With Olivia Lavecchia

In honor of last week's cover story, an oral history of the CC Club, we asked readers to submit their own stories from the landmark south Minneapolis bar. You did not disappoint. We ended up with a couple dozen tales of booze-fueled shenanigans, ranging from dates gone awry to bar fights and projectile vomiting. Here are the 10 best (in no particular order):

SEE ALSO:
Cover: An oral history of the CC Club
Extra: An oral history of the CC Club jukebox

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The bar back in the 1950s, when it was still the CC Tap and offered live music and dancing.

With Andy Mannix

When David Prass bought the CC Tap in 1974, it was a 3.2 beer joint that had live music and a stage. Prass re-named the bar the CC Club, and transferred the liquor license over from his father's old bar. Along with the booze came new restrictions on the kind of entertainment the CC could offer, including no more bands. But the bar could still have a jukebox.

Over the next decade-plus, as the CC Club became the center of Minneapolis's rock scene, its juke became legendary. The employees at the record store across the street would walk over with new records, and the bands who hung out there, including the Replacements and Soul Asylum, would drop off their singles to be added into the rotation. The juke became symbolic: If it was still playing, the bar was still swinging (several stories begin with some variation on, "It was like 1 o'clock, the jukebox hadn't been turned off yet..."). And if a local band's CD showed up in the juke, it was a sign they had made it.

About two years ago, the CC traded its carefully curated old jukebox for a digital one that can play thousands of songs. The greater catalog has meant increased revenue for the bar's owners, but also the feeling that, as Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner puts it, "That era is gone."


See Also:
- COVER: Here Comes a Regular: An Oral History of the CC Club
- Slideshow: Behind the scenes: The CC Club, an oral history
- Best Jukebox 1998 and 1999

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Nick Wosika

The Micranots

This season marks a monumental occasion for seminal Twin Cities hip-hop duo the Micranots. Along with the announcement of a one-night-only reunion show at 7th Street Entry this March, as well as the upcoming digital release of their 2000 album Obelisk Movements, it also marks the ten-year anniversary of their first Rhymesayers offering, the re-release of their Return of the Travellahs album, which originally dropped in 1996.

Gimme Noise spoke to members I Self Devine and DJ Kool Akiem about looking back on the project a decade later and what exactly made the Travellahs return.

See Also:
Micranots Break Up
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Destiny's Child

Last week, thousands flocked to the Xcel Energy Center to witness the 2012 incarnation of what's become one of Minneapolis' most dependable pop music traditions. This year's KDWB Jingle Ball, featuring Owl City, Train and Psy, not only filled concert-goers with holiday cheer but stood as a fun snapshot of the year's pop landscape.

It's interesting that, for a show that's become such a big deal, information on past Jingle Balls is becoming increasingly more difficult to find. While the show has historically acted as something of a pop music time capsule, once all the souvenir shirts are faded, future generations will have a challenging time deciphering which acts played each year! It is with tomorrow's music historians in mind that we at Gimme Noise would like to look back at the 2002 Jingle Ball lineup using the only resource we could find, a 2002 Blogspot Entry written in the early days of social media. It is with the post's author, Livvi'i, as our guide that we bring you to December 9, 2002 for a look back at KDWB's Jingle Ball 2002.

See Also:
KDWB's Jingle Ball at Xcel Energy Center, 12/4/12
Slideshow: Jingle Ball 2012: Psy, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran, Train & more

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Har Mar Superstar

It's hard to believe a decade has past since local soul treasure Har Mar Superstar (AKA Sean Tillmann) went from cult favorite to international sensation with his titanic sophomore album You Can Feel Me. This month marks ten years since its initial release, and it seems the industry is still playing catch-up to the ahead-of-its-time record.

We spoke to Har Mar, who is currently working on a new record due out in March, to reflect on what went into the making of You Can Feel Me, as well as his feelings on it today.

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Photo by Jonathan Mannion

See Also:
Cover Story: Brother Ali in His Own Words
Brother Ali: The day I met Cornel West

This week, hometown hero and indie rap superstar Brother Ali unleashes his new album Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color. Declaring that it's not only a new album, but a new chapter in his career, we decided to mark the occasion by taking a look back at the best lesser-known jams that the big Brother has in his catalog. Like our rare Slug songs piece a few weeks back, we stuck to the rules of choosing nothing originally found on ANY official Brother Ali commercial releases. Here's five of the dopest deep cuts of his we could dig up.

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Photo by Erik Hess (More shots here.)

Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello rallies against another Wisconsin Republican, Scott Walker, back in June.

See Also:
Paul Ryan's Rage Against the Machine love is destined to be unrequited
Rage Against The Machine: The Battle of Minneapolis, part deux
Brother Ali to join Tom Morello at rally to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Big shock: The revelation that Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan likes Rage Against the Machine didn't go over well with the members of the band. Gimme Noise predicted this earlier in the week. In an op-ed with Rolling Stone, guitarist Tom Morello affirmed that the Wisconsin Republican "is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades."
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Flipp's Brynn Arens

This week marks 10 years since the national release of Minneapolis rock heroes Flipp's Volume. Known for their incredible promotional stunts, the band celebrated the release by playing full concerts in three lucky fans' garages in one day. I happened to be one of those lucky fans. Ten years later, I had the chance to sit down with the band's frontman Brynn Arens (who now plays in the OddFathers) for a look back at Flipp, Volume and their wild rock and roll rollercoaster.

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​Dust off your vinyl copies of Led Zeppelin IV and crank up "Stairway To Heaven," for the most commercially successful album in Zep's storied history turns 40-years-old today. The album, which never technically received a title from the band (hence all the various fan generated titles for the album -- , Four Symbols, ZoSo, etc...), is the third highest selling record in U.S. music history, selling well-over 20 million copies in the States alone, despite the fact that the band name was deliberately left off the album cover.

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The incomparable Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell turns 68 today. And while her own stirring music certainly stands proudly on its own, some of the most famous recordings of her songs have been done by other musicians. The list of artists who have covered Mitchell's songs over the years is a long and curious one (Leonard Nimoy, Jim Nabors, and Robert Downey, Jr.), but there are indeed some great covers of Joni's songs to be found out there. And for her 68th birthday, we've collected a few of the best in celebration of her impressive, inspiring career. Happy birthday, Joni!

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