I did a whole series of record shopping posts on the old Life in the Vinyl Lane and I wanted to start them back up again. When I’m getting ready to visit a city, whether in the US or overseas, I always look to bloggers to help me decide what shops to visit, and just as importantly which to skip. Online magazines and Yelp reviews are fine; but I’m much more interested in what a true obsessive has to say.
All that being said, our trip to Minneapolis last weekend was hardly our first visit to that city, so we already had a pretty good idea what shops we were going to hit. We did, however, add a new one to the mix this time. So without further ado…
Electric Fetus
2000 S. 4th Avenue
Chances are if you’re a record nerd like me you’ve already heard of Electric Fetus. It shows up on most of the “Best Record Stores in the US” lists, plus Prince was known to stop by to shop, further cementing its reputation. The store itself is quite large by today’s standards, even with roughly a quarter of the space given over to various gifts and THC-related products. That’s OK though, as the selection in the rest of the shop is pretty good.
Overall the emphasis is more on new than used, but have no fear, there’s a decent amount of space devoted to secondhand records. Our biggest scores on this trip were markdowns on new records here – I picked up three Coil re-releases at $9 each, as well as a copy of Icelander Futuregrapher’s second album Skynvera for the same price. They also had a robust selection of CDs, but we didn’t spend any time digging through those. At the end of the day, if you only have time to visit one shop, Electric Fetus is arguably your best bet with its broad selection.
Cheapo Records
2600 Nicollet Ave
Ah, Cheapo. While my general recommendation for most folks is Electric Fetus, for me personally if I only have time for one shop in Minneapolis it will be Cheapo (note there are three locations – the other two in St. Paul and Blaine). I’ve had a lot of luck over the years in their used section, especially in the New Arrivals, and this trip was no exception. I scored a beautiful copy of the Moondog self-titled 2017 re-release and Morris Day and the Time’s debut Ice Cream Castle (when in Rome, after all…).
For me the used records are what make Cheapo great, and even the hour I spent there wasn’t near enough to get through everything I wanted to see. One downside is that many used records are taped up in their sleeves, making it impossible to examine the record without taking it to the counter – and they’re taped up so heavily that even asking to see what’s inside feels like an ordeal. I get why shops do this – it’s because people suck in general and they will do stupid and shady things to steal. But it can be a bit frustrating. On a positive note, I will say that I’ve never been disappointed with the quality of anything I’ve bought from Cheapo after I got it home and freed it from it’s hermetically sealed packaging, and I’ll keep going back every time I get out to Minneapolis.
Extreme Noise
407 W. Lake Street
Extreme Noise is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year. The shop is a volunteer-run co-op with an amazingly deep selection of punk, metal, and other extreme music, as well as tons of t-shirts, patches, and other accessories. I always find some gems here and their pricing is generally quite reasonable, even for the more collectible records. In fact this is where I did my biggest splurge, grabbing a copy of Kaos’ Product of a Sick Mind… off the wall. The cover was a bit beat up, which the price reflected, but the vinyl was really nice, so it felt like a steal.
Agharta Records
2512 University Ave W
Agharta was a game-time decision, and one I’m glad we made because they’ve got some great stuff. It had by far the largest used New Arrivals section, as well as healthy sections devoted to rock, metal, electronic, and even a decent amount of hip hop. There’s also a back room with assorted smaller sections, including a couple of bins of reggae, plus walls surrounded with bins of $3-5 records if you want to get your fingers dirty and some cardboard flakes in your lungs. My biggest surprise here was finding not one, not two, but three Sir Mix-A-Lot 12″ records that I didn’t have, and anything after that was just gravy. Another big plus is that the guys working there were incredibly nice and welcoming, so Agharta is definitely recommended.