W♥M

Minneapolis: March 24 to March 27, 2017

Read More Daya Teenager Daya to open... she recently collaborated with The Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down” single. Tour dates: 02/06/16 San Francisco, CA Slim's 02/08/16 Portland, OR Hawthorne The …

Here are some concerts taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area from March 24 to March 27, 2017.

Read more Minneapolis Music Guide.

DAYA
at Fine Line Music Cafe
Friday 03/24/17, 7pm (Sold Out)
finelinemusic.com

Daya is excited to announce her “SSLP” (Sit Still Look Pretty) tour with support from two of her friends.

Frankie (stylized as FRANKIE) is from Oakland, California. Her album Dreamstate is out now on RCA Records.

Jess Kent is a singer/songwriter from Australia, by the way of England. She previously toured with Troye Sivan in the USA and Coldplay in Australia.

Jess Kent’s current EP My Name Is Jess Kent will be out on Capitol Records in November.

Tour Dates:

03/16 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
03/17 Vancouver, BC Rio Theatre
03/18 Seattle, WA Neumos
03/20 Salt Lake City, UT The Complex
03/22 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
03/24 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Café
03/25 Green Bay, WI Weidner Center for the Perf
03/26 Chicago, IL House of Blues

Read More Cory Branan Opening up the show was Mississippi-born Cory Branan. It was just Branan and his acoustic guitar as he sang song about America like ‘Nightmare in America’ and ‘Tall Green Grass’ .... Regina Spektor If you've been wondering what Regina Spektor has been up since her last album, Far. Well! She has a new album coming out May 29th, on Sire/Warner Brothers Records, called What We Saw from the Cheap Seats …

Other shows in the area:

03/24/17 The Walker Art Center and the Cedar proudly presents Grammy-nominated quintet Kneebody and Daedelus (aka Alfred Darlington) at the Cedar Cultural Center this Friday. This all ages, seated show... as usual if you’re a Walker member, you receive a discount.

03/24/17 Legendary hard rockers Styx will be playing their hits at Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Welch.

03/25/17 serpentwithfeet will be playing at the Icehouse this Saturday with Francis and the Lights. Typical Icehouse shows starts at 11:30pm, so this one will be a late-nighter. If it’s too late, fear not, serpentwithfeet will return to Minneapolis at the Cedar on May 24th with Perfume Genius.

03/25/17 Twenty six-year-old Dutch artist/producer San Holo will be headlining The Loft (inside the Skyway Theatre).

03/25/17 Mississippi-born Cory Branan will be at the Driftwood Char Bar on Saturday to promote his forthcoming record Adios (available April 7th). We’re not exactly sure where the Driftwood Bar is, but we looked it up - it’s in south Minneapolis on Nicollet and 44th Street. We previously saw Branan in Oct 2016 and noted, “Branan ended his set with ‘A Girl Named GO’, playing fast and quick at the end (going 55 in a 45, going 80 in a 45) and almost destroyed his guitar to a violent end.”

03/26/17 As previously mentioned, Regina Spektor will be gracing the Palace Theatre in St Paul.

03/27/17 Bon Jovi will be rocking out the Xcel Energy Center.

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

Palace Theatre open house, St. Paul MN (16 Dec 2016)

Read More Regina Spektor If you've been wondering what Regina Spektor has been up since her last album, Far. Well! She has a new album coming out May 29th, on Sire/Warner Brothers Records, called What We Saw from the Cheap Seats … Jeremy Messersmith They opened for local indie looker/Trekkie/Tweeter Jeremy Messersmith, who has a beard, a guitar, an Andy, and a fondness for Minneapolis ..… …

Downtown St. Paul will add another jewel to its cultural crown soon and what's old is new again as the Palace Theatre is soon to re-open, for the first time since 1984, on 7th Place, a pedestrian-only block in the heart of the city center.

To give the public an idea of their progress and to show off the 2,800-capacity concert venue the city purchased (for $325,000 with another $15mil+ put into renovations), a brief open house was scheduled. In addition to remarks by Mayor (and now gubernatorial candidate) Chris Coleman, and Q+A from some of the builders, a brief surprise set from singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith serenaded visitors sipping on free hot chocolate during their self-guided tours.

The building’s history dates back to 1916 as the New Palace Theatre, built on the site of the old St. Paul Public Library which burned down a couple years earlier. After transforming into a vaudeville house and several movie theater incarnations, it closed in 1977, opening only briefly again in 1984.

