Review: Private Dancer, Alive In High Five

Private Dancer has one simple mission: to rock out. And that hasn’t changed now that the band is on album number two. The Minneapolis quintet knocked out a charmingly ragged, boisterous mix of garage-rock and psychedelia on its 2008 debut, Trouble Eyes, and its new follow-up, Alive In High Five, follows the template so closely it may as well have been titled Trouble Eyes Part II. Party anthems, monster riffs, and belt-’em-out choruses are still the order of the day, and there’s even a literal sequel in space-rocker “2,000 Year Wave,” following Trouble’s surf-inflected instrumental “1,000 Year Wave.”

But who needs change? Private Dancer’s appeal—particularly live, where it can be electrifying—is all about angst-free, uncomplicated enthusiasm for music, and it doesn’t need fixing. All five Dancers have extensive experience in other Twin Cities bands—three members of STNNNG, ex-Hockey Night drummer Alex Achen, and Vampire Hands’ Chris Rose—and the band benefits not only from their veteran chops, but the fact that as something of a side project, there’s no pressure to do anything but have fun.

That’s not to say the musical interplay here isn’t rich and complex; Alive is bursting with catchy nuggets of sound, and stands up well to repeat listens. Sometimes the rough edges could use a little more smoothing: Love song “Diane,” which shares a title with one of Grant Hart’s HüDüclassics, could also have benefited from a more sweetly sung, Hart-like vocal than the rough yelp Achen gives it. But that’s a minor quibble. Private Dancer’s best on the straight-up anthems like “Bajama Beach,” which sounds like some forgotten gem by The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, and the raucous “Weekend,” which boils down the band’s ethic of jubilant celebration over how great it is to play in bars on a Saturday night: “My friends, we work all weekend!” It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Originally published on avclub.com July 16, 2010. Read the complete article.

Review: Peter Wolf Crier, “Inter-Be”

Slow, painstaking craftsmanship can make great music, but when inspiration strikes like a freight train out of the night, it’s best to just jump on and let the thing get where it’s going at its own breakneck speed. That approach worked well for Peter Pisano of Minneapolis’ Peter Wolf Crier, who pounded out the core of his duo’s debut, Inter-Be, in a single night after months of stagnation in the wake of the breakup of his previous band, The Wars Of 1812. The songs’ rough framework was fleshed out considerably later, especially when drummer and recording engineer Brian Moen came on board to help shape Pisano’s nascent folk-rock into something more sweepingly gorgeous and layered. To their credit, though, the embellishments respected the raw, lo-fi energy that powered the music in the first place, enhancing it instead of smoothing away its personality. The approach is superficially apparent in song titles like “Untitled 101” and “Demo 01,” but it weaves through the whole album on a more fundamental level via Moen’s rollicking percussion and Pisano’s melancholy, high-pitched vocals. There’s a touch of Bon Iver’s sad, haunted-sounding balladry in the mix here—not surprising, since Moen and Pisano have both worked with Justin Vernon—but also a refreshing exuberance, particularly on the bouncy album-opener “Crutch & Cane” and the angelic crescendo of voices that closes the terrific “Hard As Nails.”

Originally published on avclub.com May 25, 2010. Read the complete article.

Interview: Retribution Gospel Choir’s Alan Sparhawk unleashes his inner classic-rock beast

Plenty of musicians get mellower with age, but Alan Sparhawk’s been doing the exact opposite. For the past couple of albums, his main band, Low, has been progressively increasing the noise level on its minimalist (and originally very quiet) rock, and he pushes that envelope even further with side project Retribution Gospel Choir. Where Low is about doing more with less, RGC is a place where Sparhawk can cut loose. Rounded out by bassist (and Sparhawk’s Low bandmate) Steve Garrington and drummer Eric Pollard, the band has just released its sophomore disc, simply titled 2. Although it still shares a lot in common sonically with Low, the album gives free rein to a fuller, almost classic-rock sound, and it has a sense of freewheeling fun not usually associated with Sparhawk’s main band. Before playing at the Triple Rock Social Club Feb. 20, Sparhawk talked to The A.V. Club about Huey Lewis harmonies, Low’s dip into the dance world, and his toughest critic.

Originally published on avclub.com Feb. 19, 2010. Read the complete article.

