A&E from the DNT
On Saturday night I got a backstage pass to scope out the "Green Room" at RT Quinlan’s. Through a locked door, up some steps and into a small room the size of a walk-in closet in a rich person’s house.
Years of band musings covered the walls, eliminating the sentiment: If these walls could talk. They apparently do.
Last night as we sat around, stunned, at the death of Michael Jackson, we began playing a game called "Bigger Celebrity Death." Who, if anyone, could top Michael Jackson’s death in terms of shock value and media coverage during what will likely be a week of retrospectives all over your TV?
Britney Spears, insisted one participant.
Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, another suggested.
Prince? I asked, and got shot down.
Much later in the night, someone threw down what is likely the winning answer: Oprah Winfrey.
Who do you think is a bigger celebrity death? Or even one that would equal the impact of MJ. And more importantly, is it time for Elton John to rewrite "Candle in the Wind" again? Here’s hoping. (Elton John also got a few votes for bigger celebrity death. As did Billy Joel).
And since we’re here: We should play top five songs by Michael Jackson, like every other Web site in the tri-planet area. I’ll start, but I can’t commit to an order:
* Billie Jean
* Thriller (but only when taken collectively with the video)
* Smooth Criminal
* Man in the Mirror (Just kidding, don’t count this one)
* The Way You Make Me Feel
* I Want You Back (Can’t forget Jackson 5)
But, honestly, it’s "Wanna Be Startin’ Something" that is stuck in my head today. Your turn. Respond in the comments to 1) Bigger (or comparable) celebrity death; 2) Top Five songs MJ performed.
Indigo Girls: Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
Go See Them: The Indigo Girls play at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Big Top Chautauqua. Brandi Carlile opens.
Length of first spin: Something like 45 minutes. I only skipped two songs, and one of those songs I really liked, I just didn’t feel like hearing it anymore. Such is the fickled nature of 3 Spin Review.
Working knowledge of the Indigo Girls: Like any woman who attended high school and college in the 1990s, I am very familiar with the Indigo Girls, who were the musical dichotomy to all that Pearl Jam and Nirvana. While the flannel shirts were similar, the Indigo Girls played their angst and harmonized their heartbreaks. I once took a 24-hour trip from the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn., to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D., to see the Indigo Girls play a $5 show. I want to say I saw them at Lilith Fair in Shakopee, Minn., in 1999, but I’m afraid that I’m mixing Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Beth Orton and Sarah McLachlin and subconsciously assuming that you can’t have that much grrrl rock without conjuring the Indigo Girls.
As if you’ve never heard of them: No brief bio necessary.
Note: This is a double CD, one acoustic, one with a full band. For a few hours out of the day I prefer the former, the rest of the time, the latter. I asked Amy Ray which version she prefered, and she couldn’t decide, either. Although she said she likes the band version because she always hears them play acoustic.
A brief essay on music: I lost touch with the Indigo Girls after buying their live double CD "1200" in the mid-1990s. I’m not sure why a person stops listening to music she likes, despite the fact that the music is still being made. In fact, five studio CDs were released in the absense of my ears. I floated a hypothesis past my boyfriend. It is an untamed collection of ideas that went something like this:
When CDs were first mainstreamed, they were expensive to me of little income. So when I got something like "Swamp Ophelia" or 10,000 Maniacs, or The Smiths Greatest Vol. 2, I listened to it incessantly. Learning every nuance of every song and embedding them, apparently perminantly, into my brain. Then, two years later, a new Indigo Girls CD would be released. A whole fleet of new songs that it would take months, years, to develop a similar familiarity with. A daunting task, considering the additional material I was listening to: Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, Jesus & Mary Chain, etc. And so some things dropped out of my rotation, like the Indigo Girls. The desire for new, different, unclaimed music was stronger than listening to the tried and true. Hasta la pasta, Amy and Emily.
Assessment: Ohhhhhhh. This is so good. So, so, so good. What is it about the Indigo Girls that makes you want to go for long drives in a ratty albeit fashionable straw hat? Sit around a campfire? Write in a journal and look at the world a little more closely. Buy a dog. Borrow a guitar. Lay in a hammock. Open your windows. Use pine-flavored cleaning products. Get in a water fight with a hose. Finger paint. Grill out. Take deep and happy sighs.
If I could do the past 15 years over again, I’d add more Indigo Girls. This CD isn’t breaking any new territory. There is a song that is so similar to "Power of Two," and other songs that seem so familiar that the tunes are easily remembered. But it’s so, so, so good.
