every place i go...

vancouver.british columbia

song du jour: amateur love.say you’re mine

for this edition of twin city tuesday, we’re going to bend the rules a bit (because i can and why not, eh?). the band you see above is not from the twin cities, in fact, they aren’t even from minnesota. as a matter of fact, they aren’t even a band anymore and when they were a band, they were from across the border in nearby eau claire, wisconsin (close enough).

amateur love hasn’t existed for almost ten years. all members have moved on (you may recognize brad and phil cook of megafaun and brian moen of peter wolf crier). so why provide them with the platform of publicity that a twin city tuesdays feature provides (just go with it, please)? because they are the first of what is a pretty cool project from justin vernon (who else). j vern started up his own label, chigliak records, not to discover new talent, but rather to unearth tunes that were never fortunate enough to find a wider audience and then give those artists a re-release in hopes that their music finds new ears. while justin vernon has gone onto fame and fortune, ten years ago in eau claire, according to him, it was clear who the better songwriter was.

that was josh scott, frontman of amateur love.

it’s all aquatic, the only release from the band, first hit the streets of eau claire in 2003, and today hits itunes and record stores across the country. one of the best things about watching this video? you are witnessing the earliest and rawest moments of a music scene that would give birth to multiple artists who would end up touring the world, from one of the most unsuspecting places, a little town in western wisconsin. check it out.

duluth.minnesota

song du jour: POS.purexed

and a happy twin city tuesday to you. and you. and you.

quite the week for some of our favorite music making minnesotans last week, as not one, but two (count em!), hit the late-night talk show scene for their television debuts. showing the nation what those of us lucky enough to call the ‘sot home (and you faithful twin city tuesdays fans, of course) already knew: there is some excellent tunage being produced and performed up here in the land of ten-thousand lakes.

first up, trampled by turtles took their talents (alliteration-heavy post already, apologies) to the late show with david letterman thanks to a last minute cancelation by one, mr. tom waits. the following night saw relative newcomers, poliça, stopping by late night with jimmy fallon, again thanks to a tom waits cancelation. where was waits?! nonetheless, fun to see those guys on tv (bonus small screenage for you all: check out the a.v. club: undercover posted today that sees the aforementioned trampled by turtles taking on an arcade fire ditty quite wonderfully). 

however, the highlights of the week for me were away from the small screen (as it probably should be in ones life). in a week that might as well have been sponsored by this blog and it’s ever-popular twin city tuesdays feature (and technically was, i suppose, as yours truly did technically fund the proceedings), that saw five shows and ten acts (technically nine as you’ll see, but let’s make it an even ten), in three cities around the state over the course of eight days (think it’s safe to call that streak a personal best), all but one of which (that would be you, portlandy horse feathers) were local. prepare yourself for a list. ready, here we go. my week included: dessa, heiruspecs, haley bonar, poliça, P.O.S. (above), a loud heart, doomtree, peter wolf crier and haley bonar (again! for good measure and to cap it off). if the nation didn’t see what minnesota has to offer in the music realm last week, i most certainly did.

of the plethora of tunes i clearly could have selected from for your song du jour tonight (you’ve seen the list), i went with the above. it’s a couple of years old, but oh so good and oh so fantastic live. both the P.O.S. solo set and the doomtree collective set a couple of nights later closed with it, the chorus getting the crowd going like none other and it was probably the highlight of the week (both times, if i’m allowed a dual highlight, and i do believe i am).

also, it allows me to hit you with even more minnesota as mr. stefon alexander (aka P.O.S.) is joined by ben ivascu (of poliça and marijuana deathsquads) on the drums, ryan olson (mastermind behind gayngs, poliça and deathsquads) in the shades doing the olson groove like only olson can, and finally, isaac gale (also a deathsquad, not to mention a talented director and photographer). whew.

icing on the twin cities cake, my gayngs hoodie finally came in the mail at the end of the week. it’s already produced a ‘cool shirt’ from quite the attractive hipster lady, so, paying for itself already, pretty much.

this concludes your super-sized, most minnesota jam-packed twin city tuesday to date. enjoy the tunes, ya betcha.

