Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

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Metric at the First Ave Mainroom
Review By Amber Schadewald

Better Than: Hearing Metric on the radio while stuck in rush hour, in
the rain, in August.

Good lord, Emily Haines is one blessed individual: she's a stunner, and
wins over crowds like the Teddy Bear Band wins over kindergarteners. In
contrast to her solo shows, while performing with Metric, Haines has the
energy of a sugar-doped kid, awing the packed Mainroom as she dances in
shimmering tights, itty-bitty dress, and scaled ankle-boots.

In 2005 a New Yorker piece about Craig Finn of The Hold Steady (and the sorely missed Lifter Puller) singled him out for writing songs "as though the point of making music is to communicate." It's a skill for which he has absorbed no shortage of recognition.

This week's CP contains an elegy for Third Ear Recording Studio, which is slated to shut down at the end of this month. As longtime proprietor Tom Herbers cleans house, he's been posting photos taken at the studio over the years on Third Ear's web site. Here's a favorite featuring Joanna James and Chris Koza from 2004:

The MacArthur Foundation announced this year's round of "genius" grants today--and I have once again been overlooked. Apparently the 17 letters of supplication I directed towards foundation president Jonathan Fanton were not persuasive. My daily improvisational works involving box wine, panty hose and Garcia Vega cigars simply won't be able to continue without independent funding.

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Yo Majesty Kill It at the Entry, September 20, 2007
Review by Amber Schadewald

Better Than: Jock Jams at middle school dances.

Glowing like Christmas trees, the hardcore lady rappers of Yo Majesty
traded the usual bling 'round their necks for blinking holiday lights
and took the stage with fierce confidence. A long drive from their zip
code, Tampa residents Jwl B. and Shunda managed to look at home and
fresh, sporting their boy shorts with a peeks of flannel boxers poking
out the back.

The set was fast, loud and way hot. Shunda asked the crowd "Is Yo
Majesty getting you all hot?" The answer was definitely yes. The
combination of Shunda's slick spits, Jwl B.'s barks and their bass
busting beats was perfectly intense. The crowd was small and quiet at
first, but by the end, even the creepy man in the corner experimented
with a few shoulder rolls. One guy who looked like he was wearing PJs
seemed to dance harder than anyone in the room.

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Jamie T and the Pacemakers at the 7th Street Entry
Review by Sarah Askari

Jamie T is this kid from Wimbledon who can't yet grow facial hair but who last month put out a brilliant disc called Panic Prevention, a combination of Mike Skinner-style narrations of nights on the town and ska-exploding, dj-finessed rock songs.

"This song is about being drunk," says Jamie. Um, all of Jamie T's songs are about being drunk--you being drunk, a girl you know being drunk, your mates being drunk, your mum being drunk...I think it's a British working-class thing, no?

The crowd's energy wasn't up to the songs at first--hell, the band opened with "Pacemaker," one the most dancable tracks on the disc--but hands went ceiling-ward at a respectable four numbers in.

Mighty Clyde, The Vicious Lee, Professor BX, and Steve McPherson for City Pages discuss fast food, honor among music thieves, and their place in the local scene.

Vicious Lee: This has pickle and onion, so these ones are yours. The blue ones are mine, and let's just make sure they didn't fuck it up. And you'll be interested to know, White Castle uses the highest grade ingredients of all fast food chains.

City Pages: Really? Where does that come from?

VL: It comes from this guy that told me this thing. He also told me that Parliaments were created so World War II machine gunners could bite down.

Mighty Clyde: And we all know how true that was.

CP: So does this guy have any cred?

VL: None. I'm just saying this is just something I overheard at a bar somewhere and I just decided to adopt it as the truth.

CP: Now, I've had—

MC: I said cheeseburger, dammit.

VL: No cheese?

MC: No! I'll be right back ... uh, I didn't get charged for the cheese.

VL: Then you got no beef, man.

MC:[Gesturing to burger] I've got this very small amount of beef.

CP: So, I've had the frozen kind.

MC: That's a totally different thing.

