The Creative Minds Behind MPLS.TV BY BECKY LANG

It’s Saturday afternoon, and the core unit of MPLS.TV’s 100-plus volunteers is standing in a hot studio sipping cans of Coke and preparing for nudity — lots of it.

Ryan Warner , their executive creative producer, is hiding in a curtain, naked, with only a green piece of construction paper taped on like a palm leaf. The leaf will be turned into flesh-colored pixels upon editing.

No, MPLS.TV has not sold out and started shooting porn to earn extra cash. They’re shooting a 45-second comedy segment for their upcoming fundraising week/launch of daily supported content.

Part of the purpose of the fundraiser is to raise awareness of just what MPLS.TV is. You may have seen their stickers plastered all over Dinkytown business establishments, or you may have caught a few of their segments on which they collaborated with City Pages, like “Hip Hop High” or their “Best of The Twin Cities ” series.

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Profile: A Paper Cup Band BY RAGHAV MEHTA

If Rivers Cuomo , Stephen Malkmus and Beck were ever sitting together on a loveseat during a nuclear blast and became fused together like Siamese triplets, the result would probably end up sounding something like A Paper Cup Band’ s latest album. Their third release, “Sitting Shotgun to a Statue” is chock-full of facetious non-sequiturs and ’90s low-fi pop, channeling everything from the disheveled slacker-sounds of Pavement to sunny Weezer-like geek rock.

This Friday, A Paper Cup Band will unveil their latest concoction, joining the stage with local acts like Zombie Season and Teenage Moods at the Hexagon Bar .

With a nasally yelp and wry wit, 26-year-old singer/guitarist Andrew Jansen weaves mopey tales of failed romance and quirky social interactions over arrangements that drift away from their signature brand of “bastard-folk,” ultimately gravitating toward a more polished pop-rock sound.

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Good Will Hunting Club BY MARK BRENDEN

If you think the Age of Irony has killed all the earnest, enterprising bands in our post-2000s purgatory, I present to you Hunting Club .

The band — whose solemn sounds have the mind of Elliot Smith, the ear of Brian Wilson, the stomach of the Pixies and the hooves of White Rabbits — will present their self-titled follow-up to last year’s buzzed “Pretty/Ugly” EP to an eager crowd at Sauce Spirits and Soundbar on Friday.

With some positive online reviews already under its belt, the event is sure to up their momentum.

Three members of the five-member band, formed in 2008, hail from the small town of New Richmond, Wisconsin, with the other two raised in St. Paul. Member Kyle Steen is a sociology senior at the University of Minnesota.

Their rich and textured self-titled LP, in classic Beatles, Jay-z and Spinal Tap -fashion, is aka “The Plaid Album” due to its, well, plaid album artwork.

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Hello Minnesota press and readers. Just want to say that this is my (Becky Lang’s) last week at the Minnesota Daily. I will now be spending some time in the advertising world. The new A&E editor is Mark Brenden (mbrenden@mndaily.com), if you want to get in touch with him about anything. I’ve enjoyed writing in the Tumblr-verse and hope the next A&E generation will keep up the tradition. Thanks!

Becky Lang (lang0750@gmail.com)

Mike from screen printing troupe Burlesque of North America announced today that Co Exhibitions, a collaborative space started by BRLSQ and Permanent, will open above First Amendment Arts on Stinson and Broadway. The space will feature collaborative shows by Doomtree and Michael Gaughan, among others.

Read the press release for more

mustacherobots:

Taste of MN takes a major step forward with the booking of Janelle Monae this year. Sure they still have more typical Taste fare like Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms, Lou Gramm and Sammy Hagar, but here are some other highlights of the upcoming fest: 

Friday, July 2 

City Pages’ Big Music Tent
o Retribution Gospel Choir - 2:45 p.m.
o Dawes - 4:30 p.m.

BT’s Party in the Park
o Haley Bonar - 1:30 p.m.
o Communist Daughter - 3:30 p.m. 

The Main Stage -Presented by 89.3 The Current
o Minus The Bear - 5:00 p.m.
o Janelle Monae - 6:05 p.m.

Sunday, July 4 

BT’s Party in the Park
o The New Standards - 4:00 p.m. 

Monday, July 5 

City Pages’ Big Music Tent
o Heiruspecs - 3:45 p.m.

A Song A Day

Dance Or Die (Feat. Saul Williams) by Janelle Monáe from The ArchAndroid

Ready, set, Soundset! BY MARK BRENDEN

In the humbler corners of our great Midwest, folks’ image of a hip-hop festival is likely one of 50,000 yahoos donning baggy pants that holster 100,000 9- mms and 200,000 baggies of crack cocaine. Worry not, though, mothers of Shakopee, there’s no need to rush the family to Grandma’s this weekend when the area’s perennial one-day hip-hop showcase, Soundset, invades your suburban Shangri-La.

On the contrary, Minneapolis hip-hop is decent and sophisticated. Its major players include a pacifist Qur’an- thumper, an introspective storyteller who advocates “painting shit gold” and a collective of educated street poets.

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The History of Aesthetic Apparatus BY BECKY LANG

Their first studio was on First Avenue in the space where the OM restaurant currently resides. In its glory days, they explained, the building housed artists who could operate in a totally unrestricted manner, counting Scott Seekins among the inhabitants.

At one point the duo recorded a “scream print” video that demonstrated screen printing techniques while they screamed throughout the entire production, gaining nary a landlord complaint.

Eventually the building was sold to a less Bohemian owner and they moved to Seward, where they enjoy their quiet new location for its proximity to the Midtown Greenway and the light rail.

