The Current Music Blog: January 9, 2007 Archive

Bad keyboard hygiene at The Buffering Stream, 1/9

Posted at 7:42 AM on January 9, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis

Eurovision, that bizarre songwriting contest between nations, gets weirder: Morrissey threatens to join the fray.

MacWorld happens today. What new gizmos does Apple think you want?

Investigation into Notorious BIG's murder heats up today. (Wha?)

TV on the Radio are back on tour: Coming to Minneapolis March 15th.

That Blondie biopic appears to be happening with Kirsten Dunst playing the lead.

Hubris Are You? A Q&A with Ice Palace

Posted at 10:13 AM on January 9, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis (20 Comments)

Photo: Speakerphone Records

Local buzz band Ice Palace already has drawn comparisons to the Decemberists, whose current album, The Crane Wife, was the No. 1 record in our Top 89 of 2006. Released last week on Speakerphone Records—a local label run by Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota and the Hopefuls—Ice Palace’s debut, Bright Leaf Left (not to be confused with Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left), is a beautifully melancholic and jittery nod to Northern rock, from the Pacific Northwest to the shores of Lake Superior.

The band name is sort of a misnomer, given the fact that the four-piece's rough-around-the-edges rock is burnished with Sarah Schneeberger’s somber and warm keys and Dan Greenwood's skittering, summer beats. (Adam Sorenson and Sam Needham provide vocals and guitar.) And though their sound is purely North Country, during these mid-March-like days the name “Ice Palace” tends to conjure images of winters in St. Petersburg instead of St. Paul. Still, the band’s simultaneously frenetic and gloomy tune, “Nuance and Spark,” has lodged itself deep into our frozen hearts, making us melt faster than a drippy Winter Carnival sculpture. We ask Sorenson and Schneeberger to answer our questions in two sentences or less.

Continue reading "Hubris Are You? A Q&A with Ice Palace"

Putting the Rock into Iraq?

Posted at 4:12 PM on January 9, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis

Take that, Al Jazeera: MTV is apparently preparing to launch an Arabic channel.

Not clear whether this qualifies as some sort of reverse anti-intifada. But if you were looking for a weapon to fight rampant anti-Americanism in Islamic countries... well, let's just say maybe you want to start with the Pillsbury Doughboy or the Michelin Man before trying to sell them one of the Western world's most decadent and vacuous corporate brands.