entertainment

Prince and 3rdeyegirl rocked Vancouver last week and will be back in town to play Myth nightclub on Saturday. / Kevin Mazur, Wire Image

Prince dropping a new song on the internet isn’t exactly as big of news this year as it would have been in previous years, what with the handful of tracks that have already surfaced. However, the single he issued today, “Fixurlifeup,” is newsworthy for two reasons: 1) It has a rather grungy, almost Nirvana-like vibe to it; 2) and it’s the first track he has released under his just-announced deal with the new industry-buzzing company Kobalt Music Group.

 

An article in Billboard repeatedly refers to the deal as a “partnership,” and Prince apparently will be granted all the freedom he has so publicly sought over the years, but he will also have the marketing and sales power of an international entertainment corporation (this one with an especially large European reach). Word is a full new album is in the works. Other artists that have signed up with Kobalt include Nick Cave, New Kids on the Block and the Pet Shop Boys. Prince also discussed his new game plan in the interview with Jon Bream last week.

As for the song, it’s another heavy rocker with the muscular new all-female backing trio 3rdEyeGirl, with whom Prince will perform two shows Saturday at Myth nightclub in Maplewood. No doubt, you’ll hear “Fixurlifeup” at those gigs (he also played it a few nights ago at the Billboard Music Awards). With a lyrical nod to his new bandmates, Prince’s lines in the song include, “A girl with a guitar is 12 times better than another crazy band of guys / Trying to be a star when you’re just another brick in the misogynist wall of boys.”

You can sample “Fixurlifeup” and buy a download of it via iTunes.

Soul Asylum's current lineup, featuring Cambridge, Minn.-bred Justin Sharbono, left, on guitar, plus drummer Michael Bland, frontman Dave Pirner and bassist Winston Roye. (Photo courtesy Soul Asylum)

The first-ever Target Field concert not featuring Kenny Chesney was announced Thursday morning. And sorry, it's not Paul McCartney. The lineup is decidedly more downscale -- though for lovers of 1990s music, the lineup does have its charms.

The Twins and their radio affiliate 96.3 K-TWIN are bringing in the LP Tour -- a group of bands playing their best-known albums in their entirety. That includes:

-- Minnesota faves Soul Asylum, who'll perform the 1992 disc that broke them nationally (and won them a slot in Bill Clinton's inauguration party), the massive multi-platinum hit "Grave Dancers Union."

-- Big Head Todd and the Monsters, doing their 1993 breakthrough album "Sister Sweetly," which landed the hit singles "Bittersweet," "Broken Hearted Savior" and "Circle."

-- Matthew Sweet, performing his 1991 album "Girlfriend"and its still-ubiquitous title track.

Other stops on the LP Tour -- which include a California winery and Vegas water park --  feature the Wailers performing Bob Marley's greatest-hits album "Legend," but they're not playing here. Instead, the Gear Daddies -- another Minnesota group beloved by fans of a certain age -- will step in. No word on whether they'll attempt 1990's "Billy's Live Bait," but you can bet their song "Zamboni" will make an incongruous appearance on the Target Field turf.

The Twins are dubbing this show the Skyline Music Festival. Seating is limited to the third-base side of the stadium, overlooking downtown (hence the name).

Tickets, at $25 to $45 (plus $6 fees) go on sale at 10 a.m. next Thursday. (Click here for seating chart and ticket info.)

While hardly contemporary, the acts do fit the mold of K-TWIN's classic pop/rock format, which it adopted a year ago after dumping hip-hop. And amid a dismal season, the Twins at least deserve a cheer for giving another boost to the hometown players on the local music front, along with the season-long Midwest Music Series showcasing Minnesota bands at Twins games.

Just one thing: 

Hey, Soul Asylum, since you just performed "Grave Dancers Union" at First Avenue in December, how about doing a different album at this gig? -- like "Made to Be Broken," your Bob Mould-produced 1986 Twin/Tone release? 

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Father John Misty (aka Joshua Tillman) was animated but also sometimes agitated in his sold-out First Avenue concert Tuesday. / Jerry Holt, Star Tribune

With only one album to his name – or his newly adopted name, that is -- Father John Misty couldn’t help but avoid several slumping moments in his 80-minute performance Tuesday. “Fear Fun” is a half-great record, so it was no surprise the concert pretty much followed suit.

As is pointed out in the full review for Thursday’s newspaper, the real-life Joshua Tillman might have been better off pulling songs from some of his earlier albums as "J. Tillman" than playing the dullards “I Love You, Honeybear” or “This Is Sally Hatchet.” He did play a new song solo-acoustic to kick off the encore that was one of his weirdest and most curious tunes to date (in a good way), with lyrics about sounds like a truly messed-up relationship and the closing line, “I obliged later on when you begged me to choke you.”

