OK, too much coolness in one place to be ignored. Avoid this at your peril.

This info all taken from their official press release:

The Bands

Phantom Tails – City Pages Best New Band of 2011, Phantom Tails formed in early 2009 as Orion Treon, Logan Kerkhof, Sergio Hernandez and Dave Dorman naturally came together out of their previous projects. They wield analog synthesizers, fuzz bass, and surf guitar while brandishing electronic drum beats sampled from vintage 808 machines, and sonar whale recordings.

Phantom Tails on Bandcamp
Phantom Tails on Myspace
Phantom Tails on Twitter

Fort Wilson Riot – the Minneapolis- based duo of Amy Hager and Jacob Mullis have no shortness of ambition, having put out two EPs and two full-length records in five years. Amy’s soprano floats over Jacob’s growl and yelp, but there is nothing easily classifiable about the Fort Wilson Riot sound. From the crashing guitars and keys, to the blasting uplift of trumpet and harmonica lines to the dancing thump of electronic drums, Fort Wilson Riot are an energy that grabs hold and takes you on a journey.

fortwilsonriot.com
Fort Wilson Riot on Twitter
Fort Wilson Riot on Facebook

The New EPs

The Armageddon Experience – Phantom Tails are releasing their followup to Songs of the Hunchback Whale called The Armageddon Experience. This new EP contains five new songs:

• Flotsam & Jetsam
• Dressed Wounds
• Onward & Awkward
• Young Rapture
• Glacial Drumlins

These songs don’t stray far from the gritty mix of heavy drum samples, spacey keyboards, and unexpectedly catchy hooks featured on their 2010 debut, Songs of the Hunchback Whale, but go further to establish their ‘deep space doom funk’ sound. The new songs draw from apocalyptic landscapes and natural disasters as depicted in  film and art and then mixed with rhythmically dynamic negative space and Latin polyrhythms. Recorded and mixed by Ross Nueske and mastered by Greg Reierson of Rare Form Mastering.

Generation Complex – Fort Wilson Riot’s new EP, Generation Complex is the band’s fourth record. Here’s the track list:

• For All The Little Things
• The River Song
• The Appendix Song
• Generation Complex Pt. 1 (Diamonds In Your Eyes)
• Generation Complex Pt. 2 (A Night Alone)
• Song for Sympathy

Live versions of “For All The Little Things” and the “Generation Complex” songs were released previously as part of Fort Wilson Riot’s Daytrotter session and all the tunes have been developed and honed through two years of touring. Generation Complex was recorded in borrowed houses and friends’ basements, including Phantom Tails’ home and was mastered by Rob Schlette.

One Vinyl To Pull Them Both Together

Take the two new EPs from these two great bands and put them back-to-back on vinyl, and you get one awesome double-EP. Phantom Tails The Armageddon Experience on one side, and Fort Wilson Riot’s Generation Complex on the other. This natural pairing offers up two sides of the Twin Cities’ best core-shaking, hard-dancing, guitars-and-electronic-drums-driven rock n’ roll in one incredible package.

The “Phantom Riot” Event (and how to get Free Beer!)

The split vinyl will be released at “Phantom Riot”, a double-headliner all-out party at the Triple Rock Social Club on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011. The first 24 fans to buy the vinyl at the show get a free Pabst Blue Ribbon!

WHERE: Triple Rock Social Club
WHEN: 9PM, Saturday, December 3, 2011
HOW MUCH: $5, 21+

“Phantom Riot” is sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon and 89.3 The Current.

The Second Chance

• Dec 5 @ High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI
• Dec 6 @ Borg Ward – Milwaukee, WI

Apple iCloud vs. Amazon Cloud Player vs. Google Music Beta

Online music storage is the future that replaces MP3 players, just like MP3 players replaced CD players, just like CD players replaced cassette players. The beauty of accessing your music where ever you go on whatever device you have available might just launch a renaissance of music appreciation. Or not. At the very least, it keeps your music backed up for you, and there’s some free options, so you should at least check them out.

PCMag.com has a great article describing the differences between Amazon, Apple and Google’s online music players.

I’m in on the Google Music Beta and I’ve been choking my internet connection with about 60GB of music that’s been uploading for the last two days. People complain about how long it takes for the initial upload, but seriously, 60GB is a preposterous amount of data. People are quick to dismiss data size because hard drive space is so cheap but seriously, it would take you MONTHS of listening for 24 hours a day just to play through all that music. And once its up on the cloud, it only needs to sync changes.

