Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

​Bonnaroo has to decided to reveal its festival lineup in tiny increments via social media. Every six minutes on the Bonnaroo Myspace page a new name will added to the list. So far the heavy hitters include Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, and the Flaming Lips performing Dark Side of the Moon.

On a recent episode of KFAI's Rhymesayers-affiliated hip-hop program RSE Radio, local hip-hop duo Big Quarters announced the details for their third album, Party Like a Young Commie. Check out the clip below for more info, and thanks to Midwest Broadcast for the heads up!

​It's bound to be a special night at the Cedar this Saturday, as Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles team up with Big Trouble and a few guest vocalists (David Campbell of E.L.nO., Brian Just, and Matt Latterell and Aaron Schmidt of the Ashtray Hearts) to celebrate, like, all the best songs from all the best romantic comedies. And who doesn't love a flyer that features a cartoon version of John Cusack making one of the greatest romatic gestures of all time? You can practically hear Peter Gabriel streaming out of the little speakers. Designed by Lucy Michelle.

Have a flyer of the week submission? Send your artwork to aswensson@citypages.com.
 

Photo by pinkbelt / P.B. Rage

​We've got a double feature for you today at @Gimme_Noise and @CityPages on Twitter, giving away two pair of tickets at 2 p.m.  First, we have Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche, who is coming to The Varsity on February 17. Lerche is known for his fluid style that spans both pop and jazz, and the Varsity seems a perfect venue for it.

Next up is E!'s late night sassafras Chelsea Handler, who is so in demand in the Twin Cities that a second show had to be added at the Northrop on April 3. This is our third and last giveaway for this particular comedy affair and we expect competition for tickets to the 10:30 p.m. show to be fierce.

​Graham O'Brien's name might not be immediately recognizable, but as a drummer and producer he's collaborated with a sizable portion of the independent hip-hop scene. O'Brien's had a hand in work by Eyedea, DJ Anatomy and Crescent Moon (Kill the Vultures), Kristoff Krane, Kanser, Carnage, and Junkyard Empire, not to mention his most recent group, No Bird Sing, and now he is releasing his first solo album as a beatmaker and producer.

O'Brien sent over an mp3 off the new album for us to share, which you can download exclusively here:

mp3: Graham O'Brien, "RecycleMaker (feat. Kristoff Krane)"

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Imagine for a moment that you just found out -- like two minutes ago -- that you have to plan a benefit event three days from now. It's not entirely crucial that every last attendee be a sequin in the social fabric of your hood, but some of them should be, at least; the others can be nobodies or has-beens. Point is, you've gotta have 80 to 90 people there with some sort of local Q rating. So the texts and tweets fly, the cellies explodes, the mass-emails boomerang, and eventually it becomes apparent that you've managed to convince 80 to 90 people to show up to this gala in three days. Sure, maybe only like 30 of them are big enough deals to draw in the local paparazzi, and the stars are dimming for another 30, and the other 30 might as well be homeless people you bribed to attend with cash and canolis. But you made it happen.

​(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.