April 27, 2008 - May 3, 2008

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Free comics for all

Filed under: Stuff

Put that dollar bill away. This Saturday Superman, X-Men, Hellboy and other popular comics give back to their fans, and hopefully create new fans, during Free Comics Day.

All day tomorrow participating stores throughout the city will be celebrate the ridiculously muscular, the brightly-colored, the broodingly mysterious, and genuinely thought-provoking things that go on in strips read around the world. So get out of your box (aka studio apartment). Local stores offering freebies include Big Brain Comics (1027 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.338.4390) and the Source (1601 W. Larpenteur Ave., Falcon Heights; 651.645.0386). Check out Free Comic Book Day for more info and other locations.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at May 2, 2008 5:33 PM | Comments (0)

 

Hot damn: Wilco at the Mayo Civic Center

Filed under: Concert Review

Wilco
Mayo Civic Center, April 30
Words and photos by Andrea Myers

There is an undeniable mystique surrounding Jeff Tweedy. Critics adore him, fans idolize him, and his musical peers regard him as a luminary. He is simultaneously poppy enough to be embraced by the mainstream and odd enough to respected by the snobs. Somehow, it seems, Jeff Tweedy can do no wrong.

So I wasn’t really that surprised that I was blown away by Wilco’s show in Rochester. I was expecting to be blown away, and Tweedy & Co. did not disappoint. There was so much to love about their live performance: the perfectly mixed instrumentation, Tweedy’s endearing interactions with the audience (“Wow, they are really getting hot and heavy!” he remarked about a couple making out in the crowd), and the band’s obvious excitement about playing the first show of their tour. With a set list that covered their entire career and not one, but two encores, Wilco kept fans on their feet for their entire show at the sold-out Mayo Civic Center.

The show was Wilco's only stop in Minnesota for their current tour, and a large portion of the audience was from the Twin Cities area. At one point, Tweedy asked the crowd how many of us were from Minneapolis and how many from Rochester, and judging from audience reaction it seemed we were split about 50-50.

Aside from being entranced by Tweedy's strange, disarming powers, I was particularly impressed by the expertise and attentiveness of his backing musicians. Having never seen Wilco before (for shame!), I wondered to myself if I would recognize Nels Cline, a renowned jazz guitarist that has received high praise for his solo work and his contributions to Wilco. Not two minutes into the show, however, Cline made himself known. His dizzying technical solos and master of the distortion pedal brought an overwhelming intensity to songs that sounded much subtler on record.

Personal highlights from the evenings included an epic version of “Via Chicago,” “Theologians,” and my favorite Wilco song, “At Least That's What You Said.” The crowd seemed especially riled up by their more pop-friendly material, including “Hummingbird” and “Heavy Metal Drummer,” and during the first encore we were treated to the old hit “Box Full of Letters.”

By the time they came out for their second encore, Wilco had been playing for two hours and I could barely focus on the individual songs anymore. There were only two thoughts swimming around my head by the time we started filing out of the theater: “Hot damn, Nels Cline is amazing,” and “When do I get to see Wilco again?”

Set List

Hell is Chrome
You Are My Face
Company in My Back
Via Chicago
Impossible Germany
Shot in the Arm
Side with the Seeds
At Least That's What You Said
How to Fight Loneliness
Pot Kettle Black
Handshake Drugs
Cars Can't Escape
Poor Places
Hummingbird
Jesus, etc.
Hate It Here
Theologians
Walken
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore #1
Misunderstood
California Stars
Box Full of Letters
Heavy Metal Drummer

Encore #2
Red-Eyed and Blue
I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Casino Queen

Thanks to Wilco message board Via Chicago for help with the set list.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 2, 2008 1:54 AM | Comments (2)

 

Atmosphere Paints that Billboard Shit Gold

Filed under: Music News

Atmosphere's latest album, When Life Gives You Lemons..., has debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 charts. In its first week, Lemons clocked in at an impressive 36,526 copies sold, behind Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis, Flight of the Conchords, and Ashlee Simpson. Well, at least two out of the top five are cool.

This is the first time Atmosphere has had an album on the Billboard charts, and it's a record high for any release on Rhymesayers Entertainment.

