Corey Sweeter has seen his favorite band, the Foo Fighters, perform in concert seven times. He is seeing them again tonight, although this time feels different, because Xcel Energy Center asked him to design a poster for the show. Sweeter is a freelance graphic artist from the Twin Cities, who has designed for a variety […]
Minnesota-based musician Dave King is not afraid do something unconventional. Known for his work as a drummer in groups like the Bad Plus, Happy Apple and Halloween, Alaska, King pushes the boundaries of music and doesn’t stick to the status quo. What King’s fans might not know so well is his work in film. On Friday, […]
This month, Dessa is preparing to release her new memoir, My Own Devices, in which she shares the very personal stories behind many of her best-known songs and offers poignant reflections on love, heartbreak, and her life on the road. In the first portion of this interview, Dessa and I discussed her long on-and-off relationship with the […]
Have you ever been so hung up on an old flame that you’ve contemplated using experimental brainwave technology to extract your love for them from your thoughts, Eternal Sunshine-style? Or wondered what it would be like to tour, perform, and make art alongside someone who you know you can no longer be with but who nevertheless […]
For Gipson Shoemaker, owner of Lucky Devil Cigar Box Guitars, his passion for cigar-box guitars all started with seeing Jack White in the 2008 documentary, It Might Get Loud. In that film, White built a diddley bow — an instrument similar to the cigar-box guitar. When Shoemaker first saw the diddley bow, he became curious […]
At around 10:30 p.m. several weeks ago, I leaned toward an oval-shaped mirror. Coffee grinders whirred on the other side of the door, and I could hear dishes clanking as a barista heaved a bus tub. Studying my face in the mirror, I uncapped an eyeliner pen and got to work. It’s not every weeknight […]
To quote the ever-quotable Toki Wright: when a door closes, a window opens. Just six months after finding out that he would lose his long-running position as Department Head of the Hip Hop Studies program at the now-shuttered McNally College of Music, Toki has announced that he’s relocating to Boston to take an Assistant Chair […]
Resmaa Menakem, a licensed independent social worker and therapist, released his book My Grandmother’s Hands this past September. The book sought to tackles issues of racism and white supremacy from an unexpected, yet plausible place: how it affects the bodies of the oppressed and oppressors. My Grandmother’s Hands focuses specifically on how Black bodies and […]
BJ Burton likes to keep a low profile. He mentioned this several times while chatting over coffee on Wednesday, a sheepish grin creeping across his face as he squinted into the morning sun. That low profile is probably why, even after several years of co-writing, producing, engineering and mixing critically acclaimed albums by Bon Iver, […]
Every Wednesday night this month, the Chicago-based punk poet Ike Reilly will hold court at Icehouse to celebrate the release of his new album, Crooked Love. The artist-in-residence concept has become increasingly common at Twin Cities venues this year, particularly in the colder and slower winter months. But for Ike, it’s an approach to playing […]
