The first time I saw Wizards are Real perform was on the tiny stage in the now-defunct Eclipse Records space, and I distinctly remember my mind being very thoroughly blown. No band in the Twin Cities has a sound quite like this one. Melanie Bergstrom’s Jazzy Sax and Ted Held’s funk-inflected basslines might be familiar to fans of Morphine, but the addition of Brian O’Neil’s reverb-drenched Pedal Steel guitar and Tim Baumgart’s crisp fusion drumming put things into a whole ‘nother universe. In our interview the band talks about the difficulties of making instrumental music, their brand new Vinyl-only album, and the unimpeachable cool of the Saxaphone.

W: What were the origins of Wizards?
Brian: It sorta started as a side project, Me and Tim and Brian played in a different band back in the day and I started doing this tracking on a little 4-track machine with a drum machine. Melanie and I are married and she played Sax in high school, so I told her “you should get a tenor sax.” She picked one up and we started adding the tenor sax to some of those tracks and found out that we really liked the sound of the sax and the steel guitar together. From there we kind of picked up a drummer and a bass player that ended up leaving about six months later. Eventually we conned Tim and Ted into joining and we’ve been at it for a couple of years now.

W: How does your songwriting process work?
B: For a while Ted and I would meet up at the practice space and record stuff on a little field recorder and then bring it to the band to fill it out. But these days it’s kind of morphed a little bit and we usually just meet up, drink a few beers and see what comes out.
Ted: It kind of started that way too, and then for a while I think Brian and I decided we wanted to be kind of a writing duo for a little while, but now we’ve gone back to the practice space method.

W: What are your musical backgrounds like?
Melanie: I’m the only one that doesn’t have a history in the Twin Cities music scene, I played the alto saxaphone from grade school to freshman year of high school, then quit for like 12 years before picking it back up. So I obviously don’t have any real training, I didn’t exactly go to Juliard or anything.

W: You guys are part of the Electric Orange Music Collective, could you talk a little bit about what that is and how you got involved with that group of bands?
B: It started when Wizards are Real played a show with Dragons Power Up! at the Uptown Bar back when that was still open. Chris [Lead Vox for DPU!] and I really hit it off and we talked about how it’d be great if we got a bunch of bands together to support each other and get the word out. From there it just kind of picked up and I think we’re at about 10 bands now. What we’re really trying to do is just help one another spread the word of mouth and occasionally play some collective shows or release some free compilations with everyone on it.
T: I think it’s really what a lot of record labels are like these days: just a name, I mean there’s no financial backing or anything, all the bands are responsible for handling their own business, but somehow it seems to get people’s attention more if there’s a name for it.

W: Did you decide from the get-go that Wizards would be an instrumental group?
B: Not really, I personally fantasized a little bit about being in a super-serious dark instrumental band but it turned out to actually be really a blast and that’s really more of the focus of it. It’s kind of a challenge actually, when you don’t have a singer to play off of you’re sort of out there naked.
T: I remember when Brian first told us about his bedroom recordings with Mel and the drum machine and I hadn’t heard any of it yet and he told me it was going to be instrumental and I went “oh, that’s cute.” But then I heard it and thought “wow, that’s really cool.”
B: It’s definitely something we’ve thought about, but we’ve never exactly auditioned a vocalist or anything, and by this point it’s pretty safe to say we’re never going to.

W: How big of a role does improvisation play in your live shows?
T: There’s one or two songs where there’s a little room for improvisation, but for the most part the structures of the songs are pretty set.
M: For me our song “Flavor of Coal” is probably the one with the most improvisation.
T: The closest I can come to it from my record collection is a group like Television, where a lot of their stuff sounds improvised, but they always have specific points in their songs where it’s sort of a cue and the whole band knows that means it’s time to go into the next part. So there’s quite a lot of structure, more than I think a lot of hardcore jazz-ers have in their music.

W: You’re just about to release your self-titled debut album. What was the recording process like?
B: For this one we used a studio called Underwood Studios in Uptown with our friend Mark and it was…difficult. We actually started the album process at a different studio and ended up recording a whole album and scrapping it.
M: I think that some of it might have been us, we jumped the gun a bit and tried to record too early, when we weren’t really ready as a band yet.
B: We wanted to record all of the songs live-style in the studio and I think a lot of engineers don’t really know how to approach that. Eventually we went back and overdubbed a few steel guitar and sax tracks just to get a different sound.

