Category: Article

In the hands of Outkast video director Bryan Barber, this unusual musical boasts gorgeous cinematography, the kind of rich detail that recalls The Sting, and songs that mix hip-hop with the spirit of Cab Calloway. Set in the Prohibition-era South, Outkasters Antwan A. Patton (that’s Big Boi to his fans), and André Benjamin (aka André 3000) star as the manager and piano player at a speakeasy; two lifelong friends, they’ve grown up with a shared love of music, and, apparently, trouble. The real-life duo have described Idlewild as an “Outkast album in visual form,” but given their reputation for ambition and experimentation, the film is likely to find an audience beyond hip-hop fans.

Celebrating its seventh year of mixing music with film, our little Sound Unseen is all grown up now. This month, it will spare nothing to entertain: Dance-partying, rock ’n’ bowling, and fifteen or so films are all on the docket, with a whole lot more. Among our top picks is My Name is Albert Ayler, a new Swedish documentary examining the short and sometimes troubled life of the 60s free-jazz saxophonist; and Danielson: a Family Movie, an artsy film about the nurse-uniform wearing Christian music collective, made by one of its fans. www.soundunseen.com

As teenagers, we used to drive past Bob Dylan’s rural Minnesota country home and marvel at all the security lighting. Why, we wondered, was he so paranoid? Who’d want to bother an old washed-up folksinger? Now, at sixty-five, Dylan is a rock ’n’ roll star reborn, making some of the most vibrant and relevant music of his career, and shedding the recluse act with a never-ending tour, film roles, and a terrific XM Satellite Radio show. Modern Times is his forty-fourth album, and the final installment of the trilogy that began with Time Out of Mind and heralded Dylan’s return to truly inspired songwriting. Mining the same edgy, world-weary, and tender vein as the other two albums, these songs find Dylan engaged with traditional American songwriting, and, as always, unafraid to experiment.

Those who don’t know any better think of Dean and Gene Ween as those stoners who refuse to outgrow their adolescent stage antics. But the fact is—all sweat, grease, and fart noises aside—Ween is as innovative as Radiohead, as tuneful as the Beatles, and as complex as Mozart. Over more than two decades, this duo has explored, mastered, and subverted the rock anthem, the sea shanty, the country classic, the pop hit, the never-ending psychedelic jam, and more. Their music is as impassioned as it is unpredictable—even if the guys can’t seem to stop writing songs about poop. 651-989-5151; www.hennepintheatredistrict.org

Just when it seemed like the bluegrass revival was about to expire, Boston-based Crooked Still unpacked the cello. This young quartet plays bluegrass with traditional spirit, but they also bring unconventional stylings—and unconventional strings—to their songs. What’s more, the band’s silvery-voiced singer, Aoife O’Donovan, even sounds like a less formal Alison Krauss. But their darker, smarter, more adventurously arranged music is surely a sign that old-time music is ready to be made new once again.

When name-checking guitar gods, technical show-offs like Michael Hedges, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Preston Reed, and Joe Satriani come to mind. But one would be hard-pressed to find a young lady among their ranks, someone who spent her formative years noodling away in string-based obsession. Until Kaki King came along, that is. This twenty-five-year-old is that kind of guitarist, a majestic talent whose mind moves as quickly as her hands, and whose style is already stunningly distinctive and brazenly experimental. On this, her third album, the producer John McEntire (who’s worked with the likes of Stereolab and Tortoise) injects a faintly indie air into King’s atmospheric playing.

The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne would make a fine old-time carnival barker, beckoning us into a world of wonder and weirdness, dressed in his white suit and flanked by people dressed like stuffed animals. So it is not ironic at all that the Lips are playing the State Fair. Their latest, At War With the Mystics, is their most political, but with songs like “Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber),” they are in little danger of becoming overly serious. 651-642-2262; www.mnstatefair.org

Capping off the populist Sommerfest series is the catchiest darn opera ever written. Taking the role of the titular seductress in this semi-staged production is the smoky-eyed American mezzo-soprano Angela Horn (pictured on next page), a New York-based singer who’s regarded nationwide as one of the finest interpreters of the sultry Carmen character. In fact, Sommerfest music director Andrew Litton directed Horn in a production of Carmen last year, in Vail, Colorado, after which he announced, “Angela Horn is Carmen.” The cast also includes hometown-girl-made-good Jennifer Baldwin Peden, who returns to the role she played at Theatre de la Jeune Lune: the sweet little peasant girl Micaela. Perfect for a Minnesotan! 612-371-5656; www.mnorch.org

As the menu at Café Brenda has long made clear, Brenda Langton was one of the first Twin Cities chefs to recognize the value of local food producers. Her newest venture, Spoonriver, is a stylish, next-generation expression of those ideals. Brunch after the farmers market might consist of tea-poached eggs or a garden leek omelette, and loft dwellers in the neighborhood can stop in for take-out meals that go way beyond roast chicken or deli sandwiches. Still, that doesn’t mean that dinner can’t be an event, with entrées like orange blossom apricots stuffed with goat cheese, or trout with a passion-fruit lomi crab sauce. 750 2nd St. S., Minneapolis; 612-436-2236; www.spoonriverrestaurant.com

Not quite ice cream but more than a snow cone, Italian ices are smooth concoctions flavored with purees of fruits like mango and strawberry. At the new Grand Italian Ice Café, the only thing better than a root beer ice is a root beer ice with a giant scoop of custard added to it—creating what is known as a “gelati.” This place is versatile enough to offer coffee and sandwiches, but we’re banking on the beautiful texture and flavor of their ices to carry them through the chill months. 976 Grand Ave., St. Paul; 651-290-2704