From humble beginnings near 11th Street and South Grand Avenue as an offshoot of all-ages music venue Black Sheep Cafe to a full-scale downtown storefront and now a second store (Dumber Records) in White Oaks Mall, Dumb Records is indeed a success story worth celebrating as the (dum)best record store in town. Owners Brian Galecki (originally from the Black Sheep time) and Jeff Black (purveyor of Radon Lounge music space back in the day) combine new releases with a steady diet of used LPs, along with plenty of CDs, cassettes, T-shirts, turntables and maybe even an eight-track or two for sale.
Along with regular live shows at the downtown store on the dedicated stage area and a well-respected arcade of pinball, classic video games and the like, the guys have created a rambunctious revival of old-school record store vibes still driven by the DIY-punk aesthetic that got the records spinning in the first place. You can't miss the downtown store where the fiberglass green elephant keeps watch, confusing folks all over on whether it was once pink or not. But no matter the pretend pachyderm's color, what's inside the stores of Dumb and Dumber is what really matters and that is knowledgeable employees, a healthy inventory and the good times of gathering at the record store to make a community space for perusing music and chewing the fat.
