Because I'm shameless and because our music blog only gets "Farmer Wants a Wife" viewership numbers, allow me to regurgitate a line I used online when they first announced the lineup for Saturday's Rock the Garden concert at Walker Art Center: They'd better stock the backstage area with plenty of sunscreen.
Not only is the Current/89.3 FM-derived lineup for this Rock the Garden less ethnically diverse than the NHL, but even for white-boy rock it's a narrow niche of pasty-skinned, parka-wearing, bookwormy indie rock. Which isn't to suggest it's a bad lineup. I adore three of the four acts and came to appreciate Andrew Bird after his last album. It's just not anywhere near as varied a lineup as you might expect from a station that purports to be anti-format and gets public financial support on that premise.
Most of us hope for better diversity from the Current and -- despite continuing hubbub about its narrowing playlist and consultants being brought in -- we often get it. Never mind the hipper-than-thou complainers. But the variety could be better. Much better.
The Current revived Rock the Garden with Walker Art Center, which hosted the first Garden party in 1998 with the Jayhawks and moderately diversified over the years with jazzers like the Bad Plus and Medeski, Martin & Wood and Afrobeat giants Antibalas (who played before David Byrne at the last one, in 2004).
This year's lineup has the Current's stamp all over it, and the fact that the show sold out right away is solid confirmation that the Current has found its audience and knows it well. And that's what's scary. Cities 97 and KQ incessantly play the BoDeans and Styx, respectively, for the same reason.
I like the New Pornographers and Bon Iver but I don't want to hear them every day on the radio, as has been the case these past few months. I also deeply dig the new Lupe Fiasco and Roots CDs, but they seem to be the only newer hip-hop albums that the Current DJs own.
More hip-hop and soul/R&B/blues acts aren't all that's needed. How about some country/alt-country/rootsy stuff that's not the Drive-by Truckers, or anything with an accordion besides DeVotchKa? And is it just me, or is this station afraid to rawwwk? Anything heavy and hard seems to be avoided like steak at a vegan restaurant. And enough with those Scarlett Johansson and Bonnie Prince Billy singles!
One thing you have to give the Current credit for is its unwavering support of local music. Rock the Garden does demonstrate that, with one all-Minnesotan group (Cloud Cult), one regional act (Bon Iver, from Eau Claire, Wis.), and one act whose band is made up of Minneapolitans (Bird).