Fans are welcome to stop by the sprawling space and page through boxes of prints and gaze at their floor-to-ceiling drying racks.

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Bands, brews and bowling at Memory Lanes BY RAGHAV MEHTA

Raghav interviewed Total Babe and Bethany Larson of Bethany Larson and the Bee’s Knees to give readers info about two bands with growing buzz.

Clara Salyer of Total Babe:

You got into music at an early age. Who were your biggest influences then?

I started taking music lessons when I was 12. As cliché as it sounds, I was just a classic rock child. My teacher was pretty immersed in the music scene here. He kind of introduced me to every kind of music I listen to now. I listen to The Who every day now, Lou Barlow, Pavement, Sleater Kinney … stuff like that.

Favorite thing about the Minneapolis scene?

There are world-renowned musicians in every music genre you can think of. I think it’s pretty cool to have people from all sides of the spectrum right here and they’re all exceptional.

If you could collaborate with any living artist who would it be?

Lou Barlow.

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Learning the Art of Print BY BECKY LANG

I covered The Highpoint Center for Printmaking’s exhibition of work by the artists who held the Jerome Emerging Printmaker Residency.

Expect to hear plenty of buzz around exhibitor and University of Minnesota alumnus Miles Mendenhall, who will be a contestant on Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” which premieres June 9. Mendenhall has created everything from abstract sculptures to colorful illustrations. His Highpoint residency was spent using black and white patterns to explore the computer threshold between visual imagery and nonsense.

In contrast to Mendenhall’s conceptual series of prints are painter Justin Terlecki’s travel prints, inspired by his sketchbooks from India and Spain. Terlecki, a graduate of Youngstown State University in Ohio , went through the painstaking process of etching out his prints on a lithography stone and then adding up to 30 layers of color using silkscreen.

“I just like drawing figures and drawing a story, trying to create an atmosphere where the viewer can immerse themselves into the picture,” Terlecki explained.

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Mpls. Street Food 101 BY RAGHAV MEHTA

Raghav caught up on how the food is tasting after the ordinance passed. He had a hell of a time catching up with the food carts though. A&E recommends following them on Twitter.

Chef Shack

Opening in 2007, Chef Shack has earned a reputation for being Minneapolis’ definitive street vendor, offering a variety of unique delicacies that include beef tongue tacos and vegan beer brats. Operating as a mobile kitchen, Chef Shack is run by experienced cooks Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson.

Chef Shack’s soft shell crab sandwich is a savory mixture of mixed greens, pesto, tartar sauce and tomato. Priced steeply at $10, the sandwich is uniquely delicious and well worth the cost.

Along with Chef Shack’s more creative foods are simpler treats that include Indian spiced mini donuts and hand-cut french fries with bacon ketchup. Perhaps the only downside to the Chef Shack is its cost, with prices ranging from $5 to $10. The Chef Shack is currently open at Kingfield and Mill City farmers markets and has two more locations opening in June in Northeast and Uptown.

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ALL PHOTOS BY THE MINNESOTA DAILY PHOTOGRAPHERS EXCEPT FOR BETHANY LARSON (COURTESY BETHANY LARSON) AND TOTAL BABE (COURTESY JANE GARDNER)

Burlesque of North America is having a spring cleaning sale this weekend, and it’s full of goodies, including posters, test prints and even home furniture. Check it out at First Amendment Arts, which is in the basement of a creepy industrial building at 1101 Stinson Blvd. N.E. (by the quarry and 35W).

Friday, May 28 12-8 p.m.

Saturday, May 29 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Check out the Facebook event for more details

-Becky

I interviewed screen-printing duo Aesthetic Apparatus on Friday for this Wednesday’s paper. Me and photographer Matt Mead interrupted their lunch to talk squeegees while they showed us their personal artifacts. Check out their “Scream Printing” video, made in their old location where OM Restaurant currently resides.

The story is a preview for their AAXI: A Decade of Aesthetic Apparatus, One Year Late show at MCAD. It opens this Friday. Check out the Facebook Event for more details.

-Becky

The Rogue Buddha gallery was like walking into an antiquated opium den. It smelled like wood and incense and the art was full of old trinkets and masterful oil portraits. The pieces by Michael Thompson were particularly detailed and mystifying.

Grain belt painting by Mike Welton

Painting by Megan Moore

On the wall in Northrup King

Broken Crow, M.F.-ing cool as always, even though someone complained that their “animal imagery was offensive.”

Portrait by Mike Wohnoutka

Scary bunny by D.C. Ice

The letterpress at Angel Bomb

Their drawers of typefaces. Yes, they used to exist in real space and time, not just on Microsoft Word.

An art car!

Becky recommends: Next time you’re in the Northrup King, visit Susan Elnora Jewelery - Curiosities in studio 435. Susan Frerichs uses animal imagery in dark, minimalistic silver jewelry that is trendy but different than the super indie owl rings and bird necklaces at your average boutique. She was wearing a power line necklaces that was not yet for sale, and it was her best piece of all. I couldn’t find a website, but if anyone knows differently, let me know (lang0750@gmail.com) and I’ll post it.

-Becky

fuckyeahlastpromonearth:

IS TONIGHT

PHOTO

GAYNGS prom is tonight. What are you going to wear?

The fashionista’s still blogging, stylish scholars. Here’s her interview with Jane Belfry.

Jane Belfry (aka Magnitude) is not only a living, breathing incarnation of hot chicks like Pattie Boyd and Marianne Faithfull, but also a local super-stylist who produces lush, devastatingly chic work - I particularly love the stuff she does with photographer Jenn Cress. With her tumble…