Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

Dangerous chemicals, eye droppers full of water, intense fear of bugs—these are just a few of the things competitive rose growers deal with on a daily basis. In Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Obsessive and Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening master gardener Aurelia Scott describes a click filled with intense competitiveness; a world where gardeners hoard products for fear they will soon be banned from the country due to toxicity, where people attempt to train wild birds to eat beetles off of roses, and where improper pruning techniques could be the end of a season. City Pages took a moment to talk to the author about her experiences with rose enthusiasts in the floral underground.

Fans of local neo-soul band Black Blondie have noticed a conspicuous absence recently: Co-singer and rapper Sarah White is no longer in the group. Meanwhile, her MySpace page features a new song about "leaving to Brooklyn." Reached by phone, White confirms that she plans to relocate to the New York borough in August, along with her boyfriend DJ Don Cuco, of the Current's The Rhythm Lab (89.3 FM). "There's not exactly a huge scene here for black women," says White, who spent six years as one of the few female African American MCs in local hip hop. "Women, we've all kind of competed with each other and not supported each other. I've had people say I make music like a white girl—I got that a lot when I first started. People thought I was trying to jump into a scene that wasn't supporting my race, which maybe it isn't." As the sole woman in the Interlock crew, White recorded an excellent 2004 CD with the group Traditional Methods, Falling Forward (Interlock). She plays her last local show on July 21 at Musicapolis 2007, in the parking lot of the Minnesota Center for Photography, opening for I Self Devine, Kanser, and Omaur Bliss. Update: here.

The Black Keys / The Fine Line / June 28, 2007

Text by Pat O'Brien

Better Than: R.L. Burnside being brought back to life

Ohio seems to be a place where, if you're a band, you want to be from another place and time altogether. Devo wanted to be from the future, Guided By Voices seemed like they would have been more at home in Mod '60s London, and now the Black Keys seem as though they could have sprung whole from the Mississippi Delta, circa 1950.

Melt Banana / 7th St. Entry / June 24, 2007

To a packed house crackling with energy, noisy Japanese art-punks Melt Banana took the stage and tore into their set without introduction. Soon bodies were flailing and flying into each other to the beat of rapid fire rhythmic twists and turns.

Read more of Christopher Matthew Jensen's review, and view more of Daniel Corrigan's photos, in our gallery section!

Rek the Heavyweight / Station 4 / June 24, 2007

Sometimes I read cats wondering whatever happened to Jarobi from A Tribe Called Quest or Arabian Prince from N.W.A. And sometimes I used to wonder myself whatever happened to Spawn: ten years ago, Atmosphere dropped their debut Overcast! as a two-MC outfit, but Spawn—already a veteran—was out of the group by the time their second album came out. After changing his name back to pre-Atmosphere alias Rek and adding "the Heavyweight" for good measure, he basically hit the reset button and started back on the road to making his name all over again.

So while Slug gets the SuicideGirls.com crowd going berserk from coast to coast in big open-air festivals, Rek is pacing the stage in front of a dozen people on a Sunday evening in a venue better known for its metal shows. And even though he rocks a short set—about 20 minutes, wrapping everything up by quarter to 10 (man, everything closes early in downtown St. Paul)—dude gives it his all, looking like he just stepped in off the street with something to prove.

Ever wondered what would happen if the UN invaded the U.S., and France occupied the Upper Midwest? Plymouth resident Michael Mannske has. In fact, he's written a book about it—a "novel of freedom," to be precise—that's set to hit Amazon.com (he's self-publishing) on July 4th.

Inspired by "talk radio" and "history," the author explains, he has set his high-stakes thriller "in the near future," during "the coming US-UN war." Although the book is Mannske's debut, it is part two of a planned trilogy. As we join the action, the nation's president has ceded power to the UN via the "Declaration of Dependence" and the evil internationalists have invaded our shores. A rebel force of true patriots in the "Middle States" (read: Bible Belt) is doing its best to repel the foreign intruders.

Sadly, Minnesota, just a little east of center, is a French protectorate.

"I'm trying to ask a lot of questions," Mannske says, explaining the thinking behind Foreign and Domestic: Campaign II - Battle of the Middle States. "The revolutionaries reached their tipping point at a 14 percent tax on tea. Are there still people out there like that? Where is our tipping point?"

Mike Jones has had many jobs throughout the years—professional masseur, nude model for a local art school, fitness trainer, and body builder. Yet he is best known as the male escort who exposed his client, anti-gay Reverend Ted "Completely Heterosexual" Haggard. Today, Mike Jones can also call himself an author. In I Had to Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall, he details his three-year sexual relationship with the religious heavy-hitter—from the timid early years to the meth-fueled end. Jones also discusses the whirlwind of media that followed, as well as how his personal life and temperament enabled him to excel in his many careers. City Pages took a moment to speak with him.

Ryan Adams / Cedar Cultural Center / June 18, 2007
Text by Andrea Myers | Photos by Daniel Corrigan

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals played a low-key set at the Cedar Cultural Center Monday night. At least, I think that was Ryan Adams. Unfortunately for those hoping to see the alt.country star live and in person, Adams requested that the Cedar's lights be kept painfully low, making it difficult to see his face or even where he was on the stage. Adams joked about the lighting throughout the set, peering out from behind his sunglasses and pretending to shoot at the barely-glowing spotlights above the stage.

Read more of Andrea's review and view photos by Daniel Corrigan in our gallery section!

If the guitar isn't actually there, does the player make a sound? Minnesotans have the opportunity to find out Saturday night when the U.S. Guitar Championships come to the Varsity Theater. No rinky-dink operation, the tour have been to places like Washington DC and New York, and will continue on to Los Angeles and Houston, culminating in the prestigious World Air Guitar Championships in Oulu, Finland. City Pages took a moment to chat with Kriston Rucker, cofounder of the U.S. Championships.

It was fairly dark inside the Foundation, and I don't entirely trust my judgement in this particular department, but if I were to hazard a guess at the median age of the attendees at Thursday night's Slick Rick show at the Foundation, I would have to aim for roughly 30. You could be half the headliner's age and still get in to the 21+ show, and most of the people there who knew all the lyrics to "Children's Story" (more on that shortly) were closer to the kid's age than Uncle Ricky when the song first dropped in 1988.

So the overall vibe for the show was aimed in a general "old school" direction, though the specific delineation of said oldness (and schoolness) grew a bit confused over the night. A psychedelically distorted print of 1982 hip hop cinema classic Wild Style was projected on the makeshift bedsheet screens flanking the stage, but the between-sets DJ stuck to the typical '89-'96 timeframe, and Slick Rick's warmup DJ presented a chronologically-jumbled succession of '80s hits—including "King of Rock," the track where Run-DMC declare that they're "never ever old school."