A 2001 Duluth East graduate added a colorful line to his music resume in mid-March: Performed the song “Jessie’s Girl” with talk show host Rosie O’Donnell on drums.
Adam LeBlanc and his Chicago-based 1980s cover band Sixteen Candles got a gig playing O’Donnell’s 50th birthday party, an event at Studio Paris in Chicago that included Mike Tyson rolling out the 3-foot cake. The jam session appeared on O’Donnell’s talk show on the OWN Network – just days after it was announced the show was going to be canceled. The band got some media chatter afterward, including a mention in the New York Post and People.com. This wasn’t a token “on drums,” either for O’Donnell, who seemed to know what she was doing. At one point LeBlanc busted out a “Go Rosie, Go Rosie, Go” that led into her drum solo. And at the end of the song, they kicked back to her.
After the segment that aired on the show, O’Donnell was back on stage and joined the band on some Huey Lewis and Journey hits.
“She was totally engaging,” LeBlanc said of O’Donnell.
The cover band is a fulltime job for LeBlanc, who left Duluth for Chicago about eight years ago. He said he responded to an ad that said “Sing ‘80s music, make music, have fun.”
And now: “’Jesse’s Girl’ pays the rent and ‘Footloose’ pays for my parking spot,” LeBlanc said. He also does original music on the side.
The band, voted Chicago’s Best Cover Band by a local radio station, has also opened for Rick Springfield, Joan Jett, Eddie Money and more. In recent years they have played at The Rex and at the Homecoming dance at the College of St. Scholastica, where LeBlanc’s mother is an assistant professor.
Here the band performs on “Windy City Live,” a Chicago talk show.
Here is Retribution Gospel Choir’s official video for “The Stone (Revolution!)” It’s a comedic piece about a man and his flute and large gestures suggesting shenanigans. You’re going to like it. It’s set at Sacred Heart Music Center and features the band and Eric Swanson.
Explore Minnesota’s tourism campaign features a catchy little tune that includes some familiar voices.
One time Duluthies Haley Bonar and Chris Pavlich join other Minnesota musicians Dessa, Gabriel Douglas, Chris Koza, Lucy Michelle and Caroline Smith in a 60-second “More to Explore” spot created by Colle+McVoy ad agency.
The video is a play on Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” The song has lines like: “We’ve definitely broke our quota/Not a little but a boat load-a/From Ada to Zumbrota/There’s more to explore in Minnesota.”
Retribution Gospel Choir did a live, in-studio with The Current yesterday and you can hear the results here.
Alan Sparhawk talks about RGC’s EP of short pop songs “The Revolution,” (which can be downloaded free here), the definition of power pop and being a physically fit band. In between the Duluth-born trio performs “Feel It, Superior,” “Maharisha,” “The Stone” and “Take Your Time.”
Think the idea of giving music away for free is a bad one? Not so, says Sparhawk:”Honestly, the only money to be made is doing shows,” he said.
“A Prairie Home Companion” made a stop for a live performance at the DECC this past weekend and Garrison Keillor delivered “10 Things to Know Before You Move to Duluth,” a pretty right on list that characterizes our people.
“Don’t invest in a tuxedo or evening gown,” Keillor advises, adding that flannel will suit your needs.
In case you missed it, here is Lawrance Bernabo’s record of how it all went down.
To hear clips from the show, check out the APHC website. It’s broken down into segments, so say you’re just super into Trampled By Turtles (catch them playing “Alone”) or Derek, Dog of Duluth.
I was getting into the Gear Daddies right around the time the blue collar alt-country band was disbanding. My friend Nicole offered to drive a few of us to the Gear Daddies’ final show, an outdoor concert in their home town of Austin, Minn.
I was 15 and this was a no-go for my parents, who seemingly spent my teen years waiting for me to get kidnapped. My friends went without me and of course it was the best day ever.
The next day the Rochester Post Bulletin had photographs from the show: Teenagers covered in mud. Mud-suits, practically, that went with their mud masks and mud dreadlocks. The ground was wet that day and fans had made an organic Slip ‘N Slide, which seems like a perfect way to send out the Gear Daddies.
“It was like a modern-day Woodstock,” I thought, and genuinely believed, looking at the picture. “And I missed it.”
From then on, Austin, Minn., became an intriguing, dare I say romantic, place – at least as seen through the ears of the Gear Daddies.
They painted it as a town where Bruce Springsteen might swing through, meet a hard luck girl and write a song about her. It was a place that smelled like the Hormel plant. And the Austin Pacelli basketball team was incredibly easy on the eyes. Where Rochester was sterile and suburban, Austin was real. Stuff happened there. People made music and drank beer and felt things. Then they coolly took the stage, closed their eyes and sang, heavy on twang coming from a hint of a smirk.
I bought the CD “Can’t Have Nothin’ Nice” the day I turned 19. It was ceremonial. The song “Bored and 19” is on that album. I could relate.
I wouldn’t see the Gear Daddies live until a reunion show at the Minnesota State Fair the summer I turned 30 – but I saw Martin Zellar, the band’s front man, plenty.
There were his Neil Diamond Tribute shows at O’Gara’s in St. Paul. Martin Zellar, eyes squinched closed, dimples everywhere, giving new life to “September Morn.” He played the senior concert the year I graduated from the University of St. Thomas. In the photos my bib overalls are wet with beer, I’m leaned against the stage, trying to appear in the same photo as Zellar, who was behind me with his guitar and hamming it up. My eyes are a little wild with fan adrenaline.
