Take a Look at my Girlfriend

I stopped at garage sale in Northeast Mpls this past weekend and found this little nugget of vinyl goodness. Supertramp's Breakfast in America. I remember listening to this album a lot when I was a kid. I had it on a cassette tape and I just loved staring at the album cover with the city made out of breakfast cereal boxes and dished and cutlery. And "Libby" posing as a service industry statue of liberty. The music is good too. Released in 1979, this album is full of straightforward seventies rock. I've listened to the record about five times since Saturday afternoon.

The Spins Have Hit Glass

I want to have some more to say from now on, but at this moment I wanted to post my setlist from the Spins this past Saturday. The Spins is an event hosted by HowWasTheShow.com where the writers and editors basically make mix CDs to play while they drink $3.00 mystery beers with whomever shows up. It happens every other Tuesday at the Nomad World Pub. The next version happens May 22.

1. Hayden - "The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees"
2. Cloud Cult - "Chemicals Collide"
3. Brian Just - "Duluth"
4. Guided by Voices - "The Bride Have Hit Glass"
5. Story of the Sea - "Bubble Gum"
6. Matthew Ryan - "BabyBird"
7. Archers of Loaf - "South Carolina"
8. Lifter Puller - "Secret Santa Cruz"
9. P.O.S. - "De La Souls"
10. Lucero - "Bikeriders"
11. The Rockford Mules - "Crooked Tooth"
12. Self-Evident - "Automatic Lewis"
13. Dinosaur Jr. - "Sludgefeast"
14. Best Friends Forever - "The Loneliness Song"
15. Faces - "Ooh La La"
16. Alpha Consumer - "The Son of the C.E.O. of Rubbersuit Co."
17. Brother Ali - "Forest Whitiker"

Whew!

It's been awhile. A lot has happened in the weeks since I last spilled my guts all over the internet.

I finally graduated from college. What does that mean for my future, I don't know. One of the outlets I had for writing has collapsed. It's not like I was making any money so maybe this will force me to get out there and sell myself to publications that pay their writers.

We had someone that really liked our house, but then decided not to buy it, but then thought maybe, but then decided to wait, but then put an offer on a different house.

But really what has happened since I last spilled my guts all over the internet is that a beautiful brown-haired little girl has entered my life and my heart and she just makes me go all soft inside. My little daughter, Penelope just totally rocks. That is why I have been away. The thing is that I really do miss going out to shows, hanging out with friends and drinking beer into the small hours of the morning. I do miss that. But when I am at home with P, I realize that is where I really want to be. When I am with her, I don't want to be anywhere else.

There, take that internet, my guts are running through your spidery little veins now!

Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh Baby (No Baby Yet)

I am a worrier.

I get worked up; nervous and anxious about things. I burst at the seams when faced with simple things like: going to interview somebody, calling somebody on the phone, meeting people, going someplace new.

My palms get sweaty. My heart goes flutter-flutter. I can't sit still. My thoughts get all scattered and I just think and think about whatever kind of fantasies I can come up with about the way things are going to go wrong.

So if I get all goofy about calling my bank, imagine just how insane-out-of-my-head I am waiting for my baby to arrive. I can't focus on anything; work, school or writing. My wife is due in five days and has been having sporadic contractions for about a week now. Everyday I wake up and say, "Is this the day?" Don't get me wrong though, I am super excited about this. I just am not good at waiting.

I was going to do a Top5 in honor of my impending fatherhood, but all the songs I could think of or find that had something to do with "baby" were about the kind of "baby" that left you alone, or hit the bottle, or hit the needle, or died in a horrible car wreck. I don't really want to associate those things with my baby.

So I give you these things:
Some of the How Was The Show staff did a podcast for the excellent MinneapolisCast run by Tony Thomas. Andrea Myers, David de Young, Jennifer Paulson, Pat O'Brien and myself contributed and you can listen to it here. (I just realized that the song I reviewed. "Don't Take My Baby To War" has the word baby in it. Coincidence?)

Also, Chris at Culture Bully did an interview with Andrea and me about the local music scene and you can find that here.

They're Still Racing Out at The Trestles

(Update: Jinx! Andrea totally blogged about The Cates today also. This will give people more reason to believe in the HWTS mafia. I swear it was innocent and we were not commiserating about our intentions. Her post is better than mine so go read it.)

I’ve been thinking about cover songs lately. Normally, if a band plays a cover I don’t get all that excited about it. That is unless they are able to do something special with it. I am not talking about Hairball or Boogie Wonderland type bands here. I mean bands that have a little shame about their covers. These thoughts have been buzzing around the back of my brain for a few weeks now, but last weekend something happened that made the buzzing consume my brain. I’ll get to that in a second though. The Cates - photo by David de Young

My house is on the market and I packed up most of my CDs and put them in storage. So most of my music (except for about 30 CDs that I just couldn’t stand to put away) are in boxes in the dark corner of a storage unit in North Minneapolis. My main repository for music is now my little green iPod.

