Friends, I am so pumped for this Otoboke Beaver show on Thursday I can't even tell you.
Tuesday, March 5
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Aimee Mann with Jonathan Coulton @ Fitzgerald Theater
Bill Simenson Orchestra @ Jazz Central
Bluewater Kings Showcase @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Tufawon, Baby Shel, Didds, Moses, Cheezmo and Mass @ Palmer's
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
LITFRANK and Ernie Wayne with DDK, Grizz Lee, Jae Zole @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime: Joel Ward @ 331 Club
February Conspiracy Series feat. The Pistol Whippin’ Party Penguins @ 331 Club
The New Havoline Supremes! feat. Mary Cutrufello, Dan Lowinger @ White Squirrel
Mothobsidian (Residency) with Bryn Battani, Fumbler @ White Squirrel
Jazz With Connie @ The Woman's Club of Minneapolis
Wednesday, March 6
Beach Weather with Phoneboy & Rec Hall @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase @ Aster Cafe
Patrick Adkins/Adam Linz/Jay Epstein @ Berlin
Maggie's Wednesday: Lori Dokken @ Crooners
Urban Spectrum Theatre, Soundtrack of the South @ Driftwood
Call Me Fritz, Nice & Blue @ Driftwood
Patty and the Buttons @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
Jay Allen with Presley & Taylor and Bradley Gaskin @ Fine Line
Matisyahu with Cydeways @ First Avenue
Open Mic with host Neal Dimick @ Ginkgo Coffee
Lighter Co. (Residency) with Beemer + Orange Goodness + Airlands @ Icehouse
Zeta Girl, Matcha Fever @ KJ's Hideaway
The Craig Clark Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Chandler (Residency) with Mortiholics, Perv Googles, Super Flasher @ Mortimer's
Chelsea Cutler with Yoke Lore @ Palace Theatre
Karaoke Crime Scene @ Palmer's
Alan Doyle with Adam Baldwin @ The Parkway
Open Decks Presented by Sub: Culture @ ROK Music Lounge
The Customers @ Schooner Tavern
Mindchatter with Familiar Faces @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Papa John & the Poppettes @ 331 Club
Pullstring with Second Hand Dan, Beneath Green and BIG DELICIOUS @ Turf Club
flips for tips, Honey Please, and Drew Harmon @ Underground Music Venue
Lars-Erik Larson & The 2nd Stringers @ White Squirrel
Thursday, March 7
Modern Wildlife (Album Release), Sunken Planes (EP Release), Short Timer @ Cloudland
Debbie Briggs Vintage Jazz @ Crooners
The Finalists: Jesse Larson, Nicholas David, Audra McLaughlin, Terry McDermott @ Crooners
Vibtronics Dub Reggae @ Driftwood
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Karaoke With On-Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Futurebirds and The Nude Party with Fonteyn @ Fine Line
- Otoboke Beaver with Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and Scrunchies @ First Avenue—These four hyper-stylish Japanese women blew my damn mind when they played the Fine Line last February, and here they are again barely a year later in a bigger room—let’s hope this becomes an annual late-winter tradition. Excuse me for quoting myself: “Otoboke Beaver frolic with the collective ferocity you can only harness when you know, you just know, that what’s best in life is to be way cooler than the losers you hate,” I wrote in my review, and that’s just a hint of what their thrashy noise-punk does. Their lyrics and song titles are a giddy bilingual mess; here’s a bit of the translated Japanese lyrics to the English-titled “I Am Not Maternal”: “Having let my parents meet their grandkid/Their grandkid, their grandkid/I immediately put it back in my belly." My only regret is that I couldn’t see as much of drummer Kahokiss as I should have. (Look. At. Her.) Learn from my mistake and get there early to secure a good spot. As a bonus you’ll also get to catch the openers, Korea’s fun-as-hell Drinking Boys and Girls Choir and great local punks Scrunchies.
