Good news (for me): I forbade myself from doing any work after closing my laptop on Friday because, uh, that's what George Washington would have wanted or something. Bad news (for you): I haven't had as much time to comb this week's listings for highlights as usual. But there's still plenty here to keep your eyes a-peeped for.
Wednesday, July 5
Jack Barrett and Charlie Bruber @ Aster Cafe
FLOWTUS @ Como Park Conservatory
Maggie's Wednesdays: Tom Hunter @ Crooners
Jearlyn Steele: The Music of Celine Dion @ Dakota
The Dissenters, Stone Ark, Northern Highs @ Driftwood
Civil Serpents, Vin, Honduh Daze, Flower Vase Cut @ Eagles 34
Fever Candlelight Concert @ Granada
Monica LaPlante, Pearl Earl, POPSTAR, Extraterrestrials @ Green Room
Genevieve Heyward, Natalie Fideler @ Icehouse
Mamas Ignite Collective @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Craig Clark Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
K.O. Luv, Linnea's Garden, Mortiholics, Michael Moore @ Mortimer's
Karaoke Crime Scene @ Palmer's
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with the Ya Ya Boys @ 331 Club
- Etran de L’Aïr with Douala Soul Collective @ Turf Club—There’s no shortage of Tuareg “desert blues” available to US listeners—Bombino and Mdou Moctar may not be household names, but anyone with a passing interest in African rock has heard them jam. And as far as touring African musicians go these days, you’re as likely to catch a Saharan guitar-slinger on a local stage as you are a Malian kora-meister or even an Afrobeats pop star. No, wait, stay with me here. Even if nothing I’ve written so far makes a lick of sense to ya, anyone who likes electric guitars and propulsive grooves—not a small audience, right?—should check out Etran de l’Aïr. With their great 2018 debut, No. 1, this Niger family band secured their place among the premier practitioners of blues Saharan rock, with its circular melodies, triumphant ululations, and flashy improvisations. Their 2022 followup, Agadez, was even more impressive—a bit more virtuosic, the rhythms less choppy. On the album at least, they’re much less Hendrix-y than popular fave Moctar, but we’ll just have to see where their guitars go when they cut loose live.
Tula Vera, Fine Dials, Labrador Wild, & Jacket @ Underground Music Venue
Áit Ait w. Mountain Loney @ White Squirrel
Thursday, July 6
Foxby with Ray Gun Youth and Mik Cool @ Amsterdam
Taylor James Donskey + Michael Gay @ Aster Cafe
Jay Bee & the Routine @ Bunkers
Margaret Glaspy @ Clown Lounge
Tanner Taylor Trio With Jake Baldwin @ Crooners
Jimmy Martin and Drew Jansen @ Crooners
Showpony, Creekside Ruffians, Pyroscene @ Driftwood
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Fever Candlelight Concert @ Granada
The Honest Heart Collective, Of The Orchard, Silver Warehouse @ Green Room
Jeremy Ylvisaker and Martin Dosh @ Icehouse
Dirty Lowdown Fools @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Cactus Blossoms, Barbero @ Minnesota Zoo
"Knockturnal" with Greenery @ Palmer's
Mama's Broke, Bad Posture Club @ 7th St Entry
Northeast Invitational @ 331 Club
Summer Girls: A Boy Band Tribute Without the Boys @ Turf Club
Flamingos in the Tree, Silver Cup, & Present Company @ Underground Music Venue
Anothernight with Cult Sequence, Mistake Universe @ White Squirrel
Friday, July 7
OURS with Chris Mercer and Damien Musto @ Amsterdam
Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz Combo @ Crooners
Tony London: All Shook Up - The Music of Elvis Presley, 1956-60 @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Jennifer Grimm, Rick Carlson @ Crooners
The Fontanelles, Manifest Content @ Driftwood
Giving up the Ghost, Speedbilly, Mommy Sez No @ Eagles 34
The Deep End Series @ Eagles 34
49 Winchester with Wyatt Flores @ Fine Line
- First Avenue's Rock Lottery @ First Avenue—Whoever came up with this idea deserves a raise. For Rock Lottery, First Ave has gathered up 25 local musicians (it’s quite a crew, including rapper Student 1, Kerry Alexander of Bad Bad Hats, versatile sideman Jake Hanson, and a whole lot more), and tonight at The Depot (7 p.m., if you're interested) they'll be drafted into five different bands. Each group will then have 48 hours to whip up a set of new material for Friday's show. The results could be a mess. They could be brilliant. They could be a brilliant mess. In any case, this exercise in forced collaboration seems worth checking out.
Shawn Phillips @ Fitzgerald Theater
Reasonable Doubt with Skalectric Company @ KJ’s Hideaway
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Southern Resident Killer Whales @ Minnehaha Bandstand
R - Factor @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Rich Mattson & The Northstars With Manias @ Palmer's
Foxby, Jacket and Little Lizard @ Palmer's
Amythyst Kiah with Luke LeBlanc @ Parkway
Kiltro with KFAI's Radio Pocho DJs @ 7th St Entry
Torment X Archea X Safe Space X Your Last Breath @ Studio B
The Gated Community, Emmy Woods and the Red Pine Ramblers @ 331 Club
- Pardoner and Scrunchies with Gash @ Turf Club—"So long as the music plays, we have no choice but to dance." Max Freedman declares on "Are You Free Tonight?," shortly before deciding to pop a pill. There's plenty on the San Francisco quartet's new Peace Loving People for indie old-timers and youth who think they swiped part of their style from Parquet Courts alike. It's unkempt and slack, artily mistuned, with vocals spoken, shouted, or drawled with just enough of that "do they mean it or not" quotient necessary for their anxious diffidence to work. Messages include "Which losers today tomorrow will win?," "I got so much left to lose," and "I hate the players and the game." Local faves Scrunchies and Eau Claire-spawned indie experimentalists Gash open.
