Consistently one of the best nights of local music every year, First Avenue's Best New Bands showcase earned a much-deserved promotion.
The 2007 edition of the annual music-scene mingler moved to Friday from its traditional Wednesday slot. With the day change in mind, we thought we'd do a little switcheroo of our own. Here's a Sunday guide to the selected bands, most of which have been covered in our Scene section on Friday:
A Night in the Box: Led by three high-school pals who dream of becoming hobos more than rock stars, it earned a buzz with its debut, "The Hustle, the Prayer, the Thief." Their vagabondian story-songs sound like the White Stripes set to banjo and other acoustic instruments.
Black Audience: Another rustic acoustic band, this one's a family act featuring Robin Kyle of the pop-rock group Valet, his wife, Jayanthi, and his brother Luke, plus their well-known pal Mike Gunther. They play old-timey gospel, blues and folk tunes with Jayanthi belting out the vocals and the guys backing her on banjo and bodhran.
Gay Witch Abortion: This all-oomph guitar/drums duo, with ex-Chariots member Jessy Bottomley out front and Chooglin's Shawn Walker behind the kit, churns out mostly instrumentals that somehow sound louder and more monstrous than many quintets do. The drums and guitar become one during their Stooges-meet-Sabbath jams.
Gospel Gossip: These college kids from Northfield, Minn., sound like a college-rock band from England in the late '80s with their swirling guitars and ethereal synth parts. Frontwoman Sarah Nienaber, in particular, charmingly echoes singers such as Tanya Donnelly (of Belly/Throwing Muses). The quartet's droning but hook-filled debut, "Sing Into My Mouth," came out in November.
M.anifest: What's a rapper from Ghana who's as smart as Talib Kweli and as funky as Kanye West doing in Minnesota? Who cares? As proven on his just plain entertaining debut CD, "MaNIfestations," (No. 5 on our recent year-end Twin Cities Critics Tally), the 25-year-old African transplant is as at home laying old-school rhymes and Afrocentric grooves as he is at keeping up with the Joneses (as in Nas and Mike), and his songs are positive and thought-provoking.
Mouthful of Bees: Siblings Chris and Katelyn Farstad were fresh out of high school this time last year when their playful, punky, mumbly quartet issued a home-made album called "The End," which was actually just the start. The Current and Radio K put their guitar-weaving CD opener "The Now" on the air. City Pages gave them the top spot in the annual Picked to Click poll. And bigger and bigger crowds watched the quartet get even better on stage.
