February 16th, 2016
Since their first recording in 2009, drone band Wrekmeister Harmonies has offered an ever-growing collaboration between musicians from numerous bands. Their latest release, “Night of Your Ascension,” has a cast of over 30 musicians with members coming from bands such as Indian, Cave and The Body.
The Chicago collective will play the Aquarium along with Seattle doom band Bell Witch on Feb. 19. Unlike the large ensemble which plays on their records, this will be a lighter version of…
February 3rd, 2016
Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Willie Dixon, The Rolling Stones: these are just a few of the bands Sugar Blue recorded with in a career spanning forty years. It’s a career that’s led to high praise for his skilled harmonica playing and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Saturday, Blue will perform with his band, the Sugar Blue Band, at the 16th annual Fargo Winter…
January 30th, 2016
There comes a time when every musician needs to hang up their axe and succumb to the darkness ... of retirement. Some don’t always choose when that time comes, as we’ve seen with a few big name musicians dying lately, but Black Sabbath has. And for the Godfathers of Heavy Metal, the end is nigh.
In the third concert of their appropriately-named The End tour, Sabbath filled the Target Center in Minneapolis on Monday night with the slow, sludgy doom metal they created. The band,…
January 30th, 2016
February 3, 1959 marks the day that the music died. Rock ‘n roll icons Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17), and J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “the Big Bopper”(28) lost their lives in a plane crash outside of Clear Lake Iowa that fateful night, while on their “Winter Dance Party Tour” en route to play the next stop of their tour at the Armory in Moorhead Minnesota.
A young man from Fargo North Dakota named Bobby Vee reached unexpected stardom that night as his career was launched.…
January 29th, 2016
Iowa-based singer songwriter William Elliott Whitmore plays sold-out shows throughout the Midwest, including his upcoming sold out show at The Fargo Brewing Company on January 31. HPR had the opportunity to catch up with him and discuss his musical beginnings as well as his latest album
HPR: Where did you find your musical beginnings?
William Elliott Whitmore: I grew up in a household with a lot of music around. My folks had a great record collection. My old man played guitar and my mom…
January 24th, 2016
By Ben Rheault
Coming from Minneapolis and consisting of three lads from Fargo and one from Grand Rapids, Minn., is a debut album from the collective We/Ours. Will Simon, Bill Rohla and Justin Nelles are no strangers to the Fargo music scene, having played in such notable acts as Cut and Run, Gumbi, and F*ck Detector to name a few. The lone Minnesotan, Justin “Jub” Houser still does stints with Apocalypse Meow and, occasionally, Sundowners. The merging of these four personalities and…
January 21st, 2016
By John Showalter
When you think of the great figures of English literature, it’s very possible that the first name that comes to your mind is William Shakespeare. Arguably no other writer has had a greater influence on subsequent English-speaking artistic culture than the Bard of Avon.
So far reaching has been his legacy, in fact, that even artists of other languages and other mediums have been inspired by him, from films by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, to operas by the…
January 14th, 2016
Jamie Hutchinson
There are numerous Grateful Dead tribute acts around the world and the Fargo-Moorhead area is lucky to be home to one of them. While the Quarterly doesn’t play often (or even make it out of city limits), that’s all part of the appeal.
“It’s not the weekly, it’s the Quarterly,” says Pat Lenertz, who sings and plays guitar in the band. “It’s kind of more of an event than if it was just all the time.” They use this mentality with each of their shows by…
December 25th, 2015
By: David McCoy
Coming back for its third year to support local upcoming performing artists, the third Annual Holiday showcase begins 6:30pm Tuesday, December 29th at The Stage at Island Park. This year’s performances will be hosted by musicians Peggy Bartunek and Nita Velo and will showcase winners of the Celebrating Women and Their Music award spanning the last decade.
The Celebrating Women and Their Music show was founded in 1998 by renowned blue singer, chef, and caterer, Deborah…
December 24th, 2015
By Jamie Hutchinson
Longtime touring musician and music teacher Bryce Niemiller tells HPR about his inspiration behind Elevate Rock School, the music education school he opened with his wife, Lisa, in 2011.
Inside the keyboard room of the school, Bryce Niemiller is ecstatic, speaking rapidly as he explains where the idea for Elevate Rock School came from and the cons of the standard form of music lessons.
“Sorry I’m talking fast,” he says. “I get passionate about it.” His passion…
By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…