Alan Sparkhawk and son Cyrus at a performance in Amsterdam on March 3, 2025 (Photo by Matthew James)
Alan Sparhawk is on tour again this week, and this post briefly discusses his new album, including Geoguessr challenges looking at the five locations where he is scheduled to play over the next seven days and another looking at the upcoming European leg of his tour.
The 2024 death of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh reminded me: I discovered the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground at the same time. The bands still exist as a unity in my mind, even after I figured out they were polar opposites.
My 1980s high school girlfriend was from the Northeast around Connecticut and New York City. She fused goth, punk, and hippie vibes. When we were 18, we took acid in her Austin, Texas shack. That’s where she DJ’d for me, on vinyl, the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground.
I’d heard the bands but never listened. She played the 1970 Dead tune “Box of Rain,” written by Lesh about the death of his father. Then we listened to “Rock & Roll,” the 1970 VU tune by Lou Reed about music as refuge, with Sterling Morrison on lead guitar. It all sounded like sheer Americana to me.
In the 1990s I became more of a Velvet Underground guy, from the band’s proto-punk stuff. But then I dated a Deadhead in Berkeley, and she took me to some Dead shows. That’s when I really got what the Dead fuss was about. I enjoyed my first show plenty, just for the carnival atmosphere, not having a deep knowledge of their discography. But then they covered “Johnny B. Goode” and the top of my skull lifted off. The secret of Dead shows is they piled crescendo on crescendo until you hit peak bliss, then they kept climbing. Yes I was on mescaline.
Sincere apologies for any inconvenience, but due to being displaced from the California fires, I need to cancel these upcoming dates.
If you have tickets, you will be contacted by the venue about rescheduling dates, or you can get info from https://t.co/mUIj4kbaRN.
❤️Thank you pic.twitter.com/87DwWuVIeC
— Maria Bamford (@mariabamfoo) January 17, 2025
According to several social media posts today, Duluth native Maria Bamford has canceled four upcoming comedy shows on the East Coast due to being displaced by the wildfires in Los Angeles, where she has been a longtime resident. Her website lists the tour resuming on Jan. 31 with a string of shows in California.
The fifth video release from Cloud Cult‘s new album Alchemy Creek is for the song “Vision in a Field.” The concept, visuals and editing are the work of Patrick Riggle.
This undated postcard, circa 1903 to 1913, shows a tugboat next to the Steamer R. L. Ireland, which the caption indicates is “going to winter quarters, Duluth, Minn.” The Great Lakes bulk freighter was built and launched in 1903. According to the website Great Lakes Vessel History, it was twice renamed — Sirius in 1913 and Ontadoc in 1926 — and sold for scrap in 1970.
Duluth band Torment performs “I Am the Problem” on New Year’s Eve at Pizza Lucé. The song is from the band’s new EP, The Pain. The video was shot and edited by Kayden Emantsal and Lane Peterson.
The first PDD Quiz of 2025 previews events, establishments and shenanigans coming to the Twin Ports this year.
A quiz reviewing the month’s headlines and happenings will be published on Jan. 26. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat @ gmail.com by Jan. 23.
Sugar on the Roof has a new self-titled album out on Philville Records. The track “Over the Great Saltless Sea” is highlighted here as the latest addition to Perfect Duluth Day’s list of more than 100 songs with “Duluth” in the lyrics or title.
A small feature in the Jan. 10, 1925 Duluth Herald mentions the opening of the “new” Salvation Army at 118 N. Third Ave. W. The building still stands, now serving as an annex to Hostel du Nord.
I love talking about the literary writing world here, but I rarely talk about academic writing. I’d like to, this time, because I just finished c0-editing a freshly published book with articles by some of your neighbors. They were intentionally written to be accessible to a broad readership.
Duluth’s Kyle Orla performs “Worried Blues” at the edge of Lake Superior on the last “warm” day in December 2024.
The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships are seeking proposals for projects related to sustainable agriculture and food systems, clean energy, natural resources and resilient communities.
I’m on the board for these proposals, and many of your neighbors throughout the region are, too. You don’t need to be a nonprofit — local businesses with community impact and individual citizens can apply, too!
Last semester, I taught a class in the writing major at the University of Minnesota Duluth called Minnesota Writers. It was a survey of a few “greatest hits” (Laura Ingalls Wilder and Wanda Gag; Upton Sinclair and F. Scott Fitzgerald; Tim O’Brien), but mostly, it was a tour through some of the writers alive and well and shaping Minnesota culture (Margi Preus, Chris Monroe, Julie Gard, Emily August, Michael Fedo, Lucie Amundsen, Kelly Florence, Meg Hafdahl, and contributors to the Pride Zine).
The third video release from Duluth band Boxcar‘s new album, For Madmen Only, is directed by Lance Lindahl and edited by Adam Jones, with photography directed by Austin Hilgenberg.