See also: Pete Scholtes's feature on Atmosphere, including an interview with Slug.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 1, 2008 3:58 PM | Comments (0)

 

Erotica 101: Rachel Kramer Bussel teaches all the right lessons

Filed under: Readings/Lectures

Rachel Kramer Bussel is the most famous cupcake blogger ever to have penned more than 100 erotic stories.

Since she penned her first lusty tale -- a Monica Lewinsky-inspired narrative -- during law school in 1999, Bussel has been writing extensively about sex matters, fictional and otherwise. First, she was asked to co-edit an anthology of spanking erotica. Then, she wrote a column for the Village Voice for nearly three years. Now, besides continuing her own writing and editing of erotic volumes, she teaches workshops for would-be practitioners of the craft. This weekend, she's in town to lead just such a group at the Smitten Kitten. We spoke with her twice by phone to get a sense of what one of these workshops entails.

Bussel, who teaches the Erotica 101 workshop on Saturday and reads on Sunday, has done three such seminars in the past. "Every time, it's been interesting," she says. "People have these great ideas, and the stuff they write –- we do some reading aloud –- is really wonderful."

What's the most important thing to consider for a first-time erotica writer? "I don't think people need as much help on the writing front as they do on the encouragement front," Bussel says. Many writers, however enthusiastic, come with some measure of nerves. "Once people hear someone else reading work aloud, it breaks the tension."

Rachel Kramer Bussel reads "Flirting With Santa" from Alison Tyler's anthology "Naughty or Nice? Christmas Erotica Stories."

There are writing exercises, ("write a story using two sex objects around you," for example) a bit of reading aloud and guidance from the professional. "Either people come up with humorous stories -- or really hot stories," she says.

That's Bussel the teacher. What of Bussel the prolific writer and editor, whose credentials include editing the Best Sex Writing 2008 compilation? Since much of her work is about sex and relationships, it skews the boundary between what's personal and what's for an article.

The double-edged sword of personal writing is evident in some of Bussel's favorite work. Her 2001 story "Lapdance Lust," about her first lapdance, contains no sex. "There's a – not necessarily a naivete, but a willingness to believe in the fantasy of the strip club that's sweet in a way," she says now. Another favorite piece is about a breakup, a true story (called "The End") about someone who wound up reading it later. While they're friends now, she says, writing about real life is "a tricky thing. It's important to be totally free when you're doing the writing, but afterwards, it takes on a life of its own."

Occasionally, a family life of its own. Bussel writes a blog that addresses personal matters, and she recently found out her 84-year-old grandfather was reading it.

There was a bit of reflexiveness to the disclosure. Said grandparent has a memoir coming out in November himself about being a POW during World War II that contains tons of disclosures -- such as his visit to a prostitute at the age of 19 -- Bussel never would have known otherwise. "It was really surreal to read that," she says now, "but I think we understand each other better as a result."

Granddad might just be the most supportive person in her family. He's certainly more supportive than Bussel's mother, who doesn't like what she does for a living. "She's a lot more private, a baby boomer feminist," Bussel says. "He gets the need to share things through writing."

The best thing about writing erotic material, she says, is that forces her to be creative. During the nascent stage of her career, Bussel's fiction contained some autobiographical elements. Since, she's moved on to write about things that have little or nothing to do with her -- stories about gay men, stories written from different perspectives. "I can't just fall back on the same setting," she says. "It forces you to step outside yourself, and also to see that you have things in common with people you didn't think you had much in common with."

The multifaceted Bussel's cupcake blog, which has seen her featured on such outlets as The Martha Stewart Show, offers her a respite from the daily, ahem, grind of sex writing. Still, the subject is near and dear. Two helpful tips she offers for would-be erotic scribes:

1. Write something that uses the words that you would use, and something that you would find generally sexy. If you try to sound like someone else, it doesn't work as well. Go with your instincts.

2. You don't have to start off with a sex scene. Having sex scenes is important, but the characters – who they are, why they're there – can be even more important. Pay attention to the motivations of the characters as much as their physical actions.

Above all, don't be intimidated. "Erotica's very democratic," she says. "Everyone has a way to enter into it, whether it's a fantasy you had, or something that you've done."

