Cake In 15

Pat O’Brien is a local freelance writer who has written about music, film and once, a house that Michael Graves designed. When he isn’t writing he is often seen at shows or at something or other around town. His first published work was a CD review of Imogen Heap’s ‘I Megaphone’ for his college newspaper. He disliked it then, but has since changed his stance. He was listening to Korn a lot back then you’ll have to excuse him.

Pat will be writing many of the CD reviews we’ll be adding to our content, among other ramblings.  He can be reached at PatOBrien@CakeIn15.com We’re excited to have POB as part of our team!  Woot!

So yeah, there’s a lot of freaking out about First Avenue painting over (temporarily!) the stars on the outside of the building.  The venue is moving from 530ish stars to closer to 400.  You can even go to their website here and vote for some possible new stars to be added to the wall.

With everyone freaking out, we thought we’d see who should go – hell, I haven’t even heard of some of these bands.  Since the stars were added 10 years ago, shouldn’t it be all about who stands the test of time?  Who’s still awesome & rockin (even if we may not agree on if it’s good or bad)?

Well, here’s a debatable list of who we think should get the heave-ho.  You’ll have to check out the entire list over at the Onion’s AV Club Twin Cities to see if you agree.

ADDA – is this a band?  Attention Deficit Disorder Association?  What?
Alan Freed
Alex Jarvis
Alexander O’Neil
Babylon Pink
Back - Beck, maybe?  That’d make sense to me.
Big Black
Big Head Todd & The Monsters – meh. I liked that one song in the mid-90s, but what have you done for me lately Big Head Todd?
Bionic
Bis
Biz Markie - This is admittedly a tough one, but after that commercial for Radio Shack…
Black Eyed Peas – meh.
Bottom - Some metal band. Which is cool. But do they warrant a star?
Cee Bee
Chi Chi LaRue – Where’s the love for RuPaul, hmmmm?
Chris Bliss - World’s Most Famous Juggler. If it was the World’s Most Famous JuggaLO.. maybe.
Cornelius – Big in 1991…. not so much since.
Corrosion Of Conformity – Metal band. Not playing together… or maybe are sort of according to their website.
Dj Apollo, DJ Echo, DJ ESP,  DJ Jennifer, DJ Mia, DJ S. Supreme, DJ Smitty – Now, I’m admittedly not good at the DJ thing, so more than likely some of these deserve to be here.  Some prolly don’t though.  Best 4 out of 7?
DMX - I can think of other rappers who deserve this wall more. Doomtree, anyone?
Dragnet -The first thing that comes up on Google is the theme music for the TV show, not this band.
Drive Like Jehu
Drone
Dumpster Juice – I just really hate this band name.
Dutch Oven
Dwight Tilley Band
Eric Burden - Can we just put The Animals up instead?
Face To Face – Too many other good punk bands out there.
Fine Art
Fingerprintz
Firehose - Maybe pick one.  Minutemen or Firehose?  I’m voting Minutemen.
Francisco
Fresco
Golden Palominos
Grandma Flash
H Mhoon
Hammerhead
Heater
Jack Meyers
James Orndorf
Jezus Juice – Ever since the Michael Jackson trial…
Karl Who?
Kindergarten
Kristin Hersh
Lady Luck – Just go check out their promo photo.
Lagbaja
Laughing Stock
Linton Kwest Johnson – Seems like a super cool guy & all… but does he still need a star?
Man Sized Action -2 records in the early 80s produced by Bob Mould.  Mould’s prolly on the wall three times between his solo work, Husker Du & Sugar, but that doesn’t mean this band should be up there.
MC Millenium
Menudo – We’re sorta over them.
Mighty Mighty – Bosstones?
Molly McManus
Monster Magnet - Maybe this is an awesome band.  Methinks not. I do, however, like their name.
Nina Hagen – Seems like a super cool chic, but what has she done for First Ave?
NNB
O’Connor
PD Spin Love
Penkut
Perfect
Pete Raz
Pop Top
Poster Children
Poster Pal
Powermad
Randy Hawkins
Rank Strangers
Redd Kross
Rita Marley – Bob’s widow has her own star?
Ron A
Ronnie Spector – Love the Ronettes, but she can probably be taken down now.
Sharin’ Beats
Sheryl Crow - Oh Sheryl Crow, how I loathe thee…
Snakefinger
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Love these guys, but until 2010 their last album was in the late 90s and they haven’t been to 1st Ave since.  Buh-bye.
Steve Egsgaard - Is this dude’s name even spelled right?
Super Hun
Suzane Vega – Tom’s diner haunted my childhood as did “My name is puka, I puked on the 2nd floor…” Yeah, I was in jr. high.
Syd Straw
Teratism
The Clams – Is this the tribute band?  Veto those please.
The Jim Rose Circus – Maybe it was cool in 1992… and pretty much only in 1992. A novelty act that only stuck around a few years at best. Although who didn’t like The Amazing Mister Lifto?
The Maroons
The Morrells – mmm… mushrooms
The Odd
The Overtones
The Raybeats
The Squabs
The Super Rail Band
The Verve - Yeah I love Bittersweet Symphony too, but mostly because of that Rolling Stones riff.  So they had one huge hit… that they ripped off from a band much better than they would ever be.
Timbuktu
Tom Arnold – Really?  Just, really?
Tony Paul
Tricky – Now, if this was for the Run D.M.C. song…
TSOL
U2 - Like they need a star anywhere.  They could just buy a real one.
WIB
White Zombie
Whole Lotta Loves
X Cops – You already have GWAR up there… and they haven’t played since 1996…
Zartan

