Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

Photo by Alexander Mussard

​Let's face it: this was a fucked up decade for hip hop. It was a fucked up decade for just about everything, really, but any timespan that starts with both mainstream and indie rap looking bound for a next golden age and ends with a race to write the genre's most fatalist eulogy is one people are going to be puzzling over for a while. And good luck canonizing it - depending on who you ask, hip hop was either defined or destroyed by East Coast classicism, the South's ascendance, R&B/club crossover, international overtures, skinny-jeans iconoclasts or Internet-hyped mixtape phenoms.

If anything characterized hip hop in the 2000s - at least aside from the fact that nobody's ever going to go sextuple-platinum again - it's that nobody could agree on how to define hip hop. So this isn't exactly a definitive 25 best hip hop tracks of the year, at least in the sense that you probably couldn't get most fans to agree on more than, say, half of this list. It's actually more of a cross-section, which is why I decided to limit it to one headlining appearance per artist in favor of getting a bigger picture of the way things went down. And while I personally think all these tracks are classic, I guarantee that every other diehard hip hop fan will find at least one they love unreservedly and one they think is absolute total irredeemable garbage - so maybe that does make this list definitive, in a way.

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It's a given that a good art show needs a good space, and that the best art is often viewed in unexpected places. Just look at Banksy for proof--his work would be infinitely less engaging if it hung sanctioned in the Louvre than it does posted under cover of night on a public wall in London.

Which is why the ongoing art show, curated by Minnesota local art phenom Matt Bakkom, has such a buzz around it. The abandoned lot that once housed Shinders, the powerhouse of local magazine and comic shops, has been hosting an art show of local pros like Bakkom alongside lesser-knowns, like Cecilia Aldarondo and Morgan Adamson.

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When Michael Jackson recorded "This Is It" in 1991, he couldn't possibly have known that he was singing his own death mass. But listening to it today from its stream on Jacko's website, that's exactly how it feels.

The song is a slow jam that recalls his uber-produced ballads from the Dangerous era, which is fitting. Rumors about the song's exact date of origin is up for debate--some claim that it was rejected from the Off The Wall sessions, some claim it was a reject from the Dangerous sessions. Either way, it's a strong showing in Jackson's weakest genre--the lilting, overly composed ballad.

Eyes of Noctum are not happy with Hot Topic's return policy on unused fishnets.

I guess when you're a Coppola you can get away with all sorts of dumb shit. White wine in a can? No problem, Sofia! National Treasure 2? Why not, Nic!

But Weston Coppola Cage must surely be testing his family name as the founder and frontman of Eyes of Noctum, a black metal band currently on tour from Los Angeles. His father, Nicolas Cage, has made some embarrassing career choices in his day (Con Air? Ghost Rider?), but Arcane (Weston's demonic alter ego) gives Nic a little breathing room in that department.

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This weekend the Cabooze (917 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612.338.6425) will host the Log Jam Block Party on their outdoor patio, including some acts indoors later in the evening. The gates open at 1:30 p.m. The show is 18+, with tickets at $25 at the door. Check out the full schedule is after the jump.

Photo courtesy of www.ladysovereign.com

The ever coy Bon Iver.

You know, it makes a little more sense than it might at first seem. Bon Iver and the Indigo Girls are both extraordinarily astute songwriters, even if Iver is a little less formulaic in his stum-n-pick approach. And, let's be honest. With Iver's breakout debut having dropped in 2007, and the Indigo Girls still performing "Galileo" at so many state fair grandstands around the nation, Iver may be a little more, how you say, relevant?

Bon Iver has spent the last couple years harvesting regional fame, stacking accolades and positive reviews like so many sheaves of split firewood. Today, Mr. Vernon (it's what Bon Iver's mother named him) announced his summer touring plans. And it's a big honker. 3 months on the road, with a few weeks in Europe, spots at Bonaroo, Lollapalooza, and punctuated in October with an appearance at the Austin City Limits Festival (in Austin, duh) mean that Iver's days as a reclusive, solitary auteur may be in danger.

