Charley Hallman, the co-founder of Minneapolis record label Twin/Tone Records and an important figure in the area, passed away on June 11 at the Golden Living Center in Hopkins, Minn. after a battle with cancer.

Twin/Tone Records was active from 1977 until 1994, and it helped the Twin Cities music scene receive national attention. The label helped launch the fruitful careers of Minneapolis groups like the Replacements and Soul Asylum, as well as Pennsylvania natives Ween. The label released over 300 records by more than 100 bands.

Despite his success in music, Hallman was actually best known as a sportswriter — he co-founded Twin/Tone on the side while working full time as a reporter. An obituary in the Pioneer Press, a publication for which Hallman wrote, begins:

In an era when reporters smoked at their desks and banged out copy by typewriter and teletype, Charley "Buck" Hallman lived life at the intersection of music and sports. He kept a Rolodex that ranged from Indianapolis 500 drivers to Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks and the legends of the Twin Cities' indie rock scene at its peak.

Funeral services for Hallman will take place in late June or early July, according to his family. We extend our sympathies to Hallman's family and to everybody who cared about this fallen renaissance man.

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