A Real All-Ages Show
Should be a fun show at the Entry Sunday night, headlined by the three young south Minneapolis sibs in Loki’s Folly. Despite their youthful ages, the family trio (now consisting of eldest singer-guitarist Annie at 21, her 16-year-old singer-drummer sis Nissa, and 11-year-old baby brother Oskar on bass) are hardly newcomers—they played First Ave’s Best New Bands showcase in 2020.
On their new album, Sisu, the music is suitably ranty but never amateurish (there’s even guest guitar from Dave Pirner on “Appease the Girl”) and lyrics range from whimsical (“I’m on my way / To outer space / On a plastic plane“) to defiant (“What right do you have to look at me?”). Also performing will be La Crosse, Wisconsin, transplants Porcupine as well as Tragic Hands, who have an album coming out in April that, what I’ve heard of it, will be worth a listen as well.
As a special gift to you (and to the band), I abandoned a tortured “lowkey”/”Loki” pun I was workshopping for the headline here. Happy Friday.
Rolling out the Oldies for Record Store Day
Speaking of Dave Pirner, a friend sat behind him at the Riverview a few weeks back at a screening of The Banshees of Inshirin. Is that an interesting anecdote? Maybe not—we don’t even know if Pirner liked the movie. But maybe you’ll find this information a bit more useful: Soul Asylum is releasing a vinyl edition of its 1993 MTV Unplugged recording for Record Store Day, and then recreating that performance on April 20 at the State Theatre.
And they’re not the only storied Twin Cities band who’s archival music you'll be able to snatch up on April 22. Emerging from Terry Katzman’s extensive vaults is a Hüsker Dü two-album set called Tonite Longhorn,. recorded at that downtown venue in 1979 and 1980. Read all about it on the official RSD site.
Skrillex Is Local Music Now
The increasingly tasteful (not sure how I feel about that) Skrillex (I mean, he even cut his hair short—Sonny, no!) put out two albums last week. Quest for Fire and Don’t Get Too Close are both veritably littered with guest musicians, including big names like Missy Elliott and Justin Bieber. But are either of them Minnesotans? Not by a long shot! (Though remember when there was that rumor that Biebs was gonna buy a house on Lake Minnetonka?)
For the purposes of this column, we’re much more interested to learn that two former members of the St. Paul group Thestand4rd appear here. Bobby Raps sings on the lead track for both albums (titled “Leave Me Like This” and "Don't Leave Me Like This") while Corbin appears on “Bad for Me,” teamed oddly enough with Chief Keef.
As for the other two members of the group, Psymun continues to rack up producing, writing, and performing credits, most recently playing guitar on tracks by The Weeknd and The Kid Laroi that came out today. Allan Kingdom, meanwhile, seems very invested in Web3—peep his hexagonal Twitter avi. He’s not only involved with a crypto-based salon but he wrote a book about his grandfather using AI-generated art that he released as an NFT.
The only question, really, is whether only Skrillex’s new music is local, or whether we get to claim his past work as well.
More Good Stuff from February
As the shortest month of the year (and the longest month of winter) winds down, let’s glance back on some new music we might have missed. Most recent first: Today, Peter Miller’s chamber-folk group We Are the Willows released Deep Breaths, four tracks of lovely instrumentals that are a suitably meditative accompaniment for enduring late winter. Miller plays piano here (not his primary instrument) and Hilary James's cello and Adelyn Strei's clarinet adorn his keyboard work nicely.
Muja Messiah’s equally brief, equally rewarding five-track release Romantic Comedy dropped two weeks ago. Muja calls it “my observation of what it’s like dating in 2023 as a grown ass man,” and though he has his complaints (some of the girls out there too young to know The Low-End Theory!) it certainly seems to be going better for him than for some of us. The mood is light-hearted, and so are the beats, produced by White Hennessy, with prominent samples from Boz Scaggs and Richard Pryor. There are far worse ways of letting the ladies know you’re available.
And don't sleep on the new release from solo musician theyself (aka Pat Dougherty, aka Doc). 1500 is a hypnotic set named for the Dodge Ram 1500 van where its spare guitar-and-voice songs were recorded, “in south Minneapolis and spots off Highway 61.” All in all, not a bad local music haul for a month with just 28 days.
