I think winter is supposed to finally feel like winter by this weekend. But don't let that slow you down!
Tuesday, January 9
International Reggae All Stars @ Bunkers
- Rosanne Cash @ Dakota—Last year, Cash celebrated the 30th anniversary of her eighth album, The Wheel, with an expanded rerelease, packaged with some live performances from the period. (Among the new tracks is a moving revamp of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from My Fair Lady, reminding us that before she was known as an acutely personal singer-songwriter, Cash’s rep was as a brilliant interpreter of other people’s material.) The Wheel was a watershed album for Cash, her first since moving to New York and making a break with Nashville and her first husband and regular collaborator Rodney Crowell. The transition now feels inevitable—Cash had already begun to leave country-pop stardom behind with her 1990 album, the unrelentingly introspective Interiors—but all changes seem that way in retrospect. The Wheel is also the first Cash album co-produced by John Leventhal, who’d soon become her new husband, and he’s performing with her on this tour. It’ll be great to hear her revisit these songs, and that moment in her career, in as intimate a setting as the Dakota.
St. Dominic's Trio @ Driftwood
Karaoke With On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
Cedar Avenue Big Band @ Jazz Central
Nova Jazz Orchestra @ Minnesota Music Cafe
All Nighter Tuesdays @ ROK Music Lounge
Freqq with Vuu, Yare, Wootz @ 7th St Entry
Industrial Strength with DJ Sin @ Terminal Bar
Worker’s Playtime: Dan Schwartz @ 331 Club
January Conspiracy Series featuring Ben Cook-Feltz, Mary Cutrufello @ 331 Club
Pure Shifter (Tuesday Residency) with Ghost Kitchen & Shrimp Olympics @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, January 10
Once More, Autumn with Wish Wash & Is This Thing On @ Amsterdam
MN Songwriter Showcase hosted by Nick Hensley @ Aster Cafe
Maggie's Wednesday: Andrew Crowley @ Crooners
- Rosanne Cash @ Dakota—See Tuesday's listings.
The Bad Companions @ Eagles 34
Miss Shannon's Swing Night @ Eagles 34
- Yellow Ostrich 3rd Annual Winter Shindig Night #1 @ Icehouse—For the third year, Alex Schaff's Yellow Ostrich is hunkering down at Icehouse for four Wednesdays. For the inaugural residency session, they'll be joined by Bathtub Cig and Bad Bad Hats side project Megasound. For week two, Zak Khan and Honeybutter will be in the house. Max + Jeremy Ylvisaker and Trash Date join Yellow Ostrich for the third week, and for the finale, Aesha Minor and Nat Harvie are on hand.
Monique & Xperience @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Willow Waters with Too Old Cat & Lake Davi @ Palmer's
Until Apocalypse @ Rok Music Lounge
Connor McRae Trio @ Schooner Tavern
shrimp olympics, Squinny, Time Room, and Robot Slide @ 7th St Entry
Harold’s House Party on KFAI with Brady Perl @ 331 Club
A Tribute to Gillian Welch @ Turf Club
HebbaJebba with Katy Tessman and Raintribe @ Underground Music Cafe
Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers @ White Squirrel
Thursday, January 11
Crush Scene, Jonger, Lulu and the Shoe @ Cloudland
Self-Titled: A Tribute to Jeff Beck @ Crooners
CJ Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band @ Dakota
Karaoke with On Call Entertainment @ Eagles 34
LGBTQ+ Twin Cities Latin Dance @ Eagles 34
Adam Nussbaum's Jazz Quintet @ Eagles 34
Snapped: Live Band Open Mic @ Green Room
The Green Line Quintet @ Jazz Central
Smiling Cowboys Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
The Front Porch Swingin' Liquor Pigs @ Palmer's
Edie Rae & the Blaze Kings, John Magnuson Trio @ Schooner Tavern
WEALD, Honey Hole, Adult Video @ ROK Music Lounge
Alina Maira with Another Heaven, d'Lakes, and The Envies @ 7th St Entry
Minneapolis Songwriter Round: Ira Haze, Neil Haggerty, Kaity Joan @ 331 Club
Eli Gardiner with Ryan Gebhardt, Emmy Woods and Nick Hensley @ Turf Club
Caribou Gone (Album Release) @ Underground Music Cafe
