July 8, 2007 - July 14, 2007

« July 1, 2007 - July 7, 2007 | Main | July 15, 2007 - July 21, 2007 »

Zinefest this weekend in Minneapolis

Yes, zines still exist in the online age, their spirit of defiance only sharpened by refusing to adapt to emailable media. Ergo the fourth annual DIY publishing festival, Zinefest 2007, which begins today at 7:00 p.m. at the Acadia Cafe (with live music by Beatrix Jar, Bla Bla Blacksheep, Brown Rainbow, Ghostband, Gerald Prokop, Hangun Man, and Row and Crow; admission $3; Franklin and Nicollet--the regular http://www.zinefest.org website appears to be down). The event then continues through Sunday with daytime exhibits and workshops at Stevens Square Center for the Arts (1905 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis), 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 13, 2007 3:44 PM | Comments (0)

 

Aussie legends bring their garage logic to the Triple Rock

Filed under: Concert Review

Radio Birdman / Triple Rock Social Club / July 12, 2007
Text by Cecile Cloutier | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Better than: A streetwalkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm. Or a Hawaii 5-0 Marathon.

Aussie cult legends Radio Birdman aren't so polished with the stage banter:

Guitarist Deniz Tek: Here's a song written by [vocalist] Rob Younger and [bassist] Jim Dickson"
(wild applause)
Younger (surprised by the applause): Uh, it's like it's for us or something...
Tek (woodenly to crowd): Stop, you'll just make it worse.
(Band launches into "You Just Make It Worse")

But what they do extremely well, probably better than any smart party band before and since, is to blend earnest intensity and genuine fun together seamlessly.

Drawing on the legacy of 60s garage bands, the MC5, the Stooges, the Doors, Blue Oyster Cult, and a healthy dollop of surf music, Birdman's music draws on the past, but old treasures like "Do the Pop" and "I-94" feel as fresh as the day they were recorded. Singer Rob Younger's voice has lost some of its rich dark lower range, but he's made up for that with laser-like focus. When he's not looking at the crowd with a wandering yet penetrating gaze, he's as lost in the music as we are, mixing Iggy-ish arm gestures with good ole-fashioned mic-stand wrestling.

The band embodies the same kind of deadly serious fun. Egged on by moonlighting You Am I drummer, Russell Hopkinson, the fifty-somethings tear into treasured favorites like "Burn My Eye" (leaving a friend breathless with its speed), "Smith and Wesson Blues" and new songs from last year's Zeno Beach, like the aforementioned "Worse" and "Subterfuge," with drive and precision. Keyboardist Pip Hoyle is absent due to family problems on the eve of the tour, but the band musters a few extra guitar fills and soldiers on admirably. The band ends the main part of the show with a roaring "Aloha Steve and Danno" with the crowd shouting the chorus: "Steve, I want to say thank you/For all you've done for me." And after a roaring five song encore, that's what I want say to Birdman, too.

Critic's Notebook

Personal Bias: As a teen visiting Australia in 1975-76, I saw Birdman posters in the train stations. But it was 1984 before I finally heard their classic LPs "Radios Appear" and "Living Eyes."

Random Detail: 15 members of St. Paul's Harding High Class of '80 were in attendance.

By the way: Back in the day, the band designed their logo to be easily duplicated by a kid with a stencil and a can of spray paint. Nowadays, you can have a shirt with that logo—drips and all!—for twenty bucks.

Text by Cecile Cloutier | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 13, 2007 9:44 AM | Comments (1)

 

Diablo Cody in the August issue of Playboy

Filed under: Media

That got your attention didn't it? Alas, the author/screenwriter/Pussy Rancher was interviewed about the fall release of Juno, directed by Jason Reitman from her screenplay, and is not the Playmate of the Month. "I wanted to be naked, but for some reason they weren't interested in that. Maybe they were worried about my penis," she tells City Pages. Diablo isn't even quoted in the piece, rather Reitman is given space to sing the praises of our Best Local Girl Made Good: "When you read a screenplay where every time the writer has to make a decision, the decision is unexpected, that's special." Diablo is developing another movie script for Warner Bros. and a half-hour sitcom for Showtime based on a concept from Steven Spielberg. The August issue of Playboy is on newsstands now.

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 12, 2007 6:37 PM | Comments (0)

 

No posts at Culture To Go while we move servers

Culture To Go will be moving to another server beginning Wednesday afternoon. We hope to begin updating within 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.

The Management

Photo from I Can Has Cheezburger?