Too bad it took so long for online music storage to get popular – mp3tunes.com has been doing online music storage for YEARS. Sadly, their business model doesn’t work. 2GB is not enough space for all my music. And paying for more space is not reasonable. If I was going to pay for storage, I’d pay for generic online file storage like Dropbox or SugarSync that works for all my data files, docs and pictures, not just music.

Ah, music storage in the cloud. Ah, no DRM. Ah, no Apple or Itunes involved. Life is good. My nest step is to pick up a 4G phone so I have access to my entire music library almost anywhere. Can I get a Hell Yeah?

Pop Rock, Guitars Win, Drummers Lose at the Best New Bands of 2010

Every January, City Pages and Radio K showcase Minneapolis’ Best New Bands show at First Avenue. Even if you don’t get out much, you owe it to yourself to check this annual event, and see what the new up-and-comers have to offer.

This year, we were blessed with another year of hyper-talented musicians and an audience who isn’t afraid of the Siberian-cold Minnesota weather. I was pleased at a return to garage-pop-rock with electric guitars blazing. But I was disappointed at the trend of replacing drummers with fucking mac laptops. Anyway, here’s my overview of the currently best new noisemakers in Minneapolis.

Grant Cutler and the Gorgeous Lords

I’ll be honest, I had no idea who Grant Cutler was… and I still don’t. Seems he’s half of the electro-pop duo, Lookbook, and now he’s the front man for Grant Cutler and the Gorgeous Lords. Don’t know about the “Gorgeous Lords” part, but the rest of the name fits well.

Grant has a rich, deep voice which dominates this easy-listening experiment that needs a serious shot of… something. Passion mostly, but I’d add adrenaline, tequila and methamphetamines, because they make Coldplay sound like punk rock.

The music was brooding, but it didn’t have enough energy to be dark. Slow, but not enough energy to be sexy. Like a lethargic walk through a pool of waist-deep maple syrup. You couldn’t make love to this music, and you probably shouldn’t drive or operate heavy machinery while listening to it.

• Grant Cutler and the Gorgeous Lords on Facebook

BadNraD

In 1987, Jake Sullivan stepped through some kind of funky time-machine/blender hybrid set to Future/Frappe and ended up in Minneapolis 2010. I’m sorry for him because he missed out on the whole Grunge/Industrial Rock thing, but it’s been long enough that the 80′s are cool again, and I bet Jake doesn’t even notice, and I can’t think of a compelling reason for us to tell him.

BadNRad is really a one-man show, consisting of Jake and a fucking Mac laptop. The laptop holds together the percussion, synth and sound FX, while Jake plays along with guitar, keytar, keyboards and/or sings through a pitch-shifting vocoder. He’s joined onstage by insane friends dressed as pole dancers, Richard Simmons, Michael Jackson, and a giant slice of pizza.

BadNRad put on a great show. Jake Sullivan is hyper-talented in all the instruments he plays, but as far as Best New BANDS go, I have to write off BadNraD because of the laptop. Jeremy Messersmith and Peter Wolf Crier record and loop samples on the fly that blow away BadNraD’s ‘Push Play’ mentality. But BadNraD had plenty of moxie and performers to pick up the visual slack. All in all BadNraD is a wickedly fun retro-adventure/guilty pleasure – best enjoyed live.

• BadNraD Official Website
• BadNRad on Myspace
• BadNRad on Facebook
• BadNraD on Twitter

Phantom Tails

Back in July 2010, Phantom Tails released their debut CD, Sounds of the Hunchback Whale. Phantom Tails are fun, fun, fun and easy to listen to. They blend moody, Cure-ish dark pop with quirky, music-box melodies and put a bit of sugar-gloss on the whole thing to make it taste good.

In a recent interview with Chris Riemenschneider, they described their genre as Deep Space Doom Funk. I don’t think they’re kidding, either. Check out this killer video of “All Good Things“:

All Good Things – Music Video from Sam Thompson on Vimeo.

• Phantom Tails on Facebook
• Phantom Tails on Myspace

BNLX

Local legend Ed Ackerson (Polara, etc…) and Julie Ackerson  (Mood Swings etc..) joined forces in more ways than one by getting married and starting a band with the mysterious name BNLX. They both sing, while Ed plays his always awesome guitar and Julie plays bass. Everything else is done by a fucking Mac laptop. The music is straight-up, kick-ass, pop rock.

