​Things are usually pretty quiet in the Twin Cities on Memorial Day weekend -- that is, if you don't count Soundset, Heliotrope, and the Memory Lanes Block Party, three of the biggest independent celebrations of music you can get in town. In fact, I'd say that with those three amazing events, Memorial Day weekend doesn't seem quiet at all; it seems like a non-stop party.

Still, you'd think that with these there events, everything else would shut down, but there's still plenty of other stuff to stumble into this weekend:

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P.O.S at Soundset 2009

Photo by Denis Jeong Plaster

​Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and that means it's time for Soundset 2010 to take over the parking lot of Canterbury Park in Shakopee. Every year, the annual Rhymesayers-sponsored hip-hop festival features a mix of local heroes, classic legends, and up-and-comers who might just be the next breakout rap star. Not simply a show, Soundset 2010 promises to be a celebration of hip-hop culture, featuring visual artists, skateboarders, and breakdancers in addition to the bevy of musical talent that's gracing the various stages throughout the day Sunday.

Here's a quick grab bag of things you don't want to miss:

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Photo via MillCityMuseum.org

​The Mill City has announced its lineup for this year's Mill City Live series, which is a great, low-key way to catch local musicians in downtown Minneapolis at the end of the workday. Tickets to the shows are $5, and include admission to the Mill City Museum from 4-9 p.m.; the performances take place from 6-8 p.m.

Here's the full schedule of performers. Thanks to Catching Sounds for the heads up!
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Photo by Steve Cohen

​Well that was fast... only four days after announcing that Janelle Monae would perform on Friday, July 2 for Taste of Minnesota, the festival has sent out a note that says she canceled her appearance "due to a conflicting European promotion." The Taste promoters say that the Current will announce the remainder of its Friday headliners on the main stage soon; we heard a rumor that the announcement will be made this coming Tuesday.

As always, we'll post updates as soon as we receive them. We're sad to see Monae swiped off the bill so quickly.

​What happened to May? Is it seriously almost coming to an end? If you need a little refresher on one of the busiest music months in recent memory, head over to our Month in Music slideshow, which recaps photos of Gayngs, the Lyn-Lake street fest, Taylor Swift, Dessa, Romantica, and more.

​The Memory Lanes Block Party takes place this Saturday and Sunday on the pavement outside Memory Lanes in South Minneapolis, starting at 3 p.m. each day.

As with past years, the block party organizers have done a great job of lining up a wide range of familiar local acts, from No Bird Sing to Black Audience to Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles. We're hoping they have a bigger tent this year, as it gets a bit hot on the asphalt parking lot when the sun is shining down -- but with all the great talent on the bill it'll be worth sweating a bit and getting the first shadings of a summer tan.

The outdoor portion is free and all ages; the afterparty indoors each night is 21+. See below for the set times for each day.

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Bella Koshka just released a new video for "Matinee," directed by Josh Cragun and filmed in locations like the Uptown Theater, Nick and Eddie, and a Metro Transit bus. The band has just finished mixing their second album, and are expected to announce a CD-release show soon.

​Odd, that a pop star would appear vapid under the microscope. Lynn Hirschberg, longtime writer for The Grey Lady, may be best known for her super smackdown of Courtney Love, pointing out Courtney's drug abuse while pregnant (and which ended with an attempted bludgeoning by an Academy Award). Hirschberg's honesty has made her another enemy, this time as a result of her story on MIA in the most recent New York Times Magazine. Maya Arulpragasam's (in my opinion, transparently facile) image of rabble-rousing revolutionary is severely upended in the piece, MIA coming across as a trendy moth, flitting from one bright light of controversy to another, regardless of context or content. It's harsh, and fascinating, and more than likely true. It's so harsh, fascinating, and likely true that earlier today an incensed MIA sent out a tweet with Hirschberg's cell phone number and a winking pair of punctuations:
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It's been a busy few weeks for self-described SotaRican artist Maria Isa, who recently dropped a video for her new single "Lowrider Mamis (Chevy Lincoln Caddys)" off her upcoming Sip It mixtape, in addition to being filmed and interviewed for an episode of MN Original.

Watch the new video here, which was filmed in St. Paul:

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​
Sami Yusuf this shit is not.

Ostensibly intended as a recruitment tool, these misguided attempts at accessible propaganda are so uniformly awful, unlistenable, and terrifying that you can't help but laugh, or be left in shivers. Sporting eerie appropriations of gangster rap tropes (gunshots-as-ambience, violent braggadocio), footage of marches and infamous mujahadeen, and a truly bush-league Auto-tune, I'm left with the image of the sad sacks sitting solitary, whispering lyrics into a janky Packard Bell, tweaking levels, uploading to Youtube. Gauche.

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