop), Bill’s Records in Dallas (collectibles), and Janie’s Record Shop in San Antonio (conjunto and tejano).(See Austin: Other Events.)
