Minneapolis Mania

Back in Minnesota! I booked a flight for under $200 and did about 90 minutes of work in Hastings.  Then I decided to stay in downtown Minneapolis and I found a really cheap room.  Had plenty of time to kill that afternoon and again the following morning before my flight left.  First up was Electric Fetus.

The outside looked inviting - couldn't wait to get in there.  Inside, I was disappointed.  I would say that records is probably about 50% of what they sell.  They have tons of clothes, hats, knick knacks....all kinds of junk.  And 90% of their vinyl inventory was new sealed reissues.  I dug through the used jazz and didn't find much.  Lots of hipsters and people who seemed more pleased to be there than to look for tunes.

Cool jacket, bro.

I was pretty bummed that I wasted a half an hour getting to and walking around inside Electric Fetus.  I decided I'd go out on a limb and chance it at one more stop.  Cheapo Records was a legit store - my kind of place!

Huge jazz section and lots of grimy old vinyl to dig through.  The really valuable stuff they kept behind the counter, and used a print out of the discogs page for the release on a chunk of cardboard as a place holder.  Never seen this system before but not a bad idea!

Well worth it - I'd be all over this if it wasn't too rich for my blood. 
But worth every penny, if you can afford it!

Came across a couple really funky promos.  One had a letter that seemed to threaten legal action if you did not use it as prescribed - the other was sort of pathetically begging you to play it.

Well I found a Laura Nyro album pretty quick and started toting it around as I was certain I would not leave without it.  I found a copy once before a long time ago (I don't know how I remember this stuff sometimes) and it was pretty shredded so I had to leave it behind.  Funny to think I've kind of been looking for the same record for 3 1/2 years.  Well I did end up leaving it behind because I found something far superior.  I have quite a few Walter Wanderley albums at this point, I'm always looking for more, but especially when they are on Verve.  Well this one meets that qualification AND it is a promo (maybe not officially, it does appear to be stamped, though it is stamped on the center labels which is rare) and it is also a very odd white label which I have never seen.  I have a nice collection of Verve stuff including some other promos but nothing like this.  Great, great album and I only paid four bucks for it!