Minneapolis

Amphetamine Reptile and the upper Midwest noise rock scene it built. Tom Hazelmyer's Minneapolis operation didn't just release records — it defined a sound. Loud, ugly, relentlessly low-end, half of it sounding like it was recorded inside a refrigerator. Cows, Halo of Flies, Hammerhead (technically from Fargo up the road but always part of the AmRep world), Today Is the Day, Helmet's earliest records. Parallel to all that, Babes in Toyland were doing their own thing on Twin/Tone and later Reprise — Kat Bjelland's scream as the other Minneapolis sound. Minneapolis winters are long. The records sound like it.