Electric Fetus and First Avenue both made Top 10 Lists from Rolling Stone.

With 2018 coming to a close, Rolling Stone has been reflecting on the past year with some "Best Of" lists, and two popular Minnesota institutions have earned spots of their own.

Minneapolis record store Electric Fetus made Rolling Stone's list of "10 Best Record Stores in America." Regarding the store's name, the article echoes some of my own early thoughts:

Whether you find the name Electric Fetus disgusting or trippy, you can’t help but wonder what goes on in a place called that.

They go on to credit the store's local fame over the past 50 years:

...it’s a record store that is so cool, it was one of Prince’s favorite local shops. Just a week before his death, he’d stopped in to buy a clutch of CDs in support of Record Store Day, according to MPR News.

 

One of the owners got a citation for displaying a caricature of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Two Virgins cover with Richard and Pat Nixon’s faces on them and an employee was once arrested for putting a “peace flag” in a window.

Another Prince hot spot -- First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis -- also made Rolling Stone's list of "10 Best Music Venues in America."

The club where Prince filmed much of Purple Rain has for decades been at the center of the Twin Cities vibrant music scene...

 

With its two stages (the smaller 7th Street Entry and the mid-sized Mainroom), First Ave is the premiere venue for national touring acts small and large.

To those who may think the Twin Cities are just a fly-over city, Rolling Stone has now given them reason to think again...but then we already knew that.

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