Music
Cloud Cult – “As Beautiful as it Hurts”
The new video from Cloud Cult is for the second single from the band’s upcoming album Alchemy Creek, which is set for release Aug. 8. The album was written, recorded and produced by front man Craig Minowa in the solitude of a tiny cabin on wheels in the middle of the Wisconsin woods after a difficult divorce.
The video was directed by Lauren Josephine, Jeff D. Johnson and Chad Amour of Motion 117 Productions.
Perfect Duluth Day Outdoor Summer Concert Primer 2024
The Northwood’s Band performed an outdoor show last week at Eveleth’s Timber Edge Bar and Grill, bringing a large crowd out to enjoy a pre-summer concert. (Photo by Izabella Zadra)
Put on those short shorts and tank tops, the summer concert season is upon us. The Twin Ports area is always bumpin’ with outdoor shows featuring a vast array of music styles on a variety of mostly temporary or makeshift stages. Take a dive with us into some of the best, don’t-wanna-miss concerts happening in the area over the hot months ahead. (more…)
Wild Horses – “Man in the Mirror”
Grand Rapids-based Americana band Wild Horses launched its summer tour on Saturday at Milk & Honey Ciders in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Gina Nagler Smith captured this video of the song “Man in the Mirror.”
Rachael Kilgour – “Dad Worked Hard” (live at The Current)
“Dad Worked Hard” is the third song Duluth native Rachael Kilgour performed during a recent studio for a session at the The Current hosted by Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra. All three songs are from her 2023 album My Father Loved Me.
Rachael Kilgour – “Heart on Fire” (live at The Current)
Duluth native Rachael Kilgour visited The Current studio for a session hosted by Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra. She played three songs from her 2023 album My Father Loved Me, including the track featured here, “Heart on Fire.”
Dirty Knobs – “More Fire in More Places”
“More Fire in More Places” is the fourth release from the new Dirty Knobs album, Songs About Everything Dying Around Us, Including Us.
The Slice: Naming Life Parade and Deep Fake Five
Cameron Mathews explains how the bands Life Parade and Deep Fake Five got their names.
In its series The Slice, PBS North presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Bob Dylan on Duluth and Minnesota
Some Duluthians think Bob Dylan hates Duluth and Minnesota. What has Bob Dylan actually said?
I’d heard rumors Dylan was a Duluth hater, but then I read the liner notes to his 1974 album Planet Waves, where he wrote: “Duluth! Duluth — where Baudelaire Lived/& Goya cashed in his Chips, where Joshua brought/the house down!” These are not the words of someone who hates Duluth. These words lionize the city in terms of literature and mythology. A song on the album mentions Duluth too. From “Something There is About You“: “Thought I’d shaken the wonder/And the phantoms of my youth/Rainy days on the great lakes/Walkin’ the hills of old Duluth.” Duluth as a city of wonder and phantoms: who among us cannot relate?
Growing up in Hibbing, Dylan had family in Duluth and Superior. As a teen he went to Minneapolis more and more, and that became his jumping-off point to the world. But the Northland never left him. From his autobiography Chronicles, Volume One (2004 edition), one reads many references to Duluth, Hibbing, Minneapolis, and Minnesota as a whole. (more…)
Dirty Knobs – “The Seal Cannot Be Past the Door”
“The Seal Cannot Be Past the Door” is the third release from the new Dirty Knobs album, Songs About Everything Dying Around Us, Including Us.
Make Music Day Superior Open Call for Musicians
Siggy’s Musical Garden is presenting the third annual Make Music Day in Superior on June 21, the day of the year with the most daylight. The goal of the event is for “every kind of musician — young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion” to set up on “streets, parks, plazas and porches to share their music with friends, neighbors and strangers.” The open call application for musicians is online at makemusicday.org/superior.
Versions of Make Music Day take place all over the world. Last year Superior had about 40 musical acts performing mostly outdoors.
Rachael Kilgour – “Ontario” (live at The Current)
Duluth native Rachael Kilgour visited The Current studio for a session hosted by Radio Heartland’s Mike Pengra. She played three songs from her 2023 album My Father Loved Me, including the track featured here, “Ontario.”
