Comments for Reviler

Comment on “Bars Have Bands to Bring in Customers” by Troy Harmer

Troy Harmer — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:24:31 +0000

I am a working musician.Thanks to all that contributed this was a very interesting read. Live music is best.

Comment on Photos: Hail!Hornet @ the Turf Club (2/2/12) by zoe

zoe — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:06:01 +0000

great photos dude

Comment on Big Quarters: Party Like a Young Commie Review by Review: Party Like a Young Commie by Big Quarters | Tech, Travel & Culture

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:06:45 +0000

[...] Reviler: Big Quarters: Party Like a Young Commie: Review [...]

Comment on Open Letter to Minnesota: The Merits of Music Discourse by old guy

old guy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:34:22 +0000

1) don’t “get into bed” with local acts so often that you can’t be critical with their music

2) for music you aren’t as familiar with don’t be lazy and review it with internal staff.. the basis is so far off. get someone in the know who c an be more cirtical (critique is not all bad)

Comment on Open Letter to Minnesota: The Merits of Music Discourse by old guy

old guy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:13:19 +0000

“I feel like a lot of the “rah rah” behind articles like this comes from people who feel a sense of disdain for some of the bands that ARE receiving coverage, more than out of an earnest concern that the way local media covers our music scene is somehow systematically ignoring deserving bands.”

Not true. Just balance out who you cover.
It’s all doomtree/social hip hop/folk music. MY PLEA CP is to not be so beholden to these mpls power cliques. Your most recent article by jon g. breaks that mold thank god, please try more of this.

Comment on Lael Rockwell and the Meta-Fandom of Hip Hop by Katrina Vavdinos

Katrina Vavdinos — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:27:01 +0000

I LOVE Lael Rockwell….have you heard his album and current mixtape???? He is truly amazing…:)

Comment on “Bars Have Bands to Bring in Customers” by Lianna

Lianna — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:22:24 +0000

The reason for this is simple: there are way too many clubs, and way too many bands. Back in the day, there were a few good bars in town, and a few good bands. Everybody made money, life was grand. Now, every Joe Dirt thinks he can open a bar and make millions, and every guitar-hero playing kid thinks he can start a band and make millions. The market is over-saturated. Only the strongest will survive, sorry!

Nice article, and nice comments. I’ve enjoyed reading this conversation, and glad I had the chance to add my 2 cents.

Comment on What is the “Sound” of Duluth? by Philip Blackburn

Philip Blackburn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:31:54 +0000

Glad you liked the Duluth aural experience. I have a ways to go before capturing the sonic essence of every city and town, but I did record/perform/publish “Habanera: A Sound Walk Through Old Havana, Cuba” which has plenty of uniquely-local flavor.

Comment on What is the “Sound” of Duluth? by Steve Skavnak

Steve Skavnak — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:22:04 +0000

I guess I just hear a negative tone in the word “superficial,” when (despite some of the bleak undertones) a word like “non-essential” would be more appropriate. Nevertheless, hearing Craig Finn sing about walking across the “Grain Belt Bridge” rather than the Brooklyn Bridge is a pleasant wink to the fans who followed him in his early Lifter Puller days, and I like those warm fuzzies.

Comment on What is the “Sound” of Duluth? by jonbehm

jonbehm — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:21:47 +0000

From my perspective, just as much as the background noise of a city (horns, traffic, voices, etc.) a city’s sound can be defined by the individual bands that lend their voices to that sound as a whole. So, nothing about the way bands play here instrumentally defines anything local (though Paul Metzger might get close to creating something unique enough). But overall, a guitar/drum/organ/etc. sounds the same here as it does anywhere. When I hear a band member’s unique voice though, and begin to associate that voice with this locality, I think that that voice becomes a piece in the overall local patchwork. So the overall “Minneapolis sound” I guess is (to me) defined only by the unique voices that make it up at any given time. And I guess these voices stature plays a certain part as well – i.e. P.O.S.’s voice is probably more evocative of Minneapolis’s sound than a lesser known local artist. Does that make sense? I think trying to find an overarching “sound” is erroneous, however it is possible to define any area’s sound by the unique identifiers in it, and since instrumentation is by nature not very unique, this falls to individual voices.
When it comes to instrumental music I guess we’ve got a whole new debate.

Comment on What is the “Sound” of Duluth? by Will Wlizlo

Will Wlizlo — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:57:02 +0000

But Zach, what separates the urban punk, new wave, and even Midwest Americana written around Minneapolis from urban punk, new wave, and Midwest American written in Chicago or Milwaukee. And more importantly, how do those differences evoke a (for lack of better terminology) Minneapolis feeling? How do they convey the street life, the “placeness”? You bring up something I hadn’t thought of, though: politics. I’m not exactly sure how it would be done–perhaps dipping not only into the substance of political discourse of a place, but also that place’s political tradition, if you will. (The conscientious bipartisanship of the Arne Carlson years, maybe?) But that brings up the question (which I can’t answer) of how you convey the zeitgeist through an established genre.

Steve, I’d never argue that THS and MCS lack a pride of place. But I’m sticking my guns about the superficiality of the name-checking. For me–and to those band’s credits–the CC Club or Washington Avenue bridge are just landmarks embedded into more universal songs about relationship hardships and identity formation. Hypothetically . . . replace “Triple Rock Social Club” with “Bowery Ballroom” and you don’t get a song that sounds like New York . . . but you’ve still got a song about getting dumped and walking home in the snow without your jacket.

Comment on What is the “Sound” of Duluth? by Steve Skavnak

Steve Skavnak — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:06:58 +0000

It’s a bit insulting referring to The Hold Steady and Motion City Soundtrack’s name-dropping as “superficial.” I find these hat tips to be driven by pride more than anything in their lyrics. Seeing MCS play to just a couple dozen people at the Foxfire to headlining and selling out the Mainroom should give them a pretty solid sense of hometown spirit, one that musicians most easily translate into song.