Halloween Alaska is playing at The Cedar — Saturday, May 13 8:00 PM (7:00 PM doors) Ticket are $10.00.

I can’t make it — I’m on kid duty for the weekend so can’t go but you should go to the show.

I didn’t end up making it the the Bryant Lake Bowl last night, but I thought I would share some thoughts from the last show.

[Photo by glt]

When “Halloween, Alaska” appeared at the Triple Rock Social Club, they were headlined by These Modern Socks and Mystery Palace, iirc. The first band was a little too electronica for my tastes, occasionally incarnating the spectre of video games past. I found myself liking one song but feeling some dread that the song would never end — thankfully it did. The second band was a little closer to music I like. They weren’t afraid to experiment with musical form and had no interest in the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus arrangement. Unexpectedly, one song appeared to be composed entirely of clever and interesting sounding bridges. I dubbed it, “The Bridge to No Where”. I liked the second band better than the first. Both opening acts have a lot of potential, but wouldn’t go out of my way to see either one at this point.

Somewhere past midnite, came the main act. (Note to self, grab chair first thing when entering the performance space at the Triple Rock.) They were everything they were the last time I saw them. I love the sound these guys produce. The drumming was spot on and full of showmandship(like always), the vocals were haunting and well matched (just like before) and the keyboard/powerbook guy seems to have a gift for making electronica sound organic. I feel bad I never really notice the guy playing bass. Must be the curse of playing bass, people only notice when you are bad. The stand-out song for the evening was the LL Cool J cover, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”.

I still have yet to hear them play “State Trooper” live. With my luck they probably they played it last night and I missed it. I can’t wait to hear these guys play again.

Looks like “Halloween, Alaska” will be making another local appearance, this time at the Bryant Lake Bowl, for a “semi-acoustic” show on 3/19 @ 10:00 PM, see the Bryant Lake Bowl web page for ticket information.

I’ve been asked, “Will you be there?” Maybe. I would really like to see the band again, but it depends how my day goes.

The SXSW music festival in Austin has a download which contains free mp3′s from over 900 bands.

You’ll need a bittorrent client to get things going. More information can be found on the SXSW ipod/schedule page.
Release 1
Release 2

Last year, there was a ton a great music in the download. I’m really looking forward to hearing what is new this year.

One of my favorite local bands, Halloween Alaska, will be appearing at the Triple Rock Social Club on Friday, February 24th at 9:00PM. The Triple Rock is at 629 Cedar Avenue on the West Bank in Minneapolis.

If you aren’t familiar with the band, they are sort of a very lush, organic, ambient electronica pop. You can stream some tracks from their web site if that description didn’t make much any sense to you. I can’t wait to hear them again. My favorite track is their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper” which I haven’t heard them play live yet.

Anyway, you are all welcome to join me for the evening. It’s $8 in advance or $10 at the door. See you there.

I rarely use the shuffle feature of my iPod.

I hit the shuffle recently out of curiousity since I kept noticing people posting these little top five lists on their blog. Here is what I got.

• Steady As She Goes – Li’l Cap’n Travis
• Cibavit Eos Ex Adipe Furmenti – Benedictine Monks
• No Time This Time – The Police
• Speaking of Fueled – Michelle Malone
• One Week – Barenaked Ladies

It wasn’t unlistenable, I guess …

… but it wasn’t nearly as good as my favorite playlist, "Not Recent, but Good". That playlist gives me  songs rated as 4 or 5 which haven’t been played in the last 30 days. That playlist rocks everytime. 

On my last trip to Wisconsin I spent some time listening to country music since the other radio stations weren’t coming in as clearly. I don’t listen to a lot of country music so I was surprised at how much fun it was to listen to. Consider the following example from the song “Honky Tonk Badkadonk” by Adkins Trace.

... Band shuts down at two
But we're hangin' out till three
We hate to see her go
But love to watch her leave ...

That is a fabulous piece of poetry. I can’t say I understand the entire song properly, for instance the donkey kong reference flumoxes me, but that couplet I quote above is a work of art.