So, what do YOU think?

Pitchfork and Gimme Noise posted this video of The Shouting Matches, which is Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon and Peter Wolf Crier‘s Brian Moen, covering the Son House classic “Death Letter”. It’s a grinding, noisy affair, which seems to surprise the ‘Fork, but we’ve been to Wisconsin so we know it’s not all moping around in the winter snow that goes on over there. Plus, we’re digging the beach bum-meets-Blues Brother outfits that the boys are rocking, like it’s a summer formal that’s a hell of a lot more loose and fun than The Last Prom on Earth. Here’s to summer.

Colin Hay just might be the best stand-up comedian I have seen in a long time, not to mention a damn fine solo performer. For the first of two sold-out nights at the Cedar Cultural Center on Friday, for the hour we were at the venue, the former Men At Work frontman played only four songs, but told so many downright hilarious stories that no-one was complaining about being cheated on their ticket price. After being introduced by a thoroughly incongruous announcer (think “Sunday Sunday Sunday!” over “Wipe Out”) Hay was down to earth and full of good humor, joking about his sales (“It was years of multi-platinum and then fucking nothing!”) and only having a couple hits to string together in a show (“I’ll use the hits as a condiment, they’re like pepper. You know when you go to a restaurant and they offer you pepper and it’s never quite enough? Can I have some more? I’m sorry we’ve run out of hits, I can interest you in some album tracks?”)

Colin Hay “Who Can It Be Now?” from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

The best and most circuitous stories had to do with his younger drug-taking days and his recent tours with Ringo Starr. Recalling the Men At Work Grammy performance in 1983 where they won for Best New Artist he copped to being very stoned at the event, and as Jerry Lee Lewis left the stage from his performance, he kept asking his manager, “How was I?” “You was beautiful,” over and over until Lewis passed the Men At Work dressing room and smelled the marijuana and turned to them, saying, “You guys are evil.” “Well that’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Hay deadpanned. He mentioned that his right eye has only about 7% of it’s sight, saying “It’s called a wandering eye. It never reports back to me. I did a tour with Ringo Starr in 2008, Edgar Winter was on that tour too and between us we had one good eye.” When he actually played, songs like “Wayfaring Sons” and yes, “Down Under”, his voice was strong and direct and his acoustic arrangements of the tunes filled up the appreciative room. Hay seemed to like the room right back, smiling out, saying, “It’s nice to play somewhere cultural. I mean that, because I have played some fucking shit-holes.”

Local songstress Brianna Lane opened up the night, charming and excitable as always, her song “California” about California being a sort of state that you could have a summer fling with was a special highlight of her short opening set. Staciaann shot the whole event for Vita.mn, so you can see those pictures here.

