This Weekend In Minneapolis: Bound Stems, Yer Cronies

Download: Bound Stems - "Wake Up, Ma and Pa are Gone"
Download: Bound Stems - "Andover"
Download: Bound Stems - "Happens To Us Otherwise"

(via Bound Stems Audio Page)

Though Bound Stems', the Chicago-based indie-rock outfit known for dabbling in whiplash-inducing time-and-tempo-bait-and-switches found frequently in math-rock, newest album, The Family Afloat, doesn't technically come out until September, those ambitious enough to catch the band on their current tour will be able to pick up their latest in a legitimate fashion. What they may also find, based on the advance single "Happens To Us All Otherwise", is a band going for the indie-rock anthem gold.

Helping seal that impression is "Cloak of Blue Sky", a new track posted on the band's MySpace Page which shows singer Bobby Gallivan emulating the tremble-heavy Dylan-isms of Conor Oberst, with only the last 20 seconds of the song showing the genre-leaps of past efforts like Appreciation Night and The Logic of Building the Body Plan. That might seem like a disappointment to those who enjoyed the band's more fractured, joyfully anarchic work, but rest assured. Bound Stems are a band with a card perpetually up their sleeves, one that's shown in glipses during their rambunctious live performances. Opening up are local power-poppers Wishbook.

Read an interview with Bound Stems over at Reveille.

Show Details:

Saturday, Aug 9 @ 10 pm
Triple Rock Social Club
$10
21+



Yer Cronies, a Minneapolis-based quintet who are celebrating the release of their CD When I Grow Up with a show at 7th Street Entry, may remind listeners of David Byrne, or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with their soaring-to-the-breaking-point vocals. However, Yer Cronies have a sound much darker and foreboding than either one of those reference points would indicate. Like fellow art-rockers Dallas Orbiter, Yer Cronies are an amalgam of different influences, but also manage to come out with something unique and memorable at the end of the music tunnel. Tracks like "In Absentia" have cathartic choruses, certainly, but there's also haunting piano-lines, noisy guitar riffs, and style-change toward blues, complete with harmonica-solo, which helps accentuate the effect. Other songs, like "Sacramentosaurus" are indicative of what can happen when a band embraces its whimsy--catch songs that still have substance. Expect both at the band's CD release show tomorrow night.

Show details:

Yer Cronies
7th St. Entry
18+
The Floorbirds
The Van Gobots
So & So.

Also happening:

The Blind Shake, Daughters of The Sun at the Turf Club.

Reveille Mag Birthday Bash

(Jonathan Graef)

This Weekend In Minneapolis: The Birthday Suits, The Long Blondes

(Birthday Suits live in Chicago.)

Not one, but two opportunities to see garage-punk band Birthday Suits tonight. First, for an all-ages show at 5, second a 21+ show at 9. Both shows are $6 and are at the 7th Street.

Birthday Suits MySpace Page


Download: The Long Blondes - "Here Comes The Serious Bit"
Download: The Long Blondes - "Guilt"

UK quintet The Long Blondes seemed to have a pretty good thing going when they released their debut album Someone To Drive You Home in 2006. The group's sound was a sleek, sensual and feminine reminder to all of the post-punk revival boys that, hey, Blondie was once considered punk as well. So it's a bit of a surprise, then, that for "Couples", the band's latest effort, the band has done not-so-much an 180 degree shift, so much as an 75 degree shift. The odes to sexual frustration are still there, but, because the band has inevitably gotten older, the perspective is much more bitter, as on the title track, where singer Kate Jackson laments how people in relationships "have the nerve to tell me they're lonely" when she, in fact, is the single one. As far as how "Couples" actually sounds, the music still has an hi-hat-snare-drum driven pulse, but the reference points here are more Pet Shop Boys (albeit with a less synthy sound) than Blondie. It's a stylistic shift that I'm not sure the band needed to make, but it's one that they do pull off more often than not, especially on songs like the disco-chic "Guilt" and the minimalist art-noir of "Too Clever By Half". Less successful are self-consciously "different" tracks like "Round The Hairpin", which is too turgid and goes nowhere, but those low-lights are made for by the manic, frantic energy and lyrical wit of "Here Comes The Serious Bit" and "I'm Going To Hell", the latter being a funny, defiant exercise of grace under bad judgment. Though "Couples" isn't entirely successful, it has enough pleasures to make it a contender for one of the most underrated albums of the year.

Show is 21+, and tickets are $13. More show info here
.

(Jonathan Graef)

This Weekend In Minneapolis: Fiery Furances, Dosh, Daughters of the Sun

Download: Fiery Furnaces - "Duplexes Of The Dead"

Image via More Cowbell

via Indie Tickets

Friday, May 2
Doors: 7:30 pm, Show: 8:00 pm
The Whole, Coffman Memorial Union
All persons attending the event, without exception, must show a valid picture ID and be 18 years of age or older.

TICKET INFO:
$7.00 for U of M students (with valid University of Minnesota U Card)
$10.00 General Admission

Saturday

Download: Dosh - "If You Want To, You Have To"
Download: Daughters of the Sun - "Whale's Blood"


Dosh plays the second (the first one sold out!) of two shows at the Walker Arts Center. With him as always is Garth will be such guests as "Andrew Bird, Jel, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Andrew Broder, Mike Lewis, and others". Who else could possibly show up? Prince?

