Around 1997, when Phil Schwarz first stepped into Extreme Noise Records, the punk-rock teenager from the northern Twin Cities suburbs knew he'd arrived. When he finally found the correct location, that is.
"I had looked it up in the phone book, because I had heard about Extreme Noise from some people at school—but there was no record store there!" he remembers with a chuckle. "They had just moved up the street to Nicollet."
It became immediately clear to Schwarz, who grew up reading Thrasher Magazine and listening to hardcore, that Extreme Noise was a special place. "It was kind of my utopia, I guess. It was exactly what I was looking for," he says. He "vividly" remembers his first purchase: Dischord 1981: Year In Seven Inches, the '81 Dischord Records comp featuring Teen Idles, State of Alert, Government Issue, Minor Threat, and Youth Brigade.
Launched in 1994 by a "group of local punks were fed up with the lack of a punk record store in the Twin Cities," according to the shop's history page, Extreme Noise started out on Lake Street, moved to Nicollet Avenue following landlord disagreements in '97 ("This will emerge as a major theme in this narrative") and, in 1999, settled into its current HQ at 407 W. Lake St. The de facto mission statement, which appears via lowercase text on Extreme Noise's signage, has remained consistent: punk rock. On Friday at Cedar Cultural Center, the volunteer-owned/run Minneapolis record shop will host the first of four concerts celebrating three decades of all things loud, crusty, fast, and, crucially, DIY.
Stressing the collective nature of the enterprise, Schwarz clarified to Racket this week that he's simply an Extreme Noise volunteer of nearly 20 years, not an official spokesman or representative. (You can read a recent roundtable discussion with other members here.) But he's happy to report that the 30-year-old business is on stable financial footing. "As long as we have a dedicated volunteer base, we'll be able to keep moving forward," he says, adding that the the resurgence of physical media like vinyl and cassette tapes has Extreme Noise in "a pretty good spot."
"We've been able to grow our stock, and I think we have some of the best selections of in the entire country if not the world," Schwarz says. "We source this stuff from relationships with labels and distributors we've known for over 30 years."
Some trappings of traditional biz structure exist: Bylaws have been established, regular meetings are held between the current 30ish volunteers, and there's a rotating five-person board made up of volunteers serving two-year terms. However, nobody gets paid, all profits are reinvested into the store, and decisions are made collectively.
That ethos has kept Extreme Noise enmeshed in the music scene it serves. With the demise of underground punk magazines like Maximum Rocknroll, the shop can feel like the beating heart of punk culture in the Twin Cities, a rare tactile place to feel a sense of community between house shows. (Lifter Puller and Dillinger Four are among the many celebrated locals who've played past in-store performances.)
"The internet changed everything, for better or worse; it has been a double-edged sword for the store," Schwarz says. "With the pandemic, a whole slew of new kids came into the scene—there's a lot of new and diverse bands, and it's really exciting again."
With the upcoming 30th anniversary showcases, the sense of celebration is intended to be as much for the scene as it for Extreme Noise itself.
"A lot of the openers are store-orientated, generally the bands of volunteers and ex-volunteers," Schwarz says. "With these shows, the emphasis is on all ages and bringing all the different generations of the punk scene together as much as possible."
Extreme Noise 30th Anniversary Shows
When: July 26 with Maul, Ossuary, Sunless, Kaldeket, and Visceral Reaction; August 31 with Iron Lung, Physique, Destruct, Dead Form, Surrogates, and Shatter; September 28 with the Spits, the Urinals, Bermuda Squares, Kapital, and Texture Freq; and October 11 with Gorilla Biscuits, Big Laugh, Empire Down, Identity Crisis, and Gnaw
Where: Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis
Tickets: $30-$35; more info here
