It’s finally here–The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn’s solo record “Clear Heart Full Eyes.” You can listen to the full album streaming on NPR for the next couple days with an intro from The Current’s own Jill Riley.

From your big MN family to you and your loved ones, Happy Holidays. Enjoy the season wherever you are and may you go big in 2012… whatever that means to you.

Contribute to MN Culture Club in 2012
If you have something you’d like to contribute to the blog, contact us at nice@mncultureclub.com.

We got a very short/kind email from Emily of Daymoths a few weeks ago asking if we’d like a preview of the new album. We did. We also enjoyed. Then, we failed to spread the word. Tonight, Daymoths will take the stage at Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis alongside The Chambermaids, Winners, and Paul Engels & Ryan Thompson. The show is $5. You can hear a few of their tracks on the band site here. According to Emily, they’ve been getting some comparisons to Portishead, Kate Bush, and the like. We can see that.

Sorry for the half-assed post but we really did like our listen and would love to see them live if we were in Mpls tonight. So go, and tell us what you think!

From their site:

Daymoths is a two-piece pop-rock ensemble from the Twin Cities, Minnesota featuring Emily Dantuma on piano/organs and vocals and Ollie Dodge on drum kit and vocals.

This most recent endeavor in their careers has brought them to a stripped down, spacious sound. It is easy on the ears, but still carries hints of the edgy, experimental perspectives these two have become known for in larger bands throughout the past decade as members of Vox Vermillion, Company Inc., and Mr. Mustachio.
Sentimental, but not overly fluffed or cheesed out, solid groovable beats hold down driving piano riffs and meaty organ tones while Dantuma’s sweet serenade becomes a sirens wail at just the right moment.

“Back in Time” Daymoths debt full length album is being release in Dec 2011. Look for them on tour January-March in the Midwest and South.

But they don’t mind New York City, either

In a past life, I had the distinct displeasure of waiting tables. For five years, I served delicious [read: super unhealthy] food and offered heavenly beverages [punished people with booze]. The one saving grace [potential deal breaker] was the local bands that would play during my shifts.

It was a welcomed rarity when I heard a band that made my night easier. However, even if the music was good, most of the time, the customers were not. In fact, the better the music, the rowdier the crowd. The tastier the bass lines, the nastier the women. The longer the guitar solos, the sloppier the dudes.

One weekend in 2008, I was working at the Kitty Cat Klub in Dinkytown. Farewell Milwaukee was just starting to gig frequently and they were on the roster for the night.

“That was a time when we weren’t really sure what we were doing,” guitarist and vocalist Ben Lubek said. “We were just trying to figure everything out.”

Then, something delightfully bizarre happened as I listened to the band’s Ryan Adams-esque, honey-dripping three-part harmonies sung enthusiastically over heart-wrenching Americana-style chords.

I was – how does one say this – enjoying myself? I greeted my customers with more than a smile. I almost hugged a few of them. I didn’t mind the bad tippers. I mean, it was probably my fault anyway. I kept stopping and ogling the band. And not in that Oh-em-gee-I-love-musicians-and-they’re-all-so-dreamy kind of way. It was more of a wow-this-is-really-good-music-and-where-the-heck-did-these-guys-come-from thing.

But it wasn’t just the music. It was the homegrown, Midwestern kindness that radiated from the stage. Not that passive-aggressive crap with which we’re all so very familiar. Instead, it was that genuine humility that defines authenticity.

Fast-forward a few years and they’ve released two records (the second one is much happier than the first), played in several cities, landed a spot on the Cities97 Sampler Volume 23, and they have a plentiful, national following.

It’s not all about the organic mentality or the music, which sounds like a hot toddie tastes on December evening. There’s something else. This something makes these guys remarkably different than most bands and ultimately connects them to the foundation of MN Culture Club. While most musicians hope to make it big on either coast, living in a perpetual party and making millions, the guys from Farewell Milwaukee are content right where they are. Back home in the Midwest. “I think a lot of bands have been able to stay in their hometowns and be successful,” keyboardist and background vocalist Adam Lamoureux said. “It’s about taking advantage of where you are, and we’re doing just that,” drummer Brad Fox said. “We’re happy to be in the Midwest.”

Adam, Ben, Brad, Aaron Markson (guitar and vocals), and Kyle Magstadt (bassist) all met through jobs, college and seeing each other at shows. By day, they’re pretty normal – working nine-to-fives to pay the bills (don’t call them weekend warriors though, Kyle got real weird about it when I asked). They’re all happily married to unsurprisingly gorgeous women who support and love the men as they venture on their journey. In fact, the sophomore record – When It Sinks In – is heavily laced with lyrics about Ben’s wife.

While the guys are planning on enjoying the view from flyover country for quite a while, they’re excited to play Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on Monday, December 5th (that’s tonight). This isn’t their first time in New York, however. In August, they played the same venue and shot some video around town while they were visiting.

When I complimented the band on a job well done three years ago, I meant it. And when they said thank you, it was sincere. If you’re looking for a little taste of back west authenticity, earthy jams and thoughtful lyricism, head to Rockwood Music Hall on Monday, Dec. 5 around 11 p.m. The show is 21+.

To hear tunes, buy records and learn more about the band, visit their website.

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This post was contributed by Tatum Fjerstad. To find out how you can be a contributor, contact contributors@mncultureclub.com.

PRESS RELEASE:
The highlight of this exhibition is the personal collection of original Polaroids taken by Robert Whitman of his friends partying in his apartment in Minneapolis in the early 80s.

In F***ed Up In Minneapolis, the New York-based photographer Robert Whitman has fashioned both a tribute to his formative years as an artist and a group self-portrait defining the 80′s through the individuals who were the willing participants of the scene. Arranged throughout the gallery space, these Polaroids possess an uncanny power and comprise, over time, a phantom-like collection of people dreaming of and playing in other realities, even as, together, they offer a memorial to collective experience.

Robert Whitman did not begin his career in photography until he was in his mid-twenties, and has worked for numerous magazines, including Travel & leisure, Allure, and Glamour. Throughout his career he has been documenting the experience of a place or a perception in time.

F***ed Up In Minneapolis runs December 9th through January 14th at Black & White Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There is an opening reception from 6-10pm on December 9th.