CP: Why haven't you written about them yet?

AB:There's always a reason. Probably the main reason is, like I said, you have to write the book that's in your chest at the time.

CP:Given all the success that has come to you from writing about your dysfunctional and unusual life, would you give it all back to have a more normal and stable childhood?

AB: No, because I don't really know what that is, and what the result of that would be. I don't have any regrets. I certainly have holes and inadequacies that are a direct result of how I was raised. But I'm also really strong, and I wouldn't trade that strength for anything, even if it meant I could reverse-engineer my life and have a happy childhood. That's theoretical to me, what a happy childhood is. It's an unanswerable question because it's an impossibility. And I don't think about it. I don't think about impossibilities.

See Augusten Burrough discuss A Wolf at the Table Friday at 7 p.m. at Coffman Union Theater, 300 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, 612.624.4696.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at May 15, 2008 4:00 PM | Comments (0)

Flight of the Conchords rock this metropolis

Filed under: Concert Review

The Grammy-winning Flight of the Conchords have always had a devoted following, one that's grown through HBO specials and appearances on the BBC. In 2007, their fanbase exploded when they followed in the footsteps of Tenacious D, landing an HBO series with a semi-sit-com format molded around their song repertoire. But where Tenacious D slaps you in the face with cum jokes, the Conchords employ a subtler combination of straight-man geekiness and genuine charisma.

It was that combination that sold out the Orpheum Tuesday night; the crowd was already riled to the point of heckling when opening comedian Arj Barker came onstage. With Comedy Central specials and Conan appearances under his belt (as well as a supporting role on the Flight of the Conchords' own show), Barker's a pretty big deal for an opener, but unassuming--and his set was uproarious, happily including his Google bit.

Without waiting for an intermission, the Conchords took over to the screams of their front-row female admirers. Jemaine, the heavy-browed baritone settled comfortably into his seat on the left and nerdier tenor Bret on the right, hunched over his guitar with the concentration of a turntablist. The duo launched into "The Humans Are Dead", a joyous song of xenocide performed in the persona of murderous robots from the distant future(The humans are dead/we used poisonous gasses/and poisoned their asses).

Like a lot of quirk-folk these days, the Conchords owe much of their popularity to the internet; their live shows have been archived on YouTube since their inception. Since fans are able to call up entire live shows at will, it's become challenging for many performers to make each show something new--but the traditionally acoustic Conchords proved up to the challenge as they fiddled with a table full of electronic paraphernalia, including an Omnichord, a keytar, and a digital sax. For one song, Jemaine pulled out what at first view looked like an Apple laptop, but turned out to be a glockenspiel; or as he called it, a rockenspiel ("Because it rocks more").

At one point, the traditional call for "Freebird" was raised, and the duo obliged--to their surprise, the audience joined in heartily. Bret tried to turn his mic towards the crowd, but instead tipped over his microphone into the front row, smacking a lady in the head on its way down and sending the audience into further paroxysms of laughter.

All the favorites were played ("Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros," "Jenny," "Business Time," "Bowie's in Space") with interludes between each where the improvised, stilted back-and-forth between Bret and Jemaine came to the fore. The Conchords are masters of understatement and quietly delivered humor, punctuated for American audiences by their Kiwi accents--Bret started a joke by saying that he'd been walking around Dinkyville, and the rest of the joke was lost in the audience's uproar.

Conchords played a long set, and they finished strong in their encore with a newer tune, Freakiocity, and an extended keytar solo from Bret, who jumped offstage and ran through the audience, his amp cord coming unplugged with every change of direction and the front-row fangirls fondling the ivories. It was a perfect end-cap crescendo in an otherwise low-key performance by today's kings of comedy folk.

Posted by Ward Rubrecht at May 15, 2008 11:04 AM | Comments (1)

Busdriver! (And El-P and Dizzee Rascal, too)

Filed under: Music

Reading the preview, you see why hip-hop heads are hyped up to see El-P and Dizzee Rascal. Which is fine. There are two words at the end, though. Two important words. "With Busdriver."

