April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008

The Professional Loser

Filed under: 3 Questions

You could say that Shawn Faust is a professional loser. As a player and coach of the Washington Generals, the Harlem Globetrotters' opponents, he hasn't known the thrill of victory a single time in his five years on the squad.

You could say that Shawn Faust is a professional loser. As a player and coach of the Washington Generals, the Harlem Globetrotters' opponents, he hasn't known the thrill of victory a single time in his five years on the squad. In fact, the last time the Generals upset the Globetrotters was in 1971, before Faust was even born. He and the rest of the team will try three times at their stop at the Target Center to disrupt the Globetrotters' record of more than 22,500 wins (and 345 losses) in over 80 years.

City Pages:How many games to do the Generals play against the Globetrotters each year?
Shawn Faust:Usually we do a four-month U.S. tour and it's around 120 games. Then we go overseas and do another 50 or 60 in Europe, then we go to South America. We go all over the world, so it's well over 200 games a year, easy.

CP:How did you end up playing for the Generals?
SF:I got invited to a pro-combine in Orlando, FL when I got out of college, so I went down for the weekend and played. There were a bunch of different players and scouts and agents everywhere looking at players. So then it's just a matter of playing well, doing the right thing on the right day at the right time in front of the right person. I've been here for five years.

CP:How does playing against the Globetrotters compare to playing college basketball or other pro basketball?
SF:Well, it's a professional setting, so it's going to be way different from college. It's a professional game so it's faster, it's stronger. I like it a lot more than the college setting.

CP:As a player/coach, how do you prepare to play the same team day in and day out? Do you review game tape and study your opponent like other pro basketball teams?
SF:I'm kind of the leader and mentor of the other guys out here. The thing of it is, you have to reassure them that yeah, it's tough to win. We go out, we play hard, we really go after it. But they have to understand that once you do get that one win, everything will shut down, it will be ridiculous to be part of something like beating the Globetrotters. So that always keeps the flame going. We talk, we work on our own games, and practice if we get time to do it. A lot of the time we just get to the city and show up and play. It's a fun gig though; I will say that.

CP:The Globetrotters' claim that the games are real and competitive, but they've only lost 345 games in 81 years. Can you understand why fans are skeptical when they're told that the games are competitive?
SF:I mean, you know, the last time we won in 1971. The Globetrotters have their entertainment stuff and they do their tricks and that's what they do. But they are good basketball players too. We do go at it. We do play, we're out to make shots and try to beat them. I've been around five years and never missed a shot on purpose or anything like that. So we do play, they just have good, talented players. We just have to bring it. Hopefully one of these times we'll just bring it and maybe get that win.

CP:Does losing ever get old?
SF:I'm a competitive guy, and nobody likes to lose. I think that all the losses that I've taken over my five years, and the losses the newer guys are getting right now will definitely go away if we do get that one win. Hopefully it's coming soon. Really though, it's all about the experience. We get to travel everywhere. We're going all over the United States, all over the world. I've been to all 50 states and I've been to over 60 countries. So, I mean, that's another priceless experience that comes with it. So I think that all that good outweighs all the losses.

CP:Are you hopeful that your current lineup will ever beat the Globetrotters?
SF:Yeah, I mean last night's game we only lost by six. We've lost by three before on this tour. We've lost by one before, two or three years before. So, it is doable. It really is.

CP:But you'd figure even a good team like the Globetrotters would lose more often than 345 times in 81 years. Why is it so hard for the Generals to beat them?
SF:That's a good question. In all my years, we've come close; we gone after it, but we just keep coming up short for some reason. You know, I'm a basketball guy too, and it's as real as it gets. We just go out and play hard every night. Tonight might be that night. You never know.

CP:Are the Generals' players well compensated for playing and losing?
SF:Yeah, it's decent. But it's more about the experience of going all over the world playing against probably the most known team in the world. So, it's more about being part of something really cool and really special and trying to be part of something even more special: beating them.