W: You’re self-releasing this album on vinyl, that’s a pretty hefty task for a band. How has the battle been so far?
B: Oh, it’s been tough, but it’s incredibly rewarding and the best part about it is we don’t owe anything to anybody, it’s our record and we can do what we want with it.
T: We didn’t even have to put a UPC code on the back.
B: We really got to keep it real.
T: Yeah, we can choose to sell them or…not sell them [Laughs]

W: Why Vinyl?
T: Well, none of us have ever been in a band that’s been able to release a Vinyl LP until now and we’re all big music nerds and record collectors so it just seemed like a natural choice.
T: No one really seems to get all that excited about CDs anymore and it honestly does sound better too.
B: I still listen to CDs but I love the feel of vinyl and interacting with this huge piece of art. When I got the boxes from the pressing plant I was just losing my mind, trying to take photos for the Facebook page and my hands were shaking.

W: The pedal-steel is definitely a unique texture. When did you decide that it was the right sound for Wizards? And are the rumors about Brian having a pedal steel tattoo true?
B: Yes they are! I’ve been playing steel since around 2002 but in the early stages of Wizards are Real I was actually playing a regular six-string and the in just sort of occurred to me “Why am I not playing the instrument I play?”. It wasn’t really until we put the tenor sax on top the pedal steel that I decided that this was the sound I wanted.

W: Your sound is pretty tough to pin down. Would you say that Wizards is a rock group or a Jazz group at heart?
T: A rock band, [murmurs of agreement] we’ve definitely got the heart of a rock band.
M: Yeah, if you look at the other bands that we play with, it’s always rock groups.
T: We haven’t exactly had a lot of Jazz groups banging on our door to open for us.

W: How do you feel about the phrase “psychedelic” being used to describe your music?
T: I kind of like that, in fact I’ve called it “Psychedelic Fusion” because it makes people say “Well, what is that?” and I get to say “Looks like you’ll have to come check us out and find out!”

W: Some critics have compared Wizards to Post-Rock groups like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Is that something y’all would like to be associated with?
B: Well, I’d love to play a show with those guys.
T: I mean, I like Godspeed a lot but I think that’s a comparison that people who see an instrumental rock group kind of make automatically. I don’t think we’re that dark and our songs aren’t that long. We might be epic, but we’re epic in like, five minutes rather than like, ten.

W: Mark Wheat called out the saxaphone the other day on Musicheads [on 89.3 The Current] and claimed it was never cool and never will be cool. I’d like to get the official Wizards are Real response to that.
M: Well, I obviously disagree, I think sax is actually making a comeback right now, I mean, it’s all over than new Destroyer record and that’s a really cool album. I think it might have been uncool for a while but it’s definitely on it’s way back.
T: I can only speak for myself but I think he is just wrong.

W: It’s hard out there for a band without a singer to get a big hit, what kind of goals do you have for Wizards as far as radio play and record sales go?
B: If that’s how it’s gonna be then I think we’re fine with it, this band was never really about that to begin with. If people like it, that’s awesome, and if they play it on the radio, I know Radio K has, that’s awesome too but that’s not really the goal, the goal is to challenge ourselves musically and keep moving forward.

W: What’s next for Wizards after the album release?
B: Get right back in the studio and record another EP, we gotta give Vinyl release number two a try and see how we get through that one!

Still confused about what “Psychedelic Fusion” is? The band was awesome enough to let us pimp their spacey new epic “Falconry” to our lovely readers, so make sure to go thank them at their next show. The song starts out with a hypnotic bit of pedal steel Brian before Tim brings the track in with slow avalanche of tom-toms. Stay tuned for some killer bass grooves from Ted and see if Melanie’s droning sax doesn’t cast a spell over you like it did all of us at the Wake Offices. Enjoy!

Wizards Are Real - Cloud Culture Produced by The Sundance Kid

PJ Harvey, despite being overly associated with an assumed exclusive feminine identity in rock music, has never demonstrated the one track mind domineering opinions would like her to have.

With her new record, Let England Shake, she once again proves to be uncompromising, releasing the first political album (in her own words) of her career. The last time she had an album with a single theme was Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea, full of what some critics dismissed as simple songs about a common thing, love.

Just as dismissing Stories as rough adult contemporary is unjust, labeling Let England Shake as a generic political album or a predictable artistic exercise is unfair. It is a little off setting to hear her sing about war and death and what man hath wrought, but she makes political songwriting her own, never becoming overtly political while never simply dancing around a message. The line between humor and seriousness becomes obscured as she wields the inseparable duo of black comedy and brutal honesty to her advantage.

The lyrics are accompanied by what could be called pop music, assembled from scraps of orchestration, cryptic samples, and heavy strumming of a harp. This proves to be greater than the sum of its parts, apparent the moment the album begins.

Following Captain Beefheart’s death late last year, an interview with Harvey was conducted in which she said that Beefheart acted almost like her mentor, as he offered her feedback on her albums. She felt that he would have liked this newest effort, that it was more akin to his own work and his personal tastes.

