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Flashback: The Hive Dwellers at 92YTribeca, New York City (17 April 2009)

Read More Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson is many things: founder of K Records, twee patron saint, notorious baritone… and spastic dance machine? Yes, Calvin Johnson’s dance moves were front and center at 92YTribeca, where he unveiled his latest project, The Hive Dwellers. Fusing the stark ... Saturday Looks Good To Me Okay, I'll just get it out of the way, I like Saturday Looks Good To Me. Anyone that likes Belle & Sebastian and Saves the Day will probably like them by association. Saturday Looks Good To Me is back. Their new album, One Kiss Ends It All, just came out last Tuesday ...

New York’s Kate G (not to be confused with our Kate & Lara) went to see Calvin Johnson (of famed K Records) in his then-new projected called The Hive Dwellers.

We’re actually big fans of K Recs, so this was a great opportunity to talk about the label and its founder.

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Calvin Johnson is many things: founder of K Records, twee patron saint, notorious baritone… and spastic dance machine?

Yes, Calvin Johnson’s dance moves were front and center at 92YTribeca, where he unveiled his latest project, The Hive Dwellers. Fusing the stark catchiness of his influential band, Beat Happening, and the rock sensibility of his other influential band, The Halo Benders, The Hive Dwellers put on a hypnotizing set Friday night before a crowd of K Recs disciples and cardigan-clad pop fans. (Of which I admit to being both, but I refused to wear a cardigan to this gig. Too easy.)

Fred Thomas, of Saturday Looked Good to Me, opened as City Center: a one-man outfit with a microphone and a synthesizer. The mostly instrumental set was largely ignored by the audience, who seemed to be more concerned with the impending presence of Calvin and the tiny hope that he might play “Indian Summer,” the twee-equivalent to “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” (He did not.)

Half an hour later, Calvin appeared, wearing his familiar uniform of a too-tight, too-small shirt. As this was the Hive Dwellers debut performance, none of the songs had titles yet, but this was of little concern to audience, who were too enthralled by Calvin’s erratic dancing to notice.

Compared to Calvin’s past work, The Hive Dwellers are much more fleshed out, with a bass player, synthesizer/keyboard, guitars, and City Center Fred on drums. Not to mention the mouth organ, acoustic guitar, and maracas Calvin occasionally whipped out between dance moves. As always, Calvin’s deep baritone was impossible to ignore as he rhapsodized about sitting alone in movie theaters and building pinewood coffins – typical subject matter in his case. He continued to charm the audience with his sardonic stage banter, in which he compared Manhattan to the Vatican and extolled the virtues of midriff-bearing t-shirts.

The Hive Dwellers ended on an exceptionally high note, finally plugging in the electric guitar that had been sitting in the corner throughout the whole show. (Too bad it also drowned out most of the vocals.) Though Calvin’s lyrics were unintelligible, his enthusiasm was evident –of course—through his frantic dancing.

Surprisingly, they were not the last act of the night. That honor went to Ian Svenonius’ latest project, Chain and the Gang. Unfortunately I had a midnight birthday party to attend and had to opt out of seeing them. Despite this, I left happy. I had just witnessed Calvin Johnson do suggestive things to a pair of maracas. What more could I want?

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Flashback: Death Cab for Cutie at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St Paul (15 April 2009)

Setlist The Employment Pages Your Heart Is an Empty Room The New Year Crooked Teeth President of What? My Mirror Speaks No Sunlight Grapevine Fires Title Track I Will Possess Your Heart I Will Follow You Into the Dark Title and Registration Cath... A Movie Script Ending Long Division The Sound of Settling Bixby Canyon Bridge -- Encore -- Little Bribes Soul Meets Body Transatlanticism Read More Death Cab for Cutie Anyroad, before we get to Death Cab for Cutie, I have to explain that I've seen the band before in 2001 at the 7th Street Entry for $5. People who live in Minnesota know that the 7th Street is a tiny venue. …

I actually didn’t get a photo pass for this Death Cab for Cutie show at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium (for April 15, 2009), since I was primarily there to cover Cold War Kids. I also typically don’t cover shows in St Paul, so this was a learning experience for me.

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Blame rush hour traffic, but the drive to St Paul took me nearly an hour to get to the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. I got there a little late, but was very impressed at the sheer size of the venue. My floor ticket was just great, I never understood those people that pay for the balcony seated tickets, but there were plenty of people up there.

Ra Ra Riot started the show exactly at seven and went off the stage by 7:20pm. What a brief set list.

Cold War Kids came on around 8 and did about forty-five minutes of music. They did their big hit songs ("Hang Me Up To Dry", "Hospital Beds") early in their set, but failed to get the audience to move along. I suspect this has more to do with the youth crowd to be mad Death Cab fans, because when Cold War are in their elements (headlining with their fan base), they perform exceptionally well.