MFR-Favorite Daughters of the Sun play their second show (of two this weekend) at the Nomad. Having caught them at the Note in Chicago, I can definitely say that their live show is absolutely amazing. The things that this band can do with percussion, melody, and drone is wholly spellbinding. If you can't make it to the Nomad, then try catching them at the Turf Club with Seawhores and Indian Jewelry. That show is tonight, Friday, the 2nd.

(Jonathan Graef)

Saturday In Minneapolis: Bouncer Fighter, Cloud Cult, Happy Apple

A whole bunch of our favorite bands are playing the Future Pasture on Saturday in order to help Bouncer Fighter (pictured at the top)celebrate the release of their latest tape. They include:

Gospel Gossip
Best Friends Forever
The Blind Shake

To check out the rest of the lineup, head here.


Also happening on Saturday:

Cloud Cult is playing their CD Release Party in honor of Feel Good Ghosts at First Ave. Both Reveille and More Cowbell are having awesome giveaways to celebrate the event. By clicking here, you can enter for a chance to win the entire Cloud Cult catalog in digital format; go here, and enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets for the show.

Happy Apple play the second of three shows this weekend at Artists Quarter.

(Jonathan Graef)

This Weekend in Minneapolis: So Many Shows That Will Make Your Head Explode

Oh where, oh where to begin? Well...

Friday, March 28th

Download: Jason Collett - "Out Of Time"
Download: Jason Collett - "Charlyn, Angel of Kensington"
Download: Switzerlind - "Prince Vince"

Broken Social Scene-ster and solo artist Jason Collett plays his particular brand of Dylan-esque Americana at Turf Club. Collett, like fellow Canadians The Band or Neil Young, has a paradoxical obsession with all things American, but his folk musings should translate well in the intimate space of a venue like the Turf Club.

MPLS-ers Switzerlind will wave their indie-jazz hands by opening for a 21+ show. Doors are at 9 p.m.



Download: Mute Era - "Secretly Wished I Could"
Download: The Blind Shake - "Midnight Scream"
Download: The Blind Shake - "Calling All Horses" (both via Learning Curve)
Download: MC/VL - "Cold Check It" (via The Big Ticket and The Current)


Minneapolis-based experimental band Mute Era will have not one, but two CD release shows this weekend. This fitting, of course, because the band has not one, but two, records to release: "Night Dreams of Day" and "Night Dreams of Darkness". The first show will take place at The Whole. Opening this show will be fellow Minneapolis greats The Blind Shake, Birthday Suits (both of whom did a split 7" together), the ungoogleable Thank You and hip-hop act MC/VL. The show is 18+, starts at 8, and costs $5.

Download: Daughters Of The Sun - "Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board"
Download: Sarah Johnson - "Sun Ray"
Download: Sarah Johnson - "Laughing Class"
Download: Vampire Hands - "Paradise Knife Fights"

Those of you who are of legal drinking age and don't want to hang out with youngsters can wait one night. That's because Mute Era's second show at Big V's is a 21+ affair. The cost remains the same--$5--but the opening bands are entirely different, though of a similarly excellent quality. Opening up are psychedelic drone-poppers Daughters of the Sun (who played a terrific show at The Note in Chicago last week), fellow psych propagators Vampire Hands, who just played a CD release of their own not too long ago, and art-rockers Sarah Johnson. As mentioned before, the show is 21+ and will cost $5.


Other Friday shows include:

Download:Panther - "Puerto Rican Jukebox"
Download: Unicorn Basement - "Catch a Rainbow"

Panther and Unicorn Basement at the 7th Street Entry

Pocket Pussy (think Baby Guts, Kitten Forever) at Zombie House.

Download: Skoal Kodiak - "Cruel Tic"

MFR Reader favorite Skoal Kodiak will play at the Space.

Saturday, March 29th



Download: Headlights - "Cherry Tulips"
Download: Headlights - "Skeleton Man" (Evangelicals cover)
Download: Evangelicals - "Skeleton Man"
Download: Evangelicals - "Paperback Suicide"

Champaign, Illinois-based Headlights and Evangelicals make for perfect tour bedfellows, so much so that the bands have taken to covering each other's songs. Both play dreamy, hallucinogenic pop music that have made critics, bloggers (Hi, Ian!) and music fans swoon in delight. Headlights are more in align with the mid-tempo fuzz of shoegazer music, albeit with a little of a beat that you can dance to, while Evangelicals play a brand of whimsical psychedelia that often earns comparisons to fellow Oklahomans The Flaming Lips. Both bands play Saturday at the Nomad World Pub. Tickets are $8 for a 21+ show. Doors are at 9.



Download: Gospel Gossip - "Wind"
Download: The Vignettes - "Roll"
Download: Nancy Drew Crew - "Antifreeze"


Ladyfest Chicago was such a success (indeed, it was covered by the likes of Pitchfork) that it's truly a wonder why Minneapolis hasn't tried its own version of the feminist festival yet. Tomorrow, The Pocketknife will host a benefit for Ladyfest Minneapolis. All the relevant information is posted on the flier above, but we feel compelled to tell you that this is going to be a solid night of music for a most definitely worthy cause. Gospel Gossip, Nancy Drew Crew, Tough Tough Skin, Pocket Pussy all play a show that starts at 7:30. Suggested donation is $3-5.

Other shows:

Excellent Electro-pop group Mystery Palace play at the Kitty Cat Klub.

The Paper Chase play an early afternoon show at the 400 Bar

Kid Dakota plays the Turf Club.

Sunday, March 30th

The Ends of Love finish their three-night stand at the Ritz Theater.

(Jonathan Graef)