Illustration by Jeffrey Alan Love

​In addition to this week's cover story about Bon Iver, we have a somewhat unusual piece in the music section of the paper this week: A comparison of two online music hosting sites, SoundCloud and Bandcamp. You may recognize the names of these companies already, but what Loren Green delves into this week is which services local musicians are finding the most useful, especially as MySpace continues to lose popularity amongst artists and people are searching for new low-cost (or free) ways to share their music online.

More >>

​In a collaboration designed to make heads melt, Jack White's Third Man Records just announced a new project from the former White Stripes frontman. It turns out that "The music collaboration you have all been waiting for," according to a ridiculous promo video, is White's new partnership with Juggalo beacons Insane Clown Posse. And because that isn't outrageous enough, the new project is ICP "covering" an "undiscovered" (may as well just put everything in quotes here) Mozart canon called "Leck mich im Arsch."More >>

​Bradford Cox has a way of sneaking up on his fans. News of impending Atlas Sound and Deerhunter releases tends to hit the wires just after we've ceased to wonder what's next, when it will come, or what form it'll take.

Then? Boom. New product.

So 4AD will issue Parallax, the third official/studio/press-campaigned LP from Cox's Atlas Sound solo project, on November 8. And "Terra Incognita," which Pitchfork has for download, is the first offered track or single.

(Is there a difference between the two anymore unless you're Beyonce or something? Serious question.)

Oh, the song? It's decent, you know? Gimme Noise likes it okay.

More >>

Photos by Anna Gulbrandsen

​Ke$ha
Tuesday, August 30
Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul

As I was preparing to go to the Ke$ha concert tonight, I found myself in a mild crisis. Having not really paid attention to the artist beyond her video for "Tik Tok" (where she wakes up in a bathtub with a bottle of Jack Daniels) and the whole feather-hair-extension thing that she kind of started, I started to question how much I actually valued my own time. Was I really about to spend an evening of my life watching a juicy young thing with seemingly no filter trounce around in lingerie whilst surrounded by screaming, glitterified teens?

Yes. Yes I was. It would be a social experiment. A pop-music analysis. There were actual points of interest, at least: Would Ke$ha sing at all? How much glitter, actually, would there be? Would Ke$ha really bring the party?

More >>

Photos by Nick Wosika

​TV on the Radio
August 30, 2011
First Avenue, Minneapolis

This show could have gone differently. It could have been a mournful, depressing set and few people inside First Avenue on Tuesday would have faulted TV On The Radio for it. This was a show that had been rescheduled from when TVOTR canceled their tour temporarily this past April, following the passing of multi-instrumentalist Gerard Smith. But TVOTR was in no mood to mourn at all.

More >>

​True to his name, Bassnectar creates music that's tailor-made for fans of the low end. The Santa Cruz-based dubstep artist and DJ has earned a reputation for putting on a killer live show, complete with light shows and wall-rattling, tempo-shifting sounds, and his first headlining festival last year drew in performers like Dan Deacon, Emancipator, and the Twin Cities' own Brother Ali.

When Bassnectar comes to Minnesota next month, it's sure to be a hell of a party. He's set to perform on Friday, September 30, at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and we want to send five of our readers and their friends to the show for free.

More >>

​"I was already into punk rock when I heard this song," Craig Finn says before playing the Hold Steady's version of Huey Lewis and the News's "The Power of Love," reassuring the internet that they don't actually like it all that much. "It's like 'Glory Days' by Bruce; it may be a good song, but you can't tell."

More >>

Photo by Graham Tolbert

​It's been less than a month since we first learned that Roma di Luna would be disbanding, and already Channy's new project, Polica, is moving full steam ahead. Today, the group unveiled two tracks, "Dark Star" and "Lay Your Cards Out," which are both streaming on their just-launched website.

More >>

​Jason Reeves, modern poet and what some may call the musical Eckhart Tolle, never ceases to grow and spread his positivity through music.  In his most recent release, The Lovesick, Reeves weaves modern folk with his pop flavored music, sharing his growth and maturity since making a name with his debut album in 2007. 

With so many emerging singer/songwriters wielding a guitar, Jason can easily get lost amongst the congregation were it not for his willingness and ability to break out of the mold and collaborate with the likes of Nicki Minaj in "Moment 4 Life."  The Iowa native shares with Gimme Noise his thoughts and the process that went into the creation of The Lovesick.

More >>

​Gimme Noise and the greater world are in general agreement on at least one thing: it's important to honor the dearly departed, to celebrate the legacies left behind, the artistic and humanistic heights scaled, et al. But it's equally important to let the dead rest in peace, because while paying tribute to an icon once, twice, or twenty-thousand times may help keep that person's spirit alive, it isn't gonna bring him or her back. Even Sublime tribute bands and the clubs that routinely and inexplicably host "Sublime tribute nights" - hopelessly stoned and out of touch with post-1996 reality as they surely are - know as well as Kurt Loder does that the re-animated corpse of Bradley Nowell won't stumble out of the shadows during "Too Joints" for a monster bong hit. Why? Because Bradley Nowell is stone dead.

You know who's also dead and not coming back, ever?

No, not Elvis.

Michael Jackson.
More >>