I am speaking from experience because I recently saw them headline and the audience loved and the energy they gave off, fed into Cold War Kids and they sweated and teared through their setlist. Unfortunately, not tonight. Tonight, mostly saw the band singing songs and heading right into the next without so much as pauses for applauses.

The last three songs, singer Nathan Willett snuck behind his piano and did three piano-type songs and basically away from center stage view.

Also, whoever was working the lights, they must've really had it in for Cold War Kids.  The lights was either white, yellow-ish, or none at all.  This is in huge contrast to Death Cab, who enjoyed a variety of reds, blues, and smoke machine...  The lighting really made a huge difference, if you ask me.

Anyroad, before we get to Death Cab for Cutie, I have to explain that I've seen the band before in 2001 at the 7th Street Entry for $5. People who live in Minnesota know that the 7th Street is a tiny venue. We reckon it can only hold about 200 people without choking itself. So that was then, a very nice and smokey and not to mention intimate setting to see Death Cab.

How far they've come! They are now doing 5,000 capacity sized venue. And although it didn't sell out, I would hazard at least 60% of tickets was sold, based on my asian math perception skills (that didn't even make sense, it's 1:30am as I'm writing this). Anyway, floor tickets are the cheapest - at a whopping $49-ish a ticket. The guy next to me said with all the fees involved (this is why I hate ticketmaster), he paid $98 for two tickets online!

For the fans, it was worth every penny... they sang (yes, they all sang along) to every song. HUGE reception to "I Will Possess Your Heart" with its 300-minute epic music intro. This is followed by everyone's favorite acoustic-only song, "I Will Follow You into the Dark", followed by "Cath...", followed by the ba-ba song of "The Sound of Settling". Ben Gibbard had the audience eating out of his hands.

For the encore, they did three songs, I'm sure one of them was brand new from their new EP and the other was "Transatlanticism".

It looks like they're continuing on their very successful, mostly sold-out tour. So even if you wanted to see them, you're probably already out of luck - but of course, if you're a huge fan, you probably have your tickets in advance.

Cold War Kids' latest album is called Loyalty to Loyalty from Downtown Music (get a copy at amazon) and the very popular Death Cab's latest is called Narrow Stairs from Atlantic Records. Not sure what their current relationship is with Barsuk, but Ra Ra Riot is on it and it's still one of my favorite record label :)

PS, no photos for this show, because of the strict anti-camera from the security people.

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Flashback: Paper Route at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11 April 2009)

Read More Paper Route The last time we saw Paper Route, they opened for Copeland in 2009 at a really crowded all-ages show, and said “Paper Route are also from Nashville, Tennessee ... Copeland Florida's Copeland started off their set badly... Singer Aaron Marsh started singing the first song again on their second song. He realized this right away and pulled the song to a halt and made it an ...

This was a co-headlining show of Paper Route and Copeland (he closed out the show) at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on April 11, 2009.

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Paper Route played with Copeland, This Providence, and Brooke Waggoner at Minneapolis' Varsity Theater last night. This is an all-ages show, which means it started early. Wow, like 5 o'clock early.

The turnout was really good, mostly underage kids.... so the three bartenders were really lonely. The young photographers were out in droves as well... capturing every movement made by Copeland. Seriously photographers, take it easy.

Anyway, of course I got there late, caught a bit of Nashville's Brooke Waggoner on stage with her women band of strings and cellos. Most of the songs toward the end was mostly Waggoner and her keyboard... I did end up downloading her free 2007 EP called Fresh Pair of Eyes if you sign up for her mailing list.

Seattle's This Providence (formerly known as Sunday Best) did their high energy rock set, I had a feeling I would like them when lead singer Dan Young did Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" song during their brief soundcheck. They did a lot of songs from their new 2009 album Who Are You Now?, such as: "Sure as Hell", "Letdown", "That Girl's a Trick", "Keeping on Without You".

Florida's Copeland started off their set badly (sorry I'm not familiar with the band enough to tell you what song they started, but it was two keyboard-driven songs). Singer Aaron Marsh started singing the first song again on their second song. He realized this right away and pulled the song to a halt and made it an inside joke about time travel and ABC's "Lost" or something. I think he was really embarrassed about it and claimed that he was "really drunk". (I think he was kidding though).

Like Waggoner, Paper Route are also from Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of dueling vocals between J.T. Daly (keyboards) and Andy Smith (guitars). Although this sounds cool, it was kind of hard to hear their vocals for this show - perhaps it was the overpowering guitars and drumming or something.

Although I'm complaining, listening to their latest EP Are We All Forgotten (you can hear the entire EP on their official website), they are sort of going for that distorted vocals-kind of thing.

Already hailed by Filter, Daytrotter, and Paste, as a band to watch out for, they certainly must be excited to launch their second album Absence on April 28^th.

