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December 2003
« November 2003 | Main | January 2004 »2004: More Freaked Out Than Ever
Filed under: Imported
(posters by Scott Brown, Aesthetic Apparatus, and Dwitt)
On Friday don't miss the opening reception for Plaster the Town: Twin Cities Poster Exhibition 2004, featuring a rather stunning array of great rock 'n' roll poster art from Minnesota (samples pictured above), with works by Aesthetic Apparatus, Amy Jo Hendrickson, Burlesque Design of North America, Scott Brown/Luddite Printworks, Dwitt, King Mini, Motorcoat Dave, Mr. Vega, Joshua Norton, John Shemick, Squad19, and Withremote. The event is free, with snacks and beverages provided, and it happens Friday, January 2, at 7:00 p.m., at Back Alley Gallery, 262 4th St., #LL2, Lowertown, St. Paul. The exhibit continues through January 31. The Back Alley Gallery's hours are Fridays, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturdays noon to 5:00 p.m., 651.269.1674. Look for a review here next week, hopefully...
Also Friday: Local Music Day on Radio K
How much great music came out of Minnesota in 2003? Well, how much can you take? Judge for yourself on Friday, January 2, when you tune in to Radio K (KUOM, 770 AM during school hours, but also 106.5 FM when school is out, like this week--you can get this signal across south Minneapolis on a good day): The online-accessible Minneapolis college station hosts Local Music Day from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
According to the K's email, hightlights include four live performances (plus one prerecorded in the studio) and interviews throughout the day, along with an entire commercial-free day of all-local songs. One of my favorite pop punk bands, period, the Soviettes (click photo for article), kick things off with an in-studio set (recorded in June 2003) at 9:00 a.m. Then there will be live Studio K performances by El Punkeke at 10:00 a.m., Superhopper (whom I reviewed here) at 11:00 a.m., and the Owls (one of my favorite pop bands, period) at the noon hour. Then the Owls' sister band the Hang-Ups appears at 1:00 p.m., Bridge Club at 2:00 p.m., with Cloud Cult wrapping things up with an appearance at 3:00 p.m. All good stuff.
The local-music show Off the Record, which normally airs every Friday at 3:00 pm, will start early this week, at 2:00 p.m., and go to 5:00 p.m. As always, the program highlights the weekend's events, plays local music, and features a live performance and interview with a band. This week, hosts Adam and Keri look back on the year that was, and interview the Star Tribune�s Chris Riemenschneider, who is probably the best local music columnist that paper has ever had--whatever TCPunkers say about him. (Read his 2003 local-music-critics poll he just published here.)
If you happen to read this before, you know, tonight...
This New Year's Eve Vox Medusa Dance Company will be putting on two spectacular performances at two cool hotel parties in Minneapolis. At Martini Blu in the Grand Hotel, Minneapolis, they'll dance from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., no cover--yes that means free. They'll be doing Red Light Cabaret (jazz music and dance) with guest vocalist Megan Kirschbaum. (jazz music and dance). Call 612.752.9595 for more info.
Then they'll be performing in multiple installations, aerials and stages from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. at Le Meridien. Inspired by the painting Adam and Eve created by Lucas Cranach the Elder, the show will present Taunting Snakes, Lustful Adams, and Tempting Silhouette Eves. Information on fighting AIDS, other information, times, and ticket prices can be retrieved at this site, or you can call 866.523.1100.
Me, I'm going to try to see as much as possible while still hitting First Avenue (where Le Circle Rouge de Gus performs burlesque early in the evening), because you never know, it could be the last one. To my friends, I'll see you at Sara's party or Sonia's afterparty. Go easy, step lightly, stay free.
Email from Jim MacTavish:
Complicated fun? I've always been a simple masochist myself.
(Thanks to The Cyclops for the link.) Here's what a strict Maoist reviewer has to say about The Matrix (1999):
...There are a few drawbacks to this film, but on the whole, MIM could not have asked for more in a two and a half hour Hollywood movie. We can use the movie to educate people about dialectics, modes of production, Lenin's book "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" and the drawbacks of anarchism and individualism.
Metal and New Wave: Closer Than You Know
Fans and writers on I Love Music, bless their merry souls, parse the aesthetic connections between Judas Priest and Gary Numan.
Happy New Year! (A final image and sound for 2003):
Still reeling from my friend Laura Sinagra's recent star-studded ode to Hobbit-fucking, I got this link in the email from my friend Kate Clements, of Leonard Nimoy singing a tribute to Bilbo Baggins.
Oh, and before the year is out, I wanted to say thanks to Laura, Jon Dolan, Rick Vorndran, Meghan Mahar, Keith Harris, Esther Haynes, Paul Marcum, Peter Reilly, Maggie Overfelt, Mimi Kisdarjono, and all our other New York friends and family, old and new. Hope to see you again soon.
Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at December 31, 2003 6:32 PM
I'll be on the radio today...
Filed under: Imported
On Mark Wheat's "Music Lover's Club" on Radio K, 770 a.m. at 1:00 p.m. Central time today (it's on the web, too). Who knows what will happen! http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/radiok/programs/specialty/mlc/index.shtmlPosted by Peter S. Scholtes at December 21, 2003 11:45 AM
Tonight...
Filed under: Imported
If your in Minneapolis/St. Paul, go to the final, farewell Punk Karaoke tonight at Tubby's in Nordeast, or go see my pal Michaelangelo Matos spin at the Loring Pasta Bar, or go to First Avenue for a slew of good bands. There's also two choice reunions tonight, the Sensational Joint Chiefs at Mayslack's, and the Glenrustles at the Turf Club. I'll try to be in all of the above places at once. Whatever you do, shake off your Friday night and hit the Landmark Poster Sale for cool movie posters (great gifts!) tomorrow at the Uptown Theatre.
Non-lame massive year-end post on the way, I promise.
Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at December 19, 2003 6:06 PM
Hip-Hop Mysterioso
Filed under: Imported
(photo by Daniel Corrigan)
The silent partner of Atmosphere, Ant (Anthony Davis) produced the first rap CD in Minnesota, 1996's Comparison by Musab (then known as Beyond). In 2003 he produced two of hip hop's most acclaimed albums, Atmosphere's Seven's Travels and Brother Ali's Shadows on the Sun (both on Rhymesayers Entertainment)
Chain-smoking next to a wall of records in his basement, the lanky, pony-tailed 33-year-old sits down for his first local interview to discuss his love of the Time, the reason fans know so little about him, and why he doesn't DJ in public:
I haven't done interviews, mostly because I'm uncomfortable. I spent my 20s in the basement. I hit 31, and I'm like, let me see if I'm missing something.
I went to New York for a press junket. That was fun because I didn't really have to go. They really weren't interested in what I had to say, anyway, so I barely even went to any interviews. I basically went for the free trip to New York, and let Slug be the superstar. We just got drunk all day and all night.
I got into hip hop in '81. Believe it or not, my dad was a DJ when he was in the military. He had all the disco records, and hip hop was formed out of disco, kind of. So he had some of the singles, and that's how I heard all that shit. I just naturally became a DJ. In '83, when everyone was breakdancing, I wanted to be Grandmaster Flash. I didn't even move here until '90, '91. Before that I lived all over the world. My dad was in the army. So I was in Germany, Colorado, California. When I moved here, I kind of lost sight of what I wanted to do. You go through that 18-22 shit. Then I ended up meeting Sean and Siddiq through Musab. I was 24, 25, and them guys were just a little younger, but it felt like worlds apart. I still feel that way.
All my friends, I'm like pieces of them. I feel like Musab in my mind sometimes. The way he says things, they way he is, is how I want to be. Slug is how I am deep inside. And Ali is like a vision of what rap sounded like. It's all different visions to me, and I'm a part of each of those.
I like working with artists that I know, because you can walk in and read how they're feeling that day. You can tell if they're feeling uneasy that day, and you can make them feel at ease, give them a little confidence boost thing. Whatever you have to do. Or sometimes, they might go into the studio a little too cocky, you might have to take them down a notch, just because you gotta have 'em on their Ps and Qs.
My favorite producers, I avoid stealing from, other than Marley Marl. We all steal from Marley Marl. None of the artists he worked with sounded good without him. Quincy Jones is like that, too. As far as I remember, Marley Marl was the first one to sample drum sounds to make the drums, using various types of loops and a lot of echo, which I still do to this day, which probably all goes back to dub.
(scanned from Freddy Fresh Presents... The Rap Records)
That Knights of the Turntables, Techno Scratch [JDC Records, 1984], that was one of the first rap records I ever bought besides Crash Crew, and it kind of changed my life. They had these echoing scratches, and used these casio drums and stuff. I bought that here in Minneapolis when I was visiting my grandmother for a month.
There's a lot of rare records in here. When I was a kid, and I was first starting, I had, like, ten records. My dad had 12 crates or something. And my vision was to surround my room with records. I wanted everything I've ever heard. I wanted a house full of records.
This week I'm on a Time kick. I got a new Cadillac, right? The Time sounds good in there. So do early S.O.S. records, Zapp. Those records are consistently good to me. Maybe it's a childhood thing. And it is so far from what I do. But that's the type of shit I listen to. My dad gave me this record by a local soul group Haze, on ASI Records. Audiotech Studios, 1974. They're from here. But no Minnesota group fucks with the Time, or with Terry Lewis-Jimmy Jam as far as all the types of stuff they produced.
