HowWasTheShow.com's 6 Year Anniversary Party at The Turf Club

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Minneapolis, MN – May 30^th, 2008 --

HowWasTheShow.com announces their 6 year Anniversary Party at the Turf Club, Friday, June 6^th, 2008

**Confirm your invitation on Facebook!**

Just as devil horns are forever linked with rock ‘n roll, it’s only natural that HowWasTheShow.com 6 Year Anniversary Party would somehow end up Friday, June 6^th (6/6).

The HowWasTheShow staff picked some of their favorite bands playing Twin Cities stages this year, asked them to play our party, and ended up with a lineup that’s heavy on the rock, but since when was that ever a bad thing?

Come out to The Turf Club on Friday June 6^th to see The Haves Have It, The 757s, The Evening Rig, Dallas Orbiter and The Wars of 1812. You will be rocked from start (Wars of 1812 play first so the hard working band can play a gig in Wisconsin early the following day) to finish (The Haves Have It will tear the stage up to end the night, if there’s anything left of by then.) It’s advised you hold onto your hat if you wear one.

If there weren’t enough 6’s for you already. It’s also 6 bucks at the door. (That’s $1.20 per band!)

The Turf Club is at 1601 University Avenue in St. Paul, 55104.
Phone: 651.647.0486

Related links:

http://www.howwastheshow.com

http://www.turfclub.net

Bands:

The Haves Have It --- http://www.myspace.com/thehaveshaveit

The 757s --- http://www.the757s.com

The Evening Rig --- http://www.theeveningrig.com

Dallas Orbiter --- http://www.dallasorbiter.com

The Wars of 1812 --- http://www.thewarsof1812.com

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What HowWasTheShow.com has written about these bands in the past.

David de Young on the Haves Have It

The Haves Have It do indeed have it, and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. . . known for tearing up the stage with their dynamic and engaging rock shows. [Portia] Richardson is bad ass in a similar way to Ouija Radio front woman Christy Hunt. Both women are blonde bombshells, and neither has any qualms about rocking hard and ripping it up on guitar. In Richardson’s case, raw power seeps from her pores without the slightest likelihood she’d ever be accused of acting like a Stooge. The tough rock front woman quality she possesses is something I’m still searching to find the words for. To call it post-feminist is a cop out. (Read full review.)

Pat O’Brien on The 757s

First things first: These guys are capital-L Loud. The music, which is a mix of The Replacements ragged thunder and The Who’s jetliner roar, ends up sticking in your grey matter almost immediately. It’s exceptionally catchy and it’s obvious these guys aren’t in it for the money anymore – there’s not even a whiff of last-gasp desperation – they’re doing this for the fun of playing loud, live music and everyone in the room is a benefactor. These guys are definitely a band to watch (and watch often) in 2008. (Read full review.)

Bob Longmore on The Evening Rig

[The Evening Rig] reveled in their songs. The last time I saw the band was their first show opening for Lucero. While the songs were always catchy and played with passion, the 18 months in-between have instilled brash confidence in the band. Although some of the countrified and delicate guitar interplay heard on the record is lost live, lead singer Jason Miller still has one of the best screams of any front man in town — a scratchy, from the bottom of the gut wail that can rise above any amount of guitar fuzz. (Read full review.)

Pat O’Brien on Dallas Orbiter

Dallas Orbiter are one of my favorite new bands of late. Their new album, Motorcycle Diagrams, will be in heavy rotation in my car’s CD player for quite some time—I can’t stop listening to it. I think part of the reason lies in the fact that they don’t stick hard and fast to any one genre. . . On this night, the band was space rock-ish, but pretty funky (and lead singer Mark Miller writes killer—and I mean killer—hooks). The songs were all at their core, pop songs, but they had been tweaked, prodded and had additions built onto them, giving each song its own rich texture and undeniable magnetism. (Read full review.)

Jon Behm on The Wars of 1812

Only about a half a year ago I caught the Wars of 1812’s debut Twin Cities’ performance. It was a modest event at the lovely 331 Club, a high quality, but unfortunately poorly attended show. Ever since that evening, the four young band members (and roommates) have been hard at work creating the buzz that is starting to make them a household name amongst local music lovers. While some of this newfound recognition can be attributed to press, word of mouth and even pure luck, none of these things would have mattered if the Wars weren’t dealt a pretty good hand of musical talent to begin with. (Read full review)

Still seeking 24 Bar on Hennepin Memorabilia

I finally got a frame for this 14-year-old piece of history that had been rolled up for years in my basement. And this evening I took a stab at taking a photo of it that might help motivate people to dig up some of their own 24 Bar photos and memorabilia.

