Category: Article

The real surprise about this remastered version of the Beatles’ swan song-besides the offputting title-is only that it took so long. Paul McCartney has never been shy about his loathing for the strings and dense production added by producer Phil Spector when the fracturing Fabs couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with each other, let alone finish the record themselves. Did he have to wait for the knighthood before he had the clout to get his hands on the master tapes? Beatlephiles (maybe the most minutiae-driven group in all of rock fandom) have been trading bootleg de-Spectored versions of this material for years-it’s truly incredible just how much marginalia and apocrypha from the Beatles’ studio sessions is floating around. But for those of us not off the deep end, this is a good opportunity to finally test whether McCartney’s conception is really better than the Wall of SoundÑand, ideally, to treasure both versions.

We all want to stay hip to the scene, but who has time to do all that work? We just hang out in Electric Fetus once a fortnight and eavesdrop, and this is how we heard about this amazing quartet of brothers (OK, one first cousin) from Tennessee. What the coeds in pigtails and hiphuggers didn’t say is that the Kings sound like what latter-day Butthole Surfers would have been if their muse had been Budweiser rather than peyote, or Jon Spencer if he’d majored in car repair. It’s raunchy and mumbling, with a lilting pop beat that we hereby dub “Heated Garage Rock.”

Weiler’s last record was called Fly Me Back, but she’s flown away instead. A highlight of the local folk scene throughout the late nineties (and winner of three Minnesota Music Awards), Weiler now lives in Portland, Oregon, where she’s just finished her fourth studio album, Cold Weather, out this month. (And it’s nice to see some cold weather we actually looked forward to.) Weiler never fails to bring style and comforting originality to her songs, and performing live, she has a captivating intimacy. You find yourself wanting to call her by her first name and ask her to hang out with you and your friends. Her new album is as insightful as we’d hoped it would be. She’s showing a new, darker side to her songwriting, as on the record’s opening song “Faucet.” And “Medicine” and “Christmas Sweater,” done in Weiler’s typically low-key fashion, make us want to sit back, relax, and press repeat.
400 Bar, 400 Cedar Ave., (612) 332-2903, www.400bar.com

Keeping on top of the full range of Robert Pollard’s seeming millions of solo albums and official Guided By Voices work is, frankly, more work than anyone should have to put in. It’s far too late, we suspect, to hope that he’ll hook up with a producer who can make him focus on quality over quantity and shoot for a dozen polished songs instead of two dozen songs that share four dozen half-formed great ideas. But that just isn’t what GBV is about-there have always been diamonds in the rockpile, but you have to be willing to mine them yourself. Their latest disc, August’s Earthquake Glue, is no exception-gifted, surreal lyric imagery and crunchy, powerful rawk that works brilliantly about fifty percent of the time. Pollard’s catalog of tunes is just crying out for a really well-done best-of compilation, and this month sees a pretty good, if not perfect, attempt. Two of them, really-there’s the single disc Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, and a slightly different version on the box set Hardcore UFOs, the rest of which, five discs of rarities and live stuff, only contributes to the GBV sprawl problem.
First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N.,
(612) 332-1775, www.first-avenue.com

That there’s more to ancient American art than simple pottery and whittled sticks is wholly evident in the MIA’s impressive collection of early masterpieces. Recently returned from a yearlong tour of French museums, the exhibit highlights 180 artifacts from all across pre-Columbian America, ranging in media from jade to gold to wood to stone. That’s a lot of territory to cover, and Sacred Symbols does its best to school you in the wide range of expression displayed by the Incan, Mayan, and other cultures represented here. Many of the items have particular religious or political significance, but they’re beautiful and complex on their own terms. And the personality on display is striking: the red ceramic statue of a Peruvian nobleman with a stern and staring face, the smiling Mexican dog who might have been the storm god’s pet, the enigmatic (and to us, a little creepy) baby-like figurine made by the Olmec people.
MIA, 2400 Third Ave. S., (612) 870-3131, www.artsmia.org

