Music
Homemade Duluth Music
A couple days back, when I asked for get-me-up-to-speed-on-Duluth book recommendations, I was regaled with the collected consciousness of PDDers — I’ve bought a couple to read pre-arrival and will buy more when I arrive (Book Store at Fitger’s, right?).
Next question — music by artists from Duluth. What should I listen to as I prepare? Any/all genres. Contemporary, classic, anything in between. Also, if there are lists/resources that collect this information already, please point me in those directions too. Thanks!
Temporarily retired songwriter looking for broken or malfunctioning iPhones
Okay, maybe this is plain wrong, but … I need about 30 broken or malfunctioning iPhones to conduct an informal experiment in survival here on your planet. I’ll even pay for some if necessary, but if yours got ran over by a herd of drunken yaks, or did the backstroke in the tub, or just plain ain’t acting right anymore, and you’re thinking of disposing of it either properly or improperly, how about allowing me to intercept that shattered, twisted, all-too-quiet device for my experiment?
Please contact me at iduntaken @ yahoo.com if you’ve got one of these broken-down digital talking machines.
Duluth: a small city surrounded by forests, hills, streams and lakes … and bands
Members of the Duluth band Trampled by Turtles are spreading the word in San Francisco about the Zenith City:
“Per capita, there has to be more bands there than anywhere that I know of,” said Ryan Young, fiddler.
From the Bay Bridged, an indie-music website for the San Francisco Bay Area: Trampled by Turtles: an unconventional bluegrass band inspired by metal and Dylan
Duluth’s a beautiful town, man
From last week’s City Pages, “Wilco’s John Stirratt talks about the band’s Minnesotan ties“:
Jeff Gage: Just last year, you guys became honorary citizens of Duluth. Have you been doing any house shopping up there yet?
John Stirratt: I don’t know if I want to move any further north — not that I want to sound wimpy to a Minnesotan. But that’s a beautiful town, man, it really is. I would totally hang out there during a summer.
Highly Controversial Marc Gartman Chocolate and Cheese Ween poster revealed!
I ran into Marc Gartman last night, who had this item hot off Miss Zoey Cohen’s drawing pad.
Although I audibly groaned to myself at every stage of the Ween cover art controversy (starting with “Ween … and you?,” continuing with “Sex and Rock and Roll,” and finally dragging to a temporary halt with “This is what a feminist looks like“) I now personally endorse as much disagreement and debate about this as possible.
Trampled by Turtles – “Where is My Mind”
Produced by Justin Gustavison and edited by Angel Gustavison.
Darin Bergsven featured in Lake Voice
Here’s a nice profile of musician Darin Bergsven. Thanks to the Lake Voice for singing about one of our local unsung culture heroes.
Full disclosure: Darin’s a good friend, and I’m quoted in the article, but that does not detract from his, or the article’s, awesomeness.
Ian Thomas Alexy – “Save Us From Ourselves”
[This post originally included an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Come see me at Beaner’s Central on Dec. 9! The show will be recorded and filmed for posterity and a potential video release.
Ten Minutes with Caitlin Robertson
Singer/songwriter Caitlin Robertson’s first album will be released in December. She will be performing Dec. 9 in Duluth at Fitger’s. She was interviewed for Ennyman’s Territory this past week and it is posted there today.
Let’s Get TBT on Prairie Home
OK first, this is a first. Me writing to suggest we organize an effort to get someone on the stage of A Prairie Home Companion when the show comes to Duluth in February. It’s not quite like calling a local radio station to request a song, but not all that far off either.
It reminds me of the time I called Sirius XM ’60s on 6 host Phlash Phelps when Duluth was the mystery city of the day. I actually sent him about a dozen quick facts which he used throughout the morning. Patty was not amused.
I like Trampled by Turtles (listening now while I pour through data for a report) and believe they’d be a natural for the PHC audience. So, I’ve posted on the PHC Facebook page suggesting they contact the group to see if they’re available. Maybe you’ll consider a similar post.
What happened to DJ Mouse?
The past few Sundays we’ve noticed that our favorite Caribbean Roots/DJ Mouse programming on KUMD seems to be lacking DJ Mouse. Does anyone know what happened?
