The elusive Chickadee Mountain Martyrs.

This town is full of secrets. Some are benevolent (Hidden Beach). Some are rather dark and seedy (Lee Lenore's Sauna House). And some have no right to be kept in the first place.

That's the case with Anders Ponders, the Minneapolis-based solo songwriter who performs tonight at Big V's. A sort of Andrew Bird in miniature, Anders Ponders performs with a miscellany of stringed instruments and a loop pedal, with which he rapidly builds elegant, complex loops that support his delicate vocals.

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We just got super-secret word that Atlanta phenom DJ Klever is coming back to Minneapolis for a Scion show at the 7th Street Entry on June 2nd. If you don't know Klever, you should make moves to do so immediately, as his track selection and stage personality easily makes him one of the top 10 DJs in the world. In fact, Klev has won the DMC battle DJ championship title twice in the early '00s.More >>

DJ TRL in action, photographed by massdistraction (please note the rhyme).

Despite being one of the coziest, most inviting spaces in the Twin Cities (and, based on how many people are still unaware of its very existence, one of the best kept secrets), the basement lounge of the Turf Club is a low ceilinged, warmly lit place to nip away for some quiet face time when the show upstairs becomes a bit too much to handle on a Thursday night.

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Private Dancer, plus saxophone.

It isn't every day that special boys and girls have a very special birthday. But that's just what tomorrow at the Turf Club will be. Surely you remember all those "special" afternoons you spent at Circus Circus, mouth agape before the animatronic band sang you a birthday tune between Billy Joel covers, their robotic joints grinding under all that molded rubber.

Well, turns out not much changes when you hit double digits. Birthday Suits, Private Dancer, Leisure Birds and The Danforths will take the part of those lovable, gifted mechanical animals to give a certain someone a very, very special day.

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Twin Cities News:
-- Audio & video of Prince's recent interview with Tavis Smiley.
-- The lineup for the State Fair has been announced; included are Kelly Clarkson and Kid Rock.
-- Huffington Post, Pitchfork and Culture Bully has a review of Bob Dylan's new album, Together Through Life.
-- Spinner features Ice Palace in the site's Free MP3 of the Day feature & MN Daily has an interview with the band's Adam Sorensen.
-- How Was The Show has a review of Peter Bjorn and John's recent Fine Line show.
-- Sound Verite' has a new Mouthful of Bees track.
-- Gimme (yesterday's) Noise: 501 Club grand opening this Friday & A New York minute with Junior Sanchez.
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Lookbook at First Avenue, photographed by trikno.

Why is it such a mental stretch to picture Lookbook, the outstanding local electro two-piece, perform with drummers (that's right-- plural) and a bassist?

Well, it could be that, up until now, the synthesized backdrops to Maggie Morrison's voice and Grant Cutler's guitar have filled the bill so very nicely. In fact, the band's whole conceit seemed to imply that, when it comes to an eerie, icy reproduction of 80's synth balladry, all those analog trappings are needless encumbrances.

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Photo by dave_7

As if deadly pig-borne murder-flu, Air Force One's 9/11v2.0 false alarms and the continuation of the unfortunate tendency for Michele Bachmann to say things weren't enough, this monumentally stupid and/or shitty week for America has also been accompanied by the death knell of the Pontiac brand. I'm not the world's biggest peeing-Calvin-decal-applying loyalist to any specific make of automobile, particularly one that's perpetrated so many stylistic and engineering atrocities over the last couple decades. But as a pop-culture junkie, there's two permanent losses that come with the demise of Pontiac that'd make my 10 year-old self weep profusely. The first loss is the Firebird, which even the most gearhead-illiterate would recognize as being immortalized in Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Rider, though it's also entured in less-famous fare like Radio Birdman's garage-punk anthem "455 SD" and the not-actually-that-good 1976 David Carradine film Cannonball. The other loss stings just a bit more, though: the GTO, the vehicle that invented the "medium car/absurdly large and powerful engine" muscle car trend that peaked in the late '60s/early '70s, is also no more. And even that model's recent attempted revival didn't manage to capture the American imagination in the same way that the recent retro Mustang, Charger and Camaro did, it leaves behind its own legacy of cool. It's the car Iggy drives in "Lust for Life," the model Kool Keith turns into a hook in his bizarro-rap banger "Keith Turbo," the base for the insane Monkeemobile, and the muse for Ronny & the Daytonas' "G.T.O." (a favorite live-set standby of the Replacements and Alex Chilton). And that's not all.

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Though the club has technically been open for a few weeks now, the 501 Club on Washington Avenue will celebrate its official opening this Friday, which is coincidentally May 1 or 5.01. Owned by Jarret Oulman, who also runs the 331 Club in Northeast, the 501 will offer daily drink specials, cheap eats (nothing on the menu is over $10) and live music almost every night of the week. Like the 331, the 501 club shows will be free and 21+. More >>

"Okay, so there's this crystal skull, right? And when you put it on, you become a monomaniacal wizard who's trying hunt a giant immortal white whale. Only you're not really a wizard-- your a walking fire-breathing ant creature trying to kill God. Oh, and it's a musical."

If someone were to pitch Mastodon's career as a feature film, it might go something like that. Keeping track of exactly what concept (if such a wild ketchup of disparate ideas can be called such a thing) is a dizzying, surreal enterprise that will test the patience of even the highest level fighter-mage. But whether or not you give a damn about the narrative they weave, Mastodon has emerged as one of the great thrash acts of the 21st century.

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