Then there were solo shows at O’Gara’s, and when I moved home I caught him at Aquarius Club or Rookies.
I was in the front row of a show when a kid next to me tottered a bit and began yelling “Zamboni! Play ‘Zamboni’!”
Another fan and I looked at each other, looked at the kid, looked back at each other. Eyes wide. We dove to silence him, hands over the stranger’s mouth.
“He hates that song,” we hissed. “Shut up!”
I don’t love bands the way I used to love bands. I can’t remember when that went away. I don’t collect discs and make mixes and pay attention to what is coming out of my car speakers at stop lights. (Answer: Terry Gross).
In this job I occasionally end up interviewing members of band that meant a lot to me. Bands from when I did collect discs and stick around after the show. Cracker, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Trip Shakespeare. And after the interview I always wish there was a way to beam the information back to 1992 or 1995 or 1999 and tell young me that in 2012 I’ll sit at my desk and talk to Martin Zellar for more than a half hour in a way that is cool and casual. A conversation where he admits that when he played with the Suburbs last summer during the Maritime Festival here in Duluth it was surreal because The Suburbs, whoa. In the early 1980s he used to sneak into their shows!
And I’m like, “I feel ya, brother. Take this conversation, for instance …”
*The above video is from when the Gear Daddies played David Letterman.
Today’s Faces & Names includes a bit about a young pop musician, the daughter of a Duluth native and Telly Savalas of “Kojak” fame.
The darkly funny video features Ariana Savalas coupled with the Perfect Man Eric Dane of “Grey’s Anatomy.”Ariana Savalas is the daughter of Julie formerly-Hovland and her grandparents are Gloria and George Hovland.
This video is probably NSFW (not safe for work), the young Savalas spends plenty of time in lingerie. But maybe you work someplace where that is no big. In that case, watch away.
Trampled By Turtles debuted new music this morning on The Current. If you missed that, you can leisurely point your laptop in the direction of the public radio stations all-music site and get to it when you get to it. “Alone” is posted on The Current’s website, as well as a mini 2-minute “Making of the Album” video that has plenty of Duluth faces in it. (See above).
There is also a two-minute-ish phone convo with Dave Simonett where he talks about Nirvana and the Rolling Stones and where the music comes from. Also, honesty and staying true to oneself.
Also: on the Current Blog, a transcript of an online chat between the front man and listeners. It’s a lot of “When are you playing (fill in the blank with city)” but there is more stuff, too, if you dig.
The album is scheduled for an April 10 release date, with a show at First Ave. on April 11. No Duluth dates in the tour schedule, but Trampled does have a bit of a break at the end of April until mid-May that looks like a good place to drop a Homegrown Music Festival date. Simonett did claim Homegrown as one of this three favorite festivals to play during the online chat. So.
Local band Cars & Trucks went live on Kickstarter earlier today with the hope of raising $3,000 in a month to fund the techie side of an already-written third album.
One of the keys behind waging a successful Kickstarter campaign is having a hunch that if you ask for it, the donors will come. And, well, less than six hours after posting on the all-or-nothing crowd-sourcing website, the trio is halfway to its goal. That’s some speedy money-making. As of this post, they had hit $1,706 and have 31 days to raise the rest.
(Obligatory Kickstarter background: You have a project. Your friends — and even strangers — seem to like your work. You set up shop on Kickstarter, perhaps create a motivational video, telling fans what you want to do and how much dinero you need to do it. You provide incentives to donors: Maybe a limited edition LP and a download code, a private home concert, or maybe the band’s bass player will shave off his beard and give it to you. Shrug. You decide. If you reach your monetary goal, you get the donations for your project. If you fail to reach your monetary goal, well, this never happened and no one touches the beard).
Here’s a blurb from the band’s project description:
If you have any reservations about buying an album sound unheard, just know that the band thinks the album could easily turn out to be their best one, and that it continues their tradition of making plain old hooky rock tunes. (It’s also looking like it may have tons of crazy space-out guitar solos and elongated songs with multiple sections. Just you wait.)
Warning: The video on Cars & Trucks’ Kickstarter page has a few swears and one photograph of women in swimsuits. Watch in an appropriate setting. If you’re already in an appropriate setting, then enjoy Jody Kujawa wearing .. Members Only?
Note: If you are a person who likes to support local projects, it is easy to search Kickstarter for things happening in your neighborhood. Other local projects currently posted include two guys who want to bike around the Great Lakes and make a documentary about it and two guys who want to kayak around Lake Superior and make a film about it.
Today’s mail brings the new CD by the local space lounge band Tangier 57, “It is People” complete with a link to the band’s first video for the album.
In this video for “There is a World” you will see Darin Bergsven (AKA Thurston) struggling with a mustard packet in the food court. You will also see him travel out of the food court in a flying plastic cup of nacho cheese. Heads explode into cheesy debris, etc. The collective creativity of this band is enough that I’m surprised they aren’t all sitting on Mars drinking Mai Tais as we speak.
You can catch Tangier 57 live at the Duluth Art Institute’s Gallery Celebration. They play from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Depot. Free and open to the public.
This video is a fantastic way to spend less than 3 minutes of your day.
My name is Christa Lawler and I'm the Arts & Entertainment reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. In this here space you will find a hodge podge of nonsense, including overflow from interviews with rock stars, reviews, and links to things you should read/watch/hear.
