Musicland

But when we would go into, you know, we had a lot of record retail back then.

And the biggest chain back then was Musicland.

It was a Sam Goody, On Cue, Media Play.

They were all the same umbrella.

They wanted you to come in and buy a refrigerator.

Exactly.

So Musicland said, all right, you know, so we traded.

We barter syndicated back then.

Like, when I was young, I remember someone telling me about a record.

I was starting to get into things like The Replacements and Husker Du, and someone said, "You know, you have to go to an independent record store for that stuff." And I went to Oarfolk, which was 26 and Lyndale in Minneapolis, and it was, like, a completely different stock than was available at the mall record store, Southdale Musicland.

And so, and, and I think, like, those other records weren't in the mall, and I f- feel like that when, after Kurt Cobain, after Nirvana came out, they were.

Right.

Like, there was a path into Best Buy and into Musicland or whatever, and, and it makes me feel ancient to s- say that, but it, but there was, like, a thing.

I don't think I can overstate the importance of artist interviews at that time, which really were the internet before the internet-

Mm-hmm

What about Sam Goody? You remember the record store? There was another one called Coconuts that I used to go to all the time.

Musicland.

It was Musicland,

Sam Goody, and Duluth.

Did you guys have an exclusive company up here at all, a record store? Exclusive? It's in Milwaukee, but they shut down one of their locations, and I wasn't sure if they had one up here.

And it's a perfect segue with the Sonic Youth reference, by the way.

So the company is called Mixtape Digital, right? I always talk about how the most fun I had at work ever, I thought a job I would never leave when I was like 19 was working at Musicland, Sam Goody in the mall.

Like I love music.

Music is like a

Chad, what was your way into Sugar and Copper Blue?

I was thinking about this and I honestly think it was we were driving to the Ridgedale Cheapo to buy CDs which is a really sad commentary on my kind of suburban upbringing that our record store choices were Cheapo, Musicland or Best Buy.

Best Buy changed it all.

I guess the benefit of Cheapo is you get to kind of filter through the racks and look through all other people's used stuff and One of my friends, and I honestly cannot remember who it was, picked out the Copper Blue album.

Um, and then just to kind of, you know, re revisit the past blockbuster closed its last store in 2014, uh, Best Buy stopped selling CDs in 2018.

Tower Records and the Musicland Group, which was like the Sam Goody, they had all those different concepts.

Those closed in 2006.

So there is literally a generation of of kids or people that don't have that experience.