Homegrown Music Festival

Homegrown Steering Committee Openings

chicksThe Homegrown Music Festival is looking to add new members to the Homegrown Steering Committee – the nonprofit committee responsible for the nuts and bolts of the eight-day festival. Ideal candidates have a love of local music and our community, and an eager commitment to continuing to improve the 16-year celebration of local music and culture. Committee terms are two years, with the opportunity to renew.

Deadline for application is Friday, Sept. 26.

Homegrown 2014 Photo Retrospective

View the full set of 217 images from Homegrown 2014 on Flickr. (more…)

Who won Homegrown 2014?

This poll is now closed. The results were:

[poll id=”65″]

Bratwurst — 9 percent
The Blasphemists — 7.5 percent
Red Mountain — 6 percent
The Black-eyed Snakes with Charlie Parr — 4.5 percent
Wino, WI — 4.5 percent
Various other bands — 68.5 percent

Bratwurst wins Homegrown for the second time in three years! (Photo by Derek Montgomery for MPR)

Homegrown 2014 – Biochemical Characters

The Biochemical Characters lit up Amazing Grace with their blazing set of Boreal Spirituals Friday night. I believe.

Homegrown Kickball Classic 2014

As a cold wind blew heavy gusts across Observation Hill, Homegrown musicians representing the Friday-night bands blew their game-long lead, losing the 2014 Homegrown Kickball Classic to the Saturday team in extra innings by a score of 6-4.

That’s one version of the story, at least. By the time it was over, no one seemed to truly understand what happened out there.

For the second year in a row, cruel and unusual weather conditions forced the kickball game away from its traditional location at Chester Bowl Park. The alternate venue, a shabby baseball field at Observation Park, had its fair share of environmental hazards, including a 20-foot-wide, ankle-deep mud puddle in between third base and home plate. If anyone was going to score, they were going to have to pay the price.
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Fred Tyson Sex Workshop

Duluth’s own father of sex, Fred Tyson, presented his Sex Workshop Friday night during Homegrown at the Rex Bar. His fast footwork, velvety voice and magical smile brought concert goers on a sexual journey not soon to be forgotten. (more…)

Homegrown Kickball

The 2014 Homegrown kickball game is officially being relocated to Observation Park.

Video Archive: Homegrown Kickball 2004

Ahhh … the fresh spring air, clogged lungs and diseased livers. Scenes from the Homegrown Music Festival Kickball Classic of a decade ago, and the after-party at the Shaky Ray. The song is Bone Appetit’s “Drive Away.” Video shot and edited by Barrett Chase.

Homegrown 2014 T-Shirts

Pre-sale T-shirts for the 2014 Homegrown Music Festival are now available. Artwork is by the wonderful Heidi Blunt. Be aware: unless you are a volunteer for the festival, this is the only way you can get a shirt this year. Pre-sale closes at the end of March.

All your band wants for Christmas is a Homegrown gig

Band registration for the 2014 Homegrown Music Festival opens Christmas Day. Performers interested in playing the festival, which runs April 27 to May 4, must complete the online registration before Jan. 31.

This year’s Homegrown Winter Fiasco will take place Jan. 17 and will feature nine Homegrown artists playing at three Duluth music venues. The Winter Fiasco is a pre-festival showcase celebrating Homegrown volunteer sign-up and band registration. The Winter Fiasco shows are all free events and will feature volunteer sign-up stations and festival staff on site to answer Homegrown inquiries.
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Video Archive: Homegrown 2003

Here’s a sloppy VHS version of KDLH-TV’s coverage of the 2003 Homegrown Music Festival, including clips from the only Homegrown Kickball Classic ever held at the Wade softball fields — and the only time a TV news personality was invited to participate in the game.

Starfire’s fabulous mohawk appears near the end, although the quality of the video doesn’t do it justice.

Who won Homegrown 2013?