That may sound arrogant at first, but on Let England Shake she has created a strange, uncompromising look at humanity. A work that in its eccentricities proves an artistic statement uncommon in today’s music scene. It’s clear that Polly Jean isn’t just going through the motions, which is something that Beefheart could very well approve of. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
By: Matt Rich
WC: 329

PJ Harvey, despite being overly associated with an assumed exclusive feminine identity in rock music, has never demonstrated the one track mind domineering opinions would like her to have.

With her new record, Let England Shake, she once again proves to be uncompromising, releasing the first political album (in her own words) of her career. The last time she had an album with a single theme was Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea, full of what some critics dismissed as simple songs about a common thing, love.

Just as dismissing Stories as rough adult contemporary is unjust, labeling Let England Shake as a generic political album or a predictable artistic exercise is unfair. It is a little off setting to hear her sing about war and death and what man hath wrought, but she makes political songwriting her own, never becoming overtly political while never simply dancing around a message. The line between humor and seriousness becomes obscured as she wields the inseparable duo of black comedy and brutal honesty to her advantage.

The lyrics are accompanied by what could be called pop music, assembled from scraps of orchestration, cryptic samples, and heavy strumming of a harp. This proves to be greater than the sum of its parts, apparent the moment the album begins.

Following Captain Beefheart’s death late last year, an interview with Harvey was conducted in which she said that Beefheart acted almost like her mentor, as he offered her feedback on her albums. She felt that he would have liked this newest effort, that it was more akin to his own work and his personal tastes.

That may sound arrogant at first, but on Let England Shake she has created a strange, uncompromising look at humanity. A work that in its eccentricities proves an artistic statement uncommon in today’s music scene. It’s clear that Polly Jean isn’t just going through the motions, which is something that Beefheart could very well approve of.

If you’re at all into the the post-hardcore scene then there is no way you haven’t heard of new band Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (or, simply, D.R.U.G.S.). They are a scene-supergroup made up of members from bands like Chiodos, Matchbook Romance, From First to Last, and Story of the Year—and this isn’t a side-project. Lead singer Craig Owens has made it clear that this band is the one they’ve been working towards their entire lives, and I couldn’t agree more.

While my former love of Chiodos and From First to Last may predispose me to like this band, they include all aspects of the alternative rock music scene. Each member brings a breadth of experience allowing their self-titled debut album to combine elements of screamo, pop-punk, classical, and hardcore. In the midst of this fusion, their sound has managed to stay unique and intense. They haven’t gone down the path of other supergroups who let their egos get in the way of creating good music.

“Stop Reading, Start Doing Pushups” is for the moshers. “Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm” is for the emos, or just the emotional. “My Swagger Has a First Name” is for those who miss the combination of good music and screaming. “I’m Here to Take the Sky” is for the pop lovers and could easily be the feel-good hit of summer 2011. Despite these highlights, I guarantee there will be songs you don’t like at first. Take this advice though: listen to them a few times before making any judgements. The first time I heard “Sex Life” I thought the lyrics were just plain bad. Now I turn it up to the maximum volume that I can get away with without driving my roommates crazy whenever it comes on. I can’t give you a specific reason why I had such a change of heart except that the catchiness of this album is out of control.

You can stream the entire album on their Facebook page if you want to take a listen before you buy it—but remember my advice.

Dum Dum Girls don’t have it as easy as you think they do. Sure, there seems to be a real demand for their sunny, garage-tinged take on the girl-group template lately. Sure, they’re something of an overnight sensation thanks to frontwoman Dee Dee’s status on the bleeding edge of hip. But with the spotlight firmly planted on them after 2010’s buzz-garnering debut I Will Be, Dum Dum Girls are put in the somewhat unfair position of proving their staying power as a real band, rather than just a flash-in-the-pan.

He Gets Me High seems to be a calculated statement of maturity from Dee Dee; although the EP is only four songs it sends a clear message: The Dum Dum’s aren’t interested in being pegged as “lo-fi” anymore. From the moment the opener “Wrong Feels Right” kicks in, you can tell there’s been a real shift: the rhythm section sounds tight and professional, and there’s plenty of subtle reverby guitar for ear candy. The lead single and title track is a great little pop tune, with a confident grinding bass-line that swaggers the song forward. It might have been fair to question whether Dee Dee could bring a strong vocal performance forward without the mask of fuzz that covered I Will Be, but she proves herself to be a capable singer with a clear voice garnished by some 1950’s flavor. The early take on Dee Dee as a female Joey Ramone seems inaccurate after this EP, a better comparison might be Debbie Harry or Chrissie Hynde: a punky attitude married to pop aspirations.

