Went on our annual summer sojourn to Minnesota/Lake Superior a few weeks ago only to have severe storms and rainfall wash out the road to our spot on the way up. Unable to complete the journey, we spent two weeks visiting friends, family, and a few new towns and record shops. Came home with a very decent haul to share...
Chapter 2 Books is a small used bookstore off the main drive through Winona, MN with a smallish used record/CD section. Nice prices and well organized but I did have to dig a bit to find a few gems in decent condition. Somebody appeared to have recently unloaded their entire Lou Rawls and Dan Fogelberg collection, of which I benefited.
Next up was
Cheapo Records. Their location in St. Paul off Snelling was a long time college hang out for me. It was nice to learn they are still at the same location and revisit. The store is LARGE and the layout has changed, specifically only about half the store is now used records, with the rest dedicated to new/used CDs and new LPs. Used CDs in the early 90's only occupied the small "upper" portion of the store, IIRC, and the rest was all used vinyl. Regardless, it was unmistakably the Cheapo Records I knew. Well organized as always with some nice surpise used finds. Records are still graded "Fine", "Good", "Fair" and priced accordingly (generably reasonably), with Fine basically appearing mint. Good and Fair seem variable, but everything appeared playable. In the rear I found some old Smothers Brothers (respect the classics, man!) and a Wes Harison LP (might be autographed? Not sure if it's real or not) at the 90's "Fine" price of $3.60 which makes me wonder if these have been sitting there a while.
Agharta Records was not too far away and recommended by a freind. Words escape me. This store very clearly is aimed for collectors generally with collector pricing but an incredible new selection. If you want it, these guys probably have it. Fear not bargain hunters, for in the back of the store I found a nice $5 and $1 selection. Time was running short so I was only able to browse through about 1/4 of the $5 section, but found a few things none the less.
Last, but not least,
Rochester Records (in Rochester, MN) was another nice 'new to me' spot. Honestly I was not favorably impressed with their used prices but they were very well organized and had a broad new/used selection with some hard to find items. In that regard it seems more like their target audience is the Agharta rather than the Cheapo crowd. We did splurge a bit here...
An interesting side note about the 2001 sound track - per the cover this was available in "Cinerama", an experimental format that used a 180 degree wrapped screen and three syncronized projectors (each projecting to a portion of the screen) to show the movie. I beleive only three Cinerama theaters were ever built, one of them "The Cooper" was located near Minneapolis (about 1-2 hours north of Rochester). Long ago demolished, it was an amazing experience even for films that were not "Cinerama".
