On a dreary winter morning, while dining on scrambled eggs at The Bad Waitress, we noticed something about this South Minneapolis eatery: It has one of the best jukeboxes in town. Miles Davis, PJ Harvey, and early REM, to name but a few, were the perfect accompaniment to a slow-starting Sunday. So impressed were we … Read more
More than a composer, Mary Ellen Childs devised a neat trick to lure skeptical listeners to her contemporary chamber music concerts. The Northeast Minneapolis resident is known nationally in avant-garde music circles for supplementing cutting-edge sonic experiences with any number of visual hooks. With Dream House, for instance, which premiered at the Southern Theater in … Read more
The Hold Steady are well known for tossing hosannas to the Twin Cities’ landscape and music scene, past and present—from name-checking the “Grain Belt bridge” and Payne Avenue to sonic nods to all manner of local bands. Never mind that frontman Craig Finn, a native of Edina, decamped to Brooklyn some seven years ago—the Twin … Read more
Every year, sculptor John Hock invites a couple dozen fellow artists to come and do their thing at Franconia Sculpture Park, the road trip-worthy destination he co-founded near Taylor’s Falls. The sculptors, who range from established names based in far-flung metropolises to student interns from local art schools, sweat it out all summer; come September, … Read more
Breaking news: Members of Minneapolis’s pioneering ’70s punk trio, Suicide Commandos, have officially (though with tongues apparently planted firmly in cheek) dubbed themselves a “legacy band.” How appropriate, then, that the Commandos have been tapped to open for yet another rock legend—the supremely fabulous and hugely influential Ms. Joan Jett—for an August 26 Grandstand concert … Read more