The poster you see on this page, if my memory serves me, was assembled by Kevin ____, lead singer of the Minneapolis band Pop Smear, who played on the bill the second to last day of the bar's operation, Saturday, February 26th, 1994.

The 24 Bar on Hennepin (along with the historic Berman Buckskin Building) was demolished shortly thereafter to make way for the US Bank building which now stands in its stead. Sadly, this was about 2-3 years before people began self-documenting the music scene on the internet so there are next to no photos on the interwebs (that I have been able to find anyway) of the venue itself or the bands that used to play there.

I and a few others have soldiered away the past couple years getting at least a few basic facts posted to the Minnewiki entry for the 24 Bar, and
if your band played there, I encourage you to also add its name to the list.

If you are aware of any webpages that have links to 24 Bar-related info, please leave in the comments. Or feel free to send info or anecdotes to me at david[at]howwastheshow.com and I'll make sure they are filed away safely so those fab kids from the future won't have to use their Way Back Machines just to get at them.

Live videos from The 757s recorded at the Fine Line

The 757s are one of several bands that will be featured at the HowWasTheShow 6 Year Anniversary party at the Turf Club on Friday, June 6th. HowWasTheShow has reviewed them here, here and here.

They've just released two live videos of their performance at the Fine Line on April 4th, 2008. Though the vocal mix is a little low in a mix off the soundboard, you can still get a sense of the energy these boys bring in a live show. Take a peak.

"Take The 5th"

"Susamsterdam"

Voltage: Fashion Amplified 2008 in retrospect

Voltage: Fashion Amplified 2008 slid into the past on Wednesday, April 16^th, leaving in its wake great memories, lots of warm fuzzies, a ton of press, and thousands upon thousands of fantastic new photos (photos and more photos) by some of the best live show photographers in the Twin Cities. As a committee member for each Voltage show since it was founded in 2004, this year’s show was so well organized I was able to to actually watch a good chunk of it for a change. More than ever, I have come to appreciate the thrill experienced not only the participants (bands, designers and models alike), but also audience, press and the photographers who document the show year after year.

This year, HowWasTheShow has chosen to present all six photo slideshows by BeeTour’s Sara Montour part of our Voltage retrospective. Sara captured everything from the zaniness of openers Zibra Zibra, to the model-baiting antics of MC/VL.

Sara’s work is also posted to her blog at http://www.beetour.net/blog/

Enjoy.

Zibra Zibra

The Haves Have It

Bella Koshka

White Light Riot

MC/VL

Birthday Suits

Rock For Pussy V - A Musical Tribute to David Bowie

HowWasTheShow loves David Bowie. HowWasTheshow loves Mary Lucia, and of course HowWasTheShow loves Pussy.

It's that time of year again, folks. Time to mark your calendars with a spray of urine for… REBEL REBEL - ROCK FOR PUSSY V - A musical Tribute to David Bowie with all proceeds to benefit Minnesota Valley Humane Society.

Friday May 16 2008
First Avenue Main Room
Tickets: $6 advance, $8 at door.
Doors 8 pm, 18+

Rotating guest singers: John Eller, Dave Campbell, Tommy Alsides, Michelle Langner, Ben Kyle, Tim O’Reagan, Venus, Noah Levy Laurie Lindeen, Eric Lovold, Steve Price, Janey Winterbauer, Chris Pericelli, Sam Keenan, Jeremy Messersmith and more!

Hosted by "your friend and mine" (TM) , Mary Lucia.

Revisit old Rock For Pussy shows:

Rock For Pussy II (4/4/2005)
Rock For Pussy III (4/29/2006)

Join the HowWasTheShow Facebook group and RSVP here.

Ben Weaver signs multi-record deal with Chicago's Bloodshot Records

(YouTube Video of Ben Weaver performing in the Netherlands in the Spring of 2007)

He's played all over the world over the past five years - I even had the chance to catch him performing at the Windmill in London in the summer of 2003 - but Twin Cities music fans may remember Ben Weaver as a Turf Club favorite. Weaver has just signed a multi-album deal with Bloodshot Records with his label debut set for release August 12. His new album, his sixth, will be called The Axe and the Oak and is produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine.) Signing to Bloodshot means he joins the ranks of Ryan Adams, The Sadies, Neko Case and Alejandro Escovedo.

Weaver has also created a hand-made book of poems and drawings and contributed a story to an upcoming anthology of fiction by songwriters, fitting as it harkens back to his early press from Sylvie Simmons of Mojo,who called his songs "strange, skin-prickling tales picked up from the Moebius strip of a lost highway he's been compelled to travel on" and compared him to a "hillbilly Leonard Cohen."

