T5. The Shin's "Chutes Too Narrow" artwork he best defense against everyone downloading your album for free is to add irresistible artwork. On The Shin's second album, "Chutes Too Narrow," the cover features...

The Decemberists do not sound as though they come from our time. So when the independent label Kill Rock Stars reissued the Decemberists' album "Castaways and Cutouts" several months ago, it seemed the...

There are two paths for Twin Cities musicians who want to make it big. Either you blow up into a major national act and don't look back (the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Prince), or you can...

Broadcast is caught in technology. They create their music through a series of sliced and distorted 1's and 0's resulting in a vast landscape of atmospheric and distant sound that is cold and ethereal....

Madison Square Garden represents the big time. The biggest venue in New York is reserved for the biggest names in music. A place for rock stars. It's hard to imagine Low, the trio from Duluth, Minn., playing...

Much of the sex appeal of pop stars comes from our insecurities. We idolize them because their skin is smoother, their breasts are perkier, their six-packs are firmer and they have cellulite-free thighs. They...

Ben Gibbard's vocals carry a rare honesty. The Death Cab For Cutie frontman sings in a light, airy voice which comes across as shy and innocent. That combination sucks you into DCFC's albums - for you...

By now, Outkast fans realize the new Outkast album is not exactly an Outkast album. Rather, the duo splits into two separate solo albums - Big Boi's "Speakerboxxx" and Andre 3000's "The Love Below." But...

The Mark Mallman you see in concert is not the same Mallman you get on an album. To Mallman, his albums represent his reflective process, something very internal. Often, the most personal and confessional...

Gravity is, for the most part, a good thing. Without it, we would wander aimlessly around the universe, probably running into the sun. The music that surrounds us every day - the music that is more conventional,...

A concert can make or break a band. If a band whose every record sits in your record collection sounds awful live, it's a huge disappointment. It does not mean you will never listen to the band again,...

Maybe it's something in the water, but the Twin Cities are breeding grounds for musicians. From the Trashmen to "Funkytown," there's always been something exciting happening around here. Every week a hefty...

Sometimes music which bears truly intimate and personal emotions causes a feeling of guilt. You feel you shouldn't be hearing it, like you're spying. This feeling especially arises in old crackly blues...

The Twin Cities music scene adored The Plastic Constellations. With a reputation for gleefully jumping up and down at shows to their quirky indie-rock and lead singer Jeff Allen's vocal similarity to the...

Unknown Prophets with CunninLynguists, Juice and Kanser 5 p.m. Sunday First Avenue Main Room $8/$10, all ages The Unknown Prophets, one of the Twin Cities more talented hip-hop groups, have put together...

Q and Not U have no time for refrains. They say what needs to be said and then move on to the next song. While most artists rely on a repeated chorus for catchiness, Q and Not U's songs are catchy because...

Outside the Loring Pasta Bar sits an over-30 crowd on their lunch breaks. Alongside, a few vintage-clad hipsters sip wine or suck on cigarettes to the ambient sounds of indie-darlings Sigur Ros or a breezy...

As promised in last week's edition, here is a compendium of the Fringe Festival plays that the Daily's Arts staff was able to review. It is essential to remember that this group represents less than 4...

Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Queen and even Iron Maiden have all declared, "Only the good die young." It could easily be the slogan for rock 'n' roll. From suicide (Ian Curtis) to drug overdoses (Jimi Hendrix)...

Any area of innovation comes from the students," asserts theater director and University professor Kent Stephens. Recently, the University's Department of Theater Arts and Dance expanded from a standard...

Most high school English classes read an abridged version of "Moby Dick" partly because the original's 600-plus pages aboard a swaying ship leave many readers quite queasy. Even with the shortened version,...

For the most significant moments in life, it is not enough to simply keep them stored in memory. There needs to be evidence, physical evidence. A camera tags along on family road trips, ticket stubs are...

Religious beliefs aside, you have to admit, mythology with over 50 haughty gods and goddesses is much more entertaining than any of the monotheistic religions. Mythology offers lying, cheating, vengeance,...

Popular art and culture is obsessed with perfection. Top 40 radio plays songs with structured melodies, tight harmonies and tuned instruments. Magazines picture shiny hair, straight teeth and size 2 dresses....

Near 15th and Franklin is a club called the Nice Nice. Here, Night Club Dwight supplies Katrina, Juanita, Jenny and the raver kids with gallons of alcohol and distributes pills as if they were communion...

Produced by the University of Minnesota's School of Music, the concert series InterPlay has hosted a diverse lineup of world music and art for the 2002-2003 season. Performances by Latin percussionists...

On recent trips to Seattle and New York, two impressive cities for music, I ended up conversing with locals about the great Twin Cities music scene. It made me realize our scene is not merely admired by...

Rom culture carries a certain air of mystery. The Rom people, commonly called "Gypsies" in English-speaking countries, have lived in Europe for hundreds of years, interacting with officialdom as little...

On "The Sweet Unknown," James Apollo sets a scene of desert hot days cooled by nights at hole-in-the-wall bars filled with cigarette smoke and femme fatales. This piquant imagery is fashioned from twangy,...

When the members of the jazz trio Happy Apple begin to play, each appears to enter his own world. Saxophonist Michael Lewis wiggles up and down like a fish out of water. Drummer David King flails his arms...

Over the span of two albums and an EP, you can actually watch Martin Devaney grow up. On the EP "Whatever That Is," Devaney sounds as wide-eyed and anxious as a 3rd grader during show-and-tell. His first...

In support of her seventh album, "Scarlet's Walk," piano maven Tori Amos captivated a full audience at Northrop Auditorium on Saturday night. Backed by bassist Jon Evans and Matt Chamberlain on drums,...

Although 65-year-old jazz composer Andrew Hill says he feels "blessed to have a continuation with music," it is his listeners who are truly blessed. Since learning to play the piano at age 13, Hill has...

A little slice of "Livin' la Vida Loca" topped with somkebody named Lopez, and Boom! America has got itself a Latin music explosion. It all started when Ricky Martin shook his bon-bon in leather pants...

The Rolling River Music and Film Festival wasn't necessarily a bad dream ... it was just too big. In fact, the event which aspired to give St. Paul a much needed night-life boost sounded like a pretty...

The moment Ted Koppel announced that Nightline would be exploring the cultural phenomenon the kids call rap, the music's normally irresistible head-boppin' beats vanished. It is the same way that too much...