The Chippewa Falls Public Library and Converge Radio have teamed up for the 2nd annual Unplugged at the Library Series. The five show monthly series will run the last Friday of every month starting at 7pm in the Chippewa Falls Public Library. This series is a chance to see and hear great local musicians for free in a quiet, all ages alcohol free environment.
The 2020 lineup features great singer songwriters and bands from in and around Chippewa Falls who also can tell a great story and make connections with the audience and features all new artists from the popular 2019 series.
Greg Gilbertson will bring his engaging charm to the stage to kick off the series on January 31st. Justin Jay Arnold will be sharing his “sandpapered vocals, and a songwriting style that is honest, personal and guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings” at the February 28th performance. On March 27th people will be in for a treat when Jerrika Mighelle connects with the audience through her raw emotional music and what she describes as “honest, playful, and lighthearted banter that makes you feel like old friends”. On April 24th Peter Phippen and Victoria Shoemaker will bring a plethora of instruments when they perform as Virginia Steel. And, the final performance will be from crowd favorite Nici Peper who has a fun playful style and love for shoring a story.
Prex Claires has a lot to offer everyone, and that certainly includes those looking for a chance to bring the whole family along to enjoy some live music and entertainment free of charge!
Here is a comprehensive listing of all #PrexClaires events that fit this criteria. Note your favorites and be sure to head on downtown this Thursday. We’ll see you out there!
(and for a fulling listing of all things Prex Claires click here)
Red’s Mercantile – 224 N Dewey St
ALL AGES – FREE
10 AM – 7:30 PM
Open Jam + Blugold Radio Listening Party
Tangled Up in Hue – 505 S Barstow St
ALL AGES – FREE
4 PM
Emm K
The District Company – 315 Graham Ave
ALL AGES – FREE
5 pm
Andy Nelson
Caitlin Gronning
Freddie Clark
Sounds Like Summer – 330 Riverfront Terrace
ALL AGES – FREE
6:30 PM
We Are The Willows
Waldemar
Rachel Hanson
L.E. Phillips Memorial Library – 400 Eau Claire St
ALL AGES – FREE
7:00 PM
LASKA
Acoustic Cafe – 505 S Barstow St
ALL AGES – FREE
7:00 PM
Brian Bethke
Baroque – 795 1st Ave
ALL AGES – FREE
8:30 PM
Grease the Musical – Sneak Peek
Michael Rambo & the Collective Choir
Revival Records – 128 S Barstow St
ALL AGES – FREE
tba
We’ve been working hard to bring you helpful at-a-glance artist profiles of this year’s Eaux Claires lineup so that you can get to know the 2017 performers a little better, and now we’ve collected them all on one page so you can conveniently scroll through, click any of that you may not know as well, and find band bios + tracks + music videos to peruse.
*Note: this list isn’t yet fully comprehensive
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COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES
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Collections of Colonies of Bees was started as a side project for Chris Rosenau and Jon Mueller, both of the post-rock group Pele. They mixed acoustic instruments with electronic sounds and released their self-titled debut on U.K.’s The Rosewood Union label. Collections of Colonies of Bees drew attention for their first LP and found a home in the U.S. label Crouton, which released Rance, fa.ce (a, and the Meyou EP. Pillowscars Records, a Swedish label, released their Stuck EP in 2003. Collections of Colonies of Bees decided to add two new members for their Customer release — computer and synth operators Jon Minor (also of Pele) and Jim Schoenecker, who had worked with Minor on electronic projects in the past. Polyvinyl Records released Customer in October of 2004. The follow-up full-length Giving arrived in 2011, marking the departure of Mueller from the project.
-David Serra
Mexican singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas initially established herself as a cutting-edge Latin alternative artist during the late ’90s, before her career shifted direction significantly with her third album, Sí (2003), a broadly appealing pop/rock effort graced with genuine hits, including a couple chart-toppers. In the wake of her 2003 breakthrough, Venegas didn’t look back. Her next album, Limón y Sal (2006), was just as broadly appealing as its predecessor, and it was an even bigger hit, spawning several major hits and finding success in Western Europe as well as the Americas. Moreover, Venegas was as acclaimed as she was popular, customarily earning the praise of critics and winning awards, including numerous Grammys. Her musical abilities were sometimes overlooked, for in addition to writing and singing her own songs, she plays numerous instruments, including guitar, accordion, and keyboard. Venegas also made a name for herself as a collaborator, writing songs for and performing with a range of Latin artists, from Paulina Rubio and Mala Rodríguez to Miguel Bosé and Los Tigres del Norte.
-Jason Birchmeier, ALL MUsic
Mouse on Mars is recognised as one of Germany’s most defining and versatile electronic music projects. With their anarchic mixture of sound that oscillates between uncontrollable chaos and meticulously arranged structures, Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have forged a unique musical language, which is readily decomposed by the unpredictability of its myriad mutations. This dialectical method, coupled with the capacity for continuous reinvention, is the only constant to be found in the duo’s cooperation. Free from schools of thought, genre conventions, and from the constraints of the music establishment, they have worked under the Mouse on Mars alias for 23 years, mapping their own idiosyncratic trajectory through a no man’s land between pop, art, club music, and the avant-garde. The duo represents one of Germany’s few experimental pop acts to have stirred wide international attention and acclaim. Four Peel sessions alone, recorded at the legendary BBC Radio, attest to their influence.