My picks: "Digging For Your Dream" and "Driver Education" (originally a solo piece by Amy) and "I’ll Change."
What someone else says: "In the end, ‘Poseidon’ follows the pretty but predictable model that has worked for the Indigo Girls for 20 years, and outdoor pavilion crowds everywhere will no doubt be thrilled with the result." Judy Coleman, Boston Globe
3 Spin Review is a feature where I receive a CD in the mail. Take a quick zip, skipping ahead when a song starts to poke my brain, lingering when it has immediate appeal. Second spin includes listening to it while I’m doing something else. Third spin I actually decide if I like what I’m hearing. These brief reviews will also include my working knowledge of said band, so you know whether my opinion is trustworthy, and then the opinion of someone else who has reviewed the CD.
Kevin Kling (left) gestures while telling a story as accordionist Simone Perrin listens during an evening with Kevin Kling at the Marshall Performing Arts Center on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus Wednesday. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
Of course, this didn’t occur to me until I was driving home from work last night, but I’ve decided that playwright/storyteller/cracker upper/NPR contributor Kevin Kling is the anti-Garrison Keillor.
It’s interesting the way two people can approach a similar craft: Funny stories with regional appeal.
There is Kling, breathless and animated. An up-talker mining his past for stories and then giving them a global message. He’s clever and hilarious and family-friendly. Then there is Keillor, who sounds like Kling on a slower RPM. His low, monotone, soothing drone. His "Wobegon" series fictional, but close enough to a truth to almost be truth.
Kling’s sidekick is an accordion player with a nice voice and a lot of whimsy — Simone Perrin. Keillor’s is the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band — which has its own charm.
It was a good show last night. My story is here, regretfully without the Keillor connection.
And Happy Sieur Du Luth to all of you.
The Indigo Girls are Emily Saliers (left) and Amy Ray. Submitted Photo.
Here are the outtakes from a conversation with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls from earlier this week. They will be performing at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Big Top Chautauqua. For additional Q&A from the folk singer/songwriter, see Thursday’s Wave.
ON BEING AN INDIE BAND AGAIN
"It’s mostly like logistical things, really. I mean, musically … we’ve always done exactly what we want to do. Except for things like, this record … it’s a double record. We put out an acoustic version of the whole record. That’s something we might not have been able to do because of getting permission and getting extra money. In that way, it would have put a dent in our creativity. But you know, creative freedom-wise we’ve always done what we want. It’s business stuff. It’s like how you spend your money on marketing and not wasting so much and making sure things are recycled, you know, that kind of stuff. Writing your own show. Being able to be an activist band in a larger way, I think."
ON WHAT RAY WRITES TO PERFORM SOLO, AND WHAT SHE WRITES FOR THE BAND
"I usually just know as soon as I start writing it what it feels like to me. My songs … there’s less emphasis on the harmony and my songs feel more singular to me. Kind of like, it feels like it’s really something I don’t want another sort of color in it. Because when me and Emily put our songs into an arrangement with Indigo Girls, we really color each others songs in a pretty heavy way. So if there’s stuff Emily just wants to do alone, she feels like it’s more intimate, I don’t sing with her — and vice versa. My solo stuff tends to be really rock or kind of influenced in that way. I know the players I’m going to use on my solo stuff, and they’re really different from the players we’d use on Indigo Girls stuff. All those things go through my head when I’m doing it."
ON HOW A SONG, LIKE ‘SUGAR TONGUE’ FROM THE NEW CD, IS BORN
"The first impetus for ['Sugar Tongue'] was like I was literally getting a shoe shine at an airport, which is something I rarely do, because it makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. But this guy kind of talked me into it because he didn’t have any costumers. We had this long conversation. He was from … South America. We talked a lot about colonialism, his perspective. I don’t know how we got into that. I think he was talking about mining — bauxite mining in his country and what the boom did for him. I was sort of looking at it, of course, from the other perspective because I’m a white liberal. And it was an interesting flip flop of all those things.
I was just thinking about it. I wrote a long sort of story about it and then I just kind of left it in my lyric book. That’s what I do when something happens. I just write a lot of stuff and I don’t really think about what I’m going to use it for. Then I had another conversation with someone late at night on our tour bus, someone who works for us. We were talking about — I don’t know vegetarianism, consumerism and the impacts of western civilization and stuff. Heavy, you know. So I wrote a lot about that too.
