Chris Roberts has hosted The Local Show on the Current (KCMP-FM 89.3) since January, featuring live performances from such offbeat Minnesota bands as the Birthday Suits, the Owls, and Mel Gibson and the Pants. Airing Sundays at 5:00 p.m., the program takes the participatory spirit of MPR's pop-music experiment seriously. "I've gone out and actually gone to clubs to get requests," says Roberts. "I'll take my microphone and recorder and just ask people what they want to hear. I'm still in need of music, believe it or not. There's a lot of bands that just haven't sent me anything."
minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/local_show/.
Related Content
More About
Myspace.com replaced "the demo CD" this year for new bands and artists, freeing up shelf space for booking agents and critics. The free but private website allows bands to post music, concert information, and lists of favorite foods with alluring ease. "MySpace exists for one reason," wrote a skeptic at the message board TCPunk.com. "They comb through all of this data, seeking and finding patterns with which they can better manipulate the consumer class into ever-greater consumption." But half of the local music scene joined anyway. "It's a perfect 'ghetto' web page for those who can't afford a fancy one," says Ear Candy's Dawn Miller. myspace.com
Toki Wrighttoured with Brother Ali this year, performed locally with the C.O.R.E. and Aphrill (featuring Nomi of Kill the Vultures), appeared on MTV's Made, and co-organized the three-day Twin Cities Celebration of Hip-Hop at First Avenue. This winter he takes a break from working at the nonprofit youth group Yo! the Movement to travel to Rwanda, where he plans to bring Tutsi and Hutu youth groups together using hip hop. "Being a rap star is a good thing, but I'm more concerned with doing right by people," he says, "and trying to get some equality going for everybody. The thing that irks me about the scene is that a lot of promoters avoid kids of color, avoid kids that look hard, avoid kids that wear long T-shirts and fake platinum jewelry. Kids are kids. Give folks an opportunity to fuck up first." www.amplifiedlife.com
Motion City Soundtrack enjoyed a motion-filled year, playing the Warped Tour, the Nintendo Fusion Tour, and headlining their own sold-out tour of the U.K. (They headline First Avenue on Saturday.) Still, singer-guitarist Justin Pierre was slightly cowed accepting an MTVU Woodie Award for the band's video "Everything Is Alright"—off this year's Commit This to Memory (Epitaph). "I said I felt like Halle Berry," says Pierre of his moment of truth, embarrassed. He's more comfortable dodging bottles from disgruntled fans of bands he's opening for. "It's like a little game of dodgeball while you're trying to play a song. It's kind of fun." www.motioncitysoundtrack.com