Interview: Winging it with Mary Lucia

Since 1994, when she debuted as an on-air DJ at the short-lived alt-rock radio station Rev-105, Mary Lucia has been an unabashed booster for underground and local music—particularly during the last half-decade, as one of the most recognizable voices at Minnesota Public Radio indie-rock outpost at 89.3 FM, The Current. In an age when music on commercial radio is largely locked down by rigid formats, The Current’s playlist is marvelously eclectic, heavy on indie big-hitters like Neko Case and Wilco, but also with a hefty complement of Minnesota musicians, and spiced with the occasional dip into Jerry Lee Lewis or Howlin’ Wolf. Though The Current has never reached the ratings heights of mainstream-rock giants like KQRS, it has been (along with smaller left-of-the-dials like KFAI  and the U of M’s Radio K) hugely important in giving exposure to underheard music, helping drive up audiences for deserving musicians, local or otherwise, that would otherwise be ignored in favor of another spin of some Tom Petty song. Mary Lucia embodies the station’s approach—freewheeling and affably conversational, she’s clearly a fan of music, and as enthusiastic about turning her listeners on to something new and great as she’d be with a close friend. In advance of The Current’s fifth-anniversary show at First Avenue Jan. 29—featuring a stellar all-local lineup including Solid Gold, P.O.S., Mason Jennings, Lookbook, and The Twilight Hours—Mary Lucia talked with The A.V. Club about the beauty of mistakes, the pains and pleasures of winging it, and how she got revenge on She Wants Revenge.

Originally published on avclub.com Jan. 27, 2010. Read the complete article.

Interview: Modern Radio’s 7 ways to make it as a record label

It’s not easy to keep a labor of love alive—that’s certainly true for indie record labels, and even many successful ones have been wrecked by bad luck, bad decisions, or plain old burnout. But Minneapolis label Modern Radio has been happily plugging away for a decade thanks to both a passion for documenting the Twin Cities music scene and a pragmatism focused on long-term survival. “I’ll be the first to say that I’m not surprised that we made it to 10 years,” says founder Tom Loftus, “and I won’t be surprised when we make it to 20.”

Originally posted on avclub.com Jan. 20, 2010. Read the complete article.

Review: Private Dancer, Trouble Eyes

A glance at the cover art for Private Dancer’s 2009 debut EP, Trouble Eyes, declares up front one element of the band’s sound: Covered with trippy, melting eyes, it echoes the psychedelic artwork on 13th Floor Elevators albums. And indeed there’s some heavy ’60s surf-garage churning around in here, but Private Dancer gleefully merges that with thrashier, wilder noise that grabs elements of The Stooges, Pavement, and early Pixies—not surprising considering the band features members of STNNNG and Hockey Night, but it’s impressive the way they weave and dodge between beauty and powerful dissonance. In October, the group followed Eyes with a new single, pairing a pounding original garage tune, “Ride To Work,” with a passionate and pitch-perfect cover of the Count Five’s psychedelic classic “Psychotic Reaction.”

Originally published in A.V. Club Twin Cities.

The best local music of 2009

My picks for the Minnesota music scene’s best albums of the year. Here’s #1:

1. P.O.S., Never Better
(Rhymesayers Entertainment)
Stef Alexander opens his third album with a down-to-earth apology for the three-year gap between Never Better and 2006′s Audition—”sorry I took so long,” he says, before launching into “Let It Rattle.” It’s the only thing the Doomtree rapper needs to be humble about when it comes to his music. Drawing energy as much from his punk-rock background as his hip-hop side, P.O.S. is as verbally propulsive and nimble here as Savion Glover, the dancer he namechecks on Never Better‘s third song. The Twin Cities is not exactly hurting for talent when it comes to underground hip-hop, but here’s a solid sign that P.O.S. will be counted in the highest echelons of that group for a long time to come.

Originally published on avclub.com Dec. 10, 2009. Read the complete article.

Suburbs guitarist Bruce Allen dies at 54

Guitarist Bruce C. Allen, a mainstay of the Twin Cities music scene best known for his work with New Wave band The Suburbs, died yesterday at 54. According to the Star Tribune, Allen was taken off life support after being admitted to Hennepin County Medical Center for complications resulting from triple bypass surgery. “Family and friends had time to gather around his bedside,” said Chris Osgood, guitarist for The Suicide Commandos and Allen’s friend and bandmate in his post-Suburbs group The X-Boys.

