Today's Moment of Zen: Sarah Palin the VPILF?

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'Here I am taking my artwork and I’m putting it right in the dump'

Tonya Borgeson doesn't hate her ceramic creations, she just ... well, you might have to read my feature on her, "Water Preservation at the Center of Borgeson's Solo Show," to understand just what the hell she's getting at with that quote above. It's my second feature on this West Duluth artist (read the first one here), who runs Snoodle Ceramic Studio & Gallery and is an art instructor at Lake Superior College when she’s not concentrating on creating her own artwork.

Elsewhere in the bin...

"Neko Case has Spoken: She Wants to Be a Ninja" :: In anticipation of her performance at St. Scholastica Wednesday with Giant Sand, New Pornographer Neko Case talked to the Budgeteer about Monkeemania, becoming a ninja and, strangely enough, Supertramp.

"Discover Duluth: 'Forgotten Park'" :: Of all the hidden gems in Duluth, this overgrown segment of Central Park/Zenith Park is probably the most unsettling. DuluthBudgeteer.com exclusive!

"CD Review: Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko's 'Africa to Appalachia'" :: This album, which traces the routes of the banjo through Africa, is, by far, the most original release of 2008. DuluthBudgeteer.com exclusive!

"Discover Duluth: Amity Creek Trail, Vol. II & III" :: Though it’s now closed off to automobiles, the second half of Seven Bridges Road (Amity Creek Trail) isn’t without its share of traffic. See why the overgrown road is frequented by hikers, cyclists, runners/joggers, horseback riders, photographers and, of course, all of the aforementioned enthusiasts’ canine companions. DuluthBudgeteer.com exclusive!

"Discover Duluth: Canal Park, Vol. II" :: My photo essay series "Discover Duluth" returns to what is arguably the most well-known (and tourist-friendly) area of the Zenith City. DuluthBudgeteer.com exclusive!

Thus concludes THIS WEEK'S SHAMELESS BUDGETEER PLUG!

sys22 :: THE WORKERS ARE GOING HOME

"While there are a seemingly infinite number of ways to share and discover new music, few are as mythologized as the mix tape. From Nick Hornby's romanticizing of the format in 'High Fidelity' to Library of America editor-in-chief Geoffrey O'Brien's assertion that the mix tape is 'the most widely practiced American art form,' no other amateur medium commands the same level of respect from fans and critics alike." -- Mehan Jayasuriya

1. Weezer - "My Name is Jonas"
I didn't really know how to start this mix tape, so I relied on the old tried-and-true =W=. (Sorry for the inadvertent rhyming....)

2. The Dandy Warhols - "Mission Control"
Wow, what happened to these guys? Still a decent track, but singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor sounds like he turned on "faux goth mode" or something.

3. T. Rex - "Jeepster"
Always a classic.

4. The Tisdales - "Faces" [Listen here]
Featuring Rich Mattson (the Glenrustles/Ol’ Yeller) and Tony Derrick (Giljunko/the Hotel Coral Essex), what could go wrong? If this debut single is any indication, absolutely nothing. (p.s. Look for my profile of this group in an upcoming issue of the Budgeteer.)

5. Jeremy Messersmith - "Welcome to Suburbia"
When "The Alcatraz Kid" came out, I said, "Melancholy has a new best friend forever in Jeremy Messersmith." I may have spoken too soon. It's definitely not "Fun, Fun, Fun" or anything, but this track hints at sunshine like the neighborhood in "Edward Scissorhands" does. You may have to go to hell and back to find something resembling a smile, but, in the end ... wait, how did that film end?

6. Atmosphere - "Can't Break"
I'll never forget what Brother Ali told me about “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that S*** Gold": “The album is a very specific kind of a project. It’s all Slug, and it’s amazing. It sounds like nothing that any of us have ever done. He’s doing a lot of storytelling on it. I mean, it’s like really vivid illustrations — it’s just amazing.” Truer words have never been spoken.

