Music of Minnesota - Recording Studios and Record Stores

Recording Studios and Record Stores

Minneapolis has been home to several important recording studios. The first studio in the state was Kay Bank, established by Amos Heilicher (who with his brother Daniel did "rack jobbing", jukebox distribution, and owned the Musicland chain), Vern Bank, and studio engineer Bruce Swedien in 1955. The studio recorded hits from The Trashmen ("Surfin' Bird"), Dave Dudley ("Six Days on the Road"), The Underbeats, The Chancellors, The High Spirits, and The Castaways ("Liar, Liar" in 1965). Kay Bank helped popularize Soma Records and a distinctive style based on using three-track recording and echo effects.

Herb Pilhofer and Tom Jung worked at Kay Bank before founding the world's first digital recording studio, Sound 80 in 1969. Sound 80 recorded numerous artists over the years, ranging from Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks to works from Dave Brubeck. The studio now is the headquarters of Orfield Laboratories, whose anechoic chamber, is labeled the world's "quietest room" by the Guinness Book of World Records as of 2012. Orfield lab also achieved the designation for their friends at sound 80 as "the world's first digital recording studio" in the 2006 Guinness World Records. The two main studios are still fully intact, and they are filed for historic designation by the State and the Federal Government.

Other important studios in Minneapolis include the Dove studio, which released several cult classic psychedelic and garage rock recordings in the 1960s, Blackberry Way, founded by Paul Stark, who would later co-found the Twin/Tone record label. ESP Woody McBride's record label "Communique" and its subsidiaries "Sounds" and "Head in the Clouds" had released 100 records by 1998.

Prince's Paisley Park Studios was used both by Prince and for outside music production by artists such as Madonna, Boy George, the Fine Young Cannibals and Paula Abdul. The facility was also used for commercial production purposes like TV spots and movies, including 1993's Grumpy Old Men. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis founded Flyte Tyme on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in 1985 and then moved to a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2) complex in Edina, Minnesota before relocating to Santa Monica, California in 2004.

The Twin Cities are home to a few independent record stores, including Oar Folkjokeopus (previously known as "North Country Music", now Treehouse Records), the Electric Fetus (also in Duluth and Saint Cloud), Fifth Element, and Cheapo. Let It Be Records, although its storefront has closed, still sells vinyl in occasional public sales and by mail order. The now-defunct Northern Lights Music (and before it, Harpo's/Hot Licks) also carried many local and alternative artists during the 80s and 90s on Hennepin above 6th Street on Block E. Northern Lights then moved to the former location of Music City, another retail music store.