Over the past few years we’ve become big fans of the raw power of outsider art. It might sometimes (all right, often) lack in technical chops, but the work of inspired amateurs can be compelling precisely because their muse doesn’t know all the rules. For four years, the Northeast Minneapolis nonprofit I Love a Parade has been using art as a means to help the chronically homeless learn job skills, get their lives together, and, not incidentally, express themselves. Past projects have included fabric dolls and masks of remarkable grace and sensitivity, but the current exhibition is more personal and in some ways more affecting: Twenty plaster-casted life masks of Parade’s clientele, embellished by the artists themselves or their fellows. Eyes are closed and expressions placid-it’s the result of having to keep still while the mask is cast, but it gives these faces a dreamlike quality, an anchor for the literalized hopes and disappointments etched on their faces like stigmata. Meet the stories behind the faces at an artists’ reception 6-8 p.m. November 1.
First Congregational Church,
500 Eighth St. S.E., Minneapolis,
(612) 706-2740, www.iloveaparade.org

We’ve heard of a meeting of the minds, but what’s about to go down at O’Shaughnessy is a definitive meeting of the feet. In a premiere collaboration, two of the Twin Cities’ big-dog dance companies, Jazzdance and Minnesota Dance Theatre, are joining forces to bring us 8ight Seasons, an ambitious dance party set to the tune of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Jazzdance will perform last season’s hit, “Las Cuatro Estaciones,” guided by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla’s reinterpretation of Vivaldi. Meanwhile, MDT adds their own dash of Argentine flavor with a jazz-and-tango six-dancer piece. It’s spring right now in South America, so this might be a good antidote to autumnal blahs. If any arts community knows the profound effects of season, it’s us, and it’s about time we all saw it in a more poetic light.
O’Shaughnessy, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul, (651) 690-6700, www.stkate.edu/oshaughnessy

What would Shakespearean theatre be without men in drag? Or jigs danced the way sixteenth-century Tudors might have gotten jiggy with them? The better to show audiences what plays were like when the Bard was in charge, this touring production by London’s Globe Theatre is doing things the old-fashioned way. Besides period costumes and music, that means an all-male cast-which should work pretty well for Twelfth Night, which is at its heart a gender-bending farce in the first place. Meanwhile, Joe Dowling and the hometown Guthrie crew are busily putting together their own touring production-the first national tour by the company in 17 years-of another bit of bardolatry with Othello, featuring longtime Penumbra actor Lester Purry in the lead as the tragically jealous Moor.
Guthrie, 725 Vineland Pl.; Guthrie Lab,
700 N. First St., (612) 377-2224,
www.guthrietheater.org

It is usually considered a bad sign when you go to the theater and hear hissing, but in this case it’ll be coming from onstage, not the audience. Playwright Carson Kreitzer’s new work, getting its world premiere in this production by Eye of the Storm, interweaves the stories of four women throughout history who all share a connection with snakes. Eve, a Cretan snake princess, a carny snake dancer, and a snake-handling minister take us through the human fascination with serpents, and woman’s link with these creatures, for good and evil. After an outstanding 12-year history, this will be the last go-round for Eye of the Storm, as director and creative force Casey Stangl moves on to other pastures. That’s the kind of news that stings sharper than a serpent’s tooth. Theater Garage, 711 W. Franklin Ave. (612) 343-3390, www.ticketworks.com

The coolest thing about the place is the secret door to the kitchen hidden in the bamboo mural on the back wall. But there’s a lot to like about this cozy green eatery a stone’s throw from Wild Rumpus bookstore in Linden Hills. (Note: Please do not throw stones at Wild Rumpus.) For instance, the spring rolls-fresh and crisp with a Thai-basil kick and served with a sweet peanut sauce. The menu isn’t huge-a dozen entrees, roughly, but it ranges through Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese offerings and doesn’t shy away from the unexpected. Next time we return-soon, probably-we’ll put in another order for the tamarind rice trio, a sweet-and-sour chicken dish with three scoops of rice topped with green-onion oil, coconut, and a reprise of that fine peanut sauce. Also good, if a bit less immediately appealing, is the bo la lot-beef rolls wrapped in grape-like la lot leaves, with mint and coriander to add a couple of extra layers of flavor. It’s also a nice touch to have a few unusual soft-drink choices-such as the surprisingly mild Ginseng-Up, like an orange cream soda, and the intriguingly named Soursop Juice.