Grumpy's Northeast
A roster of raucous rockers and homegrown jams help the Premium go down at this Nordeast hotspot.
Jason Zabel
Where they haven’t been replaced by charmless, trend-crunching tune-bots, jukeboxes say a lot about a place—nay, enhance the place. In Jukeboxing, Decider spends some quarters and punches some buttons at Twin Cites bars and venues. This edition gets inside the musical mindset of Grumpy's Northeast.
The Box: This hanging juke is stuck near the front entrance like a stool-less latecomer on one of Grumpy’s popular trivia nights. Inside the machine you’ll find a whole album's worth of Butthole Surfers—probably there because of the name alone—as well as less bar-branded bands such as Bright Eyes and Joy Division. Visually, the juke looks like a hard rocker’s cubist trip, with black and white squares being sucked into a central vortex where the machine’s juicy musical innards are kept.Price: A half-dollar buys one shot of twang from Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose. A buck buys three helpings of Barefoot & Pregnant, or, for just five dollars you can create a Surly-sipping playlist of 18 tracks.
Drinkin’ Songs: Grumpy’s is a serious drinking destination no matter what's playing, and beer is definitely the favored intoxicant at this joint. According to bartender (and former Cows frontman) Shannon Selberg, these brew-bathing patrons play The Ramones, Iggy, and Helmet more than anything else. The Replacements’ collection Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? is the ideal disc to sip Grain Belt to—nothing makes these hometown legends sound better than local lager.
Nerd Jams: Those geeky (and old) enough to remember Twin Cities indie band Lifter Puller—precursor to The Hold Steady—will be pleased to find their final album, Fiestas + Fiascos. Fans of kitschy dork-funk can enjoy the oft-undressed Har Mar Superstar’s The Handler. (Note: Listening to this Owatonna native does not merit a public undressing, no matter how funky-dirty his sounds make you feel.)
Mixes: For starters, up in the top left of the photo above you can see a compilation Decider put together last year (under our old name, A.V. Club Twin Cities) called I'm In A Promising Local Band, featuring Minnesota-born groups like Cloud Cult and Awesome Snakes. This would have made Grumpy's our editor's favorite Northeast bar if it hadn't been already. Other crackling collections include the vaguely labeled Punk And New Wave: 1976-1979.
Locals: See Lifter Puller, Har Mar, and the aforementioned Onion comp. Also, Ouija Radio’s Oh No … Yes! Yes! brings clamoring female vocals and stilted album titles to the fore. These Minneapolitans sound like a throwback to the frizzy-haired frenzy of yesteryear, only harder and harsher.
If This Box Were A Beer: Undoubtedly, Grumpy’s Northeast is a crisp Grain Belt Premium. This could be because the bar is bedecked with a gaggle of Grain Belt signage, or it could be because the box, bar, and beer all seem held hostage in a throwback to decades past—and somehow, maybe magically, all are still very much relevant to the neighborhood. (But, really, it’s probably just because of all the signs.)
For Closing Time: Perhaps no album in this juke is more climactic than David Bowie’s Hunky Dory. Plus, it’s always fun to end the night with the crooning of a drunken semi-philosophic pondering: “Is there life on Maaaaaaaaars?