Ian Alexy – “A Little Bit Further Back”
This is a video from my latest release Are You Listening. I will be performing at Fitger’s Brewhouse this Saturday, Nov. 12. Hope you like the clip!
Sarah Krueger – Dancing with Phantoms
Hi Duluth friends. I’m releasing a new album at the end of the month. If you’re interested in listening, pre-ordering, downloading, streaming, sharing, or whatever, visit sarahkruegermusic.com. The official release date is Nov. 25, and the Duluth album-release show is at Teatro Zuccone on Tuesday, Dec. 6, with Coyote! Thanks for listening and supporting local music.
Duluth musicians/bands on Twitter
Perfect Duluth Day has an actual Twitter feed for this, so if you want to follow everything listed below, check out Twitter @perfectduluth/music.
If you know of someone or something that should be added to this list, please make it known in the comments. (more…)
Teague Alexy Has Gone Twitter!
I am quoting one of my lyrics per day until my new album comes out early next year. Everything from Hobo Nephew songs to The New Folklore to Spilled Milk to hip-hop tapes we made in high school. When the time is right, I will quote from the new album too. Tune in! twitter.com/TeagueAlexy
New album from the Surfactants
It’s been a few years, but the Surfactants have finally released their second full-length album Our Dead Bodies. If you don’t know who the Surfactants are, that’s probably for the best.
You can stream it all for free and/or buy it here. It’s $4 or pay-what-you-want. There are also two singles featuring some remixes that are $1 each. There are currently no plans to produce any physical media. (…because CDs are just going to go in the garbage anyway and you can download very high quality files when you purchase them. And besides, if we made a CD and you bought the CD then you’d be paying twice as much for the same music and a bunch of garbage. So really your $4 [or more] is saving you $4 [or more].)
Oh, and there’s also a cover of a Haley Bonar song on the album, and she’s nice.
Listen, download, pirate, burn something (one).
Sex and Rock and Roll
I thought it would be better to start a whole new thread because this is an important topic. And yes it will be bloody tedious. But here is the deal: ever since Jean Paul Sartre it’s been known in Western Civ that one quality of social interaction is the ongoing appraisal of everyone by everyone else. Sartre called it “the Look” and what he meant by that was how a person was changed when they knew they were being perceived by someone else. Sartre’s lover, Simone de Beauvoir, was the first to write about how men used this system to relegate women to the category of “other.” We are men (persons) but women are not. They are other. Please don’t kill the messenger here — I am just repeating what they said.
(more…)
Blitzen Trapper/Dawes tix for sale
I have three tickets for sale to the Blitzen Trapper/Dawes co-headlining show at First Avenue this Friday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m. The Belle Brigade opens. After fees and taxes, they came to $30 each. I’m in Duluth, so we can meet up to do an exchange. Email joxley1 at gmail dot com if you are interested. Just FYI – the show is sold out.
Ween … and you?
Hola, PDDers! Some folks and I are going to be performing the whole Ween record Chocolate and Cheese on Friday, Dec. 30 at Pizza Luce here in Duluth. We’re excited!
I am looking for someone that would be interested in documenting the rehearsals leading up to the gig and then the gig itself. I would probably be able to get you a little money for your time but not much. It’d certainly be a plus if you were borderline obsessive about the record.
We get together for a couple hours on Thursday afternoons in the Washington Studios to run the tunes. Hopefully this would be a decent time for you to come video for a bit. We’ve got (gulp) 8 rehearsals scheduled leading up to the gig.
Feel free to leave any contact info in the comments below or you can email me. marcgart(at)hotmail
Choreographer Morgan Thorson and Low – “Heaven”
There’s a bunch of background in a previous post, “Low reaches for ‘Heaven’ with dance.”
Rachael Kilgour – “Will You Marry Me?”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBBm32Ek-PQ&feature=player_embedded
Video by Trent Waterman for the North Shore Sessions.
Lions&Creators – “Hands” (Live at Beaners 10.1.11)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9d4Rt_gvgw
From our CD-release show on the first of October. Physical and digital copies are up for sale here. Duluth is the best!
The Fontanelles – “Stranger”
httpv://youtu.be/i5fssTMflUg
Video from last month’s “One Week Live” series at Beaner’s Central, edited by Dan Dresser.