Rachel Kramer Bussel teaches an Erotica 101 workshop on Saturday, May 3, from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at the Smitten Kitten, 3010 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408. $15, limited sliding scale tickets available. Pre-registration required: 612.721.6088. She's also giving a free reading at the Smitten Kitten the next day, Sunday May 4, from 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 1, 2008 10:56 AM | Comments (1)

 

Vital Force: Caroline Palmer reviews the Southern's latest

Filed under: Dance/Performance

Sva (Vital Force)
May 1-4, 2008
Review by Caroline Palmer

Where does “vital force” come from? Is it the relentless pull of gravity, the dangerous whims of nature, or a stubborn interior motivation? In the case of “Sva (Vital Force),” a collaborative work by local Bharatanatyam troupe Ragamala Music and Dance Theatre and Japan’s Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA, opening tonight at the Southern Theater, it’s all about the energy created by percussive performance drawn from distinct sources. Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, the mother and daughter artistic directors of Ragamala, are no strangers to cross-cultural match-ups but this latest experiment shows just how adept they are at finding commonality without compromising the true essence of either form.

During a dress rehearsal on Wednesday night the drummers warmed up the stage with fiery precision percussion. Harumi Tamaoki played with flair, shouting out encouragements and rolling her body with the beat while Matt Steitle twirled his sticks and coolly kept the tempo. Leader Art Lee moved so quickly that his arms became a blur. They moved upstage to make room for the dancers but their presence remained strong, especially when the signature big drum was struck. It would have been easy for the seven women of Ragamala to surrender to such a “vital force” but instead they created their own, calmly responding with their own intricate physical gestures and foot stamps, at times ably matching or even attacking the drummers’ rhythms, at others offering complex contrasts. It was a memorable exhibition of virtuosity and concentration on the part of all involved.

Bharatanatyam is one of the oldest dance traditions in India with a history spanning 2,000 years. Music and dance are central to the form but poetry, sculpture and literature also play influential roles. The first half of the Ragamala concert showcases these elements through classical works and in “Ardhanareeshwara Stotram,” Aparna Ramaswamy performs a creation story focused on the interplay between the divine feminine, Shakti, and the divine masculine, Shiva. Every part of her body is engaged, from her eyes to her fingertips, and as she seamlessly moves through pensive to aggressive states, she summons up the ancient duality. Ramaswamy’s interpretation is so confident that her performances always seem effortless but she has been studying the Pandanallur style since an early age and her skill is the result of years of training.

“Yathra” reveals another fine musical experience, this time from sitar player Shubhendra Rho and Indian cellist Saskia Rao de-Haas. Their dynamic live performance drives a group piece illustrating the human journey from birth to the twilight years. As the younger dancers leap through the space, Ranee Ramaswamy offers a subtle counterpoint, using her maturity to show a different side of Bharatanatyam. Her approach is less athletic and emphatic; the edges are smoothed out and her gestures flow with serenity and depth of experience. It is this sort of adaptability that drives the Ragamala spirit of invention and collaboration on display this weekend at the Southern.

$24. Thurs. and Fri. at 8:00 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.340.1725; www.southerntheater.org. There will be a gala performance on Sat. at 5:00 p.m. followed by a reception at the Weisman Museum. Tickets are $75. -- Caroline Palmer

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 1, 2008 6:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

Jonathan Coulton: Still alive at the Varsity

Filed under: Q&A

Jonathan Coulton writes and records sweetly melodic folk-pop tunes about brain-eating zombies and lovestruck mad scientists. His geek-powered lyrics have earned him an Internet following so dedicated that his fans have produced hours of music videos to accompany his songs. In addition to receiving big ups from the gamer community for his song "Still Alive," written for the end credits of the critically acclaimed video game Portal, Coulton's become famous for setting himself a seemingly impossible goal: Create one new song every week for a year. The project forms the bulk of his music to date, and can be found in a four CD set, Thing a Week 1-4.

CP: Thing a Week seems like it must've put you under some serious pressure. Why did you decide to do it?

