Photo by Steve Cohen

Jesse Johnson, on the right, has left the Original 7ven.

​The Original 7ven, formerly known as Prince-created Time, is now down to slightly less funky six. In a lengthy statement on the band's official site, the guys set the record straight regarding guitarist Jesse Johnson's Facebook posting in December that, "I don't really think I'll be performing with the Original 7 (or The Time if your [sic] nasty) any more!" The rest of the group was blindsided by this announcement, which was not a topic of conversation during a reported three-hour conference call just the day before. After nearly a month-long period of silence, "the remaining 6ix" have decided to keep things going without Johnson.
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​City Pages was born before Heath Ledger and Aaliyah and has outlived them both. We're older than Christina Aguilera, Jason Schwartzman, and Cory from Boy Meets World. This week marks the 30-year anniversary of the name change from Sweet Potato to City Pages.

The new name was simply and succinctly described as "a sign of growth," unabashedly hitting stands on December 3rd. (The cover was given to cable TV and Hüsker Dü.) Readers didn't immediately love the name--one letter to the editor matter-of-factly whined that "Sweet Potato is a great name. City Pages isn't." But fuck it, people didn't like the name Sweet Potato either. (A letter to the editor in an early-1979 issue asked "what the hell kind of a name is Sweet Potato?") People always bitch about something.

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Photo by Dan Corrigan

​​Following last Friday's tribute to the Replacements at First Ave--this year's headline featured a star-studded performance of the Replacements' debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash--we thought it would be interesting to dig through the City Pages archives and look at some of the Replacements coverage during their early years.

They're arguably the most legendary boozers-and-users the Twin Cities music scene has ever managed to give birth to; and if you believe contemporary folklore, they were four drunken Jesuses who saved rock 'n' roll and singlehandedly created alternative music. Their booze-drenched, who-gives-a-shit debut is now a seminal artifact in the evolution of alternative rock; but what were we really saying about the Replacements, back when it was all happening?

Basically we loved them.

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​Following last Friday's yearly tribute to the Replacements at First Ave--this year's headline featured a star-studded performance of the Replacements' debut album, Sorry Ma, I Forgot To Take Out The Trash--we thought it would be interesting to dig through the CityPages archives and look at some of the historical Replacements coverage during their early years.

The following article originally appeared in the September 9, 1981 issue of City Pages.

The Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash
By Jimi Nervous

They don't give a wee particle of fecal matter. They dismiss people and situations with profound concepts like "fuck," "goddam" and "shut up." And just for the hell of it, they "hate music" because "it's got too many notes."

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​Though this year is actually the 21st time City Pages has polled Twin Cities music experts to ask them about their favorite new bands, it also marks the 20th anniversary of the very first poll, which was published on May 8, 1991, and compiled by then-music editor Jim Walsh.More >>

​To coincide with our Cars interview from this week's print edition and this week's cover, which reprises the design of our very first issue (back when we started as Sweet Potato in 1979), we decided to take a look at some more of the music archives from our early days as a paper.

Intrepid Gimme Noise intern Youa Vang has spent the past few weeks combing through our old issues and scanning in some of our most iconic music covers from 1979 to the late '80s, including issues that featured the Replacements, the Suburbs, Lipps Inc., the Time, and Prince.

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​Gimme Noise contributor Andrew Flanagan dug up some old bootlegs from the Minneapolis music scene as part of his gig working for the Daily Swarm, and there are quite a few little nuggets nestled into the old recordings that are now streaming online.

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City Pages file photo

Bob Murderer of the Murderers

​In the late '90s, when bands like Dillinger Four, Code 13, and the Strike were ruling the local punk scene, filmmaker Patti Rhodes set out to make a documentary about Minneapolis punk rock. The resulting one-hour film, Debasement Video Fanzine, Vol. 1: When We Play for Real, has never seen widespread circulation and has only been played at a few sporadic screenings. Until now -- a local fan has dug up the documentary and submitted it to cable access channel MTN (channel 17), who agreed to screen it four times this month.

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​The Doors were back in the news this month when Florida governor Charlie Crist issued a pardon for the charges of indecent exposure the state had issued against frontman Jim Morrison back in 1969, 41 years after the Miami concert that led to Morrison's arrest and 39 years after his death. After much petitioning by fans of the band and its remaining members, Crist issued a pardon for the legal actions the state took in '69 -- charges that the band claim were "trumped up" and "unsubstantiated," and charges that many say destroyed the Doors' career.

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50 & El DeBarge collab on new track

​If you're under 30, you can feel free to just move right along  while the rest of us nostalgically mind-fondle tracks like "Who's Johnny"* and "Rhythm Of The Night" and digest the idea of a new El Debarge's release. It's his first since 1994 and it hit shelves today, but whether Second Chance will actually prove to be one for the '80s-famous falsetto with the porny moustache remains to be seen.

DeBarge spent the majority of the last decade dealing with drug issues but appears to be cleaned up and in the mood for some smoov R&B croonin' again. 

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