Tonight might be the night! But probably not. See Shawn and his scrappy band of ballers go down in flames today at 1 and 7 p.m. at Target Center.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 11, 2008 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Blitzen's Bag of Tricks: Desiree Weber reviews Blitzen Trapper

Filed under: Concert Review

Blitzen Trapper
7th St. Entry, April 9
Review by Desiree Weber
Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Blitzen Trapper, with their mix of classic guitar riffs, tambourines and more space-aged gadgets, whipped the sizable crowd at the 7th Street Entry into a jam-band induced frenzy. “Everything but the kitchen sink” seems to be a mentality that this Portland band takes to heart, especially on its latest album Wild Mountain Nation.

Run, Donner! Blitzen Trapper rock the Entry. More photos by Daniel Corrigan.

A description of the sheer number of pedals or the actual bag of maracas, cowbells and other assorted noisemakers doesn’t, however, do justice to the layered, light-hearted vocal styling of front man Eric Earley or the intricate interaction between old-school sound, off-kilter beats and fits of dissonance. Blitzen Trapper embodies as much the “digital brat” they sing about in stand-out Sci-Fi Kid as their more harmonic (and harmonica infused) country forbearers. And somehow it works.

Opening-number Miss Spiritual Tramp was reminiscent of Beck, circa Odelay, with fuzzy guitar loops and despondent vocals. But somehow the transition into Country Caravan, which sounds like what its name implies (think Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), is seamless. As was the album-opener Devil’s A-Go-Go, which came next in the set list and had the crowd bopping along to the likes of an off-kilter Beatles song. It seems that the six members of Blitzen Trapper have mastered the formula of not having a formula; rocking out within tightly scripted sonic bounds while not letting on that there are boundaries at all. (One could even say that they live up to their name, with a sound as whimsical as actually trapping lightning.) On Jericho, a featured song from their previous album, the sextet exemplified the range of influences and techniques – but the title track to their latest album was clearly an audience favorite.

The rollicking energy that spurred the audience from one song to the next was refreshing – but made me wonder whether that was the element I found missing from the recorded version. A song like Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant’s Hem, which on the album could be mistaken for a group of adolescent boys jamming in their garage, takes on a much more vibrant and energized persona when performed live. The toe-tapping pulse throughout the set was brought to a fitting close with Blitzen Trapper letting it all hang out – with help from members of Fleet Foxes and even some audience members.

While the overall sonic landscape may be hard to nail down, you certainly have to credit Blitzen Trapper with achieving a fluid sound while challenging your ears.
-- Desiree Weber

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 10, 2008 1:10 PM | Comments (1)

Living the dream: Marc Bamuthi Joseph's world premiere at the Walker

Filed under: Art/Museums

In 1999, it all came together for Marc Bamuthi Joseph. It sounds cliché to say his art started with a dream, but it's nevertheless true.

In this case, the dream is literal rather than figurative. That night the sleeping Joseph – a national poetry slam champion – found his dream-self trying to relate something to his father. “He wouldn't listen to me unless I was dancing,” Joseph remembers.

So he woke up and wrote a piece – and started moving along with it. The piece was called “For Pop.” Ever since, the artist has been experimenting with interdisciplinary work, art that combines theater, dance, spoken word, poetry, music and film.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph in a photo by Umi Vaughan. See more photos by Vaughan and by Ward Rubrecht in the slideshow.

Tonight, his residency at the Walker Art Center culminates with a world premiere of Joseph's latest work, the break/s. A fusion of hip-hop poetry with other artistic elements, the break/s finds Joseph combining his gifts with turntablist DJ Excess and beatboxer Tommy Shepherd a.k.a. Soulati.

Inspired by the globalization of hip-hop culture and Jeff Chang's American Book Award winner Can't Stop Won't Stop, the break/s aims to mix various elements into a unified whole. The performance is intentional about both form and content, bringing hip-hop to the stage in an innovative way. Joseph calls it “a mixtape for the stage.”

The work is as high-concept as it is engaging. Joseph hopes to take the audience on a journey across geography, across time, and through waking space and dreamspace – a metaphorical journey similar to the one he took himself almost 10 years ago. And like hip-hop, which blends disparate elements into distinct new works, Joseph hopes to catch the audience up in the journey.

