Photo by Erik Hess

Although 18-year-old songwriting phenom Zach Sobiech left us too soon, his song lives on in more people's lives than ever before. On Monday, his family announced that he had died, and ended several years of battling a rare strain of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. As the news spread, so did his inspirational acoustic track "Clouds."

Now, Sobiech's song has reached the top spot on iTunes -- above Macklemore, Daft Punk, and Justin Timberlake. According to Billboard, the song could sell as many as 200,000 copies this week, which would land it somewhere in the Hot 100 chart's top 20.

See Also:
"Clouds" songwriter Zach Sobiech has died
SoulPancake releases Zach Sobiech documentary
Zach Sobiech: I hope a music career doesn't change who I am
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Photo courtesy of the artist

Adam Svec

Indie singer-songwriter Adam Svec is super brainy. For one thing, aside from the whole music part, Svec is in the final stages of completing a Ph.D. in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, and he regularly slips phrases like "well-vetted" and "why-esque" into normal conversation. Maybe that's what makes the music of his new band, Proofreader., so interesting: the songs are conscientiously intelligent, embedded in a vibey electronic landscape with a soulful backbone.

Proofreader. started with beats that Casey O'Brien and Graham O'Brien had created together -- little ideas that needed words and a vocalist. A relationship had already been forming between the O'Briens and Svec, who are all members of the indie/hip-hop improve group Coloring Time, since early 2011, when Graham remixed "Wolves in Milwaukee" from Svec's sophomore solo album Rarefaction. The two were together again for Svec's third release, Weaks in the Waves, and Graham was already having thoughts about another partnership.

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While anticipation builds (and ticket prices fall) for Prince's two Saturday shows at Myth this weekend, the Purple One dropped a brand new video for "Fixurlifeup," a grungy, funk-fueled track drawn from his current collaboration with 3rdEyeGirl, which is currently available for digital download via iTunes by NPG Records.

The clip, which was directed by Sanaa Hamri, features plenty of live footage from a spirited recent performance, with many of the track's somewhat pedestrian lyrics included so that fans can sing right along with the Purple Yoda and his all-female band. There's even a slightly cringe-worthy image of Prince buttering some toast along with his lyrics that take a slight political dig at the U.K., before the track erupts with another of Prince's typically potent choruses that preaches rapid self-betterment.

See Also:
Prince to play at Myth

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Named City Pages' Best Hip-Hop Artist of 2013, Minneapolis rapper Greg Grease has embraced high-concept inspiration throughout his burgeoning solo career -- a Laurence Fishburne movie, the mighty wordsmith Shel Silverstein, and now, one of the first successful black singers, Nat King Cole.

Last December, 26-year-old Grease dropped a surprise entry into the race for 2012's finest local album that has ruled much of this year too. Cornbread, Pearl, and G loads up on intricate lyricism, and basks in soulful production that crackles and warms you like a campfire. With this spring's Black King Cole EP, a few more folks saw him coming, but its off-kilter electronic beats show a guy who isn't ready for a specific niche just yet. Want more proof? He's hopped into performances with Marijuana Deathsquads lately, and heads to New York for a show with them in June.

Greg Grease has energy on the brain. Not only does the astute man say the word a lot in his sit-down conversation with Gimme Noise at Studiiyo 23 in Uptown, but "Black King Cole" and "Spectacular," featuring Mike Mictlan, are expressions of someone who obviously can't slow his creative churn. Read below about how Grease's day job inspires his work, how his father taught him to dissect hip-hop, his punk past, and get a taste of what he's bringing to Soundset this weekend.

See Also:
Greg Grease grows up, smooths out: Cornbread, Pearl and G hints at heavier, tongue-twisting lyricism
Greg Grease "Cornbread, Pearl and G" Release Show, 7th St Entry, 12/14/12

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Artwork by Chris Strouth

Makes No Sense At All captures the visions, ramblings, and memories of Chris Strouth, a Twin Cities-bred master of music, film, and everything else.

Disco has gotten a bad rap, in spite of the fact that a lot of commercial rap is based on disco. People love to tell you disco sucks and they only listen to techno, or funk, or any of the other cousins of disco. The reality is that not only does disco not suck, but it has been the third tine of the trident of popular music, next to alt-rock and hip-hop. It's the throbbing 4/4 behind every dance hit, and the base of every boy band. We just call it pop so that no one imagines white polyester suits and black satin shirts. Folks like LCD Soundsystem and Har Mar Superstar might take a tongue-in-cheek approach, but whenever you hear a four on the floor beat -- as opposed to the 4onthefloor -- it's disco coming out to say hi.

It's pretty rare in this millennium for the release of any record to be a particularly big deal. We saw a little wave of it earlier this winter when David Bowie released his first record in a decade. That may have lit up the fan boys, but the announcement of a new Daft Punk record seems to have lit up the world. Everywhere you go, people are talking about it, in a way that almost makes it feel like the '90s, when people would line up outside a store to buy a record at midnight the way they do now for Gears of War sequels.