Booked and operated by a collaboration of First Avenue and Jam Productions, the venue expects to host around fifty events annually, and will be used during the day by nearby McNally Smith College of Music as a learning tool for students to know box office, staging, and venue operations.

With a capacity almost double that of First Avenue’s Mainroom (800 seated in balcony/2000 on GA floor), many of the amenities in the venue were modernized, including new bathrooms, HVAC system, roof, and terraced bar area with good sightlines from the floor.

Many of the historic aesthetics of the building have been preserved as an architectural decision, so random holes in the walls, unfinished ceilings, and partially gone cornices, will apparently be part of the finished design.  This already has opinions on both sides, both positive from the preservationists, and negative from those who don’t care for the exposed areas, but we’ll reserve final judgement until the venue is considered finished, and open for business.

The first concert announced is pianist Regina Spektor on March 26^th, with others to be announced soon and local station The Current has already sponsored short mini-sets by local artists (available on YouTube), and audio quality in the theater seems reasonable, with additional sound dampeners yet to be installed.

Another concert venue in the metro is always welcome (especially on the St. Paul side, which has been lacking) and it seems like a unique mix of old and new venue in which to experience a concert, so we’ll be looking forward to seeing a show soon at the old but new, Palace Theatre.

Palace Theatre, St. Paul (16 Dec 2016)

john (johnc@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

W♥M112: Splendour in the Grass Preview

W♥M112 (50 mins) Listening options: Archive.org: W♥M112

Happy holidays! It's also Sally's birthdate week, as she was kind enough to stop in to preview Splendour in the Grass, which takes place this July 29th to 31st. Doors at 9am, music starts at 11 and ends after midnight. Details at splendourinthegrass.com.

Before we get into the meat of the matter, we did wrap up NXNE, which you can read more details at nxne.weheartmusic.com and all my exploits and adventures and lessons learned.

I did touch a bit on Jo Williamson, not literally, but I kept running into her. Saw Washington played twice, saw loads of other bands too. Disappointed with Brian Wilson, but Men Without Hats, Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield saved the festival. Outro song is "Everybody Loves Me But You" by Hatfield.

Splendour in the Grass 2011 will be covered by the fine Festival Ladies, but Sally and I looked over Coldplay (it was all yellow!), Kanye West (he just shows up everywhere). A good bunch together of Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Gomez, and Regina Spektor in a block is pretty amazing. Also, Grouplove, who I saw a few months ago, they are on the up and up. Yelle, the French girl is pretty hot too. Of course, Foster the People are a really good band, love their songs!

Amazed that DJ Shadow is still around, he pretty much was the first guy that made a whole album of just entirely out of samples.

Song of the Podcast is: British Sea Power's "Georgie Ray" from their new album, Valhalla Dancehall.

BONUS
More Pulp than you can stand. Fitz & The Tantrums are playing the same night as Pulp, so Sally will have to miss out.

Britpop class of '95 article available on independent.co.uk spotlights on Justine Frischmann, Louise Wener, Debbie Smith, David Roundtree, and Tim Brown. Where are they now and what they are doing. Kind of glad to see Debbie Smith is still playing in several bands (I met her a long time ago in a bar and she asked about my t-shirt - it was my penpal's artwork of Morrissey).

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Archive of this show at archive.org. More information on mypodcast.com

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Splendour in the Grass - Line-up announced today!

SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS 2011 

“…you could barely wipe the smiles off our dials. Thank you Splendour for anticipating our every whim, and fulfilling them. A truly unforgettable weekend.” Groupie 

SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS - the annual, ephemeral city of sounds that exists solely for sweet music and good times will transform Woodfordia, near Woodford, south east Queensland from Friday 29 to Sunday 31 July. 

The eleventh SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS event will see 81 acts giving their splendiferous best across three stages.