Busdriver is a prodigiously gifted brainiac given to rhymes on fast-forward, beats psychedelic and jazzy, and innovative and dense wordplay. The artist also known as Regan Farquhar's latest full-length cracked my Top 10 albums of 2007 list, and it's probably his third-best disc (behind Temporary Forever and Fear of A Black Tangent). Before I saw those two words, I was very content to send Nate Patrin to the El-P and Dizzee Rascal show while I spent the evening chilling with my dogs. Now? Well, if you see somebody bouncing after the opener, it's probably me.

While I'm obviously a Busdriver believer, it's only fair to note that he's hit-or-miss, both onstage and on record. Three of his CDs should be in every fan of rap music's collection. The others, well ... I'm a huge fan of those three I mentioned. And while each time I've seen him live it's been transcendent, others have told me that the intricate sound arrangements he produces in the studio don't always translate to a stage.

Busdriver's not for everyone. His manically fast style alienates some, and he's been accused of wordiness or weirdness or worse. But absinthe isn't for everybody either. Yes, that's a ringing endorsement. Of both.

To get a taste of absinthe, roll by Cafe Lurcat. To get a taste of Busdriver, sample this live MP3 recorded on the Current. If you're looking for more, go for "Unemployed Black Astronaut" off of Fear of a Black Tangent. After listening to those two, you'll know whether or not this is your thing. If it's not, I won't judge.

But if it is, you'll know why I might show up at the Triple Rock just for the opening act.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 15, 2008 9:46 AM | Comments (1)

Flyer of the Week: Les Deux Magots

Filed under: Flyer of the Week

This week's show flyer comes from lo-fi garage rockers Les Deux Magots, who are playing an all ages show at Eclipse Records tomorrow night.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 14, 2008 2:03 PM | Comments (0)

The Economy of World Domination

Filed under: 3 Questions

John Perkins used to be corporate hotshot. As a young man he was what he calls an “economic hit man.” His job was to scout out poor nations and convince their governments to take American loans, knowing the governments had no hope of paying them back.

The nations would be forced to make economic concessions to American companies. This cycle, Perkins says, was the foundation of a global empire. In The Secret History of the American Empire: Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption he exposes the corporate misdeeds and influence spanning the world.

City Pages: Explain what the title of your book refers to.

John Perkins: Well, I think it's fair to say that we've created the world's first truly global empire, and for the first time we've created an empire primarily without the military; we've done it with economics. Perhaps the most common method is that we will identify a third-world country that has resources that corporations covet, like oil.

Then we arrange a huge bank loan to the country from the World Bank. However, the money doesn't go to the country. Instead, it goes to our own corporations, which build things like power plants, industrial parks, highways; projects that benefit a few rich people in the country and our corporations. They don't help the majority of the people who are too poor to buy electricity, don't have the skills for industrial parks, don't own cars to drive on the highways, but the whole country is left with this huge debt; they can't afford to pay it. So we go back in and say, "Listen, you owe us a lot of money, so sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies, or vote with us on the next critical UN vote, or send troops in support of ours in Iraq or some other place of the world." In that way we've really managed to create this empire without people even realizing we've done it.

CP:First world empire, really? The British empire at it's height ruled 25 percent of the world's land and people

JP:Absolutely. The British didn't go into South America much. The Romans, of course, were a relatively small empire by modern standards. I grew up looking at the world as a large globe with 180-some odd countries. A few of those countries had influence over others like the United State and the Soviet Union. But today we see different geopolitics. We see this globe with 180-some odd countries with these huge clouds drifting around that know no national borders, that don't have to abide by any set of laws. These are the big corporations. They form partnerships with the Chinese government or the Argentine government or the South African Government or the US government, whoever best serves them at the time. It's truly different geopolitics than we've ever experienced on the planet before. This is a time that's roughly equivalent to when the city-states became nations. We're at a time similar to that now when the nations are becoming somewhat irrelevant, and it's the big corporations that are calling the shots.

CP: Could you just give me a thumbnail sketch of how, in your experience, the world functions as a whole?

JP: The world is run by institutions whose primary goal is to maximize profits regardless of the social and environmental cost. That's extremely dangerous. It's very shortsighted. But I'm also extremely hopeful that we can change this. The fact that we have a world empire that's been created primarily without the military means that for the first time in history, we probably don't have to defeat it with the military. We can defeat it, change it, transform it by how we shop and by the way we relate to businesses. These corporations are vulnerable to us as consumers and workers. For example, we've forced corporations to clean up polluted rivers, or to get trans fat out of food at KFC and McDonald's.

