Welcome to the pre-Thanksgiving edition of our weekly local music roundup. This is all good stuff you should hear, see, and know about.
Is Low’s Hey What the “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical” of 2021? Sure, Why Not?
If 25 years ago, someone would have told me or you that Low would be someday be nominated for a Grammy, I don’t know what we’d have said. Maybe something like “The Grammys? This is the ’90s, man, and we’re too cool to care about that corporate shit. Don’t you ever bother us while we’re ironically listening to Esquivel ever again.” And then we’d make a joke about Bob Dole talking about himself in the third-person. Different times.
Fortunately we are all less cool now and so we can just be happy that Low’s great 2021 album Hey What (does the title make anyone else think of the beginning of Madonna’s “True Blue”?) has been nominated for an engineering award. Congrats also to engineer BJ Burton (who has previously been nominated for his work with Bon Iver). As a longtime Low appreciator rather than fan, I was personally happy to embrace this new work fully, as I went into a little here.
Low’s competitors in the category are the Marías’s Cinema, Yebba’s Dawn, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga’s Love for Sale, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills’s Notes With Attachments. I’m guessing Bennett and Gaga will win because they’re famous? I don’t know, I’m lousy at Grammy predictions. (I just wanted to mention Gaga again as an excuse to my review of House of Gucci.) In conclusion, yes, giving awards to art is a goofy concept, but “money” is a pretty goofy concept too, and in both cases wouldn’t you rather have some than not?
Longshot and Lazerbeak Will Spread the Love on Friday
As always, Thanksgiving weekend will be just as stuffed with great live music as such famously stuffed things as a Thanksgiving turkey and a person who has just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner. Just look at those listings below for Friday and Saturday, willya? Something there will suit your taste. So while it feels odd to zero in on just one dish from such a table of goodies, like saying “I am ONLY eating the green bean casserole this year!” frequent collaborators Longshot & Lazerbeak deserve the attention. The Chicago-bred MC and the Doomtree producer will mark the early November release of their new album, Spread Love, at the Entry on Friday, joined by Jus Justice, Ms. Lakesha, Mo Bluntz, Kat Luna, and Taylor Ray. The album itself is a half-hour of soulful production, triumphant horns, and righteous rhyming that’s positive without being corny. Go celebrate.
The Bad Man Releases Good Video
I personally am too old to be a “90's Kid.” (I was a “90's Man,” I guess, which sounds kind of gross.) But I’m not too old to groove to the way raucous guitars and saxophones compete for space with Peter Memorich blurting “I am the kid selling drugs in the jungle gym” on the Bad Man’s new song, “90's Kid.” (I am old enough to know better than to use a phrase like “to groove to,” but let it stand!) The black and white video, directed by Patrick Pierson, shares the same rough and tumble energy as the song, with the band’s eyes concealed behind spooky white-lensed glasses. This is our first taste of a 2022 EP, Flying Couch. The Bad Man are (is?) also a great live act, and they’re at Mortimer’s tonight, taking part in the last night of Cole Diamond’s November residency at the Whittier hang.
Are These the Best New Bands?
First Avenue has announced the lineup for its annual Best New Bands show in January, which as always offers a bit of a scenester cheat-sheet. And they are good bands, even when they’re not actually bands. You’ve read interviews with the TikTok-jump-started Durry and the not-at-all-vile VIAL in Racket already. (We’re giving you the benefit of the doubt.) And I raved recently about papa mbye. The rest of the lineup consists of genre-straddling performer EVV, the folk-jazz-bossa-nova-pop group Honeybutter, the Liberian-American fusion artist Kokou Kah, and Duluth singer-songwriter Sarah Krueger’s new project Lanue. A good reason to leave your house in January.
And now, your weekly concert listings.