The highlight of the evening was their rocked-up cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” Absolutely Epic.

They would have been better with a real drummer, though.

Hastings 3000

I’ve met the one-man-band Hastings 3000 (also known as H3K,) and I was looking forward to seeing him perform live… and I’m still waiting. I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to Skype him in on a teleconference from Hawaii, or whether First Ave actually tested this questionable idea before they fired it up in front of a crowd, but it didn’t work. I think we saw him for about three seconds and heard his voice (and a ukulele)  for about five seconds, but that was it.

Plan B was to play a couple of his songs off the CD while people wearing gas masks filled the house with fog from industrial fog machines. The music was good. (Check out this cover of Ça plane pour moi ) The intentions were good. But the plan was poorly executed. Please don’t hold this against H3K, but I’ll have to reserve judgment until the next time he plays here in Minneapolis.

Whats Hot and Fuzzy and Pink all over?Pink Mink Rocks.

Pink Mink

Fact: Girls with Guitars are Hot.

Those mourning the loss of Ouija Radio can rejoice at the return of Christy Hunt and her new cohort of blazen, brazen rockers. Pink Mink blew the room away with hooks, looks, and weapons-grade guitar tones. And I’m not just saying that because Christy booked Jagged Spiral’s very first public performance.

Thanks to Arzu Gokcen for having an intervention with Christy and saving her (and us) from Christy’s near-retirement.

Oh yeah, and they have a real drummer.

• Pink Mink Official Website (Sign up for their mailing list and get two free song downloads)
• Pink Mink on Facebook
• Pink Mink on Twitter

The Goondas

The Goondas have worked hard to become local media darlings by following the formula of “bad boy” rock bands – most notably The Replacements. I can’t help but notice that reviewers have more to say about their on-stage antics than their music, so I was interested to both hear and see this band for myself.

I can verify the antics. The lead singer is completely drunk and belligerent onstage – spitting up, falling down and climbing up onto things even a sober person shouldn’t. His drunken slur obliterates any possibility at audience comprehension. The band has the energy of a Springer Spaniel on crack.

I’d love to rip on the Goondas for being nothing more than The-Replacements-Wanna-Bes, but I can’t, because the Goondas back up their image with some awesome, tight, catchy songs. They bring fun, punch-drunk-rock back to the fore. In a word: entertaining.

Hey, it worked for the Replacements.

Oh, and they had a real drummer.

Special Guest – The Jah-Hawks

The greatest crossover band I know of is called Dread Zeppelin. A Led Zeppelin cover band performing Reggae-style with Elvis as their lead singer. If the thought of such things pegs your excitement meter, you’d have been thrilled at the special guest of the evening: The Jah-hawks, a band that played Jayhawks songs, Dub-step style.

I’m not enough of a Jayhawks fan to recognize anything beyond the hits “Blue” and “Waiting for the Sun” which were wonderfully (re)done. But the others were lost to me – I would have mistaken it for original reggae music. So if you like Dub/Reggae, check these guys out. If you like the Jayhawks, then check these guys out. If you like music in general, these guys are really talented. Check out the video below. (Look for me and Xtna in the lower-right corner, front row.)

Real drummer – check.

Trending the Best New Bands

Xtna was disappointed at the lack of diversity, but I was thrilled that there were more fun, uppity, dance-rock bands than previous years “best new bands” shows. I’ll admit there were plenty of white folks with guitars, and no hip-hop, rap, folk or blues, but what bothered me more was the number of drummers replaced by a fucking mac laptop.

Should be interesting to see which way the trend swings next year…

Not sure if anyone told the Phantom Tails that there is no such thing as a Hunchback Whale, but then again, there’s no such thing as a Phantom Tail either.  (Then again, how would you know whether you had a phantom tail or not?)

You can decide for yourself on July 6, 2010 when their CD Sounds of the Hunchback Whale lands in stores.

Then, on Friday, 9 July 2010 the Phantom Tails take the stage at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis, MN for their CD Release Party.

If you can’t wait, just drop in on the Phantom Tails MySpace page and give a listen to some mid-fi, electronic-spiced, grungy-guitar goodness. There’s also some Phantom Tails stuff on youtube.

• Phantom Tails on MySpace
• Phantom Tails on Twitter

The Sound Unseen 2010 International Film and Music Festival

This year’s Sound Unseen International simply must be seen. Five days of film and music starting today, June 2nd and runs through the 6th.

