Music

Blitzen Trapper’s “All Across This Land” a powerhouse

October 1st, 2015

Rock and Roll was made for you. Band in Fargo on Saturday

There’s nothing more rock and roll than singing about rock and roll. For as long as the genre has existed, its torch-bearers have spouted its mystical, transformative virtues. A seeming act of piety, it’s been ambiguously twisted into averb in thrashing sermons by the likes of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Bob Seger and the Velvet Underground. While those bands’ definitions fall far from total encapsulation, country-rockers Blitzen…

Blind Joe soars on The Voice

September 28th, 2015

courtesy of NBC Local singer advancing on NBC competition show

The Red River Valley has been abuzz with the recent news that local musician Blind Joe is a contestant on NBC’s The Voice and has advanced past the blind auditions stage. This past Friday, in one of his first one on one interviews since he was allowed to talk (the episode has been taped for a while but performers were sworn to silence until it aired), HPR caught up with the country crooner who has previously been named best local musician…

Carroll’s adventures in Wonderland

September 24th, 2015

With Minneapolis and St. Paul a relative stone’s throw away, it’s especially hard to avoid the aftershock of whatever musical A-bombs are dropped by Twin Cities musicians as their impact spreads to the rest of the nation. We were some of the first to catch droplets of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” bang heads to the Replacements and pick up the dropped science of the Rhymesayers label. Though it would be downright ignorant to say that the Twin Cities are facing a musical drought,…

The Mouse that Roared

September 16th, 2015

photo by MeiLi Smith

From the manic buzzing of unseen bees that signaled the band’s arrival on the stage of the Bluestem amphitheater down to the last sonic drop of their second encore set, Washington indie rockers Modest Mouse blazed through a nearly two and a half hour set with a seemingly unceasing energy.

Founder and frontman Isaac Brock was the rightful center of attention as the octet bombarded their way through their catalogue, mining gems from their most recent record, “Strangers to…

Auerbach’s soulful side project comes out on top

September 10th, 2015

The Marxist school of sociological thought posits our world as one of unceasing conflict, an undercurrent of discord raging through every instance of human interaction. It’s just as a handy a theory for making sense of large-scale movements like Black Lives Matter as it is for explaining the lesser tensions in life, like why company execs enjoy corner offices and lowlier workers cramp up in drab cubicles. While viewing the world through this lens of struggle can be draining and…

Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy

September 3rd, 2015

A few years ago, in a now-famous appearance on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” comedian Louis C.K. went on a tangent that decried us as a society for griping about our #firstworldproblems. In the skit, he claimed that “everything is amazing, and nobody’s happy,” pointing out that we’re more irritated that we can’t reliably get Wi-Fi on a plane than we are astounded by the mere fact that we have pocket-sized devices that allow us to speak, in real time, to somebody a…

Battle of the Hamm’s returns

September 3rd, 2015

In 2004 Chris Lindstrom and his bandmate Chris Moore wanted to throw a party -- a BIG party. Both were active in the music scene and the idea of a battle of the bands came about. Add a $10 30 pack of Hamm’s as an entry fee, enter 10 bands and the Battle of the Hamm’s was born. The victor would collect all the beer, be king of the after party and win a custom-made championship belt made of the finest cardboard and duct tape money could buy.

A few months ago Lindstrom was having a…

Andrew W.K. Brings the Party to the Aquarium

August 26th, 2015

I’ve tried hard to source it, but Google fails me. The first review I ever read of Andrew Wilkes-Krier’s massively successful debut album, "I Get Wet," went on and on about how brazenly and cleverly dumb it was. Many reviews did at the time. I can’t remember if this was before or after Pitchfork moaned “Alright, this is bullshit” and gave the album a 0.6 out of 10 (not everyone knew what to make of the guy, and probably still don’t).

At any rate, this forgotten review from…

Tennessee Bluegrass at Crooked Lane

August 26th, 2015

Singer, fiddler and banjoist Becky Buller to perform in North Dakota

When bluegrass musician Becky Buller returns to North Dakota this Sunday, what she’s really hoping for is rhubarb pie.

“I am trying to grow some rhubarb down here in Tennessee but it’s so hot that it doesn’t do very well,” she said to HPR.

Perhaps she’ll get a slice at her upcoming concert at Crooked Lane Farms in Colfax, N.D. Buller will be one of the most significant acts to perform at the one-of-a-kind…

New Direction turns tide

August 19th, 2015

Photo by Kaytlin Dargen

Q and A with co-owner of thriving all-ages venue

The New Direction opened as Fargo-Moorhead’s only full time all-ages D.I.Y. punk venue almost 5 years ago in downtown Fargo by a group of local musicians and promoters hoping to have a steady place to host bands for kids. While punk and hardcore music are its main sources of music, the venue is really open to letting anyone come in and use the space for any type of genre of music.

As college students return to town, we thought it would…