Jonathan Coulton: I'd just quit my day job writing software for a firm in Manhattan with the intention of becoming a musician. I knew I wanted to make music and turn that into money, but I really hadn't thought all the way through. I started Thing a Week to give myself a deadline and pretend that I actually did have a job writing music; the last thing I wanted was to quit my day job and sit around playing X-Box all day. From a creative standpoint, I figured doing a song a week would force me to make faster decisions; it takes me a long time to do things because I'm really a bit of a perfectionist. I wait for just the right idea, and I'm very careful with that idea as I write.

CP: What was it like to force your creativity like that?

JC: By the end of the year, I was in a strange place because I'd long since run out of ideas. On top of that, more and more people were paying attention, so the pressure was going up and the well was completely dry. But the last thirteen songs, which are what I put on Thing a Week 4, were some of my favorites; it's my favorite CD out of the four. I think it was only at that point that I got to a place in my head where I could write and create in sort of a pure way, because I'd stripped everything else away. To this day those songs sound and feel to me like somebody else wrote them. Or at least I don't remember writing them.

CP:Were there weeks when you didn't want to write another damn song?

JC: Oh sure, there were plenty of those weeks. It was sometimes hard and sometimes easy. A lot of it had to do with what else was going on in my life, and what had just happened in Thing a Week. If I had just written a song that was receiving a lot of attention, it would ruin me for a couple weeks because I was competing against myself. It went in cycles, so that would happen and then I would write a couple that maybe my heart wasn't in it, or I was stymied in some way. A couple didn't turn out great, and then I would get through it and forget about it, and when I least expected it songs that either I really loved or everyone else really loved would just emerge.

CP: "Still Alive" is sung in the voice of GLaDOS, a power-mad, humorously flawed artificial intelligence from Portal. How did you get the gig? How did you so accurately capture GLaDOS' character?

JC: I was doing a show in Seattle and a couple of people came up to me afterwards. They said they worked at Valve and asked if I would be interested in writing some music for them someday. I said, "Yes, yes please," because I'm a fan of the games. I loved Half-Life when it first came out. I played an early version of Portal before they'd figured out exactly what the ending was, but it had most of GLaDOS' dialogue in there. They had extensively thought and planned out what her deal was. One of the writers and I had many discussions about who GLaDOS was exactly.

CP: A lot of your songs, like Re: Your Brains, are tongue-in-cheek, but you also have more sincere songs, like Summer's Over. Do you feel any pressure to write quirky stuff because that's what seems most successful?

JC: I feel the pressure of the audience's expectation. And yeah, I've relied on the funny, quirky stuff to attract attention, and that makes sense. There's a vast sea of earnest pop out there, and it's very hard to distinguish yourself from other people in that field. What it comes down to is, I don't always control what I choose to write about because I'm only really creatively motivated when I have a subject, or a character, or a musical idea that's interesting to me and challenging to me. As much as it might be wise to write a long string of songs about aliens and robots and zombies, once I do the zombie thing, it's like, "Eh, I don't know if I want to write another zombie song." Maybe I'm feeling a little sad this week and I want to explore that, or use that as the creative motivator. So I feel the pressure, but I try to ignore it.

CP: You mention a creative idea around which you form your songs. How do those formative ideas get started?

JC: I usually have to make them come to me. Very rarely do I get unbidden ideas that interrupt me while I'm doing something else. I don't wake up from a dream with a great idea; I wish I did. But more often than not I have to do something kind of boring. I have to be on a long drive or take a bike ride or spend 20 minutes parking the car here in Brooklyn. It's moments like that where my mind is idle that it creates those things and serves them up to me. The ideas start from there, and once I get one, it's usually a snapshot of the song. It'll be a musical phrase, or a lyric, and it'll suggest the style of the song to me. Most of the time it also suggests a character in the song. From there, it's just a question of fleshing that out, bootstrapping the lyrics and the music together. One sort of suggests the other, spinning out what the larger structure is and filling in the pieces.

CP: Speaking of creative ideas, you do a hilarious cover of Baby Got Back. Why did you decide to cover that song?

JC: It was my wife's idea. She's always loved that song and she knows all the words by heart, which is adorable. She just thought it would be funny to do a sensitive, folky, white guy version of it. I'm not sure I actually listened to the lyrics when the song was out in the ‘90s; I sort of dismissed it as hip-hop silliness. But it's brilliantly funny. I think Sir Mix-a-lot is a very funny guy, and very smart too. The thing I really loved about it: if you listen closely to the lyrics, it's not really misogynistic at all. It's actually a very positive message about body image, which is not what you'd think from seeing the video or hearing the song and thinking about it on the surface. So it was that that hip-hop sheen with earnest depth to it that attracted me.

