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!

Bemidji Burn Out

    

I visited Bemidji once before not long ago.  As I returned it was warmer out and again I had some free time.  This would be a recipe for a solid hunt if I didn't feel like I had already dug pretty thoroughly.  But that is always a lie! You have never dug sufficiently! Get back into the trenches you child!

I ended up finding an array of spots all along the same main drag.  I started in my old haunt, Books N More.  Again, it seems they generate the most of their income by duplicating CDs on the numerous units behind the counter.  As they whirred, I checked out their bins but wasn't impressed.  Didn't look like anything had turned in there since my last visit.  So I got ready to walk west on 3rd down to Economy Shop, a second hand store that looked like it might have vinyl.  But before I could get there I encountered another spot just across the street which hadn't shown up on the map (as it was not listed as a thrift store).  This is Secondhand Splendor!

As I stepped through the small foyer I was greeted with an odd sign.
Can't imagine being homeless in a place that gets quite this cold.

Inside, I found a crappy bin of 78s.  I figured all was lost, there was nothing more to see here.  Maybe they have some Pyrex at least.  And then....

Never before have I seen a record rack of this proportion outside of a record store.  They were actually even individually priced, and outrageously so! It only added to my fun as I sorted through each and everyone.  I found some real gems and others that were just, well...real.  I had to look these guys up, the cover is trying so hard to be edgy and failing, I wasn't surprised to see it was a Christian oriented group that fancied themselves as 'punk'.  I checked out some of their music on YouTube.  'Hard rock' would be almost a stretch but far more realistic than 'punk'.  If you can't see from here, that guitar neck has a bunch of knock off Swatch watches on it (in their own defense, this was 1989).

Just one quick example to illustrate just how ridiculous the prices there were.
You can find this in many Goodwill stores for a buck or maybe less.
Even sealed, I think you'd be hard pressed to get $10 for it.
And before you cry foul and say that is just a sticker from this records previous life in another store long ago,
this was NEVER selling for that much, and that is the same sticker I saw on all the releases.

But if you think those prices are gnarly, you still haven't checked out the 'premium section' at Secondhand Splendor! They had one small rack and then this weird screen thing that held some more vinyl.  No doubt these were some classic records and some are worth a few bucks.  I should have checked the prices more closely, but when I zoom in on the original hi-res shot of the screen, the only two I can make out are the Zepplin records in the lower left hand - both are $129 each!

I've seen my share of defaced records before but this one might be tops.  Even more wild is that it actually did contain a Buddy Holly 2xLP greatest hits.  And for all this, only $7.99!

My work done there, I finally trudged westward to my original destination before I was sidetracked.  And just within spittin' distance was the Economy Shop!

This place specialized in country music it would seem, or it just worked out that way. For a moment I was astounded that a thrift store could have so much Johnny Cash and I entertained thoughts of buying it all and immediately selling it for triple.  That was until I quickly figured out that it was a carefully strategized move to take some cash off some suckers.  They were all individually priced and while not quite as bad as their neighbor, let's just say it wasn't thrift store prices.  They probably bought these on ebay or from a record store with the sole idea of marking them up and reselling.

And just a few yards from there I found a tub with some more bogus old vinyl with questionable prices.  And a few yards from there, the door.  And a few hours from there, back home in Chicago with another trip under my belt.

Books N' More [Bemidji MN] (POST 300!)

                         

After striking out big time at the Goodwill in town, I gave up as I have already been all over MN.  But our last day in town, we were at breakfast at the 'Minnesota Nice Cafe' (horrible name, nice place, good food) and I checked my phone and saw Books N' More just a couple blocks away.  Book stores often carry a few records (at least), so I was trying to scan their website and the pics on Google Maps to see if I could spot some vinyl.  It didn't take long - the first pic on their maps profile showed a wall of DVDs and two three-tier bins beneath.  Only problem is that it was about 8 degrees but of course we toughed it out.

                                

The bins were unfortunately pretty well packed with junk.  But I checked each one before I gave up.  The clerk was behind the desk running an industrial grade CD duplicator and swapping the CD-Rs out constantly, it was pretty impressive.  It looked like it was dubbing two CDs every minute or so.  We browsed through the books and I glanced at the vintage video game stuff which was kind of cool. Still, the vibe in the store was warm and inviting, they had some arcade stand ups running and they were nice on the way in and the way out.  Nice place.