The Axe and the Oak tracklisting:

1. White Snow*
2. Red Red Fox
3. Soldiers War
4. Anything With Words
5. Pretty Girl
6. Hawks and Crows
7. Dead Bird
8. Said in Stones
9. Alligators and Owls*
10. Hey Ray
11. Out Behind the House
12. The History of Weather

Listen to White Snow and Alligators and Owls at www.myspace.com/benweavermusic

More detail from Bloodshot Records in this Press Release:

For Immediate Release

April 22, 2008



The songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/artist Ben Weaver has signed a multi-album deal with Bloodshot Records, with his label debut set for release August 12, 2008. The Axe and the Oak is Weaver’s 6th album at the ripe old age of 27; it is by far his most adventurous to date. Weaver explains, “The majority of this record was written in Berlin, the summer of 2007. I was staying in a friend’s flat in Prenzlauer Berg. I had many pictures in my head at that time. This record is not about Berlin, but about what being in Berlin allowed me to create.” Produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine), the album juxtaposes electronic musical sounds with warm acoustic instruments with textural results that defy the usual expectations of the singer/songwriter genre. It's hard to argue with the results - evocative, hushed songs that illuminate Ben’s affinity for the natural world of birds, phone booths, empty parking lots, strangers in the checkout line, plastic bags stuck in trees and whatever else typically goes unnoticed in the sidewalk cracks.


A former Casket Company warehouse is Weaver's current world headquarters. Multitudinous organs, synthesizers, guitars, a sampler, a piano, a dog, Polaroid cameras, sketch books, New Yorker back issues, boxes of CDs and a PowerBook mark the territory. There is an air of controlled chaos and the musty smell of old tube amps. Weaver writes continuously, a process perhaps more akin to breathing than composing, “I have always identified with those people who make art because they have to, that sense of necessity and urgency. That is why I make art, to fulfill that need within myself and to connect with the people of the world who also cannot live without it."



Aside from his prolific and constant songwriting and recording, Ben has created a handmade book of his poems and drawings and contributed a story to an upcoming Anthology being gathered by Steve Horowitz for Abrams – each selection of fiction is written by a songwriter. Expect to see this hit bookstores in March 2009, Ben will be featured along with the likes of Renee Sparks of the Handsome Family, Greg Brown and Jolie Holland.

Minneapolis band moves to Heartbreak City and is spotted on Billboard

If you were at the very first installment of the now institutional Voltage: Fashion Amplified in Minneapolis way back in 2004, you’ll remember a promising Twin Cities band called Shadowbox fronted by Dan Lichty stealing the hearts of many concert-goers. You may have also caught Shadowbox at England Swings that year sneaking in a cover by Ireland’s U2 and memorably covering Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” Either way, you will recall the band then had stature in this town later represented by bands such as The Hopefuls and even more recently by White Light Riot.

Though Shadowbox left town a few years ago for NYC, and Lichty is now known as Daniel Dean, he and guitar player Dmitry Iyudin have been kind enough to drop me a line from time to let me know what’s been going on out there. It’s been a while ago now that the band changed their name to 3^rd Culture, and in late 2007 they released their debut EP "Sunrise for the Dislocated," now available everywhere for purchase, download and stream (iTunes, emusic, Napster, Rhapsody, etc.)

A quick listen to the EP has the band still showing the promise five years on that I heard when I first listened to them in Minneapolis venues like the 400 Bar and The Uptown Bar and Café back in 2003. Daniel Dean’s voice is strong, confident and charismatic, Iyudin is still one of my favorite guitarists, and production on the new EP – especially on the cover of the Psychadelic Furs “Heaven” – allows his Iyudin's guitar to sing brightly in the style of Coldplay, Travis, U2, or any of the (frequently British) influences they so proudly wear on their sleeves.

The band recently got the attention of Grammy Award Winning producer Thom Russo, who remixed their single “Heartbreak City” for a March 28th, 2008 re-release which garnered them the attention of Billboard Magazine and VH-1.

See live performance footage of Heartbreak City combined with audio from the original EP track here:

Want the boys to write a song for you? Help spread the word and you might get one.

Here are the details:

Add a 3^rd Culture song to your MySpace profile and put 3^rd Culture in your Top Friends list on Purevolume & MySpace for a 1 week this month, and in return they will randomly pick three participants and write each of them a song. E-mail them via their MySpace site or at contact@3rdculturenation.com to let them know that you are participating or just to get back in touch.