Last weekend I found The Cates for the first time. Brilliant, aching vocals by these two women whose melancholy songs are tinged with just enough optimism beneath the surface to not feel suffocating, but are still sad enough to go perfect with a dim room and a bottle of wine. They played an amazing version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

When the song started I thought, “Oh. This is a funny little song, this might be good.” But they weren’t going for a funny little song vibe, they sang that ‘80s pop song with as much soul as I think Lauper could ever imagine. It was then that it hit me what makes a great cover song. The lack of irony.

I’m sure lots of bands have covered “Girls…” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” or something along those lines with a tongue-in-cheek kind of hubris. A cue to the audience not to take this too seriously. But the best cover songs are the ones that say, “Listen fucker. I didn’t write this song, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from my gut. I am dead serious about this and you are going to feel it!”

I was looking through my iPod to find some kick ass cover songs, but I couldn’t find that many that had the qualities that made me love The Cates so much.

I am sure there are much more out there, but the only one I really found was Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” covered by The Winter Blanket.

I am on a mission to find some more. And I will be checking out The Cates again. For sure.

(You can listen to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on The Cates myspace page.)

I Thought Dinosaurs Were Extinct

If I had to choose one favorite band of all time, that band would be Dinosaur Jr. Pitchfork has a story about how the reunited band is set to release a new album. I feel underwhelmed. I wish I was more excited, but I just feel like this is going to be a J Mascis wankfest - much like Mascis' solo work.

I guess I'll see. I'm sure I'll buy the album when it comes out because I am loyal.

Maybe I'll have to amend my gun-to-the-head admonition. I'll say, Dinosaur Jr. of the twentieth century is my favorite band of all time.

Top5 - HowWasTheShow-versary Edition

I haven’t done one of these Top5s in a while. I used to do one a week, but as it went on the songs were less of what I was really into and more of whatever came up on my iPod when it was on shuffle. I thought of a good reason to write a new Top5 though. I started writing for HowWasTheShow just about a year ago and these are bands that I probably wouldn’t have given much thought to if I hadn’t gone to review them. In working for HWTS I am always looking for new bands that haven’t been covered a million times and that is a really rewarding aspect of music writing.

1. Eyeliner Blues – High on Stress

The first review I wrote for HowWasTheShow was of High on Stress. I really do dig the down to earth style of song writing the guys have. I am looking forward to a new album this year hopefully.

2. Cold Rusty Shiver – The Rockford Mules

These guys totally kicked my ass the first time I saw them. I gushed to the guitar player afterwards that they should be famous.

3. Shall We Laugh – The Dad in Common

The thing I love about covering live music is that on any given night you can be totally blown away by the unexpected. The Dad in Common’s recorded stuff is decent, but the performance at their CD Release show was unbridled craziness. It was a whirlwind of psychedelic gypsy gospel soul.

4. Last Resort – The Winter Blanket

I kind of knew The Winter Blanket before I started writing for HWTS, but covering them a couple times really cemented my love for them. I actually went to review them at the Triple Rock the same night I covered Mi and Lau. There was hardly anybody there and Stephanie Davila and Doug Miller played as a Duo. It was the first time I had seen them and I didn’t really know what to think. Looking back on it now, it was a laid back easy affair. Miller and Davila knew that with the audience barely reaching double-digits, they could be playful, like they were playing in their living room.

5. Bubblegum – Story of the Sea

I probably would have stumbled on to Story of the Sea without HWTS if only because I am constantly amazed at Ian Prince’s drumming. The band has such a rich sound for only a three-piece.

Aviette in the Pulse

My first article for Pulse of the Twin Cities appeared yesterday. I wrote about Aviette.

Check it out.

Album of the Year

I was lucky enough to have my opinions solicited by Chris R. from the Star Tribune for his critic's best-of-list this year. Of course all those opinions are rendered pointless now because between the time I submitted my choices and the end of the year, I purchased the Roma Di Luna album, The Face of My Friends.

If I could change my picks, this would be my album of the year. A folk duo that captures with the perfect blend of haunting vocals, barely-there guitar and occasional fits of fiddle, they capture an ethereal moment in time of a strictly American style of music.

The song "Don't Take My Baby to War" would be my song of the year. The best anti-war song I've heard in a long time.

Don't take my baby
Don't take my love
Don't take my baby

Gather your men around there's a draft coming to town
Leave tonight or else you better bury them underground
Don't take my baby to war

Choke on the oil you need/ to power that engine of sin
If you believe in these battles/ then why aren't you out there with them?

