Local music stores sport friendly rivalry

Minnesota is certainly no stranger to the music scene.

Being the birthplace of folk icon Bob Dylan and funk-rock pioneer Prince alone gives the state plenty of credibility.

So it should be to no one’s surprise that the Twin Cities contain plenty of record stores. And sitting along St. Paul’s University and Raymond Avenues, respectively, are the two record businesses Agharta and Barely Brothers.

Now it may seem unique enough for the two to have such a close proximity, but what’s more shocking is that they also opened within a week of each other in 2014. So what’s going on here? Is this some kind of planned scheme or rivalry?

Well, according to Agharta’s owner, Dylan Adams, the situation was “completely unplanned.” But despite the surprise, both Adams and Barely Brothers’ owner, Mike Elias, seem to enjoy the company.

“Oh, it’s fine.” Elias said when asked about the relationship between the two St. Paul businesses, “It’s good to have two stores like that within walking distance of each other.”

Adams continued the sentiment: “I think we’re both really lucky to be so close to each other in that, you know, people can shop at both places … I just have to figure if I’m doing well, he’s doing well, and vice versa,” he continued.

“When I was a kid, I had routes that I would take when I wanted to go out record shopping,” Elias said. “So I had a Minneapolis route where I hit four stores, and then I had my St. Paul route where I hit like, four stores, and so the closer they are together, the more convenient it is.”

Both shops started as a passion project for their owners.

“After about 30 years working in different record stores, I left, and I helped my neighbor start a brewery,” said Elias, founder of Barely Brothers. “I was out of the music biz for about five or seven years, and then I kind of missed being around music, so I told my wife, ‘I’ve worked for mom and pops my whole life. I don’t get paid that much working for them.’ I said, ‘I can duplicate that bad paycheck on my own,’ which I’m doing. I’m paying myself poorly, but I have a store…I’m not ready to retire yet … It’s gonna take a while for me to get out of here, probably another five years left.”

In Agharta’s case, Dylan had been working in the restaurant business for 15 years before eventually debuting the shop. “I was wanting to open a store for about four or five years before that, so it took a long time to kind of get everything together and get it going. And then some friends of mine helped a lot when I first opened. So it was kind of a group effort.” Adams said.

So what’s the difference between the two stores?

Barely Brothers

Barely Brothers hosts a traditional-style record store with various unsorted records piled on shelves surrounding a central unit of new and used vinyl. The store also contains a stage in the back for frequent performances by local artists. “We see a bunch of different bands, guys that really like to play out a lot. They just call up and say, ‘Hey, can we be on your stage?’” Elias said. “We have a really good jazz clientele … there’s some classic rock out there. There’s some punk … I kind of like stocking things that I’m more [familiar with], something that I can help people with,” Elias said.

Agharta

On the other hand, Agharta sports a sleek, black-painted interior plastered with never-ending pop culture posters. The store is fairly large and features a “Dig Room” in the back, consisting of various unsorted, one-dollar finds. Agharta stocks “Primarily records,” Adams said, “vinyl is what we kind of started out as, and that’s pretty much what we’ve stuck to, is selling used and new vinyl records.” As for genres, they have everything from soundtracks to R&B to heavy metal, and just about everything in between.

So as unplanned as both stores’ relationship may have been, perhaps it was the perfect coincidence that helped them grow into the spaces they are today, 12 years later.

How the stores got their names

Dylan Adams, owner of Agharta Records, explained: “[Agharta is] a Miles Davis record from the ‘70s. That was primarily the choice that I made. I kind of just wanted a name quickly. I didn’t want to think too much about it, and that came to mind. And there were no other stores with that name, so it kind of just seemed right. It was quick, it was easy, and that’s about it.”

Mike Elias, owner  of Barely Brothers Records, recalled: “I used to have a partner. He wanted it to sound like a family-owned store that’s been in business for a while … I said, ‘We can pretend to be brothers if you want to do that.’ … I was playing a Chuck Berry song when he was talking to me, he goes, ‘How about the Berry brothers?’ I said, ‘dude, we’re barely brothers.’ We weren’t brothers, so that just stuck from there.”