Cloud Cult – “I Am a Force Field”
Cloud Cult has returned with a new single, “I Am a Force Field.” The video was directed by Jeff D. Johnson of Motion 117 Productions. (more…)
The Slice: Naming ZOZATRAS
Luke Moravec explains how his one-man band, Zeb or Zeke and the Run Away Screamings, was named.
In its series The Slice, PBS North presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Charlie Parr – “Boombox”
In the past two weeks a pair of videos have been released for the Charlie Parr song “Boombox.” Above is the “official” version, directed and animated by Kev Craven. Below is an alternate version, shot and edited by Adam Jones and starring William Silbey. The song is from Parr’s recently released
18th album, Little Sun. (more…)
Dirty Knobs – “Older than Bones”
The second release from the new Dirty Knobs album, Songs About Everything Dying Around Us, Including Us is the track “Older than Bones.”
Austin Castle – “Patient”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmpvrZTGt5Q
Austin Castle, with Ashe Berton on bass, performs “Patient” at Lakeview Park in Two Harbors.
Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The Weekend)
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44 likes, 1 comments - perfectduluthday on May 3, 2024: "Homegrown Music Festival, day six, Nevins at the Owls Club. #hgmf24".
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Select images via Instagram from the final three days of the Homegrown Music Festival. (more…)
Postcards: Steve Solkela
Steve Solkela is a comedian, and the only member of his one-man band, which includes accordion and cymbals among other instruments. Solkela finds joy in his music and his heritage, showcasing his talent and sense of humor to audiences all over the world.
This video is a segment from the southwestern Minnesota Pioneer PBS series Postcards. The May 2 episode focused on Finnish musician and artists. The Solkela segment is edited by Mike Scholtz.
Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The First Five Days)
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149 likes, 0 comments - perfectduluthday on April 28, 2024: "Day one of the 2024 Homegrown Music Festival; Lefty sports the inaugural shirt from 1999. #hgmf24".
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Select images via Instagram from the first five days of the Homegrown Music Festival. (more…)
Dirty Knobs – “Sticks on Skins”
Duluth’s auditory atmospherist Zac Bentz has a new Dirty Knobs album, Songs About Everything Dying Around Us, Including Us, set for release on May 31. The first visualizer is for the track “Sticks on Skins.” Bentz says the “hypnotic, looping visuals are meant as an aid to clear the mind, at least for a few moments, even if the music conjures visions of doom.”
R. I. P. Florian Chmielewski
Florian Chmielewski, leader of the Chmielewski Funtime Band and a Minnesota state senator from 1971 to 1976, died last week at his home in Sturgeon Lake at the age of 97. (more…)
Homegrown Music Festival 2024 Primer
Every year the Homegrown Music Festival publishes a Field Guide with all the intricate details of the eight-day extravaganza. And every year Perfect Duluth Day kicks out a little rundown of updates, sidebar details and notes about peripheral, unsanctioned or otherwise-related items of interest at party time. This year there is just one official schedule change (so far), but plenty of sidebar updates. (more…)
Connection
There is no space up here. Ian needs some room to move, but he’s pulled his drums around him as close as he can. John’s bass tilts up a bit. Looks awkward, but he’ll make it work. Jim’s keyboard takes up a lot of real estate, but it is what it is: he doesn’t own a keytar and I’m not sure he’d use it even if he did. The horns, Dale, Jess and I, are in a line, backs to the side wall, which is a bummer because I love jumping around with my saxophone while we play. Leon’s in the middle of the nest, and though he’s in his fifties, he somehow also brings the energy of the newly hatched, his baby blue Gretsch 2127 an appendage. He taps one of the guitar pedals with the toe of his checkered shoe. His pedal board is a skateboard.
“I dunno,” he says to us, swinging his body around, back to the crowd. “Should we get going?”
“Not much else to do,” I volunteer, and though it’s a bad rejoinder, Leon crows.
“Okay then! ‘Go if You Wanna Go’?” It’s not a question, really. Ian counts us in, and we’re off again, a bunch of middle-aged friends making the people dance. (more…)