Allen co-founded The Suburbs in 1977 with four friends from, true to their name, the Twin Cities’ western suburbs. The following year, their self-titled debut EP was the first album to be released by esteemed local label Twin/Tone Records; The Suburbs went on to release four full-length albums, from 1980′s In Combo to 1986′s The Suburbs, including classic singles like “Love Is The Law,” “Rattle My Bones,” and the charmingly strange “Cows.” The band’s catchy fusion of New Wave pop, punk, funk, and dance music combined the suavity of Roxy Music, the manic energy of Iggy Pop, and the offbeat humor of Devo. They broke up in 1987, but reunited occasionally in subsequent years, last performing in 2006 on Harriet Island. Although co-frontmen Beej Chaney and Chan Poling tended to draw the most attention, Allen’s contribution to The Suburbs’ sound was significant, helping provide the driving rhythms and spiky, high-energy riffs that were part of their signature.

Also a graphic designer, Allen created logos and album-cover designs instantly familiar to many in the Twin Cities, including the cover of The Replacements’ Let It Be, the Uptown Bar’s sign, and The Suburbs’ own iconic five-men-in-a-circle logo (which can be seen at right, on the cover of the 2006 live album High Fidelity Boys).

He will be missed. Here are a couple of videos of The Suburbs in their prime, “Love Is The Law” and “Cows.”

Originally published on A.V. Club Twin Cities.

The Skinny: Sen Yai Sen Lek

Northeast Minneapolis’ Central Avenue has a ways to go before it approaches the diversity and quality of ethnic eateries on Nicollet Avenue, but there have been some significant inroads over the past couple of years, including the expanding empire of Middle Eastern cuisine that is Holy Land Deli, and the engagingly elegant, community-minded Thai spot Sen Yai Sen Lek, opened just over a year ago by owners Joe and Holly Hatch-Surisook.

Originally published on avclub.com Sept. 17, 2009. Read the complete article.

Review: The Chambermaids, Down In The Berries

The Chambermaids, Down In The Berries
(Modern Radio)

Twin Cities post-punk quartet The Chambermaids sounds like it might have stepped out of a time machine, freshly arrived from 1983. Its new seven-song Down In The Berries fits comfortably back-to-back with spiky, art-punk classics like Wire’s Chairs Missing or Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, and though it’s undeniable that the band’s hardly breaking new ground by bringing that sound into 2009, it’s accomplished with real verve, driving rhythm, and a good ear for pop hooks and harmonies.

If ’80s post-punk is alive and well in The Chambermaids’ hands, though, the compact disc is dead in the gutter: Down In The Berries is only available on vinyl and as a download. It’s a trend that’s becoming increasingly common—Vampire Hands did the same thing for their new Hannah In The Mansion. Perhaps not coincidentally, VH’s Colin Johnson is also the former drummer for The Chambermaids, leaving them amicably shortly after recording Berries to focus on his other group. The Chambermaids have since picked up a new drummer in ex-Shotgun Monday skinsman Mickey Kahleck, and a second guitarist in STNNNG/Private Dancer ax-wielder Nate Nelson. Fronting the band are brother-and-sister co-vocalists Neil and Martha Weir, and their deft musical interplay is apparent not only in their harmonizing, but the way Neil’s My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar lines spark off Martha’s bass work. Johnson’s drumming, meanwhile, is almost brutally direct compared with Vampire Hands’ two-percussionist complexity. But the more simple approach serves the songs here well, giving the shoegaze-style title track a shot of adrenaline that works like a series of exclamation points. The weak link here is Neil’s flat and monotone singing, which serves the music adequately but without lending the dominant stamp of personality that Ian Curtis or Colin Newman gave their bands. Martha, on the other hand, adds liveliness everywhere the way Kim Deal spices up the Pixies, whether she’s just lending an “oooh-aah-oooh” in the background or taking the lead on “The East Place.”

Grade: B+

Upcoming shows: Aug. 29, Turf Club, Sept. 15, Triple Rock Social Club

The Chambermaids, “Lily”:


The Chambermaids perform “Down In The Berries” on 89.3 The Current:

Originally published Aug. 28, 2009 in The A.V. Club Twin Cities.