Sound Exchange

Sound Exchange was just blocks away from my apartment when I moved to the Montrose neighborhood of Houston 20 years ago, so it was the first one I visited. Almost immediately, I knew it was special. The owners Kurt and Kevin are record store lifers, and their witty little sticker descriptions on recommended picks turned me on to so much incredible music. And they have a great used selection where you can always find a cool bargain (the amount of records in my collection with green Sound Ex price tags is staggering). They’ve since relocated to a neighborhood east of downtown, but the new location is much more spacious and brighter than the creaky old house it previously inhabited, where heavy metal made the walls and floorboards vibrate.