More importantly, this is now the 300th post on this blog which I am infinitely impressed with.  As cliched as it may sound, I can't believe I've come this far and I never really even had intentions to.  I just did what I thought made sense and covered where I went, it wasn't until I was well down the road that I started seeking out new spots just so I could blog (and of course, check out the vinyl).  This is my life's work in a lot of ways, as small as it may be and I often think about that when I get down, how proud I am of all of this.  So here's to 300 more!

found a handful of picture sleeve 7" but nothing doing

This was literally the coolest thing I found.  It is a Time Life record - I didn't even bother to look inside.

Goodwill [Bemidji MN]

Been through MN too many times to count, so I wasn't huge on seeing much during this visit.  But alas, there was a Goodwill just blocks from where I was and I had time to kill.

I could not find any platters, so I asked.  The clerk began to wander, searching...searching...it was not fruitless.  But almost.

A scant milkcrate of single digits, all junk.  Should have checked if Mr. Winter's debut was stereo, looks like it ironically (or not, for 1960) more rare than the monophonic version.

Minimizing Minneapolis' Mighty Millieu

I've been up to Minnesota a few times, but this trip was unique.  I flew in but did not have a rental car so I was reliant on my local colleagues to cart me around.  When that ended, I was on my own - which is fine with me.  This time I was in the heart of Minneapolis and as expected for a December in that region, it was cold, hovering around 0 Farenheit at mid day.  When I was done with my work, I had to carefully craft a few excuses explaining why I did not want a ride (or have one) and that I'd be fine to walk, even in this weather.  Of course they could never accept that I simply enjoyed being alone, wanted to spend the afternoon looking at grimy old records in a junked out thrift store, and that the ice cold didn't bother me at all (and I was well prepared for it).

So I headed south on Washington for the one mile jaunt to the Salvation Army on 4th.

I wandered around long enough that I started to become convinced that there were no records in this store...I couldn't even find any books.  But alas, it is always in the place you look last, just inside the door.  And oh how many they had - eight crates! I discarded my heavy coat and got in for the big dig.

I didn't find anything but as I searched I soon had a mate.  It is rare that I have to rub elbows with anyone on my digs and rarer still in a place like this.  Compounding the unlikeliness of it all, it was indeed a female about my age.  Nothing was spoken and I watched her out of the corner of my eye.  I always figure that people are looking at records as a novelty or some kind of mistake - they couldn't possibly share the same interest.  Unless of course they look exactly like me, which she didn't.

Well this is probably one of my best sneaky shots ever, it is so good I would swear she knew I was taking a photo and wanted to pose.  Can't beat the U of M hat, either.  Can you believe while I walked away empty handed, she strolled out with 2 or 3? I looked through all those bins - what on earth did she get? I didn't see anything that was even moderately interesting.  But hey - major kudos for spinning that junk into gold.

Later that that night in my hotel out in Mendota Heights near the airport, I went on a frozen stroll (it was -2 or -3 at this point).  I had the hotel shuttle drop me off in the area and when done I took an Uber the ~2.5 miles back.  In the meantime, I had a burrito at Chipotle, stopped at a liquor store for some brews and went out of my way to go back to Goodwill Eagan where I abandoned a very odd record long ago.  I stomped through a huge snow bank to take a very short short cut to the front door and got a boot full of powder as a result.

Fittingly, my vinyl was gone and it looked like the whole area had been cleaned up pretty well.  Learn from me kids- when you get that impulse, follow it and learn to discern between lust and intelligent love for a vinyl.  And when you feel that love, take it home kids, take it home.

WI Circuit

Had a grueling 3-day trip through Wisconsin and Minnesota and took advantage of whatever I could find on the way, which in this case ended up consisting of entirely Goodwill stores.

Day #1 my work was in Sussex WI.  I stayed the night in nearby Brookfield.  This allowed me to hit Goodwill stores in Brookfield and also neighboring Waukesha.

Waukesha presented nothing but a bunch of junk, save a terribly out of place proto-hardcore release from a seminal group.  Of course, record was missing from the jacket and nowhere to be found.  I'd have grabbed this for sure.

After that I sped back to Brookfield before dinner to hit up that store.  Here I found a near half empty bin, however it contained some interesting stuff.  The Engelbert double album you see here is truly bad: disc one is a live album that contains none of his own recordings and disc two consists of re-recordings of his Parrot years songs which are terribly overproduced and ruined entirely.  That being said, I have only seen this album in the wild one other time and of course I bought it (at a garage sale in Franklin Park, before I even started this blog).  As I now own it, a sighting is noteworthy but that is about it.  Worse yet, one of the albums is missing from the sleeve as well.  You'd think things couldn't be anymore pathetic, but there was a saving grace.

I found first the booklet (which is easily mistakable for a concert program) which comes with the 'Just For You' compilation.  Of course, my copy was missing the booklet.  So that was a score.  But after that I found a totally unreleated Engelbert concert program!  This was a huge score.  But I knew I could not bring these items up to the counter - they were not priced and certainly were not albums, they would not sell them to me.  So I jammed them inside the sad old copy of 'All Of Me' and paid $1 for everything.

back cover of the excellent concert program I scooped

Remember how a minute ago I said that it could not get anymore sad? Well it does: the remaining album has a unique brand of warping that I can only suspect it totally man made, and manually done.  A while back I well overpaid for my favorite Elvis album (ironically also a double LP) and it too has one of the discs with this kind of damage.

did someone use a pliers on this thing or what??

On day #2 I drove from Brookfield to Hastings MN.  I did some in Tomah for gas and visited a Goodwill there but they had no records.  I have hunted in the Hastings area before, just a couple months ago.  I really wanted to get back to the Goodwill in Eagan as I left something behind there and have huge regrets.  However, the last time I was out there I flew in to the Twin Cities, which made a stop in Eagan more convenient - this time as I am driving, it would be too far out of my way as it was super cold out and I didn't have a ton of time.  So I stayed in Hudson and worked in Hastings at the end of day #2 I drove to Chippewa Falls to stay my final night.

Like my first night, I was able to hit up two Goodwills in short order.  The first stop was in Eau Claire.  I didn't see much there besides a ridiculous compilation who's contents does not accurately reflect the decidedly not-tough cover.  And an ABBA single I found on top of the shelf.

The final stop of this trip and the last place I went before I hunkered down in my hotel with a few beers was in Lake Hallie.  And alas, the last stop was a good one.  I decided to start collecting Bob James albums a few months ago, after looking at them for years in record stores and bins.  I am all too familiar with his work (discogs.com says I have 16 releases with his credits on them but less than half of those are his own albums) - I've had his early stuff downloaded years before I even seriously collected records.  Of course those early releases are prized and can fetch a few dollars so they aren't usually found in thrift stores.  He 'counts' through the titles of his first eight albums and I've been able to scoop that one as well as five and six in thrift stores in the past few months.  I decided that those first octet of records would be my limit, save the two collaborations with Earl Klugh (which I also have already gotten quite easily).  

Anyway, the Bob James lesson is done; the punchline is that I found a near mint copy of 'One' for $1, even has the original CTI inner sleeve.  No reason at all this should be in a Goodwill anywhere, best of all it was right in front, didn't even have to search for it.  You can see it sitting below where I set it momentarily to snap a pic.  I was tempted to grab the album, lower right, for its lead track (my jam of the moment, admitted unabashedly) not to mention the duet on track B1.  But my soft rock collection is good enough for now.  A man must have limits.

Run Through MN

Started off at the Goodwill in Eagan MN.  I got into town a few hours before my colleague so I grabbed the rental car we were sharing and headed over.

I instantly hit it big with some polka platters and even some barbershop! As I have done more than once, when I start seeing a lot of polka, I always hope for some of the homegrown variety.  And my prayers were answered with not one but two, neither of which I have been able to add to the discogs database previously.  Neither show dates but based on catalog numbers they are both likely from 1974 and are in supreme condition.

I started noticing some barbershop and jumped with delight.  I have so many of the Decca 'Top Quartets' albums but I knew I had this one without checking - the Mark IV song is one of my all time favorites.  This is the final year before the SPEBSQSA took over the release of the albums.  I will admit to buying some on ebay but I actually found this one at a thrift store as well.

But I knew (like with the polka) that where there's smoke, there's fire! And I hit the jackpot about 30 seconds later...I have 2 of the 3 Sidewinders albums already and I could not believe I happened to find the only one I needed.  This is at least 10 years older than the polka albums I found...one seam was torn but I couldn't care less.

Unfortunately the rest of my trip was not quite as good as this beginning.  I stopped by the Goodwill in Hudson WI where we were staying - they were using magazine racks and they were JAMMED.  Some of them were so far in the corner I couldn't even reach in there.  I did my best and probably checked 50% - all junk - so I rolled out of there.

Almost not even worthy of mention was my 30 second stop inside the Salvation Army in Hastings MN where we were working.  One crate - all religious and/or junk.  Yuck.