Any good record stores in Houston?

I'll be there for 3 days next week, any stores worth visiting?

 

Houston is pretty sprawling, so I'm not sure whether you'll be too near this place (it's on the Northwest side, towards Spring/Klein/Tomball), but you should definitely check out The Vinal Edge:

http://www.vinaledge.com/

Run for decades by the inimitable Chuck Roast. Particularly good for more unusual musics, eg: industrial/noise, and Chuck's a Krautrock aficionado, but they have a lot of stuff, as you can see from their website.

 

I'll be in Houston for the next 8 days myself. On my previous trips, I haven't made it more than a couple of miles away from the office (near the Galleria). Maybe I'll get a chance to venture out a little further this time.

 

Here's another one, Sound Exchange, that's a bit closer to the downtown area. Caveat: they used to be at a different and much larger location and under different management, so I'm not certain about how things are there lately. There's not much on their website, but here's a page with a map and phone #:

http://www.soundexchangehouston.com/map.html

 

The store is probably gone now, but back in the early 80's I used to spend a lot of money at The Sound Exchange in Houston. I lived in Galveston at the time and used to make monthly trips to that store. They always had a great selection.

 

I haven't been to Houston in years, but Westheimer used to be home to many excellent used cd & vinyl stores. Hope there are still some there as I plan to be in Houston in July.

 

Westheimer was home to the old Sound Exchange location; I'm sure that's one of the ones you remember.

 

Also, if you're in the Westheimer area, the Montrose location of Half-Price Books is worth browsing in if you have the time; I've found some great deals there in the past, although it takes a bit of flipping through the dross, eg: a few dozen copies of "Freeze-Frame" and the complete works of Cracker.

1011 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX 77006-2724
713.520.1084

 

slim pickens folks, the 80's had a lot of good ones in the Montrose area (others not mentioned; Infinite, BJ's, Original Record Exchange)
I will recommend for vinyl "Black Dog Records" The owner, Cliff is a big Beatles/Stones/Who fan.
(713) 522-6001
3804 S Shepherd Dr
Houston, TX

 

Yes I do remember that one and there was another I used to frequent for used vinyl that was located on Westheimer and I believe it was in an old house. I do not recall the name though, but I met the owner at a record show in New Orleans.

 

His name is Dave Ritz and his store WAS Infinite Records. It is long gone, but Dave runs the local Record Shows (6/10 was the last one, so it will be several weeks till the next).

The remaining "Westheimer stores" all folded or moved off Westheimer. Sound Exchange moved to Richmond Ave.. It did not change management. They buy only the best and rarest records that come through their doors, but they pick up the best in used from people who don't use ebay etc. They are good for jazz, rock, MFSL, picture sleeved 45s (got the orig. My Sweet Lord?), r&b... but not such that you can count on finding something on any given trip. I think the cross street on Richmond is Hazard.

Black Dog is on Shepherd (a one way portion between the SW Freeway (59) and Richmond) They have a lot of vinyl to look over.

Richmond is easy to get to from the Galleria, just go south 2 city blocks, then head east into town 3, maybe 4, miles and keep your eyes open. These stores close at 7:00 pm.

Don't buy any of the collectibles I might want. Thank you.

 

All in all you should give up on record stores and spend your time in the "gentlemen's clubs" and "modeling studios" or ABSs here in Houston. The city council has been emboldened by court rulings in favor of laws written similarly to our sexually oriented business law.

It seems that 99% of them are up for closure when the city gets around to it. It won't be a raid situation, rather a simple serving of notice of violation - lock your doors and don't reopen please, you're out of business.

 

Maybe it was just me not knowing where to look, but I was in Houston last year armed with a yahoo search and a forum inquiry and found Houston to be the absolute worst place to find CDs of any large city I've ever visited, and I've been to many many large cities...

As I recall, I found one decent (not great but just decent) place in my entire search but I can no longer recall what it was called.

 

You probably went to Cactus, on Shepard, which is now gone. It was a "just OK" independent store with a pretty good stock of country, bluegrass, and rock albums but very little in the way of imports.

I agree that since moving to Houston, I've found the retail environment shockingly bad for a city of this size. This is especially galling when smaller towns like Austin have fairly good spots like Waterloo or Antone's.

For records, the shops mentioned above are among the best of what's available. For CD's, there isn't anyplace with a deep catalogue. A few of the Best Buy's are decent (Sugarland especially), and the Borders on Kirby is just OK. The Music Wherehouse on Westheimer and Voss was pretty good, but it's a shadow of its former self now.

 

I moved here in 1991... the music retail scene has definetly gone
downhill since that time... but that's true for pretty much anywhere.

I grew up in the Philly area and lived in the NY/NJ area for five years
before moving here... and most of my haunts back east are gone
too - with several exceptions.


Cactus was a good store... but I lost interest in it a few years
before it closed its doors... my specific problem was they had
an exceptional "oldies" section (50/60s) that they completely eliminated.