And then, what often happens is, I’m sitting down with my guitar and I start playing some sort of chord progression that reminds me of something I’ve written in my lyric journal, and I thumb through it and I mark all the pages that might have something to do with that. Like, if I’ve written anything else that makes me feel the same things, I mark them all with little Post-Its. Then I go through and start recording ideas and piecing it together. That’s how I work. Then a song is eventually born."
MORE ON WRITING
"For me, a song takes like a good amount of time, off and on. I can work on the same song for a year. And I’ll be working on 5-10 songs at the same time. And then, what happens next, I put it down on tape. I kind of play it during sound check a lot … just to try it out. Then when Emily and I get ready to start on a new record, I give her a tape of it and all the lyrics and write down the chord progression and she sits with it for awhile and kind of comes up with her own ideas. And then we sit down together and she tosses out her ideas, and I toss out mine, and we tape everything as we go and then listen back to what we think sounded the best.
[Emily] usually writes her songs a lot faster. We’re not informed of each other’s creative process while things are going on, except to hear it through the dressing room door or during sound check. I don’t necessarily know where her songs come from and she doesn’t really know where mine come from, except when we hear each other talk about it. Which is kind of cool. It means there’s mystery there and it gives us the chance to put our own point to it."
ON WHAT RAY IS LISTENING TO
"There’s a band called Common Rotation that just finished a new record where they played with a bluegrass band called Dustbowl Cavaliers. I’m listening to the record … it’s coming out in a couple months. It’s an amazing record. It’s a friend of mine. Typically, what I’m listening to is a demo tape or someone I know just finished a record.
There are a lot of great bands. There’s a band I just discovered awhile back. Detroit 7 is a Japanese kind of garage rock punk band. I was kind of on a bend where I listened to them a lot for while."
… AND WHILE WORKING OUT?
I often listen to the Shins while I’m working out. I have all of their records on my iPod and I listen to the Shins a lot. Them, and a guy named Josh Ritter, I listen to him when I’m working out. Sometimes I listen to something like rap or Hip-Hop stuff like Outkast or Tupac, something where I’m trying to get going, you know."
ON WHAT TO EXPECT AT BIG TOP SHOW
"We’re playing with a keyboard player, for one thing. She’s played with us off and on for a long time. She’s touring steadily with us right now. … We’re playing almost everything from the new record. People really seem to want to hear it. And a mixture of old stuff. We try to cover a little bit off every record."
The Melvilles play at Fitger’s Brewhouse on Friday night.
JANGLY POP
The Melvilles are a six-man Minneapolis band that bills itself as rock, country rock with a touch of jangly pop. "We do a country version of a Velvet Underground tune. We do a bluegrassy version of Roxy Music. We do a hard-rock version of Buck Owens," according to the band’s bio.
The Melvilles — Brian Amelang (vocals, keyboard, melodica, mandolin), Steve Michels Boyce (bass, vocals), Dan Mackaman (lead guitar), John W. Noren (drums), Karl Schweikart (guitar, vocals), and David Whitman (guitar, vocals) — play at 9 p.m. Friday at Fiters, 600 E. Superior St.
THINK ‘GOD ROCKED’ ROCKED?
Become a fan of "… And on the 7th Day God Rocked" on Facebook, and help 4 Track Films get their fan count into the quadruple digits. More fans means more clout with online distributors.
Also: Vote for "God Rocked" at independentfeatures.com. Top vote-getting movies are shown in New York City in July at an event that includes red carpets and awards. Just log in and click on the film reels to vote for the home team.
"God Rocked" is a mockumentary by the local filmmakers that told the story of a Christian Battle of the Bands, and included cameos from tons of the faces in the local music scene, and Sacred Heart Music Center.
PRESENT TENTS
Richie Havens will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, and Harry Manx will open a show that starts at 8:15 p.m. on Friday at Big Top Chautauqua. Tickets are $20-$38.
Havens emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, and for more than three decades has made music speaking of brotherhood and personal freedom. Manx is a blues man.
CD RELEASE
Mother Banjo’s CD release show is at 8 p.m. Friday at Beaner’s Central, 324 Central Ave. Special guests include Jerree Small, Brent Floren and "Sneaky" Pete Bauer — a harp player who played on Mother Banjo’s new full-length album "The Sad and the Found." There is a $5 cover.
