Loud Music and Apparel: Finally, a Record Store in Port Huron Again!

While I was back home visiting my parents last week, my dad alerted me to the presence of a new record store that had recently opened in downtown Port Huron, MI. That area has been without a record store since well before I left in 2012. I was a bit skeptical, but had to see it myself. Besides, what if they had some good albums? That Tuesday we headed down to check it out.

The store, Loud Music and Apparel, is so new that it didn't even appear on a google map search. This made finding it a bit of a challenge, but thankfully we were familiar with the area it is located in, which happens to be the main street of Port Huron's downtown area. After backtracking a little, we did find it. There didn't appear to be a sign on the building yet, but there was one out on the sidewalk near the entrance. Not knowing what to expect, we headed inside.

The store itself is basically one long room, with clothing in the front and the records along the right wall. Though it appeared they were still setting some things up, the place had a nice record store feel to it already. The guy behind the counter, I believe one of the owners, was very friendly and knowledgeable. My main concern though, was what they might have hidden away among the stacks of records.

My finds at Loud Music and Apparel

For a new store they had a pretty impressive selection, especially in the rock department. There was also a section of new releases and a smaller section of jazz and blues albums. I checked those out first, and not finding much of interest, made my way to the rock stuff. This was where I found some very good albums I hadn't yet come across in the wild at my local Grand Rapids area haunts. Most of the time the good classic rock stuff is sold as soon as it gets into the store, but that was not the case this time. The only real limit here was my budget!

I ended up finding four albums I had been keeping my eyes open for: Aerosmith's "Rocks," Little Feat's "Waiting For Columbus," Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" (complete with all the newspaper inserts intact!), and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bayou Country." All of these records were in very good condition and all were very reasonably priced. I was certainly happy to have them!

My trip to Loud Music and Apparel was definitely worth it. From the looks of things, this store can only get better from here, and they appear to be doing a very good job so far. I hope Port Huron, which has a pretty poor history of keeping local businesses open, will continue to support this store. Don't let another nice record store fall by the wayside! I just hope I can get back there before too many people DO discover it and buy up all the good stuff!