7. Michael Franti & Spearhead - "A Little Bit of Riddim"
My knowledge of Michael Franti's career is limited -- and that goes double for the Kingston, Jamiaca, reggae scene he's replicating here -- but I at least know one thing: In a just world (i.e. McMattWorld), this would be at the top of the pops. <- Clear Channel "gods," are you listening?

8. Cage - "Perfect World"
Thanks to Cory Jezierski of Number One Common for introducing me to this Q-Tip-circa-"Amplified"-tastic track. Aside from that little anal sex crack, this is hip-hop your girlfriend might just get on board with.

9. Royksopp - "So Easy"
Like a more subtle Chemical Brothers, this is a "wordless sound poem" for the masses.

10. The Chemical Brothers - "Midnight Madness"
They're definitely losing their everything-has-to-be-ubergroundbreaking touch, but, then again, how could any group possibly top something as grandiose and just plain mindblowing as "Come with Us"?

11. Doomtree - "Liver Let Die" [Other MP3s]
"It's like we don't even talk no more."

12. The Verve - "Love is Noise"
Man, listen to that sample in the intro -- I thought I was listening to a leaked Atmosphere track or something! And, yes, I am talking about the same group that got sued/had their souls crushed by the Stones over an orchestral sample that the group had already legally secured in their only No. 1 hit, 1997's "Bitter Sweet Symphony." (By the way, I really f------ hate the geriatric Stones of the last couple decades. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is a great song, one of the best, actually, but suing the Verve was just the lowest. Low, low, low.)

13. Irving - "I Can't Fall in Love"
It's on Eenie Meenie, so you know it's good. Unadulterated indie pop for a sunny winter day. (It's coming sooner than you think, cholo.)

14. Golden Shoulders - "Nothing's All Right"
Recommended if you like Beck, but if and only when he's trying hard to secure his status as the second coming of Dylan (aka a weird amalgam of the albums "Mutations" and "Sea Change").

15. TK Webb & The Visions - "Teen is Still Shaking" [Free MP3 here!]
I have no idea what this song is about, but I'm sure fans of grunge survivor acts like Little Black Books and/or modern-day Mudhoney will find nothing to complain about.

16. The Hotel Coral Essex - "One-Handed Paper Hanger"
THIS. IS. AURAL. EXCITEMENT.

17. Both - "Sin On"
So weird ... this kind of sounds like what I thought the Hotel Coral Essex sounded like when I saw them performing at Lakeview Castle for the annual Area 61 UFO Convention so long ago. Morphine-esque, but not in a way that makes you want to hurl. (Yadig?)

18. Sebadoh - "Decide"
Man, I've been waiting to buy this album for years, and just last week I lucked out and found it for only a buck at [LOCATION DELETED BY AUTHOR ... LET'S KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET, MMM'KAY?].

19. The Soviettes - "Paranoia Cha Cha Cha!"
Hey, remember Sleeper? Better yet, remember that dream involving [REDACTED] and the [REDACTED]s? Me neither....

20. Lackthereof - "Choir Practice" [Free MP3 here!]
No, actually this is more like the [REDACTED]s, only fronted by a man and backed up by gorgeous swirling melodies.

21. The Melismatics feat. Mark Mallman - "Hate to Say It"
I picked up the Melismatics' album because the members of Maudlin kept talking it up, and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard this collaboration. If you've followed this blog since its inception, you know I'm kind of a big Mark Mallman fan* (and that's putting it lightly ... in fact, "bordering on obsessive" might be a little more accurate).

22. Big Star - "Thank You Friends"
Many thanks to Bri Smith, a bonafide BFF, for introducing me to this group way back when.

23. Aaron Espe - "Small Town" [Free MP3 here!
"I like small towns / The nights are quiet / No interstate highway / Screaming in the starlight." Having grown up in Crosby, Minn., this song really hits home -- especially the line about the Ben Franklin, for those of you who know this track/are about to download it -- and that's why I don't feel bad about pimping out Espe's upcoming show at Beaner's Central: The Fort Collins, Colo., singer/songwriter will play at 8 p.m. Oct. 3. Cost is ... cheap. I don't know the exact figure yet, but I assume $5, like most shows there.

*And read what Mallman thought about this praise here.

Thus concludes your twenty-second dose of SHAKE*YOUR*SHORES, the awesome mix tape series previously known as Don't Tell a Soul.

sys21 :: WHERE THE BISON ROAM

Mix tape 21 in the SHAKE*YOUR*SHORES series is a good backup for those Thursday nights when Walt Dizzo's regularly scheduled radio hour(s) is interrupted by decidedly non-rocking political coverage. Damn you, Wisconsin Public Radio!

1. Ian Brown - "My Star"
This impeccable solo offering more than makes up for the Stone Roses' dismal "Second Coming" album.

2. Toadies - "So Long Lovely Eyes"
This is what they mean when they say I'm really into music: "Ringleader Vaden Todd Lewis hasn’t lost sight of what made the Toadies so fresh and exciting in the first place. Album opener 'So Long Lovely Eyes' is so evocative of the group’s glory days, in fact, that it nearly brought tears to my eyes."

3. The Frames - "Underglass"
This is another song that has a similar effect on me. I don't think anyone's ever executed modern rock as flawlessly as the Frames have done here.

4. Richard Swift - "Lady Luck"
Like the songs on my mom's worn-out copy of the "The Big Chill" soundtrack (on cassette -- yay, '80s!), this is timeless music -- that just happens to have been released this year -- worth at least a couple hundred spins.

5. Human Highway - "The Sound"
I loved Nicholas Thorburn in his "other" band, Islands, so it's no surprise I loved him here too. But, even if I happened to hate Islands, I would still consider Human Highway 2008's most promising new act.

6. We are Scientists - "This Scene is Dead"
For fans of hyperactive post-punk bands like Submerge, Piebald and ... some others I can't think of right now.

7. The Hush Now - "Traditions"
Recommended if you like Dealership, autumn, Syrup USA, Tool (bass and drum parts only, though...).

8. Editors - "Bullets"
There is a reason this group has been hyped so much over the last couple years; this is epic, glorious rock 'n' roll with "big time" written all over it. -> Like Keane, but less embarrassing to admit you listen to.

9. Nick Drake - "Horn"
Wouldn't sound out of place on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack.

10. Rogue Wave - "Seasick on Land"
I reached back to my Fargo college days with a lot of selections today (hence this tape's title), and this track evokes my time there more than any other. If I close my eyes, I'm immediately transported back to late fall/snow is imminent, on the NDSU campus, up around the Fargodome ... anyway, I won't bore you (any further) with the details; I just find it funny how powerful music can be at triggering such memories.

11. From Bubblegum to Sky - "Sign the Air"
Another track from my college days, which I played a lot on my radio show, "Don't Tell a Soul." It's too bad this group hasn't caught on more yet.

12. The Long Blondes - "Once and Never Again"
Kind of a risque song, don't you think?

13. The Tripwires - "Big Electric Light"
Sounds like Oasis in their glory days without the offputting vocals and uncontrollable ego. Oh, plus more C&W stylings.

14. The Strugglers - "The Cascade Range"
I'll humbly take this opportunity to remind everyone that I really dig this group.

15. Pennies for a Dime - "Iron Path"
And this group too, but, since I am to remain "fair and balanced" this week, read my feature on this West Duluth trio instead.

16. Atmosphere - "Not Another Day"
Like "You," this one works unplugged as well:



17. Arizona Amp and Alternator - "Re-entry"
A bizarro little instrumental before ...

18. Basement Jaxx - "Living Room"
Yet another five-star Basement Jaxx radio-friendly masterpiece.

19. The Strokes - "On the Other Side"
With such a tight rhythm section, I'm surprised anybody could hate this group. I tried at first (hype usually "kills the mood" for me), but it was impossible to stay away for too long.

20. "South Park" clip - "Stan Marsh..."
From the Rob Schneider-skewering "Stanley's Cup," one of my favorite episodes.

21. Steely Dan - "Deacon Blues"
Per an AOL live chat with Walter Becker in 1994: "I remember the night that we mixed ('Deacon Blues'), thinking that it was really good and wanting to hear it over and over, which is never the case."

22. The Stills - "Being Here"
The Insound quasi-review said it best: "The Stills' new material, beginning with the anthemic lead single, 'Being Here,' conveys a rejuvenated, reinvigorated sense of being."

Thus concludes your twenty-first dose of SHAKE*YOUR*SHORES, the awesome mix tape series previously known as Don't Tell a Soul.

'Like a bunch of people sitting in a tin shack writing music'

That is Pennies for a Dime's Dustin Fennessey attempting to describe his group's peculiar (though, rest assured, very pleasing) sound. My attempt: "'Acoustic-based alternative rock' is probably the safest way to explain it, like latter-day Red Hot Chili Peppers without the funk influence." Or, as the multitalented singer/bassist (he also fronts Portraits for Judith) put it a second time ... well, that made it into the headline: "AC/DC Minus the Suck." This promising group also features Number One Common’s guitarist extraordinaire, Mikey Trifilette, and powerhouse drummer Faye Baron -- both of whom I spoke with for the feature.

Also this week, I interviewed Ben Clark, bassist for the innovative Twin Cities hip-hop group Mel Gibson and the Pants (read the Q-and-A, "Fearless Sonic Explorers," here). The group, which regularly collaborates with such hip-hop luminaries as Eyedea and various Doomtree members -- P.O.S., Sims, Dessa, Mictlan and Turbo Nemesis ... to name just a few -- will be playing a show up at UMD Wednesday with local favorites Kritical Kontact. My favorite quote from the interview? Why, I'm glad you asked: "I actually do not remember how to play the songs exactly as they appear on the album, so during a show I do enough improvising to turn whatever songs are in our set list into the kind of song that I would like to be playing at that moment."

Thus concludes THIS WEEK'S SHAMELESS BUDGETEER PLUG!

Today's Moment of Zen: Precious Moments with Pennies for a Dime

Hear why this man (Dustin Fennessey) is smiling at www.myspace.com/penniesforadime.

sys20 :: PINING FOR THE FJIORD

Mix tape 20 in the SHAKE*YOUR*SHORES series is the aural equivalent of microwaving your parents' Travis Tritt CDs when you were 12. -> Toasty!

Today's game* is: If I had to match each and every selection to a film I hold close to my heart, what cinematic adventure would it be?

Oh, and -- in a feeble attempt to secure blog sponsorship -- we (I) exlusively listen to our (my) awesome mix tapes on Koss headphones. (In fact, today I'm celebrating my latest purchase, the bass-tastic UR-20s!)

1. The Standard - "Metropolitan"
Would sound best in ... "Dark Water." I know, not a cinematic masterpiece by any means, but I own it because A) Jennifer Connelly's in it and B) Jennifer Connelly's in it. Anyway, this song's cold, industrial core easily matches the lonely, twisted hellhole Connelly's character rents with her little daughter.

2. Gerling - "Blood on the Microphone, Pt. 1"
This is a nice complement to Track 1, with its dark, pulsating "evil disco" beat and all. I'm gonna go ahead and pair this one with the recently released director's cut of the cult classic "Dark City." While I haven't seen the whole movie yet, the fact that *ahem* Connelly's in it -- Starting to notice a pattern? -- places it high atop my Amazon.com wishlist.

3. The Vestals - "Telescope"
"Newton's Disease." I can't explain where it would fit in exactly, but I will admit that pimping out local product is always fun.

4. davis? - "Problem"
"Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Again, doesn't exactly match the specific feel/locale of the movie (Hawai'i), but ... oh, heck, perhaps it's time I admit that today's "game" is way harder than I could have ever imagined. No worries, though, I'll still give it that "old NDSU try": If davis? were just given one opportunity to prove themselves to millions of moviegoers, they would surely win over every single last one. This track is a deceptively upbeat radio-hit-in-waiting that was no doubt inspired by the Jayhawks.

5. Kruddler - "Friday Night in the North Woods"
"Footsteps." Which hasn't been released yet, so don't look for it. (I have yet to write the screenplay....)

6. Toadies - "Nothing to Cry About"
"Fight Club." On the strength of the mammoth percussion alone. Can't you see Tyler Durden taking a blow to the face with this pumping away in the background?

7. Mel Gibson and the Pants - "Sea"
Actually, this is much more "Fight Club." This has Dust Brothers-produced interlude written all over it.

8. Aesop Rock feat. the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle - "Coffee"
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Remember that really awesome hangout Shredder had for the Foot Soldiers-in-training? My only qualm with that place is that its hip-hop soundtrack needs a serious overhaul.

9. Soulcrate Music - "Live and Direct from the Soulcrate"
"Crash." Squeezed into the scene in which Ludacris steals a Lincoln Navigator. Nothing against the song that's already there, Move.meant's terrific "Problems," it's just that this Sioux Falls original has a similar, Timbaland-would-be-so-proud vibe.

10./11. XV - "Give You Everything"/"Empty Recycle Bin"
"Entourage." Not a movie -- I cheat, I know-- but its mainstream, Kanye West-aping sound would fit in nicely on any given episode.

12. King of Woolworths - "Where Fleas Hide"
"Vanilla Sky" and/or "Lost in Translation." Almost as otherwordly as anything Spiritualized and/or My Bloody Valentine can pump out.

13. Eels - "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)"
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Can't keep my mind off of Kate Winslet's unforgettable character in this Michel Gondry mindf---, Clementine Kruczynski.

14. Kara's Flowers - "Oliver"
"Mallrats." In fact, why wasn't this on the soundtrack?

15. Beck - "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" [Korgis cover]
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Because, well, it's already on the soundtrack.... But, if I were given the choice, I would've said "The Virgin Suicides" instead. Much better fit, methinks.

16. Sondre Lerche - "Sleep on Needles" [Live]
"High Fidelity." Dare I say this could pass as a standby in the legendary Beta Band scene?

17. Electric Light Orchestra - "Secret Lives"
"Donnie Darko." Hey, it's where I fell in love with the similar "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears!

18. They Might Be Giants - "AKA Driver"
"About Schmidt." This track is forever linked in my head with driving from Fargo to Denver, so it's nearly a perfect fit.

19. Paloalto - "Sonny"
"You Can Count on Me." The sister part, not exactly the whole bit about sunshine.

20. Ra Ra Riot - "Dying is Fine"
"Juno." Pretentious enough, anyway.

21. The Glenrustles - "Punching the Drunk"
"North Country." I know, Rich Mattson's Sparta connection is too easy, but, really, this could easily pull its weight in the Iron Range bars portrayed in the film.

22. Blind Pilot - "Two Towns from Me"
"Sideways." Actually, this charming song actually syncs up with more than half of the film's pivotal scenes.

23. Easily Amused - "Got Your News" [Live at the Brewhouse]
"The Straight Story." If only riding lawnmowers were equipped with tinny little speakers....

24. Francine - "Off You" [Breeders cover]
"We Don't Live Here Anymore." Extramarital affairs take soul-searching** -- something this touching, C&W-leaning cover is almost overflowing with.

*You know, to keep things "spicy."
**Confidential to Sarah in Superior: This isn't firsthand knowledge, baby, I've just happened to see innumerable films on the matter; chief among them the one in question, "The Good Girl" and, lest we forget, "Closer."

Thus concludes your twentieth dose of SHAKE*YOUR*SHORES, the awesome mix tape series previously known as Don't Tell a Soul.