Derecho Rhythm Section @ Icehouse
Ticket to Brasil Quintet @ KJ's Hideaway
Dirty Lowdown Fools @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Throwback Thursdays with DJ Bootsy Ballins @ Palmer's
Gaelic Storm and the High Kings @ Pantages Theatre
Beth Orton with Pneumatic Tubes @ The Parkway
Nomadic Playground @ ROK Music Lounge
Scent Reality, Moy Dukksen @ Schooner Tavern
Marielle Kraft with Noah Derksen and Daphne Jane @ 7th St Entry
Northeast Invitational @ 331 Club
A Killer's Confession with Mike's Dead and Odds of an Afterthought @ Turf Club
American Muscle, Mullet, Dummy, Neo Neo's @ White Rock Lounge
The Monday Club @ White Squirrel
Selfish Teammate with Stressica, The Controversial New ‘Skinny Pill’, VISA カード@ White Squirrel
Friday, March 8
Art Vandalay with Scott Zosel @ Aster Cafe
Sharita @ Caydence Records & Coffee
The Boot, the Silverteens, Speed Riders @ Cloudland
Songs of Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, and Regina Spektor @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Katie Gearty and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
The Finalists: Jesse Larson, Nicholas David, Audra McLaughlin, Terry McDermott @ Crooners
Chastity Brown with The Laurels String Quartet @ Dakota
Lars Nelson Band, Mildly Human @ Driftwood
Swingin' on a Star + Miss Shannon's Dance Lessons @ Eagles 34
Cherry Glazerr with Wombo @ Fine Line
Two Door Cinema Club with Joywave @ First Avenue
TJ Plenke and John Seymour @ Ginkgo
Power Up! Women’s Day Music Fest @ Hook and Ladder
Chris Hepola and House on Fire @ Jazz Central
Trevor McSpadden @ KJ's Hideaway
Chad Johnson and the MN-T’s @ KJ's Hideaway
The R Factor Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings @ Ordway
- Jenny Lewis with Hayden Pedigo @ Palace Theatre—Last month the Minnesota Daily’s Sommer Wagen profiled three “non-men” local music acts, focusing on how one band in particular, pop-punk heavyweights Paramore, influenced them all. I’m betting you could write a similar piece about the profound influence of Jenny Lewis, the Rilo Kiley frontwoman/solo artist whose crystalline voice and elite songwriting have surely impacted multiple generations of indie musicians. And here’s the thing: Lewis, 48, remains as artistically vital as ever. A former child actor who enjoyed critical plaudits (in addition to gross salivating) from the earliest days of her music career, Lewis now has a five-album solo discography that matches the output of her indie-rock band from 1999 to 2007. The latest release, last year’s Joy'All, is the weakest of the bunch, but that’s not saying much; the breezy, Beck-inspired LP still boasts a handful of classic tracks like “Psychos” and “Cherry Baby.” This woman’s hit rate is simply staggering.—Jay Boller
Sparrowhawk, Lifestyle Shakes and Mean Magic @ Palmer's
Witness Chamber, Apex Predator, Slug @ Pilllar Forum
Littleton, Radiator Girl, Pearl Parkway, Carcetti @ ROK Music Lounge
Hurricane Harold's All Star Revue @ Schooner Tavern
Tropidelic with Ubi of Ces Cru and The Palmer Squares @ 7th St Entry
The Gentlemen's Anti-Temperance League @ 331 Club
The Dollyrots with Gymshorts, Surly Grrly, DJ WRRC @ Uptown VFW
Loser Magnet with No Tagbacks, Linus @ White Squirrel
Saturday, March 9
Fanny Pack! A Burlesque & Variety Show @ Amsterdam
The High 48's Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe
Solid Air @ Caydence Records & Coffee
Baharat with Robin Hood Was Right and Eslicky Ricardo @ Cedar Cultural Center
Boy Dirt Car, Necroviolence, Ice Climber, Shadow on Glass @ Cloudland
Shabby Road Orchestra @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Katie Gearty and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Rock U Winter Showcase, Noslo @ Driftwood
Unattractive Giant Monster, Shrimp Olympics, and Marsgarb @ Dusty's
Blank Human, Morp Gorp, and New Age Karen @ Eagles 34
NC Kenny Elementary Fundraiser @ Eagles 34
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades with Henhouse Prowlers @ Fine Line
Ricky Montgomery with Noah Floersch @ First Avenue
Back To 1957: A Celebration of Ghanaian Independence @ Granada
Twiztid with Blaze and ABK @ Green Room
Buffalo Galaxy, Dang Ol Tri’ole (Double Album Release) @ Hook and Ladder
Hipshaker MPLS @ Hook and Ladder
Potential New Boyfriend @ Icehouse
Jessie Street Band @ KJ's Hideaway
Will Schmid Quartet with Henry Berberi Trio @ KJ's Hideaway
The Good, the Bad, the Funky @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 @ Orchestra Hall
SPCO: Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings @ Ordway
A Sunken Ship Irony @ Pilllar Forum
Tiny Daggers, Nothing to Do., Speakeazie, Adult Video @ ROK Music Lounge
Crooked Dice @ Schooner Tavern
- Mary Timony with youbet @ 7th St Entry—Timony is one of those musicians who prefers to create as part of a band: Throughout the '90s with Helium, and in the '10s with Wild Flag and then Ex Hex, she has sought out group contexts for her husky voice and ingenious guitar work. In fact, her new solo album, Untame the Tiger, is only her fourth in a 30-year career, and her first in nearly twenty. It came about under dire circumstances—she'd been caring for her parents and both died while she was recording this album, and the lyrics (for instance, “A brand-new day, it still hurts like hell”) can be predictably distraught. Yet as always Timony maintains a thoughtful distance from the words she sings, so that rather than expressing what she feels, she seems to be pondering her emotions.