I ran into Greg (I've been running into a lot of local bloggers lately - it's weird because I never recognize anyone), who seems very excited about Absence and complains that no one is talking about the album. Well if you pre-order now you get one downloadable song, "Carousel" and a 7-minute documentary tomorrow (April 13^th). Plus buttons.

Paper Route at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11 April 2009)

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Flashback: The Drones at 400 Bar, Minneapolis (09 April 2009)

Little Man Setlist Miss Some Everyone Not Quite So Close Your Eyes Soulful Undertow Seal Love of All Lifted Gold Tarots Love It Call My Name Light Years Read More The Drones As for Sleepy Sun, I The Drones are "an unconventional rock band", currently based out of Melbourne (originally from Perth). I used those quotes because I believe their current album, Havilah, fits more in the realm of psychedelic/space rock band with lots of guitar finger noodling and … Little Man Little Man is back with new music and video for “BLVD”, which you can see on YouTube. The single was recorded and mixed by producer John Fields (Soul Asylum, Jonas Brothers). .…

Australia’s The Drones headlined the 400 Bar in Minneapolis on April 9, 2009. The Perth band’s been around since 1997, and won numerous awards…. They don’t do a world tour regularly, so it was fairly exciting to finally catch the band at a small club/bar.

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Setlist

Opening up for The Drones is Little Man. I'm actually embarrassed to admit talking to singer Chris Perricelli before the show that I didn't know Little Man the warmup band. Andrew seems to know all about Little Man and filled me in about how there was a local television commercial that showed Little Man playing while some student explained how he got his degree in video editing (apparently the 'acting' in the commerical really stunk).

Anyway, Little Man played a pretty full set, which is a relief since I was so used to the 30 sets from SXSW. Sometime they would pause for applause and sometime each song leads directly into the next.

Halfway into the set, Perricelli picks up his acoustic guitar for two songs (I think "Seal Of Secrecy" and "Love Of All Time"), before going back to electric for the rest of the set. The acoustic was a nice treat, especially with the harmonica (which sort of made me think of Bob Dylan).

You can tell right away that Perricelli is an excellent guitarist with his left hand moving quickly up and down the neck of the guitar. It's no surprise why the City Pages called Little Man the Next Big Thing on their cover story for February 27^th, 2007. I did ask Perricelli the story behind this and he told me that they had sent someone over the house to interview and take some photographs. He honestly didn't know it was going to be a cover story, so he was a little shocked when he learned about it.

Anyway, I have their latest album Of Mind And Matter since early February, but haven't had a chance to give it a listen. (If you've ever seen my ridiculous pending review pile, you can understand why it takes me so long to get to things).

Listening to the album post-concert, I did recognize many of the songs on the album. This is evident on songs like "Everyone On The Floor", which is my personal favorite. Slower/sensitive songs like "Did You Now" was left off the setlist, probably for pacing.

"Tarots And Arrows" is catchy, although I felt was kind of repetitive with the lyrics at the end, but hearing this live, it made sense. The repetitive lyrics of "she's into tarots and arrows" suddenly comes to a halt, by the way.

Little Man

The majority of the album feels very 60s, early 70s to me. Some people cited that they sound like T.Rex, and I can see where they are coming with that. In some songs, I thought I hear Beatles influence ("Don't Pray To Fantasy") and even a bit of The Zombies (check out "Talisman" with that "ch-ch-ahh" sound). So if you like "classic rock", you need to check out "the next big thing" Little Man.

Clicking on the 'discography' images on the sidebar will take you to websites to buy the album. You can find out more about his record label at Eclectone Records.

PS, when I talked to Perricelli, he was generally really excited about being interviews by life-sized muppets. So I leave you with part one of the Buzz Show:

The Drones came a long way to be here at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I have previously mentioned that singer Gareth Liddiard had a "heavy, heavy" accent. I have to correct that by adding that I did not understand a word the man said.

Kidding aside, but it was seriously hard to understand the man. They were also surprisingly louder than I thought, lots of distortion and odd feedback (probably unintentional). Listening to their Havilah album and seeing them live are two very different experience. I have concluded that this is a LIVE band.

There was no set list, I think the song order were all given out by bassist Fiona Kitschin. They started out with "Nail It Down", followed by some song, and then "The Minotaur". Right after Minotaur was an amazing bass-y song "Six Ways To Sunday", from their first album Here Come the Lies (and also their very first EP). Clearly one of the band's favorite song to play live.

I also caught "She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For", from their third album, so basically their set is a mix-mash of new and old songs - making it for an effective playlist.

There were no encores, which didn't surprise me, as it was a work day and there was a moderate turnout for the show.

They have a few more US dates left, so be sure to catch them in Seattle and Portland if you can. Their latest album is called Havilah and it is available for purchase at ATP Recordings.

