MinneapolitanMusic

Saturday night was a great adventure, which began with a buzz-inducing Ani DiFranco show that left me elated and a little dazed. (Read my review here.) Afterwards, we headed over to the Turf Club to catch the end of HeartBreak and Harmoney, which was billed as Haley Bonar and the Ashtray Hearts, and was completely shocked to find Mr. Andrew Bird on stage behind Haley, playing fiddle and singing backup vocals. There were only about 15-20 other people in front of the stage (the rest of the crowd was further back and yacking loudly) and I looked around the room in amazement that I seemed to be the only one who recognized him.

After Haley's set, she introduced Bird and asked him to play a set of his own, which led to him borrowing her guitar, tuning it for about 10 minutes, and accidentally unplugging it once before he could begin. And I thought Haley was the charmingly awkward performer. After all of the technical problems were figured out, Bird played a new song that he just recorded with Haley, which featured him whistling and Haley playing keyboards and singing backup vocals. It was a lovely song and I wished he could have stayed to play a bit more, but given the cameo nature of his appearance he flitted off the stage and out the door faster than they could get the rest of the equipment off the stage.

The evening at the Turf was closed out by the Ashtray Hearts, but my brain was so fried by all the developments of the evening that I headed home to write and snuggle with Husband.

Yee-haw, has anyone looked at the calendar for this weekend? So many good shows packed in such a small amount of time. (And no, I'm not talking about Van Morrison. But that Van Morrison cover band I heard on MPR this morning, the Belfast Cowboys, sounded pretty good.)

Tonight I will be heading out to the late Mark Mallman show after a romantic dinner date with Husband. For those of you who have trouble keeping up, remember that I no longer have distaste for the MallMan and hope that any non-believers will make an effort to catch a chance at Conversion. He is playing an early show (all ages) at the Triple Rock starting at 6pm and another one (for us drunkards, 21+) starts at 10pm. Other best bets for the evening include some local band at the Entry, and Mike Nicolai at Dusty's.

Saturday is a glorious, glorious day. I am lucky enough to be one of roughly 400 people who have the distinct pleasure of taking in Ani DiFranco at the Cedar Cultural Center. So stoked. I love her. Have I mentioned that before? Well, if I haven't, I will now. I wrote an essay analyzing her poetry (which I won't put you through, don't worry, it's nit picky and technical and frankly, a little boring) but it resulted in me writing this sentence about her music:

"In many ways, DiFranco could be classified as a spoken word poet who uses her guitar as an aide in her poetic expression, and at points in her music it as if DiFranco and her guitar are taking turns telling parts of the story. Rather than using commas, colons and periods, she uses moody guitar distortions, plucked out melodies and tempo and chord changes to paint the scene."

Isn't it fun when your teachers let you write about actual, real-life, enjoyable things? I also somehow finnagled my way into being allowed to write almost entirely music-based articles for my journalism class. I am sneaky. Sneaky like a ninja monkey.

Other nice Saturday shows: Ladytron at First Ave, and Rock Against Rape at the Nomad with Koalas, Ouija Radio, the Lie-Ons, Toki Wright, and more.

It's Friday, and I am about as squirrelly as Ralph on catnip. Eeeee!

A quote to leave you with, from the aforementioned Ms. DiFranco:

i walk in stride with people
much taller than me
and partly it's the boots but
mostly it's my chi
and i'm becoming transfixed
with nature and my part in it
which i believe just signifies
i'm finally waking up

Interesting things floating around on the internets today:

According to a fan interview, Gary Louris is planning on entering the studio this summer to record a solo album, which could be released as early as this fall. In other Jayhawks news, Tim O'Reagan's new disc (which is utterly amazing, let me tell ya) is due out June 27 on Lost Highway.

Jack White has a new commercial coming out for Coca-Cola, and it is actually pretty artsy and cool to watch.

Pitchfork is reporting that Iggy Pop and the Stooges are reuniting to tour and record their first album since 1973. A great quote from Mike Watt on their creative process and album progress: "Last week, I got a CD-R from Iggy with thirteen tunes -- 'secret plan' was written on it. They were demos with Iggy singing into a MiniDisc, with Scotty on a little kid drum set, and Ronnie on a tiny guitar amp, all done in Iggy's pad in Miami. Ig told me to get some bass lines going but plan on three days with just me and him in August there in Miami to nail down what he wants on bass."