Mother Banjo, a one-woman show out of Minneapolis featuring Ellen Stanley on banjo and vocals, describes its sound as acoustic, folk, indie.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune said of Mother Banjo: "… Traditional folk and bluegrass sounds with genuinely poetic lyrics, landing somewhere between Gillian Welch and Lucy Kaplansky."
DOUBLE DUTY
A Starlight Incident, a relatively new creation of Trevor Schmidt, has two shows in the area this Wave cycle. ASI first plays at 8 p.m. Saturday at Beaner’s Central, then at 8 p.m. Monday at Thirsty Pagan Brewing.
A Starlight Incident has ties to locally connected Jamestown Story, having played many shows together,spent time living in Esko and has cousins from Duluth. Schmidt grew up in Bend, Ore.
VEGAS, BABY
Former Duluthian turned Los Angeles transplant Todd Eckart is performing at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Horsehoe Bar & Billiards on West Superior St. Billed as "The Las Vegas Show," Eckart will perform in the vein of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. There is a $5 cover, but $10 will get you a rib-eye dinner, too. For tickets, call (218) 391-7098.
CIRCUS STUNTS
The Liebling Bros. Family Circus of Orlando, Fla., is coming to town. The show will feature performers from all over the world: Hula hoop artists, jugglers, trained monkeys, aerialists, acrobats, daredevils, and clowns. Elephant rides, pony rides, a moon bounce slide and more. Guest star Logan Jacot will do some contorting and balancing, fire eating and glass walking.
Performances are 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in Gary New Duluth behind St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church at 98th Ave. W. and Bowser St. Then the show moves to South St. Louis County Fairgrounds. On Friday and Saturday, the show is at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. There is an additional performance at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. On Sunday, catch the show at 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
IRISH MUSIC
Daithi Sproule and the HiBs are performing at 9 p.m. Friday at Carmody Irish Pub. Called a "Seminal figure in Irish music" by the Rough Guide To Irish Music, Sproule was born in Northern Ireland and continues to perform traditional Irish tunes.
The HiBs are play Celtic, acoustic folk music.
On Saturday night, Crows in the Corn will play at Carmody. The New Orleans style jam band starts at 9 p.m.
Also Good Bets, a companion to the Wave’s Best Bets section, is a weekly feature that includes additional ways to fill your entertainment schedule for the next week.
What am I doing?: I’m now in my experimental, Twitter-for-work-purposes stage. Let’s see how this plays out. If you want to follow me, I’m @DNTAnE. Read all about the CDs I get in the mail, who is being featured in the Wave, breaking Bayfront Festival Park concert news, links of interest, half-price bottles of wine, best karaoke performances at the Round Up on a given night, and other A&E tidbits that crop up throughout the day.
UPDATE: Click here to follow me. (According to Twitter FAQs, new people don’t always show up lickitty split in the directory)
What happens when dueling kissing booths crop up at the Carlton County Fair? Check out the film your friends from the Free Range Film Festival created for the recent 48 Hour Film Project in Minneapolis. This one, directed by Mike Scholtz, features all sorts of familiar faces — including local rocknroller Greg Cougar Conley and Roger Reinert. Per usual, the Free Rangers create material that can be safely viewed in front of any audience.
Black Eyed Peas: The E.N.D.
Length of first spin: One hour.
Working knowledge of the Black Eyed Peas: Everything I knew about Black Eyed Peas, I forgot in the six years that have passed since I bought the CD "Elephunk." So rereading their band bio was like ho-ho-ho memory lane. I forgot that Fergilicious was borne of this pod. It’s so exciting when you can have an equal amount of delighted awe at learning the same information twice. When I think of the summer of 2006, all I see is Fergie’s metallic short-shorts orbiting the planet like a disco ball.
Information gleaned from a press release: The E.N.D. stands for "Energy Never Dies."
My assessment: My body and my soul are at odds over this one. Deep down, I know I’m listening to ear worming, brain freezing, seizure-inducing club music. The sort of thing that should be served with drinks from the -tini family (specifically flirtini, fruitini, appletini, chocolatini) purchased by men who wax their arms. Girls Night Out meets Bachelor Party under strobe lights. It’s lyrically simple — repetitious (think "The Wheels On the Bus" or "99 Bottles of Beer") and it’s backed by a freethinker who had the audacity to wonder: "What happens when I push all of the percussion buttons on this Casio keyboard?" Unfortunately, my body wants to run to it. Dance to it. Clean the bathroom to it. Do the robot to it. In the past 15 minutes, I’ve burned 45 calories by head-bobbing and knee shaking. Imagine what would happen to my abs if I actually stood up when I listened to this mess."I Gotta Feeling," sounds like the date music that would accompany Daniel Larusso and Ali Mills on their first date to Golf ‘n’ Stuff in a futuristic remake of "Karate Kid." It segues into "Alive," which begins with will.i.am crowing like he went on a weekend retreat with R. Kelly.
