I discovered Inner Sleeve Records in 1987. Just a couple of blocks away from the Wausau Center Mall, I preferred it to that latter establishment's Camelot Records and its candy-colored and neon environment with terrible in-store sound choices.
Inner Sleeve was dark. It was almost all vinyl. The owner stood behind the counter and kept watch. He didn't have a lot to say, but when he did, it made sense. Despite the fact that Inner Sleeve carried everything, the store and its employees were dedicated to the off-the-beaten path musical choices. They were alternative before alternative was a buzzword. Their year end best of lists always contained bands like the Lime Spiders and Aztec Camera. You know, those 120 Minutes stalwarts. Bands whose waters I hadn't dipped my toes into at that point. The Butthole Surfers' Hairway to Steven and Die Kreuzen's Century Days posters adorned the walls I walked past as I contemplated Fear's The Record on more than one day.
I am quite sure I got some side eye for my purchase on the same payday of Iggy Pop's Pair records compilation of New Value, Soldier, & Party, along with Blackfoot's Strikes. I've always been eclectic.
What Inner Sleeve had was the selection. Holy Christ, looking back on it, I can't believe how much they had. Despite Sleeve's anti-establishment environs, all genres were available, including best sellers. Guns n Roses, Poison, and Tracy Chapman adorned the same walls as The Pixies and Jane's Addiction. It also had a pretty solid selection of used vinyl in the back right hand corner of the shop (Violent Femmes debut thanks, much) Back catalog titles were in abundance so you were very rarely disappointed, or had to walk out empty handed if you went in there with a title in mind.
The purchases I made there were in multitudes . Music from all over the sound palette. I still have my Replacements Tim that I bought there. The same goes for Kenosha metalheads Screamer and their still coveted and cult classic debut, Target: Earth. When Central Wisconsin hype machine Airkraft had their cover of Tommie James Midnight Confessions playing on midwest radio, I picked up the LP there. I still have the receipt from that one. I had to wait a few weeks for the out-of-print Let it Be from The Replacements, but I was able to get that one from Inner Sleeve. There were countless others.
I just hit the Sleeve last summer and acquired Bauhaus' compilation LP for Frani and the Deep Purple Burn CD I had been looking for, and damn, if he isn't hand- writing receipts the same damn way. The prices remain lower than the average bear, and set so that including tax they come out to a round number. It was that way in 1987, and remained in 2025.
I don't think the owner remembered me last summer. The shop's original location had apparently had a fire, and it has since moved closer to where the mall used to be, and is significantly smaller. Stocked to the gills still, but nowhere near the room to move. But the vibe is still there. I talked to him briefly and mentioned that I still had receipts. He wasn't shocked, and said that it happened all the time and folks drop by to show them to him.
On the way out, he got my attention and said, "Hey. Since we have history, take one of these!" and handed me a poster celebrating the store's 50th anniversary coming up soon. No surprise, the poster is a hell of a piece of art while still holding its reason for existence out to be admired. I may get a frame for it and find a place to hang it in the near future.
It ain't quite what it used to be, (neither am I) but the Sleeve is still rocking, and Wausau's maven of music is still there piloting the plane.
And to quote Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski, "I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that."
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