July 1st, 2015
“The most modern thing I can do in 2015 is make music with my bare hands.” That’s the explanation that multi-instrumentalist Dominic Salole gives for the warm, vivid sound of his fifth album, “Key Change,” under the Mocky moniker.
Commenting on the mass digitization of popular music since Pro Tools became a household name, Mocky’s ironic modus operandi may not be far from the truth. A majority of today’s musicians, amateur and professional, have created and continue to…
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
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
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…
By Dr. Marc Sapir, MD, MPHjessica@pellienpublicrelations.com Across America, families are quietly struggling with a rising challenge: how to care for aging parents, siblings, grandparents, neighbors and friends. Most seniors want…