Mouse on Mars originated in Cologne and Düsseldorf in 1993 during a time of general musical upheaval and an awakening interest in experimental yet non-academic electronic music. Despite this context, however, the project began and has remained an entity that first and foremost pursues a singular agenda, metabolising scenes and trends rather than aligning with them. Since their first album, Vulvaland, was released in 1994 on British label Too Pure, Mouse on Mars have released 11 albums and numerous solo and collaborative projects, relentlessly pushing forth their uncategorisable sound. Their hybrid style constantly synthesizes new influences and a wide variety of genres. A disorienting mix of pop and experimentation running from noise to strange beauty, their music is at the same time resolutely avant-garde and playful, though always charged with a destructive compulsion. Brimming with fragmented melodies, spacey dissonances, edgy breaks, strange streams of sonic particles, and chaotic overlays, Mouse on Mars’ fluid sound aesthetic reflects their general mutability, which is deeply rooted in their restless ingenuity, quirky sense of humour, and fearless non-conformism.
-Jan Rohlf, CTM Festival
Named after a child’s toy from the 1960s, jazz trio Happy Apple was formed in Minneapolis, MN, in 1996 by saxophonist Michael Lewis and drummer David King, with bassist Erik Fratzke joining soon after.
Their clever and melodic small-combo improvisations have been termed “jazz punk,” but Happy Apple has a grasp of the entire history of jazz, and the trio’s elegant free-bop compositions are full of haunting melodies, delightful flashes of humor, and intelligent, coherent construction. Led by Lewis’ amazingly lyrical tenor sax playing and solid melodies written by all three members, Happy Apple keeps out of the fusion trap by implying rock dynamics without actually surrendering to them, giving the group a fresh, bright, and totally unique sound.
Things can get hot and searing, certainly, and there is no aversion to sonic and free jazz experimenting, but the band always retains a strong melodic center. Happy Apple has released four independent albums, Blown Shockward and Crash Flow (1997), Part of the Solution Problem (1998), Body Popping, Moon Walking, Top Rocking (1999), and Please Refrain from Fronting (2001).
Youth Oriented, the group’s first commercial album, was released in 2003 by Universal Music and is distributed in the U.S. by Sunnyside Records. Happy Apple tours regularly and continues to use Minneapolis as a home base.
-Steve Leggett, ALL MUsic
Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, ZEBULON PIKE is an instrumental prog-doom metal band formed in late 2002. Inspired in equal parts by heavy sounds of the 70’s (Mountain, Pentagram, Captain Beyond, early Judas Priest), progressive rock (King Crimson, Rush), and 20th century classical (Bela Bartok, Arvo Part, and many others). ZEBULON PIKE combines the impact of metal with the considered approach of “art” music. The result is a refined, muted aggression necessary for inciting the slow motion apocalypse.
ZEBULON PIKE regularly shares the stage with contemporary genre-mates like Orthrelm, Zombi, Rwake, High on Fire, Don Caballero, Pelican, YOB, Hammers of Misfortune, The Sword, as well as time-tested veterans like The Hidden Hand, Blue Cheer, Boris, Helmet, and The Melvins.
ZEBULON PIKE’s music is an intriguing mixture of melodic melancholy, old-school guitar-isms, and Wagnerian dynamics that marks a mighty presence in the world of heavy music. (Source)
When singer/songwriter and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy initially began working on his first solo album, he began demoing and rehearsing the songs at home with his son Spencer on drums. Although he envisioned it primarily as a solo project, as Spencer became more and more involved it was decided that they would issue the album as a duo under the family name Tweedy. Released in August 2014 on Wilco’s dBpm label, their debut, Sukierae, captures all the weary warmth of Jeff Tweedy’s distinctive Americana/pop style with a stripped-down, decidedly homemade feel. On-stage the duo is joined by guitarist Jim Elkington, bassist Darin Gray, and keyboardist Liam Cunningham. ~Timothy Monger
Jeff Tweedy’s Family Affair | Rolling Stone
Jeff Tweedy and Son Start Band, Share Gritty ‘I’ll Sing It’ | Spin
Growing up in Everett, Washington, Hadreas was bullied for being gay and coped by painting, writing, and listening to artists including PJ Harvey and Liz Phair. While attending Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, he was hospitalized after he was attacked by a group of young men in his neighborhood. Once he recovered, he moved to Brooklyn and spent a few years working at a bar and partying. He returned to Everett in 2005 to go to rehab, then lived with his mother and stepfather.
During this time, he began making music, pairing unflinching lyrics with simple piano melodies. By 2008 he had set up a MySpace page and began offering his music there, along with similarly spare and evocative homemade music videos; a year later, Turnstile Records released his debut single “Mr. Peterson,” the tale of a suicidal pedophile high school teacher. Hadreas also signed to Matador Records, which released Perfume Genius’ full-length debut, Learning, in mid-2010. To tour in support of the album, Hadreas brought Alan Wyffels, a classically trained pianist he met in group therapy, as an accompanist. Eventually, they became a couple, and Wyffels performed on Perfume Genius’ later tours and albums.
These included 2012’s even more intimate Put Your Back N 2 It and 2014’s snarling Too Bright, which was inspired by glam rock, PJ Harvey, and Hadreas’ growing frustration with casual homophobia; it featured Portishead’s Adrian Utley and longtime Harvey collaborator John Parish. Perfume Genius returned with new music in 2016, collaborating with Sharon Van Etten on a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “To Lay Me Down” for Day of the Dead, a Grateful Dead tribute album produced by the Red Hot Organization to fight AIDS/HIV and related health issues around the world. That September, Hadreas also issued a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” that was featured in the ad campaign for Prada’s La Femme and L’Homme fragrances. Hadreas recorded Perfume Genius’ fourth album, No Shape, in Los Angeles with producer Blake Mills; spanning influences such as gospel, goth-pop and soul, it arrived in May 2017.
~Heather Phares, Rovi
How Perfume Genius Grew Up And Started Thriving | The Fader
How Perfume Genius Found the Transgression—and His Most Daring Music Yet—in Self-Care | W Magazine
