Music

The Weather Station stays loyal to folk tradition

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…

The scoop on Spoon

May 13th, 2015

Bassist Rob Pope, also of the The Get Up Kids, discusses new record and tour

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…

Q&A with Monica Martin of Phox

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…

Volbeat: The New Voice of Heavy Metal

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…

Behind the scenes with P.F. Sloan

May 9th, 2015

Songwriter behind the number one hit “Eve of Destruction” to perform in Fargo

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…

Basement’s Best: My Morning Jacket breaks hearts and waves on “Waterfall”

May 7th, 2015

In the four years since the release of My Morning Jacket’s last album, “Circuital,” bandleader Jim James stretched himself awfully thin. He lent himself fully to two collaborative tribute albums (the Dylan-indebted “Lost on the River” and the Guthrie-saluting “New Multitudes”), wrote, recorded and released an excellent solo debut and toured extensively with MMJ and on his own.

Sparing little time upon washing his hands of these various side gigs, James and the rest of My…

A few questions for Caroline Smith

May 4th, 2015

HPR asked popular Minneapolis-based artist Caroline Smith a series of questions and we saved the best answers for our readers.

Smith, a native of Detroit Lakes, Minn., performs in Fargo at least once or twice a year. She’ll return this Thursday, May 7 and this time is bringing along an opener, Ashley Dubose, also a Twin Cities-based pop/R&B singer-songwriter.

High Plains Reader: You’re a big city musician with small town roots. In what ways are you still in touch with those…

Jack White’s surprise performance gets Fargo love

April 29th, 2015

Local music lovers have rock and roll spiritual experience

What musical act would you stand in line for four to six hours to see? It’s a question many in Fargo found themselves grappling with when, mere hours before the gig, Jack White finally announced the last of his five-state acoustic performances to end his Lazaretto World Tour and begin a live-show hiatus of an undetermined amount of time.

My social media feed was filled with debate about whether or not Jack White was worthy of…

Basements Best: Alabama Shakes move outward, upward on “Sound & Color”

April 26th, 2015

Though its preceded by the title track, Alabama Shakes’ sophomore album, “Sound & Color,” doesn’t truly begin until about the 40-second mark of “Don’t Wanna Fight.” Steamrolling frontwoman Brittany Howard finds an open spot in the thistle of razorwire guitars and swaggering drums and emits a lemon-tart yowl, sucking all the air out of the room. For just a moment, the world pauses.

She exhales, spitting out the pounding backbeat and humbucked guitars with gale force. If one…

Basements Best: “1st Bath” a baptism in the name of pop music

April 16th, 2015

For a debut album, Avid Dancer’s “1st Bath” plays more like a confident string of hits from a “best of” collection than a document of a young musician searching for his voice. Brimming with nods to pop from every crevice of the previous half-century, Jacob Summers’ project is the sonic equivalent of a kid in a candy shop, and has the sweet-toothed enthusiasm to match.

The attention deficit of “1st Bath” can be chalked up to Summers’ backstory. Raised almost entirely on…