Ben Ivascu

Top 10 must-see Minnesota music videos this week

Local Frames is a weekly column spotlighting the best new music videos featuring musicians and directors with Minnesota ties. This week we get into things with a brand new video from the Minneapolis trio Is/Is, a hazy, diamond-vision clip that captures the enthralling spirit of their new single, "H ... More >>

Marijuana Deathsquads remix P.O.S., plan tour with Solid Gold

It's truly a great time to be part of Marijuana Deathsquads. In addition to their engrossing "Music Rocks" May residency at Icehouse (which continues tonight with an MDS rap set, as well as a performance by Lizzo alongside Lazerbeak and Cliff Rhymes as they bring LIZZOBANGERS to life, and DJ Plain O ... More >>

Shapeshifter's Tim Ritter: I love the indie scene here like my own kids

While grunge broke out of the Pacific Northwest in the early '90s, there was something different happening in the Twin Cities. Bands here were far more influenced by what was happening in the U.K., and a vital and volatile shoegaze/Krautrock/dreampop scene materialized. Sadly, many of those bands we ... More >>

Polica at First Avenue, 4/24/13

Polica With Ronia and Night Moves First Avenue, Minneapolis Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Channy Leaneagh is a dancer. She is an animated stage actor and makes eye contact with an audience as a whole as if it were one person. That's all in addition to Polica's intoxicating musicality. Listening to the ... More >>

STNNNG: All real, no frills

Local music vets work with the legendary Steve Albini on Empire Inward

P.O.S. releases We Don't Even Live Here at First Avenue, 10/26/12

P.O.S. With Marijuana Deathsquads, Mike Mictlan, Audio Perm, the Tribe and Big Cats!, and DJ Ander Other First Avenue, Minneapolis Friday, October 26, 2012 P.O.S. was determined that his sold-out show at First Avenue on Friday night was nothing but a dance party, casting aside any lingering sombe ... More >>

Local Frames: New videos from Bon Iver, P.O.S., Craig Finn, the Blind Shake, and more

See Also: Local Frames: New videos from the Hood Internet, the Pines, Grimes, and more Local Frames: New videos from Poliça, Paper Tiger, Sleep Study, and more Local Frames: New videos from Now, Now, Howler, Bloodnstuff, Astronautalis, and more As the Twin Cities music scene grows, more and more ... More >>

P.O.S. debuts "Bumper" video via City of Music

See Also:Wanna be in the P.O.S. "Get Down" music video?Summit Backyard Bash announces all-local lineupP.O.S. finally comes into his own with Never BetterA new era in the twisted evolution of Stef Alexander is upon us. The rapper known to most as P.O.S. has released the first single from his fourth s ... More >>

Polica play "Leading to Death" on Jimmy Fallon (VIDEO)

Related:Trampled by Turtles play "Alone" on LettermanPolica: Wandering star Channy Leaneagh finds her pathJust a day after Trampled by Turtles made their TV debut on Late Show With David Letterman, another Minnesota-bred act hit the national airwaves. Polica brought their multi-emotion, two-drum att ... More >>

Marijuana Deathsquads' Boston Massacre at Turf Club, 4/20/12

Wade Boggs' Wicked Boston Baked Bash with Marijuana Deathsquads, Weird Boggs, Plain Ole Bill, Baby Boys Turf Club, St. Paul Friday, April 20, 2012 When the details were posted no one could've been fully prepared for this gig. The bizarre promo video didn't exactly clarify things either. The lineup ... More >>

SXSW: Polica as the road team

​Some of you may know that our recent cover darlings Polica, a local band of note filled with members of other local bands of note, is in Austin this week for South by Southwest. Billboard magazine knows it, because they're the ones who who hosted the group's showcase at ACL Live, aka the spot whe ... More >>

Total Fucking Blood laying total fucking waste to Turf Club at CD release show

​After finishing up a brief tour in support of local buzz band Poliça and Marijuana Deathsquads (which surely must have exhausted omnipresent drummer Ben Ivascu), Total Fucking Blood return home just in time for their highly anticipated record release show at the Turf Club tonight. The explosi ... More >>

Polica: Wandering star Channy Leaneagh finds her path

Singer okay with vulnerability on Give You the Ghost

Poliça's Album Release Show at First Avenue, 02/14/12

​Poliça and Brute HeartFirst Avenue, MinneapolisTuesday, February 14, 2012View a slideshow from the concert here.If Twin Cities music fans hadn't completely fallen for Poliça before their sold-out record release show at First Avenue, they certainly did by the end of their stirring Valentine's ... More >>

The Current's 7th birthday party at First Avenue, 1/28/12

​The Current's 7th Birthday Party, Day 2With Polica, Suicide Commandos, Sims, and Haley BonarFirst Avenue, MinneapolisSaturday, January 28, 2012View a slideshow from the concert here and coverage of night one here.Was it arrogant of the Current to think that a two-night birthday was appropriate? W ... More >>

Poliça's Mariah Carey connection revealed

​Polica's in-studio performance featuring an interview with the Current's Mark Wheat recently hit NPR, not MPR, but the national one. With an impressive number of camera angles, we get a look at "Wandering Star" and "The Maker" that's not unlike any number of professionally created music videos in ... More >>

