Heights Vinyl Prepares To Plant Its Flag
Houston vinyl enthusiasts will soon have a new spot to score their drug of choice. Avid collectors may have come across notices advertising a "Big Pre-Opening 45 Sale" for a mysterious locale known as Heights Vinyl, set for this Saturday. The shop itself won't be open until November, but the ad promises thousands of unpicked 45s to be set out between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Photos by Marc Brubaker Suite D of this White Oak strip center will house Houston's next record store.
Rocks Off managed to track down Craig Brown, proprietor of the soon-to-be record store on White Oak, to learn a bit more about his plans - and the boxes upon boxes of singles set to hit the street Saturday morning.
Brown describes himself as a 40-year-old Pearland native, who's dreamed of opening his own shop for "39 years." An on again-off-again DJ since age 16, Brown left town for college, spending time in Austin, Denver and San Diego before returning to Houston a few years ago and moving into the Heights.
"I live up the street," he says as we chat at Antidote.
A message posted to the Hands Up Houston forum last week promised that the shop would contain "listening stages and a small stage for shows" as well as being a place to procure "vinyl records, vintage turntables, vintage headphones, needles, cartridges and more," but was strangely cryptic regarding the shop's location.
That's since been announced: 3122 White Oak Boulevard, Suite D. The street's recent swath of development played a factor in Brown's choice of location. "There's already established things, but there's a lot of burgeoning things as well," he says, remarking that Fitzgerald's is a mere five-minute walk away, and Onion Creek just 30 seconds.
Brown still has a good bit of construction to go, like building shelves, listening stages, wiring speakers, knocking out a wall, and raising a ceiling.
"It's one of those things where I've had my own businesses before," Brown reveals, "consultancies, things like that - virtual businesses. This is my first brick and mortar shop, so it's been an education process, doing city submissions and everything. Of course, everything's costing me twice as much as I thought and taking twice as much time."
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