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    Homegrown Day 5: Feeling Superior


    2010 - 05.07

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    So … wow. Superior night is still in my hair, 14 hours after the microphone practically had to be ripped from Chad Lyons’ clutches at the end of Acceleratii’s set at Norms Beer & Brats. This was the show that would not end, and nobody really wanted it to. The entire band was decked out in full body blue collar jump suits, Lyons accentuated his with mirrored sunglasses, PBR, and a T-shirt celebrating a piece of anatomy. The PBR flowed like sweat. When he said he was playing the last song, fans wouldn’t hear it. Lyons asked the sound guy how much time they had left and was told 10 minutes. I think he played about five more of their original rockabilly tunes with raunchy lyrics. (Raunch-abilly?)

    Best. Show. Ever. Seriously. This just lends evidence to my theory that bands should be hilarious.

    At one point it seemed like Lyons would never relingquish that microphone. It was like the Oscars, before they figured out a way to cut off award-winners. Except you didn’t want this award-winner to get cut off.

    It is just impossible to hit everything you might want to see during Homegrown. It is with deep regret that I couldn’t get to Bratwurst’s show at the Main. Do they really throw raw meat into the audience? I certainly hope so.

    Earlier in the night I caught Healthy Band Music Club at the Main. This band is trippy, with a saucy young singer with great stage presense, a keyboardist, a trumpet player, a guitar player and a drummer. They all sing. It kind of felt like being at a 1970s Twister party. I wish this band would write a rock opera.

    Happy Homegrown Friday.

    * What happened to Homegrown Day 4, you ask? This lady called "uncle." The surface tension on TiVo was threatening to bust, and my sweatpants were losing their muscle memory.

    Homegrown Day 3: How do you define ‘Experimental’?


    2010 - 05.05

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    I could pretend to wax thoughtful on Experimental Tuesday, but truth be told I went to Twins Bar for Experimental Tuesday, skulked around the edges for awhile, then bolted — as to be fresh faced for Part II of an 8 a.m. root canal. Holla, Northern Endodontic Associates!

    Caught about two songs by Words to a Film Score, solid. Then stayed for the entire Atlas Mts. set. Also nice. I ditched out before Canine Heart Sounds blew up Twitter with a quote-worth intro that, for delicate ears, loosely translates to: "Alright, people in the audience. Let us break some stuff." 

    A friend brought up a good point: What does it take to be considered "Experimental" ?? Anyone, anyone, anyone?

    Here is some other Homegrown Jibber Jabber: 

    * Lineup changes, as seen on PDD.

    * Last year I wrote a feature about Jason Cork, a Homegrown Hero who has gone to unusual lengths to get to the festival every year. This year he’s just driving super far in the middle of the night, which is relatively tame. But, in something akin to 24-hours of back-to-back episodes of "A Christmas Story," I’m reposting it here. Maybe I’ll repost it here every year: From April 29, 2009: 

     

    Jason Cork ’s wristband from the 2008 Homegrown Music Festival fell off about three weeks ago when he reached into a file cabinet. Never fear; he was able to patch together the paper bracelet with a little tape.

    “The question I got the most …” Cork said of people’s response to his arm band: “ ‘Did you just get out of the hospital?’ or ‘Did you just get out of the loony bin?’ ”

    Cork, 32, isn’t the official Homegrown mascot. That would be a white cartoon chicken. But he might be the festival’s most extreme fan. Cork arrived in Duluth on Monday in time for the Duluth Photographer’s Guild exhibit at Harbor City International School.

    That makes him 11-for-11 in Homegrown Music Festival appearances.

    The Homegrown Music Festival kicked off Sunday night at Pizza Luce with New Band Night. The festival continues through brunch Sunday. The intensity ramps up over the weekend, with live music at more than a dozen venues and free trolley rides shuttling music fans between sites.

    Cork hasn’t been a Duluth resident for six years, which means he has had to take some extreme measures to get to town for the annual music festival. His trips have taken on an urban legend proportion:

    * No, Cork never spent $2,000 on a plane ticket to get here.

    * Yes, he did drop out of college to attend in 2002. It was the end of the semester at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. Cork had plans to live in Duluth for the summer, and he thought it would be easier to take his finals early and just make one trip back. This did not work out. “At the time I decided it wasn’t worth it,” Cork said of traveling to Duluth, back to Washington, then back to Duluth. “In retrospect, it might not have been the best way to go about things.” He eventually graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.

    “I have a lot of friends in Duluth,” Cork said. “I moved there just before I turned 21 and I was lucky to make a lot of friends there through skiing. For me, [Homegrown] is Christmas and New Year’s and my birthday. It’s sweet. I get to go and hang out with my people.”

    Paul Lundgren of the Homegrown Steering Committee can’t think of another Homegrown fan with this level of commitment.

    “I don’t think anyone has traveled as frequently as he has,” Lundgren said. “There are people who drive up from the Twin Cities. There aren’t many people who fly into town every year for Homegrown. And drop out of college, for example.”

    But, as Cork wrote in an essay in the 2006 Homegrown Field Guide: “Under no circumstances will I miss Homegrown weekend.”

    This year he has it easy. Cork is in his first year as an assistant track, cross country and ski coach at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Mich. Getting to Duluth simply meant renting a car. He is, however, missing the team’s outdoor conference track and field meet.

    The car rental is good news for Deacceleratii co-front man Cory Ahlm, Cork’s friend and the former lead singer for the band Bone Appetit — a band Cork covered when he was working for the now-defunct Ripsaw.

    “Actually, for about four or five years straight, I was the one who had to pick him up at the [gosh darn] airport,” Ahlm said. “He can thank me for that.”

    And with that treat, happy Lakewalk Wednesday!

    Homegrown Day 2: A kite and a boy


    2010 - 05.04

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    This is Jason Page and Erin McConnell’s entry in the Homegrown Music Video Festival, a video for The Moon Is Down song "My Amazing Kite," and it is really is one of those things that needs more viewing, less chatter from me. But the gist is this: Abe Curran in a red unitard, as a kite personified — sword fights, ice cream cones, skateboarding; Braxton Baker, most-recently from the Playhouse’s production of "The Secret Garden," (who looks like a young Dave Mehling … I mean it’s uncanny); And is that Luke Holden? hopping the rocks in a pair of shiny hot pink drawers.

    You’ll cry.

    The music video festival featured 14 entries that the video artists had 2 weeks to complete. Songs were taken from previous Festival experiences. And there were some doozies. Other highlights include: 

    * Josh Carlon’s animated take on The Bitter Spills "The Old Clyde Road," a grisly and hilarious look at animal decapitation.

    * Brian Barber as a mad scientist musician in a video for Indulge’s "Mastadulge." This one looked like he was hanging out in Tim Kaiser’s workshop.

    * Rich Narum got some good yuks on his photo animation of Jamie Ness and Brad Nelson in his video for "Good/Bad" by BoomChucks.

    I bet if you keep your eyes on the internet, you’ll see some of these videos floating around as the week goes on.

    Monday night, Day 2 of 8, was Arts Night and included a poetry reading and a spattering of bands. We also hit Renegade Theater Company’s improv show at Teatro Zuccone and I laughed myself silly. The six actors competed to be funniest with audience-interactive games. Jody Kujawa won it, but I think Scott Mallace deserves a strong, strong Honorable Mention. It was, to use a phrase I was once asked not to use, "high energy." 

    Is it just me, or is this year’s Homegrown ramping up more quickly than in previous years? Hit Carmody Irish Pub last night for the end of Temporary Service’s set and the place was loco. It looked like the last scene of "Footloose."

    Happy Experimental Tuesday.

    Homegrown Day 1: Wait. Is this Sunday?


    2010 - 05.03

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    Musicians scheduled for the rest of Homegrown Music Festival have a tough job: Can they match or exceed what happened on Sunday’s kickoff, New Band Night? My iPhone said it was Sunday, but inside Pizza Luce it was more like one of those spring Thursdays in college when you don’t have class on Friday. In other words: Nice turnout, barefoot dancing, music heads blowing bubbles at the stage.

    I was reminded last night of what makes Homegrown so great. The Frito Lay snack pack model, where you get to sample just a taste with plenty of variety. And as for the New Band Night name: This was no "Hey, I’ve got a uke and some friends from Craig’s List, lets make a band!" 

    I caught the second half of High Volt Rustler, and wowsee-wow-wow that Pauline Russell is so, so cool. She’s got the kind of voice you want to crank up on a rainy day of spring cleaning. She doesn’t sound like Lucinda Williams, per se, but its that same feel. A totally chill band that was just good good good. Bandmates include her husband Allen Klingsporn on guitar, Rich Taylor on bass and Christopher Modec-Halvorson on drums. Their first album "No Longer Blue," was recorded at Sacred Heart and is available at the usual places: iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby. Go to their Web site for links.

    When A Winter Downpour started, I was standing in the bar area. "Is this Radiohead?" I asked my partner in New Band Night festivities. We high-tailed it to a spot near the stage. Blurbbed in the HG Field Guide, the band describes its sound as "A force of sad-bastardness," which is probably a clever way to say "Influenced by 80s and 90s shoegazers." Alberto Serrano Rivera has a truly unusual (and awesome) voice. For my own taste (which leans toward the Cure, Smiths, Depeche Mode, and current-wise, toward Swedish pop duos) this band won new band night. I would totally download their MP3s. Other band members include Chris Barnholdt, Jesse Hoheisel and Paul Connolly.

    But holy cats, Martha, things really got crazy with Poor Howard — Vincent Cadillac, Howlin’ Andy Hound, Jamie Ness and Matt Livingston. So freakin’ fun. "Finally, some rock and roll," my date said. Totally. The place was nuts. They probably actually won new band night.* HG Field Guide reports that they started as a busking duo before adding Livingston and Ness. These guys are so punk rock that I can’t even find their Web site.

    NOTE
    Perfect Duluth Day is reminding Tweeters to tag tweets with #HGMF10. Last year I skipped Friday’s shows and just watched the night unfold on Twitter. That was actually pretty fun. And the recommended tag for Flickr is homegrownmusicfestival2010.

    *There isn’t actually a new band night winner. Although at some point later in the week, Bone Appetit will claim to "win" Homegrown, and give themselves a trophy.