The Drones at 400 Bar, Minneapolis (09 April 2009)

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Flashback: Sleepy Sun at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (02 April 2009)

Sleepy Sun Setlist Marina New Age Desert God Sleepy Son Wild Machines White Dove Read More Sleepy Sun As for Sleepy Sun, I managed to catch the band in 2009, when they were touring in support of Embrace. The San Francisco band recently released their new 7" on Dine Alone Records…

After the cold and the snow, I managed to head out to see Sleepy Sun (previously known as Mania) play the 7th Street Entry on April 2, 2009. The actual show was headlined by local band First Communion Afterparty, who closed out the show.

With a 30-min opening slot, Sleepy Sun only played a few songs, as seen on their setlist.

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It's official: I'm now accepting live music assignments, now that it's not snowing.

First Communion Afterparty looks like a pack of gypsies doing spacerock for their hippy listeners, at least they tried to bring some 'sun' into Minnesota with their two opening acts: Daughters of the Sun and Sleepy Sun. It should be noted that Daughters of the Sun are also from Minneapolis and actually have no women, which makes it doubly ironic.

Setlist

Since I was there for San Francisco's Sleepy Sun, I did manage to listen to their album, Embrace to get an idea of what to expect. I think I prefer their slower songs, such as "Duet With The Northern Sky" and "Lord" - mostly for clearly hearing the vocals, but as expected, these don't make for good live performances (since it seems the key here is to make people rock out to their psychedelic space rock).

Surprisingly, they had a pretty short setlist (as did Daughters of the Sun with I think only four or five songs), but they seem to stretch out each song to about 6+ minutes, especially with the drone-like guitar and experimental effects usually reserved towards the end of each song. I particularly liked how "White Dove" and "New Age" ended on their live set.

If they're not singing (and sometime harmonica), Bret, with his tongue out, and Rachael thrashing her head in the picture pretty much sums up what the band is about: just having a great time.

They're heading to Fargo tomorrow (today), which I thought was still a flood disaster zone? They're also heading into Europe and Italy, so be sure to catch them if you're in the UK. Incidentally, the album won't be released in the UK until May 2009, presumably because they're landing in the UK just time time for the ATP Festival in early May. Details of the UK records be seen on ATP's website.

By the way, iTunes spotlighted the band as "Indie Spotlight Best of 2008" among not-so-indie Radiohead and Deerhunter, so they are in great company, and it would be interesting to see where their music takes them in the future.

Sleepy Sun at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (02 April 2009)

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How to upgrade your Asus ROG Strix G15

ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk Read More Asus So when I saw this ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk laptop for $899, I couldn’t pass it up. Both New Egg and Walmart are selling this same laptop for over $1,100… so getting the laptop sub-$1k is still a good price. ...

You can configure the Asus ROG Strix G15 to have 64GB RAM, 17-inch screen, and GeForce RTX 2070 Super… but the asking $2999 price was too much. Going in for sub-$1000 for the Electro Punk edition meant that some sacrifices had to be made… meaning a smaller screen, a less-powerful GPU, less storage, and RAM.

With the ROG Strix laptops, Asus made it really easy to open and access the storage and Ram, so upgrading your Ram and adding storage is a snap.

I decided to replace the Micro 8GB Ram that came with the laptop with two 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666Mhz Unbuffered SODIMM (for a total of 32GB). While it’s true that the installed Ram is clocked at a higher 3200mhz, in my tests, it shows a slower speed of 2900mhz (I believe you may have to manually overclock it in BIOS to get the maximum clock). The new Corsair DDR4 Ram showed a much faster read/write speed (23GB a second) than the Micron DDR4 Ram (11GB a second).

As for storage, I have added two 2TB NVME PCIe. The two SSD drives I used were Inland 1TB NVME PCIe and Western Digital 1TB Blue NVME PCIe. The WD drive is rated, and tested, faster (at 1.3MB a second) than the “genetic” Inland brand (at 1.1MB a second). It’s only by a hair, so I recommend saving some money and using the generic brand.

The new parts I added were:

Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 2666MHz CL18 Unbuffered SODIMM ($111)

Western Digital 1TB WD Blue NVME PCIe ($119)

Inland Professional 1TB NVME PCIe ($95)

For about $350, I was able to turn my Asus ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk into a respectable gaming laptop with enough storage (2.5TB) to store and carry around a lot of large triple A games.

Note: While some gamers might think 15 inches is too small, I think it is fine, especially because I want the lightness and portability of a laptop. In fact, I would’ve preferred a smaller screen. Since the screen can only handle 1080p, the 1650Ti GPU is perfectly fine for that screen. I was able to push 120 frames a second running Doom, and every game runs smoothly at 1080p (providing I use the power adapter).