Every time I remind someone of my great migration southward in October, I am read a list of reasons why I should stay in Minneapolis. This, by far, is the best persuasion tactic I have seen so far, from Stook:

To: Andrea Myers

Date: Apr 18, 2006 1:49 PM

Subject: sup myers

I had a dream last night that you emailed me and you were like “whats going on in the cities?....all my favourite tc bands are taking turns being on magazine covers!!!!!”

And I was like “yeah, its crazy… everybody got signed, got rich, and is winning grammys”

And you were like “damn stook! I should have never moved to chi-town” and I said “yeah no shit! Did you hear about mason Jennings?” and you were like “what?” and I said “they let him into the rock hall of fame 20 years early” and you said, “really?” and I was like “ hell yeah!!! he’s flying all twin cities based journalists and bloggers to new york for the party, and he’s going to play a Lakeville style intimate acoustic show on the plane.. AND they get to eat all the candy they want on the way there” and you were like “shit, I should have never moved” and I was like “how is Chicago anyway” and you were like “it sucks, its not even windy anymore”

Stook!

I have been anxious with anticipation of Mason Jennings' first new disc in two years, Boneclouds, and could barely wait to get the envelope open when it showed up in my mail yesterday. The album marks the first time in his 10-year, stubbornly indepent music career that he has recorded on a major label (Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace, an offshoot of Epic Records). And, as I am sure many Mason fans will do upon purchase, I popped the disc in and immediately began looking for ways that his sound may have changed with this new development.

I have to admit, when I heard the first track, my heart sunk because his voice was noticeably altered and an effect was added to make him sound booming and echo-y. The song, "Be Here Now," was one I remembered enjoying live, but the change in his sound was so drastic that I wasn't able to get into it during my first listen. The normal swoops and vulnerable lifts of his signature voice were overshadowed by technology, and I think I actually gasped and clutched my chest as I waited for the next track. The second track featured the same style of vocals, but the sound was a little softer and the effects were less noticeable. But I was still a little unsettled by the change.

Luckily, after track two I was able to loosen up, as the third track, "If You Ain't Got Love," is a quiet little gem in the same vein of previous Mason classics like "Ballad For My One True Love" or "Train Leaving Gray," and his voice is free and clear. As the album pushed forward I started to realize that many of the songs were the perfect culminations of all of Mason's previous albums - the tracks ranged from quiet, acoustic ballads to shuffling folk-rock sing-alongs to all-out rockers - and for the most part it seems like he has done a great job of refining his sound and expounding on the ideas he has explored previously (and staying away from too many effects). For the most part, it seemed that even his most experimental songs worked, and after revisiting the tracks I immediately disliked (tracks 1, 2, and 9, for those keeping score), I began to understand why he needed to make these types of songs.

Most importantly, by the time I got to the end of the disc I could positively say that the changes in Jennings' career have not affected his musical direction in any obvious way, and I know that I, for one, am relieved.

Boneclouds will be released on May 16, and Mason is playing the Orpheum on June 24. Expect more outta me about this in the weeks to come.

Track listing for Boneclouds:

1. Be Here Now
2. Gentlest Hammer
3. If You Ain't Got Love
4. Some Say I'm Not
5. Moon Sailing On the Water
6. Jackson Square
7. If You Need A Reason
8. Which Way Your Heart Will Go
9. Where The Sun Had Been
10. Jesus You Are Real

(Ignore the fact that I am, like, SO BEHIND on reporting about the Strokes.)

You will be able to read my actual review on HWTS, but something else occurred to me while I was watching the Strokes at the Orpheum Tuesday night that felt fairly significant - I don't go to large venue rock shows anymore, and it makes me sad. I have been extremely, tunnel-vision-focused on the local scene for about the last six months or more, and have only allowed myself to go to "the big ones" when I feel that I have fulfilled some sort of imaginary quota of local shows per week. Well, Minneapolis Music Scene, I have been your slave for long enough! I need more big rock!