“This is not Guys and Dolls; it's not meant for people to just sit down and be entertained,” Joseph says. “There is, hopefully, high entertainment value – but it's art meant to engage.”

Marc Bamuthi Joseph's show the break/s premieres tonight, Thursday April 10, at 8 p.m. in the William and Nadine McGuire Theater at the Walker. The work also plays April 11 and 12 at 8 p.m.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 10, 2008 8:28 AM | Comments (0)

Eels: Parallel worlds at the Pantages

Filed under: Concert Review

The air was thick with hip Monday night as trendy indie chicks 'n dudes filed into their velvet-upholstered assigned seats at the Pantages. With its decorative facades and blue curtainry, it was an odd place to see a rock 'n roll show--the atmosphere was quirky and chill, but at the same time, one half-expected a group of Shakespeareans to mob the stage for some impromptu Lear.

And indeed, the first course at the Eels buffet was more theatrical than musical: a screening of Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, a documentary following Eels' frontman Mark Oliver Everett (known to most as E), in his efforts to reconnect with the work and life of his late father, Hugh Everett III--the physicist responsible for parallel universe theory. For centering on the collision of a living rock star and a dead quantum physicist, the film was surprisingly conventional. But E's frank manner combined with many genuinely touching moments during interviews with his fathers' friends and former colleagues made for a sincere and enjoyable work.

The theatrics didn't end once E appeared in the flesh. Alone at the piano under the glare of a spotlight, he held a brief pre-show pep talk with a God-like voice from the speakers, then launched into an album-perfect, rasp-voiced rendition of "It's a Motherfucker." The band entered from stage left with a flourish, composed (on this tour at least) entirely of guitar/harmonium/musical saw prodigy The Chet (also known as Jeffrey Lyster). As the Eels combined, E shouted "Are you ready to SOFT ROCK, Minneapolis?!"

One of the great strengths of E's songcraft is that Eels songs are each distinct from the next, covering an insane range of emotions and subjects from depression and suicide to wide-eyed puppy love--but they all sound very much like Eels' songs. Live, Eels preserve this signature sound almost to a fault. Where many bands make conscious changes to their songs in concert, E chooses to replicate his studio performance as accurately as possible.

The display of precision was most impressive when each of the musical pair was required to change instruments two or three times during a song. An epically extended version of "Flyswatter" initially featured E on piano and The Chet on drums...and then The Chet on piano and E on drums...and then back again, all without breaking the jam. And though only two instruments were ever being played at once throughout the show, the music never came close to sounding thin.

Every Eels song feels like a window into E's inner thoughts; if the man has but one gift, it is conveying utter sincerity. But one moment in particular laid open bare emotion like a vein. During a break, The Chet read from E's autobiography, Things Grandchildren Should Know; the passage dealt with his sister Elizabeth's suicide. After E returned home after her funeral, his neighbor, unaware of why he had been gone, claimed to have seen the ghost of a young woman entering E's house while he was away. A shivering hush fell over the crowd as The Chet finished the passage and E started to sing "Last Stop This Town": "You're dead but the world keeps spinning/Take a spin through the world you left/It's getting dark a little too early/Are you missing the dearly bereft?"

Posted by Ward Rubrecht at April 9, 2008 3:30 AM | Comments (1)

Web Extras: Twin Cities Battle League

Filed under: Local Music

Hip-hop is about creativity and freedom. When speaking with the organizers of the Twin Cities Battle League, these values came across loud and clear.

To get the best idea of what the event's all about -- after reading this week's music feature about it, of course -- you'd have to stop by the Blue Nile on the last Friday of the month. Until that day, though check out some MP3s from the rhymes of Illab, the champion from event two. Here's a short clip of one of the night's best disses, and this more complete rhyme where Illab takes on opponent Mike Starks' skinny frame and Lake Street roots.

Illab (left) battles Spy in the final. Visit the photo slideshow, where you can see most of the rappers referenced in the story.

You can also see videos at the Twin Cities Battle League MySpace page.