CP: What was it like turning a rap song into pleasant folk-pop?

JC: One problem with arranging it is there's so many words, when you slow it down, it gets really long. It also doesn't fit regularly into a verse-chorus structure, so I had to shoehorn it a little bit. There's an extra couplet in the second verse that I had to extend. The other challenge was referencing parts of the actual arrangement and the reference song, which is why I included the background vocal "L.A. face with the Oakland booty," because I think that's such a funny line.

CP: Your Creative Commons license allows others to use your songs, royalty-free, in their own non-commercial creative projects. This has led to a lot of mash-ups and homemade music videos of your tunes. Why did you decide to adopt that Creative Commons license?

JC: Creative Commons seemed like a great practical tool for spreading my music and my name around, but also it was just such a beautiful vision of creativity and culture, and what it means for us to create and consume culture. Everything you do is sort of based on something else whether you know it or not, so why not acknowledge that? It's just a beautiful idea. I've had a great time with it because I'll create something, and somebody likes it enough to create something else, and then that comes back to me. It's so exciting to have that kind of connection and that kind of feedback between artists and fans. Ford can't put my music in a car commercial, and nobody can put my song on a CD and sell it, but they're free to do all sorts of remixes, covers, mash-ups, and videos. There's a huge body of work out there that people do just because they want to do it, not for any profit. It's a huge ecosystem of stuff that's growing every day.

CP: How do you think this reflects on the RIAA?

JC: I think that the RIAA missed the point and by now missed the boat. I think it's a shame that so many people in that industry are going to lose their jobs. That's what's going to happen. They've refused to change for too long. They didn't take advantage of the opportunities because they saw them as threats instead. The industry is going away in the same way manufacturing has disappeared in America. The record labels are also disappearing as a viable industry. There's still a need for people to manage artists and help artists reach their goals, but it's not going to look anything like the current record label.

Jonathan Coulton performs tonight at the Varsity Theater. 18+. $16/$18 at the door. 7p.m. 1308 Fourth St. SE, Minneapolis; 612.604.0222

Posted by Ward Rubrecht at May 1, 2008 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

 

Reporter's Notebook: Dosh

Filed under: Local Music

Describing what Martin Dosh does and how it sounds is no simple matter. He's been in more than a dozen bands and shared the studio and stage with a dozen more. He draws on a vast field of musical touchstones. Want the full Dosh experience? We've created something of an online museum of Dosh. You'll find nothing like it anywhere else.

It all starts with a collection of videos, so you can see Dosh doing what he does. Then we have something we're calling Timeline (+ Sound): a look back at Dosh's bands--16 of them--complete with free MP3 downloads, some of them only available digitally here. Next we have a breakdown of what Dosh calls his "rig"--a tangle of instruments and effects pedals. Finally, we've created a sort of Dosh family tree, with bios and links for each of Dosh's recent collaborators. Enjoy! And if you want to see Dosh for yourself, the Walker just added a second World of Dosh show on May 3rd at 11 PM (the first show sold out). And he'll be headlining at First Avenue on June 27th.

The interweb is crawling with Dosh video. I've combed through it all and picked a few good ones. You can see more live footage (that we can't embed here) at the Schedule Two website.

VIDEO 1: Building Sound--A peek into Dosh's basement from the good people at the Minnesota Daily




VIDEO 2: Andrew Bird and Dosh at the 2006 Bonnaroo Festival doing "Simple Exercises"




VIDEO 3: A live video for "Call the Kettle Back" that breaks down the Dosh process





VIDEO 4: Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker with Andrew Bird on Late Night with David Letterman in 2007







Image by Cameron Wittig

Dosh keeps busy. This much is clear. Here we've put together a timeline of Dosh projects with free MP3 downloads we gathered with Dosh's help. Some of them have never been available in digital form. Make your own World of Dosh mix! To download, right click on the song title. To listen, simply click the "Listen" button.