It's not even that the Strokes show was that spectacular - hell, from my review, you will probably think I was bored stiff - but the truth is this: as the band fired up and the huge crowd cheered, the room was charged with so much electricity and excitement that I almost got choked up a bit. It is such an energizing experience to be in a room full of fans, and regardless of how involved I was in the Strokes' performance the entire place was a squirming, screaming squish of people. My favorite was a guy who looked a lot like Larry David, doing some sort of hyper karate-chop dance in the balcony area. He was flooded by a bunch of other jumpy dancers during the encore and security eventually came over to advise the crowd of their strict No Dancing policy.

You may have noticed that my blog entries lately have become sparser and sparser, and I am here today to tell you that I have a major case of blog block. It is torturous and I hate it. You see, I have a few fears about my blog, ways that it could evolve into something that no one will ever read, ever. (Sort of like, oh I don't know, now.) My fears are:

1. This blog will become a Cheese Sandwich blog, in which I bore you to death with the pointless meanderings of my day-to-day life. And you, the reader, will say, talk more about music, you idiot!
2. You, the reader, will realize that I actually talk more about why I write about music than actually freakin' writing about music, and will become angry and storm outta here. Or worse yet, I will share more of my poetry.
   
3. I will start writing about bands that are dumb just to have something to write about.

Alright, I feel much better already, now that I have shared my feelings with the void. Anything you all need to get off your chest? I'm all ears. (Well, technically, I guess on the internet I would be all eyes. Sort of like a sensitive, compassionate potato.)

More blog entries coming! Spring is here so I have no more excuses for being a sloth.

This is a pseudo live review that doesn't really deserve to be published anywhere except blogland. (Excuse me, I mean "the blogosphere.")

One of the first stops during a very fun Friday night was the Fine Line, where we intended to see White Light Riot but managed to get there right as they were tearing down their set. Though I was a bit disappointed, I have seen WLR more than a few times and was glad to see that Omaur Bliss was next in the lineup, a band I had been intending to check out for a while (though I didn't really know anything about them, I just heard from people that they were so good and my curiosity was piqued).

There was a pretty decent crowd growing already, with lovely ladies Jessy Greene and Dessa flitting through the room in preparation for their set later in the evening. As a band took the stage, I began trying to figure out what kind of music Omaur Bliss might play - with openers WLR (indie/pop rock) and Dessa and Jessy (who can range from hip-hop to pop to alt-country and back again) - there was no telling what else might slide its way into the lineup. The guys assembled on stage had a typical bass/guitar/drum configuration, and looked to be some sort of grunge rock band. Much to my surprise, when they hit their first note it was a pure and smooth pschedalic groove, and the stage lights flicked on in a multi-color, vivid, and almost cartoon-like fashion above the stage. It was impossible not to smile, and the whole room filled up with a warm, positive energy. This was going to be good.

From the side of the stage three vocalists approached, walking in a line and doing a sort of march/shuffle up the stairs that reminded me of the Temptations or something similar. Omaur Bliss, the middle of the three singers, stepped forward to welcome us to his show (and from that point on it really was his show), speaking over the jammy music and inviting people to come forward and dance. It was as if a tornado of sunshine had swept through the room, and all at once people were bobbing and dancing and grinning uncontrollably. He hadn't even started singing yet!

The 45-minute set consisted of one shining tune after another, and the music was a combination of jam band music, hip-hop vocal stylings and soulful singing. The closest thing it could compare to would be Heiruspecs, though Omaur's music isn't quite as heavy and relies more on the talents of the back-up singers and the charisma of the overall performance. Put simply, it was feel-good music, and for the first warm night of the Spring season it was absolute perfection.

Other shows seen Friday: The Teeth (good local band described to me as being a combination of the Replacements and Wilco, which actually wasn't far from the truth) at the Kitty Cat; Jenny Dalton (see review here) at the Varsity; and a bar-closing, mind-blowing White Light Riot performance back at the KCK that featured the best damn cover of "Taxman" that I have ever heard with members of both the Alarmists and WLR. (It must have been good, it made me this happy.)