After that disappeared, I had very little reason to go there - but
I still did if I was in the area. I used to enjoy the "in store"
concert appearances... when I caught them.

It was definetly the closest thing Houston had to Waterloo in
Austin. Relatively speaking, I'd say it was probably 95% as
good as Waterloo. And I'm not really sure what the big deal
about Waterloo is except the foot traffic in there is amazing.
I've never been inside Waterloo when there wasn't 40-50 other
customers....


Antone's ? I'm not sure I think thats a great shop - but I've
been in it a few times - and its been there forever. I think
the big thing about that place is it specializes in blues.
If your a blueshound - it's heaven. If your not - it's
not something thats going to appeal to many.


As for the current pickings....

Several suggestions:

1.) Trader's Village (for vinyl)... it's only open on weekends (its
a flea market) - not convenient for a traveling businessman but
a pretty good place to visit for a local person... I know the
owner has mentioned that he gets yearly visits from japanese
buyers the week before the Austin record show (s?)

2.) Soundwaves (I think that's the name) on Montrose - across
the street from the chinese consulate. It used to be better - but
its probably the last remaining supermarket size music retailer in
the area (I think the site is an old supermarket)...

3.) Sound Warehouse (old house on richmond - not too far from
number 2 - not sure about the name)... this was a better store
when it was on Westheimer but I recently pulled a "Die Beatles"
from here cheap (like $7), and some obscure motown vinyl.
A pretty small place - but the bins do always tend to have
something in them that I find interesting (from a bargain or collector
standpoint). Plus its small and doesn't take long to go through the entire
store.

4.) CD store at the corner of kuykendahl and 1960. (I forget
the name of the place - it used to be called blockbuster music
but its now something with the word "sound" in the name). This
appears to be a big chain store that would be worthless - but
there's a ton of stuff to look at - and ive found some great deals
here - like about 9 or 10 sacds that they priced for $2-$3 with
a big note saying "WONT PLAY ON CD PLAYER" (which did not
deter me in the least). I also scored a rare McCartney lexus
CD promo there recently (with the black cover) cheap (like
sub $10).

5.) Sig's Lagoon - funky little store - they try hard... seems to
mostly be an adjunct to the continental club - but they are the
place most likely to have discs for sale by bands that play at the club
next door. The most "austin-ish" store in town.


I also tend to drive around town and check out all of the
"Half Price Book Stores" for used vinyl, cds, laserdiscs (yes),
and dvds... not an obvious place to go - but plenty of
them around town.

One general comment... it seems like every store in town
has the word "sound" in it... but that doesn't mean they
are identical... Even the ones that are part of a group
(soundwaves?) are completely dissimilar... I think each
soundwaves is individually managed (and stocked) according
to what the buyer believes that neighborhood is more likely
to support... which means some of the stores are more likely
to have latin music or r&b/rap/soul...



I don't think I will join the "houston sucks" crowd until
all of the above are gone.

 

The Montrose Soundwaves' current site was a Walgreens drugstore for years - when they built the new Walgreens down the street, the old store closed, then later on Soundwaves moved there, relocating from a spot in the strip center next to where Half Price Books is now.

There can't be too many people left who still check out the laserdiscs at Half Price Books - I still do almost out of habit, but I can't remember the last time I actually found anything worth buying in the LD bin.

Judging from many of the posts here, I'm not sure Houston's much worse off than many other cities when it comes to the music retail business. But it's still a far cry from the 70s and 80s, when there were tons of great places selling both new and used vinyl: Sound Warehouse's multiple locations, Evolution Records & Tapes (later Oasis Records & Tapes), the original Record Exchange, Infinite, Real Records, and the original location of the Third Planet comic book shop. I spent many happy hours in all of them searching through countless bins of records in search of buried treasures. Not many places you can do that anymore outside of record shows.

 

Nice post!
And good looking

 

Yes, we have fallen to pitiful status as far as music shopping is concerned. For such a large city (4th in the US) we come up way short.

The early 90s was heaven here, but by the late 90s the writing was on the wall. It's in shambles now, paralleling the sharp decline in the music industry.

If you were here early last year, you would be shocked how much more we've lost since then!


Tourists/Business visitors: Try eating out instead of CD or record shopping. We are consistently in the top 5 most overweight cities in the country. Some of that has to do with our restaurants - good & plenty. I said good, not exquisite. We have only one 4 star restaurant (Tony's).

Ask the people you are working with or the concierge at your hotel - everybody has their favorites and many are an easy drive or cab ride from the Galleria. You could eat good Mexican (Tex/Mex) every night for a week and barely dent the list of good places. Beware the before dinner Margarita, especially those served in pitchers!

We are a genuine melting pot city. You can eat dim sum Chinese food at 3 AM. We have some really good Cuban places as well as Vietnamese, Thai, Middle Eastern, Indian, and a variety of Central American places to mention a few.

Eat, don't look/shop beyond the few places we've pointed out. It is what it seems - a hollow shell of days gone by!

