Caroline, or Change is still playing at the Guthrie, and if you haven't seen it yet -- GO! It's absolutely beautiful.

Set to the backdrop of the civil rights movement, Kennedy's assassination, and the Vietnam War, the musical takes place in Louisiana in 1963. Caroline Thibodeaux, a divorced African American maid who works for a Jewish family, toils away washing laundry in the infernal heat of the underground basement. Noah Gellman, an eight-year-old boy whose mother has recently died, keeps leaving change in his pockets, and to teach him a lesson, the boy's stepmother Rose tells Caroline she can keep the money.

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For more information on the Sky Pesher concerts that I talked about on today's Mischke show, visit this page on the Walker website. In addition to show previews, two local songs were featured on today's Mischke broadcast:

• Peter Mayer, "Brand New Harley"
• Calamity Jean, "Intervention"

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Like deer in the headlights-- Fischerspooner peer into the distant future.

They call it electroclash-- but the fine distinctions that separate electro pioneers Kraftwerk, 80s goth-popsters Depeche Mode, and modern virtuosos like Fischerspooner are so arbitrarily drawn and so fraught with exception that they need not be mentioned in a 300 word blog.

The moral of Fischerspooner's story is that their particular brand of electronic music, which is fused with enough club techno and bleep-bloop new wave that few in attendance tonight will have breathing room to complain, is intensely infectious, thoughtful, and nuanced in a way that all the Justices and Kavinskys on the wrong side of the Atlantic could only dream of being.

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We suspected it wouldn't last long, and the fact that Nathan Williams, the nucleus of the ultra hip Wavves, pitched the hissy fit heard 'round the world on the Pitchfork stage of the Primavera Festival in Barcelona only makes the great undoing a little more wickedly delightful.

Today, Pitchfork reported on a curiously dour Wavves performance at what ought to have been a dream show-- prominently slotted on a second stage that had seen performances by My Bloody Valentine and Aphex Twin earlier in the evening.
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Friday, May 22:
-- 5 Q's with Soundset artist Big Jess of Unknown Prophets
"The Unknown Prophets have been a notable part of the Twin Cities hip-hop scene since the late '90s, bringing their thoughtful rhymes and lofty instrumentation to countless sets since the Bon Appetit days of Dinkytown..."
-- New Estate video, "Insecurity Camera"
-- Bastille Day Block Party 2009 lineup
-- Finnigans shamROCK 2009 lineup

Monday, May 25: (Gimme News)
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Thanks to Chris Riemenschneider over at the Star Tribune for pointing this out: Tonight, the 400 Bar will host an open-stage tribute to former Wilco member Jay Bennett, who passed away suddenly earlier this week. The cover charge is only $1, and things kick off at 8:30 p.m.

See below for a highlight reel of Wilco songs that featured Bennett.
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This is how stereotypes happen.

Last month, an Asian massage parlor in Eden Prairie called Planet Shikoku Rejuvenation Station got busted by undercover cops for alleged prostitution. Check it out.

My first thought was obviously, "Why has my dad been acting so nervous lately?" But then I thought, "What would make cops suspicious of this Asian massage parlor instead of all the others?"

A few days later, I found an ad in a local magazine for Planet Shikoku that answered my question. Word-for-word, here's what it said:

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