Describing what Martin Dosh does and how it sounds is no simple matter. He's been in more than a dozen bands and shared the studio and stage with a dozen more. He draws on a vast field of musical touchstones. Want the full Dosh experience? We've created something of an online museum of Dosh. You'll find nothing like it anywhere else.

It all starts with a collection of videos, so you can see Dosh doing what he does. Then we have something we're calling Timeline (+ Sound): a look back at Dosh's bands--16 of them--complete with free MP3 downloads, some of them only available digitally here. Next we have a breakdown of what Dosh calls his "rig"--a tangle of instruments and effects pedals. Finally, we've created a sort of Dosh family tree, with bios and links for each of Dosh's recent collaborators. Enjoy! And if you want to see Dosh for yourself, the Walker just added a second World of Dosh show on May 3rd at 11 PM (the first show sold out). And he'll be headlining at First Avenue on June 27th.

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Our favorite flyer this week comes courtesy of All the Way Rider, who is releasing an album this Friday at the Triple Rock. This show was also a Critics' Pick in this week's City Pages.

On the off chance that you don't read any other blogs or just recently discovered the internet -- boy do we have news for you! Prince wowed Coachella attendees Saturday night with a nearly two-hour set that included covers of "Come Together" by the Beatles and Radiohead's "Creep."

Our pal Randall Roberts at LA Weekly reports on his Prince experience:

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It was another huge weekend for local music. Both the Cloud Cult CD release show and the Afternoon Records 5th Anniversary party filled the First Avenue Main Room with local music fans, while the Deaths released a new album at the Turf and the God Damn Doo Wop Band played their first show in ages at the Hexagon.

Here's a rundown of the best sets I caught this weekend:

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Five years ago this week I accompanied the White Iron Band on a trip to Duluth. The resulting article, "Beer-Busted Bladders & Honky Tonk Highs," chronicled 24 hours of inebriation and debauchery. Some of the band members, particularly singer Matt Pudas, were not appreciative of my journalistic efforts. Apparently the WIB frontman had been on parole for some bit of scofflaw-ery and the promotion of his substance abuse habits in a widely distributed weekly newspaper was not a welcome development. Word on the street (or at least from Jack K. Sparks) was that he wished to kick my ass.

But apparently after five years the fatwa has expired, because when I spoke with Pudas on the phone the other day he was in a convivial mood. "Just another day, another dollar for this guy," he laughed.

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Longtime local troubadour Dan Israel has received his first major international press with a 4-star review of his most recent album, Turning, in the May issue of UK music mag Uncut. After nine studio albums and decades spent playing coffee shops and small-scale venues in the Twin Cities, Israel is elated by the sudden large-scale recognition.

"This is a moment to savor," Israel said in an e-mail. "Pretty big stuff for a small potatoes guy like myself." Israel joins the ranks of a handful of fellow local musicians who have received national and international attention this month (see: my previous blog post about local bands-made-good in the month of April).

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Our favorite flyer found floating on the interwebs this week, from the Hey There Cowboy MySpace page:

Photo by Sue Kearns

A one-eyed Buddhist Harley rider and a 70-year-old writing teacher probably seem like an unlikely pairing.

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It's a good time to be a band from the Twin Cities. This month, some of our heaviest hitters have released albums nationally to an onslaught of mixed reviews, including Tapes 'n Tapes, Cloud Cult, The Plastic Constellations and Atmosphere. All of these big releases make me wonder -- are we entering another heyday for Minneapolis music? Is it possible that those fabled 'Mats and Prince-fueled glory days might soon be relived by today's successful local acts, who can seemingly sell out First Avenue in a heartbeat?

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There's a new Elvis Costello record out today. It's not "another goddamn reissue"--it's twelve new songs on an album called Momofuku and you can only buy it on vinyl or download it online. Good night compact disc--into the the sweet dark of sleep for you.

We're celebrating the new by ignoring it. No review, no streaming tracks--just another installment of our Unearthed series, where we rifle around in the City Pages archives and post what we find. This time, we have scraps from an Elvis Costello show at the Northrop on January 16, 1981. Squeeze was the opener.

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