The entire 15-track CD melds together and sounds like the apex of one of those "Open House Party" style nationally syndicated Saturday night radio shows, where listeners call the host John Garabedian and slur "Heeeeey, John. Me and my friends are just driving around tonight and want to hear the song ‘Boom Boom Pow.’ FERRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!"
The worst part is that knowning this, I’ll still listen to it. Probably a lot.
What someone else says: "’The E.N.D.,’ the group’s fifth studio album and the third since the singer Stacy Ferguson (better known as Fergie) joined and took it from the earnest hip-hop underground to the glamorous, necessarily compromised pop mainstream, is more accomplished and more confounding than any of the foursome’s previous efforts. It’s likely to dominate radio and the Internet this summer, its sharp flavors simultaneously driving listeners nuts and drawing them back." Ann Powers, Pop & Hiss, LA Times Music Blog
3 Spin Review is a feature where I receive a CD in the mail. Take a quick zip, skipping ahead when a song starts to poke my brain, lingering when it has immediate appeal. Second spin includes listening to it while I’m doing something else. Third spin I actually decide if I like what I’m hearing. These brief reviews will also include my working knowledge of said band, so you know whether my opinion is trustworthy, and then the opinion of someone else who has reviewed the CD.
AL FRESCO
Movies in the Park starts Friday with "Leatherheads," the story of the Duluth Bulldogs is set, although not filmed, in Duluth. Remember when George Clooney and Renee Zellweger came here? Grab a blanket and friends and head to Leif Erickson Park at dusk. For the full charming effect, hit the Speedie Weenie cart for dinner.
ART AND TECH FUSION
Adam Cady, an artist from Ashland, has an all-ages friendly exhibit at the Cultural Center and Museum in Washburn, which runs through the end of the June.
Cady’s show includes five years of art-tech fusion, featuring mixed-media paintings, and sculptures with electronics. Bring headphones — the ones in your iPod will do — to experience two interactive pieces. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat. For a sneak preview, go here.
SONGWRITING COMPETITION DEADLINE FRIDAY
Did you finish your song yet for the Big Top Chautauqua Songwriting contest? Deadline for the second-annual competition is Friday. Submit two original songs of any style online. (It’s probably too late to mail it). Up to 12 finalists will be selected to perform in the finals on the Big Top stage on Aug. 27 with the Blue Canvas Orchestra and host Bill Isles.
Two winners will be selected by a panel of judges and the winners will be invited to perform during the opening set of the Suzanne Vega concert. Not to mention being named Big Top Chautauqua Songwriter of the Year."
POLKA PARTY
Check out Doctor Kielbasa at the 31st International Polka Festival at the Lost Isle Ballroom in Carlton. The festival runs Friday-Sunday and includes 20 bands. For more information, call (218) 372-3616 or (218) 384-4755.
BANDANA-RAMA
Itching for the chance to meet Bret Michaels, the bandana’d star of VH1′s "Rock of Love" and the magic voice behind late 80s slow-dance classic, Poison’s "Every Rose Has It’s Thorn"? Michaels’ Rock of Love Tour Bus will be making a stop at Taste of Minnesota, which runs July 2-July 5 on Harriet Island in downtown St. Paul, and two fans will get Meet-n-Greet passes. (Michaels makes his stop on July 5).
To enter: 1. Post a video on YouTube and the Facebook Taste of Minnesota fan page. You can get there from here. 2. Video can be no longer than 30 seconds. 3. Provide your name, e-mail address and phone number. 4. No profanity, or (more surprisingly) no nudity. 5. Send a message to tasteofminnesota@gmail.com with the subject line "Bret Michaels Contest" with a link to the video.
The top two will get to meet Michaels, and the top three will win a pair of Gold Circle reserved seat tickets, closest to the stage. Go to www.tasteofminnesota.com for more details. Videos are due by Sunday.
Also Good Bets, a companion to the Wave’s Best Bets section, is a weekly feature that includes additional ways to fill your entertainment schedule for the next week.
