Amid San Marcos' Growing Pains, Alchemy Records Keeps Grassroots Music Alive
A chalk sign guides eager crowds to Alchemy Records, situated off of the historic square in San Marcos, Texas on Sept. 14, 2024. Though the store’s daytime revenue from record sales keeps it afloat, it struggles to maintain its status as an accessible art space within the community due to increasing overhead costs.
Nestled in a sleepy row of businesses in San Marcos, Texas, a nondescript storefront buzzes with local youths. A painted sign out front reads: “Alchemy Records and Pallbearer Press, Doors at 7, Music at 8, $10 cover.” Twice a week after hours, owner Walter Thorington and his five employees lug the store’s record bays and shirt racks to the rear, clearing enough space to accommodate a projector screen, amplifiers and a small-but-loyal crowd of fans.
By day, Alchemy Records serves the community as a hand-curated vinyl shop. Once night falls, however, Thorington and his crew transform the place into a truly homegrown live music hub.
As one of only three remaining venues in the city that consistently books alternative music acts, the record store breathes life into San Marcos’ grassroots music scene. Young musicians in the area are currently facing the consequences of the city’s rapid growth, including rising living costs and the loss of local creative institutions. Despite looming financial burdens and the threat of development, businesses like Alchemy provide creatives with opportunities to showcase their work and build a sense of community amid the city’s shifting cultural landscape.
An entranced concertgoer surrenders to the music as a show at Alchemy Records in San Marcos, Texas, draws to a close with a furious, final chord on Sept. 14, 2024. Weekend showcases at the shop attract an audience of young regulars.
Thorington said he will continue hosting inexpensive performances as he can, but balancing the books remains tricky. The venue side of his business is largely funded out of pocket, costing him upwards of $2,000 a month for production and labor alone. However, he refuses to pass the cost to artists and fans.
“I don’t feel comfortable asking for a lot from bands,” Thorington said. “Ultimately, they aren’t making enough to eat.”
Young musicians like Alchemy performer Xavier Daly, the 19-year-old frontman of garage rock outfit, Skuzz Machine, often struggle to balance passion with pay. Daly works seven days a week at two jobs to supplement his sprouting music career.
“Definitely a good chunk of my life is devoted to music — whatever time I can devote to it,” Daly said. "I wish there were more places that were open towards kids and diverse audiences available.”
Xavier Daly, left, of the Dallas-based garage rock group, Skuzz Machine, commands the stage at Alchemy Records in San Marcos, Texas on Sept. 14, 2024. The record shop-turned-music venue is one of only a handful within the community that provides opportunities for budding artists to showcase their work.
All members of Skuzz Machine are under 21, making it difficult to book gigs in their hometown of Dallas, where venues are predominantly bars. As a result, they travel 3.5 hours to San Marcos for show opportunities.
But as artists pass through San Marcos for sporadic gigs, many other newcomers stay, contributing to a 32% population growth in the last decade, according to data from the US Census Bureau. With cheaper real estate than nearby Austin and San Antonio, San Marcos has become an attractive site for new development including a downtown luxury hotel, a 200-acre film studio complex and large residential complexes to accommodate a 40% freshman enrollment increase at Texas State University.
“The college town environment has just been explosive from what I’ve seen during my time here,” said resident musician and former venue owner, Cody Read, who has lived in San Marcos since 2015. “The primary obstacle that presents is … people coming in, gutting real estate and jacking up prices for the locals.”
As San Marcos continues to grow, Read has noticed performance opportunities dwindling. Longtime bar and venue Triple Crown was bought out to build a high-rise apartment in 2016, and the COVID-19 pandemic brought the closure of outdoor venue Tantra Coffeehouse. Though the shop has since reopened, it has faced difficulty maintaining its former status as residential developers instated strict noise ordinances in the area. Read said San Marcos has “not just a responsibility, but an imperative” to protect these few remaining spaces that continue to serve as “incubators” for musical minds and drivers of local culture.
“We’ve lost a lot of venues over the years,” Read said. “It really is something else when the city feels alive like that, and it's going to be hard to get back to that point without some money going into these projects.”
To salvage local arts, the San Marcos Arts and Grants Commission awards over $100,000 in annual funding to eligible creative businesses and artists. However, the hotel occupancy tax-funded grant program prioritizes tourist-facing endeavors.
“The whole idea [of the program] is to engage visitors and residents, build upon the city's cultural identity and … promote tourism to San Marcos,” San Marcos Arts and Grants Coordinator Trey Hatt said.
Thorington applied for $10,000 in funding through the Tourism Grant from the city of San Marcos — the only one his business qualified for. The hopeful shop owner’s proposal included plans for a raised stage, sound system and recording equipment intended not only to support local acts, but also to draw larger, touring musical talents and fans.
When the grant recipients were announced in mid-September, the list included a film festival and artists market with out-of-town vendors, but Alchemy did not make the cut.
“It was a blow to not be in the running for those, you know, but it's where we're at,” Thorington said, adding that he was disappointed by the missed opportunity to support his employees and local music community.
Although money remains tight, Thorington said he’s hopeful that support for local music in San Marcos will continue to grow alongside grassroots venues. But for now, his priority remains providing an accessible creative outlet for as long as he can.
“If you look from a broad perspective at successful civilizations, it's always their love of art that we look back on historically,” Thorington said. “There's nothing that says more about a healthy, thriving civilization than what beautiful things they were able to create.”