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Flashback: Kaiser Chiefs at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (31 Mar 2009)

Setlist Spanish Metal Everyday I Love You Less and Less Everything Is Average Nowadays Na Na Na Na Naa Modern Way You Want History Ruby Never Miss a Beat Can't Say What I Mean Half the Truth Good Days Bad Days Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) I Predict a Riot -- Encore -- Like It Too Much The Angry Mob Oh My God Read More Kaiser Chiefs It had been a long seven years since their last appearance in Minneapolis (the band skipped us in 2012), but Leeds, UK band Kaiser Chiefs re-stormed the city and stage for an animated, back-to-glory performance in First Avenue’s … Razorlight Razorlight were pretty much exactly what I expected they would be. Sold out show. No disappoinments. Good old Johnny Borrell... I developed a negative opinion of him around the same time I developed a negative opinion …

Sally went to see a triple billing of Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Temper Trap… but unfortunately, for whatever reason, Temper Trap never showed up to the show. At $90 AUD, it sounds like a very expensive show.

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After not actually planning to attend this show, thinking $90 was a bit steep for a band that will probably tour Australia a few more times before they vanish off the face of the planet, I went. But honestly... the Kaiser Chiefs with Razorlight and the Temper Trap... of course it was going to be worth it.

I had only seen Razorlight a few weeks previous (click here for review), so no surprises really. Pretty much exactly the same show. Except the drummer seemed to have morphed into a different person (with brilliant facial expressions). On that topic, interestingly enough, the internet has provided me with two interesting pieces of information:
    1. Andy Burrows, Razorlight drummer, has recently quit the band; and
    2. Andy Burrows, Razorlight drummer, has a knitting addiction.

Hmm.... i wonder if these two things are related (or true, for that matter).

Anyway, Johnny was maniacally bouncing around, not a lot of talking... or any engagement of the crowd for that matter. To tell you the truth, it was slightly boring. Specifically, I'm talking about the long, self-indulgent rendition of In The City, which went on for about 7 hours (give or take a couple of hours). It's possible though, that it was because I'd seen it all before.

Overall, despite my short attention span, Razorlight do put on an excellent and entertaining performance.

Kaiser Chiefs

The band i was actually there to see, however, were the Kaiser Chiefs. These guys never disappoint and were true to form. It's simply beautiful, the way in which young (I say young, but secretly hope he's older than me) Ricky Wilson engages the crowd; gets everyone riled up. I thought I was sure to cop a fondle this time (after missing out last time when he "crowd surfed from the stage to the back bar at the Metro theatre) after he was carried him on their shoulders as far as the barrier in the middle of the lower floor of the Enmore and proceeded to "crowd surf" back, but alas... no.

Brilliant show, completely unpretentious. Never Miss A Beat, The Angry Mob, Good Days Bad Days, Everyday I love You Less and Less, Ruby..... all sing-a-long-able tunes. Ricky getting slowly more trollied as the night went on, culminating in dragging one of the shirtless yobs up on to the stage, only to be hoisted onto his shoulders. Gold. The only unfortunate thing about it was the borderline view of the guys front bits (and the not so borederline view of his arse).... oh and that the drum stick that was aimed at his arse crack by drummer, Nick Hodgson, missed it's target.

I don't know about you, or anyone else, but to me, The Kaiser Chiefs transport me out of Australia, back to England, specifically the Northern half of England. Laid back... with a pint and a sausage butty (*shudder*).... or specifically a seedy student bar in Preston.... but we don't need to go there!

So next time, when you think.... "deary me, $90 for a band", if it's the Kaiser Chiefs... say "Yes, please!".

For more info and other treats, pop long to their website

Hang on! What happened to Temper Trap? Ripped off!

See you later.

Sally
sally@weheartmusic.com

Kaiser Chiefs at Enmore Theatre, Sydney (31 Mar 2009)

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Flashback: Farewell Milwaukee at the Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (20 Mar 2009)

Read More Farewell Milwaukee After tour opener, LA-based singer LP, had to pull out due to a meniscus knee injury, locals Farewell Milwaukee ably filled in with a 30 min. set of pleasant Americana rock …

Farewell Milwaukee is not actually from Milwaukee, or are they from Montreal. As usual, Lara & Kate chase this real mystery, over at the Fine Line Music Café on March 20, 2009.

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I like to begin reviews with a clever anecdote to draw in my readers. It’s fun for everyone, but especially fun for me because I consistently amuse myself. When Farewell Milwaukee played the Fine Line, I knew singer Ben Lubeck looked really familiar; not in the sense that I had stalked him on Facebook or met him IRL (In Real Life) or even that I’d seen the band perform before (I had). The reason why he looked familiar is because he is Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. I kid you not, readers; Ben Lubeck is tall, lanky, shaggy-haired Shags. The resemblance is uncanny, although I sincerely hope that he doesn’t take offense by this comment (I don’t know why he would since Shaggy drove an amazing green van AND solved mind-boggling mysteries).

