What are the best record shops in Houston? (Cheap, used CDs, lots of selection.) Please don't say Blockbuster.
Blockbuster's no longer in the cd business. Wherehouse Music closed most of their stores here. CD Warehouse closed all of theirs in Houston. Half Price Books is there but stuff is hard to find and the condition is not always great Soundwaves I guess depending on what you are looking for
Cactus on Shepherd is great for local stuff and hard-to-find things. For jazz, there is no better shop - PERIOD - than All Records on West Gray. I know the man who owns the shop and he knows just about everything there is to know about music, but especially jazz, folk and blues. He's been around for years and is a big sports fan as well - he has cable in his shop along with MLB and NBA League Pass. I do buy stuff from places online and now from Apple's Music Store, but Mrs JB and I still make a trip to All Records every few months. By the way, if you are looking for a box set for a gift especially at Christmas, he's probably got it. He's has tons of them. I HIGHLY recommend All Records.
Yup, I bought that 45 with my allowance! Side A had the fight song and side B had either Big Earl or Luv Ya Blue (sung to the tune of the Beatles Love Me Do). I grew up on Jaquet which was just a few blocks from Don's. Good times.
Cactus is cool, but it's kind of expensive. Great for finding stuff you can't get at the big retail stores though. However, I buy most of my albums online anyways. http://www.spun.com
What kind of records are you looking for? Are you a mobile/club dj? Did you want to get into a record pool? What's your price limit? You looking for promos as well? I have a friend with basically any record you need and/or want. He's what's called a crate-digger in the turntablist world. However, the more rare the record, the higher the price might be. Let me know if you are interested. If you do want to get into a record pool, I can probably see if any of our guys in our crew need more people to join.
UTweezer hit it dead on! My favorite record store in Houston is Sound Exchange, at 1846 Richmond, between Greenbriar and Montrose. New and used CDs and VINYL, local acts included, plus they do excellent repair on turntables. I took my early 1970s Pioneer heavy-swingarm turntable there a few months ago and they totally refurbished it for under fifty bucks. It plays LPs like a dream now. Sound Exchange gets lots of my money...good thing I get to write it off against my taxes!
I tend to exclusively buy online. The place that I start is: http://www.pricegrabber.com/ For older releases or out of print stuff, I go here: http://www.gemm.com/ And there is always ebay, if you are feeling lucky. I think the rash of CD store closing is due the competition from Best Buy (and Circuit City?) which use low priced CDs to get customers into their stores.
Thanks guys--I'll definitely check out Sound Exchange. Clockwork: I'm not looking for anything rare or truly unusual, just some good deals--I don't have cable Internet since I've left college, so I can't "try out" bands like I used to, and I don't want to pay $15 for something I might hate. Don't even know what a record pool is (though I think I can figure it out). Thanks for the offer, anyway. I find the Internet's not all that cheap, even half.com, after shipping, isn't so great. Whatever happened to casual record shopping? Damn this age of high technology!
