digging in the twin cities, st. cloud, duluth...
johnshade
577 Posts
i'll be working up in northern minnesota for the next month or so and had hoped to make it to these cities on my days off in order to relax and maybe even find a few records. any suggestions?
Comments
There have been many Twin Cities digging threads. A search would bring some info.
There used to be a very nice store in Duluth. Been a long time since I went there, but I think it's the store that had a porn section of videos and mags to the right as you walked in. The store that yielded a load of Prince Billy Mahdi Wrights.
i found an autographed picture of prince billy mahdi wright in the cover of an album a few years back, i still have it somewhere, never knew who he was though
Oh and I copped some jawns in Minny as well. Avoid the dude with the wharehouse who thinks everything is a 10-50 dollar record.
Roadrunner Records on Nicollet Ave and 40-something street in SE Mpls
I am sure there are more, but these 2 I always hit when I am back home.
cool cool. thanks for the tips.
what about CHEAPO RECORDS either in mpls or st. paul? worth checking out?
cheapo's are usually a miss, but sometimes you can score some alright hiphop singles. if you are looking for plain ol CHEAP, try landfill. everything is a buck but is usually a waste of time.
cosign on treehouse & roadrunner. don't forget about hymie's.
This place is still around. The previous previous owner owed sums of money to the IRS, so he stashed the few good records he had in Cache la Secret Squirrel out in the country and left behind the shit for the feds. Nobody will touch those good records again, including him. He smokes so much dope he probably won't remember that they exist in a couple more years.
I've cleaned out what little they had left along with the previous owners -- the ones after the pot-smoking, crazy guy. Every now and then something finds its way in there, but the place is cashed out.
The Applause/Cheapo in Uptown can be a nice place to while away an hour or two, the records are downstairs. Last summer I found some nice Blue Note audiophile represses at about a third off their regular price online(still expensive), and some 12"s. When I think of how much great shit I probably passed up at every Cheapo in the Twin Cities in the late 80s and all thru the 90s....I just wanna cry. Back then every punk rock hipster like myself was digging for Replacements vinyl, Ramones and New York Dolls originals and the like(and of course never finding them since everyone else was after it). Very little competition for obscure jazz and soul, let alone dance 12"s and hip hop. And since no one wanted it, a lot of that stuff was in the racks at the Cheapos for $2 or less!
i heard about that place...i know kids that went to high school near there & had been hitting it up in 92. not to mention a gaggle of UW hiphop DJs thats used to make trips up there. its gotta be cleaned out.
Nosy strutter wants to know: how long ago was this? Been searching for this lp for 2+ years now, and they seem to have vanished from the face of the earth! (or nobody is coming of theirs). Please enlighten me...
Late 90's, I'ld say - and we found around 15 copies, one of which was sold to Jake @ Counterpoint before he comped it.
chicago record, but i don't see it around here, either...
you know the date for this?
Cheapos, not so great... grabbed a few beat up 12"s...
Hymies was aiight, good rock selection. Decent, but small selection if international stuff. Junk soundtracks, etc.
Treehouse was garbage. Don't waste your time on the racks or that big wall of junk in the back... just hit the "this just in" (good used newer rock shit) bin in front of the counter, and the stuff inside the glass case in the front is ok.
That place next to the Jamaican food place was awful. Might have been the stale air in the basement and the fact that I kept hitting my head on shit down there, or the fact that it was about 115 w/ 95% humidity when I was down there, and it smells like that toilet down there that hasn't been cleaned in 15+ years with the coffee can sitting next to it overflowing with cigarettes. We'll just say: colorful environment. That dude behind the counter seemed allright. The freakshows digging 45s in there did not seem allright.
To be honest, I spent most of my time in MN in a small town about 25 minutes outside TC (work) and I had a lot more fun hitting up the old antique stores out there. Copped some good records for REAL cheap, which has NEVER been my experience w/ antique stores.