Photo by A National Acrobat

It occurred to me, as I wept like a small child to the song "Beautiful Children" at the Jeremy Messersmith show on Saturday night, that I have a small handful of songs that inevitably cause me to get choked up, misty-eyed, and sometimes, if the mood is right, broken down into complete tears every time I hear them.

I call them my crying songs, and they tend to center around the same five or six tunes at any given time. Sometimes, when I'm feeling down, listening to the saddest songs actually make me feel better. Other times, the crying is the best part. A few of my crying songs get me for sentimental reasons, while others are effective just for their beauty or sadness or composition. For the longest time, I thought that this was a strange and deeply personal part of my personality; but recently I've come to realize that many of my friends and colleagues (I won't out you here, but feel free to leave a note in the comments) have their own sets of crying songs.

When we at Gimme Noise first heard "Crack a Bottle" while cruising to the Turf Club on a nice warm March night, our hearts were in our throats. It was a hard hitting party rap track that found Eminem, Dre, and even 50 Cent in top form, exploring off-kilter rhyme structure over a rousing beat.

Then came "We Made You," the shrill, out-of-touch, weirdly uninformed dis track that rightfully withered in the wind under a hot gust of critical derision.

Now comes "3am," the track Em has prefaced as "darker, more serious." Does it live up to Mr. Mathers' previous, emotionally harrowing explorations of murder?

We won't even make you click below the jump to find out. The answer is, "Nope."

Peaches-- you can't imagine how much fun she's having.

Is Peaches the most surprising success in indie rock, or the least surprising? Is her continued popularity a proof of her talent, or of our appetite for a gimmick expertly executed?

Hard to say. If only Peaches didn't make answering those questions so damned difficult. But then, there's never been anything particularly easy about Peaches (with a few notable exceptions, if you get our drift). In any case, it's hard to imagine that anyone, after Peaches' outstanding debut with Teaches of Peaches, would have stuck around for this many years and albums, but today, I Feel Cream hits U.S. store shelves, marking her 4th album and 9th year in action.

You don't have to be a bigshot recording wiz to know what the VU meter is. If you've forced yourself to sit through an episode of VH1's Behind the Music, you've undoubtedly seen a VU meter needle bouncing, likely as a cut-away from the part of the episode where Joe Satriani returns to the studio to record one more time, despite the advice of everyone who knew better.

Developed in 1939 by Bell Laboratories, the VU meter has scarcely seen a day off in 70 years. As a show of thanks for all its hard work, Gimme Noise offers this video dump of the loudest songs ever recorded. These are the works that pushed that little needle further to the right of the dial thingy than anything we can think of. Well, without bursting a brain vessel at 6 in the morning, anyway. Enjoy!

Tax day, the way our founding fathers envisioned it.

Good old tax day. You know, it wasn't all THAT long ago that tax day brought American citizens out of their homes to pitch tea crates into the ocean in a show of protest of some kind.

While Gimme Noise hits the books and figures out just what got everyone so worked up that December morning in 1773, we trust that many of our good readers are stealing peaks at Gimme Noise between frantic grapplings with Turbo Tax and W2's. So, to help make this day a little more cathartic, if not expedient, we kindly offer you a mix of songs to get you through. Enjoy!

Dear Diary,

Ain't no hollaback girl? Gimme Noise begs to differ.

Between serving as Gavin Rossdale's part-time beard and reheating her head-spinning tenure as a pop diva, it's hard to remember that Gwen Stefani was, at one time, the front woman of the most successful ska band of all time.

Granted, many of us might be doing our best to forget those helium-pitched "ska" megahits that polluted our teen years. But the news of No Doubt's reunion sparked rumors that, perhaps, Stefani might at least be distracted enough to quit loudly denying her identity as a hollaback girl.

But sike! The new leaked track covers Adam Ant's "Stand and Deliver," and will have fans and detractors alike cringing between the earbuds.

Eminem gives an unconditional middle finger. To what exactly? Who cares!

