Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

​(Photo by kevindooley)

Photos by Adam Bubolz

​Chicago's The Ponys draw from a lot of different worlds, a lot of different bins at the cool record store: Jered Grummere and his bandmates take cues from old garage rock, 90's math and noise rock, and even a dash of unapologetic Brit-pop revival. Together they find a center to create amazingly hooky pop songs, which they then step on with more fuzz and guitar squeal than any band should and somehow, it still comes out catchy as hell. After three excellent albums (the most recent, 2007's Turn The Lights Out, on Matador) they're working on new material, and made the drive to Saint Paul to try out some of the newer songs at the Turf Club.

 

Photo by Steve Cohen

​We are pleased to host an ongoing tour diary by Doomtree emcee and solo artist Dessa, who is currently on the road with P.O.S. This is Dessa's first installment.

Last Tuesday, the Every Never is Now tour left Minneapolis in P.O.S's white van. The night before we left, I stayed up late, wrapping cords and folding laundry for seven weeks on the road.  I had a checklist scribbled on two index cards, I had eggs cooking on the stove, and I had a dozen last-minute concerns running through my head. As it turned out, I had very little awareness of what my body was doing while my mind was so preoccupied. I looked down to find that I had wrapped my cell phone in a plastic sandwich bag and was moving to place it in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator.

We had the honor of collaborating once again with our friends at MPLS.TV to bring you this video of our Gimme Shelter benefit. Watch below for interviews with each of the performing bands (including Solid Gold, Mark Mallman, Peter Wolf Crier, and Zoo Animal) and shots of each of the bands performing at our benefit. Thanks again to everyone who made this night a success!

Gimme Shelter: A Benefit For Haiti from MPLS.TV on Vimeo.

Fat Wreck Chords

​Has it been ten years already? The Lawrence Arms, despite only one new full-length in the past five years, celebrate their longevity with a quick-hitting EP: the maturely titled "Buttsweat and Tears." The 7" continues their celebration of alcohol abuse and apathy that has defined their work, while reminding listeners that the band still has the same moxie as when they released A Guided Tour of Chicago a decade ago.

Photos by Jon Behm

​There was more than just music on people's minds Saturday night at First Avenue, as they filled the club for Gimme Shelter: A Benefit for Haiti. Not only were there plenty of great local bands and intriguing artwork on display throughout the night, but all the proceeds from the evening went to support relief efforts in the earthquake ravaged island of Haiti. Normally, such tragic events would cast a somber pall over the proceedings, but the bands and the crowd chose to play it pretty loose, buoyed by the turnout and the knowledge that in our own small way we were making a difference, providing aid to a country filled with people in desperate need of assistance.

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Here's what we know about Harlem rapper Charlie Clips, a priori. Like pre-fame Eminem, he's built a formidable battle-rap rep. He's the newest member of the U.N., Cam'ron's post-Diplomats crew, who will have a posse disc out this spring. (Supposedly. Never hold your breath waiting for rap albums to drop.) He rolls with rappers, singers, and producers whose nicknames are as unfortunate as his is, dudes with bargain-basement b-boy handles like Ice Pig, Hash, Amen, Papers, Max Dollaz, Sev Da Producerr, and, um, Fred the Godson. (That last one is especially regrettable; I suspect he'll change it to something less asinine after explaining dozens of times that his moniker either means "God's son" or "god son," as in "You know Ethyl? I'm Ethyl's god son.")

Here's what we learn from Fully Loaded Clips, his new mixtape: he's not known as "Charlie Clips" because he was made employee of the months running at the local Hair Cuttery. (Also, Chuck? If your iPhone starts blowing up soon, it might not be A&Rs, fiends, or chicken heads; legal reps for Malice and Pusha T may want a word.) He's seen Juice way, way too many times, or, at least, he just won't stop talking about it. His boisterous, hammering-tacks-deep-into-every-last-syllable flow snaps and shanks, hyper-kinetic and hungry, laden with
grotesque, black comedic punchlines that he chuckles at (but not in a stoned-hyena Weezy way).

In short, he easily, effortlessly bests every last forgettable, weedcarrying MC to darken the doorway of Cam's last couple albums and mixtapes, and given his sheer intensity and unbound panache, it's sometimes hard to grasp why, say, Ghostface or Juelz Santana -- whose bellicose, belligerant styles Clips must have studied coming up -- aren't his primary mentors. He does share Cam's golden ear for beats, selecting sweet, soulful bangers full of songbird trills he can riff off of; you'll swear you've heard some of these productions before, though you probably haven't.

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"What do you wanna see?"
"I dunno. What do you wanna see?"
Don't let this happen to you! Here's our guide to the best and worst films playing this weekend.

OPENING

SEE: The Last Station
This lushly scenic drama tells a story of the last days of Leo Tolstoy (a suitably grumpy Christopher Plummer), who apparently was a rich and randy old geezer who fought a love-hate war with his bipolar wife (Helen Mirren). (Edina Cinema)
City Pages: "Mirren waltzes away with the movie."
Star Tribune: 3.5 stars Pioneer Press: 3.5 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 69% positive

​(Photo by tombothetominator)

It's another awesome weekend for people looking for free stuff to do. There's slam poetry with chocolate, live screen printing until 4 a.m., and tons of dance parties.

Photo by Stacy Schwartz

​If you read Gimme Noise, listen to the Current or Radio K, or peruse local periodicals, you've probably already heard about our gigantic benefit show tomorrow night at First Avenue. But just in case, here's that info one more time: Tomorrow night, Saturday, February 6, we will host co-headliners Solid Gold and Mark Mallman, performers Peter Wolf Crier and Zoo Animal, DJs Jimmy2Times and Mike 2600, and a handful of talented local artists at our fundraising extravaganza Gimme Shelter: A Benefit for Haiti.

We've been counting down to the show by featuring a different performer every day this week, and today we're excited to present a couple of very special, exclusive Peter Wolf Crier videos courtesy of our friends at MPLS.TV.