The Monday Club @ White Squirrel
Ruben with Unattractive Giant Monster, Sick Eagle @ White Squirrel
Friday, January 12
Turn Turn Turn with Ava Levy @ Aster Cafe
Worm Grunter, A Sunken Ship Irony, Idlflo @ Caydence
The Mubbla Buggs with The kAt band project and Poverty Hash @ Cedar Cultural Center
Brass and Body Works, Jazzicality, the Prizefighters @ Cloudland
Honky-Tonk Jump with Pat Donohue @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Maurice Jacox and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Urban Classic Presents: The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire @ Dakota
Vittorio & the Bridges, The Deeper End @ Driftwood
Steve Clarke & the Working Stiffs @ Eagles 34
13 Howell, Whale in the Thames. Prairie Clamor @ Eagles 34
Internet Kids—Hyperpop Dance Party with Sym1 @ Fine Line
- Best New Bands of 2023 @ First Avenue—With the death of City Pages and the Picked to Click poll, First Ave’s annual Best New Bands showcase is the best cheat sheet for folks who want to keep abreast of what’s new on the local scene without putting in too many hours. This year, the club has gathered up a typically superlative crew: art-funker Barlow, witty pop youth Ber, sharp country singer-songwriter Clare Doyle, rootsy outfit Lamaar, ace jazz drummer L.A. Buckner and his group Big Homie, the moody and atmospheric Reiki, and tuneful shoegazers She’s Green. It’s possible that you’ve read about six of the seven here on Racket, so either I’m doing something right or First Ave is. Or both of us are.
St. Paul Peterson & Green Room Present Funk Friday @ Green Room
A Holy Place to Be: Acoustic Bowie @ Hook and Ladder
- Happy Apple @ Icehouse—Somehow a quarter century has gone by and onetime jazz upstarts Dave King, Michael Lewis, and Erik Fratzke have become the grand old men of Twin Cities improv. And you've got too chances to check them out this week.
Park Evans Trio @ Jazz Central
Kevin Burt & Big Medicine feat. Ken Valdez with Erin McCawley's Harrison St. Band @ KJ's Hideaway
Point Blank x Dr Ushuu x Kill Feed @ The Loft
The Maxx Band @ Minnesota Music Cafe
PV$$¥ CNTRL - A Dance Party by Sophia Eris & Shannon Blowtorch @ Mortimer's
Anthony Ross Plays Dvořák’s Cello Concerto @ Orchestra Hall
Assad, Janáček and Smetana @ Ordway
Do Not Crush, Yeah Doggos and Scott Gagner @ Palmer's
Mama Digdown's Brass Band with the Akie Bermiss Trio and Trish Cook @ Parkway
Everett Smithson @ Schooner Tavern
- The Silent Treatment (Album Release) with The Mood Swings, Spit Takes, and Loki's Folly @ 7th St Entry—On the Silent Treatment's new album, Suplex in 10!, singer Claire Luger is all snarl and attitude as this terrific garage-punk quartet’s takes on white supremacists, exurban moms, and Hulk Hogan with blunt aplomb.
BORRACHOZ, Xawaro, Fierro @ Terminal Bar
Socktopus, Drug League, Charlieboy @ 331 Club
Jack Klatt with Molly Dean @ Turf Club
Taylor's Version: A Swiftie Dance Party @ Turf Club
The Dead Century, White Line Darko, Holding Hemlock @ Underground Music Cafe
Winter Breeze Yacht Rock Party @ Uptown VFW
Mary Cutrufello’s 1983 Rock Opera “Pool of Fire” with Andrew Halling @ White Squirrel
The Gated Community with Anthony Kaczynski @ White Squirrel
Saturday, January 13
The High 48’s Bluegrass Brunch @ Aster Cafe
Turn Turn Turn with Laura Hugo @ Aster Cafe
Corey Medina and Brothers with Annie Humphrey @ Cedar Cultural Center
James Eugene Russell, Pretty Boy Thorson and the Cloudy Sky All Stars, Tim Schumann @ Cloudland
Aja Parham's 40th Birthday Bash @ Crooners
Maggie's Afterglow: Maurice Jacox and Rick Carlson @ Crooners
Forever 41 & Manual Transmission, The Record Club @ Driftwood
Kid Dakota and Chris Holm @ Dusty's
New Riverside Ramblers @ Eagles 34
Nectarous, Stone Ark, Renegade Rendezvous, and Agents of the Apocalypse @ Eagles 34
G. Love & Special Sauce with Jakobs Castle @ Fine Line
Wrestlepalooza with Dillinger Four @ First Avenue
Happy Birthday Janis @ Fitzgerald Theater
Some Shitty Cover Band @ Green Room
- Happy Apple @ Icehouse—See Friday's listings.