We need to convince corporations to change their overall goal. Rather than maximizing profits regardless of social and environmental costs, maximize profits within the context of creating an environmentally sustainable, socially just, peaceful world.

CP: Part of the subtitle is "How to Change the World." What do you suggest the average American do to change the world?

JP: Shop more responsibly. Don't buy things made in sweatshops, do a little research. Don't buy water that's sapping the aquifers of Fiji. Cut back on things. We all have to be less consumption-oriented and realize that real joy doesn't come from buying things in stores, it comes from the way we relate to our friends and neighbors and the world around us. We can all walk down different paths as long as all those paths are headed toward a destination of an environmentally sustainable and peaceful world. Every executive I've ever known has been a decent human being. I've never met an evil executive. But they're living in an old paradigm that says maximize profits regardless of the social and environmental costs. We need to change the paradigm of our leaders and ourselves.

CP: How do you remain so optimistic despite the horrible things you document in your book?

JP:Well, I've seen incredible changes in my lifetime. Organizations like Rainforest Action Network have had a huge impact on helping to save rainforests, and consumer advocacy groups have had a tremendous impact on corporations. I remember in the early 1970s when China was a mystery, a very poor country until Nixon went in and opened it up. And look how China has changed in the past 35 years or so. I'm not sure it's the kind of change we want to see for this planet, but the fact is horrendous change is possible for this planet. The human being is capable of adjusting and changing once we understand. We've shown that time and time in history. Corporations are also flexible. We've seen them change radically in the way they do business. What we're looking for now is another radical change. And we've demonstrated over the history of our species that when push comes to shove we're capable of radical changes. We're at one of those times in history today. We see ourselves as very threatened by global warming, terrorism, terrible starvation and poverty around the world.

John Perkins will read from his book on Wed. at Borders (800 W 78th St. in Richfield).

Posted by Ben Palosaari at May 13, 2008 2:43 PM | Comments (0)

Tou Saiko Lee, Cloud Cult make national news

Filed under: Music News

One of the most intriguing parts of the video shows Lee collaborating with his grandmother, Youa Chang, on a project he calls "Fresh Traditions." The two take turns reciting their own style of spoken word, with Lee rapping and Chang chanting kwv txhiaj, an ancient style of Hmong poetry.

In addition to performing as a spoken word artist in rap group Delicious Venom, Lee is a regular contributor on KFAI's CHAT Radio: Hmong Arts & Culture and volunteers as a mentor at several local after-school programs.

(If your up for feeling outraged today, see also the Jason Lewis broadcast from May 2, in which he berates the Lake Junior High School PTA for allowing Lee to lead a workshop on spoken word and hip-hop. According to Lewis, the parents should be reprimanded for allowing taxpayer money to be used to teach such outrageous things as poetry and -- gasp! -- diversity at school.)

In other local-via-national news, Cloud Cult have been featured in several large-scale outlets since the release of last month's Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes), including a feature a "breaking artist" mention in Rolling Stone and this recent spotlight from the Wall Street Journal:

The Wall Street Journal also ran a full article about Cloud Cult's unique live show, focusing on lead singer Craig Minowa's wife Connie, whose live paintings have recently sold for as much as $2,500.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 13, 2008 1:43 PM | Comments (3)

Job Opening: Artistic Director at the Cedar Cultural Center

Filed under: Music News

Much of the Cedar's history and reputation can be attributed to Artistic Director Bill Kubeczko, who has worked at the venue for a large portion of its almost 20-year existence. Yesterday, the Cedar announced that Kubeczko has resigned from his position.

"He just felt that it was time," said Executive Director Rob Simonds in an email. "15 and 1/2 years is a helluva long time, and it's a very high-pressure job. He had told me years ago that he hoped he wouldn't be here for our 20th anniversary, and that's coming up."

