In the tradition of the Van Halens, Allmans and Youngs, another set of brothers is attempting to add their bloodline to the distinguished list of rock ‘n’ roll families. To Dan and Pete Beeman of the Minneapolis power rockers We Invented Tornadoes, playing music together is a logical progression coming from a musical household.
“Sometimes we [...]

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Meeting the members of Volante for a lunch interview, I learned many things: that drummer Josh Madson will put on pajamas that are many sizes too small if given half the chance; that guitarist Jon Mitchell prizes sleep above all else; that guitarist (and other Mitchell brother) Jeff Mitchell, if publicity ever called for a [...]

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After their EP release “We’ve Got the Movement” in 1999, high school junior teen sensations The Plastic Constellations had already reached celebrity status with their classmates and some of the Twin Cities rock music circles. Over the years, The Plastic Constellations have played at underground basement shows and coffee shops, as well as some of [...]

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In the universal scheme of things, explaining why you like a certain genre of music or a particular artist’s lyrics is pretty easy. Defining great songwriting is a bit trickier. So for the sake of laziness, let’s say you can categorize great songwriting into two groups: there are songs that you notice because they’re new [...]

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In every issue we are going to feature a local record label, with basically the same questions. Ed Ackerson from Susstones was nice enough to answer these questions for us and give us some insight on the label and the local music scene.
Who are the owner(s) of the label?
Ed Ackerson, Jennifer Jurgens, Christian Erickson
Why was [...]

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The Sunday morning album is a far too underrated element of our pop culture. After you experience a weekend of many romantic possibilities and discoveries of love, only to have your illusions painfully shattered, Sundays require a song that offers tales of heartbreak, pain and optimism. “It’s Your Weakness That I Want” provides a stellar [...]

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Randy and the Wolfpack is a Twin Cities bar band that is carrying on the tradition of classic rock and country music. I think they could be very successful in some of the outlying areas of Minnesota, where this type of music is more popular. By no means is this CD bad – it’s just [...]

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There was a lot riding on my musical aspirations when I moved to St. Paul.
After spending four years in Morris, a cow town within spitting distance of the Dakotas, I took the first rotten Twin Cities job that was offered to me, answering phones for The Man in a Bloomington cube farm. I knew that [...]

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Local group Kangaroo has audiences and critics hopping along with the happy pop sounds of their debut album, “Skyscraper Spaceship,” released earlier this year on No Alternative Records. Consisting of A.J. Buzza on bass, Tim “Buzza” Buzza on guitar, Paul Carpenter on percussion, “the grimm” on keyboards, Peter Lawton on guitar, and Craig Wright on [...]

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I will turn 35 years old as this mag hits the streets. My first draft of this intro piece made me sound like a grumpy old man; I had ripped into the very core of the music scene. But that is not what this should be about. Music is about being cool and having fun. [...]

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