Starting the Year with Style: Winter Carnivale 2009

After a year off, the Winter Carnivale will be taking place once again at the Fargo Theatre on Saturday, Jan. 10. Presented by DM Cooperative, KNDS Radio 96.3 and The High Plains Reader, the 2009 Carnivale is measuring up as possibly the best yet.

The day (and night) will be a mixture of the usual from the regions brightest and best artists, musicians, drag queens, and much more. The events will be hosted and broadcast live by KNDS DJ’s Randall Black and Nick Joyride.

The activities will kick off with a 3pm poetry reading by Amanda Silbernagel, followed by the first musical guest, Gumbi, at 3:05.

Throughout the day there will also be art for sale on the second floor by Punchgut Studios, The Upfront Gallery and more.

An impressive collection of local and regional acts will continue the festivities. From local/semi-local hip-hop, to local black metal and punk, this will be a great night for music. See HPR’s collection of band profiles for further info.

And if that doesn’t do it for you, mixed throughout the night are local movies presented by Greg Carlson, a drag show with Janessa Jaye Champagne, and a special showing of the Flaming Lips’ new movie, “Christmas on Mars,” which is free with admission. There will also be an after-party starting at midnight at the Aquarium featuring a special surprise guest.

Eyedea and Abilities, 10pm

These Twin City rappers are renown for their exquisitely quick-witted freestyle battling techniques, and every live show has its own flavor. Yet another astounding rap group to come out of the Rhymesayers crew.

Other Rhymesayers performers include the likes of: Atmosphere, Blueprint, Mac Lethal, MF Doom, and a number of equally incredible artists.

If you’ve heard any one of these guys, you know that Rhymesayers shows never disappoint. There’s an entire movement of inteligent hip hop happening in our own backyard. Watch the future of good hip hop unfold before your eyes, because it begins right here in the Midwest. Eyedea and Abilities will show you how.

http://www.eyedeaandabilities.com
http://www.rhymesayers.com/

Sovereign Sect, 3:35pm

These local drum and bass boys are more electronic than before. According to drummer Seth Holden, “We’re trying to move forward with electronica.

We’re trying to make it sound much more synthetic than some of our predecessors… just a touch of organic, but mostly everything else synthetic.“

There’s nothing like some afternoon trance to get your head right for a night of musical wonder. “We’re a party band,“ Holden continued. “We like to do different things to entertain our crowds… we want people to leave sweaty and happy.“ They’re notorious for their “Back to the Barn” parties, and have played a number of festivals, including 10KLF.

Don’t miss out on the afternoon party.

http://www.myspace.com/sovereignsectmusic

Empire Builder 5:35pm

“It’s a fusion of pop-rock. Most of the stuff is up-tempo,“ drummer John Shipley said. Each of the band members are veterans of the local rock scene.

Collectively, they represent groups like Battle at Sea, Jet Set Ready, Anchorhead, and others.

“It sounds like a lot of stuff we grew up listening to… kind of faster rock n roll kind of stuff,“ he continued. “We’re old and half the band has kids. We don’t have any delusions of being rock n roll famous people, we just like to get together and have as much fun as we possibly can, and hopefully the audience agrees.“

http://www.myspace.com/empirebuilderband

Jem P, Scissorfist and other members of MeandYouCrew 6:05pm

Chicago natives turned Fargo locals, Jem P and Scissorfist, combined with more local talent comprises MeandYouCrew—easily one of the best hip hop groups in the area.

They’ve played with a number of renown hip hop groups, including members of the Rhymesayers crew. Kip Gabriel, an MC for MeandYouCrew said, “We’re deeply family with Midwest artists like the Crest, and Doomtree, and Soulcrate Music, and all the other semi-famous underground rap groups in the Midwest. That’s our family.“

Not only are these guys good hip hop at the local level, but they embody the spirit of Midwestern hip hop and all the hope that it brings to the genre. All the same, the maintain much modesty.

“We’re not trying to change anything,“ Gabriel said. “We’re just trying to hang out at shows and rap to people, and hang out with people that we like.“ Support local hip hop and check it out.

http://www.myspace.com/meandyoucrew
http://www.myspace.com/whoisjemp

Buck Nastee vs. Stupid Birthday 6:35pm

Yet another chance to support local hip hop. These two DJs from the South Moorhead Scratch Dungeon are going to be cutting vinyl and taking names. “It’s kind of a battle of our two styles,“ Josh “Bucknastee” Vagness said, “but we’re going to present it as one cohesive piece. It’s kind of a composition that we’ve been working on together.

“There’s a number of different people in our crew, and together as DJs, we push eachother to do some really cool stuff.“

These two DJs are possibly the best in the area, yet another way that this year’s Winter Carnivale will showcase what local hip hop can do.

http://www.myspace.com/scratchdungeon

Les Dirty Frenchmen 8:45pm

Longtime Fargo punks return to Winter Carnivale. While so many good local bands have come and gone, it’s refreshing to know one of the great, long-time area acts is still around.

Formed from the ashes of The Trans Ams, Phil Hunt and co. have played more shows and local festivals, like The Winter Carnivale and MadonnaRama, than any other.

Known for their energetic stage shows and bizarre covers of stuff like Boston, they’ve always reminded me of walking into a Disc and Tape in the ‘90’s, although I suppose now it would be Orange Records. Either way, this is a good thing.

http://www.myspace.com/lesdirtyfrenchmen

GhostHandPunch 8:15pm

What started out as a side-project for the Blue Fairy Godmothers’ John Berdahl has blossomed into one of the most buzzed-about projects in town. No stranger to great pop melodies, John has taken the formula of the Godmothers and tweaked it a bit. At times noisy, but most of the time pretty,

GhostHandPunch has already won MadonnaRama, as well as come in second place in HPR’s best bets of 2008.

Their debut full-length, “The Spectral Dance,” was released in 2007 and is as good as it gets for local releases. For proof, check out “Prairie Rose” and “These Cheeks, Where the Worm Never Dies.”

http://www.myspace.com/ghosthandpunch

The Flaming Lips: Christmas On Mars 12am

Known for their mind-blowing live shows and critically-acclaimed albums, The Flaming Lips recently released their first movie experience, “Christmas on Mars.” What’s kind of become the Chinese Democracy of rock movies, Christmas on Mars was started in 2001 by Wayne Coyne and released this last summer to much fan-fare.

When we spoke with Wayne right before this years 10klf, the movie had just been completed and they were showing it at art shows and summer music festivals. They were supposedly bringing it to 10k, although we didn’t actually talk to anyone that saw it. He did mention he was showing it for “the kids who are willing to drink three red bulls and taking mushrooms,” so who knows if anyone remembered it anyway.

The movie was filmed in Wayne’s backyard in Oklahoma and for those who’ve seen the trailer, it looks exactly like you’d expect it would. And the same goes for the soundtrack, which is all instrumental, headphone bliss and contains such great song titles as “Space Bible with Volume Lumps” and our personal favorite, “In Excelsior Vaginalistic.”

We highly recommend checking out this mind-bender when its shows as the midnight movie following the carnivale.