2005-present: Andrew Bird

2003-2005: Redstart

Speechless, from the album So Far From Over (2004)

2002-present: Dosh

If You Want to, You Have To, from the not-yet-released album Wolves and Wishes (2008)

Um, Circles and Squares, from The Lost Take (2006)

2002-2007: Vicious Vicious

Here Come Tha Police, from the album Don't Look So Suprised (2004)

2002-2003: T

2002-2003: Captain Blasted

2001: Danny Commando y Los Guapos

Karmageddon, from the album Karmageddon (2002)

2000-2001: Iffy

2000-2005: Fog

High Mummy Road Movie, from the vinyl only EP Check Fraud (2002)

1999-2004: Lateduster (originally called Cropduster)

Gare De Lyon, from the album Lateduster (2001)

1999-2002: Greg Cardinal Band

1999-2002:: Animals Expert at Hankering

Improv Part 6 (2002)

1999-2001: Nasty Goat

Tipsy, from their Litmus EP (2000)

1997: Payload

1995-1997: King Lovell MD

1991-1997: Como Zoo

Salmonella, from the album Shivertown (1995)

Image by Cameron Wittig


Watching Dosh do what he does and trying to figure out exactly what is happening can be overwhelming. So to the extent that we can, we've broken it all down here: taking apart his "rig" piece by piece. Ever wondered what all that stuff is? Wonder no more.


THE AKAI HEADRUSH LOOPING PEDAL:

Once Dosh started playing with a looping pedal, says his longtime friend and collaborator Andrew Broder, "the rest was history."





THE ROLAND DIGITAL DELAY PEDAL
If you've made the mistake many have made and assumed Dosh is making all of those sounds with a computer, this pedal is part of the reason. He uses the DD-5.





THE BOSS DR. SAMPLE

Dosh mostly uses this machine to cue sounds he can't create on his live rig. A memory card like the one you have in your digital camera stores the data. Problem is, Dr. Sample was made just before the small cards it uses became obsolete, so Dosh trolls the internet and buys them whenever they pop up.





THE FENDER RHODES ELECTRIC PIANO






THE ELECTRO-HARMONIX "BIG MUFF" DISTORTION PEDAL






THE KORG EX800 SEQUENCER






THE ZVEX FUZZ FACTORY PEDAL






THE ROLAND JUNO 106 KEYBOARD






THE MACKIE 1402 MIXER

Every thing goes through this mixer and then out through Dosh's headphones. "I've gone through three or four over the years," Dosh says.





THE ALESIS MICRON

Dosh says he uses this "little guy" for "bass tones, and a few organ sounds."






Image by Cameron Wittig

If we went through all of Dosh's collaborations, we'd be here all day. And, well, we already kind of have. So we'll stick to a breakdown of the guests on his new record, Wolves and Wishes--and those who will be joining him on May 3rd at the Walker's World of Dosh event.

Here they are, with a little bit of info and maybe even a YouTube clip.

Erin Dosh
Best to start with Martin's wife, Erin. She's done the artwork for many of the Dosh releases--none more masterfully than his latest, which looks like this:

Andrew Bird
Bird met Dosh in 2005 and soon thereafter invited him to tour with him as a sort of two-man band. The two have been in an evolving collaboration ever since and are at work on Bird's next release now.

Andrew Broder
Broder is best known for his band Fog, which Dosh played in from 2000-2005. Before that, Broder and Dosh were in Lateduster, a band that started off with two drummers, two DJs and two guitars.

David King
King is best known as the drummer for Happy Apple and The Bad Plus. When Dosh moved back to Minneapolis in 1997, he studied for a bit with King.

Here's King on the telly with The Bad Plus:

Marshall Lacount
Lacount plays in Minneapolis' Woodcat and Dark Dark Dark.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Will Oldham probably needs no introduction. Not the case? Okay, here:

Bryan Olson
Olson might be best known for his time spent with The Sensational Joint Chiefs. He went on to form Lateduster with Dosh.

Odd Nosdam
A DJ and member of the anticon collective, it might be best to explain Odd Nosdom thusly:

Jeremy Ylvisaker
These days, Ylvisaker splits his time between shifts in Andrew Bird's touring band and his Minneapolis-based project, Alpha Consumer (which also features Happy Apple's Mike Lewis).