Jamie Quinn / Destroy the Planet @ Terminal Bar
Jarad Miles & the Ancient Waves, Pleasure Horse, Wish Wash @ 331 Club
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears with Shane Guerrette @ Turf Club
Venturer, Barnacle, and Rigby @ Underground Music Venue
Chase Matthew @ Uptown Theater
Martin Devaney, Lucy Michelle @ White Squirrel
J-Mo On the Beat & the J-Lighters with The Grieving Pines, Johanna Mathews @ White Squirrel
Comets ov Cupid @ Zhora Darling
Sunday, March 10
Kolton Moore & The Clever Few with Jordan Nix @ Amsterdam
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Dave Power’s March Madness: Nelson Devereaux Trio with Kevin Gamble @ Berlin
- Mary Gauthier with Jaimee Harris @ Cedar Cultural Center—Addicts like to tell themselves (and anyone who’ll buy the next round or share the needle) that substance abuse fuels their creativity, but the career of Mary Gauthier, which only got underway after she got clean, is closer to the truth. And as proof that self-knowledge can’t be rushed, it took 15 years of sobriety before her breakthrough album, Mercy Now, truly captured what it was like before for her and what happened to make her life better. Gauthier got a bit writerly in subsequent years, as much-praised lyricists will do, but then she released the bracing Rifles & Rosary Beads, a collaboration with Iraq War vets and their families, which transcended the writing exercise it began as. Gauthier’s most recent, Dark Enough to See the Stars, is a straightforward collection of love songs and mourning songs. “You’re my girl/In this broken heart, fall apart world,” she sings on the lead track to her partner, singer-songwriter Jaimee Harris, who not only harmonizes there but will be opening tonight.
Lutheran Heat, Sidewalk Diamonds, DJ Nato Coles @ Cloudland
The Tanner Taylor Trio @ Crooners
The Big 70s Singalong @ Crooners
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
KOYO, One Step Closer and Anxious with Life’s Question @ Fine Line
Music of Taylor Swift + More for Kids with Bri & The Antiheroes @ First Avenue
Services (Album Release) with Killed By Kiwis, Emily Rhea, and True Lust @ Green Room
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Icehouse
Mayyadda + Vie Boheme @ Icehouse
Kevin Burt & Big Medicine Feat. Ken Valdez with Erin McCawleys’ Harrison St. Band @ KJ's Hideaway
SPCO: Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings @ Ordway
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
Mystery House with Chris Hepola and the Real Chuck Norad @ Palmer's
Sherwin & Pam Linton and The Cotton Kings @ The Parkway
The Snuts with The Dalmatian Club @ 7th St Entry
Emmy Woods & The Red Pine Ramblers @ 331 Club
The Surfrajettes with The McCharmlys @ Turf Club
Your Arms Are My Cocoon @ Underground Music Venue
Intervals and Hail the Sun @ Varsity
Jeff Ray & Phil Heywood @ White Squirrel
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, March 11
More Light + Digital Parts @ Berlin
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
Other Country Ensemble @ Eagles 34
Wayne Hancock @ Hook and Ladder
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Powfu with Cody Lawless and Jomie @ 7th St Entry
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
- Laetitia Sadier with Susan James @ Turf Club—Former Stereolabber Sadier's fifth solo album, Rooting for Love, doesn't accentuate her distance from her old band; instead she follows its various stylistic dabblings (fromage-pop, krautrock, and other Euro delicacies) in personal directions. As always, Sadier's polite vocals tiptoe through such ornate melodies you can miss the dark lyrics underneath if you don't listen up (or parlez-vous)—in "You Belong to Me," for instance, it sounds like a brutish husband, jealous of his wife's professional standing, decides to slap her around.
Mumblin’ Drew’s Oldfangled Orchestrators Monthly Residency @ White Squirrel