We here at CakeIn15 probably fall into the “Lovers” category, at least “Friends” and we are proud to be one of the sponsors of the Inter-Be release show, given that Staciaann has done the lion’s share of their promo photography. But we also just love the tone of this press release. To the point and dryly funny but earnest. Which we can relate to, and that’s the whole point. Be there, Turf Club, Friday, May 21.

Friends, Family, then Lovers:

Peter and Brian
Peter Wolf Crier

Alright, so a couple weeks ago, we sat down with members of the fillmores and The Debut to talk about Punk Rock Prom V: Pretty Shitfaced in Pink, tonight at the Nomad World Pub. It was after rehearsals were done and Pancho Villa had 2-for-1 margaritas going and so as the people around our table grew and the drinks kept coming and my voice recorder taped we had a pretty epic conversation about the Punk Rock Proms, where they come from and why they are fun- essentially, the booze you had to smuggle in to your own prom is all out in the open now and there’s still making out and costumes. I really wish I had taken some better notes because now at the 11th hour I am having a technical (for the most part) breakdown and can’t get to that file and I have failed in my sponsorship duties and feel as downtrodden as a pimply 9th grader.

You know what will cure that? A whole bunch of great music for $6. Seriously, down at the Nomad tonight for Pretty Shitfaced in Pink with Amen & the Hell Yeahs, Reckless Ones, Teenage Moods, Kitten Forever, the Goondas with The Debut and house band the fillmores on the floor playing prom standards and punk classics in between each set- they promised to switch it up for this year too. If you really need an interview, Switchblade Comb has you covered (thanks for picking up the slack!) But seriously- the chance for getting hammered and making your ex-girlfriend jealous about John Hughes zombies and off-key Marvin Gaye? Fucking priceless.

Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino sometimes goes by Joe Ferocious, a name that pretty well describes D’Agostino’s incendiary, fuzzy guitar talent as well as Cymbal Eat Guitar’s touring schedules. Cymbals Eat Guitars have been tour beast over the last year, ever since their strong debut Why They Are Mountains and an opening spot at the 2009 Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. They already came through the Twin Cities less than a month ago on a tour with Bear in Heaven and Freelance Whales and are slated to make their first Mainroom appearance tonight with Welsh boy-girl rockers Los Campesinos!. As D’Agostino and company set off on their most recent round of road dates, Cake In 15 spoke with the actually quite funny and mild-mannered Ferocious to get the skinny on who he has really admired out on tour, what’s in the works for new recordings and the prospect of meeting his hero, Stephen Malkmus of Pavement.

Cake In 15: So, how is the tour van smelling?

Joseph D’Agostino: We’re only on the second day, so it kind of smells like weed, but that’s it. It’s mostly clean, fresh scent but by the end of the two weeks it’ll be pretty rank, I’m sure.

C15: You’re coming back to Minneapolis after being in St. Paul less than a month ago. How long have you been on the road now?

JD: I started thinking about it. We went on a European tour for all of February and when we got back from that it was six days until we started on our tour with Bear in Heaven and Freelance Whales and then directly after that tour was finished a few weeks ago we were supposed to go right out with Los Campesinos but the elements held up the tour and we got a bunch of dates cancelled but I guess since February, and before that we did more European tours. It’s been pretty constant since last July.

C15: What have you been doing to keep yourself from going crazy our on the road?

JD: Well, I listen to a lot of music, I usually always have my headphones on. [Keybaordist] Brian [Hamilton] works on schematics for pedals and circuit board stuff that I can’t barely understand. He explained it to me but I’m kind of dense when it comes to that and I try and read when it’s possible and no-one’s talking. We used to have internet in the van and that was a pretty steady stream of entertainment but now we don’t, so we have our laptops but we don’t have internet so its kind of impotent.

C15: Who has been your favorite set of tourmates since you’ve been out on the road?