The Johnny Sincerely Orchestra @ KJ's Hideaway
Inatnas Orchestra @ KJ's Hideaway
Abelation x Shanghai Doom @ The Loft
The R Factor @ Minnesota Music Cafe
Anthony Ross Plays Dvořák’s Cello Concerto @ Orchestra Hall
Assad, Janáček and Smetana @ Ordway
Big Head Todd and the Monsters with Martin Zellar @ Palace Theatre
Lykoi Fel (Record Release), Flintlock and Loadie @ Palmer's
Lissie's Midwinter Residency @ The Parkway
808 & AUX: Hiphop & Dubstep @ ROK Music Lounge
Jack Knife & the Sharps @ Schooner Tavern
Sean Anonymous Birthday Show @ 7th St Entry
Speakeazie, Love Firer @ Terminal Bar
- Arcwelder (New Music Release) with Eleganza! @ Turf Club—Everybody loves a comeback, but the Twin Cities really love a comeback. So the news that brothers Rob and Bill Graber and drummer Scott Macdonald were releasing their first music in nearly a quarter-century even excited folks who weren’t around for Arcwelder’s first act. The noisily tuneful trio that began life in the ’80s as Tilt-a-Whirl, then made noise nationwide in the ’90s recording for Touch & Go Records, and released their last album in 1999, though they had still played out occasionally in the interim. They’ll release their new full-length, produced by J. Robbins of Jawbox, at the start of 2024, and two new tracks give us a sense of what’s in store: the yowling “Lafayette” and the harmony-buoyed “Take It Slow.” And they told Chris Riemenschneider they may release even more songs later in the year; maybe they’ll preview a few of those at the Turf. Arcwelder will play two sets tonight—one of the new material, and one of the oldies
Mik Cool, Amateur Hour, Serpents of Serenity @ 331 Club
Willow Creek Brothers, Poolboy, Blue Red Roses, and Gladden @ Turf Club
Surf Candy and Oister Boy @ Underground Music Cafe
Sunday, January 14
Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Nathan Griner with Matthew Probst @ Como Zoo Conservatory
Kevin Kling and Victor Zupanc @ Crooners
Phine Friends, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood
Twin Cities Country Dancers @ Eagles 34
Karaoke with Reina Starr @ Eagles 34
Ty Pow and The Holy North, Uncle Muskrat, Emma Jeanne @ Green Room
NITE CAP ~ A Capricorn Celebration Hosted by SOLE2DOTZ @ Hook and Ladder
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Icehouse
Bohemian Way Passport @ Icehouse
Barber, Golijov and Marsalis @ Orchestra Hall
Church of Cornbread @ Palmer's
Mystery House with Chris Hepola and The Real Chuck Norad @ Palmer's
- Radio K's Frostbite Residency @ 7th St Entry—Everyone’s favorite umm-ing DJs are taking over the Entry for two Sundays of local music to kick off the new year. This week concludes with Gramma, RiGBY, Mold, and Psylo. (And hey: We’ll take any chance to re-share last year’s excellent, extra-long Racket oral history on Radio K during its 30th anniversary.) Don’t get frostbite—do enjoy two nights of live music for the bargain basement price of 12 bucks.—Em Cassel
Jeff Ray & Paul Bergen @ White Squirrel
St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel
Monday, January 15
EB Marie and Friends @ Amsterdam
Tango Desperados Practilonga @ Eagles 34
World Music Monday @ Eagles 34
Auto-Tune Karaoke @ Mortimer’s
Watch Party: Movie and DJs @ Palmer's
Coax From Chuckanut, Seth Dockendorf, Slap Hazard @ Pilllar
JAMuary Residency with Buffalo Galaxy, Saltydog, and Dream Of The Wild @ 7th St Entry
The Cactus Blossoms with Steam Machine @ Turf Club
Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club
Enter the Void Third Monday: A Night of Sets Inspired by Justin Broadrick as JESU @ White Squirrel