Temporal physicists take note-- Eminem's new video for "We Made You," the first single off his forthcoming album, may be the most convincing evidence yet that it is indeed possible to travel back to the past.

Unlike the leaked track "Crack A Bottle," which featured Em, Dre and 50 Cent in a hopelessly infectious track, all three of them rhyming at or near the pinnacle of their abilities, "We Made You" is an unpalatable ketchup of gauche and predictable pop culture quips. Kim Kardashian? Jessica Simpson? For perhaps the first time in Slim Shady's career, the gadfly showed up late to the game, and instead of sniping pop tyrants at their peak (as he did with Aguilera, Moby and Fred Durst), "We Made You" finds Em adrift in an incomprehensible and thoroughly unlikable beat, beating dead horses and picking their skeletons clean.

Dogpiling onto NKOtB is surely the easiest pot shot in blogging, admittedly. When it comes to the New Kids, you can shut your eyes, turn your head, fire wildly and be fairly certain to score a headshot.

But Gimme Noise is never above a good old fashioned target of opportunity. Cull out the sick and the weak and the old, isn't that the predator's biological function? Fortunately, no one can deny that the New Kids fit all three of those descriptors rather aptly. So as they gear up for 34 stop tour that kicks off late this May, they've begun the requisite whirlwind of press appearances, defending their indefensible pasts. Gimme Noise picks the Kids apart for your pleasure on this dreadful Wednesday afternoon.

Bring the noise! Hurra Torpedo in top form.

It's hard to believe that, not too long ago, three lads from Norway were able to dominate the airwaves with a handful of hand-me-down kitchen appliances. But that's what Hurra Torpedo did with their smash cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 2005, which became an instant internet meme that persists to this day.

It should be thankful news to music lovers both critical and casual that the Darkness, the glam revivalists that sparked a nation with their monumental hit single "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in 2003, have selected Hurra Torpedo to be their supporting act on an upcoming reunion tour scheduled for this July.

He's the frowny guy on the far right-- Dave Mustaine in Megdeath.

Okay, all right. Mustaine's boot from Metallica in 1983 does go down as one of the most famously unceremonious firings in the history of rock and roll. To be driven from L.A. to New York on the pretense of recording a new album, only to find your replacement at the station with flying V in hand and all your gear tidily stowed on a Greyhound bound back to California? Ice cold.

But the remainder of Mustaine's career has simply been a painfully long exercise in wrath and bitter revenge that would put Medea to shame. And with his eternal squabbling with collaborators and competitors, Mustaine has murdered plenty of his own children out of sheer scorn (figuratively speaking, natch).

Click below the jump, good readers, and spare us not your outraged fumings. Gimme Noise, without a shred of trepidation, presents 4 solid reasons to roll your eyes at Dave Mustaine.

The hour of reckoning is well at hand for music labels and the Internet providers that, by complicity with rampant music piracy, usher their coffins into the Earth. And in a massive initiative aimed at curbing piracy in China, which numbers a staggering 300 million Internet users, Google has climbed into bed with numerous labels, major and indie, to beat pirates to the punch with a deluge of free music.

T.I. looks back fondly on the good ol' days, when he wasn't getting busted buying a bunch of guns.

There is something infinitely charming about T.I. His music is catchy and begs no great scrutiny-- it's the jello casserole of the music world. Who cares that it hasn't got a shred of nutritive value? You don't even have to chew it.

But his multitudinous fans will have to cool their jets for the next year or so, as T.I. heads to jail on federal weapons charges. The sentence, which dooms T.I. to a year and a day behind bars, is a handling with kid gloves of the most luxurious virgin suede-- his initial sentence threatened him with over four years in the clink.

Fuckin' A right, brah. Metallica with Newsted (far left).

It's been a good 365 for Metallica. Another sell-out world tour, a return to thrashing proper on 2008's Death Magnetic, a rousing, intimate performance at SXSW, so on, so forth. And now the news that, on April 4, Metallica will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honor made yet a touch dubious by the fact that Flea, the bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers, will conduct the ceremony.