JD: I’m not just being diplomatic when I say I really enjoy every band that we’ve been on tour with. Bear in Heaven was just a real force. Maybe just because they are fresher in my mind, but I don’t think that’s the reason, I mean, Joe [Stickney], their drummer, is just the best drummer I think I’ve ever seen in real life, I mean, actually getting to watch someone. He’s much better than our drummer. [Laughs] They were just consistently pummeling and totally powerful and great every night. It was just great to watch them and get psyched up to play and it was also character building, because they’re so good.

C15: With being on the road so much, are you working on follow up material to Why There Are Mountains?

JD: Yeah, we have five songs right now, four that we’ve been playing live since February and one more that’s kind of in the cooker. Next time we get to rehearse, we’re gonna flesh it out and begin hammering it out. We try and eke out work where we can but on a tour like this when we’re opening we don’t really have really long luxurious sound checks so we don’t really get to play much new material. But I’m always thinking about it and that’s where most of the composing goes on, just thinking and thinking on it and really ruminating on it. That’s what I did with the first record for two and a half, three years. I hope we’ll have four more songs out by next spring and then make a record.

C15: Are you finding that the new material relates to the Why There Are Mountains material or are they separate thoughts?

JD: They are definitely completely independent of each other. The songs from Why There Are Mountains were written over so many years that it’s difficult to compare them because I have written so much material over such a relatively short span, by my own standards, it usually takes three or four months to write a song. I just feel that everything is more focused and I know that when we get in there we won’t be overdubbing for months like the first record. We sound good as four people, maybe an overdub here and there, but it’ll sound more like our live thing, I suppose. The songs are way better, at least I feel that way, they flow a lot better an move more naturally and the lyrics are more dense. I’m really happy with the way things are shaping up so far.

C15: You guys are sharing some festival bills with Pavement this year. Have you figured out what you’re going to say to Stephen Malkmus when you meet him?

JD: That’s a good question. Really, I have been thinking about but every time I think about it, I think, “How can I summarize my life-long, well, half a life-time love of all these songs that have meant so much to me and brought me to the heights of what music can provide?” How can you summarize that? “I love your music it’s so important to me”? I’d have to have a longer conversation with him but I don’t know if I’d be able to keep it together. So I just plan on watching. At Sasquatch, I’m just going to be in the audience enjoying myself. I don’t know.

C15: Then hopefully you can get passed the slack-jawed moments to get it together to figure out a meeting.

JD: I saw him at a festival we played in the Hague, the Crossing Borders Festival and I saw him walking around and he had this furry parka with the hood up and he just kind of looked unapproachable but I’ve heard from many people that he’s really nice. I’ve been reading all the reunion interview and everything, I especially liked the Chuck Klosterman one for GQ, it was really excellent and very funny.

C15: Cool. Safe travels, and we’ll see you in Minneapolis.

JD: We’re really excited to play First Avenue. [Bass player Matt] Whipple pointed out to me that the Wilco documentary [I Am Trying To Break Your Heart], that’s where they’re playing a lot of the live stuff from the Summerteeth tour footage, so yeah.

In the matchup of weekend double-headers, with DeVotchKa/Gogol Bordello at First Ave going up against Jónsi at the Pantages, the Sigur Rós frontman walked away with an epic win. Not only is his high tenor a thing of strange, fluid beauty, but the stage show, complete with projected animations, flashing lights and an amazing backing band just sealed the deal. So much energy, it gets me giddy trying to write about it. Fortunately, I managed to get myself together after Sunday’s madcap and engaging performance to put something together for the Gimme Noise blog at City Pages so you can check that out there with more of Staciaann’s photos and a video sneak peak from the making of the stage show.

Also, check out Death Vessel, the opener for the Jónsi tour. One guy, and it is a guy with a guitar singing in a beautifully high register, this folky side of Joanna Newsom and Joni Mitchell. Seriously, gender stereotyping cognitive dissonance aside, totally dug it, and despite warnings to the contrary, so glad we came on time.

Call me old and cynical, but I’ve seen it before. Yes, there is no denying that Gogol Bordello can whip a crowd into a sweaty, howling mess and DeVotchKa‘s melodies can bring a man to his knees and beg forgiveness, but at First Avenue on Saturday night, everything just seemed overly familiar, the same shows minus a couple girls.

