Vinyl Junkie, Now Open

Very cool. It’s always struck me as weird just how few honest-to-God indie music stores this city has; I mean, we’re Houston, for crying out loud, the fourth-largest city in the damn country, and yet I can think of maybe eight record shops in the whole freaking Houston metro area that sell punk or indie-rock stuff. (And no, I’m not going to list ’em, because I know I’ll forget somebody, and that’d suck…)

So it makes me happy, happy, happy to see another music store opening in our not-so-fair town, particularly at a time when belts are tight and whatnot — as of today, Vinyl Junkie, which was previously a mailorder punk/indie/hardcore/etc. outlet (I think, anyway), opened up its actual storefront over at 4202 E. Canal St., east of Downtown.

I haven’t been yet, but going by the impressive list of releases on the Website, I think I seriously need to (or, um, maybe not, if I want to still be able to pay the mortgage next month…gah). If there’s a 7-inch you’ve been dying to find by some obscure punk or metal band, well, this place looks to be a good bet. Owner Titus warns that people looking for funk, jazz, or classic rock will likely walk away empty-handed, which is fine by me, honestly — I actually like “specialist” stores like this one, where you go there because you know the people behind the counter A) know what they’re doing and B) can probably find you that exact thing your OCD-afflicted self is looking for.

(And yes, going by the name of the store alone, you should be warned that a lot of their stuff is only on vinyl. They’ve got CDs & cassettes, as well, but it looks like not nearly as many.)

I’m told the place is somewhat bare-bones at this point, with just the music and not buttons or t-shirts or whatever, but eh, who really cares about that? I just can’t bring myself to buy a band t-shirt anywhere but at a show for said band, personally…

Anyway, there’s also a Vinyl Junkie Facebook page and Myspace page. They’re open from 1-8PM daily (not sure about the weekends, tho), or maybe 1-9PM if there’re lots of people coming in late.

On a side note, I’ve seen a bunch of cool-sounding shows listed (The Arrivals!), too — Titus says they’re hoping to host some cool art/music shows, not really as a “venue” but just as they come up. Yet another reason to get on over there…