Minneapolis, MN, 4/20/13
Despite being fairly worn out from the previous evening—one which had me visiting three different venues, seeing six different bands, and imbibing at least twice as many beverages—I managed to pull myself together enough to get out and partake in one of my favorite days of the year: Record Store Day
By the time I arrived at Extreme Noise, the place was busting at the seams with people; spikes, studs, patches, and an abundance of black clothing in tow. You couldn’t swing a dead cat (or a white guy’s dreadlock) without hitting someone who plays in a local punk band. Extreme Noise is a volunteer-run co-op record store that deals primarily in the vast subgenres of punk and hardcore, with a stitch of metal thrown in—usually something in the realms of black, death, or thrash. That being said, there was a used copy of Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience in the CD bin. I don’t know what’s weirder; that Extreme Noise had it, or that some idiot got rid of theirs. Anyway, it’s not unusual to find records priced at say, $9.37 or $13.57 or a similarly odd yet cheap price. Although I’ve known several people that have volunteered there over the years, I’ve never asked the question, but if I had to guess I would say it’s based on some mathematical equation that’s devised to not charge the customer any more than the distro price plus whatever it takes to operate the place.
As they have for the past few years, they had a hot dog roller from which they were serving up piping-hot veggie dogs. For the second year in a row I narrowly escaped the double-dog, despite the playful nudging of the two guys handing them out. One of which, I recognized as the bass player from Kontrasekt. Instead I had a Roundy’s cola, which is something, I can say with 99% certainty that I will never do again. I love a good cheap cola, but it appears Roundy’s only falls into the latter half of that category. I’m not sure how many bands were supposed to play, but I ended up missing all of them, save an earful of Scaphe every so often whenever someone would open the door to the backroom where they were playing. Midway through my mission of browsing every single record in the store, I stopped to have a great basketball conversation with one of the volunteers. Punks who love basketball are some of my favorite people. After an hour or so, I left with a grip of new vinyl and zines under my arm. My only regrets are missing the bands, and not adding the discography LP of ‘80s Italian hardcore band Stinky Rats and the Rival Mob’s Mob Justice to the pile. Save something for next time I suppose.
My next stop was Fifth Element, the all hip-hop store owned and operated by local-gone-national-gone-global juggernaut, Rhymesayers Entertainment. Parked in front of the store for the day, the World Street Kitchen food truck was selling tasty treats like tofu burritos and shrimp tacos. I stupidly abstained from any of their delicious-looking items, citing caloric restrictions as my lame-ass reason. This is something anyone who takes one look at me would know is total bullshit, but it makes me feel better about myself to pretend. As with years past, inside the store was a zoo of kids, draped in designer tees, New Era caps and colorful sneakers. I considered snagging the Nametag & Nameless joint Namesake or re-upping a copy of the Micronauts’ classic ’00 album Obelisk Movements to CD but was deterred by incredibly long lines at the register. After milling about, I decided to bounce, but not before catching a DJ set by Noam The Drummer, who spun all selections from the store’s used bin.
My third and final stop of the day was Hymies Vintage Records. Hymies, a mom and pop store in the truest sense of the term, is one of the Twin Cities premiere destinations for vinyl novices and collectors alike. They have a ginormous selection of music, in wide variety genres, and the product turnover is pretty frequent. It’s the kind of place that will have you asking where the hand sanitizer is on the way out the door. Needless to say, they go all out for Record Store Day. They had two stages alternating live music all day—one inside in the back of the store, and another outside. On the side street next to the store they constructed a mini block party so to speak. In addition to the stage, there were various artists’ booths and a beer tent sponsored by nearby pub, Merlin’s Rest. It was the kind of happening where you can get posters, pottery and Pabst Blue Ribbon. (The three Ps?) There were several boxes of cheap 45s and 10 cent LPs, but I steered myself as far away as possible, therefore making it easy to resist the urge that would no doubt have me picking up a bunch ancient big band records and musty Christmas albums that would never get spun. I considered dropping a couple bucks on cassettes of Keel’s The Right to Rock and Dokken’s Breaking the Chains but truth is I probably already have those leftover remnants of adolescence rotting in a storage bin in the garage. Instead I opted to spend my remaining cash on tallboys in the beer tent, where I ran into and subsequently enjoyed ridiculous laughter-filled conversation with several friends. To hell with calorie counting!
Poster artist DWITT said it was the largest Hymie’s RSD event he’s ever seen. Even though it was pretty chilly, it was the nicest weather we’ve had in a long time, which probably contributed to the large crowd. The local music community was out in full force. Despite the numerous bands that played, I spotted Toki Wright flipping through records alongside members of Pink Mink, while dudes from the Doomtree stable chatted with local street artists. I caught sets by an unnamed singer songwriter, rap group Big Quarters, and indie soul act Southside Desire. In between acts, DJ Truckstash (who by day is the area’s most well-known PBR rep) spun records by The Animals and the Fat Boys, in addition to a bunch of rockin' country tunes from his eclectic mix of 45s.
Loot List:
Shaved Women – Self-Titled LP (Rotted Tooth, 2011)
Milk Music – Cruise Your Illusion LP (Fat Possum, 2013)
So Much Hate – How We Feel LP (Norwegian Leather, 2007 [reissue from ‘87])
No Power – No Peace LP (Sorry State, 2013)
Boston Strangler – Primitive (Fun With Smack, 2012)
Cokskar – Reptitive Stress 7” (Self-Released, 2013)
Raw Meat – Self-Titled 7” (Vinyl Rites, 2013)
Wild Child – Self-Titled 7” (Deranged, 2013)
Aseptic zine – Issue #2
More Noise zine – Issue #6
More Noize zine – Issue #9
Maximum RockNRoll zine – Issue #360, May 2013