COLDPLAY (only Australian show) * KANYE WEST (only Australian show) * JANE’S ADDICTION * THE HIVES * PULP * THE LIVING END * THE MARS VOLTA * REGINA SPEKTOR (only 2011 show…anywhere) * BLISS N ESO * PNAU * MOGWAI (only Australian show) * DJ SHADOW * GLASVEGAS * THE GRATES * DEVENDRA BANHART AND THE GROGS* MODEST MOUSE * THE MIDDLE EAST * KAISER CHIEFS * JAMES BLAKE * KELE * THE VINES * ELBOW * ESKIMO JOE * NOAH AND THE WHALE * CHILDREN COLLIDE * THIEVERY CORPORATION * CUT COPY * ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN * BLUEJUICE * THE KILLS * BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS (featuring THE RELATIVES) * ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI * FOSTER THE PEOPLE * THE PANICS * FRIENDLY FIRES * JEBEDIAH * THE VACCINES * GOMEZ * BOY AND BEAR * GOTYE * DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? * CLOUD CONTROL * MONA * SPARKADIA * WARPAINT * MUSCLES (Live) * FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS * THEJEZABELS * DRAPHT * BRITISH SEA POWER * TIM & JEAN * LEADER CHEETAH * GROUPLOVE * SEEKER LOVER KEEPER * YELLE * KIMBRA * PHRASE * OH MERCY * DANANANANAYKROYD * THE BLACK SEEDS * MARQUES TOLIVER * THE HOLIDAYS * GHOUL * LIAM FINN * THE HERD * YOUNG THE GIANT * GUINEAFOWL * HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY * JINJA SAFARI * WILD BEASTS * ILLY * CUT OFF YOUR HANDS * GARETH LIDDIARD * ALPINE * WORLD’S END PRESS * MOSMAN ALDER * LANIE LANE

 

Pretty exciting right?

So for further information (including ticket prices) head this way: http://splendourinthegrass.com

Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor - Blue Lips Regina Spektor Tour Dates 07/12/09 T in the Park Festival Scotland 07/14/09 Paradiso Amsterdam 07/15/09 Villa Arconati Milan 07/17/09 Latitude Festival UK 07/28/09 El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, CA 09/11/09 Myth St. Paul, MN 09/12/09 Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL 09/15/09 Michigan Theater Ann Arbor, MI 09/16/09 Sound Academy Toronto, ON 09/17/09 Metropolis Montreal, PQ 09/21/09 House of Blues Boston, MA 09/22/09 Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA 09/24/09 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA Discography [2001] 11:11 [2002] Songs [2004] Soviet Kitsch [2006] Begin to Hope [2006] Begin to Hope (Limited Edition) [2009] Far (available in standard and CD/DVD) See Also Julia Marcell http://weheartmus... I've been following Julia Marcell's progress on Sellaband since July of last year. That was when ...

 

Regina Spektor - Carbon Monoxide

Regina Spektor first came to my attention with her Soviet-navy-drinking cover artwork on Soviet Kitsch. I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising why this was the breakout album for her: she was after all signed to Warner Records and they had decided to re-release the album. So, by the time Begin to Hope came out, she was already a star among the singer/songwriter crowd.

Spektor's much anticipated album, Far, was released a few weeks ago (June 22^nd) on Sire Records. The release came in two editions: a standard album and a deluxe edition (you can find them at all major retailers, such as amazon and Best Buy). My review copy is just a standard version, but I will go ahead and recommend the deluxe version because you get two bonus tracks and a DVD for only a few dollars more. Fans should take a look at the Fan Edition, which comes with the CD and DVD, 6 panel soft pack, and a 14”x14” Limited Lithograph (The first 1000 will be hand numbered).

Far seems to me to be a lot happier and more comfortable and even knows where it's going, compared to Soviet Kitsch and Begin to Hope. This tells me a lot of things about where and how Spektor feels in her life at this moment. If you listen carefully to her songs, she gives little hints to her past. Her tendency towards making "instrument" sounds with her voice tells me she probably studies a capella (check out some examples like the snare drum with her voice on "Eet", ooof ooof sound on the foot-tapping "Folding Chair", and beep-bop and piano notes on "Dance Anthem of the 80's").

How about her religious views? She seems to have faith in the "Human of the Year" and the poignant "Laughing With", which states a variety of situations with "no one laughs at God when ... (insert scenario)", even though "God can be funny ... ha ha". It's sung in an ironic kind of way. Apparently, Spektor felt so strongly about the strength of this song that she made it her first single, preceding her Far album.

It was really hard for me to choose a favorite song to represent Far, as practically all the songs are very good. The lyrics are wonderful, the melodies are catchy, and Spektor's voice is irresistible. I have decided to go with "Blue Lips", which I am pretty sure the album is actually named after: "Blue, the color of our planet. From far, far away".

If you aren't already a fan, you should be. "Eet" is just an example of a great pop song, about the impossible notion of forgetting the words to your favorite song. The video gives it a dream-like quality:

07/12/2009 00:23:10♥ vu () ♥ reginaspektor.com ♥ myspace.com/reginaspektor ♥ warnerreprise.com