Month: July 2003

  • Harry Connick Jr.

    It certainly seems as though the local jazz scene’s center of gravity is shifting west, what with the Dakota’s reported plan to relocate to Minneapolis in the fall, and this brand-new club on Ninth and Marquette. (St. Paul, never fear, will still have the AQ and its own new blood, Brilliant Corners.) The Blue Star…

  • Hardcore Corn

    Outside Minnesota, the month of August has nary a holiday. Many people just let the hot, humid month hang there, lazily dipping its toes off the dock. But here, we know August shimmers like the last few grains of sand falling through the hourglass, telling us our time in the sun is waning. So we…

  • Ween, Quebec

    Dean and Gene Ween, aka Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, operate in a zone bounded by stoner novelty songs, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefheart—never taking themselves a bit seriously, but with genuine chops and the ability to project total sincerity whether they’re playing Prince-style funk, 70s soft rock, country, or some strange concoction best fit…

  • A Fresh Coat Against Time

    I’m sorry to be morbid, but I’ve been thinking a lot about death again lately. This time, it’s the simple fact of mortality that’s got me flustered. It’s as if it never dawned on me that I won’t live forever, and neither will my family and friends. I keep overhearing people at stores and in…

  • Various artists: Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe

    In her time a bigger gospel star than even Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was possessed of a terrific voice and, most significant, a bluesified guitar style that helped her become the first major crossover from African-American church music to secular songs. A clear influence on the Chicago electric blues of the 1950s, she’s also…

  • Dear God, Thank You

    Hallelujah and amen! You know what time it is. I can smell the cornmeal and sizzling fat in the air already. Set aside petty concerns of the pending apocalypse and don the raiment of joyous festival! Bring me my cutoff jeans, and my baseball jersey that depicts the beer swilling cartoon bear! Unearth my novelty…