Nirvana, deceased.

As the release of In Utero creeps toward its 20th anniversary, and as studios nationwide shrink under the decreased demands of a cash strapped customer base, the grand analog meccas like Pachyderm Studio find themselves becoming more and more spectral by the day.

For now, Pachyderm still functions. Despite a February foreclosure scare and the looming problem of overhead and decreased revenues, bands like Baby Guts, Droids Attack and Gospel Gossip have still found their way into its vaunted live room, and have emerged with pleasant results.

But, lest we let mismanagement and dour economic circumstances cloud the picture, the place and its history are still cultural touchstones of profound beauty and relevance. Head below the jump for a video dump of some things that continue to give Pachyderm a heavy name.

Putting the "twit" in Twitter-- Reznor takes a pot shot at poor, defenseless Chris Cornell.

Is this the start of Reznor's post-retirement career as an Andy Rooney-esque gadfly? With NIN's future still uncertain, Reznor seems to have enough time on his hands to call out Chris Cornell on his upcoming album Scream, produced by Timbaland and featuring enough clubby crooning to make Kanye West reach for his copyright infringement manual.

Reznor claims the album is so embarrassing that he himself felt embarrassed by proxy. Granted-- the initial samplings from Scream simply beg for a firestorm. In the debut video (which, ominously and regrettably, has embedding disabled), Cornell, looking like an even more leathered Johnny Depp (if such a thing is possible), plaintively occupies such well-worn locales as a top-down Cadillac on the cruise and a motel room, singing out his angst while a shrewish supermodel berates him for indiscretions unknown.

It's hard to imagine Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn suffers from a low-self esteem. But what else can one surmise from this announcement?

In a shocking display of sheepishness, talk rock megalodons the Hold Steady will spend most of their May touring in support (that's right, support) of Counting Crows and the Dave Matthews Band. Despite some hometown loyalties to the former local heavyweight, Gimme Noise has no choice but to loudly cry, "What the hell?!"

Back when Cosmic Slop debuted in 1993, radio shows were still, you know, on the radio. Debuting over 15 years ago on the University's now defunct WMMR, the show became a Radio K mainstay in 1994 and spent the next decade being a weekly digest of all things lost but not forgotten in the annals of recorded music.

With his partner, Chuck Tomlinson, Joel Stitzel created a show that celebrated the overlooked and the under-appreciated, the dead trends never revived by Hot Topic and Ragstock. Less scholarly DJ's might have forged something unlistenably academic or self-promotional. But Tomlinson and Stitzel play affable keymasters to an endless wax museum for the ear, and tuning in is always revelatory and fun.

The show is a podcast now, and is in its 16th installment (accessible here). Gimme Noise spoke with Joel Stitzel about the freedoms of the internet and the fundamental pleasures of music.

In the heady days of 1993, radio shows were still, well, on the radio. The internet was still an intellectual wasteland, dominated exclusively by stingy University Professors and D&D guilds posting on Q-Link.

A decade later has seen the long and colorful Radio K tenure of Cosmic Slop come and go, and, in 2009, the show's creators and producers Chuck Tomlinson and Joel Stitzel (who was interviewed earlier today) have resurfaced, as all worthwhile things do, on the internet.

The show is a podcast now, and is in its 16th outstanding installment (accessible here). Stitzel was interviewed earlier today in honor of the podcast's 16 anniversary, and Gimme Noise spoke with also spoke with Tomlinson about how to stay vital and devoted in an internet age that seems to teem with so much ephemera.

If he were Detlef Schrempf in NBA Jam, he'd be on fire, raining in half court threes and setting the net ablaze.

In just three weeks, Andrew Broder has released three ambient albums for free download. Titled I Must Fix All Problems, Experts, Specialists, and, most recently, Raw Bulb (downloadable here), the ambient works give winking thumbs ups to Brian Eno's seminal Music For Airports-- lighter than air, water tight, Raw Bulb translucently glows with the oddities of a lucid, waking dream, drifting from song to song like a skein of milkweed.