Three’s Company
Keeping up with themes
Although covering the same event three times may be flirting with disaster, my work with Duluth musicians has always been flirting with some sort of disaster – be it time or last minute changes. With this in mind, the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival 2016 series needed more time, focus, and dedication than any other year.
Perfect Duluth Day and I wanted to focus more on the musicians and stories behind their work. The other DHGMF series were more-or-less brief insights than short narratives. We selected bands that got us excited with either their music or their approach. Each group, in one way or another, had to get our attention; otherwise, who’d be interested?
Emily Haavik‘s musical upbringing is odd. If Emily’s childhood was defined by terrible “Christian contemporary music” while her teenage years were filled with “hardcore basement shows,” there isn’t a common ground between the two. Yet, Emily mixes the DIY chords of punk with the piano-driven melodies of church. The result takes audiences off guard.
Emily suggests that her approach was out necessity. With her work in local media and MPR, she can’t devote every moment to music. Picking up the pieces, writing when she can, and using a few spare moments to record, she places a few pieces of herself into each song. Everyone is a moment when people can venture into a privately dark world filled with doubt; for people who know Emily, her positive-can-do attitude conflicts with her music. She reminds people, sometimes, it’s necessary to express yourself when you only get a few chances in a lifetime.
Some people are always going against the odds. But, Gaelynn Lea reminds us that the odds can be beaten. Living on a musician’s wage, busking boardwalks, and playing in crowded restaurants doesn’t end in success for many. Her entry video for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert shows people that, in some cases, the odds are just numbers.
When I was approached with this project, it was my intention to save if not the best for last, the artist who embodies the entirety of the series. Gaelynn is a person who lives and breathes the Twin Ports, its music, and its turbulence. When I found out that she won the Tiny Desk Concert, I knew that the odds – no matter how great – can’t stop a person’s drive to live life.
Guests hardly get to pick the music. Host’s party. Host’s rules. Aaron Booth of Tallulah, as soon as I entered his apartment, made me a drink and let
me pick the music. His courtesy carried over. Band members Bryan Wentworth, Mike Staton, and Luke Mirua shared his chemistry. Over a course of four years, the group recorded an album, shelved it, wrote more songs, changed them, and then reorganized. Their underlining concern is creating a product worthy of their time. Bryan summarizes the core of the group: “If I think it sucks, then someone else is going to think it sucks too.”
What Tallulah leaves audiences with is “A Blue Painting,” a moody, post-punk piece about love and loss. It’s a brief look into how the group deconstructs and recreates itself within four minutes. Of all the music I heard during this series, it was the only song I couldn’t stop listening to.
The track “Villain” is the offspring of Public Enemy and Midwest hip-hop. Brandon Gordon, a Chicago-to-Minneapolis-to-Superior transplant, uses straight-laced delivery with his lyrics. I considered other hip-hop groups, but after hearing “I’m not your typical, typical/what hear on the radio/what you play on your iPod/so play on your stereo,” he was the only choice.
Brandon explains how each album works as an open diary. While The Wait is Over LP is a the story of a developing artist, the Love You Rap Insane Kid: The Brandon Gordon LP is a coming of age story – with confessions, anxieties, and moments of joy. Love You Rap Insane Kid: The Brandon Gordon LP is Brandon’s narrative and lets the listener follow him as he grows musically and personally.
Emma Rustan bridges a gap between lo-fi and art. She uses the moniker Ingeborg von Agassiz as a point of departure from herself and writes music with minimal elements. As a solo artist, she uses her prized possession, a ’90s era Yamaha keyboard, to build layers of sound. “Lonesome Way” takes audiences into a world filled with sparse landscapes and rich moods.
Emma’s musical career started as an accident when one of her friends invited her to play at a local festival. She dreamed of playing concerts when she was younger, but she never could get herself to do it. After her first solo show, she never turned back. And she isn’t stopping anytime soon.
As more young artists pour their hearts out during open mic night in dimly lit cafes, Lord Montague isn’t following suit. The group’s infectious blues rock resembles a heavier Taste or Deep Purple. The band’s second album The Cave loops together riffs into 20 minute long tracks, without sounding like a Phish cover band.
Lord Montague enters another odd time machine with The Cave. The album merges Plato’s “The Analogy of the Cave” with mass media and its effects on the public. There’s a subtleness to the record that makes the group look like members of a hippie commune rather than a hard-rock blues band. But, either case is a win.
Punk has been in Duluth since the late ’70s and early ’80s when local musicians like Tim Kaiser and Venus DeMars started their first band. Mind Control reflects an underground movement that has been within Duluth for decades years. The group’s S/T EP isn’t trying to win over the masses and it shouldn’t have to.
Guitarist Nicolai Mickelson wants to leave a lasting impression for future audiences. He hopes that 20 years in the future, when some 16 year old kid stumbles across the EP in a used record bin, the group’s work could show others that anyone can do it. Making good music doesn’t have to sound like everything else. It can be anything you put your heart into.
I first heard Rick McLean’s music when I stumbled across his song “St. James.” It sounds like if Guinness could sing. He even made a music video.
Yet, McLean’s music contradicts his life. His Coupla Focal EP is a sobriety record. He explains that a part of this EP was getting over drinking and the songs helped in that process. For Rick, music allows him to mix that “funny guy with a guitar” persona with brief shots of hard-hitting honesty. In the end, it makes for a good time.
Tony Bennet of the Duluth News Tribune addresses the elephant in the room with Glen’s Neighbor: “Let’s just get this out of the way: yes, Glen’s Neighbor sounds like a band that’s got a sizable debt to pay to Duluth’s Trampled By Turtles.” Since this was my first experience with the group, I had to take his word for it. After listening to “Longfellow’s Arrow,” I realized how the group crowdsourced other influences as well: Dave Mathews Band, Blues Traveler, and other ’90s alt-college rock. There was even hints country rock like Manson Profit and The Band. This doesn’t make a for a bad blueprint to start from.
Singer Blake Shippe sees the group as a testing ground for songwriting. Glen’s Neighbor began as a cover band under the name Whiskey-Tango that would play weekly at Duluth’s Sir Benedict’s. Shippee, who was college roommates with Tramped by Turtles’ Dave Simonett, notices how playing covers – although fun – couldn’t develop him as a musician and a songwriter like Simonett and other Duluth artists. He and the band encounter Glen’s Neighbor as a hobby like other adult could: instead of weekly meetings at the gun range or Masonic Temple, they play music. And love it.
Seminal friendships are moments that define people. How people act, treat others, and encounter problems can be traced to a few key friendships that lay these guidelines. Ruth Kay and Bailey are a living example of this: two friends who move as one. Or in their case, sing as one.
It’s nice to see two friends who support one another completely. During the interview, there are moments when they become almost in awe of the other. When Ruthe made a demo with J.D. Steele, Bailey’s amazement to her friend’s abilities were matched with Ruthe’s recognition for Bailey’s support and vocal prowess. They remind people how good friendships, at their core, are humbling.