CP: OK. Now, I was talking to David about this: Onion comes in a ring shape. Chicken does not.

VL: There's definitely some real work that has to be done.

CP: Now, are we sure it's not chicken butt?

[laughs]

VL: Wait, didn't you get any honey mustard for the man?

MC: No man, I roll with ketchup.

VL [disgusted]: We have to wine and dine this man!

CP: So, you guys seem to know a lot about fast food.

VL: It's basically our life's passion.

CP: Because I heard recommendations about [national chain of Southern-style fast food restaurants] and [national chain of Mexican-style fast food restaurants].

Our 2007 best-new-band poll is live. Read the intro, then check out articles on the winners (linked below individually), along with a sobering and insightful piece on the Picked to Click Curse. (For reference, see all previous Picked to Click issues). The numbers following the band names represents how many points each got from the 84 voters (see our complete list of ballots). Thanks to all who participated, and help them spread the word on all the groups named in the ballots. Here's the final tally:

1. Mouthful of Bees, 68
2. Gay Witch Abortion, 34
3. First Communion Afterparty, 29.5
4. Skoal Kodiak, 28
5. Roma di Luna, 27
6. Dance Band, 26
7. MC/VL, 23
8. Baby Guts, 20.5
9. M.anifest, 18
10. His Mischief 17.5

Other artists that received 6 or more points:

Here are the 84 ballots counted in this year's Picked to Click poll, alphabatized by the voters' names. Ballots without numbers attached, or without otherwise specifying an order of preference, were counted "in no particular order," with each choice getting 3 points. (First choices got 5 points, second choices 4, etc.) This year, we also accepted dual ties for 5th place, giving each choice .5 points. Spellings have been (mostly) corrected, and notes are in brackets. Thanks to all the voters! Add your own Top 5s in the comments:

Ian Anderson, Afternoon Records

1. Now, Now Every Children
2. Best Friends Forever
3. Tarlton
4. Rob Skoro
5. Kill the Vultures

Matt Axelson, booker for The Firewall venue in Stillwater

1. Cloud Cult
2. Red Fox Grey Fox
3. Weaver at the Loom
4. City of Sound
5. Now, Now Every Children

Spreading its text thinly and in large type over 68 pages, the glossy debut issue of Twin Cities Radio Magazine is heavy with ads, and articles that look and read like ads, balancing puff pieces on local radio personalities such as Mary Lucia with celebrity Q&As featuring Carrie Underwood and Brother Ali. There's a news item or two here, but don't expect a critical word about the local airwaves--there's nothing that couldn't have been written by the station owners themselves. Sample sentence: "102.9 Lite FM brings you the Most Music all day every day including commercial free hours."

In alphabetical order, here's a complete list of bands that showed up on ballots submitted to this year's City Pages Picked to Click "best new band" poll, which will be published this week:

40 Watt Bulb
A Night in the Box
Abzorbr
Accelerated Love Affair
After the Burial
Akai
Alison Scott
Allison Rae
Alpha Consumer
Andy Ulseth
Ari Robinson
Ashley Gold
Auburn

Fresh off a tour supporting Keyshia Cole, local teenage R&B upstart Auburn Williams hosts a free listening party tomorrow (Saturday) from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Bellanote in Minneapolis, with music provided by DJ Youngstar. Click the above for her video: Can you name that "hood"?

We can't reveal the winners of this year's City Pages Picked to Click "best new band" poll until the issue goes online next week. We can, however, list some of our favorite new band names, many of which rank with such all-time classics as Bone Appetit and the Fuckin' Shit Biscuits. What are your favorite local band names? Here's our list:

To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie (pictured)
France Has the Bomb

Local cult-rock legend Michael Yonkers performs a rare show tonight (Tuesday, 9/11) at the Turf Club, with the Blind Shake and solo, for the "Grimwood reissue party," which also celebrates an avalanche of new and old music releases by Yonkers this year. Christopher Bahn has a wonderful interview with the man in the print edition of this week's Onion (can't find it online), but due to medical issues Yonkers wasn't really sure until more recently that he'd even be able to perform, hence the show's otherwise low profile. (Click here, here, here, here, here, and here, for more background on Yonkers.) Openers include the Plastic Crimewave Sound and Neglected Receptors. This might well be the last time he ever plays. Only $5. Spread the word. Cool photo here, posted here.