The first B-Side “Take Care of My Baby” isn’t quite as effective. While it seems like the group had the best of intentions for the dirgey waltz, it veered just a bit just too far into the schmaltzy side of the Wall of Sound. The record closes with a cover that I was honestly a bit apprehensive about: The Smiths “There is a Light that Never Goes Out”. The Dum Dums do an faithful interpretation of the tune though, with Dee Dee seeming to relish her chance to play with Johnny Marr’s excellent licks. Somewhere near the end of the cover one starts to miss the hurt of the original though, as the newer version never quite matches the emotional impact Morrisey and Co. brought to the table.

For such a young band, Dum Dum Girls have quite a consistent output, and while some of He Gets Me High may sound too glossy for its own good, it does seem like the group is headed for big things. Ultimately, it’s a charismatic sound that can win over even the grouchiest of naysayers, and I should know, because up until this release, I was one.

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
Caleigh Souhan

Polly Jean Harvey has never been the type of musician to play it safe.  By constantly recreating her sound with each album and transforming herself visually for her theatrical live shows, PJ has concreted herself into the hearts of her audience.  Her new single “Written on the Forehead,” from her forthcoming album Let England Shake, shows she still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve.  Now entering into her second decade of putting out albums, PJ is attempting to tap into the social conscious of the world by focusing her lyrics on warfare and shifts in political power. 

Instead of performing these lyrics in her raw, guttural timbre to showcase the weight of the current social situation, she starts off the single by painting the picture of a war-struck city and the plights of the citizens involved.  Sampling the classic reggae song “Blood and Fire” from Niney the Observer, she creates an interesting middle ground between bright and dreamy delivery and the stark imagery of people scrambling to exit a burning city.  Known for her thoughtful and melancholic songwriting, her new album promises to explore the timeless tragedies of war and what that means for the individuals involved. 

This album is going to cover new territory for PJ, straying away from her past topics of love and abusive relationships.  Let England Shake drops February 14 on Vagrant Records. 

The Decemberists – The King is Dead
Chase Mathey

The voice of Colin Meloy is not a voice that one forgets overnight. The front man of the gypsy-infused, indie-folk band, The Decemberists, almost always sounds as if he is on the verge of tears while confessing his lyrics of hardship and love. The rest of this five member band accent Colin’s voice with instruments and sounds which are just as unique. The Decemberists have been a highly regarded contributor to the indie music scene since their first EP release,  5 Songs, in 2001. Since then, they have released four more EPs and five full-length albums, including The Crane Wife and The Hazards of Love, which both broke the Billboard Top 40; The Hazards of Love reaching all the way to the number 14 spot.

Now in their tenth year, The Decemberists are releasing their sixth full-length album, The King is Dead, which released January 18. This highly anticipated album was recorded last spring in Pendarvis Farm, Portland, OR, where the PICKATHON Indie Roots music festival is held. Peter Buck, the guitarist of R.E.M. and one of Colin Meloy’s largest influences, will be featured on three of the tracks on the upcoming album, including the album’s single,  “Down by the Water.”

With sorrowful lyrics, Peter Buck on 12-string guitar and Appalachian singer

Gillan Welch on back-up vocals, “Down by the Water” has a great sound and feel that carries on to the rest of the album.

Nice Purse might be one of the younger bands in the Twin Cities music scene, but they’ve already managed to garner a healthy buzz. Singer/guitarist France Camp has a knack for penning catchy folk-pop with a whimsical twist (sample song title: “Ice Cream Handjob”) and the band brings a nice mix of humor and sincerity to the stage. After a stellar CD release show for their debut album Black Medal which featured some big local names like Red Pens and Gospel Gossip, Nice Purse members France Camp and Ian Nygaard talked to The Wake about their forthcoming EP, their dreams of playing at a pool, and true love through urination.

The Wake: Could You describe the origins of the band? What’s the story of Nice Purse?

France Camp: Nice Purse was started as an acoustic little bathroom project that I had going on, and then I showed Ian some of our songs and he was like “That’s Cool!” and we kept getting more members and more members. Then we met our female singer Elise. She met one of our friends while he was peeing outside and he must have had an aura over him or something because they fell in love and he eventually introduced her to us. They say the moment was awkward, but that’s like Elise’s life. We asked her to be in the band a little while later.

W: What’s your songwriting process like?

F: It usually starts with me writing the easiest 3 chord song ever, and then I show it to Ian who’s a much more skilled musician, and he turns it into more of a song.
Ian Nygaard: We ditch a lot of songs; I usually throw a lot of stuff out. I make France feel really bad, I gotta stop doing that…
F: He’s really cruel, I haven’t told him this, but sometimes I’ve actually cried. Recently too actually, even for songs on the new record.

W: You guys recently teamed up with So-TM records to release your debut album Black Medal. What was it like recording with a label?

