The Electric Fetus Minneapolis storefront.

The Electric Fetus is a record store with locations in Minneapolis, Duluth and St. Cloud in Minnesota. It was started in June 1968 by partners Dan Foley and Ron Korsh. Minnesota Public Radio said of the Electric Fetus that it is "widely regarded as the pre-eminent indie record store in Minnesota."^[1]

The store was conceived of and created by Dan Foley and Ron Korsh. Several months after opening Korsh sold his half of the store to Keith Covart, who also obtained Foley's half about ten years later. It began in 1968 when Korsh rented a storefront in the Cedar Riverside area of the West Bank (of the Mississippi River), then the Haight-Ashbury of Minneapolis , and moved to its current location at the corner of 4th Avenue and Franklin in 1972. ^[2] A definitive actual history of the store was written by historians Penny Peterson and Charlene Roise in their account titled, "A History of the Electric Fetus" as prepared for the Greater Twin Cities Blues Music Society, in July 2006.

Owner Keith Covart estimates that the store has an inventory of approximately 50,000 titles. ^[3]

The Electric Fetus Onestop is the wholesale distribution portion of the Electric Fetus. It has "a huge emphasis on local music and aim[s] to provide an outlet for local musicians/bands to consign their CDs or records to be available for distribution through the One Stop. The One Stop's primary focus is local indie record stores and secondly national Independent Record Stores." The Electric Fetus Onestop is located in the basement of The Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, and is not accessible to the public.

The Minneapolis Electric Fetus suffered some minor damage from an F0 tornado on August 19, 2009.

[edit] Trivia

• National Lampoon, among others, singled out the Electric Fetus as the worst name for a business.^[4]
• Bazaar magazine called the Electric Fetus one of the "best places in America to shop."^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ Roberts, Chris (2004-07-03). "Whither the indie record store?". Minnesota Public Radio. http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/02/03_robertsc_indierecords/. Retrieved 2006-01-01. 
2. ^ ^a "Electric Fetus Serves Eclectic Customers For 30 Years". Sounding Board. July, 1998. http://www.narm.com/publications/sb98/0798/fetus.htm. Retrieved 2006-01-01. 
3. ^ Lambert, Brian (February, 2007). "House of Music". Mpls St Paul Magazine. http://www.mspmag.com/entertainment/music/50715.asp?ht=. Retrieved 2007-06-26. 

[edit] External links

• Electric Fetus Homepage
• Myspace: Electric Fetus Onestop
• Myspace: Electric Fetus, Saint Cloud
• Electric Fetus' page on StylusCity