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Photo by Denis Jeong Plaster

Last month, I put together a list of the ten greatest rap battles of all time for our sister paper, LA Weekly. Included on that list was Twin Cities hip-hop icon Eyedea's unforgettable 1999 Scribble Jam finals with Freestyle Fellowship member P.E.A.C.E. My inclusion of it led to something of a debate as to which Eyedea battle was truly his best. While the late Eyedea was much, more more than just a battle MC, his legacy of utter domination within the battle circuits cannot be overstated or ignored.

With Soundset this coming weekend -- a stage that he loved and that loved him back -- is in remembrance of his accomplishments that we look back at Eyedea's five greatest freestyle battles.

See Also:
Blueprint: I'll be onstage at Soundset for almost 10 hours
Soundset 2013 lineup: Atmosphere, Snoop Dogg, Mac Miller & more

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We're ecstatic to announce that Gimme Noise is the exclusive launching pad for a brand-new music documentary series. One Men delves into the lives and inspirations behind a grouping of one-man bands performing here in the Twin Cities. It's This American Life for lounge lizards.

These compelling stories come courtesy of former Drinking With Ian host Ian Rans. Shot and produced solo, Rans's show takes the one-man idea seriously for these touching, funny, and wide-reaching biographical sketches. In its first installment, we're whisked to the Hunan Garden in St. Paul for Ray Evangelista's 20-year Thursday night residency. Heck, if you love what you see, you should go check him out tonight!

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Photo By Jennifer Gullickson

Bush
With Bloodnstuff
First Avenue, Minneapolis
May 22, 2013

In the mid-90's, most music fans who passionately experienced the rapid rise of the grunge movement firsthand viewed bands like Bush, Stone Temple Pilots and their ilk with skepticism, painting them as illegitimate knockoffs who were just capitalizing on a scene that they would forever be outside of. But there was ultimately no denying their commercial success and legions of fans throughout the world. And now that enough time and distance has passed, and those unsettled adolescent territorial fires have dimmed just a bit, the songs are ultimately what endure, not where you came from or when you broke big.

And Bush clearly have plenty of undeniable anthems that still resonate just as potently with audiences today as much as they did when they dominated U.S. radio and the pop charts nearly 20 years ago. The one-time London quartet, led by the exuberant Gavin Rossdale, delivered all of those hits and more during their entertaining 90-minute set which found the band finally making their First Avenue debut while connecting intimately with their dedicated fans who have stuck by them all of these years.

See Also:
Bloodnstuff release new album

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Local Frames is a weekly column spotlighting the best new music videos featuring musicians and directors with Minnesota ties.

This week launch right into the festivities with a new, erotically charged Atmosphere video, released to get people even more hyped for the big Soundset Festival taking place this Sunday -- which of course will be headlined by Slug and Ant and whatever specials guests the gang brings along with them. We've also got a gorgeous, stop-motion animated clip for Trampled by Turtles, featuring the talented exploits of the Media Arts Department of Bethany Lutheran College. There have also been some great in-studio performances in town as of late, with Free Energy and Greg Grease both rocking the local airwaves with terrific live sets. We've also got new videos from On An On, BNLX, Chad Erickson & The Untimely, a Sofar Session featuring an unreleased new song from Bad Bad Hats, a tour diary of sorts from Kaivama, and a lovely Pandora Whiteboard Session from Low. Enjoy!

See Also:
Top 10 must-see Minnesota music videos this week (Har Mar Superstar, Southside Desire, Hardcore Crayons, and more)
Top 10 must-see Minnesota music videos this week (Is/Is, Marijuana Deathsquads, the 4onthefloor, and more)

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Photo by Steve Cohen

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum at First Avenue in 2012

Looks like 2013 is the year that music finally gets to live and breathe in Target Field. The Minnesota Twins' gorgeous downtown park has announced plans to host the Skyline Music Festival on Friday, July 26, featuring hometown heroes Soul Asylum. This is dubbed "The LP tour," so each band will play its most cherished album in its entirety. Expect to hear Grave Dancers Union from "Somebody to Shove" to "The Sun Maid."

Filling out the classic alt-rock bill are Matthew Sweet performing his essential album Girlfriend and Big Head Todd and the Monsters performing Sister Sweetly. Plus, another local treasure, the Gear Daddies, will also be along. This comes not long after Target Field opened its doors to an extensive list of local acts for its Midwest Music Showcase series, and it finally feels like a place where music fans can settle in.

See Also:
Twins Midwest Music Showcase series features P.O.S., Trampled By Turtles, the 4onthefloor, and more
Review: Soul Asylum at First Avenue, 7/20/12

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