Even the song titles are priceless. I had never before heard the song, “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off”, by Nichol Joe. How can a song with that title not be great? I tell you these cowboy hat wearing poets are geniuses. Poetry is alive and well in America.

I saw Storyhill at the Cedar Cultural Center last night. The show was a benefit for Twin Cities Homeless Shelters. The proceeeds benefited Simpson Housing Services, Our Saviours Housing & St. Stephens.

The music was awesome. It’s an acoustic duo starring Chris Cunningham and John Hermanson. The sounds they produced with their guitars blew me away. I had heard all of those sounds made by guitars, but never in such a rapid fire fashion. Their vocals were a great match for the strong bright chords and impressive finger picking. If you like acoustic folk style music you should listen to these guys. I was especially blown away by the song “Somewhere In Between”.

"I've tried to get through to let you know
how much of who I am I owe to you.
But you won't let me and you turn
and twist my words and make cracks for them to fall through.
And I waste my time trying to be honest.
Looking for words to bridge the gap between us.
But you don't hear them, and I'm still talking.
They're somewhere in between us.
I was sleeping, I don't know if we're in Iowa or Missouri.
But it doesn't matter,
it all looks the same between the corn fields and snow flurries.
And I'm just passing through on the way to somewhere.
The destination's distant, but I don't care.
I haven't yet arrived, but I'm I'm not just starting.
I'm somewhere in between."

I love being able to support a worthy cause and have a great time doing it. You can bet I’ll be going to their show the next time they are in town. Thanks for the invite Clay!

American IV: The Man Comes Around

by Johnny Cash

I saw "Walk the Line" the Johnny Cash bio a few nights ago. I haven’t seen the last few musician biopics so I don’t have a lot to compare this movie to, but I liked the movie quite a bit.

Reese Witherspoon tore up the stage as June Carter. I mean she could have a career in country music in the time it takes for you to shed a tear in your beer. Based on her portrayal of June Carter it was easy for me to see why Mr. Cash fell in love with her — I think the whole audience was in love with her by the end of the movie. I loved how the movie showed them dancing around each other for so many years. I loved the way she walked around his addiction then plunged right in to help him when it seemed he needed it most. I loved her smile.

Joaquin Phoenix was ok as Johnny Cash. He had the mannerisms but something was missing in the way he covered the music. Personally, I would have preferred that more of the music was gleamed from the original recordings.

I’m predisposed to like any movie with a tragically flawed hero, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.  I give it four stars out of five. The worst thing about the movie is that it ends to soon. I wanted to see him as an old man with June Carter still at his side.

After seeing the movie, I had to get out my "American IV: The Man Comes Around" album. I love that album. Cash’s cover of Trent Reznor’s "Hurt" is haunting. The original Nine Inch Nails version is good, but Cash’s treatment, with it’s spare melody and emotional voice, is fantastic. Once you see Cash’s personal struggles with addiction on the big screen the song takes on even more life and meaning. The whole album is really good although I’m not fond of the duet on "Bridge Over Troubled Waters". It’s not that I dislike Fiona Apple; it’s just that she doesn’t add much to the song and their voices don’t seem to compliment each other at all.

I think I need to add a few more Johnny Cash albums to my Christmas wish list. I don’t think I’m alone in this. I went to Target to pick up some grocery tems on Saturday; the Cash section was all sold out.

The Cosmic Game

by Thievery Corporation

There are a couple of albums that have been getting played a lot on my iPod.

• “The Cosmic Game”, Thievery Corporation — I first heard Thievery Corporation on the “Garden State” Soundtrack. The song was “Lebanese Blonde”. It was amazingly smooth. It had this mid-eastern feel at the beginning which gets combined with what I think is a bossa nova beat. I picked up their latest album and found it was filled with songs that have this great combination of world music sounds and really interesting rhythms. How can you not like a song titled, “Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)”?
• “Plans”, Death Cab for Cutie — I loved their last album Transatlanticism. I found them while browsing Amazon, checking out that little “people who bought X also bought Y” feature. I’m sure you can find a million other Death Cab fans on the web who can explain their allure better than I can. All I know is they are smooth and understated. Given the number of times I have listened to their music I seriously should be sick of them by now but I still like them.