Music
Spring 2017 Duluth-area Beer Festival Primer
The United States now boasts over 5,000 craft breweries as the thirst for quality beer continues. The Twin Ports are clearly part of the trend. Duluth and Superior are home to eight breweries, with two more planning to launch in 2017. Several others dot the north and south shores of Lake Superior. The great news for beer aficionados: there’s no shortage of local beer and opportunities to taste the latest batches. The next three major swillfests are highlighted here.
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Duluth Band Profile: Jacob Mahon
Jacob Mahon developed his songwriting skills playing bars and backyards across central Minnesota. Since his arrival to Duluth, he’s learned how a single compliment goes a long way. Click on the image above to hear the podcast.
Duluth Band Profile: Pizzaghost
Pizzaghost takes audiences to the ethereal plane of noise and punk rock. Keyboardist Jack Klander and bassist Ben Jacobson explain the anarchy of the group’s live shows.
Help Kaylee Matuszak appear onstage with Brandi Carlile
From Kaylee Matuszak:
Hi everybody! If you know me, you know how much I love Brandi Carlile and what a huge inspiration she is to me. She’s running a contest in which I submitted a cover of one of the songs from her album “The Story.” If my video gets enough votes, I could be chosen to perform the song live onstage with her in L.A.! So if you’d please take a minute to vote for my video and share this around, I would be forever grateful to you. You can vote once a week! Voting ends on April 17th at 9am, so don’t delay! Thank you so much!
Vote at: Brandi Carlile Cover Stories Contest
Dubz – The Westside Walk Videos
“Don’t You Cry” video by Hunter Bjork.
The 19th annual Homegrown Music Festival features a block of Duluth hip hop on Friday, May 5, at R.T. Quinlan’s Saloon. The lineup features Willie Diction, Eddiedition, Dubz and Jaze.
Featured in this post are seven music videos from tracks off the debut Dubz album Westside Walk, released in March 2016. Take a step back and watch him work.
(more…)Dead Man Winter on Conan
Because of security encryption issues, PDD can’t embed the Dead Man Winter performance of the song “Destroyer” from last night’s episode of Conan. The best we can do is offer a link to where it’s viewable on teamcoco.com.
Duluth Band Profile: Kat Fox
Rapper Kat Fox isn’t one to walk away from the mic. In her video “Kat Calling,” she questions not only the sexism in hip-hop, but also society’s gender norms.
Video Archive: Insane Clown Posse in Duluth
Crack open a Faygo soda and … do something other than watch this video if you know what’s good for you. Nothing of much interest happens, unless you are enough of a Juggalo that listening to professional wrestler Pat Tanaka talk about the size of Andre the Giant’s penis sounds appealing. Nonetheless, for the purpose of novelty if not entertainment, Perfect Duluth Day presents two segments from the earliest days of video blogging, when the Detroit-based horrorcore duo of Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope brought their Insane Clown Posse to Duluth. (more…)
Dong Dot Surgery – “Bound for Glory”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ftb7kXiH0
Electronic weirdness by John Holden and Matt Norby. They play the Barrel Room on May 1 at 9:45 p.m. during the Homegrown Music Festival.
Duluth Band Profile: Àlamode
Àlamode brings us back to the pop and funk mixture of the Minneapolis sound. Nathan Holte and Ned Netzel explain why the song “My Mistake” isn’t a mistake. Click on the image above to hear the podcast.
Chase Down Blue – “Skin & Bones”
Chase Down Blue‘s folk/rock sound has evolved in a post-rock direction on the album, Red V. In this video, the band performs live in KUMD’s Studio A on Feb. 15.
Upcoming gig: May 3, 10:15 p.m. at the Kom-on-Inn during Homegrown
.Homegrown Rawk and/or Roll: Jim Hall’s Mix
Available now for free download on Bandcamp, 117 megabytes of local rawk and/or roll selected by Jim Hall. It’s the eighth mix in the Homegrown Music Festival‘s series of compilations highlighting music that has shaped the Duluth music scene. (more…)
Sonic Divide: States
This short art video by Payton MacDonald features paintings by Duluth’s Kenneth D. Johnson. Sonic Divide documents a performance-art piece in which MacDonald mountain biked more than 2,500 miles — from Mexico to Canada — while periodically stopping to perform music. (more…)
Gaelynn Lea – “Watch the World Unfold”
Melanie Schantz, a musician and visual artist from New Jersey, produced this music video for Duluth musician Gaelynn Lea. The song “Watch the World Unfold” features Al Church on guitar and is from the 2016 EP The Songs We Sing Along the Way.
