Michael Yonkers' agony and ecstacy

When he's asked what in his life matters most, what he could never ransom however dear the price, Michael Yonkers doesn't flinch.

"Health," he says. "It's what I think about from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. You're seeing me on a great day. If you'd seen me last summer, you would have been very disturbed."

St. Paul's lion of guitar noise has spent the past half-century quietly renovating the music world in the deep shade of an outland, and since the 2003 Sub Pop reissue of his 1968 masterpiece "Microminiature Love," Yonkers' name has at last been dragged into broad daylight.

But at 62, Yonkers is a man in visible agony. He seems a phantasm, with rice-paper skin and a tuft of pale hair. When he breathes, his chest rattles like a carburetor, and his gait is tender and pained, as if he were a glass man in a world of stone. They call it arachnoiditis, a spine condition he developed after breaking his back in 1971. It's a condition he's battled mightily, one which has cost him years of musical activity, has brought him to death's door numerous times, and which forced him to announce his retirement from the stage last summer.

"I can't tell you how bizarre it is," he says mildly. "It's all over, full body pain. People who it happens to are at a loss to describe it. The body was not meant to feel this kind of pain. Over the years, I've gotten used to it. Most people don't know I'm suffering from it. I am right now."

And yet, his demeanor is nearly beatific, betraying a gentle spirit unpolluted by the decades of pain. He is as placid as a pastor, as endlessly intrigued by the world as a child, and despite being musically hamstrung by his disease, he has another "new" album, "Lovely Gold," released last month on Drag City. The album is a tangle of recordings Yonkers made in the late '70s, tracks that find him mashing blues and pop tropes through handbuilt effects units and a jury-rigged four-track recorder, emerging on the other end like so much beautifully wrecked chrome.

The release marks the second time in a decade that Yonkers will enjoy major attention for works he made as a young man, but to Yonkers, an artist who abandoned commercial and critical courtships when Paul McCartney was playing Buddy Holly covers in Hamburg, the fame and respect is a trifling byproduct of his life's avocation -- proof positive that his humility is anything but an act.

"I guess now I do feel vindicated," he says, "but in my everyday life, I don't even think of it. So many people for so many years told me that if I didn't approach my music seriously, I'd never have anything. Blah blah blah. There were moments where I thought, 'what am I doing here?'" He takes a pensive pause, and smirks. "But yeah," he says, a specter of ego glinting in his limitless modesty. "I think I deserve to be here."

David Hansen

Twins' musical lineup card

As Yogi Berra once meant to say, baseball is 90 percent mental, and the other half is getting sonically jacked-up as you walk to the plate. Every year, Twins players choose what music they want to hear prior to their at-bats, and Vita.mn procured an exclusive sneak peek, courtesy of Target Field music director/DJ Kevin Dutcher. So here's your 2010 Twins walk-up music -- with added music snobbery from us!

1. Denard Span: "A Star Is Born," Jay-Z.

A bit of hubris from the recently re-signed/emerging outfield talent? Still, any Jay-Z track ranks as upper-tier rap.

2. Orlando Hudson: "Big Dogs," Jeezy

A by-the-numbers radio rap throwaway.

3. Joe Mauer: "What You Know," T.I.

Possibly the whitest human being alive, Mauer can't be faulted for tabbing the King of the South's 2006 banger single. As a fun aside, Mauer and T.I. were both recently liberated -- financially ($184 million) and literally (from prison), respectively.

4. Justin Morneau: "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," AC/DC

If Neanderthal cock-rock is good for one thing, it's getting pumped up. Solid choice.

5. Michael Cuddyer: "Fire It Up," Thousand Foot Crutch

Cuddy's No. 1 threat of landing on the D.L. this year? Eardrum cancer, as this vile Christian hard-rock band is probably the leading cause.

6. Jason Kubel: "Sabotage," Beastie Boys

Can't go wrong with the Beastie Boys. Try not to get an adrenaline surge from this 1994 rap-rock classic.

7. Delmon Young: "I'm Raw," Lil Wayne

"Like a home run in the bottom of ninth inning/ I'm fresh like I'm by Mennen," Weezy raps on Young's stellar cut -- one that includes both baseball and obscure deodorant references.

8. J.J. Hardy: "Chicken Fried," Zac Brown Band

Hank Williams is rolling over in his grave.

9. Brendan Harris: "Bawitdaba," Kid Rock

Maybe Harris is secretly a hipster and this is an ironic in-joke? But no, it's "Bawitdaba" -- enough said.

Jay Boller

Benefits follow McMahon's fire

In the wake of the tragic fire that killed six people and destroyed McMahon's Pub last week, two benefits are being organized. Owner Dominic McMahon said proceeds will go to the fire victims. The first comes in the form of a darts tournament put together by the Twin Cities Darts Association, held Sunday at the Eagles Club (#34) in south Minneapolis. The second benefit, to be held April 17 at the Fort Snelling Club, will feature many of the bands that played at McMahon's. More info: www.mcmahonsirishpub.net. (Darts: 2 p.m. Sun. Eagles Club, $10. www.twincitydarts.com. Bands: Noon-midnight, April 17. Fort Snelling Army Reserve Base, building 89.)

Tom Horgen

Basilica nabs Weezer, Spoon

Cities 97 announced most of the 2010 lineup for its Basilica Block Party on Wednesday, with '90s alt-rock hitmakers Weezer and young bluegrassy stars the Avett Brothers atop the bill. Other acts so far named for the July 9-10 event, for which tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m., include rocky singer/songwriters Ingrid Michaelson, Eric Hutchison and Robert Francis, British newcomers One EskimO and V.V. Brown, plus one hip indie-rock band: Texas quartet Spoon, which just played two sold-out gigs at First Avenue last weekend.

"The bands really were hand-picked this year based on who we wanted, instead of just who's on tour at that time," said promoter Sue McLean. "The lineup is a little more progressive, which reflects the changing demographics of Cities 97 and this event."

Weezer and Spoon play July 9 and the Avetts July 10. Single-night tickets are $40, and two-day passes $70.

Chris Riemenschneider

Uptown Bar: Outta site, outta mind

Less than six months since the Uptown Bar was demolished, local bands are once again performing on its site -- except now instead of selling pints and burgers, they'll be there to push fancy raincoats and hiking gear. The Columbia store that replaced the beloved watering hole has lined up a recognizable list of local rockers for free in-store gigs to mark its grand opening this week (and, no doubt, to smooth over its transition into the neighborhood). The bands, all of whom played the Uptown, were unapologetic about taking the good-paying gig. "Shows like this allow us to finance recording music," said Alarmists frontman Eric Lovold, whose band kicked things off Thursday night. Lovold pointed out that the family that owned the Uptown sold it to make money on the property, so why shouldn't his band?

Other performers at the store, 3014 Hennepin Av. S., will include Romantica (5:30 p.m. Fri., 3:30 Sat.), Adam Levy (2 p.m. Sat.), Eliza Blue (5 p.m. Sat.) and Dan Israel (2 p.m. Sun). Romantica's Ben Kyle said he'd rather see Columbia's marketing dollars go into local bands' pockets than "going to Clear Channel to erect another massive billboard on Hennepin." Levy claimed he didn't even realize the store was on the bar's site when he took the gig, but he still doesn't care. "The Uptown will reopen elsewhere," he said. "In the meantime, musicians have to make a living." Israel felt the same way, but he couldn't help but laugh at the irony in how his band's name was botched in a press release for the shows: Instead of Dan Israel & the Cultivators, it went out as "Dan Israel & the Conformists."