Music

Tim Sparks’ “Chasin’ the Boogie”

July 17th, 2014

By Tom Johnson

Guitarist and longtime Minnesota resident Tim Sparks has made a name for himself for many years by taking on ambitious concepts on the guitar.

Whether it be taking the music of avant-garde composer and saxophonist John Zorn’s band Masada Quartet and condensing it to solo acoustic guitar, or when, in 2009, Sparks released “Little Princess” rearranging and deconstructing the music of Naftule Brandwein -- a klezmer clarinetist from the ‘20s dubbed “The King of the…

Flame on: Q&A with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips

July 10th, 2014

The band that battled pink robots, surfed crowds with a giant bubble, glitter-punk-rocked the snot out of stadiums and tripped fans’ badonks off all over the world for the past three decades will entertain, to say the least, Fargo-Moorhead for the first time ever on July 16.

Currently, The Flaming Lips are in the middle of a fiery Internet explosion. Be sure to check out their outrageous and rad new “SuperFreak” video with Miley Cyrus and Moby. But hide your kids first!

Read the…

Vampire in the sun: Sharon Van Etten reveals her secrets through music

July 10th, 2014

“I am a vampire, I don’t know if you knew that,” Sharon Van Etten semi joked and revealed to the High Plains Reader this past week.

Truly, the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter makes it sound like she is a vampire in her crazy infectious tune “Every Time The Sun Comes Up (I’m in trouble).”

Knowing that she’s continually and gradually getting more popular, perhaps we should be more worried about just how much trouble she’s going to get in. How can someone so dark and so…

Chevelle: Rockers of Future Past

June 19th, 2014

By Austin Kettelhut

Chevelle, the hard rocking trio from Chicago, has established itself as one of the few bands that has not only survived the “post-grunge rock” phase of the early 2000s, but has also separated itself from the era entirely. Once upon a time the group would have been lumped into a genre of music that was quickly becoming a desolate, unoriginal wasteland. Rock was dying, and maybe it did die in some sense, but Chevelle has refused to get swept under by the current.…

Nekododos

May 15th, 2014

This Friday, May 16, San Francisco alternative-rock group The Dodos will open for alternative singer/songwriter Neko Case at The Fargo Theatre for one of the most highly anticipated alternative concerts of the year.

Alternative, indeed. Both The Dodos and Neko Case dig deep into their unconventional minds to express strange, yet endearing rhythms, words and phrases, while connecting with their audience through glorious melodies and harmonies.

The Dodos are well known for their releases…

Acoustic aspirations

May 8th, 2014

New guitar shop Flatland specializing in guitar repair, maintenance and sales

Is your guitar buzzing, wildly out of tune or sounding less vibrant? If you live in the Fargo-Moorhead area and you own a guitar, chances are, your instrument(s) is suffering from post-winter trauma and is need of some optimizing.

Flatland Guitar and Lutherie, located next to Addictions Tattoo and The Great Wall on University Dr. in Fargo, can help with that – and just about anything guitar related: neck…

Wild Hands: New Dakota bluegrass

May 8th, 2014

Young Minot musicians to tour the Midwest and Europe

By Konner Johnson

Minot’s own Wild Hands have been playing music for only a few years but already have established themselves in the Midwest bluegrass scene. The group will play their first show at The Aquarium with the award-winning Minnesota string band Roe Family Singers.

Wild Hands are known for their rock-Americana-bluegrass style that delivers compellingly honest songs about this area of the country. For a smaller, isolated North…

Experiments in hip-hop

April 24th, 2014

Kill the Vultures to twist beats at The Aquarium

Alexei Moon Casselle is a born and bred Minneapolis rapper. He’s been a hype man for Twin-Cities legends Atmosphere and Eyedea & Abilities, an acoustic guitarist for the indie group Roma Di Luna and an emcee for the hip-hop party group Odd Jobs. Nowadays he spends time “killing vultures,” so to speak, with experimental beats, rhymes and poetry.

This Saturday, April 26, Casselle’s hip-hop group Kill the Vultures will perform its very…

“Love, Loss, & Regret”—Pat Lenertz Band comes into its own

April 3rd, 2014

Photo by Holly D. Photography // Cover by Raul Gomez

Having singer/guitarist Pat Lenertz in town is like having our very own John Prine, Jerry Garcia, Waylon Jennings or Willie Nelson. These comparisons are huge, but the humble Lenertz has a really strong knack for paying respects to his heroes.

In fact, he has so many heroes that he brought in 24 of his favorite local musicians to play on his very first solo record, “Love, Loss, & Regret,” set to release April 17 with a party at The Aquarium.

“It’s a reflection of the downtown…

HPR at SXSW

March 20th, 2014

Destruction Unit / photo by Chris Hennen

For six years in a row, I’ve travelled to Austin, Texas for the SXSW Music Conference and Festival, which has become the biggest, most talked about spectacle in the music industry. The conference is most well known for its music portion, but this year I had the opportunity to cover the music and interactive sides of it as well.

What started as a music conference in 1987 to break new bands has grown into something much, much larger. Established musical acts that don't need any exposure,…