Mike Lewis
Lewis splits his time between Happy Apple, Alpha Consumer, and Dosh tours and god knows what else. He's a frighteningly talented...well...EVERYTHING player and, clearly, a good guy to have on your side.

Jel
Jel. Well, this is a perfectly respectable way to go out:

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 30, 2008 4:42 AM | Comments (1)

 

Flyer of the Week: All the Way Rider

Filed under: Flyer of the Week

Our favorite flyer this week comes courtesy of All the Way Rider, who is releasing an album this Friday at the Triple Rock. This show was also a Critics' Pick in this week's City Pages.

Posted by Andrea Myers at April 29, 2008 10:34 PM | Comments (1)

 

Prince at Coachella: Wow

Filed under: Concert Review

On the off chance that you don't read any other blogs or just recently discovered the internet -- boy do we have news for you! Prince wowed Coachella attendees Saturday night with a nearly two-hour set that included covers of "Come Together" by the Beatles and Radiohead's "Creep."

Our pal Randall Roberts at LA Weekly reports on his Prince experience:

Oh my god.

And Prince. I don't want to ruin Prince's show last night by writing about it. It was mystical, and I've seen Prince a few other times. Morris Day, the Time, "The Bird," (which is the word, and always will be), Jerome and Morris dancing, Sheila E making a cameo for "Glamorous Life," Prince wailing his ass off, delivering a deep, brooding version of "Little Red Corvette." A cover of Radiohead's "Creep" and the Beatles' "Come Together." It was amazing.

You can read more of LA Weekly's coverage of Coachella at their blog.

Here's a crappy YouTube video of Prince singing "Creep." The video quality is terrible but the sound is pretty good:

I especially like the guy who utters a simple "Wow" about 40 seconds in. I think my head might have exploded if I had the chance to see this live.

Posted by Andrea Myers at April 29, 2008 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

Over the Weekend: April 25-27, 2008

Filed under: Over the Weekend

It was another huge weekend for local music. Both the Cloud Cult CD release show and the Afternoon Records 5th Anniversary party filled the First Avenue Main Room with local music fans, while the Deaths released a new album at the Turf and the God Damn Doo Wop Band played their first show in ages at the Hexagon.

Here's a rundown of the best sets I caught this weekend:

E.L.nO.
Lee's Liquor Lounge, April 25

The crowd was a strange mix of hipster and barflies for the ELO cover band's show Friday night. But that didn't stop everyone from dancing like the drunk attendees of a distant relative's wedding reception. As Jeff Allen, guitarist for the Plastic Constellations, commented to me during the show, “This music has a strange effect on people. It makes them crazy.” We giggled as we watched an older couple act out some PG-13 moves during a slow song, finishing it all off with a dramatic dip.

Highlights of the show included “Telephone Line” (my personal favorite, complete with a crowd sing-along to the “Doo wop, dooby doo doo wop” parts), “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” and “Can't Get it Out of My Head.” But really, who am I kidding? Every song was a highlight. E.L.nO.'s sets play like a greatest hits compilation, to which the blue leisure suit-clad lead singer Dave Campbell/Jeff Lyne remarked: “Don't worry, we're gonna play all the hits tonight. That's what we do.” Each time I see the band they seem to get tighter as a group, and their set at Lee's was enhanced by a surprisingly dramatic light show that seemed out of character for the blue-collar bar.

Photo of E.L.nO. frontman Dave Campbell taken by Stacy Schwartz.

God Damn Doo Wop Band
Hexagon Bar, April 25

I skipped out of the E.L.nO. show just in time to catch a set by the God Damn Doo Wop Band at the Hexagon. The band had been inactive for a spell, but they regrouped Friday night to release a "new" 7" single which singer Kat Naden explained was actually recorded almost a year ago. The lineup has changed a bit since I had last seen the group, with a new drummer and a new singer named Annie, but the change in vocals was hardly noticeable sonically. In fact, hardly anything was noticeable sonically at first above the feedback and fuzz of the backing band--it wasn't until I put my earplugs in that I was able to distinguish the ladies' vocals at all. I was glad that I had earplugs on hand, though, because Annie really shined on the new song "I'll Always Be Your Girl."