Father You See Queen, the Cloak Ox, and Marijuana Deathsquads at the Entry, 01/20/12

​Father You See Queen, the Cloak Ox, and Marijuana Deathsquads7th St. Entry, MinneapolisFriday, January 20, 2012Check out a slideshow from the concert here.Father You See Queen turned the 7th St. Entry into an art house cinema on Friday night, fluidly blending their moody, ethereal music with pr ... More >>

Doomtree Entry show announcement--P.O.S.' special guests on Wednesday

​It's certainly been a real pleasure getting to share all of these Doomtree special guest reveals with all of you fans throughout the week. After the big announcements from Sims, Mike Mictlan, and Dessa earlier in the week, we're still not done yet. Not by a long shot. Today, we've got the lineup ... More >>

Poliça at the Turf Club, 11/7/2011

Photo By Zoe Prinds-Flash​PoliçaNovember 7, 2011Turf ClubIt takes a special band to completely enthrall an audience with a bunch of songs that most of the crowd hasn't even heard before. And that was indeed the case with Poliça's sold-out show at the Turf Club Monday night, as the band played ... More >>

Ray Davies, Culture Cry Wolf, and more

Polica

Picked to Click 2011

The Cloak Ox, Night Moves, and more

Polica make their debut, head east to open for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Photos by Ben LaFond​The crowd that had gathered at Nick and Eddie on Sunday for the debut of Polica, the new band led by Channy Moon Casselle of the recently split Twin Cities favorite Roma di Luna, was teeming with excitement. The little that has been heard of Polica so far on the band's web ... More >>

Czeslaw's Loop unites dozens of local musicians for massive riverside Art-A-Whirl project

​What started as an annual tradition during Art-A-Whirl has now transformed into a project of monumental proportions. Previously known as the Boat Project, which would invite local noise and experimental rock bands to play on the roof of a houseboat and out in the middle of the Mississippi River b ... More >>

Mike Watt and the Missingmen at the Turf Club, 4/18/11

Photos by Tony Nelson​Mike Watt and the Missingmen, with STNNNG April 18, 2011 Turf Club Oh, for the love of plaid, seeing Mike Watt perform live is really something special.

STNNNG playing tour kick-off show at the Loring Theater

​By what I'm reading on everybody's online twits, the cool thing this week for a band to do is to pack up their van and skinny jeans and head south to Austin, Texas to razzle and dazzle the flocks of hipsters at the SXSW attention contest. As an alternative, frenetic spazz rock combo, STNNNG will ... More >>

Marijuana Deathsquads raid the West Coast

Ryan Olson, P.O.S., Har Mar wrap up their residency

Marijuana Deathsquads: Behind-the-scenes video at the Sound Gallery

​In addition to training their 15 video cameras on Marijuana Deathsquads for one of the darker and more experimental City of Music videos we've seen, MPLS.TV created a short behind-the-scenes video explaining the set-up at the Sound Gallery and interviewing the band about their performance.

Picked to Click 2010

Pink Mink lead the pack in our 20th annual best-new-bands poll

STNNNG behind the music

An oral history of Smoke of My Will

STNNNG talks about starting STNNNG

​In this week's print edition infamous legends STNNNG talk about the long process of recording their new album, Smoke of My Will, in a sort of oral history hodge-podge conducted over the course of several interviews. There was much left out of that piece, so Gimme Noise thought it would be a good ... More >>

Double Bird kicks off tour at Turf Club with Voytek, Bird Sounds, and Puppies and Trains

Sharyn Morrow​12-hour day at work, a full sweaty night of band practice, and I was dead on my feet last night, but with Double Bird kicking off their tour at the Turf Club, there was no way I was going to end my night early. Apparently a good number of other folks had the same idea, as the T ... More >>

Double Bird's Dave Storberg talks beer, bands, and the Rockin' East Side

Greg Schaal​ ​ Co-vocalist and guitarist for Double Bird, Dave Storberg, grew up a metal kid and comic book store employee on Saint Paul's East Side, discovering punk via Brad Johnson, guitarist for Mondo Trasho and Impaler, and a regular customer at the shop. "He became a big brother f ... More >>

Ben Ivascu on crushing the drums: Nine bands, no waiting

Photo by Erik Hess​"Ben is kind of The Dude....he's a maniac and he holds it down so hard." High praise from Stef Leron "POS" Alexander, but drummer Ben Ivascu lives up to the hype every single time he plays. And chances are that he's playing right now. In a set of cities blessed with some o ... More >>

POS tears it up at the Turf in preparation for Coachella

POS knows how to shake things up.

Modern Radio celebrates 10 years at Turf and Cedar

Two nights of shows vegan cupcakes and cookies discounted wieners hot young groupies paparazzi = Modern Radio 10-year anniversary celebration.

Arcwelder travel back in time at the Turf Club

The crowd knew every song by heart.

The STNNNG and the Hypstrz give shelter from the storm at the Turf

It was a room full of old friends drawn out for a night of partying and great rock and roll.

Picked to Click 2009: Red Pens voted Twin Cities' best new band

Celebrating the 10 winners of this year's best-new-bands poll