Tuesday 11/2
Good Night Gold Dust and Moon Kissed at the Entry – TICKETS
One of my personal favorite local (STOP IT! Mankato is local!) bands is returning the Entry! Good Night Gold Dust’s 2016 debut studio EP shined a light on the Mankato-based indie-electronic quartet and found the band counted among the most exciting new acts in Minnesota, gaining praise from UK blog Clash Magazine, YVYNYL, and MPR’s 89.3 The Current, among other outlets. GNGD has also shared stages with national and international acts such as The Rural Alberta Advantage, Gordi, HÆLOS, and Middle Kids. Their sophomore studio EP It Could Have Been You (produced by Brett Bullion) is a moving collection of songs both meditative and urgent that explores ideas of isolation, loss, and recovery. Featuring dual lead vocalists Laura Schultz and Colin Scharf, GNGD’s dynamic live performance transforms the dreamscapes of their recordings into a powerful cinematic reality.
Moon Kissed are a not-a-girl band that makes bops that combine intense energy and confident, honest lyrics to establish an environment where it’s ok to be free and weird, but also — SAFE. This is paramount for the band.
Moon Kissed just released their new single “Strange Satisfaction,” with their second studio album I’d Like To Tell You Something Important due out on October 22nd. With a sold-out release show at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY coming up on album release day and a Music Hall of Williamsburg show already under their belts from earlier this month, the band is ready to hit the road and take the love beyond NYC. Their live shows are so intensely joy-generating that the The New York Times photographed a recent NYC show to answer the question: “What does it look like when a city returns to its senses?”
Crumb at the Fine Line – TICKETS
Crumb’s second album, Ice Melt, takes its name from the coarse blend of salts that you can buy from your local hardware store for $9.99. When sprinkled on your wintry steps, this mixture absorbs water and gives off heat, transforming the ice into a viscous, briney slush and, eventually, nothing at all. Beginning with the dynamic chaos of “Up & Down,” and ending with Crumb’s closest thing to a lullaby, Ice Melt’s ten tracks combine, like ice sculptures melting into a glistening puddle.
From the start, the group knew that cohesion was best achieved through plumbing their individual strengths— frontwoman Lila Ramani’s earliest songwriting, which catalyzed the group’s first two EPs; Bri Aronow’s knack for building (dis)affecting soundscapes; the hypnotic sounding of Jonathan Gilad’s drums, a Crumb mainstay; and Jesse Brotter’s distinctive bass-playing, which subtly traces Ramani’s vocal melodies while providing an unrelenting pulse. These collective skills make Crumb a project of independent self-discovery, four creative minds converging around an idea that is always shifting and reforming.
Convening in Los Angeles to work with producer Jonathan Rado, Crumb tapped into atmosphere-creation like never before, building experimental compositions that are at turns head-nodding and surrealist, energetic and euphoric. Ramani characterizes the album as a“return back down to earth,” a deeply felt examination of “real substances and beings that live on this planet.” It is also the cultivation of road-worn musicians exploring brand-new sounds and thematic concepts, pushing themselves into territory they could never have anticipated five years ago.
Thursday 11/4
Fires of Denmark at the Entry – TICKETS
Born, raised, and still residing in Rochester, MN, Terrill has played every role possible in a small music scene on the up-and-up: fronting bands, backing other artists, recording, producing, mixing, booking, and promoting shows…the list goes on. But it’s in Fires of Denmark’s soundscapes where the musical jack-of-all trades feels most at home. On their new album Relativity, due out in October of 2021, recorded during a week-long stay at the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Wisconsin, Terrill and his backing band The Technical Imperfections lay out a captivating sound. Driven by hypnotic beats and pulsating basslines, Relativity pairs the influence of Jonny Greenwood’s synthesizers and guitars with those LCD Soundsystem’s drum machines. Fires of Denmark is the synth dream art band you have been waiting to dance to.
