When Billy Bragg paints you a picture, there’s always a lot of red in it. His music alternates passionate expressions of his socialist ideals (“There Is Power in a Union”) with more personal songs of love and heartbreak, the best of them remarkable for their emotional incisiveness. It’s a dichotomy he once acknowledged with the … Read more
There is a subtle way to measure progress. Every time we head north to God’s country, we’re forced to bring along the cell phone. Normally, we refuse the electronic leash. But when we’re on the road in a secondhand mini-van full of kids, or when we’re trying to rendezvous with people who have already gone … Read more
Is there a band on the planet that cares more for its fans, or does more to satisfy them with a steady stream of amazing albums, videos, one-offs, DVDs, and an encyclopedic website? Of course, it would mean nothing if Wayne Coyne and his friends weren’t also brilliant musicians. This new EP is one of … Read more
The lilting soprano of Dublin-born Katie McMahon gained worldwide attention during her time as lead vocalist for Riverdance, the mid-nineties Irish-dance smash. These days, she’s happy being the boss of her own solo career right here in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband, Ben Craig, a local rockabilly musician who met her backstage after … Read more
When Frank Weiland walks into a barbershop, he’s typically not looking for a trim. “I look for the shop license,” he explains. “Then I look for the individual licenses.” For the last eleven years, Frank Weiland has served as Minnesota’s only barber inspector. He’s in rare and elite company. Weiland’s predecessor held the job for … Read more
On overhearing the rumor that the eccentric Kottke’s Minnetonka home was, well, untidy, when he sold it recently, harp guitarist Andy Wahlberg told us he would gladly help shovel out some of the master’s legendary guitars. In the thirty-four years since his first recording, Kottke has cultivated a collection of instruments that bring other guitarists … Read more
Jasper Johns has long been considered one of the most influential artists in Pop Art. His flag and number paintings, in which he repetitively worked the canvas using layers of encaustic wax, challenged the idea of iconography as art, blurring the division between a highly recognizable symbol and the artist’s creative labor. Johns deliberately chose … Read more
Masha Frank is late for work. Hugging a mug of black tea between her knees, she throws her car into drive and starts buckling her seatbelt. She is listening to Carte Blanche Volume 1 and it’s getting boring fast. As she merges onto I-35W, she momentarily compromises her view of the road to stretch her … Read more
Red Rock Road is a thorn in the side of the St. Paul police. “You actually have to go into Newport to get to this part of town,” Officer Tim LeGarde tells me, as we career through the Highway 61 off-ramp at about fifty. We stay in the turn lane on I-494 for the exit … Read more
They are ageless, the last surviving of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, three vast and tapering monuments of stone standing in the desert. For thousands of years they were the tallest buildings on Earth, and yet their function was at best symbolic: tombs designed to hold the lifeless kings of Egypt until they … Read more