Private Oates & Heartless @ Uptown VFW
Jim Walsh & the Dog Day Cicadas @ Water Works
Heavy Presents Full Tilt Boogie Pre Party 2023 with Corey Medina and Brothers @ White Squirrel
Saturday, July 8
Cindy Lawson with Linnea’s Garden @ Aster Cafe
- Summer Haus Party @ Bauhaus Brew Labs—Get ready for an alliterative good time thanks to Bauhaus Brew Labs and Backyard Boombox. At this “Haus Party,” they’ll have DJs Proppa (Chicago) and Nolephant (Eau Claire) plus a long list of local artists: Tommy Hill, Cyber Kinetic, Alvin Stone, Contribe, Immersa, Bok Choy Boi, Stereogo, odd fashioned, Pearlescent, Davilla, Elle, and Skanr. There’ll be beers and seltzers, of course, and they’re dialing up the energy by partnering with Eklipse Production to create a “festival-style atmosphere with mesmerizing sound and lighting.” (Sounds like maybe a THC seltzer is in order?) Think Bauhaus’s Liquid Zoo Art-A-Whirl shows, dialed up even further.
Erin and Jay Cabaret: The Music of Carole King and James Taylor @ Crooners
Tony London: All Shook Up - The Music of Elvis Presley, 1956-60 @ Crooners
Ginger Commodore and Friends @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Rick Carlson with Dorothy Doring @ Crooners
Fab Hackmasters, Tiny Traces. Rank Strangers @ Driftwood
Sensor Ghost, Spit Takes, Dummy, Time Room @ Dusty's
Mean Magic, Moy Dukksen, Rebecca Fritz @ Eagles 34
80s vs 90s with DJ Dave Paul and DJ Marco @ First Avenue
Geminii Dragon, Lonesome Dan Kase @ Granada
Crush Scene (EP Release), River Sinclaire, Ginny & the Fizz @ Green Room
GRRRL SCOUT: July Queer Dance Party @ Hook and Ladder
Gypsy Mania Hot Club @ Icehouse
- Dylan Hicks and Small Screens, Shane Leonard, Space @ Icehouse—By the time this show starts, Hicks and his sextet will already have much of their follow up to last year's Airport Sparrows in the can. The group's recording some new and "collaboratively arranged" material in the two days beforehand, this'll be your first chance to hear the new stuff, with trumpeter Elaine Burt, trombonist JC Sanford, and saxophonist Bryan Murray joining them.
The Johnny Sincerely Orchestra @ KJ’s Hideaway
Toivo Hannigan Quintet with Ella Grace 5tet @ KJ's Hideaway
Minneapolis POPs @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
The Good, the Bad, and the Funky @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Rockford Mules, Martin Devaney @ Mortimer's
Unattractive Giant Monster, Butter Boys, Surly Grrly and Loss Leader @ Palmer's
Blood Driver, Home Team Quarterback and Casual Disasters @ Palmer's
Craig Paquette & The Spartones (Album Release) With Thunderheads and Caitlin Nicol Thomas @ Parkway
Cafuné with Oftener @ 7th St Entry
Twin Citizen, Samantha Grimes, Loser Magnet @ 331 Club
Deerhoof with Products and Upright Forms @ Turf Club
Atomic Lights, A Sunken Ship Irony, Lulu & the Shoe, Witch Hunter General @ Underground Music Venue
Faun Fables with the Kind City @ Uptown VFW
Mary Jam with the Scratch-Offs, JACKET, Ray Gun Youth @ White Squirrel
Caitlin Robertson & Alex Sandberg with Sabyre Rae @ White Squirrel
Sunday, July 9
Vctms with Prison, Waste, Weeping Wound, Common Choir, and Wakefield @ Amsterdam
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Rainy Days and Mondays: The Music of The Carpenters @ Crooners
Hornucopia: Connie Evingson and The Tanner Taylor Quartet @ Crooners
Reza Khan Featuring Jennifer Grimm and Friends @ Crooners
Ginger Commodore Presents: The Music of Tina Turner @ Dakota
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Counterparts with Like Moths To Flames, Boundaries and Omerta @ Fine Line
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Icehouse
Diaspora feat. Desdamona, Kouzen, DJ Sir Maro, Just Yoni @ Icehouse
Saddle Sores @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Minneapolis POPs @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Inhuman Flourishing (EP Release) @ Mortimer's
Cornbread Harris: Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
West Bank Social Club @ Palmer's
The Dust of Suns (Album Release) @ Parkway
Oister Boy with Present Company and Killed By Kiwis @ 7th St Entry
Bejalvin with Rural Internet, Stomach Book, & Crash Blossoms @ Underground Music Venue
Tyler Haag, Matthew Day, Dan Henney @ White Squirrel
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, July 10
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Other Country Ensemble @ Eagles 34
Twin Cities Queer Contra Dancing @ Eagles 34
We Are the Union, Catbite and Kill Lincoln with J. Navarro & the Traitors @ Fine Line
Brandon Commodore (Monday Residency) with B23 Organ Trio, Kavyesh Kaviraj @ Icehouse
Roseville Community Band @ Lake Harriet Bandshell
Bluewater Kings Showcase @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Cowaoke with Ben Moooker @ Palmer's
Slayvannah with Benjamin Poss, Athereal Rose, Swofford @ 7th St Entry
The Roe Family Singers @ 331 Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
My Cousin Dallas @ Water Works
Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators Monthly Residency @ White Squirrel