The set derailed into total chaos at the night's end, with members of openers Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels storming the stage to sing harmonies on "S-L-U-G" (at least, that's what I am guessing it was called given the content of the song) and scooping up the girls while they sang. It seemed appropriate that the set would end with insanity, given this group's dichotomy of squeaky-clean '50s harmonies and their more rough-around-the-edges punk inclinations, and it was a fun ending to a night filled with doo wop ditties.

Photo of the God Damn Doo Wop Band by David de Young.

Cloud Cult
First Avenue, April 26

I can't imagine seeing Cloud Cult playing anything but big stages from here on out, and it's not just because I think they're destined for widespread success. Cloud Cult's live show demands that they play big rooms. With five band members, two painters, a video screen and a fantastic light show, the entire Main Room was awash with lead singer/ringleader Craig Minowa's colorful, explosive vision.

It would be easy to write off Cloud Cult as too hippie, too peace-loving, too positive--in this day and age, aren't we supposed to hate joy unless it is expressed ironically? But Minowa and company are so genuine with their love that it was hard to keep from smiling during their set of psychedelic, harmony-infused indie rock.

My favorite part of the night was the screening of Cloud Cult's new music video for "Everybody Here is a Cloud," which was filmed just last month at Como Park. It's especially cool to know that this video is filled with extras from the Twin Cities:

The evening ended on a high note with a quick succession of some of their most recognized songs, including "Take Your Medicine," "Chemicals Collide" and an all-out encore version of "Love You All." In a particularly endearing moment, Minowa sang the last line "Love you all" and a guy from the audience replied at the top of his lungs, "Love you too!"

Here's the full set list:

Hope
No One Said It Would Be Easy
Pretty Voice
Made Up Your Mind
Man Jumped Out the Window
Please Remain Calm
Chain Reaction
Story of the Grandson of Jesus
Happy Hippo
The Ghost Inside Our House
Journey of the Featherless
Freddy
Million Things
Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide
Everybody Here Is A Cloud
Take Your Medicine
Chemicals Collide
Intro
The Tornado Lessons
Love You All

Photo of Cloud Cult by Daniel Corrigan. More photos in the slideshow.

The Deaths
Turf Club, April 26

A sizable crowd had gathered across the river for the Deaths CD release show. I wasn't terribly familiar with the Deaths prior to seeing them at the Turf, but after being charmed by their '60s garage rock harmonies and slow-burning songs I am kicking myself for not finding them sooner. The band consisted of four dudes in plaid shirts, and they just sounded like the Turf Club, if that makes any sense--both in spirit and in style, they embraced the down-home charm of the club and reminded me of other harmony-laden dude rock bands like the Beatifics or Polara.

Afternoon Records 5th Anniversary
First Avenue, April 27

All ages shows are a strange beast. Don't get me wrong, I am completely supportive of underage kids seeing as much music as possible, and I think Afternoon Records has done a great job advancing this cause--but there is something unsettling about going to a rock show when it's still light outside. It also didn't help that there was a poor turnout for the event, and the whole scenario made me feel like I was crashing a high school lock-in instead of stumbling into First Ave for a normal rock show.

But anyway: the music. Poison Control Center stole the show with their raucous-yet-poppy rock, and I was especially amused at how guitar player Devin Frank insisted on laying on the ground and throwing his feet up in the air every time he had a guitar solo. Seriously, it was like a tic; like he was incapable of soloing without assuming such a position. At the end of their set, PCC invited members of One For The Team and Battle Royale on stage to help them sing their last song, which resulted in members of the Afternoon Records family picking each other up and swinging each other around like a bunch of rock and roll kids gone crazy.

My other favorite act of the evening was Haley Bonar, who played a solo set with only an electric guitar as accompaniment. Despite the fact that she was without a band, I think this was one of the most "rocking" Haley Bonar sets I had ever seen, and it made me excited for her new record. Haley played a handful of new songs off the upcoming album, Big Star, which she announced will be released June 10, in addition to a positively gut-wrenching cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene."

Photo of Haley Bonar by Daniel Corrigan. See all of the Afternoon Records bands in the photo slideshow.

Posted by Andrea Myers at April 28, 2008 7:00 AM | Comments (0)

 

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