December 11th, 2014
In a year marked with monstrously popular and impossibly creative albums from indie newcomers (Sylvan Esso, Perfect Pussy), breakout novices (tUnE-yArDs, Angel Olsen, The War on Drugs) and stalwarts (Ariel Pink, Real Estate, Caribou) alike, some gems inevitably get buried in the hubbub. I’ll be wrapping up this year in music with a special list of 2014's most deserving underdog albums.
An all-killer-no-filler collection of rocking outlaw country,…
December 10th, 2014
By Rod Hadland
In a house in Moorhead sit some amp stacks, a PA and a drum kit. The basement is the base camp where S0und, a band featuring Ben Hill on guitar/vocals, Michael Beatrez on bass/vocals, Alex Johnson on guitar and Frankie Maxwell on drums, came together. Breaking off from the group Bear North, S0und ultimately became for Hill, 20, a group that he had long wanted to form. Suave and Lennonesque, he sat down with me, and we discussed the group.
HPR: Let’s start at the very…
December 5th, 2014
It’s OK, you can call him Twinkie Jiggles, Sean McPherson says. The bassist for Minneapolis hip-hop acts Dessa and Heiruspecs says he got the nickname while handing out Twinkies at baseball games in high school, and he wore a shirt that said jiggles on the back. He was the game’s DJ/emcee.
He likes the name. So much so that he titled his own project after it: Twinkie Jiggles Broken Orchestra. A four-piece arrangement of the band, which will include vocalist Linnea Mohn of Rogue…
December 3rd, 2014
North Dakota music has reached a new level of wild. A four-piece Americana band from Minot, Wild Hands, has just released its debut album, “Oh, River.” And it’s oh so good.
Perhaps Wild Hands is a response to the polished, clean-cut country/rock groups that are popular in North Dakota – groups like Tigirlily and 32 Below. Though even if the guys of Wild Hands didn’t start the band to rebel against the popularity of Tigirlily, they…
November 28th, 2014
Seven years before Natalie Portman averred their life-changing capabilities in the soundtrack-reliant indie sleeper “Garden State,” The Shins were five basement-shaking slackers united under the moniker Flake Music, quietly releasing their one and only record, “When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return.” In the 17 years since, The Shins sharpened their literate jangle to a precise point, James Mercer went space-disco for Broken Bells and, most tellingly, the iPod, that…
November 19th, 2014
What’s really in a name? In an age when music is consumed à la carte, listeners dragging and dropping their earworms of choice into infinite playlists, what value does an album title hold? With the passing of bassist Gerard Smith in 2011, as well as the weight of expectations driven by the group’s excellent string of albums previous, the title of TV on the Radio’s fifth album is worthy of rumination.
Suggesting rebirth and promise, a fresh beginning borne of familiar roots,…
November 12th, 2014
*Adult language advisory
This Saturday, Nov. 15, North Dakota rapper/promoter Kipp G will put on his last show ever.
This “big deal” event at The Aquarium will include a Love Connection game and performances by local rappers and Minneapolis-based group The Crest. It will be one big last hurrah for the well-connected, well-versed (pun intended) Kipp G.
“It’s bittersweet for me for sure,” he said to HPR. “And I am…
November 12th, 2014
Masterminded by Americana champion and curator extraordinaire T Bone Burnett, the New Basement Tapes, an appropriately Traveling Wilbury-esque supergroup, shake the dust from lyrical scraps salvaged from Bob Dylan’s infamous 1967 Woodstock retreat. In the spirit of Billy Bragg and Wilco’s “Mermaid Avenue” records, the ensemble, comprised of Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Elvis Costello, Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Rhiannon Giddens…
November 5th, 2014
With the same kill-your-idols exuberance displayed on their handful of previous collaborative tribute albums, the Flaming Lips and their sizeable stable of “fwends” dare to tackle one of the most acclaimed albums of, well, ever. A song-for-song rebuild of the album that arguably changed the course of modern music, the Lips and their band of merry pranksters’ take on the Beatles’ monolithic “Sgt. Pepper’s…
November 5th, 2014
Variety is the spice of life and also of the symphony. For its second concert of its Masterworks Series, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra is continuing its trek across the globe with “Along the Silk Road.”
After a South American-styled opener to its 84th season this September, the F-M Symphony’s next stop with its “Embrace the World” theme is the Far East. “Along the Silk Road” rounds up contemporary composers as well as some older works for a specially styled concert.…
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…