To commemorate Kubeczko's service to the Cedar and to the music community at large, here is an excerpt from the 1995 City Pages Artists of the Year issue, in which Will Hermes penned an ode to the then-new Cedar employee:

Since taking the helm of what was essentially a sinking ship in 1993, Kubeczko has transformed the Cedar from a mismanaged, moribund performance hall into an internationally recognized world music club. It hasn't been easy. First there was the massive debt inherited from the previous regime. Then the collapsed air-conditioning system. Then two office robberies in one week. Then a mortally wounded heating-oil tank. But through it all, he never lost sight of his priority: Bringing to the Twin Cities the best musicians from around the globe, and making them feel as comfortable as possible given his limited resources. In the past that's meant putting artists up at his home (some, like British guitar great John Renbourne, for days at a time), showing them the sights (like spending an afternoon with Mali's road-weary Ali Farka Toure at Minnehaha Falls), or dealing with disasters (driving to nearly every music shop in town when the musicians in Brazilian superstar Marisa Monte's band arrived to find their delicate traditional instruments destroyed in shipping). Even the little things--flowers onstage for Canada's McGarrigle Sisters, a favorite red wine for Irish folkies Altan--get done religiously, the idea being that the best concert experiences happen when everyone feels at home. Judging from this year's embarrassment of musical riches, it's been working.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 13, 2008 5:00 AM | Comments (0)

Over the Weekend: May 9-11, 2008

Filed under: Over the Weekend

Talib Kweli
Epic Nightclub, May 9
By Jeff Shaw

Publicity photo of Talib Kweli.

Thoughtful MC Talib Kweli once reflected on wax how difficult it was to write songs to boom in the club while remaining conscious of people that suffer. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Brooklyn rapper's show at Epic Nightclub included a freestyle name-check of Sean Bell and lyrical references to Mumia Abu-Jamal along with bangin' beats.

Kweli ably intersperses activist sentiments into a party atmosphere without coming off preachy. Paying tribute to both Boogie Down Productions and Bob Marley -- two who knew a thing or three about making music both political and powerful -- Talib kept heads nodding. Sadly, turnout was sparse. Though those in attendance were, to a human, ready to get live, the club looked to be just slightly over half-capacity.

Additional note to Epic: if you're hosting a hip-hop show, having more than one audible mic is advisable -- even if most of the crowd came to see one MC. During one of the opening sets, Long D.O.E. Records artists were constantly forced to pass the mic, interrupting the rapid-fire flows of TNT's Hennessy among others.

International Espionage!, Action vs. Action, and the Hasbeens
400 Bar, May 10
By Andrea Myers

The hooks were out in full force Saturday night. All three bands on the bill at the 400 specialized in crafting catchy, fun-loving rock songs. Openers the Hasbeen were the most straightforward rock band of the evening, and their chunky guitar riffs and powerful vocal harmonies were a great warm-up for the rest of the night.

Though headliners International Espionage! were fun to watch -- the three members dress in black spandex spy suits, complete with masks and red, glowing headband lights, and their stage lights strobe and jut out at severe angles -- the most engaging act of the night was by far Action vs. Action. Lead singer Ben Krueger is an unlikely pop star, all beard and brawn and wielding an inexplicable broomstick that he pretends to play like a guitar, and his voice is downright angelic. Up-tempo songs took on a pop punk edge, while more sentimental and low-key songs like "Hustler," off their 2004 EP Solid State Stereo, neared rock ballad transcendence.

Action vs. Action have a new album due out July 12, produced by Darren Jackson, whose band the Hopefuls will play the AvA CD release party at the Triple Rock.

The Kills
Triple Rock, May 11
By Andrea Myers

The Kills are a sexy band. Singer VV (Alison Mosshart) prowls around the stage like a hungry predator, scanning the audience with a deadpan demon stare that is at once sultry and terrifying, while her bandmate Hotel (Jamie Hince) coolly strums his guitar and mans the drum machine. True rock stars like VV and Hotel have become a rare occurrence in the age of indie rock meekness, and it was refreshing to see the duo take hold of the stage and command the audience.

The Kills: photo by Emily Utne. More in the slideshow.

The duo played a little over an hour and covered material from all three of their studio albums, with highlights that included "Cat Claw," "Love is a Deserter" and "Pull A U." The back of the Triple Rock stage was swathed in a huge white sheet, on which they projected footage of old rock documentaries and concert videos starring bands like the Rolling Stones, Patti Smith and the Ramones, as if paying homage to their influences as they pounded through a set of booming, yelping rock.

Posted by Andrea Myers at May 11, 2008 9:12 PM | Comments (1)

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