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No, just do the former.

According to figures from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, in 2008 there were 35,736 impaired driving incidents in the state. 163 people were killed and 2,896 injured in alcohol related crashes. And during the month of December, over 400 law enforcement agencies across the state have been joining efforts to add extra enforcement to the roads for enhanced drunk driving enforcement.

Not that it's ever a good time, but now's an especially bad time to pull back one too many at your local saloon then crawl into your pickup or on to your riding lawn mower to mosey on home, even if your woman's no longer driving you to drink as George Jones parodies in his 1996 single "Honky Tonk Song."

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It's been a big year for Travis Bos. In addition to holding down frontman duties in local rock act Chibalo, Bos and crew masterfully executed a reunion of the outstanding but abortive Chariots earlier this month.

But now the bitch mother of Bos reunions. The band that made him a local rock property, Song of Zarathustra, announced the details of their reunion show, which goes down on February 27th at the Triple Rock. Head below the jump for all the dirt.

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​(Photo by Mykl Roventine)

Most of the following parties don't have fancy names. So if you are looking for a $100+ event named something like "Sparkle Glass Disco from Space: 2010 is 4 Realz," you probably want to skip this list. However, if you're looking for an affordable (read: free) New Year's party named "New Year's Eve Party" then you won't be disappointed with what you find after the jump. Check out our list and ring in 2010 for free. More >>

New Year's Eve is traditionally a huge night for live music, and a quick glance at the music calendar for Thursday evening is a bit overwhelming. Don't freak out just yet! To help, we've organized a list of our best bets for musical festivities, in order from the priciest options to the most affordable. There's still time to purchase advanced tickets for many of these shows, but if you are the last-minute type of concertgoer most of these options will also have tickets available at the door.

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This just in from our pals in Estate, who are playing a New Year's Eve party tomorrow night with Lookbook, Mystery Palace, and Beatrix*JAR at Sauce Spirits and Soundbar. Just in time for the party, the electronic duo have released a super retro music video for their previously unreleased single, "In the Red." See more info about Estate's New Year's Eve show in our NYE concert guide.

Estate - In The Red from Estate on Vimeo.

Photo by Pahua "PJ" Thao

​In this week's print edition of City Pages (also known as Gimme Noise: The Dead Tree Edition), freelancer Ty Forve wrote an in-depth profile of dance party promotors Kind Beats, led by Hmong DJs Ville Thao and John Vang. In addition to providing descriptions of their dance nights and a history of Thao and Vang's immigrant families, Forve talks about the segregation that exists in the Twin Cities dance community, despite "white parties" and "asian parties" playing essentially the same type of music at the same type of clubs.

From the article:

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Rowland S. Howard was a musician more famous for the people with whom he collaborated than for his own remarkable but largely unheard work.

After three decades of being a musical force, in which time he performed with Nick Cave in Birthday Party, the musical poet Lydia Lunch, and singer songwriter Nikki Sudden, Howard died this morning of complications from a long battle with liver cancer.

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Does anyone else agree that Marty McFly was a little slow to break the tongue kiss with his mother?

If you don't know how to answer that question, you need to go to Club Jager tonight. JagerCon, the posh warehouse district watering hole's weekly Tuesday sci fi party, is screening the bitch mother of all sci-fi blockbusters: Back To The Future.

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​The long-running legal argument over whether St. Olaf College was within its rights to sell its FCC radio license for WCAL to Minnesota Public Radio, paving the way for the creation of The Current, appears to be at an end.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision, saying that SaveWCAL, the group organized to turn back the sale, waited too long to begin its legal action -- the group wasn't even organized until September 3, 2004, about a month after St. Olaf and MPR closed the deal.

From the decision, via MPR:

We acknowledge and respect the loyalty and devotion that SaveWCAL has shown to this radio station. We also recognize that our decision may be unpopular. Nevertheless, we are obligated to follow the law. The district court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that even if SaveWCAL's breach-of-charitable-trust claim had merit and SaveWCAL had standing to pursue the claim, SaveWCAL waited too long to commence an action to set aside the sale of WCAL.

​New Year's Eve is only two days away, have you made your plans for how to ring in 2010? If not, rest assured that we've got you covered -- check out our New Year's Eve concert guide for a complete rundown of the musical events taking place this December 31, and tune into Twitter at 2 p.m. today for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the Lookbook, Estate, Gigamesh, Beatrix*JAR, and Mystery Palace show at Sauce. Admission also scores you a drink ticket and a free glass of bubbly at midnight!

To play, make sure you are following either @gimme_noise or @citypages on Twitter, and watch our tweets at 2 p.m. for a Saucy trivia question.