City Pages intern and budding model Mary O'Regan leads us through the Marlboro smoke and empty Diet Coke cans with a photo diary chronicling her experiences modeling for the upcoming Voltage Fashion Amplified rock and fashion show on April 11 at First Avenue. Check out the first installment here, where Mary gets measured, checks in with Voltage producer Anna Lee, and struts her stuff (looking "fierce") before the icy stares of the judges who will decide if she stays or if she goes.

The Beatles—what a bunch of slackers. In eight years, the Fab Four released just 10 hours of recorded studio music. The Clash released only seven hours in six years. Now a local indie-pop band has put those layabouts to shame. Since January of 2004, Army Defense has released 25 hours of original music. To be fair, the late, great schizophrenic Chicago rock singer Wesley Willis might well have recorded twice that amount during his ten-year career—but his songs were more or less musically interchangeable. The five members of Army Defense, by contrast, write melodies unique to each tune, and at least one out of every couple hundred is pretty good. The quintet's latest and 20th album, 77 World Tour, contains 10 CDs and 191 songs, each titled after a different country—though the lyrical connections can seem tenuous (visit www.armydefense.com to listen to the band's music). "We sent the idea of the album to Guinness [World Records Limited], and they sent back a form letter saying they reject our attempt to break a record," says Dave Lehnen, who records the band in his Golden Valley home. "From their point of view, I guess anyone could record 10 hours of silence and call that an album. But every one of these was a pop song." Local rocker Mark Mallman was similarly rebuffed by Guinness for attempting to claim that his 52.4-hour song "Marathon 2" (complete with lyrics book) was the longest song ever performed.

AD's next project is an album containing a track for every work of Shakespeare, tentatively titled Stratocaster Upon Avon (it's about a quarter finished). Previous themes have included U.S. presidents, movies, "our previous jobs," video games, "places we've lived," etc. The band has never performed live together, but hasn't ruled out the possibility. "We've toyed with the idea of acoustic shows once in a while," says Lehnen. "We could play the World album over ten weeks, in ten shows." Or they could get Mallman to perform their entire catalogue thus far live in one sitting.

*when measured in hours of studio music released to the public

Village Voice Media coastal cousins, Nathan Lee of Runnin' Scared and Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily, will both be live-blogging the Oscar telecast this Sunday night, February 25th. Nikki's already been leaking like the bloated corpse of a drugged-up Hollywood starlet: Will Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas present the Best Director award together? Will host Ellen DeGeneres be dancing with the Happy Feet penguins? Check out more of Nikki's Oscar spoilers here. And log on Sunday night to read Nathan and Nikki's live updates.

A fixture at Nye's Bar & Polonaise Room since accordionists first walked upright, Ruth Adams, leader of the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band, will be feted Saturday, March 3, 8:30 to close. Ruth is a bit under the weather, so the party has been postponed from tomorrow night. Put on your favorite Hawaiian shirt and join in toasting and singing "Happy Birthday" to the one and only Ruth Adams next weekend at Esquire's Best Bar in America.

Kirk Rundstrom, guitarist/singer for the Wichita, Kansas bluegrass band Split Lip Rayfield, passed away today following a yearlong battle with esophageal cancer. He was 38.

From the Split Lip Rayfield website:

"With great sadness we must announce that our bandmate, friend and brother Kirk Rundstrom has lost his battle. Anybody who knew Kirk knew that he had more zest than all of us. He truly had an ethereal spirit. We have been proud and impressed with the way he went out on his own terms. It wasn't easy, it wasn't fair, and it sure as hell isn't right, but he was an inspiration. We love him and will miss him."

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The Spark Festival, the U of M's celebration and exploration of the history, future, and current culture of electronic art, plays host to electronic composer and synthesizer designer Morton Subotnick tonight at the Whole Music Club. He will be joined by local musician J.G. Everest for another installment of Everest's regular "Making Music" interview series. Subotnick is famous for co-inventing the Buchla Synthesizer, pre-dating the more-famous Moog by a year. He later used the Buchla to compose one of the world's first commissioned electronic compositions, The Silver Apples of the Moon, in 1968 (the same year as Wendy Carlos's seminal Switched-On Bach).More >>

The Associated Press is reporting actor/writer/director Billy Bob Thornton, while in Edina to promote his latest movie, The Astronaut Farmer, has stated he wishes to film the movie adaptation of Leif Enger's novel, Peace Like a River, in Minnesota. "I hope we can shoot it there," Thornton said. "I love to shoot movies where they take place, but the studios will have you do it in different places because of the money." Thornton shot another film adapted from a novel, A Simple Plan (1998), directed by Sam Raimi, in Minnesota. "I love that movie, I love it," he said. "That's one of those characters I didn't want to have to stop playing." Peace Like a River, published in 2001 by Atlantic Monthly Press, recounts the struggles of a 1960s rural Minnesota family through the eyes of 11-year-old asthmatic Reuben Land. The author, Leif Enger, was born in Osakis and was a long-time reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio.

Rural North Dakota is a long way from New York City, much further than any map will tell you. But Chuck Klosterman made the trip in record time: After several years spent working as a reporter and critic at small Midwestern newspapers, the Wyndmere native penned a memoir with a hair-band soundtrack (2001's Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota) and never looked back. His fourth book, last year's Chuck Klosterman IV, is a career-spanning collection of smart and funny essays and profiles, from his early days at the Fargo Forum through recent gigs at New York's glossiest mags. City Pages caught up with Klosterman via email a week before this installment of the Current's "Fakebook" series, which pairs him with local hit-makers Tapes 'N Tapes.

 

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The Minneapolis College of Art and Design wraps up their Black History Month programming with a concert this Friday, February 23 by I Self Devine (with DJ Stage One & Budah Tye) with opening acts Muja Messiah, Mazta I, Isis, and Steven Glaze. The free concert is being held on the 2nd Floor College Center at 2501 Stevens Avenue. Peter S. Scholtes on I Self Devine from an August 2005 profile: "For 15 years, I Self Devine has been like the Chuck D of Minneapolis hip hop without a Flavor Flav to balance him—an utterly serious figure who is taken utterly seriously." (I Self Devine photo by Daniel Corrigan)

Where does Britney stack up?

By Kenny Herzog

It seemed like just last month that Britney Spears' only shaved head was between her legs. The upside about her rehab-induced mental tailspin? We got a five minute respite from the Anna Nicole baby's daddy saga. The bad news? Britney Spears finally ruined her last redeeming aspect: her locks. Strangely though, she doesn't look all that bad as a baldie. She's still more attractive than, say, Larry David. And plenty of people would still pay to see her in Playboy. But where does Spears' Kojak turn rank her in the pantheon of women gone bald?

 

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