Seven who sizzle (plus one): A primer on First Ave's Best New Bands showcase
No Bird Sing
First Avenue's annual Best New Bands showcase is more than just a gathering of wet-behind-the-ears neophytes. Ranging widely across genres from hip-hop to indie-rock to not-quite-classifiable, the seven bands playing the Mainroom on Friday, Jan. 15 were hand-picked by First Ave staff and friends as the most promising new groups our town has to offer—and for years, the show has been a very reliable benchmark of local talent, not to mention one of the better evenings of music you'll see all winter. The 2009 crop is especially good—below, The A.V. Club gives you a quick runthrough.
Leisure Birds
Leisure Birds could have picked anybody to masquerade as at the Turf Club's New Year's Eve cover-band bash, but they went with Minnesota's own proto-punks, The Monks. It makes perfect sense: Jake Luck and Nick Ryan (formerly of Thunder In The Valley) took a giant leap forward through music history when they teamed up with Alex Achen (Hockey Night, Private Dancer) and Cory Carlson (Private Dancer, United Snakes), trading in old-timey swing tunes for underground '60s psych and garage rock. The reverb-soaked struts recall Link Wray, Hawkwind, and Can authentically enough to be called homage, but with sufficient originality to save them from permanent tribute-band status. (In the fan-shot video below is a short clip of Leisure Birds playing an informal basement show, preceded for some reason by a clip of John Barrowman in Shark Attack 3: Megalodon.)
MoonstoneMoonstone
Is Moonstone for real? Is it actually a Lunarian cult determined to better humanity whether we like it or not? Is it just a great Scientology spoof? Hard to say; the members aren't letting on. (For example, check out The A.V. Club's interview with the unflappable Reverend Micah Mackert.) Either way, Moonstone (or Moonstone Continuum, as it's known on Myspace, so as not to be confused with a French metal band) arrived bearing gifts: proggy, sexy, out-there tunes with talk-box vocals, occasionally interrupted by a healthy dose of the reverend's proselytizing. Enjoy the music but be wary of the Kool-Aid. (For a taste of the band's weird majesty, check out the song "Erotic Banquet" on its MySpace page.)
No Bird Sing
No Bird Sing may be a "new" group but it's already deeply entrenched in the local music community. Its self-titled debut album features cameos from master MC Eyedea and jazzy songbird Alicia Wiley, and the hip-hop trio has also found time to remix a Halloween, Alaska song. Special guests aside, No Bird Sing turn out some extraordinary tracks, with Robert Mulrennan's sullen guitar lines laying a foundation for Eric Blair's solemn rhymes about hard times and dark thoughts. Throw in some inventive electronic flourishes from Mulrennan and drummer Graham O'Brien and you've got hip-hop that stands out even in the rap-spoiled Twin Cities.
Peter Wolf CrierStacy SchwartzPeter Wolf Crier
Peter Wolf Crier began with one prolific, late-night, solo songwriting session by Peter Pisano (The Wars Of 1812), but things really took shape when drummer Brian Moen (Laarks) came in to flesh out Pisano's rudimentary foot-stomp percussion. Comparisons to Bon Iver abound, especially since Moen has collaborated with Justin Vernon in the past, but Peter Wolf Crier's debut album, Inter Be, finds its own lonely niche in the world of quiet singer-songwriters, perking up the melancholy night-time melodies with driving rhythms, rich layers of lo-fi instrumentation, and howled vocals to speed you through to sunrise.
Red PensRed Pens
For just two people, Red Pens create a pretty big sound—guitarist Howard Hamilton layers on thunderous sheets of My Bloody Valentine-style distortion, while drummer Laura Bennett keeps time like a rumbling earthquake, pounding and persistent. On their debut, Reasons, sheer volume might give Red Pens' music body, but underneath sits Hamilton's deft sense of melody and thoughtful lyrics, while Bennett's rhythms provide both support and a driving force of their own.
Slapping Purses
Slapping Purses doesn't make music, it makes noise—a squalling, glitchy, wave of electronic feedback and hugely distorted vocals that sound like a demon made out of radio waves. That is, it may not seem like music when it first hits your cranial cortex. But give it a minute to sink in, and Slapping Purses' insanely catchy, acidic take on dance music becomes body-shakingly clear. Jason Powers' one-man project—just him, a hand-built mic, and a table full of of electronics—operates in the same general aural territory as Brooklyn's Black Dice, but where those guys head off into the ambient and freeform, Slapping Purses dives headfirst into a raw, beat-heavy swamp of punked-up clanks and circuit-bending, as heard on his March 2009 debut, Diamonds Are Forever. He's already made inroads outside of the Twin Cities, wowing a crowd in New York when opening for Ghostland Observatory in December, as seen in the video below.
Twilight HoursThe Twilight Hours
If you've been paying any attention to the Twin Cities music scene at all, you already know the Twilight Hours. Matt Wilson and John Munson played together in beloved cult indie-pop combo Trip Shakespeare in the '80s and early '90s before going their own ways—Munson to fame in Semisonic with Wilson's brother and fellow Shakespearian Dan Wilson, and a solo career for Matt that began and pretty much ended with 1998's Burnt, White And Blue. The duo kept up a loose-knit, occasional collaboration going as The Flops, which mutated further into The Twilight Hours as it became clearer that their sweetly melodic pop songs deserved a more formal vehicle. Their debut album, Stereo Night, was a return to Wilson at the top of his songwriting game—sophisticated, quirky, and hummable. The Hours are rounded out live by guitarist Jacques Wait, drummer Steve Roehm (also of The New Standards and Electropolis), and Creative Electric Orchestra's Dave Salmela on keyboards.
Bonus: TheAfternoonDLight
These three St. Cloud teenagers are riding high on the strength of their parody video "Minnesota State Of Mind," which wittily tweaks Jay-Z's hit "Empire State Of Mind" with references to the State Fair, Brett Favre, and other purely 10,000 Lakesian icons. The video went viral in a big way at the tail end of last year, landing the trio on CNN and a last-minute invite to perform a short set at First Avenue. (What else do they have to play besides "Minnesota State Of Mind"? The A.V. Club takes a look at their other video offerings tomorrow.)