Farewell Milwaukee may not frequent haunted houses searching for ne’er-do-wells and secret treasure maps or whatever, but they do make sprawling roots rock, which is basically the same. The band was born “Montreal” about five years ago, released one album, briefly split to dwell and deliberate, reappearing in 2008 with a new name and a new direction. “Farewell Milwaukee” is homage to the boys’ Midwest loyalty (interestingly, I like to call Milwaukee the “Montreal of Wisconsin,” for its diversity of things to do and the fact that there are things to do). The band is comfortably settled in, going so far as to state that “while most bands are fleeing their homes for the coastal cities of New York and Los Angeles, [they embrace] the role that their Midwestern towns have played in shaping them artistically.” As artists, their music has a slight twang that could probably be attributed to that indefinable Midwestern panache. A friend of mine, who lives on the East Coast, is always quick to point out that Minnesota’s music scene is comprised of bands with a distinct, unifying sound; regardless of whether a musician labels himself as “indie rock” versus “Americana” there’s something, some common connector, that appeals to everyone.

Farewell Milwaukee has this something in spades. I’d say that their crowd-draw feature is beautiful, flawless harmonization. Seriously, these fellas know how to drop a jaw. There was a moment during the show when all five musicians took the mic, a capella style, and a sort of a collective hush grabbed the audience, as if everyone was unconsciously holding their breath (I’m 99% certain there was at least one person doing the eyes-closed-in-the-groove sway). This mass stimulation speaks highly of the band’s chemistry, not only on stage, but as technical artists. At the risk of sounding like an after school special “moral of the week,” I want to point out that even the casual music fan can tell when a band has a positive relationship—they’re either in sync or off balance; no amount of practice can mask ambivalence (obvious, right?).

It pleases me to emphasize that Shags and the gang sound every bit the handsome gentlemen that they are, even when lying to ladies (“Liar”). Dressed like average dudes, their tunes are accessible, with a comfortable, familiar base appeal (music like this is timeless; perhaps it’s called “Americana” because there will always be a place for rustic, dirty-pretty rock in American culture, East Coast naysayers be damned). I think that the climactic quality of “Liar” sticks the most, but “Make ‘Em Smile” is an equally strong track, from its stark opening to Lubeck’s wistful vocals. Lyrically, the songs don’t deviate much from love, heartbreak and life woes (the holy triptych of songwriting), but sincerity lends itself to unanimity—we can all relate to these themes—and the live presentation is what’s going to solidify the band’s talents.

Farewell Milwaukee is Ben Lubeck (vocals, guitar), Adam Lamoureux (vocals, Hammond, Wurlitzer, piano, Rhodes, mandolin), Aaron Markson (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Brad Fox (drums, percussion), and Kyle Magstadt (bass). The band has local shows this month, playing April 16 at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis. For more information on shows, or to stay updated on the release of their first full-length album, “Autumn Rest Easy,” visit their website.

Farewell Milwaukee at the Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (20 Mar 2009) photo by Kate

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Flashback: Eleni Mandell at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (27 Mar 2009)

Setlist My Twin Artificial Fire Little Foot Personal Tiny Waist Cracked Bigger Burn Front Door I Love Planet Earth It Wasn't the Time (It Was the Color) Needle and Thread Pauline Two Faces Read More Eleni Mandell In stark contrast, Eleni Mandell took the stage with nothing but a blue dress and her small guitar. The last time I saw Mandell at the Cedar, she had a full band. Do I prefer a full backing band? There are pros and cons. … Haley Bonar Since 2003 The Size of Planets, Haley Bonar has been the staple Minneapolis singer/songwriter for years, even when she moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2009! … Daniel Martin Moore Golden Age is the new album from Daniel Martin Moore. The Jim James* produced album will come out October 9th via Sofaburn Records. We last saw DMM at the Cedar Cultural Center …

The Eleni Mandell show at the Cedar Cultural Center on March 27, 2009, was the first post-SXSW show… so we were still trying to recover from the massive music festival. It didn’t help that Minneapolis was very cold and expecting a bad blizzard… it’s a very different environment from perfect weather Austin, Texas.

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It's a chilly night. Come on Minnesota, it's very late March, why am I still wearing a jacket? Even Eleni Mandell admitted that she hoped to survive her travel through the midwest due to a possible upcoming blizzard (tomorrow).

We'll get to Mandell later, first up was folkster Daniel Martin Moore with his acoustic guitar and collection of friends (including the world's quietest drums). Highlight from his set is his cover of "Smile" - originally composed by Charlie "The Tramp" Chaplin song, but made famous by Nat King Cole in the mid-50s. Moore's version features a piano, played by his brother, who apparently lives in Minnesota.

The other highlight was a secret appearance by Haley Bonar who showed up to sing backup. People may remember that I personally chose Bonar's song, "The Queen Of Everything", to represent a bunch of wonderful Minnesota bands and singers.

