South Dakota was a state I thought I might never get the opportunity to visit. Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true! So I embarked on a month long visit to Sioux City. A very short flight got me here with time to kill before I could check in, so I checked the map to see what vinyl could be found!
First up was Goodwill (depicted above). I walked in circles for a while, incredelous that they actually had no vinyl. Then I found it in an odd spot near the register. It was mostly Christian music, but one release in particular (seen in the front of the stack below) caught my eye. I checked these guys out on Youtube and was impressed! They have some serious chops and a positive message to go along with it.
Still was no where near the time that my hotel room would be ready so I continued on. I went across town to St. Vincent and again walked around the place about 20 times before I could find the vinyl hidden in the back corner. It was crammed in this odd wire rack that is NOT ergonomic for flipping through a stack. I stuck my head half way in there and bent my arms like Mr. Fantastic until I could get in there and came away with a seriously odd release.
Organ Stop Pizza is (it is still in operation!) in Arizona where while you eat your ‘za someone mashes the keys on a giant pipe organ! Apparently this was a fairly common thing on the west coast back in the day (according to the notes inside the gatefold). Even more unbelievable is that this restaurant released a variety of LPs from artists who played there (I count 8, plus CDs and cassettes that came out later). Just a periphery glance at ebay and discogs does in fact reveal some other releases from other pizza parlors with organs. Who knew this was such a thing??
I think I paid 57 cents with tax for the album and can’t wait to check it out. It makes a good mate to another odd organ album I’ve had for years. But finding something to buy is just a bonus because with either of these visits, I can tick another state off the list!