The Hoot Owls – “Scandinavian Hot Rod”
Ray Pirkola’s 1936 Ford Coupe debuted at the Million Dollar Motorcade car show at the Duluth Armory in 1955. Featuring 1940 Ford fenders and a hood grafted to a chopped and channeled 1936 five-window body, it was the first “full custom” car in the region. The song “Scandanavian Hot Rod” by the Hoot Owls celebrates the car and the self-determination of Ray Pirkola, father of the Hoot Owls singer and guitar player Barry Pirkola. The song is from the band’s 2010 album Alien Scrapyard.
Haley Bonar is now simply Haley
Twin Cities musician Haley Bonar, whose career took off during her years living in Duluth, announced today she is changing her surname from her paternal birth name, Bonar, to her maternal family name, McCallum. As a performer, however, she’s shortening it up to simply “Haley.”
Below is the statement from Haley’s Facebook page.
Her European tour begins March 25 with a sold out show in Glasgow, Scotland. (more…)
Ticonderoga teaser
A (very tiny) peek at the third Reflectivore visual installment. Past pieces at vimeo.com.
Could Prince have taken over Duluth?
An article published in the Daily Beast over the weekend recounts the strange circumstances surrounding the premiere of Prince’s movie Under the Cherry Moon in 1986. A young motel chambermaid in Sheridan, Wyo., won an MTV dream date with Prince in her tiny hometown. “On TV, it seemed like a fairy tale. Behind the scenes, coke-fueled chaos reigned,” the blurb at the top of the story synopsizes. (It’s not Prince or the Chambermaid doing coke, for the record). Deep into the fascinating and lengthy story is a reference to Duluth.
Bobby Z, drummer for Prince’s backing band, the Revolution, reflected on how the Prince premiere was essentially the biggest thing that ever happened to the small farming, ranching and coal-mining town of Sheridan.
“It wouldn’t have been the same if it had been in a bigger place — like, say, Duluth — because you really couldn’t take over the town like this has,” Bobby Z says in a quote attributed to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. (more…)
Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2017
The 2017 Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide is off the presses. All three tons of the processed wood fibre will be distributed to various shops across the Twin Ports beginning this weekend. This year’s cover art is by Sarah Brokke, who was also the featured artist in yesterday’s “Selective Focus” on PDD. The photo above, shot by Kip Paslowicz, shows Homegrown Assistant Director Adam Guggemos standing atop a portion of the 20,000 copies of the 100-page promotional magazine.
This year’s Homegrown happens April 30 to May 6, with 196 bands performing over the course of the eight days. (more…)
Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners launch Kickstarter
Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners have plans to record the full-length album Wildflowers & Tumbleweeds in 2017. A Kickstarter campaign is underway to raise $7,500 to cover the costs.
Brian Barber donated his videography skills for the Kickstarter video. Katlyn Kretzschmar donated her photography for updated band photos, shot at the Spirit Room. Bent Paddle has donated a $50 gift card. Back the Kickstarter campaign at $50 or more between now and Feb. 26 at midnight to be entered to win.
Dong Dot Surgery – “Computing 4eva!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPKEBjwfsE
More spoken word by John Holden with electronic weirdness by Matt Norby.
Duluth Album Releases in 2017
Matt Ray
Minnesota Moon
(Jan. 1)
Available on CDBaby
IW/M/DK
Ghostship
Xero Music (Jan. 12)
Available on Bandcamp
The Farsights
Traffic
(Jan. 17)
Available on Bandcamp
Dong Dot Surgery – “Flo Juice”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba2IgxPibfI
Spoken word by John Holden with electronic weirdness by Matt Norby.