This past Saturday morning found me basking in warm weather at Myrick Park in La Crosse Wisconsin; a bit of a jaunt from the Cities but well worth the trip, because it was the main day of the La Crosse Storytelling Festival. The event is in its fifth year, and based on this year's festival, hopefully many more are to follow.

The three featured tellers this year were well chosen and speak to the festival's growing success. Hans Mayer is a nationally-recognized kid's teller and musician from the La Crosse area; his easy smile, silly songs, and googly-eyed faces had the kids instantly howling with laughter.

Flame-haired Celia Farran showed her breadth of talent with a combination of traditional Irish folk tales and persona-driven humor (her Russian-accented, coke-bottle-spectacled nose flautist's rendition of the 1812 Overture a highlight of her performances).

Minneapolis' Kevin Kling has reached significant national success as a playwright and actor; he contributes stories frequently to NPR's All Things Considered. At the festival, many audience-members around me complained of jaws and bellies aching from laughter after his stories of boy scout taxidermy and being struck by lightning.

Here's longtime Twin Cities-L.A. musician Willie Wisely's new video for "Through Any Window," starring Jenna Fischer of NBC's The Office.

Comic artist, bike advocate, vegan, barista and bike messenger-- Eric Lappegard was an active member of many communities around the Twin Cities. Unfortunately, the 28-year-old's life came to a tragic end July 23 following complications from an automobile accident.

Local pet stores have inevitably joined restaurants, clothiers, and clubs in catering to the new rich. Bonejour (at stopdoggynudity.com) in Edina offers designer clothing lines for dogs (Downtown Doggy, London Dog), while LuLu & Luigi in St. Louis Park and Wayzata recently sponsored a canine version of TV's The Bachelor outdoors, selecting bride Pepper Von Cutie Pie from among 100 contestants and wedding her to starring "bachelor" Tony in a formal ceremony followed by a "ruffception." Until funding was pulled, a development at 925 N. 5th Street was slated to house Minneapolis K-9 Condos, a luxury dogcare complex complete with "dog exercise pool" and grooming area. (There are so many other high-end pet services that Minnesota Monthly recently listed the best: including parties, psychiatry, natural food, grooming, mobile grooming, behavior consultation, and photography.)

Until they get their condo, dogs will have to settle for the new PetsHotel, opened by national pet store chain PetsMart on July 31 in Eden Prairie. The care center offers a "Bone Booth" for animals to hear the voices of their vacationing owners. "Just call during lobby hours and we'll bring your pet to the phone if you want to chat," touts the website. Downtown Dogs in Minneapolis, meanwhile, offers a webcam (for you to watch your dog, not the other way around). Unfortunately, neither facility offers pet massage: For that, pooches and their indulgent owners will have to visit St. Louis Park's K9 Hydrotherapy.

As reported here in today's City Pages, "The internet is abuzz with accusations that masked rapper MF Doom, who is on local hip-hop label Rhymesayers, enlisted an imposter to pose as himself and lip-synch recent performances in L.A. and San Francisco." According to the Village Voice's in-depth report, "[Patrons of the San Francisco club the Independent] aren't getting refunds, and neither is the club--absent any proof that he wasn't actually there, a lip-synching Doom wouldn't have violated the terms of his contract, [club co-owner Allen] Scott says, adding that attendees can exchange their stubs for another performance, or return for the rescheduled Doom show on September 18." Here's some background on Doom, plus more at Wired, DJ Enki's blog, two posts in the SF Weekly, Wikipedia, and DUNation.

Note: In other Rhymesayers news, the label is donating a dollar from every presale ticket for Atmosphere's upcoming "Everybody Loves A Clown" tour to a relief fund for victims of the 35W bridge collapse.

