MN MP3 Monday VIII: Heiruspecs-5ves

Known for their perennial touring around Minnesota and its surrounding states, the Heiruspecs are that MN hip-hop group that can throw down for a crowd of 50 or 500. Notable in the band is the beatbox master Muad’dib and tubby white bassist Twinkie Jiggles. They are label-less, but seem to be one of the most popular statewide acts in the land of 10,000. Check out this song, where Muad’dib really locks it down.

MySpace

MP3: Heiruspecs-5ves

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MN MP3 Monday VII: The Hold Steady-Party Pit

This tune by mostly Midwestern The Hold Steady has some of the best references to the Twin Cities in the history of Minnesota music: “I saw her walking through the Crystal Court,” and “So I walked across that Grain Belt Bridge/Into that brand new Minneapolis.”  The cheering chorus at the end urgently begs for open liquor laws in the metro area: “Gonna walk around and drink some more.”  Enjoy the video, live at Lollapalooza, 2007.

MP3: The Hold Steady-Party Pit [ysi]

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MN MP3 Monday VI: The Jayhawks-Save It For A Rainy Day

The Jayhawks are one of those few great stories to come out of the Minneapolis rock scene in the last 20 years. Through great songwriting and a mellowed out alt-country sound, they were able to move from a completely unknown outfit to one of the shining examples of Minnesota magic.

MP3: The Jayhawks-Pray for Me

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MN MP3 Monday IV

CK has a jazzy blues feel, with a plunky piano and a Jerry Lee Lewis-esque voice. These are the kinds of qualities you might expect to hear at the other end of the Mississippi River, but Kolstad is MN true and through.

Listen to samples and buy his latest album here, and be sure to check out the 26-minute version of Joe Garland’s famous jazz piece, “In the Mood.”

Cadillac Kolstad-Tear It Up

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MN MP3 Monday III

Charlie Parr has been a staple of the Minnesota folk/Americana/roots scene for years.  Not only has he produced album after great album, but he has also made the MN dive bar tour with more frequency than your local sod.  One only needs to see his MySpace page to see his extremely marvelously frantically busy schedule. Should you ever have the opportunity to see him open (with his washboard-playing percussionist) for the MN bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles, buy tickets for yourself AND all of your friends.  Check out a live MP3 from a First Avenue show a year ago:

 If I Had My Way

We at IIG, IG highly recommend buying Chuck Parr.

MN MP3 Monday II

Today’s featured MN band is a megagroup called Dance Band. I first saw them open for Girl Talk at the Varsity Theater (see video below) in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown. I honestly expected to dance more to GT than DB, but in the end, the exact opposite was the case. Dance Band brought quite the contingent with them, almost all of whom knew the precise dance moves to each song.

Unfortunately, I didn’t. Luckily enough, the moves were about as complex as the band’s name, but retained the hilarity still. As you can see from the hairy chest above, the band is not what we call under the top. In fact, they are over the top. Enjoy the MP3 of them below as much as I do.

MN Stories video from Girl Talk performance.

Buy Dance Band/MP3: Best Dance Alliance (with Best Friends Forever)

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MN MP3 Monday I

Our posse of amigos y amigas discovered Battle Royale last year in an epic search for some great dance music. This group of preteens high schoolers/college undergrads put together some great dance tunes on their first album Sparkle Dust Fantasy (2006-Afternoon Records).

One great story involving the band was, in fact, the first time I heard them. They were booked to play a concert I was organizing in spring 2006. The concert was attempting to raise the awareness of the Minnesota caucuses, in which people gather in their communities and decide which political candidates they will support for local and statewide races. The event, named years earlier “Rock the Cauc” and pronounced exactly like you guessed, typically showcased some pretty terrible bands with whom members of the local Democratic party were friends. We often reveled in the fact that these bands were bad and had a lot of fun with it.

Battle Royale were booked without hearing anything previous, though, and the kiddies (then probably juniors in high school, thus kiddies) showed up to only one amp and no working microphones. They hooked up their iPod drum beats through the one amp and played those. You could kind of hear the keyboardist and the young female bassist, but not really. The lead singer, a splintered twig of a boy, was singing, but no one could hear him either. He asked for a microphone to sing into, and we replied that we didn’t have any that worked. He again asked for one, saying he felt uncomfortable singing without one. So there they were: