Sunday, April 3, 2011

Record Stores and A Brewers Thought

RECORD STORES:

Hi everyone. Today, I drove around Minneapolis, hanging up flyers for my band's next show. Well actually, I only drove around that narrow portion of south Mpls with all the business at which one would hang up this sort of thing - you know, Nicollet from Roadrunner Records to Yeti Records, then Lyndale from Twin Town to Treehouse Records, then Extreme Noise on Lake St, and if time, the long jump over to Hymie's, way out east further down Lake.

Except... Roadrunner was closed! Roadrunner Records closes at 6pm. On a Saturday. That's way too early. I don't blame you if you haven't made it Roadrunner yet - I never made it there until I actually moved here, because it's in the 40's south, by which I mean "south of 40th St". That's almost another country as far as most Minneapolitans seem to be concerned, which is why I find awesome deals there on rare-ish stuff I want ALL THE TIME. But, you really owe it to yourself to take a trip there. Mike Cranberry, my good friend and drummer, is a fan of the Young Fresh Fellows. Roadrunner had a copy of their best album, "The Men Who Loved Music," and Mike - who actually lives on 40th St some blocks west - had never made it over to Roadrunner. I hope he picked up that album while he had a chance. Anyway, whether or not Roadrunner closing at 6pm on a Saturday is because they never have any business at that time of day, or whether Roadrunner would indeed have business at that time of day if only they were open is beside the point. Roadrunner was closed, and I was bummed.

Then, Yeti Records. Open. Awesome. I picked up Warren Zevon's "The Envoy" album for $3.50. TWIFTA*!

Then, Twin Town. Not strictly a record store. And closed. At 6:30pm! On a Saturday! Some musicians are just barely getting ready to leave the house at that time of day, and they can't pick up picks, strings, maybe a cable from Twin Town before the big Saturday Night battle of the bands at Stinky's Beat Shack?

Then, Treehouse Records. CLOSED. By now, I was beginning to sense a pattern. If you want to go record shopping in Minneapolis on a Saturday, you have to do so by 6pm. Am I crazy to think this is too early for record stores to be closing on a Saturday? Well, whatever, it's the reality.

Luckily for me, Extreme Noise is always open, 12pm to 8pm, 7 days a week. That's more like it. I picked up the new ADD/C LP (great cover art), and the GG King "Drug Zoo" 7", the Big Eyes "Why Can't I/Your Lies" 7", and that Marked Men 7" that just came out. So far, the standout is definitely GG King! I highly recommend it if you like relatively lo-fi, Killed By Death-influenced garage punk with pop smarts. It's Greg from the Carbonas's new project, fyi.

There was no time to go to Hymie's, but I'm sure they were closed, too. So instead, I got tacos, and that was fine by me.

*TWIFTA stands for That's What I'm Fucking Talking About, a phrase originally used synonymously by future members of Yesterday's Kids to refer to Miller High Life

A BREWERS THOUGHT:

On Opening Day, the Brewers led off with back-to-back home runs from Ricky Weeks and Carlos Gomez. Not only was this the first time the Brewers ever led off the season with a first at-bat home run (let alone back-to-back homers), it was the first time this feat was accomplished by any Major League team since the Cincinnati Reds hit opening day leadoff back-to-back in 1969 against the LA Dodgers, in Cincy. What a coincidence that it happened again in the same city, eh? Pete Rose was the leadoff batter, followed by the slightly less (in)famous Bobby Tolan. The home runs were hit off pitcher Don Drysdale, who is in the Hall Of Fame today. They would be the only runs the Reds scored that day, and the Dodgers ended up winning, 3-2. Did Pete Rose have a side bet going that he would homer in his first at-bat of the 1969 season? We may never know for sure.

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