I won't tell you my samples. It's an old sacred rule that's constantly being broke. It's like Wolfgang Puck, he don't tell everybody his secrets. I'm the fucking chef, I'm not telling you shit! This is my restaurant!
We're not trying to satisfy anybody. I'm a selfish bastard: I make records for me. Because I'm the one that's going to have to listen to it when I'm fucking 50 or 60. Nobody else is. We're not gonna be the Beatles.
Right now, everything I do with the Rhymesayers is 50/50. If I do a remix for one of the new guys, that's different. I didn't start making money until I'm 30.
I don't DJ live. I just really got uncomfortable with it, like in the early '90s, doing it for years. I never really had fun doing it. It was just something I did, because I really liked messing with records. I like to make the mix tape thing every now and then. I did one a few years ago, got a new one coming out. That's me, that's who I am. I'm a behind the scenes kind of person. I don't want to be messing around onstage, talking to all these damn people.
(photo courtesy of Skye Rossi)
HERE'S A COMPLETE PAGE OF SCHOLTES ARTICLES ON TC HIP HOP AND THE OLD-SCHOOL UPDATED FOR 2005 (including all the links below, and many others)...
More hip hop at Complicatedfun.com:
Minneapolis Punk and Hip Hop: Closer Than You Know, Love Each Other So
More Scholtes articles featuring Atmosphere:
News piece on the Rhymesayers nights at First Avenue (7/22/98)
review of Se7en (12/29/99) Slug objected to the word "mature."
Rhyme Out of Joint (7/5/00) Slug's life
Back in the Day: a local hip hop timeline (7/5/00) A rough draft, really...
In the Company of Flow (11/29/00) Old School meets new indie
What It Is: a review of Lucy Ford (2/21/01) God did fans hate this...
What's the Big Eyedea? (9/12/01) The articles start getting good about here...
Slug and St. Patrick Costello shoot the shit (12/18/02)
First Love: An Oral History of First Avenue (9/3/03)
Blazin' on $20 a Day: Five Nights in the Life of Local Hip Hop (9/17/03)
Minnesota Local Music Yearbook 2003
The TC Old-School Hip Hop Page/An Oral History of Minnesota Hip Hop (8/17/04)
Start Spreading the News
I'll be in New York City this week. If you'd like to meet me, I'll be joining friends for drinks on Thursday night (tonight) between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. at the Hi-Fi in Manhattan (half price drinks until 8), 169 Avenue A (between 10th & 11th St.), 212.420.8392. Since I'm not sleeping before then, forgive me if I just call you and everyone else I talk to by the same, simple, easy-to-remember name--Herbert, maybe.
Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at December 11, 2003 2:43 AM
Roger Swardson, R.I.P.
Filed under: Imported
I knew writer Roger Swardson briefly, when I edited the City Pages music section a few years back, and he was always fun to talk to--a genuine font of humor and rich knowledge about the old St. Paul music scenes and local culture in general. Mainly, I enjoyed him through his articles, most memorably his story on the mysterious phenomenon of shopping-cart theft.
(photo by Craig Lassig)
Look for Jen Vogel's tribute in next week's City Pages. Roger's funeral will be on Sunday, December 14, at 1:00 p.m., at St. Clement's Episcopal Church, 901 Portland Avenue, St. Paul. A reception will follow at Summit Manor, 275 Summit Avenue.
An Afro-pop musical?
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If you're in Minneapolis, before hitting First Avenue's new sleazy-sexy dance night tonight, check out the U.S. premiere of the African musical film My Voice (Nha Fala) (click on that for a review and other info), introduced by director Flora Gomes at the Walker Art Center (click there to see a clip of the film) at 8:00 p.m. $7 ($5 Walker members), 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, 612.375.7622 or www.walkerart.org Here's a Variety review of the film, too, and a summary from the Walker:
Flora Gomes, from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, introduces the U.S. premiere of his new musical "My Voice" ("Nha Fala"). Set in the gorgeous pastel cities of the Cape Verde Islands, with exuberant music by Cameroonian saxophonist-composer Manu Dibango and plenty of dancing, the film avoids the usual grim images of Africa, locating itself instead halfway between Brazilian Carnival and African politics. Fatou Ndiaye plays Vita, a young African woman who aspires to be a singer, but is prevented from doing so by a longstanding curse that she circumvents in an especially beautiful, ingenious, and melodic way. This may be the only musical to date with rousing, danceable numbers that critique identity politics and ballot-box democracy. 2002, Portugal/ France/Luxembourg, color, 35mm, in Creole with English subtitles, 110 minutes.
Copresented with the University of Minnesota's Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Program for Creative Writing, Institute for Global Studies, Film Studies Program, and the Humanities Institute.
Nick Nice update
Here's more on Nick Nice's departure from the Majestic in Wisconsin (see below) from this week's Isthmus.