DeVotchKa- “Queen of the Surface Streets” from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

DeVotchKa took the stage first (regular opener Jesse Malin had the night off because the show had to end in time for Too Much Love, he played later at Nick & Eddie’s) and I don’t envy the more airy and aesthetic group having to keep up with Gogol Bordello’s bruising tour schedule. Frontman Nick Urata seemed to be suffering in particular, holding back on letting his vocals loose and parsing his phrasing to the minimum economy of effort. Not to say that it was lazy, just restrained in a kind of way that made it seem like yes, they were tired. Fortunately violinist/accordion player Tom Hagerman, whip thin and always looking like a displaced poet in his black suit and tie still found the energy to tear up his soaring descants, so there was that transformative power in the air, even if The Amazing Slavic Sisters, the aerialists who wowed the crowd two years ago at First Ave turned out to just be the Amazing Slavic Sister (a phrasing that immediately implies a missing other.) One of the personal highlights was there cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs“, which you would never know is that tune unless you paying close attention to the lyrics; instead of the Underground’s masochistic austerity, Urata & Co. wrap it up in a sweaty shimmer of balalaika and accordion, a hot mess of a tune. Hitting their big tunes, “The Enemy Guns” and “How It Ends” to finish up the night, I couldn’t help but feel like the setlist was pretty similar two years ago, and less exhausted then.

The Amazing Slavic Sister from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

After that DeVothchKa show in 2008, through acquaintance with then-opener Basia Bulat we managed to find ourselves with the bands at Pizza Lucé for a post-show snack. Although we probably should have left Urata alone to nurse the bottle of red under the care of a Slavic Sister, I and some others hedged around conversation with him and somehow turned to Eugene Hutz and Gogol Bordello. At the time the two groups were based in New York and friends with each other there, and the possibilities of a tour or collaboration together came up. Somewhere in that conversation, Urata said something to the effect that Hutz was the smartest crazy man he knew, and I’ll believe it. Hutz has built a touring schedule that keeps him out on the road for a good two-thirds of the year and they keep audiences coming back for the show time and time again. In the summer of 2008, Gogol turned the Cabooze parking lot into a madhouse, but I’ll always feel like I’m chasing the dragon’s tail since the first show where I saw them at the Fine Line in 2006, swarmed in with what felt like innumerable others, surely past fire code violation and for two solid hours I felt like my feet did not touch the ground. There wasn’t so much moshing at that show because, well there was nowhere to go.

Saturday night at First Ave got a little more loosely rowdy, with enough space for mosh circles and human bodies to be flung around like seaweed in a current and by the time the show was over we all may as well have been underwater, with all the sweat in the air. Playing numbers from newly released Transcontinental Hustle like “Pala Tute” and “Mi Companjera” alongside tunes from Super Taranta! and Gypsy World Strike, the essential point of the show remained the same- swirling violins, crashing drums, a thick bassline and Hutz stripped down and screaming out call and response lyrics about globalism and parties. I can get down for those two things, but by halfway through, I was more interested politically in checking in on the DFL nominating convention and musically in finding a break from the oom-pah-pah Eastern beat. Also, a change in the lineup meant that Elizabth Sun was the only female drummer/dancer/performer on stage, so we were missing another girl. Where are these girls going? By the time the encore rolled around and Hutz stepped out for his ode to drinking, “Alcohol”, it was time to call it a night. I’d seen it before and you can call me old; call me old, I’ll wear my trousers rolled and purple for you now.

Hey, that’s one of those Daytrotter illustrations of the promo photo that Staciaann took for Peter Wolf Crier last summer. That’s pretty awesome. Also awesome is the PWC Daytrotter session itself, recorded down in Austin last month when Peter Pisano and Brian Moen played the Rachel Ray/Daytrotter Day Party at Stubb’s BBQ. Signed to Jagjaguwar, they just announced an official release date/party for their debut record Inter-Be, so mark your calendars for the Turf Club on May 21st, along with special guests Kill the Vultures and most likely some other pals. CakeIn15 is sponsoring, so whet your whistle with Daytrotter and come on down.