The thing about the Cedar Culture Center is that every time I go here, it seems the audience are all NPR members. Sometime there are young people, but not tonight. This is not a knock against the Cedar, it's just a warning for you to expect a pretty low-key, sit-down night. The benefit is that instead of a noisy bar atmosphere, the venue is perfect for actually listening to the band as they play. And every noise and note can be heard... So yeah, a wonderful place to hear the band.

Setlist

Eleni Mandell took the stage with her guitar and played two songs solo (which are actually not listed on the official set list), before being joined on stage by the rest of the band.

Half way into "Artificial Fire", Nigel had problems with his bass... which lead to about 10 minutes of awkwardness as the Cedar sound guy ran backstage to get another bass guitar. This led to Mandell talking about how they've been on the road since 7am from Chicago, Illinois.

Mandell remained talkative at certain songs, explaining how she tried to kiss this man, who pulled back and had no idea she was in love with him. She called the song "Tiny Waist", after something he had said to her.

They mostly stuck to new songs (because she loved them so much), with a few exceptions. I thought "Pauline" (from her 2000 album Thrill) sounded amazing towards the end.

It should also be noted that Jeremy Drake is a very excellent guitarist, with his wonderful guitar-playing and foot pedals and warped/spacey sounds.

Eleni Mandell at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (27 Mar 2009)

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Asus ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk Gaming Laptop

ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk ASUS - ROG Strix G15 15.6" Gaming Laptop The ROG Strix G15 Electro Punk embodies streamlined design, offering a formidable core experience for serious gaming and multitasking on Windows 10. Featuring up to the latest 10th Gen Intel Core CPU and a NVIDIA GeForce GPU, it offers high-FPS power that takes full advantage of up to a blazing fast display Game at Professional Speed: An ultrafast 144Hz refresh rate makes the flow of fast-paced action look impeccably smooth and reduces motion blur for precision target tracking. ROG Intelligent Cooling: ROG's Intelligent Cooling philosophy mixes the right features and system settings to ensure the best experience. Performance is boosted with cutting-edge enhancements like liquid metal compound on the CPU and a well-ventilated exterior that keeps noise levels lower than the last generation. Comprehensive Connectivity: Get blazing fast transfers at Gen 2 speeds via the USB 3.2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4, or connect an ROG G-SYNC monitor for silky smooth gaming. Three Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports are ready for your favorite gaming gear, while HDMI 2.0b allows you to enjoy content on a 4K monitor or TV at up to 60Hz. Reliable Wi-Fi: Ultrafast Intel Wi-Fi 6 with Gig+ (802.11ax) lets you game reliably at LAN speeds wherever compatible connections are available. Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) enables a peak interface bandwidth up to 2.4Gbps.* Windows 10 Home Edition 15.6" Full HD display 144Hz (1920 x 1080) 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10750H mobile processor (6-core) 8GB system memory 512GB Solid State Drive (PCI-e) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 TI (4GB GDDR6) Virtual Reality Ready Weighs 5.29 lbs. and measures 1" thin HDMI output Wireless/Wired connectivity (WiFi 6 - 802.11 ax) RGB backlit keyboard Headphone/microphone combo jack. Read More MicroSoft Anyway, when I saw that the new MicroSoft’s Surface Pro 7 (with keyboard cover) on sale for $600, I couldn’t pass it up. Currently their price is $700, but MicroSoft’s website is still showing $600. ...

I’ve been quietly looking for a gaming laptop for a while now. Let’s face it, as much as I like the Surface Pro 7, that machine is not capable of playing any modern games. I wasn’t looking to spend too much money, trying to keep it under $1,000, so when I saw this ROG Strix G15: Electro Punk laptop for $899, I couldn’t pass it up. Both New Egg and Walmart are selling this same laptop for over $1,100… so getting the laptop sub-$1k is still a good price.

For those that don’t know, this the Republic of Gamers Strix (ROG Strix) is a gaming laptop brand from ASUS. The G15 or G17 refers to the screen size, at 15 inch and 17 inch, respectively. Personally speaking, for portability, I prefer smaller screens, so I don’t mind the 15 inch, as it keeps the laptop lighter.

You can get the ROG Strix in a variety of colors, for example “Glacier Blue” or Black. This “Electro Punk” version (Black with Neon Pink trims) may actually be part of a bigger rollout of Electro Punk-related products… such as a Cherry Mechanical Keyboard, mouse, and headphones (and headphone stand?). Personally speaking, I probably won’t be buying any of those accessories, simply because I’m not a fan of the color scheme and I already own great products from Razer or Corsair, and they serve their purpose.

In order to keep costs down for the Electro Punk, there are some subpar or missing features. I’ll address some of these things, so you know what or what not to expect.

The laptop is all (or mostly) made out of plastic. It still looks good, but doesn’t have a “premium” look that some aluminum or metal laptops. The plastic looks durable to me, and I like the weird vents and cyberpunk look, so it looks fine to me.