He has kissed me goodbye
He has no fear of giving his life
But I carved my heart in his hand
So when they find him they'll know he's mine
Don't take my baby to war

Don't take my baby
Don't take my love
Don't take my baby to war

Catch Roma Di Luna January 10th at Barbette.

Xmas 06

Time for “Bob Longmore’s Xmas Spectacular 2006.” This is in no way a year-end best of list. It is a collection of songs that I put together for friends to enjoy. These are songs that I came to enjoy this year and I thought would sound good together. If you’re interested in last years list, check it out here.

1. Draw Us Lines – The Constantines

A very powerful opening track with swirling feedback that yields only slightly to a thundering beat. I know nothing about this band. In fact, I am pretty sure this is the only song I’ve ever heard by The Constantines, but this one song is really good.

2. De La Souls – P.O.S.

From the fantastic Audition record by P.O.S. this year. This is actually one of my top records from this year. I think this song, among others, showcases the sensibilities of P.O.S., a mixture of hip-hop and punk rock.

3. Province – TV on the Radio

I liked TV on the Radio before this year and I liked their new album Return to Cookie Mountain, but it wasn’t until I saw them live at First Ave. that I really fell in love with them.

4. New Resolution – Heartless Bastards

A hearty fuck you song from the throaty growl of lead bastard Erika Wennerstrom.

5. To Go Home – M. Ward

The best song recorded in a basement in Memphis in 1962 that was actually recorded in a modern studio in the beginning of the 21^st century.

6. Junior High Smiles – Beight

This is such a beautiful song, anchored by Brad Senne’s aching voice floating in and out of falsetto. It captures like no other song, the feeling of the sweaty palms and fluttering hearts of teenage crushes.

7. Duluth – Brian Just

I saw this guy this past summer and was absolutely blown away. He plays intricate finger-picked melodies on his guitar so majestically, it pisses off every other musician in the room because they want what he has.

8. Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis – Neko Case

A Tom Waits cover, this is the pseudo-Christmas song of this year’s collection.

9. On The Way Back Home – Lucero

Every day I fall a little more in love with Lucero. Ben Nichols’ gravelly, whiskey voice sounds like every hung-over morning where you’re unsure of how much remorse you should have for the night before. These guys put on a hell of a show too. I wish I would have seen them when they came through a month or two ago, but I did see them back in April, and it was legendary.

10. Sister Jack – Spoon

One of those bands I “discovered” this year. I’m slow sometimes. I heard their album Gimme Fiction and said to myself, “Why the fuck haven’t I been listening to these guys?” I love this song because in my youth, I played in a dropped-D metal band (although the name was not requiem, but SoulSplitter, I’m not proud).

11. Poor You – Bellwether

Another album that was indeed on my best local album list this year. Sometimes the term AltCountry gets thrown around as some sort of stuck-in-the-mud putdown, but these guys are AltCountry in the most flattering sense of the word. Brilliant songs beautifully played.

12. Forest Whitiker – Brother Ali

Another one of those, “Why the fuck haven’t I listened to this before?” albums. Another kind of a fuck you song where Ali says you don’t have to like me, ‘cause I like myself.

Merry Christmas!

Jim Walsh, You Magnificent Bastard

It pains me to think that I will never write something as kick-ass as this:
(From City Pages)

Tim O'Reagan
Tim O'Reagan
Lost Highway

The test of any classic album is if it plays as well in the morning with coffee as it does at night with whiskey; in the bedroom or car; in the loud or quiet hours. O'Reagan's debut has been with me in every moment imaginable since it was released on House of Mercy Recordings last year, and properly released by Lost Highway this year. His voice reminds me of something a friend of mine wrote about her aging face—"a wizened disaster"—which is to say that most things get more beautiful with age, but some things, like a drummer-turned-unleashed-crooner, get positively translucent. —Jim Walsh

The Death of Music and Cory Branan

Personally, I couldn't picture my life without record stores, but Chris R. in the Strib file the millionth report about record sales slowing. I love the smell of records stores. I love the rows of CDs sitting there ready to be taken. I love the vinyl stores, with that plastic smell mixed with the smell of your Grandma's attic. Please don't take that away from me!

And now I'm going to tell you to listen to music online. Cory Branan made a believer out of me last Sunday. This Memphis musician is a bad ass. Check out his streaming album, 12 songs, for yourself. Cory Branan

Say What Now?

I finally broke down and bought a pair of earplugs.

I figured if I am going to keep seeing Ian Prince play drums, I need them. I saw Kid Dakota a few weeks ago and I was standing right in front of the stage and Ian was absolutely blowing me away. But really I should have got a good pair along time ago, hopefully this will cut down on the buzzing in my ears when I get home after a show.

Matthew Ryan Day

Matthew Ryan has been one of my favorite artists for years now. His new album, From a Late Night High Rise, holds loads of promise. Tom Hallett from Pulse has a great article this week about a few of the things Ryan has gone through in the industry and personally to get to this point in his career.