Cool bands. Cool films. Cool films about cool band. Cool films about cool bands with cool band members hanging out in the lobby, scarfing all the free beer and apps.

I fear this much coolness in Minnesota in such a short period of time might cause it to snow in June. Good thing they’re holding it in Duluth.

A search for Sound Unseen online was frustrating. At first blush you might think the website soundunseen.com has been mostly abandoned. That’s until you discover the correct website is http://soundunseenduluth.com. They also have the requisite Facebook and Twitter pages. Or you can download the program and music schedules right here:

Sound Unseen 2010 Program

Sound Unseen 2010 Film and Music Schedule

World Premiere of Low Film Experience

A hypercool event going on at this year’s Sound Unseen is the world premiere screening of an experimental film by Philip Harder. It’s a kind of documentary about the local band Low…. wait a minute. It really isn’t a documentary… Well, they seem to sum it up best as a “Low Experience”:

Low Film by Phil Harder

Since Low’s debut in 1994 Philip Harder has been shooting cinematic 16mm films for the band: a boat on frozen Lake Superior, Baron Von Raschke with red balloons, a room collapsing in slow motion around the band… Several music videos and film shorts later all Harder’s raw footage of Low, 1994 to 2010 has been re-edited into a film with original on-camera sounds. Rarities, banned clips, and unfinished Low films were unearthed. This is not a compilation, not a documentary- but it definitely documents the Low experience. Perhaps Low’s version of a musical- of sorts… June 6th, closing night of Sound Unseen Duluth, NorShor Theater will once again be turned over to cinema for the “Low Movie”: a sneak preview in Low’s hometown! Maybe you can help us find a title for the film.
Just accept that it’s going to be amazing, and you might want to take the better part of next week off from work to contemplate it after you see experience it.

7:30PM Sunday, June 6th.

SACRED HEART MUSIC CENTER
201 West 4th Street
Duluth, MN 55806-2719
(218) 723-1895

Beyond Low – The Gala After-Party of Coolness (+4)

After the show, (around 9:30) make sure to check out the gala after-party:

Following the film, please join us at the Historic Greysolon Plaza – this time downstairs in their unique Moorish Room. Festival guests will be treated to a feast for the eyes courtesy of featured director/filmmaker Philip Harder’s film/art installation, in addition to complimentary appetizers from Black Woods Catering and free Schell’s beer and drink specials all evening. Entertainment for the evening comes from a band that has helped define the Twin Cities music scene, with 10 studio releases and over 16 years under their belt, we are more than proud to announce our special musical guests of the evening: The Honeydogs.

9:30PM Sunday, June 6th.

Greysolon Moorish Room
231 East Superior Street
Duluth, MN 55802-2165

Ticket Info

Ticket info for all events is here.

For the Low film/gala event, I’m told prices are $20for Film and Gala, $15 for Gala Only, and $10 for Film Only

A Warning To Those Pure Of Heart

The program doesn’t warn you, but be careful – Gay Witch Abortion’s music KILLS angels and incapacitates those pure of heart. You just might not be evil/wicked/cool enough to listen to them. If you think you are, then you probably aren’t.

Which are more important to you, songs or stories? Which would you rather have, a world without books, or a world without music? A recent Wired article about the Google books legal fiasco made me realize that society has already answered this question.

In a previous blog post I compared the current complaints of the publishing industry to the music industry’s cries from ten years earlier. In a nutshell, the publishing industry is experiencing the pains of virtualizing their product and coming up with a business model that integrates with internet technology. Lawyers, lawsuits, pirates, copyright, DRM… it’s the exact same paradigm shift the music industry had to make ten years ago. But the publishing industry is determined to retrace the steps of the music industry instead of learning from their mistakes.

I guess Sting said it best, “History will teach us nothing.”

Text vs Tunes

Consider this – computers and the internet have excelled at working with text right out of the box for almost 50 years. The ASCII format for text storage and transmission was created in 1963. E-mails were being sent in the early 70′s.

But music had to twist itself in a knot to adapt to computers and the internet. It had to struggle with the insane conversion from an analog to a digital format. Then add in compression and compatibility issues. The MP3 Format was created in 1991, and didn’t really catch on until internet speeds rose in the late 90′s and early 00′s.

So don’t you think it’s odd that Music ran into the problems involved with product virtualization and online business models ten years ago, but the publishing industry is having these problems now? Why didn’t the publishing industry hit this crossroads first?

