Austin’s Waterloo Records reopens with new bar, studio, live music

Boxes are getting unpacked, vinyl records are moving into display cases, merch is being arranged and posters are being hung on the freshly minted walls of the relocated Waterloo Records storefront at 1105 N. Lamar Blvd. Employees are working around the clock to get the store ready for its grand opening celebration on Saturday.

At the beginning of 2025, Waterloo Records announced that ownership would pass to Gold Rush Vinyl founder Caren Kelleher and investor Trey Watson with the move. Ahead of the opening date, the Statesman visited the new spot and spoke with Kelleher about the transition.

“The emotion has hit everybody, especially those who have been working at that location for all 36 years,” Kelleher said. “The amount of people in the community who’ve come out of the woodwork to tell us their own personal stories of Waterloo has been really impactful for all of us.”

From the heavy record displays to the smallest cassette tape, every bit of Waterloo Records had to move down N. Lamar Blvd. Kelleher said it’s taken a lot of coordination, but she’s proud of how the team stepped up to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“The silly thing about moving is that it takes just as much time to load and unload whether you’re going five blocks, five miles or five hundred miles,” Kelleher said.

Waterloo Records’ new additions include a Dolby Atmos spatial audio mixing studio designed by Grammy-winning audio engineer Chad Franscoviak. Along with a podcast studio, the rooms are available for rent through the company’s new business division, Waterloo Sound, a collaboration with Nu•Studio mastering engineer and advisor John Neiss.

“I have a friendship with John Niess of Nu•Studio and actually have the Statesman to thank for it,” Kelleher said. When Gold Rush Vinyl announced plans to come to Austin, the Statesman interviewed Niess as a background industry person.

“He took the time to find my phone number, call me and welcome me to town,”  Kelleher said. 

The expanded floor plan will also have an in-house lacquer-cutting display, where customers can watch the first steps of vinyl production inside the store. This also enables on-site, high-quality record mastering, making the new Waterloo site one of the few studios in the U.S. with spatial audio post-production and analog vinyl production in one location.

Neiss had been running a lacquer-cutting business and a full studio called Atmos, for a number of years.

“He called me as we were starting to put the pieces together in buying Waterloo, and said he was looking for a new location,” Kelleher said. “Honestly, down to the foot, the space that he needed was what we had available, and it just seemed like such a natural partnership to bring him into this along with other collaborators.”

New music memorabilia will be available for purchase, including 24-karat gold and platinum records. Waterloo Records is also installing a chic café-style lounge with beer, wine and coffee available for purchase at a new bar. Live, in-store performances and tapings will level up with new equipment, and the remodeled stage will feature historic flooring from the original “Austin City Limits” Studio 6A space, donated by KLRU.

“Just like Austin, Waterloo has evolved. Trey and I want to make sure people understand why Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World,”  Kelleher said. “So many people move here and are excited about the lifestyle, but don’t understand where it came from.” 

She developed the new location to connect the past and present.

Waterloo Records has been an Austin cultural institution since 1982. A musical cornerstone sitting in the heart of a bustling, tech-driven epicenter, Waterloo persists as a symbol of “Old Austin,” where live music was king, creativity thrived and local businesses defined the city’s character.

“Austin has largely lacked a music business infrastructure, basically all of the back-end things that help musicians here really take off. We’re a tourist destination, a place for the community to congregate and start putting more eyeballs on the Austin music community,” Kelleher said. “We’re lucky to have a brand that’s strong enough for us to lead the way with some of this experimentation.”

 Kelleher and Watson aim to bridge the two Austin identities to ensure Waterloo Records remains a touchstone as the city evolves.

“Businesses need diverse revenue streams, that’s just a reality. I think COVID showed us how fragile businesses can be when they are completely dependent on one product or type of revenue,” Kelleher said.

She doesn’t expect the market for vinyl and CDs to crash, but if it did, “ we’d have other things happening in the store to cushion that,” she said. 

Founder Louis Karp first opened Waterloo Records on April 1, 1982. The same year, John Kunz joined as co-owner. In its first year, Waterloo was voted “Best Record Store” by the Austin Chronicle. The store added VHS video rentals in 1985.

Kunz became Waterloo’s sole owner in 1987. In 1989, the store relocated to its iconic corner location at West Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard. Since then, the store has become a symbol of Austin’s enduring cultural identity. In this new era, Kunz will not be retiring but instead taking on a chair emeritus position, giving him more time to enjoy the store, as business tasks turn to Kelleher and Watson.

“I get to work less and play more,” Kunz told the Statesman in January. “I am confident that the new energy and innovation from Caren and Trey, along with the entire Waterloo Records & Video crew, will fulfill the dreams I have always had.”

“The amount of love for the Waterloo brand and team is incredible. All the hard work that the Waterloo staff has put in after all these years makes my job so much easier and so many people excited about our success,” Kelleher said. 

Waterloo Records’ reopening celebration will feature music from DJ Mel, DJ Protection and DJ Cassandra. There will be hourly prize giveaways from Audioengine, Live Nation, Marshall, Sub Pop, Merge, Redeye and Dualtone. Food Trucks will be on site, and a University of Texas football tailgate will also be in full swing.

Where: Waterloo Records’ new location at 1105 N. Lamar Blvd.

Info: Free, all ages. waterloorecords.com.