Wednesday, Nov. 24
Above & Beyond @ Armory
MN Songwriter Showcase hosted by Nick Hensley @ Aster Cafe
Louis Armstrong Night w/ Southside Aces @ Dakota
The Ike Reilly Assassination with Monica LaPlante and Mae Simpson @ First Avenue
Drinksgiving with ELnO and DJ Time Machine @ Hook and Ladder
Humbird with Freaque @ Icehouse
The Bad Man, Ian Valor, King Brown, and Cole Diamond @ Mortimer’s
Drunksgiving Brass Bash!! with The Brass Messengers and Brasszilla! @ Palmer’s
Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin? @ Part Wolf
Durry with Faith Boblett and theyself @ 7th St Entry
Nikki and the RueMates @ 331 Club
Graveyard Club with Sam Cassidy and EVV @ Turf Club
Nights with Tim @ White Squirrel
Thursday, Nov. 25
Thanksgiving with Jearlyn & Jevetta Steele @ Dakota
The Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs @ Palmer’s
Friday, Nov. 26
Grayscale with girlfriends, Cemetery Sun, and Young Culture @ Amsterdam
Tim Mahoney @ Aster Cafe
Nachito Herrera @ Dakota
Cult Vibes - Let's Celebrate | Album Listening Party & Dōjō Birthday @ Falling Life Brewing Company
Milky Chance @ Fillmore
Night Moves with Josh Sky and Free Music @ Fine Line
Gear Daddies with Miles Nielsen @ First Avenue
Dave Simonett with bnsn rmsy @ Fitzgerald Theater
Candlelight Soul: Aretha Franklin & the Sound Of the Sixties @ Grenada Theater
The Scarlet Goodbye (feat. Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel) with Butter Boys, Low Rats @ Hook and Ladder
FPA and Soubrette @ Icehouse
"Black Friday Blues" Featuring Detroit Don King and the Catfish Troy Blues Band @ Palmer’s
April Fools (album release) with Turn Turn Turn @ Parkway Theater
TV Moms, Warcake, Wish Wish, the Cold Casuals @ Part Wolf
Toussaint Morrison (album release) with Lewiee Blaze and Channah Roseann @ 331 Club
Longshot & Lazerbeak with Jus Justice, Ms. Lakesha, Mo Bluntz @ 7th St Entry
Who Are They? with Kinda Kinky @ Uptown VFW
Larry June @ Varsity
Repeat Bias with Battery Eyes and Trash Catties @ White Squirrel
Saturday, Nov. 27
Scalise @ Amsterdam
Mother Banjo, Ben Cook-Feltz & Anthony Ihrig @ Aster Cafe
Beverly Savarin & Adi Yeshaya Presents: Covers @ Dakota
The Cactus Blossoms with Under Violet @ First Avenue
Angelette Duo @ Grenada Theater
THANKS! with Smokin’ Joe, DJ Elswhere, Brandon Pulphus, Earth to Clark, MC Animosity @ Hook and Ladder
Sue Orfield and Mary Louise Knutson @ Icehouse
Trench Size Trio @ Icehouse
Diane & Forefeathers Rage Against the Machine @ Icehouse
Run Westy Run, the Sex Rays @ Mortimer’s
The Extraterrestrials, Little Lizard and Silver Jews Tribute Band @ Palmer’s
AirLands (EP release) with Courtney Hartman @ Parkway Theater
Alexander 23 with Max Leone @ 7th St Entry
Ricky Montgomery with Laufey @ 7th St Entry
North Innsbruck, Night Audit, Lucy In Disguise @ 331 Club
Tommy Stinson with Lydia Liza @ Turf Club
DecaDance @ Uptown VFW
Sudden Rush with Ka Lia Universe @ Varsity
Elour with Boots & Needles @ White Squirrel
Sunday, Nov. 28
RiGBY, Alien Book Club, and Haze Gazer @ Amsterdam
Swing Brunch with Patty and the Buttons @ Aster Cafe
Craig T. Olson @ Aster Cafe
Windham Hill’s Winter Solstice @ Dakota
Beach Bunny with miloe and Why Not @ Fine Line
Red Hot Django Peppers @ Icehouse
Erin Peisert & Dear Friends, Craig Hill @ Icehouse
Nightchurch @ Icehouse
Cornbread Harris’s Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s
Sapsuckers, Elour @ Palmer’s
Frozen Soul and Sanguisugabogg with Vomit Forth and Innoculation @ 7th St Entry
Monophonics with Rudy De Anda @ Turf Club
Heddwen, Bad Posture Club, Andy Ulseth @ White Squirrel
Monday, Nov. 29
Leo Kottke and Dave King @ Dakota
Twin Tribes with Wax Lead + Mayland (Dark Energy) @ Hook and Ladder
glass beach with Home Is Where, Floodwater Angel and Ready Ready @ 7th St Entry
The Roe Family Singers @ 331 Club
Matt Arthur and Friends @ 331 Club
Tuesday, Nov. 30
Leo Kottke and Dave King @ Dakota
The Aces with the Beaches @ Fine Line
Cody McKinney Residency @ Icehouse
November Conspiracy Series featuring Francis Emil Johnson, Pit Stop, Andrea Leonarnd, David von Schlegell @ 331 Club
Bela Fleck @ State Theatre
Preoccupations and Metz and Facs @ Turf Club
Trevor McSpadden & Mary Cutrufello @ White Squirrel
Wednesday, Dec. 1
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit @ Armory
MN Songwriter Showcase hosted by Nick Hensley @ Aster Cafe
Leo Kottke and Dave King @ Dakota
24kgoldn @ Fillmore
City and Colour with Lucie Silvas @ Fitzgerald Theater
Maria and the Coins, Leslie Vincent Band @ Icehouse
Sunset with Blue Ox and Trita @ 7th St Entry
“KFAI House Party Presents” Boots and Needles @ 331 Club
Radio 5 Watt Presents @ 331 Club
Ben Noble with Aldrich and St. Anthony Mann @ Turf Club
Thursday, Dec. 2
Polo G @ Armory
The Minneapolis Songwriter Rounds @ Aster Cafe
Delta Rae with Thunder Lily @ Fine Line
Cornbread & Friends Holiday Blues Show @ Hook and Ladder
Her Crooked Heart and Friends @ Icehouse
Tabah, Prints, Martin Dosh (DJ Set) @ Mortimer’s
The Front Porch Swingin’ Liquor Pigs @ Palmer’s
Mechanix with DJ Odi @ Part Wolf
SeeYouSpaceCowboy with Greyhaven, Vatican and Wristmeetrazor @ 7th St Entry
Total Gaze @ 331 Club
Dopapod @ Turf Club