F: So-TM is a pretty low-key label, they don’t have many artists at the moment. It’s mostly the owner Chris and Jeff’s band Ultra Chorus, Total Babe, and us. But it was still really different going from recording on a really crappy 8-track in my bathroom with my mom in half the songs, to going into a studio and having to play with a click track. I didn’t know what to do at all.
I: We walked into the studio and meet Jeff for the first time and I had to go straight into the booth without even having time to say hi to anyone.
F: Yeah he had to cover a bunch of my parts that I couldn’t do because I didn’t know how to play with a click, which I am proud to say I am now able to do.
I: Jeff is actually our drummer now though, so we kinda worked our way in. He records a lot of music for commercials in that studio, it’s his day job.
F: Yeah, you’d be surprised how many jingles that you know have been recorded there.
I: I got them to let me record one called (in a falsetto) “Girl You are so FUNKY”, it was really catchy, I gotta license it before someone takes it. (laughter)

W: What would you guys call the genre of music you play?

F: We were actually just talking about this on the way over here, I’d say Black Medal is a pretty solid definition of our sound: sort of a folky rock’n’roll type of thing, but I think our next record is going to be different. It’s got a little darker thing going.

W: You guys seem to have a lot of fun performing, what was the goofiest Nice Purse stage moment to date?

F: Ian used to drop his pants and jump into the drum set a lot. Our new drummer doesn’t really let us do it because he’s really afraid of it, but that used to be our big end thing, when we’d all jump into the drum set.
I: I like to spit on France a lot.
F: He spits on me a lot, and no one in the crowd can really see it, but I’ll look over at him and just get a mouthful of his spit. I got him back recently but he hated it because he’s a germaphobe, so he was like “You’ve been sick for two weeks! How dare you?”

W: Where did the idea of wearing facepaint onstage come from?

F: Early Nice Purse gigs were almost like a war to make it a good show. When it was just two acoustic guitars and off-key singing every show became a battle to keep people paying attention to us. Putting on the facepaint was sort of like our version of the Nez Perce tribe putting on warpaint before battle.
I: Actually, we’re just secretly fans of Insane Clown Posse Fans (laughter)

W: You guys have made a name for yourself playing shows in unconventional places such as Buffalo Exchange. Would you like to see more shows outside of the bar/club circuit?

F: We’re working get our own PA and some other equipment for the band because we’d really like to be able to perform anywhere. I wanna do a show at a hotel pool, with all the kids splashing around and that beautiful echo when no one’s expecting it. Just play one set and record it, or more likely play two songs before they kick us out.
I: To be honest, I just don’t like stages.
F: The first time we played the 7th Street Entry was kind of a disaster because we tried to play in front of the stage and use only one mic to capture all of our voices and after the first song the crowd told us they couldn’t hear us sing.
I: The venue was pretty full and we were pretty close to the crowd, but when we started playing everybody just backed way up. I guess that’s just how Minneapolis is though. No one likes to dance, really.

W: Your website offers “limited edition super-personalized manila envelopes” to anyone who’d care to have them mailed. How’d that start, and how many takers have you had so far?

I: It’s just a ploy to get you on the mailing list.
F: It was Ian’s idea, but I really like the idea of a people who discovered us on Myspace or whatever still having something personal that connects them with the band, even if they live far away.
I: It’s taking a while to put together the envelopes, but we still try to give our local fans something that they can take home from a show to make that personal connection. We probably give away more of our CDs than we sell.

W: Like your label-mates Total Babe, you guys managed to get a couple of songs on TV, featured in the CW show “Life Unexpected”. What are you gonna say to the haters crying “Sellout!”?

I: I’d tell them to try it! It’s pretty fun!
F: Yeah, So-TM Records has a lot of connections because of their commercial work, so we got these offers through them. Somebody calls them up looking for music to use and they call us and ask if we want our song in a TV show and then we say “show us the money.”
I: If you start out as sellouts there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

W: Speaking of TV and Total Babe, it sounds like y’all are working on another show for fox called M@d About. Mind telling us a bit about that?

F: We kinda got lured into it a bit, they told us the show was going to be a mix of Tim and Eric and Wondershowzen and we were all for that but if you’ve actually seen the show…
W: I haven’t.
I: Don’t. The humor’s pretty stale and all the actors that I met that were in the show were complete assholes to me.
F: We actually composed music for the show and did a bit of reading on the subject, apparently kids really like songs composed in the key of C and G.
I: And really high voices, so we’ve got that covered as well.
F: Kids eat that stuff alive. It was a fun experience though, and to be honest if they asked us back for a second season I’d probably do it again. Money talks and the effort involved in making the songs is almost nothing. I mean, these are songs we’d never put on a Nice Purse album or anything.

W: You’re a relatively young band, are you worried about a backlash from a local scene that seems to emphasize “paying your dues”?

