The bespectacled and shy Nona Marie Invie may seem like an unlikely bandleader, but in truth the lead singer of local six-piece Dark Dark Dark is a gifted and engaging performer. Thursday’s release party at the Cedar for the band’s excellent new EP, Bright Bright Bright, put on full display just how charming her...
Read more »
In all likelihood, Eliza Blue is a far more complex, perhaps even troubled, individual than most of us will ever know. Perhaps she wrestles with some inner anxieties or unhappiness, perhaps she simply feels in a very deep manner. What is clear about Ms. Blue is that she is a gifted musician who makes beautiful music,...
Read more »
It’s been a fast year for Twin Cities upstarts the Red Pens. After dropping their first album, Reasons, last summer, Howard Hamilton and Laura Bennett won City Pages’ Picked to Click honors in September and, more recently, had the honor of topping the bill at First Avenue’s Best New Bands concert. Having pretty well conquered...
Read more »
Whoever publicized Saturday night’s show at the Kitty Cat Klub did their best to confuse me about the line up. There were at least four different combinations of bands floating around online and in the local rags, so I headed to Dinkytown knowing only that I’d see Is/Is and Red Pens with some combination of...
Read more »
You sure can’t say the local music scene doesn’t ever do us any favors. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Modern Radio pulled out all the stops with a pair of shows at the Turf Club and the Cedar over the weekend. For Saturday’s show at the Cedar, label owners Tom Loftus and Peter Mielech offered deals...
Read more »
It was the biggest show of the weekend, and without doubt the most publicized to date of the young decade. The Fine Line was sold out and packed to the walls Friday night for this, the big coming out party of Dessa Darling and her new full-length, A Badly Broken Code. Not only did she not...
Read more »
For a band whose music seems to verge on complete chaos, Gay Beast’s show at the Entry last Friday was the work of a band in complete control of its music. Celebrating the release of their new EP, Charm, the Minneapolis trio played for barely 30 minutes and all of roughly a half-dozen songs, but...
Read more »
Last January, the Alarmists played a pair of shows at the Entry that were billed to be their last. In the aftermath of those shows, the band members became embroiled in a much-publicized drama that eventually saw the surprise reemergence of lead singer and guitarist Eric Lovold in June with a new lineup and a...
Read more »
“Okay, this next one is a loud one,” John Walker said in introducing almost every song during Colder in Moscow’s show at the Entry Saturday night. The funny thing was, none of the songs really got that loud, nor did they rock that hard. Not that that was really a problem; on such a bitterly cold...
Read more »
