In 1968, a ragtag team of University of Minnesota dropouts decided to pool their savings and start a record store. Nestled in Minneapolis’s Haight-Ashbury equivalent, the West Bank, the Electric Fetus quickly established a reputation as a countercultural hub. It was the first music retail outlet to peddle psychedelic rock, held a “Streakers’ Sale” rewarding nude customers with a free vinyl LP (and pipe), and faced a citation for refusing to take down a Richard and Pat Nixon cartoon in the style of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s *Two Virgins*. Since those halcyon hippie days, Electric Fetus has opened another location in Duluth and adapted to seismic shifts in music consumption while still maintaining its quirky character. Initially known as a “rock shop,” it’s become the Twin Cities’ go-to for jazz, blues, R&B, local artists and new releases of all genres.