I: Our fellow bands and fans have always been pretty nice, but we’ve had a few promoters that were assholes.
F: There’s definitely been conversations like “I see that not everyone in your band is over 21, we don’t think you can bring enough people to a bar”. Which is sort of true, a large percentage of our fans aren’t 21 yet. When we get 18 plus shows we text everyone in our phones saying “Hey! You can come see us finally!”.

W: Speaking of shows, I’ve been hearing rumors about a Nice Purse tour in the works.

F: We’re working a West Coast tour with Total Babe at the moment, and while it’s still unofficial I’m going to share my name for the tour because I think it’s the coolest thing ever: “Total Tits, Nice Boobs, Chest Coast Tour.” We love Minneapolis but we’d like to see how the West Coast digs us too.

W: In a perfect world, where would you like to see Nice Purse in a year?

I: I hope we’ll have a tour under our belt and I’m really excited about this new record.
F: Yeah, it’s going to be a lot different. Ian’s bought like, seven guitar pedals since Black Medal and they’re all on the new record. It won’t be so dead-on folk-pop, it’ll be a bit more instrumental.
I: We’re really just hoping to keep playing and recording. We’re shooting for the stars, but the stars are so far away!

Nice Purse has an upcoming show at Cause Soundbar in Uptown on January 29th with Dragons Power Up and you can find their album Black Medal on iTunes and in the local section at your favorite record store.

Conan O’Brien hasn’t been on air a whole lot these past few years. With the 2007-2008 Writer’s Strike, the period after Late Night/ before The Tonight Show, and his exodus from NBC it is safe to say that Conan has been off air more than he’s been on it. Plagued by ratings and a host, Jay Leno, who never wanted to leave in the first place, Conan was forced out by NBC and forced to take a settlement (but as getting screwed goes, you could do worse than settle for $32 million). After the settlement, Conan was contractually barred from television until September. Conan then set off on a 30-day comedy tour of the US and Canada titled The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour. Shows usually consisted of Conan playing songs or going through a monologue, with celebrity guests making appearances. The tour swung through Minneapolis this May. While on tour, it was announced that O’Brien had accepted a spot on a new late night show on TBS, which would later be titled Conan. But after the long wait Conan is finally back on air.

This is a pretty big deal for a lot of people our age. Growing up, Conan was ‘the’ late night show for me. Who else would celebrate Central Time Zone New Years? Yeah, Jay Leno was always occasionally funny and his Headlines bit was almost always a guaranteed laugh, but my heart was with Conan since I could stay up late enough to watch him. By the time I was in High School, print offs of Conan’s state quarter skit (“Alabama: Now with Dentists) began to show up on lockers throughout the school and impersonations of his 1864 baseball player were as common as quoting Ron Burgundy. So when Conan got promoted, only to be let go, it felt like Conan fans were let go also. But with Conan’s return, it seems like he’s in the right place: slightly inaccessible. When he was on Late Night, his time slot acted like a filter as viewers not in on the joke went to bed. Watching Conan then was always about wanting to watch him, not watching his show just because it was on. So with Conan on TBS, it seems like the natural spot for him: far enough so those that don’t get his humor don’t have to turn the channel after the news, but accessible enough for those willing enough to press the 7 button on their remote.

As far as comedic content went, Conan was more of the same. It did seem that Conan relied heavily upon skits that focused on his dismissal from NBC and his new home on basic cable. Jokes like “If this TBS thing doesn’t work out you can catch me on my show on VH1 called Coning for Love” or a bit where British comedian Ricky Gervais continually shot clips of congratulations and condolences for O’Brien “just in case”. To some extent it was a little tiresome to hear NBC jokes every night, especially since most of his jokes at the tail end of The Tonight Show dealt with the same thing. But I could hardly blame the guy for still dwelling on it. You could tell during his last few episodes at NBC that he was losing his dream job and that the whole ordeal had upset him greatly. It seems with time the NBC jokes will become less and less frequent, as newer, more pertinent news comes up.

Honestly, some of my favorite parts of the first week’s worth of Conan weren’t skits by O’Brien at all. In the first episode he showed a hilarious Taiwanese computer generated news reenactment (you may have seen one covering the Tiger Woods story) complete with bong smoking viewers and the ‘self pleasuring Bear’, who, unlike the real masturbating bear, actually spanked a monkey, leading this viewer to believe that something was lost in translation. Another bit where Conan donned a Nixon-like mask of himself labeled “ex-Talk Show Host” was also very funny. But some of the better skits made fun of TBS and the basic cable format. A skit where all-stars of basic cable (including Bruce Jenner, a Hoarder, and a few of Deadliest Catch’s Alaskan King Crabs) welcomed Conan to TBS was particularly funny. It does seem like the TBS jokes will be fertile comedic ground for some time to come and won’t thin out like the NBC jokes that have been told before if only for the reason that they’re just being told.