The Electro Punk edition also has only 8GB Ram. The Strix G15 normally has 16GB, so I feel this is a stepdown. The good news is that you can always upgrade the RAM with one of their open Ram slot. I may eventually upgrade the RAM down the road, but for now, it’s not that important to me.

It also a lack of built-in webcam. This is a problem for game streamers, so if you’re one of those, you probably need to avoid this laptop. You can always buy an external USB webcam if you really need one. Most built-in webcam aren’t great anyway, it’s just a matter of convenience.

It doesn’t have a SD card reader, which really sucks… but again, you can always use an external USB dongle. Same goes for DVD/CD-Rom drive… if you need it, you’ll have to buy an external USB drive. That is not a problem for me, simply because I don’t want moving parts in a mobile device.

Keep in mind that not including those things above keeps the retail price to $999, so I think they made the right decision. If they offer a built-in SD Card Reader for $50 more, I would personally pay for the upgrade.

Let’s highlight some of the main features of the Electro Punk.

The best part about this laptop is that it has a 144Hz screen, which is unheard of for a sub-$1000 laptop. What that means is smoother gameplay. For example, it doesn’t matter if your game is outputting 120 frames per seconds if your screen can only show 60Hz (60 frames). You can only take advantage of the fast refresh screen natively on the laptop. If you output to a 4k monitor using the HDMI-out, it can only display 60Hz. I think 60 is fine.

We’re also getting an i7 with 6-core chip. Again, almost unheard of for a budget laptop. Most budget laptops or desktop uses an i5 chip (or i3). The last few computers I’ve had, I have used i5 and never thought it was lacking anything. The i5 chip is fast, so I feel i7 is just going to be better.

You also won’t find this in other laptops, but the 2020 edition of the ROG Strix comes with “Liquid Metal”, which was intended to keep the laptop cool. They use this technology on their high-end laptops, so I’m very happy to see it on their cheapest laptop as well.

I think a lot of people might scoff at the built-in 512GB SSD PCI Express, saying there’s not enough storage. You have to remember that you’re getting this in a budget gaming laptop, so it’s not a surprise that they are cutting corners on storage. The good news is that there are TWO NVME slots on the motherboard. This is amazing. Most modern desktop or laptops only offers one slot. I have already put in a 1TB NVME and plan on putting in another 1TB (for a total of 2.5TB of storage) soon.

That’s not all. We also get a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphic card (4GB GDDR6). It’s a mobile version, but it’s still very fast and can handle all my games. In addition, it’s powerful enough to fuel Virtual Reality headsets, like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Unfortunately, this is budget Graphic Card, so it’s not going to have the latest “Ray Tracing” technology that all the new GPU cards are touting.

What is funny is that one of the main features that Asus is promoting is that the Electro Punk laptop weighs 5.29 lbs. I feel this is very heavy, but compared to other gaming laptops, 5.29lbs is actually reasonable. The 1" thinness (when closed), is pretty compact for a gaming laptop.

We also get the latest WiFi6 (802.11ax). They could’ve kept it cheap and used an older (and more common) WiFi chip, so I appreciate the latest wireless technology. Unfortunately, my current router does not support the latest 802.11ax, but I like the idea that the laptop can take advantage of a faster WiFi… for future proofing.

You typically don’t see extra RGB light strips in a budget laptop, so what’s nice about the Electro Punk is that there are underlighting in sync with your keyboard RGB lights. It uses the ASUS’ Aura software to control the lights. For example, you can have the light display red when it hits 60 degree Celcius, as a visual indicator that the laptop is hot. There are also games that will take advantage of Aura, maybe flashing lights when you’re low in health or when it spots an enemy.

I do have some minor nitpicks on the laptop. I think the Neon Pink accents might actually discourage this for boys. I mean, why not go for Neon Green or Orange? I think any color would go great with the black. If you ignore the pink, and maybe think of this as a Cyberpunk design, it sort of make sense.

The other annoying thing is that venting fans are loud. They run all the time. I don’t think you can turn these off (even on “Silent Mode”). In a quiet room, you can definitely hear the laptop running.

It’s also expected, but I should reiterate, that you should not run games on this laptop on battery. Not only do games drain the battery incredibly fast (a 30-min session cut the battery by 50%), but games are choppy and doesn’t run very well. If you do light browsing and email, the laptop will probably run for less than three hours… so you’ll always want to bring the power adapter with you.

I definitely recommend the Electro Punk laptop, if you’re in the market for an all-in-one gaming PC solution. You can use it as a laptop, or you can always get an external monitor and workstation dock and treat the laptop as a desktop.

If money is no object to you, Asus advertised an Electro Punk with GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER version, but I’m assuming it will be a lot more expensive than $1,000. Overall, I’ve been very impressed with my Electro Punk and its capabilities.

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic