I am excited to be sharing my musical musings with you.  I love the Minneapolis-St. Paul music scene and want to share the shows I go to, the bands I like and other musical musings.  So you get to know me a little better here are my Best of 2011 lists.  Look for postings as I attend shows in the area.

“Just updating my concert spreadsheet (yes it is pathetic). After Tuesday’s Pink Mink show at Nick and Eddies it is 39 Concerts this year with over 60 bands seen. Thanks to all of my fellow concert goers this year and to my wife for tolerating my concert going habit! Shooting for 50 shows in 2012, let me know what you see that looks interesting.”

Top 5 Concerts of 2011:
1. Pink Mink Cruise (with Birthday Suits)
2. U2-Interpol (TCF Stadium)
3. Pizza Luce Block Party (4onthefloor, Communist Daughter and Koo Koo Kangaroo)
4. Liz Phair (Fine Line)
5. 4onthefloor (Triple Rock Thanksgiving Eve)

Top 5 Venues of 2011 (Leaving of First Avenue it is a given)
1. Turf Club-Neighborhood Bar+Hipster Hangout+really small bathroom
2. 7th Street Entry-Hit more shows in 2011 than I can remember, watching Hot Hot Heat with a stadium light show there was incredible.
3. Triple Rock-saw some great music here in 2011, good sight lines
4. Varsity Theater-really classed up the joint
5. Betsey Northrop-more bands should do a cruise, Pink Mink was incredible and ended up dancing the night away to the DJ skills of David Campbell

2011 Favorite Local Bands
1. Pink Mink-saw them five times this year, never try to miss a show, hoping for a second album in 2012. Chicks that rock are the best
2. Communist Daughter-new members and growth as a band
3. 4onthefloor-if you want to rock out, its the band to see
4. Jeremy Messersmith-great shows this year including his Words performance at the Fitz
5. Dessa-able to see her several times this year, cool that I share this with my son, Alex. Plus did an incredible cover of Prince’s “Never take the place of your Man”
6. Suburbs-not giving up on them. Always a great time at the show.
7. Twilight Hours-every time I see “Queen of Tomorrow” live I am singing it for days
8. The New Standards-Xmas show great again, true professionals. Try to not miss them.
9. Two Harbors-explain to me Chris Pavlich why the band doesn’t play more locally
10. Rogue Valley-first anyone who puts out four albums in a year is a feat plus they have the best merch girl, Youa Vang!”

2011 Ranking-my favorite back up singers and performers-these people work really hard and don’t always get a lot of credit:
1) Janey Winterbauer-my favorite Ascot! Got to meet her this year very nice person. Plus she is a hoot on Facebook and Twitter. Great to see her do “I Want Candy” at the New Years show. Plus I found a Astronaut Wife CD at Cheapo this year so I was able to go back to the early work!
2) Aby Wolf-ran into her backing up Dessa, they really perform well together. Then saw her perform a couple of songs at the TNS holiday show. Need to catch her with her own band.
3) Ken Chastain-this is the hall of fame version. First saw Ken when he was working with Semisonic and continue to enjoy his work. What piece of percussion does he not play?
4) Jacques Wait-give him an instrument, whether it is guitar with Twilight Hours or bass with Pink Mink and you can be sure he is going to sound great. Plus an excellent producer-check out Pink Minks Album to see what I am talking about
5) Molly Moore-when we first started seeing her with Communist Daughter I thought thatJohnny Solomon was pretty bright to put a pretty singer on stage. But as the band has matured so has Molly and her contributions to the band.