 

Houston doesn't suck any more than Philly does - it's the times and the changes in this industry.

As far as your recommendations, 2 comments:

Number 3 is Sound Exchange

Number 1 - Trader's Village. You have to give these people a culture shock warning for Trader's Village! I've never been, despite the TV advertising. The size of the parking lot alone says "skip this" to me. Did you mention it's a weekend thing?

What with the discussion of Japanese shoppers and all, your description does not sound like the gargantuan flea market, junk sale, and crafts fair that this really is. The good news is that the dealer you are talking to may be Dave from Infinite Records. He moved to that part of town when he had to abandon Montrose. His stuff is usually worth the trek! He not only runs the local record shows, he takes his wares to other shows in other states and sometimes buys stock on the road as well.

 

Thanks for the clarification on Sound Exchange.

This town has Soundwaves (which has multiple locations), Sound Exchange, and I believe it also has some Sound Warehouse locations (I believe these are in more cities than Houston - the one I go to used to be called Blockbuster Music).

Yes... Trader's Village is a culture shock thing and I did mention
that its a "weekend only" thing.

But I've seen much worse with respect to Flea Markets.

I'd like to make it clear that Traders Village is NOT outdoors.
I've been to some of those - and the really bad ones don't
have a way to prevent rain from landing on the vendors.
Many of the vendors at Traders Village have a small store thats
only open on weekends. They just basically leave their product in the
place locked up all week long (like a storage facility).

Recent finds for me there include some Sheffield Labs (direct to disc)
records and the debut album by Root Boy Slim (which is a bizarre
album). I pretty much stick to the $1-$2 bin when I go there
and I have no problem finding like $30 dollars of records every
time I go.

I don't know who the vinyl dealer is... I always see the same guy there
but I think he has a partner.

My son said he heard him mention that he has a bunch more records
(tens of thousands) stored somewhere else... and when he starts
running low - he refills this "store" from that supply. I don't doubt
it.


And we must be the two guys in Houston checking laserdisc
bins I think I pretty much scooped up all of the titles
that came out with AC-3 digital... and occasionally I find
something interesting.... I guess I'm just fond of dead
formats - LOL

 

I didn't mean to imply that Trader's Village was an outdoor affair. I just wanted the people to know they would be walking past many poimtless vendors and a definitely different crowd before they found the record dealers. Your description sounds like what I pictured.

What your son said makes me even more semi-certain that this vendor is Dave. He described a similar setup when quized about landing on his feet, about a year after leaving Montrose. His years in the business have left him well connected. And there are treasures in his stored stuff just waiting to be found by a lucky bin searching collector.

Oh, and the AC-3 Laser Disc buyer in this thread is someone other than me. I sold many LD players for Incredible Universe back in the day when that was the only way to get digital dedicated 5.1 channel surround.

 

I think I still have a receipt from there.

 

For what it's worth...

When I moved here in 1991, I spent about 2 years complaining that there are "no good Italian restaurants" in Houston... This was really just a veiled comment about the lack of privately owned pizza joints. Pizza Hut, Dominos, Little Caesars, Papa Johns, etc. don't count as far as I'm concerned.

But after a while, I realized that if I ever moved back east, I'd find myself complaining about the lack of good Tex/Mex restaurants.

It really comes down to expectations.

I think the situation is similar with respect to music.

I definetly can't find shops that sell bootlegs like they used to (and still do?) in Greenwich Village, but I can find a huge number of titles that I never saw back east. For example, I searched in vain in the NY/NJ area for about 10 years looking for an album called "Laso From El Paso" by Kinky Friedman but I found the same title here fairly quick.

The musical tastes here are definetly a bit more slanted towards the southwest (compared to NJ)... but its a pretty good melting pot here (texas blues, country, lousiana zydeco, twang, etc) and I try to focus more on what I can find - as opposed to what I can't...

As of late, I've been buying up a lot of B.W. Stevenson albums. He's the guy who sang "My Maria" back in the early 70s.


And I eventually discovered some pizza joints that I liked - it just took me some time to find them

 

I also left out on obvious place - that may or may not be of interest - depending where the visitor is from.


Fry's is a pretty good store. It's much better than Best Buy.


They were the main brick and mortar location for hi-res titles. Those sections are dwindling - but there are still titles to be found.


Visitors from California might not find Fry's interesting - but it's an interesting place if you've never been inside one.

There are three locations in Houston. I've been inside all three. The one I usually go to is on the North Freeway and it has an "oil rig" theme. The one down by NASA with the "astronaut" theme is comparable.

The one on I-59 near Sugarland is the most boring of the three - but its inventory is similar - just no crazy theme (that I can remember).

 

I made it to Half-Price Books on Westheimer last trip, and it was a fun place to browse. Found a WG copy of Mellencamp's Scarecrow, and got 5-6 discs from the $1 shelves.

Until this year, I hadn't been to Houston since 1991. I pulled out my copy of Layla a few days ago and found a receipt from Soundwaves #4 on Westheimer, dated January 3, 1991.