But it doesn’t seem like TBS will be such a bad place for Conan. A few of his guests (Tom Hanks, Jon Hamm, and Michael Cera) didn’t have anything upcoming to promote. No shows, no movies, no pet projects, they were just there. Second tier guests like the comedienne Charlyne Yi would not have appeared on The Tonight Show because the of the emphasis for higher ratings. A guest like Charlyne Yi likely wouldn’t have attracted the audiences major television would require, but with Conan on cable it seems that viewers are coming to him, regardless of whether or not his guests are mega stars. So it seems like Conan is simply putting on air the people he wants to put on air, and that’s a good thing. In his first episode, Conan jammed with his backup band (now sadly sans Max Weinberg) and rocker Jack White, with whom he performed with when he made his Nashville tour stop. The skit where Conan interviewed TBS’ standards and practices guy highlighted his comedic nature and his returned sense of comfort. He asked what was okay to say on basic cable (“Manaconda” and “Taking Grandma to Applebee’s” were deemed acceptable), showing he was happy being slightly raunchier than the Jay Leno crowd wanted when he took over last year. It just seems like O’Brien, while no longer at his dream job, is more comfortable in his new spot and that should make for good late night television again.

THE RADIO DEPT.
This Swedish trio has been around for 15 years making shoegazey pop songs. Have you heard of them? Likely not as American press has yet to give these guys much attention despite their overwhelming popularity in Europe. Their new album Clinging to a Scheme released earlier this year was unanimously praised, and the guys have already spawned a new EP as of this week as well as various singles, one of which blatantly critiques the Swedish election system. They are literate and sweet, and hell, their music was used in that film Marie-Antoinette, which if you totally hated, you had to admit the music was pretty great. My life has been made musically complete by the recent announcement that they are coming to the 7th St. Entry for a special show in February- something which never happens. Relegated to the East Coast, and primarily New York City, as if afraid no one will come out and see them, expect their show in Minneapolis to be sold out in an instant. It will probably be another 10 years before The Radio Dept. come back to this corner of the Midwest.

BRIAN ENO
Brian Eno is really well known for his extremely long proper name (Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno), but for those familiar with his work, the more impressive feat is that he has been making music for 40 years at this point and somehow manages to sound as fresh as ever. Having already produced a spectrum of artists as diverse as David Bowie to Coldplay and Slowdive to U2, he gets the shaft on his solo work often. This hopefully won’t be the case though with the release of new effort Small Craft On a Milk Sea which features a notable collaboration with Jon Hopkins, fresh off a date at the Southern Theater in Seven Corners with Tim Hecker (a blissed out and extremely loud ambient drone show which was very impressive). The album is divided into two main parts, half electronic tunes, and half rock-infused, all of which were improvised on the spot, putting all of us aspiring, yet slightly tone-deaf musicians to shame.

WEEKEND
When Slumberland Records releases a new album (most frequently without prior press warning), you know it is going to be good. How else did we find The Pains of Being Pure At Heart or Crystal Stilts? Well, now Weekend has hit our ears, a hazy garage rock effort on the verge of total punk. Everything here is indecipherable except for some driving compositional melodies which, however repetitive, manage to keep you in the loop and bobbing your head. With dates already supporting Japandroids and A Place To Bury Strangers plus prior releases on the venerable Mexican Summer label where Best Coast and Real Estate got their starts, it won’t be long before three guys are headlining shows.

If there was ever a time to become a fan of Cloud Cult, it would be now. Frontman and songwriter Craig Minowa and the rest of the group’s hard work is all coming to fruition. I say “group” instead of “band” because Cloud Cult defines itself through more than simply musical means. If you’ve ever been to one of their concerts you know what I mean, as it is impossible to experience one of their live shows without noticing the two painters onstage, channeling inspiration from that night onto canvas.

Thus, the group’s newest album, Light Chasers, was officially released in stores on September 14th and they have been touring ever since. If you have been unable to attend a live show, there is still the possibility of viewing some of these vibrant paintings. Scott West, one of the onstage painters, is currently exhibiting his work at the Tarnish & Gold gallery in Northeast Minneapolis under the title STILL. In true Cloud Cult fashion, West is unable to fit into the mold of a typical gallery show, saying that it will also be part performance art. He will be present during open hours at the gallery, painting even more work and rearranging the pieces that are already in place. If two artistic mediums weren’t enough, a special screening of the Cloud Cult documentary, created by West and John Paul Burgess, was held at Tarnish & Gold on Thursday, November 11th with both artists present.

