Local music: Dead Man Winter's northern exposure

I knew I was at the right place last week when I spotted the van parked outside, coated in bug remnants. Not just your typical specks of insect goo, mind you, but bloody, gory, sizable bits of bug carcasses stuck onto the already hard-tested former tour vehicle of Trampled by Turtles.

Inspecting the damage was bleary-eyed Dead Man Winter guitarist Erik Koskinen, who had just pulled in that morning to finish the 3,200-mile trek from Alaska.

"When we crossed the border into North Dakota, we were like, 'Woo-hoo, we're home!'" Koskinen mused in a very unamused tone. "But we had another half-day of driving to do."

The new band of mostly old cohorts went all the way to the 49th state for their first official tour. They played two weeks of shows in towns with drop-dead scenery and in rough bars where probably a few patrons have indeed dropped dead. Their choice of destinations tells you plenty you need to know about the sideways career of this side-project band.

Started in 2008 as another, rockier songwriting outlet for Trampled by Turtles frontman Dave Simonett, Dead Man Winter went through several lineup changes -- and still has rotating drummers -- before solidifying over a month of Tuesday gigs at the Turf Club in December. That's also when Simonett amped up the recording of the band's debut album, "Bright Lights," issued last month.

"This isn't a band that came together as any kind of reaction or counterpart to Trampled," Simonett explained. "It was a band that formed out of, 'Hey, can you come over and help me record a song for a half-hour?'"

Among the participants who came over and stayed are two of Simonett's TBT mates, bassist Tim Saxhaug and fiddler Ryan Young, plus Koskinen (also in Molly Maher's Disbelievers) and the alternating drummers, Noah Levy (BoDeans, Trailer Trash) and Paul Grill (Hobo Nephews). They recorded and still rehearse in Koskinen's Realphonic Studio, housed in the Jayhawks' old studio space.

When it came to mapping out their first tour, DMW didn't overthink it: "We're all busy with other things, so we just don't have the time to go hit the obvious cities to build up our base," Simonett said. "So we went for something a little more wild and memorable."

Wild, as in they spotted many grizzlies and even killer whales on their drives. Wild, as in they reached several gigs via long ferry rides (which they found surprisingly plush). Wild, as in "most of the people at the shows weren't originally from Alaska, and seemed to be there to escape from something," Simonett said.

Here's what's really wild, though: Dead Man Winter may sound like a halfhearted side project in theory, but it already sounds equal to Trampled by Turtles on record. The truly addictive single "Nicotine" kicks the album into gear, and the energy keeps on burning through the Neil Young-ish rocker "Get Low" and the Son Volt-echoing "House of Glory." But there's also a rich, melancholic side to the album -- a dead-of-winter charm, if you will, heard in the acoustic epic "Where in the World Have You Been?" and the haunting title track.

"I think [Dead Man Winter] proves Dave is the kind of songwriter who transcends bands and genres," said Saxhaug, who mentioned one thing he likes about the newer band over the drummer-less Turtles: "It's nice having someone else keep time."

"Bright Lights" and another of the album's songs, "New Orleans," will be familiar to Turtles fans. Both tunes have been played by both bands. Simonett said he rarely writes a song with a specific group in mind anymore.

"It's exciting to me, seeing which direction either of the bands can take a song," he said.

Simonett leaves little doubt about TBT remaining his main vehicle, though. The Alaska tour and other Dead Man dates -- including Friday's release party at First Avenue -- were timed to downtime in Turtlesville, as mandolinist Erik Berry's wife just had a baby (Simonett also became a new dad in February). The Turtles go back on the road next month and started working this past week on a new album at a cabin outside Duluth.

"There's a strong creative pull in both bands, and I don't think it will be that hard to find time to accommodate both," Simonett said. "But part of the fun of Dead Man Winter is just keeping all the seriousness and the business side out of it."

Speaking of which: The Alaska tour was not much of a moneymaker after expenses, the band reports. But so what?

Better Night Sleeps

Friday's First Ave show with Dead Man Winter is actually a four-band marathon doubling as a twofer release party. The other act celebrating a new album is Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps, whose sophomore record "Little Wind" hits stores Tuesday.

Mistaken for a vintage, vaudevillian singer in the past, Smith clears up that idea here with more modernized echoes of Feist and even a prairie-bred Björk. The 23-year-old Detroit Lakes native and her band -- which includes Cloud Cult drummer Arlen Peiffer and Velvet Lapelles bassist Jesse Schuster -- get ahead of themselves in a few too-clever tracks, including the overly repititious "Calliope" and the jittery one titled ";;;" (that's not a misprint). They fare better in the simpler, dreamy "Scholarships" and other more straight-ahead ditties.

Random mix

All the love that Rob and Leah Rule showed for the Turf Club before its ownership change in 2005 is coming back to them in the form of "Rock for the Rules," a new compilation on sale for a pay-what-you-can basis via rockforrules.bandcamp.com. All proceeds will help defray Leah's medical costs for cancer treatment (her last round of chemo was last week). Among the contributors are Little Man, Molly Maher, the Tisdales, Crossing Guards, St. Dominic's Trio, Jennifer Markey, the Rules' own Mammy Nuns and Eric Kassel's Crotch Rockets, whose 'Mats-flavored "Rob Rule Theme Song" instigated the whole worthy project. ...

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Ghana-reared Twin Cities rapper M.anifest has signed on to tour with Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Blur fame in a new Afrocentric ensemble also featuring Flea and world-music legend Tony Allen. Their first confirmed gig is the Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland next month. In the meantime, M.anifest drops his new album, "Immigrant Chronicles," with a Sept. 24 party at the Fine Line. ...

After finishing off a new solo album last week in Austin (Texas, that is), Martin Zellar returns for a Gear Daddies reunion gig Friday at the Fine Line (9 p.m., $31). Then his Hardways have an old-school pairing with the Jayhawks at Mankato's Riverside Park on Saturday (7 p.m., $36). ... St. Paul's new Amsterdam Bar & Grill adds to its happy-hour offerings with the ever-nomadic Mad Ripple Hootenanny on Friday at 6 p.m. with Ashleigh Still, Jezebel Jones and Terry Walsh (free). ...

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