I wrote the liner notes for this 2022 album by the Minneapolis electronic/neoclassical collective Paris 1919, led by Chris Strouth. Future Archaeology collects seven of Strouth’s complex, immersive soundscapes originally …
If the Twin Cities has an answer to the literate, charmingly tuneful pop songcraft of Belle And Sebastian, or the Kinks songs that populate Wes Anderson movie soundtracks, it’s surely …
Originally published in The A.V. Club’s Twin Cities edition, December 5, 2011. As new local traditions go, few could be better or more welcome than the Minnesota Beatle Project, now …
Originally published in the Spring 2011 issue of Momentum, published by the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. Read the article on the original website here. Since he was …
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 …
“I always loved the idea that music is something to cast a curse with.” Originally published in The A.V. Club’s Twin Cities edition, August 14, 2009. Over the course of …
Published in The A.V. Club’s Twin Cities edition, July 24, 2009. It’s no longer online there, so I’ve reposted it in full here. St. Paul power trio The Blind Shake was already a …
Originally published in The A.V. Club’s Twin Cities edition, July 22, 2009. Zak Sally shifted his attention largely to graphic art after leaving Duluth slowcore trio Low in 2005, focusing on writing and …
Given the remarkably polished pop songcraft that Pictures Of Then exhibit on And The Wicked Sea—not to mention that the songs from their 2007 debut, Crushed By Lights, got airplay on MTV’s The Real World and The Hills—it’s …
The Alarmists have gone through some turbulent changes in the past six months. Half the previous lineup left after a disagreement about the direction of what would become the band’s third …