The publishing industry should have been dealing with piracy, copyright and DRM issues WAY before the music industry, but it took text thirty years to make the jump from the physical page to the virtual mainstream, yet music took only ten.

Looks like the choice was made. Music is a hotter commodity than books.

Sorry books, but music wins.

There’s several reasons why I think tunes trumped tales on the internet.

E-book readers – The I-pod evolved naturally from the portable cassette and CD players, and clearly the I-pod is an improvement in music portabilty. There’s no similar device to serve as a precedent for books, which are already portable and wireless.

You could argue that every computer with a display  is an “e-book reader.” But I can’t think of anyone who really wants to read Moby Dick on their computer monitor. Even the best e-book readers on the market today can’t hold a candle to a real book made of paper. So it’s no surprise that music made the digital jump before books.

Short No attention span – We can listen to music while doing other things, and more importantly, music can make those other things more pleasurable. Think of all the people who are driving, snowboarding, or even working while music is playing. Life is better with a soundtrack.

Meanwhile, books take more of our attention away from the world. We need to turn pages, and keep our eyes locked on the page. You can’t drive, snowboard or work while reading. (or shouldn’t, anyway.)

Gen X/Y vs the Baby Boomers – Lets not overlook the core group of people whose lives are caught in the ‘net. It probably goes without saying that Gen X’ers who latched onto the internet quickly and Gen Y’ers who probably can’t imagine the world without it, spend more time on the internet than their parents. It’s also not hard to believe that this large subsection of the population using the internet listens to music more often than they read.

This would be a case of the industry following the market (albeit kicking and screaming, but eventually following.)

Drag race on the Information SuperHighway

Does this mean that music is more important to us than books? Or that the publishing industry has more resistance to change than the music industry? Regardless, neither industry was in a hurry to embrace the new tech. On the internet superhighway if the music industry drives a 1986 Ford Fiesta, then the publishing industry must be walking. And I haven’t even touched on the software or video industries. I leave that to you as a homework exercise.

As both a writer and a musician, it pains me to even think about picking one over the other. But if I had to pick between .mp3 files and .docs I’d choose music. If nothing else, we could convert all the books in the world to audio format, but there really isn’t a way to translate music into text.

What do you think? Drop your thoughts/comments below.

The Loudness War is over. We have a winnner!

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

If you live in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, there’s a handful of names you outta know, even if you aren’t involved with the local music scene. Mark Mallman is one of them.

Imagine you are at a great show, and the band reaches the crescendo at the end of the night; the penultimate build-up to the penultimate climax, and you swear the energy being conjured is so intense that even the walls of First Avenue couldn’t possibly contain it…

…That’s how Mark Mallman starts the show, and the energy goes up from there.

Make sure to check out his Wikipedia entry. to find out about the Marathon 26.2 Hour and 52.4 Hour SONGS he did. And if you ask me, he was robbed for not getting into the Guinness Book of World Records for the “Longest Pop Song”. Trust me though, Mark is able to take that 52.4 hours of energy and squish it all into a half hour show.

The shows are part musical live performance and part…something else. Ever seen someone ride their keyboard like a horse, twirling a microphone cord over his head like a lasso? Ever seen a keyboardist sneak up on his keyboard using a chair to fend off it’s attacks while he plugs it in? Ever see a keyboardist hold his keyboard out to the bass player so she can kick it to make some improv musical effects?

If you haven’t, then you haven’t seen Mark Mallman live. And you really should.

Musically, Mark Mallman mixes Pop Rocks with Orange Fanta and shakes the hell out of it. In other words, a sweet, sticky colorful mess that will haunt you for days. But check it out yourself: you can hear his latest work Between the Devil and Middle C on his website http://www.mallman.com/, (check out his blog while you’re there…) and you can buy it directly from the (Mall)man himself: http://www.tradebit.com/download.php/826791.

But enough of my caterwauling, you can here the Mallman ramble about himself right here:

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

There’s a piece missing. That seems to be the problem.

Anyone in the world who can find the “audio in” jack on their soundcard can record and edit music. Any fool with a video camera and i-movie can make a video. Anyone with a library card has access to a word processor, and the internet.

Welcome to 2008. No flying cars yet, but much of the known world can access the media created by anyone else in the world.

The part that is missing is in-between. Now people have access to all the media in the multiverse, but it seems like a lot of people don’t know what to listen to, what to watch, what to read…

…because they don’t know what they like…

…because they don’t know what other people are watching, reading and listening to.