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 11, 2007 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Jay Leno to shoot in Twin Cities tomorrow

Filed under: Television

Comedian Mo Rocca and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno crew will be filming a segment in Minneapolis-Saint Paul tomorrow, according to a press release: "Because the cities are the site of the 2008 Republican National Convention, Rocca will talk with local residents about what to see and do in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, how they are preparing for the election and their thoughts on the influx of politicians coming to their cities next September. He'll also interview Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak while commuting to work on his bike and Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman as he plays the bagpipes... [on Thursday, July 12], Rocca and crew are scheduled to film along Nicollet Mall, in the Warehouse District, around the Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis, at the State Capitol building, in Rice Park, and at Xcel Energy Center--the venue for the convention." (Whoops, missed the MNSpeak thread.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at July 11, 2007 2:53 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Fine Line could barely contain the Polyphonic Spree

Filed under: Concert Review

The Polyphonic Spree / Fine Line Music Café / July 10, 2007
Text by Sarah Askari | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth" is actually a pretty sour ditty, if you take a look at the lyrics—which you really got a chance to do at the Polyphonic Spree show. The stage was screened off by an enormous swath of crimson fabric, and the words to "Gimme Some Truth" were projected onto it as the song played in the background. "I've had enough of watching scenes/Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas," complained Lennon. Hey, the staff at the Fine Line probably feels the same way.

Read the rest of Sarah Askari's review, and check out Daniel Corrigan's photographs, in our gallery section!

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 11, 2007 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

 

Answer: He's the St. Louis Park teen who's going to be on Jeopardy! next week

Filed under: Television

Jeopardy! Productions Inc.

The Jeopardy! Summer Games Teen Tournament starts next Monday and runs through Friday July 27, featuring 15 kids from around the country competing for a $75,000 grand prize. One of the youngest in contention for that college nest egg will be 15-year-old Aiden Pink (shown above with host Alex Trebek) from St. Louis Park. We tried to get Pink on the phone and grill him about the capital of Burundi and from what animal's milk do we get mozzarella, but summer break has found Pink out of the country. We wish him well with that whole answering a question with another question thing—good practice for future relationships. Jeopardy! can be seen locally on KARE 11 at 4:30 pm weekdays.

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 11, 2007 10:14 AM | Comments (4)

 

The rain couldn't stop the first annual Black Dog Block Party

Filed under: Concert Review

Black Dog Block Party / Station 4 / July 8, 2007

Desdamona and Ill Chemistry / photo by James Dankert

Ain't this a bastard: finally, something big happens musically in Lowertown, and residents—along with assorted Twin Cities fans of free, great local music—are rewarded by getting a deluge of rain dumped on them. Shortly after Adamno Divine's opening set finished christening the first annual Black Dog Block Party—held outside downtown St. Paul's artist-friendly coffee shop, and booked to feature a who's who of local hip hop and indie-funk artists—word got out that the thunderstorm that was beating the crap out of Minneapolis was headed across the river, and the whole deal would have to be shut down.

Fortunately, there was a backup plan: as hostess Desdamona and beatbox/fast-rap virtuoso Carnage (aka Ill Chemistry) occupied Black Dog patrons with an impromptu rain delay performance (and called out a Minneapolis coffee shop—which shall not be named—for their anti-poetry policy, threatening to do a walk-through/drive-by reading just to spite them), equipment and musicians alike both hustled a few blocks up to Station 4, the closest (and possibly only) indoor venue that could reasonably host the proceedings.

The change in plans meant that Jelloslave had to be cut, though they have a make-up date planned at the Black Dog at some yet-undetermined point in the future. But most of the other announced groups made the trip okay, as did the crowd—which, between the punks, hippies, rastas, b-boys, b-girls, hipsters, demi-hipsters, Irish, Latin, and juggalos, skewed towards no particular trend except numerous.

But there's a serious difference between an outdoor block party and an indoor one, and with the venue divided cleanly between the 21+ bar and the all-ages music stage, the only thing that held universal under the same roof was the fact that there was not enough air conditioning. Thankfully, an auxiliary door was opened, which helped renew a bit of the lost block party vibe by letting the sound spill back out onto the street.

In the wake of Sarah White's recent departure for New York, Black Blondie's set could have felt a bit incomplete, but Samahra sounded just as strong flying solo as she did contributing harmonies, and even if the band didn't sound as immediate from the sidewalk, they still felt just about right. Ill Chemistry built on their Black Dog set with a series of between-set crowd-hype segments that could make a lot of locals' actual sets look dead-assed by comparison.

And then there was the one-two of Los Nativos and the Toki Wright-accompanied Brother Ali, concluding the weekend with more fist-waving anthems than most people could handle. Through the walls, it hit like a hammer, and if you were brave enough to wade into the humidity of the club it was damn near enough to knock you over. Ali's rousing renditions of Undisputed Truth tracks like "The Puzzle," "Truth Is," and "Listen Up" (the latter rapped over a hybridized beat that fused the Beastie Boys' "Root Down" to Run-DMC's "Peter Piper")—along with a couple earlier classics like "Dorian" and "Self Taught"—sounded tailor-made for tearing up stages, and it was a distinct moment of triumph when he fixed his eyes on the crowd from under his baby blue LL bucket Kangol and proclaimed: "not even the rain could stop us."

Posted by Nate Patrin at July 9, 2007 9:44 AM | Comments (4)

 

« July 1, 2007 - July 7, 2007 | Main | July 15, 2007 - July 21, 2007 »