Playing Through Pain

Saw Bill Mike last night play guitar for With All Due Respect, an new experimental rock/funk combo he fronts with beatboxer/rapper Carnage. Sounded real good for a first time out, especially the rhythm section of Johannes Tona and Steve Goold. But Bill seemed a little subdued -- in fact, he sat on a chair the whole time while he sqwonked out otherworldly sounds from his guitar. It wasn't until after the show when I found out that he slipped on some ice earlier in the afternoon, dislocated his right shoulder and HAD TO POP IT BACK IN! I'm in pain just thinking about it. But the show must go on, right?

Hopefully, the doctor will give him some good news. Or good meds. Or both.

Grain Belt Art Ache

The Grain Belt Artists present a free multi-media event featuring resident and guest artists working in film, music, performance art, painting, sculpture and photography. This special event will begin with an opening reception on Friday, February 6th, 6 pm-midnight and will continue throughout the weekend on Saturday, February 7th, noon-8 pm and Sunday, February 8th noon-4 pm.

What makes it extra cool is that both Stook! and Aviette will be playing on Friday. Swing by the Grain Belt Bottling House at 79 13th Ave in Northeast Minneapolis to check them out and to see the finest the Twin Cities art community has to offer.

Waking From Slumber

Time just flies by, doesn't it? Between a website redesign and computer problems and CD release shows by The Bill Mike Band and The Hopefuls, has it really been since July that we had anything new to say? No -- but that didn't stop us from not saying it. A New Year's resolution promising to do better can only do so much, but I guess that is all I got.

It is not hard to get excited about 2009, though. We're looking forward to adding some new faces to the label, working more with other bands we like, playing festivals and keeping the spirit of good music alive. Stook! and The Glad Version are both starting to record their new records -- are fall releases a possibility? Sam Keenan keeps adding to his impressive catalog of songs "in the bank" -- will he stop writing and recording long enough to put his second CD out this year? Bill Mike is already planning a 2009 blitz, working with everyone under the sun -- more music forthcoming from him? Aviette is in the process of doing electronic remixes of their second CD The Way We Met -- coming soon to a danceclub near you? And The Hopefuls -- might their new CD Now Playing At The One-Seat Theater be the best release of 2009 (OK, late 2008 -- so late that it wasn't released in time for the Twin Cities Critics' Tally)?

To find out the answer to these and many other questions, you'll have to keep checking in! We'll keep you posted about shows, conduct interviews with bands, have giveaways -- we're simply going to make it easier for you to get to know the bands who we think make the best music in the Twin Cities. Thank you for your interest -- and look out for Draw Fire Records in 2009!

The Week That Was -- 7/13-7/19

Been out of town for a few days and didn't get to see Adam's CD release show. Luckily, Adam told me all about it:

It's 1:00 AM and the gang is still here. I set up the air organ, the deluxe reverb, the memory man, the whiteface boss, the cables. I unlatch the case that houses my new squeeze, the Epiphone Emperor. I join two of my best friends on the small, cluttered, electrified stage. We check the mics and the lines. A 57 is thrown over a speaker here. An old fashioned is stuffed into a kick drum there.

As soon as the house music is killed, we launch into "Too Pretty." It feels warm. I can't quite make out the notes, and I ask Grant to clear up the sound in the monitors. I need to hear the highs. My guitar is humming from the F-hole construction and it's proximity to the circuit. The set swells and subsides underneath my diaphragm. "In My Blood" feels like it might catch fire. By "Voices on the Microphone," I'm no longer in the Kitty Cat Klub. I only exist in the verse and the chorus. Tor is the captain, Chris is the crew, and I am just the passenger.

By "Details in the Devils," I can feel my voice starting to give a little under the weight of the tequila and the lateness of the night. Just hold onto that pitch... think high and raise those eyebrows. Travis is pitch-perfect on "Sailors in the Harbor," and Holly swoops into save the end of "Kids on the River" with a special little boy on her lap. Finally, we end the series with "Hallelujah is just Hallelujah," and I'm back in Minneapolis, off the water, back in my skin. The storm has passed, and I can breathe again. Those words don't need to live outside of my mouth anymore this evening. I see my friends and roommates standing at the front of the room. All I can do is smile and hope I get to do this another night.

Damn! Sounds like I missed an awesome show!

The Week That Was -- 7/6-7/12

Big weekend for the Draw Fire family – nice, high profile gigs, receptive crowds, and everyone survived the oppressive heat, although in the case of Chris Salter and The Glad Version, it was looking a little dicey:

As excited as The Glad Version was to have been asked to play at Macy's Day of Music, we were also a bit worried about the weather – the heat index was supposed to be an uber-humid 100 degrees! As we loaded our equipment onto the stage (concrete slab) outside of WCCO-TV, we could feel the heat radiating from all directions. We started playing, and a robust and gracious audience emerged from the lakes of fire that had replaced the downtown streets. Strings melted. Set lists spontaneously combusted. We collectively lost like 30 pounds of water weight. And it was really fun!

We have been introducing some of our older material in our live show recently, and I think songs like Proximity (from our first record) and Honeymoon (from our second) injected some crackling intensity to the performance. We also ended the set with Crocodile, a new song that is making me itch to get back into the studio and start recording again.

But the heat broke a little on Saturday, which should have made it a slam dunk for Stook and Peter Lochner doing a duo show at the Moondance Jam in Walker, MN. Right, Stook?

The post-Gear Daddies, pre-Kenny Wayne Shepard fans weren’t that into us, but the pre-Styx crowd was digging it. I have no idea what that says about our music. It started raining, so the Gear Daddies went on late. I don’t think the organizers had any idea how many people really wanted to see the Gear Daddies, so they made them cut their set short, which pissed a lot of people off. A LOT of people -- and I think we caught a little bit of the brunt of that.

Honestly, we had a great time, ate lots of food my girlfriend wouldn’t approve of, got paid EXTREMELY WELL, and sold a couple of CDs -- one to a guy who was currently having relations with a mother and her daughter. He wanted to go into details, but Peter cut him off…

Ack! OK, too much information!! Hopefully, Bill Mike’s gig with Haley Bonar at the Saint John’s Block Party in Rochester, MN went a little more smoothly:

Brats, beer, good tunes, and a good cause -- Saint John's Block Party went down perfectly. Jim Boquist’s fisherman's hat looked lovely, Haley's pink sunglasses looked lovely, Luke's flannel shirt was lovely, but most importantly, the music kicked ass. Many folks down in Rochester were singing right along with every tune. Yes, I did selfishly shred a bit in this set, but always in context with the song -- taste and respect.

We all enjoyed the backstage ham sandwiches with Cloud Cult, Ari Herstand, Romantica, and Dan Israel. Soul Asylum had their own room somewhere in the school -- maybe the biology lab? The cafeteria? Other backstage fare included HyVee tortilla chips, M&M's, and 3.2 beer. A former Catholic myself, beer and gambling always went together at our church functions.

Another big weekend coming up – Adam Svec’s CD release party at the Kitty Cat Klub on Friday, and Stook plays at the Mad Ripple NYC Hootenanny on both Saturday and Sunday. I’m looking forward to hearing how all of those shows went.

In Studio at The Current update!

Aviette will be performing on the air at 89.3 The Current on Friday morning around 11am!

City Pages

Check out Pat O'Brien's excellent review of Aviette's new album, The Way We Met at CityPages.com

Also, Surly tap beers are $3 all night long at the Triple Rock on Saturday night for the CD release party!