chicago.illinois

song du jour: trampled by turtles.alone

moving back to the cities (minneapolis/st. paul for those uninitiated), i fully intended to resurrect your song du jour. really, i did. i’ve been back for almost two weeks now and maybe it will still happen. eventually. at some point. however, i missed quite the ‘gimme’ (in golf terms) on tuesday of this week. tuesdays, for those who remember, used to be (slash still is, if i managed to get my act together) reserved for local acts in a little feature called twin city tuesdays. this past tuesday saw the release of the new trampled by turtles album, stars and satellites. quite the tap-in (continuing on the golf theme) for an excuse to give you a twin city tuesday if there ever was one, but i lipped out (you all golf, right?) on that one.

therefore, let’s go ahead and remedy that now. on a friday. take a mulligan, if you will (tell me now if you don’t golf and i’ll stop it with these fun little golf metaphors). it was a pretty big week for the band from up interstate 35 way in duluth, wednesday being christened ‘trampled by turtles day’ in both minneapolis and duluth and the aforementioned highway that links the two cities officially taking on the name ‘trampled by turtles way’. that isn’t where the fun stopped, however, as their album release party at first avenue (sadly sold out before i even realized it was on sale. i know, i’m disappointed too) saw a mayoral stage dive from minneapolis mayor r.t. rybak. this is why i love these cities.

on a different note, if you were looking for some live music entertainment this weekend while also wishing you could be at the coachella festival out in california and unable to figure out how to make either of those wishes work out, i’ve got quite the hole-in-one for you (last one, promise), as youtube is broadcasting most of the festival live on this channel. i will say that this post took me approximately 6.7 times longer than it should have to write as i was pretending i was taking in the dawes set in person. enjoy and have a great weekend all.

eau claire.wisconsin

song du jour: megafaun.state/meant

my three months in chicago, currently on it’s dying days (go ahead and throw a frowny face here), has been seemingly jam-packed filled with concerts. the list includes, but is by no means limited to: caveman, peter wolf crier, s. carey (technically those were in madison, but i digress), kathleen edwards, cass mccombs, rumer, other lives, doomtree (twice! okay, an apple store performance is included in there. still counts), marijuana deathsquads, poliça, and colin hay. actually, that is a pretty comprehensive list, but it’s always fun to throw in the ‘by no means limited to’ when it just feels right (and technically i also managed to catch a couple shows during my brief stints back in the cities, so i’ll go ahead and call it accurate and maintain my air of mystery). still! a pretty impressive run if i do say so myself.

however, even with all that concert goodness, the past week may have taken the cake. last wednesday, i was lucky enough to catch megafaun at nearby schuba’s (actually most all of the shows were within in walking distance. point: chicago) one-man-party style. it was a fantastic show. just fantaaaastic. only bummer was the one-man-party bit and only seeing strangers when i turned to ask ‘isn’t this just fantastic?!’ 

knowing that the band was headed to the nearby north in the following days (milwaukee thursday, madison friday) and being the adventurous, fun-loving soul that i am (also, not having anything on the books for my friday evening), i decided i was going to head to madison to catch them again. because, why not, eh? my friend, jill, tagged along and i’ll allow her to recount that evening for you (she has visuals. and excitement levels rarely reached on your song du jour), but suffice it to say it was another great evening.

(bonus: the video i took of just one of the exciting parts of that night was shared over the weekend by true endeavors (a madison music blog) and then yesterday by the madison chapter of the a.v. club (pretend it’s a big deal). that’s right, my video is going viral, ladies and gentlemen (324 views as of right now, no telling how big this thing is going to get). you can all say you knew me when.)

the weekend was capped off with the temper trap back in chicago and the fun continues here during my last week in the windy city with fanfarlo tomorrow night and bowerbirds on thursday. squeezing all i can out of this city, dangit.

also: i initially wanted to post the video at the bottom of this article for your song du jour today. but alas, it would not let me share. check it out for a much different (and dare i say, better) version of the original that you see above. you may think of it as ‘the song du jour that wasn’t’. enjoy.

chicago.illinois