Ryan played a show here last winter at the 400, which I covered for HWTS. He also came through town with his side project Strays Don't Sleep, which HWTS also covered.

Ryan commented that he sure wasn't coming to Minneapolis in the winter again, I can't say I blame him, hopefully we'll see him in the spring.

Corporate Speak, Pt. 58

I got a meeting request today and the subject was "Discussion around network whatchamacallit."

Wouldn't we be more productive if we had a Discussion about network whatchamacallit?

Bloggity, Bloggity, Blog

It's strange having a blog sometimes. Like when I know that other people actually read what I've written on this thing. Or when I want to write something that I hope nobody will read. Or the opposite, when I write something that I hope everybody reads. These are things out of my control.
Here is my cheese sandwich lately.

I took three classes this semester, which has totally burned me out. Two of the classes have involved an assload of writing. One in particular is a 500-level advanced writing class that has forced me to write things that were previously buried deep down in my psyche. These thoughts were safe as long as they remained untouched.

The assignment was to write a twenty-or-so page multi-genre project about anything. I chose to write about the ensuing birth of my first child, which probably would have been fine. It would have been a nice happy story about a new baby and a proud father, but I just couldn't have that. Instead I started thinking about my neglectful father and the kind of parenting he gave me. Of course on top of that, three years ago he succumbed to cancer after a long painful battle. So I chose to write a story juxtaposing my dad, myself and my unborn child. This study took me to emotional places that I had long ago blocked off.

Writing has always been therapy to me, whether stories, poems or songs, it was a way for me to work out on paper where my head was. I was not prepared for this story though, I began to dread working on this paper because it forced me to think about guilt and pain and consequence. And also about what kind of father I can be to my kid.

This paper is just about done, along with this semester. Hopefully all those thoughts constantly swirling around my head will settle back down into cobwebs and I can begin to devote myself more to the writing I've been meaning to do. Like pointless ramblings about songs that nobody cares about.

Best Albums

By the first week in January I will be ready to vomit at the site of so many top albums of the year lists. Right now though, in the middle of November, I'll play.

The Current has a vote going on for the top 89 albums of 2006, which they are going to play on New Year's Day. They allow a person to vote for up to 20 albums. I really want to vote for 20 albums and there are certainly that many albums that I enjoyed this year, but I don't know if they are worthy of the "Best" tag. Now this voting process that the Current has is not too keen on requirements for an album to be considered best. There will probably be many people who go on their and vote for the first 20 that come to mind, there is nothing wrong with that, but being the nerd that I am, I am going to suffer and agonize over my list. Here is what I have so far:

Duplomacy - All These Long Drives
Eric Bachmann - To The Races
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Lucero - Rebels, Rogues and Sworn Brothers
P.O.S. - Audition
Stook - The Soundtrack to my Minneapolis
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
M. Ward - Post War
Brian Just -Every Tree and Every Stone

and even though I haven't heard the entire album yet, I am sure it will be one of my favorites this year

Matthew Ryan - From a Late Night High rise

Juan Apagado at the Acadia

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

7:30pm at the Acadia Café in Minneapolis

See some high flying acoustic entertainment from…

Juan Apagado

Nick Leet (from High on Stress)

Jim Soule (also from High on Stress)

and

Aviette

Election Day

Go forth and do your thing.

331 Club in Peril

Do something.

Dear Community Member:

As of November 15, 2006, the City of Minneapolis will require the 331 Club to cease providing amplified music and entertainment. We are asking for your support in fighting this ban by the City. With your support, the 331 Club can continue to provide an exciting and progressive music venue in North East.

The city’s concern is that it needs to regulate businesses impact on their communities (ie noise, traffic etc). And amplified entertainment is considered to have an unacceptable level of impact to the community. We think that, rather than harming the community, the music programming at the 331 Club is providing an important opportunity for local musicians and performers and is making the North East community a richer place.

We are asking you to write a letter to your city council member and to Mayor Rybak in support of the 331 Club. Please tell them how the developing scene at the 331 Club has had a positive (or negative) impact on the local community. Your feedback will be important to the City Council’s decisions regarding the future of North East.

Thank you for your support,

Jarret Oulman
General Manager
331club
jarretoulman@331club.com


Note:

Diane Hofstede can be reached at
Minneapolis City Counsel – 3rd Ward
350 S. 5th St. Rm 307
Email: diane.hofstede@ci.minneapolis.mn.us
Phone: 612-673-2203


Mayor R.T. Rybak’s office can be reached at
Room 331, City Hall
350 South Fifth St.
Minneapolis, MN 55415
jared.nordlund@ci.minneapolis.mn.us
(612) 673-2100 phone