Review by Ken Phillips
On Thursday night at the State Fair, Etta James made the wooing ritual of Larry Craig into a new dance move. After introducing it during "I wanna ta-ta you, baby" she rarely encountered a person, place or thing on the grandstand stage without trying to gauge its interest in the manner of a horny senator.
Etta's voice is as powerful as ever, but she could have let it rip a little more often. It seems unreasonable to complain that a cover of "Piece of My Heart" wasn't as raw or loud as Janice's version, but when Etta James is singing it, it really ought to be. She gave us a strong "I'd Rather Go Blind" and a sweet "At Last." But she also gave us "You Can Leave Your Hat On."

Al Green really likes to hear his songs. It would be better if he liked to sing them. At the fair, he held his hand to his ear far too many times. During "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," he said "Sounds just like the record, don't it?" But I don't remember him saying that on the record. And I do remember him singing a lot more of the song. He's an infectiously happy performer, and no one could dance around and throw roses with more charm. The falsetto's still amazing, too. But why won't he stop goofing off and sing? Before he left, he recited a list of hits he wished he'd had time to sing. That hurt-- especially after watching him giggle through something that seemed to be called "Everything's Gonna Be Alright."

When B.B. King came onstage, everything was alright. The King of the Blues put more feeling into every one of his lines than the Reverend had put into any. Did you know that "You are My Sunshine" is a beautiful song? It was on Thursday night. And so was everything else that B.B. sang, and played, and perhaps most notably, said. He's 81, and he knows how tell a story. He made us laugh with one about segregation, then thanked us for making the world such a better place than it used to be. And it was all like that. Whether he was singing "Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too," advising the ladies that the men in "that fabulous group of U2" are handsome and rich, or joking about life as an old man ("When a shark breaks off a tooth, it grows back. At my age, when you break something, it's finished. And some things are finished even if you don't break 'em off,") he did it all with charm and love and beauty. "People talk about 'B.B.'s Last Concert,'" he told us, "Nobody told me." Then he asked us whether, if fate would allow him to come back, we would allow him, too. Our response was as heartfelt as B.B.'s singing.

Show Review by Pat O'Brien
The Xcel Center crowd was only about 6,000 strong last night--just more than half empty--and maybe that should have been a bit of a clue. Velvet Revolver, a band whose members used to be in Guns 'N' Roses (guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum) and Stone Temple Pilots (vocalist Scott Weiland) were exactly who they appeared to be: guys from other, more successful bands. There wasn't much cohesiveness onstage, with Weiland seemingly disengaged from all of the other band members and the rest of them basically phoning it in. Even so, there were a few bright spots. "Fall To Pieces" seems destined to become an anthem of sorts and the set closer "Slither" really jolted everyone to life, though it was at the end of the show and seemed out of place. Most telling, however, was the fact that the show's brightest spots were when VR were playing the hit songs from their previous bands (STP's "Interstate Love Song" and GnR's "It's So Easy" were particularly excellent, though Weiland is no Axl Rose, vocally) and the fact that those songs took up nearly one-third of the setlist indicated that they have some idea about this, too.

The ideas for a big arena-show were there (mid-show acoustic set, Pink Floyd cover during the encore, etc.) but the follow-through was anemic. They resembled an incredibly expensive cover band whose original material is hackneyed, cliched (rain and/or tears washed things away in at least three songs) and just plain bland. If they can play a ton of old material that the fans devour, write a couple of ok songs, and a lot of filler to push the record they can just treat VR like a quick-fix project to keep the money flowing in until something better comes along. The problem with all of that, of course, is if they aren't fully engaged in the band, how is the band supposed to fully engage it's audience?

Bill Nelson is the Director of Correctional Services for Volunteers of America, Minnesota and Founding Director of the Women’s Recovery Center, a residential program for women in the process of leaving prostitution. Nelson is also the founder of the anti-violence agency La Oportunidad, Minneapolis, and adjunct faculty at Brown College. As if that weren’t enough, he farms 150 acres. He was recently featured in a television documentary Prostitution: Beyond the Myths and managed to carve out a few minutes to talk to City Pages.