Battling is an impromptu art, and many who excel their flows are scripted have trouble in this format. "There are some MCs that are good on the mic, but they can't freestyle, they just write," Truthmaze told me. "Some popular MCs would get murdered in a battle."

So I asked him to name a few legendary Twin Cities battle rappers. Here's what he came up with.

Kel C, a.k.a. Kelly Crockett: "He was one of the main MCs that influenced a lot of local artists," says Truthmaze. Kel C is featured in Peter Scholtes' oral history of Twin Cities hip-hop, 1981-1996.

Derrick "Kid Delite" Stevens: Along with Smokey D, Kid Delite made up the Boys in Black. Stevens now works at Beat 96, but you might know him best as MC Skat Kat.

I Self Devine: Truthmaze's comrade in The Micranots, I Self Devine also is interviewed in Scholtes' hip-hop history.

Truthmaze also cited MC Sugar Free and MC Kool Aid (who I couldn't find more information about, and whose names are oddly concordant) as two of the leading voices during a previous era.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 8, 2008 7:50 PM | Comments (1)

Another acolade for that one guy from Hibbing

Filed under: Music

Throw your hands in the air Hibbing, your Bobby Zimmerman won the Pulitzer. Network news, cue the video montage! We've got our own montage here--it's better than the others, we assure you. And it's a little strange at times, we confess.

Here's Bob in the Nashville Skyline era with (a too-cool-for-school) Johnny Cash doing One Too Many Mornings:

Doing Hava Nagila with Peter Himmelman and Harry Dean Stanton for a Chabad Lubavitch telethon in the '80s:

Here's Bob doing Jokerman on Letterman with L.A. punks The Plugz backing him:

Singing and speaking to the Pope in 1997 (fast forward to about the six minute mark to see Bob ascend the stairs to a waiting Pope, remove his cowboy hat, and have a few words):

Starring in a Cadillac Escalade commercial, for some reason. Listening to my favorite Smog song, for some reason:

Co-starring in a Victoria's Secret commercial:

On the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976, from an NBC TV special. Doing a kind of insane Maggie's Farm. And yeah, that's Mick Ronson on guitar:

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 8, 2008 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

At home with White Light Riot

Filed under: Local Music

I don't have a problem with the homemade music video. I'll go one step further: I salute the homemade music video. Our own White Light Riot has taken the genre back to its roots: the video made in your parents' home. At least I think it's a parents' home. The copper kettles and the indoor wind chimes are pretty compelling evidence.

One thing about the homemade music video though (and I'm talking about the genre as a whole here): it never fails to suck a song of its blood--in this case displacing the blood with a flood of public-access-grade schlock. But just as I salute the homemade music video, so must I salute that great sub-genre of the homemade: public access.

So while I stand here and salute, go ahead and watch the video:

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 8, 2008 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

Zombie sounds: Nellie McKay at the Dakota

Filed under: Concert Review

Nellie McKay
Dakota Jazz Club
Sunday, April 6
Review by Jeff Shaw
"Toto Dies" live MP3

It not every headlining jazz club artist that does impersonations of what famous people would sound like as zombies. Equally unlikely, it would seem, is for said artist to scream "Die Motherfucker!" at the top of her lungs during one song's breakdown -- regardless of whether that was written into the song or not.

Welcome to the unlikely world of Nellie McKay, whose prodigious musical talents are expressed in elegant, intelligent piano numbers as well as onomatopoeic zombie grunts.

Zombie has a hair in her mouth!

When singer and pianist McKay is described, she is often compared to two disparate artists. Doris Day and Eminem. Robin Williams and Bette Midler. Ethel Merman and Ani DiFranco. The fact that none of these comparisons is satisfying says much for McKay's work, which is part Broadway and part Compton in its aesthetic.

When we spoke with her last year, she had come through performing Christmas songs with Aimee Mann. This time, she offered the audience a surprise -- three songs from the score to "Election: The Musical." The Reese Witherspoon-Matthew Broderick movie is being developed as a theater piece, and McKay has been charged with writing the music. There could be no more fitting choice to transport the incisive, barbed wit of the film to the stage.

