June 17th, 2015
The following list might not be the five biggest upcoming concerts, though they certainly feature some of the most one-of-a-kind acts in the country. Tickets are still available for all these shows.
Esperanza Spalding is arguably one of the best jazz musicians of her generation. She has an extraordinary singing voice and masterful upright/electric bass chops that are defined by incredible control, virtuosic dexterity and appealing character.…
June 5th, 2015
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Hyped by hip-hop wunderkind Chance the Rapper since last October, Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment’s debut album “Surf” was quietly made available as a free download on the iTunes store late last week. Sprawling, ambitious and stuffed to the gills with guest collaborators, “Surf” is an immediately arresting record, sure to go down as one of 2015’s quintessential hip-hop releases.
Chance’s pervasive presence on “Surf” is telling enough. The 22-year-old could’ve…
June 3rd, 2015
“Northern Lights” will shine bright at The Stage at Island Park this Sunday for Jessie Veeder’s CD release concert.
The Watford City, N.D.-based Americana musician has been singing, writing music and performing since her teenage years. The now 31-year-old has released five full-length albums and has toured the country playing music. Her experience, along with her cherished talent and loyal-to-the-area song content, has led her to become one of the most important modern-day…
May 27th, 2015
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Billed as “12 songs about dark rooms, water, wind, stoned afternoons, sun in your eyes, sex, hair, snacks, death, & the beach,” Shana Cleveland’s solo debut, “Oh Man, Cover the Ground,” sounds appropriately like a slacker soundtrack. Beneath its lowest-key exterior, however, the album is a patient, homespun tribute to a particular set of misfits in folk music’s history.
In 2012, as her Spector-esque surf rock outfit, La Luz, was just beginning to make waves, Cleveland…
May 20th, 2015
In a musical landscape ever-hungry for the Next Big Thing, artistic consistence is a severely underappreciated quality. The listening public, that fickle beast, wants bigger and better with an artist’s every passing album, but its back turns quickly when an artist moves faster than it can keep up. It’s an ugly game with few winners on either side of the stage.
With a gaggle of rock-solid studio and live albums, EPs, split-sevens and one-off compilation tracks tied to its name over…
May 13th, 2015
“Folk” has always been a nebulously defined genre descriptor, its quaint tag encompassing everything from Lomax-era plantation blues to the beatnik strumming of Greenwich Village, and its meaning has been muddied further as an umbrella to ignorantly lump together regional, or “world,” music. In the 21st century, the sounds of the South have apparently all been collected and protest songs are more likely to feature a big-name rapper than a harmonica.
Our conceptions of folk music…
May 13th, 2015
American rock ‘n’ roll band Spoon will visit Fargo for the first time ever this Tuesday. The veteran group from Austin, Texas has been around for 20-plus years. It has gained strong fan support, especially among alternative and indie music followers, for its stimulating and tasteful soundscapes, rhythmic patterns and melodic ideas that are balanced with charming, expertly crafted songwriting.
Perhaps known…
May 13th, 2015
Look “Phox” up on YouTube. Watch and listen. There, that should be enough to convince folks to attend the up-and-coming indie/artsy pop band’s concert Wednesday night at The Aquarium.
It’s lead singer Monica Martin’s glorious singing voice. It’s the band’s rich back-up harmonies. It’s the titillating instrumentation accompanying Martin’s memorable main melodies. It’s the amalgamation of all those things, and then some, that’s turning Phox into everyone’s favorite…
May 10th, 2015
When Michael Poulsen sings, his distinctive voice and vocal range are like nothing you have heard from a heavy metal band before and probably never will. One of the reasons this heavy metal / rockabilly band are making a mark on the heavy metal /thrash band scene.
A couple of months ago my buddy Leon called to say that Volbeat, Anthrax and Crobot where coming to Grand Forks at the Ralph Engelstad Arena, tickets were purchased so now all we had to was wait for May to roll Around. Leon and…
May 9th, 2015
It all started with a guitar lesson from Elvis Presley in 1958. Songwriter P.F. Sloan, who will perform in Fargo for the first time on May 16, was just 12 years old at the time.
“He showed me the chords to ‘Love Me Tender’ and talked to me for about 30 minutes about life and what love is and what are the important things in life,” Sloan remembered. “Basically, it was the closest I had come to…
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Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com A midnight wedding ceremony at the Clay County Courthouse in Moorhead on August 1, 2013 was more than a romantic gesture. Eighteen couples made history on that day by exchanging vows in the…
By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu On March 11, 2024, we celebrated the 121st birthday of bandleader Lawrence Welk. He was born March 11, 1903 in a sod house near Strasburg, North Dakota, and died on May 17,1992. The…
Saturday, May 117 p.m., gates at 5 p.m.Outdoors at Fargo Brewing Company610 University Dr. N, FargoWisconsin’s finest export, The Violent Femmes, started out in Milwaukee in 1981 as an acoustic punk band, and they’ve been…
Is this a repeating pattern?By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThere’s a quote circulating around the world wide web, misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a…
by Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comAccording to my great-grandfather many years ago, my French ancestors migrated from Normandy to Quebec to Manitoba to Wisconsin to Minnesota over the spread of more than two centuries, finally…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…
By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com In this land of hotdish and ham, the knoephla soup of German-Russian heritage seems to reign supreme. In my opinion though, the French have the superior soup. With a cheesy top layer, toasted baguette…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.com It is not unheard of for bands to go on hiatus. However, as the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” That is why when a local group like STILL comes back to…
Now playing at the Fargo Theatre.By Greg Carlson gregcarlson1@gmail.comPalme d’Or recipient “Anatomy of a Fall” is now enjoying an award-season victory tour, recently picking up Golden Globe wins for both screenplay and…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com There’s no exaggeration when we say that this year’s Plains Art Gala is going to be out of this world, with a sci-fi theme inspired by a painting housed in the Plains Art Museum’s permanent…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…
By John Showalter john.d.showalter@gmail.comThey sell fentanyl test strips and kits to harm-reduction organizations and…
JANUARY 19, 1967– MARCH 8, 2023 Brittney Leigh Goodman, 56, of Fargo, N.D., passed away unexpectedly at her home on March 8, 2023. Brittney was born January 19, 1967, to Ruth Wilson Pollock and Donald Ray Goodman, in Hardinsburg,…
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Dismissing the value of small towns for the future of our nation is a mistakeBy Bill Oberlanderarcandburn@gmail.comAccording to U.S. Census projections, by the middle of this century, roughly 90% of the total population will live…