Old-school hip hop and punk: pure collector's porn
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Here's my piece on Freddy Fresh's long-awaited new discography of old-school hip hop, (click on his name to order) and my interview/preview of last Thursday's Rocket From the Tombs reunion (click on that name to order one of the great lost punk rock records of all time).
I missed the show, visiting family in Boston, but I heard Pere Ubu's David Thomas was as weird as ever. He had one insistent fan asking to shake his hand the entire show. Thomas refused, and the guy reportedly had to be restrained at one point. If anyone can fill in the blanks on this story, I'd be obliged. (Side note: The irony of old, bald men singing "Don't need no mom and dad" on Thanksgiving night was not lost on my colleague Jim Froehlich.)
Weekend plans: Iron Country CD release
- On Friday, before checking out the newly revived and recorded Walker Kong (here's a preview), check out the Arise!-affiliated "Peace Cabaret with an Irish Twist & Live Auction," featuring auction items such as Jane Evershed Prints, a Woodland weekend retreat, a rustic stone country home in France (!!!!?), and more. There will be face painting, caramel apples, "good company, and good fun," according to the press release. More to the point, see the McDonald Sisters, with Irish song and dance by Brigid, poetry by Susu Jeffrey, storytelling by Ann Reay, and Mike Whalen, one of my favorite human beings, who will teach everyone to Irish dance. Bring a donated item for the auction. 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Holy Trinity Church 2730 � East 31st Street, Minneapolis (just off Lake Street & Minnehaha Avenue� behind East Lake Library).
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On Saturday, why not give up on the inevitably sold-out and overcrowded Atmosphere show at the Triple Rock that night and drop by the Entry to see Swiss Army, the first signee on Slug's new indie-rock record label (more to come on that soon). Or better yet, chuck everything else and head to the Turf Club for the CD-release show of a great new compilation of Iron Range music, Iron Country (Spinout) featuring Haley Bonar, the White Iron Band, and many others. The show features Dana Thompson and more. Here's my A-list blurb for the show itself (note that the show starts at 9:00 p.m., not 9:30, as stated in the paper:
You don't have to quite buy the poetic conceit that musicians from the Iron Range are somehow closer to the earth to believe that: a) the artists on the wonderful new compilation Iron Country (Spinout) come from a profoundly fucked-over region of the United States; and b) many of them play country with a strain of leftism that might as well be salsa to Nashville. Either way, it's impossible not to recognize an event album when you're met with everything these bands have to offer. The talent includes tonight's unique lineup: out-of-time Dana Thompson and the Almost Canadians, the Erik Koskinen Band, Rich Mattson and Dale Kallman of Ol' Yeller, Eric Luoma and Jimmy Peterson of Bellwether, and Charlie Parr--an acoustic innovator worth arriving promptly for at 9:00. 21+. $4. Saturday, December 6, Turf Club; 1601 University Ave W (at Snelling Ave), St. Paul; 651.647.0486
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On Sunday, there is of course the great one-time Minneapolitan Rufus Wainwright at First Avenue (here's Melissa's preview). The bitch is back!
Dosh's gear stolen
(photo by Tony Nelson)
Dosh is one of the most entertaining electronic musicians in Minneapolis, a funky lo-fi tinkerer and improviser who has so far had a good year--signing to Anticon, reissuing a remastered version of his self-titled debut on the label, and touring the country as a solo performer and drummer for Fog. (He also plays various instruments with Lateduster.) Today I got his sad email plea:
On Saturday night, around 7:45 p.m., somebody broke into my house, stole some money, and found my spare set of car keys. They then stole my car, which had almost all of my gear in it. This is devastating to say the least. the car was retrieved four hours later, and though I have not been able to see it, I am certain that most of the stuff that was in it is gone, because the first officer I talked to said there were four kids in the car and there's no way they would have all fit in there if my stuff was still in it.
So I need your help... I need your eyes and ears... Call pawn shops, check garage sales, junkyards, alleys, music stores.... I will send out another email if anything is found. Here is what was taken:
Fender Rhodes 88 (one of a kind, wood finish, most Rhodes are all black, so this one should stick out like a sore thumb)....
a Mackie 12 channel mixer
a Ludwig 6-lug snare (creamy, cloudy finish, made in the 60's)
a Slingerland 18x18 floor tom with chrome finish
cymbals (sabian 12" rock splash, wuhan 12" splash)
drum hardware
all my merchandise (t shirts, cds and records)
The thing that should be easiest to spot is the Rhodes, it is a huge elecric piano that weighs close to 200 pounds.... the wood finish gives it away, so if you see a Rhodes with wood finish, [contact] me right away at [martindosh@yahoo.com]. Thanks for your help and feel free to forward this email to others.
Martin
Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at December 3, 2003 3:36 PM
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