This poll is now closed. The results were:

Wolf Blood – 11.2 percent
The Blasphemists – 8.4 percent
Bratwurst – 7.4 percent
Big Wave Dave & the Ripples – 3.7 percent
The Boomchucks – 3.7 percent
Various other bands – 65.6 percent

Homegrown 2013 Photo Retrospective

View the full set of 123 images from Homegrown 2013 on Flickr. (more…)

Homegrown Kickball Classic 2013: ‘I can’t see the base because it is covered in mud, like my eyes.’

kickballFriday pitcher Chad Lyons arrived at the field 45 minutes early, presumably to claim the field for his team in some sort of ceremonial ritual that involved his old high-school soccer cleats and a cigarette.

It worked. Friday took the 2013 Homegrown Kickball Classic, 7-5.

Rainy conditions throughout the week forced the game to be played away from its usual location, Chester Bowl. After a 20-minute search for car-floormat-bases, the action was underway at Observation Park.

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Last Minute Homegrown Schedule Changes

Changes for tonight!

9:15: Exiles @ Sacred Heart

9:30: Fever Dream @ Pizza Lucé

9:30: The Surfactants @ R.T. Quinlan’s

Homegrown Video Fest 2013

Zombies! Fast Cars! Cowboys! Cheese sauce!

We will be archiving the 2013 Homegrown Music Video Fest videos on this page as they continue to get sent to us. It was another standing room only premiere this year at the Zinema. There will be encore screenings Wednesday at Zinema, and Sunday at Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Cafe.

Homegrown in Memorium

Today marks the passing of Stella the Dog, a Staffordshire Terrier/Australian Shepherd mix and my great companion, just two-days shy of her 15th birthday. Stella is noted in Homegrown lore as the dog who, in 2000, destroyed one of the first two official Homegrown kickballs roughly 30 seconds after Starfire arrived at Chester Park and tossed the newly purchased balls onto the field. She spent most of the rest of the day carrying its carcass, occasionally thrashing it about. (more…)

Homegrown 2013 on KUMD

Once again it’s a Homegrown Music Festival extravaganza on KUMD  all week long. We’ll have Live from Studio A sessions with Homegrown bands every week day, plus a two-hour edition of the Local Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. featuring performances from Toby Thomas Churchill, Tim Kaiser, and more. (more…)

Homegrown Music Festival 2013: The Chicken App for your mobile phone, other schedule formats and social media crap

The URL for PDD’s Homegrown Chicken App is calendar.perfectduluthday.com/homegrown, if you want to check out the Homegrown schedule on the fly from your mobile device. (more…)

Homegrown Music Fest 2013 – Live Tweets #hgmf13

The “official” Twitter hashtag of this year’s Homegrown Music Festival is #hgmf13. So tweet away!

Homegrown Music Festival 2013 Schedule Spreadsheet

Here is it if you want it.

Homegrown Banjo Breakdown

If you hang out on PDD or Facebook or the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street long enough, you’ll hear a Duluth musician complain about how many banjos there are in the local music scene. Personally, I’ve heard Duluth referred to as “the banjo capital of the world,” and I’ve heard people say — not even jokingly — that it’s almost impossible to spend a night in the local music venues without hearing a banjo. On one hand, I understand what they are saying, but on the other hand, it seems like tremendous hyperbole.

The purpose of this post is to try and figure out, as accurately as possible, the percentage of bands playing Homegrown that feature a banjo, and to discuss whether or not that percentage is an excessive amount of banjos. (more…)

Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2013

Word has leaked out via Instagram that 17,500 copies of the Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2013 have arrived. Distribution might be slowed by the storm that is supposedly happening today, but — hot tip — the Electric Fetus is usually one of the first places you can find it.


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Homegrown 2013 Schedule

Just released on duluthhomegrown.com.

* Roughly 186 bands.
* Big Wave Dave at Mr. D’s on Tuesday
* Stellar lineup at Grandma’s Sports Garden on Wednesday
* Too much everything after that

Homegrown Registration Closes Friday