Between his sometimes crude between-song banter and many Bible-referencing songs – which aren’t exactly defamatory but also would never make a church hymnal – I couldn’t help but wonder how Tillman is going to go over with the Basilica Block Party’s hosts. At least he’ll be better off having a shorter set time that day. Here’s his set list from Tuesday:

Funtimes in Babylon  /  Only Son of the Ladiesman  /  Nancy From Now On  /  I'm Writing a Novel  /  Misty's Nightmares 1 & 2  /  This is Sally Hatchet / Well, You Can Do It Without Me  /  Now I'm Learning to Love the War  /  Tee Pees 1-12  /  Everyman Needs a Companion  /  Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings        ENCORE: new song  /  Happiness is a Warm Gun (Beatles cover)  /  I Love You, Honeybear
 

Walker Art Center's Summer Music & Movies series returns to Loring Park starting July 29. / Star Tribune file

After taking a very unwelcome year off two summers ago, Walker Art Center’s beloved Summer Music & Movies series will return July 29 to Loring Park for the second straight year.

Scheduled again for four Mondays in a row, the lineup -- centered around the theme “Roadways”-- was announced today with Prissy Clerks, Charlie Parr, Zoo Animal, Aby Wolf, the Roe Family Singers and this summer’s It Band, the Chalice, all slated for the musical halves of the shows. Alas, the Walker did not commission a live score like the one Brute Heart created last year, but many of the aforementioned acts are cinematic enough in the first place.

The movies were all selected by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, whose exhibit “The Autoconstrucción Suites” recently opened at the Walker. Save for one obvious choice, the road films he picked are all pretty obscure to Western audiences – as one would expect in the case of this. Here’s the schedule:

MUSIC BEGINS AT 7 PM; MOVIES BEGIN AT DUSK (APPROXIMATELY 8:45 PM)

Monday, July 29
Music: Prissy Clerks
Movie: "The Hawks and the Sparrows" ("Uccellacci E Uccellini")

Monday, Aug. 5
Music: Roe Family Singers + Charlie Parr
Movie: "Cochochi"

Lizzo and Sophia Eris of the Chalice / Leslie Plesser, Star Tribune

Monday, Aug. 12
Music: The Chalice
Movie: "In the Pit (En el Hoyo)"

Monday, Aug. 19
Music: Zoo Animal + Aby Wolf + Grant Cutler
Movie: "Pee Wee’s Big Adventure" 

Pretty much the same format as the Walker's series, but a little more populist in nature, Vita.mn's Music & Movies series will take place around the same time. That lineup was announced last month, with highlights including a pairing of Now, Now with "Adventures in Babysitting" and John Mark Nelson with "The Goonies."

All grown up -- or at least past puberty -- "MMMBop" sibling band Hanson will play the fair's bandshell Aug. 26-27.

Not that anyone expects Marijuana Deathsquads or any other current buzz bands, but you can get an idea of just how dated the lineup is for the Leinie Bandshell at the Minnesota State Fair this year when you note that the youngest act on the schedule had its big hit 16 years ago.

Sheila E. / AP Photo, Mark J. Terrill

With a couple grandstand concerts yet to be announced, fair organizers went ahead and unveiled the 2013 lineup for the bandshell and other free stages today. Oklahoma teen popsters Hanson of 1997's "MMMBop" fame -- who are now in their late-20s and early-30s and have maintained a cultish following -- are among the biggest names headed for the bandshell, scheduled Aug. 26-27.

Other bandshell acts will include Texas country starlet Sunny Sweeney (Aug. 22-23), undying “Don’t Fear the Reaper” rockers Blue Öyster Cult (Aug. 24-25), former Prince protégé and renowned percussionist Sheila E. (Aug. 28-29), fiery sacred-steel rockers Robert Randolph & the Family Band (Aug. 30-31) and Branson, Mo., mainstays Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers (Sept. 1-2). Datedness aside, that's a pretty good music musically and demographically, and the tree-lined, wooden-bench-filled bandshell area remains a favorite place for us music critics and many other fans to see performanceseach summer.

Other acts playing the fair's free stages this year -- including the International Bazaar, Heritage Square and daytime bandshell gigs --  will include the Okee Dokee Brothers, Pert Near Sandstone, Tonic Sol-fa, Dale Watson, Chubby Carrier, Bill Kirchen, Pieta Brown, Chastity Brown, Mary Jane Alm, the Daisy Dillman Band, the Native Pride Dancers, Rogue Valley, GB Leighton, Billy McLaughlin, the Roe Family Singers and Sena Erhardt.

Click here to see the full lineup.