Music Posts

Selective Focus: Aaron Reichow’s Duluth Music Scene Photos

Self portrait of Aaron Reichow, shot in a mirror at the Blush nightclub in 2022.

Aaron Reichow started taking photos of the Duluth music scene around 2014 when one of his favorite bands, Low, was doing a residency at Fitger’s Brewhouse. The band’s music got him through “a lot of periods of my life,” Reichow said. Low was set to play all of their songs in a random order across several Thursdays around the same time Reichow’s youngest child was starting to sleep through the night. “In my marriage, I did most of the child care, all the bedtimes,” he described. “And when they started to get older, I thought ‘well, I can go out again without feeling guilty.’” A practice in photography helped him reclaim the intention of going out again. And with time, his hobby turned into a professional art form. Read more about his work in the interview below.

Big Into – “Good as Gold”

From the shores of the Mississippi River, Iron Range natives Curtis Kraft Mattson and Jozef Conaway ask, “If a journey’s reward is the journey itself … then who pays?” Their band Big Into is releasing a music video every month for each new track off their upcoming EP. “Good as Gold” is the sixth in the series.

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #16: Homegrown 2024 Venues

Homegrown Music Festival starts next week with acts performing in venues across Duluth and Superior. You can read a detailed history of the festival on its website. And you can test your knowledge of this year’s festival by taking the PDD Quiz. And here you can test your knowledge of this year’s Homegrown venues by playing one of this week’s three Geoguessr challenges.

Duluth Album Releases in 2024

Grant Glad
One Man’s Story
(Jan. 1)
Available on grantgladmusic.com

Pond Scum
Self titled
(Jan. 18)
Available on multiple platforms

Galleon
Self-titled EP
(Feb. 9)
Available on multiple platforms

PDD Quiz: Homegrown 2024

Grab your field guide and study up for this week’s PDD quiz, which previews the upcoming 2024 Homegrown Music Festival.

A PDD current events quiz comes your way on April 28. Submit question ideas to Alison Moffat [email protected] by April 24.

Sadkin – “Saints of Catalina”

The new video for Sadkin‘s “Saints of Catalina” is a collaborative endeavor helmed by Henriette Blade, who conscripted a group of Duluth artists from a myriad of arts disciplines — actors, visual artists, ballet dancers and, of course, members of the band.

With this small legion of creators she directed, edited and produced a concept video loosely based on the classic dance performance and film Ballet of the Red Shoes, swathing it loosely to the song’s lyrics, which deal with unseen consciousness, the human experience and a struggling social morality all-but begging for a guiding light.

Alan Sparhawk announces solo album in New Yorker article

The New Yorker published an article today on Duluth musician Alan Sparhawk, chronicling his career in the seminal indie-rock band Low and concluding with news about his latest recordings. “The fruits of this work will be released this fall under his own name, as a record called White Roses, My God,” reads the article’s final sentence.

Emerging Artist Showcase: Nolen Sellwood

The Current’s Emerging Artists Showcase at the Duluth Masonic Temple in January brought together musicians from communities across the region to showcase and develop the next generation of songwriters and performers.

On the bill was folk musician Nolen Sellwood, a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His full performance is in the embedded video above.

Nolen Sellwood – “Lavender”

Nolen Sellwood‘s 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission is a video for the song “Lavender,” a track from his upcoming album Cadence to the Flame, scheduled for release June 7. The video was shot by Tanner Miller.

The Slice: KEBS Records

Tim “Edwards” Verthein and his daughter Stacia Rom operate what is believed to be the smallest record store in the world. KEBS Radio and Records is located at 311 Second St. in Bovey, about 80 miles northwest of Duluth. It opened in 2017.

In its series The Slice, PBS North presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.

Indecent Proposal – “Behind Her Eyes”

The music video for Duluth band Indecent Proposal‘s romantic tragedy “Behind Her Eyes” was shot in the historic auditorium at Denfeld High School. It was released in November and has since amassed more then 195,000 views.

Live from Studio A: Charlie Parr

Charlie Parr‘s 18th album, Little Sun, is out today on the Smithsonian Folkways record label. The Minnesota native and longtime Duluthian stopped into Studio A at WDSE FM 103.3 “The North” on Feb. 28 to talk with Katelyn Brinza about the new record and play a few songs.

Alan Sparhawk Live at Le Guess Who?

Alan Sparhawk, backed by a trio of fellow Duluthians, played six European Union shows in November 2023. The first was at Jacobikerk, a Protestant church in Utrecht, Netherlands, as part of the Le Guess Who? music festival. The embedded video above is from that performance.

Nolen Sellwood’s imaginative songs have arrived in Duluth

Nolen Selwood

Nolen Sellwood brings his creative spark to the Northland.

Nolen Sellwood hit the music scene in January as part of a live event produced by Minnesota Public Radio’s “The Current.” His performance delivered a fresh, new sound to the Duluth audience.

Big Into – “The Jupiter Song”

Take a tour through the solar system with Iron Range natives Curtis Kraft Mattson and Jozef Conaway. Their nerd-rock band Big Into is releasing a music video every month for each new track off their upcoming EP. “The Jupiter Song” is the fifth video in the series.

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