Really, there is no such thing as a Nellie McKay "standard," but the singer ran through multiple favorites from past albums ("David and "Toto Dies" from 2004's "Get Away From Me," gay marriage anthem "Cupcake" from "Pretty Little Head"). These included a raw, inspired version of "Sari," McKay's apologia which contains the aforementioned "Die Motherfucker" line. ("It's perfectly rude and awful," I overheard one woman of a certain age remark to her husband after the song, "but I like it.")

Without a full band, she improvised percussion (often charmingly, as in her piano-top drumming during "The Dog Song"). Sadly, this lack of a full band meant no "Identity Theft," the trumpet-accompanied single from her most recent release, "Obligatory Villagers." Even sadder, she was not accompanied by Schoolhouse Rock voice Bob Dorough, who sings on the album.

But there was record opener "Mother of Pearl," which McKay performed on ukelele. The song demonstrates her enviable skills as a satirist. It is known for its opening line and refrain, "Feminists don't have a sense of humor."

Songcraft gave way to improvisation later in the evening, during the swampy strains of "Zombie." In the waning bars of the Dr. John-meets-Screamin' Jay Hawkins track (there go those comparisons again), McKay began riffing on what famous people might sound like as zombies. If you think Dinah Shore is still as famous as John McCain, that is.

McKay's world does tend to transcend linear time. As the self-described honorary baby boomer flubbed a few lines, a sin for which she was readily forgiven, she explained: "If I seem disorganized, it's not unprofessionalism: it's just forgetfulness."

Good thing her show is unforgettable -- whoever you want to compare her to.

Nellie McKay performs two more nights at the Dakota, Monday, April 7, and Tuesday, April 8 at 7 p.m.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 7, 2008 5:32 AM | Comments (1)

Revenge of the robots: Andy Mannix reviews Why? and Heiruspecs

Filed under: Concert Review

Why?
7th St. Entry
Sunday, April 6
Review by Andy Mannix

Losing faith in your local hip-hop scene? Unsure of the difference between hip-hop and rap? Go to the next Heiruspecs show. I have no idea where it is, because their Web site doesn't say, but I'll see you there.

I had never seen them before they opened for Why? Sunday night, but I am sold. They are hip-hop robots engineered by a civilization much more advanced than our own.

There is nothing easy about becoming a fan of the Oakland based group Why?

Simply asking someone about them can be enough to land you in a strange semantical loop of conversation that will immediately seem more work than it's worth to get out of. My computer thinks every word following the band name should be capitalized, and requires me to delete and rewrite it three times before it will believe that capitalization is not necessary.

Going to buy their album can be even more frustrating. Depending on what you have heard, you might wander anywhere from the rap to the folk to the pop section expecting to find it. You'll probably end up asking the clerk, so to save you some time, it's in the pop/rock section at the Electric Fetus.

Why? Because Andy likes you!

Of course bands incorporating multiple clashing genres is nothing new. I mean, we can't forget rap-metal heavy hitters like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. So what makes Why? stand out? They're actually good. In fact, they're better than good. They are the pinnacle of a trend in modern music desperately searching for an original niche. Their eclectic sound and stream-of-consciousness style of visual poetry are completely unique. And somehow, they are astonishingly catchy.

Their performance Sunday night at the 7th Street Entry was equally pleasing. They have a natural, unpretentious air that made me feel less like I was having a great time watching Why? and more like I was having a great time hanging out with Why? They are funny, modest, quirky and entertaining.

Yoni Wolf, the group's lead singer, plays drums while standing and singing for many songs. They have frequent instrument changes. Some of them smile the entire show. Some don't smile at all. They have a xylophone, and they use it.

They seem to play whatever they want, with no concern over words like “genre” or “popular”. That's exactly what makes them good. They are a 10 out of 10, but still small and unmarketable enough to fit nicely in your pocket. Seeing a band that refined, talented and charismatic at a venue as intimate as the Entry is a rare experience. I can't think of a single show I have had a better time at -- or have been as upset with because it was over. I seemingly wasn't alone, as many fans belted demands of “10 more songs” as the house lights turned on.
--Andy Mannix

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 7, 2008 5:05 AM | Comments (0)

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