Via Google Maps

Taking the Twin Cities music scene's temperature can be simple as heading over to Craigslist. Pull up a chair in the "Musicians" section of the "Community" postings and just listen for a while. Most folks are looking for a bandmate (Can You Sing AC/DC?.... Ladies?) or offering up their production or teaching services. Then there's the case of the 22-year-old West Bank bar/restaurant/venue the Red Sea.

A week ago, folks at the Sea put out a call via Craigslist to find some new bands -- "Punk, Indie, Metal, Rock" to play at the Red Sea, and then the community's collective teeth began to gnash. Anonymously, of course.

While there's hard to find a "right" answer within this back-and-forth of threads -- and it appears that many comments have already been deleted -- it does provide a lot of colorful viewpoints about the approach new bands can take to getting heard, and how venues should handle their business. (A big 'ole typographical [sic] through all of what follows.)

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Photo by Tony Nelson

Kenny Chesney at Target Field, summer 2012

KENNY CHESNEY IS TOTALLY PSYCHED TO PLAY TARGET FIELD AGAIN THIS SUMMER! And he sent us all a totally personalized audio bite to prove it.

See also:
Kenny Chesney is the only musician worthy of Target Field, apparently
Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw at Target Field, 7/8/12
Ten reasons Zac Brown Band will never win us over
Dressing like Kenny Chesney at Target Field could get you booted

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Zac Brown Band
Target Center, Minneapolis
Saturday, November 10, 2012

See also: Ten reasons Zac Brown Band will never win us over

No seriously. See also: Ten reasons why Zac Brown Band will never win us over. Never! Read that, and then you'll appreciate why writing this review of Zac Brown Band's Saturday night Target Center performance is gonna be kiiiiiiinda tough because, well, their bass player read that list that we posted on Friday. And then kinda sent us an e-mail asking if we'd like a pair of tickets to the show. "The downside," he offered, "is that we might win you over."

Challenge accepted!

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Photo by Tony Nelson

Kenny Chesney on his first visit to Target Field in July. Another's on the way...

It is with a cringe that we announce that Kenny Chesney will return to Target Field for a performance next summer. Although the country star was not Gimme Noise's favorite during this summer's stop on his Brothers of the Sun Tour -- also featuring Tim McGraw, Grace Potter and Jake Owen -- that's not the problem here.

For all of the live entertainment that exists in the world, we refuse to believe that Chesney is the only one who can fill a 40,000-capacity stadium in downtown Minneapolis. 

See Also:
Paul McCartney a no-go at Target Field
Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw at Target Field, 7/8/12

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Here's Jet before the crash.

​It might not seem like a big deal that much-maligned Australian band Jet announced their "discontinuation as a group" on Tuesday. Most of the people who will read this post had long ago written off Jet as sell-out, half-assed imitators who got lucky once, but we all know deep down that's not true.

You can say what you will about them (and everyone has a passionate opinion about this band one way or the other), but their breakup is more important than it may seem on its surface. Ultimately it may say more about music lovers/critics/bloggers, etc. as a whole than it does about the four men in the band itself.

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​A couple blasts from the past will be in town this week as the Minnesota Timberwolves play host to the Boston Celtics (featuring our old "buddy" Kevin Garnett) and '90s pop superstar Vanilla Ice. The rapper will perform at halftime of Friday's contest at Target Center.

Although "Ice Ice Baby" is nearing its 22nd birthday and Vanilla was recently given the backhanded compliment of a number six on SPIN's list of pop's 30 most reviled musicians, this song rings out much better than the Britney Spears, 'N Sync and LMFAO the Timberwolves have had on their headphones of late.



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Photo by Mackenzie Orth

​This past weekend, Gimme Noise's Sally Hedberg witnessed what may become one of the defining shows of Atlas Sound's career -- a possible "Judas" moment on the West Bank. In short, a heckler requested the Knack's "My Sharona," and frontman Bradford Cox took this as an invitation to do the song "as interpreted by Faust" for like, an hour. Some people waved chairs, but others walked out. Here's the review.

In a rambling, entertaining interview with Pitchfork, the incensed and endlessly quotable Cox notes "it was one of the best performances I've done since Deerhunter started," and based upon the video of the show, it's believable. "It was a very natural show and the people that didn't like it can suck my dick," he says. And though his verbiage is kind of crude, Cox has a point here.

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Photo by David Shankbone

​Despite what Wikipedia would have you believe, the Thurston Moore solo catalog is fucking immense, and most of it is full-on noise apocalyptic, limited-edition cassette-only recordings of an iconoclast manchild, his mis-tuned guitars, and his atrophied amplifiers wilding the fuck out. I've been in attendance at a handful of Sonic Youth concerts over the years, but never one of Moore's by-his-lonesome love-ins, so I have no clue what those of you planning to queue up for tonight's show at the Varsity Theater are in for.

An educated guess: he'll lean heavy on the sensitive, avuncular abominable-scree tunes from his two Matador LPs, maybe throw in a selection from Psychic Hearts, tease with some ear-splitting improve or the introduction to "Sugar Kane" or something, because even though he's starting to sound his age, Moore's still an asshole at heart.

Regardless of what Mr. Kim Gordon has up his sleeve, Gimme Noise encourages you to beg, bribe, and otherwise con him into performing the following five songs.
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