West’s work within STILL is neither disappointing nor revolutionary, but it is very accessible and interesting. When speaking about his work, he has said that he takes characters and themes imagined while onstage during Cloud Cult sets and brings them into his studio to evolve. The natural world, a common theme within Minowa’s songs, is taken to another level through West’s seamless combination of noticeable characters with visually engaging abstraction. Two portraits that hang side-by-side are the obvious standouts. One titled, “I feel like the rain,” is of a man’s face (a self-portrait?), depicted in colors conveying a dark warmth and concern, everything below the nose melted, dissolved. Its partner, “And if my eyes were on my back,” is cold and melancholy, presented to the audience through the cool tones and tortured expression of a woman’s face, but it melts upwards instead. As this is an evolving show, by now there could be even more compelling pieces such as these.

Since I decided to peruse these works of art on the same night the Cloud Cult documentary, No One Said It Would Be Easy, was being screened, I had the chance to see West and John Paul Burgess, the directors, give an introduction. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a more appropriate introduction to anything in my entire life. John spoke of his first tour documenting the group and how it ended up being nothing like he expected. In particular, he acknowledged his association of rock tours with late-nights, non-stop partying, and heroin, but admitted, “It wasn’t like that at all…everyone went to bed at nine.” Then, in his conclusion, he shared an oddity about the production, “There was a strangely emotional push to finish at the end. I’m curious to see how it will hold up.” In a moment of unimaginably perfect timing, half of the tape holding the makeshift screen to the ceiling immediately peeled off, sending it crashing down behind the director. It was quickly repaired and stayed intact throughout the film, but it seemed like an ominous sign at the time.

Now, I’ve been a fan of Cloud Cult ever since my brother burned me a copy of The Meaning of 8, but, to put it nicely, their music videos have always been sub-par, especially for one of their most popular songs, “Chemicals Collide.” That video is a mix between a screensaver and Video Production 101 effects. Needless to say, I didn’t have high expectations for this film. I nonchalantly ate a bag of free popcorn, provided by the gallery owners, as I watched a typical testimonial of people talk about how they were affected by their music. This may have been a good opening had it not been used by every band who has ever made a promotional video.

I’ve heard you always get hit when you’re at your most vulnerable, and this proved that theory. The depth at which Burgess got into Minowa’s soul was as inspiring as it was heart-wrenching, exposing him both at his most proud and his most tortured. That’s what it was about mostly, Minowa and how he began and developed everything that is Cloud Cult, building this family around him. The format was an amalgamation, taking traditional elements of documentary (interviews, tour footage, narrated pictures) and mixing them with music video, science class lesson, and animation elements. This allowed for the odd, typical Cloud Cult flavor to make a unique appearance without contaminating the raw emotion.

As for Light Chasers, it is a concept album in which every song deliberately flows from one to another, creating a story line from “The Mission: Unexplainable Stories (Journey to the Light, Pt. 1)” all the way to “Arrival: There’s So Much Energy in Us.” Some may find this format intriguing, but many people will undoubtedly think something along the lines of, “So this means it’s some experimental music I have to listen to all together every time?” No, despite the many critics who have taken this stance, most of the songs on the album can stand alone. I would even say that some of them are the best that Cloud Cult has ever created, such as “Today We Give Ourselves to the Fire,” “Running with the Wolves,” and “There’s So Much Energy in Us.” I urge you, whether you first heard of Cloud Cult long ago or this is your first time, to at least look into some of these artistic endeavors: this album, documentary, or art show. I dare you to not feel a connection.

It’s 2010 people. Slug’s pushing 40 and most of Doomtree’s away on tour so much they’re starting to stretch the meaning of “local rap crew.” Heiruspecs are seemingly on that “we play shows when we feel like it” type of hiatus and the Twin Cities recently lost one of its strongest rappers to a tragic and untimely death. Is it any wonder there seems to be a wellspring of fresh faces in our hip-hop scene lately?

Duenday’s one of the young groups like Illuminous 3 that seems hungry to fill that void, showcasing a laid back, sorta old-school flow over lush backpack rap beats that they make in house. Rappers In2wishin and Initial MC crafted this self-titled debut while still in college (Intial’s a U of M boy) but the duo aren’t serving up any open-mic night rhymes here. Duenday have a charming, slightly goofy steez that’s firmly grounded in their Southside hippie-hoodrat lifestyle and write tracks that range from lightweight house-party bangers like “Matt’s Cool Raps” to environmental politics on “What’s Happening” featuring the venerable Unicus from Kanser. The two mc’s have a precocial talent for weaving their verses around one another’s and both seem to approach the mic with a smile and a mutual chemistry that belies their offstage friendship. In2 even proves he’s got a pipes by singing a few of the album’s hooks like on “Both Sides of the Spectrum”, the record’s for-your-sorrows cut.

“Bounce”, the track that introduced most of us to Duenday is a great entry point to the group: it’s a confident and skillful identity statement with a chill soul beat and great teamwork on the hook. In other words, it’s exactly the kind of hot single that these talented young up-and-comers need to make their mark on the local hip-hop scene.