Email Author Rob van Alstyne

2010 Stories by Rob van Alstyne

• Beight return with big bag of hooks

  published November 17, 2010

  A fixture on the local club circuit in the mid-2000s, where they built a loyal following for their no-frills clean and crisp pop-rock sound on... More >>

• Two Hours Traffic

  published November 3, 2010

  With the long deep freeze of winter about to set in, the timing couldn't be better for Two Hours Traffic to bring their sunny and buoyant melodies... More >>

• Sufjan Stevens at the Orpheum, 10/16/10

  published Oct 18, 2010

  Sufjan StevensOctober 16, 2010The Orpheum TheaterPart awkward modern art installation and part captivating rock spectacle, Sufjan Stevens' epic Saturday night concert presented something of a pop musi... More >>

• Laarks

  published October 6, 2010

  All great rock albums are a delicate dance between chaos and control. Overly refined recordings with nary a hair out of place feel lifeless after... More >>

• Ben Weaver's Mirepoix and Smoke

  published October 6, 2010

  For more than a decade, Ben Weaver has cultivated riveting albums seemingly straight from the soil. From his earliest foot-stomping folk-blues... More >>

• Roma di Luna release Then The Morning Came

  published September 29, 2010

  While many a classic album has been forged from the birth of romantic relationships, precious few appear to have been inspired by... More >>

• Josh Ferris, Peter Bognanni

  published September 15, 2010

  Peter Bognanni and Joshua Ferris, two promising young novelists highly skilled in making the most of unconventional plot premises, meet up at... More >>

• Lazerbeak debuts Legend Recognize Legend

  published September 22, 2010

  Up til now, Aaron Mader has led a startlingly disparate double life on the local music scene. For nearly a decade, he was half of the... More >>

• Lost Shepherds find their way

  published September 15, 2010

  2008 was a tough year for Eben Stine. After souring on academia and dropping out of graduate school, Stine was sent further reeling by the... More >>

• Jenny and Johnny at the Cedar, 9/12/10

  published Sep 13, 2010

  Jenny & JohnnySeptember 12, 2010The Cedar Cultural CenterEven though she gave up movie work more than a dozen years ago to pursue music in earnest, Jenny Lewis in a sense remains an ambitious actr... More >>

• Estate

  published September 8, 2010

  Given local electro-pop trio Estate's penchant for popping up in the background of television programs (they've been bumped on Gossip... More >>

• Perfect Strangers

  published August 25, 2010

  A VOLUBLE AND borderline hyperactive interviewee, if one had to peg Joe Winterer's music based on his personality they could easily be... More >>

• Tokyo Police Club at the Varsity, 8/19/10

  published Aug 20, 2010

  Tokyo Police ClubAugust 19, 2010Varsity TheaterThe blogosphere can be a fickle mistress. Toronto quartet Tokyo Police Club went from teenaged basement band to playing every major music festival of 200... More >>

• National Bird debut The Rhythm of Our Science

  published August 4, 2010

  Combining their total years playing together and apart, National Bird's Dan Wenz and Casey Nelson have been in the local music trenches for... More >>

• A scattered Neil Young at Northrop Auditorium 07/29/2010

  published Jul 30, 2010

  While more than a decade of active music journalism has made me as jaded as the next overly critical jerk, that cynicism goes right out the window when it comes to Neil Young. Young was my first child... More >>

• Fort Wilson Riot debuts Predator/Prey

  published July 28, 2010

  Fort Wilson Riot has gone small in a big, big way. Starting life as part of a mammoth musical-theater experience—2007's critically... More >>

• Josh Ritter with the Minnesota Orchestra, 7/15/10

  published Jul 16, 2010

  Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band with the Minnesota OrchestraJuly 15, 2010Orchestra HallOf all the Dylan acolytes to make their mark thus far in the aughts, Idaho native Josh Ritter would seem to h... More >>

• Modest Mouse at the Orpheum Theater, 7/14/10

  published Jul 15, 2010

  Modest MouseJuly 14, 2010The Orpheum TheaterAlthough Modest Mouse front man and sole constant Isaac Brock just turned 35 years old, he already feels like a relic from another musical era in terms of h... More >>

• The Lower 48

  published July 7, 2010

  The Lower 48 are the second case of a rather disturbing trend of top-notch local talent relocating to Portland, Oregon. First came Haley Bonar's... More >>

• Ryan Paul & the Ardent

  published July 14, 2010

  With a reedy conversational singing voice that recalls Television's Tom Verlaine, a degree in working-man's rock riffs from the Drive By Truckers... More >>

• Thao and Mirah with the Most of All at the Cedar, 7/1/10

  published Jul 02, 2010

  Thao and Mirah with the Most of AllJuly 1, 2010The Cedar Cultural CenterA collaboration described in their press release to be "as accidentally intentional and charmed as a real-life love child," it w... More >>

• Ryan Paul & the Ardent at Bryant-Lake Bowl

  published June 30, 2010

  "Meet Me Where I Am," the first song on Ryan Paul Plewacki's debut album, paints a harrowing portrait of a young man in trouble: alone on the... More >>

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at Xcel, 6/22/10

  published Jun 23, 2010

  Now entering his fifth decade in the music biz, Tom Petty has reached that enviable point in his career where he could be easily forgiven for resting on his laurels and calling it a day. He'll turn 60... More >>

• Stone Arch Festival of the Arts: A music geek's guide

  published June 16, 2010

  Twin Citians disconsolate at missing out on the sold-out Rock the Garden fete at the Walker Art Center this weekend can seek solace another... More >>

• Chastity Brown releases High Noon Teeth

  published June 9, 2010

  A rocker with gospel grounding and a politically minded artist who largely writes about matters of the heart, Chasity Brown has a musical... More >>