Dairy Queen is a Royal Pain for Local Songwriter Zaq Baker

Plus a 'Minneapolis Sound' museum proposal, Lady Midnight's night, and self-promotion disguised as a plug for non-commercial radio.

By Keith Harris

1:24 PM CST on December 17, 2021

Dairy Queen/Facebook|

They’re watching you.

Maybe Call the Song “Her Lactose Highness”?

Zaq Baker wrote and recorded a song called “Dairy Queen,” about a woman slogging through the drudgery of a corporate marketing gig, and people seemed to like it. Enough people, in fact, that a litigious corporation of that name found out about the track and had it yoinked from streaming platforms without so much as a cease and desist. (Thanks DMCA). This bummed Baker who, like most musicians, would prefer his song to be heard rather than not heard. There’s (kind of) a happy ending in sight here: After a blizzard (legal disclaimer: word used in the non-trademarked sense) of communication between Baker and DQ, the Bloomington-based company is rescinding its takedown so long as Baker doesn’t use their logo on his album cover. Till that happens, here’s a live version you can still hear. (Don’t tell the ice cream people.) By the way, if you’re thinking of writing a song about Racket, we would never (probably) do this to anyone. Unless it’s bad. Or you have a lot of money for us to take.

A Jellybean Museum?

You may know Jellybean Johnson as the drummer for The Time, Or from his collaborations with Prince. Or from his more recent work with the Jellybean Johnson Experience. Or you might not know him at all, in which case it would be useful if there was a place—a museum, for instance—where you could learn about him and the other early architects of that particular local funk variant we call the Minneapolis Sound. Well, Mr. Johnson is way ahead of you. Earlier this year, he launched a website to establish just such an institution on the north side of Minneapolis. “The museum will offer artifacts, films, audio recordings, oral histories, interactive media, graphics and visuals to bring the history of the Minneapolis Sound and its creators to life,” according to the organization’s website. It all seems to be in the very early stages still, but it’s not the worst idea we’ve heard.

The Other Side of Midnight

Lady Midnight began the year (more or less) with a virtual reality experiment, and she’ll close the year (more or less) with an actual reality experiment. She’ll be performing her 2017 debut album Death Before Mourning in its entirety at Icehouse on the night before the night before Christmas. Pianist Kavyesh Kaviraj, drummer Miguel Hurtado, and producer Medium Zach (who you can read about here) will be backing Midnight, and there will be performances by pop/R&B singer Mayda, Lydia Jones & Zhané of New Black City, drag performer Silvestrey, and Atlanta DJ Adora Tokyo. The evening is dubbed “Lady Midnight’s Last Mourning,” which has a suitable “out with the old” ring to it, and it’s subtitled “A Multidisciplinary Celebration of Life and Death.” “Multidisciplinary?” I hear you say. “Does that mean there will be puppets?” What a silly question, my strawman friend. Of course there will be puppets, courtesy of Oanh Vu and Andrew Young. You can find more info on the event here.

What Were You Doing at 11 O’Clock Wednesday Morning?

Sorry, that made me sound like a cop. Anyway, at that time I was chatting with Doc from KFAI on his program Desert Island Discs. Every week, he makes a combo playlist of his picks and his guest’s, and this week the show was centered on the timely theme of “the best of 2021.” You can listen to our playlist here. You can also see us here, though I don’t advise it as I am clearly dressed to be on the radio, in full couch slouch, though I did shower that morning. You can also see my Racket T-shirt, which you too can own. (Well, you can own one just like it, I mean. Or, I guess, this exact shirt, if that’s what you’re into and the price is right.) More end of the year stuff in this space next week. Till then, here are some show listings for the vaxxed and crowd-comfortable:

Dairy Queen is a Royal Pain for Local Songwriter Zaq Baker

Maybe Call the Song “Her Lactose Highness”?

A Jellybean Museum?

The Other Side of Midnight

What Were You Doing at 11 O’Clock Wednesday Morning?

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