Stupid, right? Well, there’s people who like songs because they like them, and there’s people who like songs because other people like them.

You might have heard the term “Pop” before, it’s actually short for “Popular”, like the cute, blonde girl in your school who is always picked for things: Homecoming Queen, Student Council, ‘Most Likely to Succeed’, and of course, ‘Most Popular’. There’s people who like her because they actually know her and think she is a likable person, and there’s people who like her because other people like her, because it is the popular and accepted opinion to like her, because it would make you an unpopular minority if you chose Not to like her.

TV shows? Movies? Music? Books? Religion? Politics? Same thing.

But there are some people who actually have some experience to base their opinions on. There are people who take perceptive observations before coming to a judgment, and there’s sheeple who need to check with everyone else before making their decision.

Which brings me back to my point: with all the media in the world a few mouse-clicks away, what do you listen to? What do you watch? What do you read? There used to be a ‘man’ who was more than happy to decide for you what was popular, in the form of your local papers, radio and TV stations: The Man. The Reference.

But that Reference is gone, and there are far too many sources scrambling to replace it. So do we go by Myspace friends or Facebook? Amazon or Rolling Stone?

There’s a piece missing. That seems to be the problem.

Or, maybe it isn’t a problem after all?

Art Is Resistance
-Zero

An impossibly amazing set of performances by the female-fronted bands attending the second Flight of the Valkyries show at Station-4.

It seems that every time there’s an event at Station 4, I get to the event late. The only exception was the Jagged Spiral show a couple months ago, which is a good thing, because I was in it. Here, I thought the event started at 6PM, but it actually started at 3PM, and so I managed to miss Aria Sharp, Something to Fear, Earthen and Dendura. My loss.

However, I did get to meet Nathan Block, also known as ‘The SwordLord’ and the promoter of much of the harder edged music that comes to town. It was an honor to meet him and shake his hand. There was enough free stuff handed out by the bands that the $20 cover was well worth the price. I only wish I had gotten there sooner. Station 4 is a great venue for gigs like this, the only thing better would have been an outdoor show with awesome weather! Maybe next year???

Here are the bands from FotV I did get to experience:

Visideon

Visideon played the First FotV in 2007, and were invited back for this year’s show. They’re a great band, definitely worth hearing, I especially liked the vocals. Many metal bands (especially female-fronted ones) push vocals down into dog-barking obscurity or up into piercingly high-pitched screams, both of these techniques are spices to me, best used sparingly, and Visideon understand that. They call their music, “Classical Chording meets Heavy Guitar”, add in some Angelic singing and synth-playing and you’ve got Visideon. Keep an eye on this band, and get out to see them while you can, they might not remain local for long!

Benedictum

The highlight of the evening, Benedictum (San Diego, CA) really stole the show for me. Their power and energy were set to ‘Uber’ and their lead singer, Victoria Freeman channelled and focused all of it. She really pulled the audience into the show, running into the crowd, even taking her wireless mic to the other side of Station 4 to make people watching from the “safe seats” feel like they were in the front row! And any band that can pull off a cover of Accept’s ‘Balls to the Wall’? Wow, these guys are really amazing!

Shadowside

South American Female Fronted Power Metal? Hell yeah! Shadowside was astonishing and beautiful onstage. Check out their myspace page to hear a band that pushes all the power, energy, and intensity of Iron Maiden into their music.

Unexpect

This year’s headliner was Unexpect, a seven-piece band from Montreal. Now lots of bands use the term ‘progressive’ in their band descriptions, and I’ve pretty much crossed that word out of my dictionary, since it’s been misused into meaninglessness. Everybody who writes a song with a bridge or a time-change in it calls themselves ‘progressive’. But I might have to pull that word back out, because Unexpect is really, truly avant-garde. The SwordLord had this to say about them:

“Think Cirque de Soleil goes black metal amidst an acid-trip version of The Dark Crystal”

I can’t think of a better description. The nine-string bass guitar was a trip! I have to admit, their music was a bit over the top for me, chaotic and hard to get ahold of, the same way I feel about ‘System of a Down’. Each member of the band is hyper-talented, but I think they are trying too hard to be different. For me, it was like listening to three bands at the same time, but check out their myspace and hear for yourself.

All in all a great festival, Minnesota is lucky to have an event like this here, and The SwordLord enjoys pointing out that it is the ONLY festival of this kind in the United States! Hopefully he will bring it back again, and it will grow in popularity.

Art Is Resistance
-Zero