Last time we checked in with Brooklyn’s John Linnell and John Flansburgh, they were touring behind Bed Bed Bed, a charming CD and book for kids, but we’re very happy to hear them putting on their grownup rock ’n’ roll shoes for The Spine (available July 13), their tenth album and first full-length rock record … Read more
Forego your usual downtown happy hour and stroll over to Mill City Museum’s dramatic open-air Ruin Courtyard for a change of pace. They’re setting up Thursday nights with series of local-music showcases, old-favorites and up-and-comers alike, plus food from D’Amico Catering and extended museum hours. The lineup includes Adam Levy of the Honeydogs, Kraig Johnson … Read more
Seeing Sonic Youth play at a VFW hall was one of our formative teenage rock experiences. We’ve since grown up, and SY have, well, grown—wavering at points, perhaps, but never getting watered down. Nurse is the band’s nineteenth album, which means that a whole new generation of appreciative indie kids is out there. We suppose … Read more
When the Polyphonic Spree named its latest disc Together We’re Heavy, they weren’t kidding—there are twenty-nine people in the band. Risen from the ashes of Dallas psychedelic-grunge group Tripping Daisy, the greatly expanded ensemble now takes the stage decked out in robes like they’re headed for a river baptism, whipping up a heady cross between … Read more
Just when we’re realizing that our knowledge of the Middle East has grown far too reliant on CNN—thankfully, along comes Jawaahir’s summer show, devoted to the Arab world’s most popular diva, Um Kalthoum. We’ll take a stab at explaining her significance by saying that during the fifties and sixties, she was to Egypt and indigenous … Read more
Don’t you wonder some-ti-i-i-imes… ’bout sound and vision? Sure, David Bowie goes to fashion shows and produces Modern Painters magazine, but Christian Marclay has based much of his career on the deeper connections and intersections between the aural and the visual. He’s been working in residency at the Walker for the past few months, resurrecting … Read more
If American history makes your mouth water and the James J. Hill House turns you on, then prepare for still more fantasies fulfilled at the MIA’s latest exhibit. Currents showcases about a hundred and fifty objets d’art, from paintings and photographs to furniture and silver, all hailing from Mississippi River regions in the 1850s. That … Read more
One of our favorite local galleries, MCP is moving from Uptown to a Northeast Minneapolis space that should be open by the end of August. But that hasn’t stopped it from mounting exhibitions—its latest is on view in guest quarters on the U of M West Bank (alongside an intriguing display of Japanese ironwork kettles). … Read more
We’ve always thought Mary Pickford was quite a fabulous dame, and we were even more impressed to discover recently that she built her own personal mini-golf course inspired by the surrealist Max Ernst. Leave it to the Walker to reunite art and mini-golf eighty years later, as part of the consolation package for its year-long … Read more
Fact may be stranger than fiction, but fictionalized fact often makes for the best story. In The Dazzle, playwright Richard Greenberg (of Tony-winning Take Me Out fame) fictionalizes the already strange tale of the Collyer brothers, Depression-era America’s answer to Howard Hughes. Homer and Langley are the stuff of urban legend: As the family fortune … Read more