Local music notes: Jon Wayne & the Pain celebrates feel-good album

The reggae-tinged rockers' First Avenue gig Saturday is next door to another release party by Tyte Jeff.

January 20, 2017 at 6:04PM
Jon Wayne & the Pain celebrates its fourth record this weekend.
Jon Wayne & the Pain celebrates its fourth record this weekend. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Considering all the negativity boiling under the surface this year and particularly this weekend, give Jon Wayne & the Pain props for starting off 2017 with sunny dispositions and do-gooder vibes. And flute solos.

The jammy reggae-rock-electronic quartet graduates from its frequent Cabooze dates to a First Avenue release party Saturday for its fourth record (8 p.m., $15-$17). Its album title alone, "Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe," tells you to set aside all cynicism and kick up a Hacky Sack instead. The 311-echoing title track and other groovy songs follow suit.

Singer/guitarist Wayne and his crew get heavier and feistier later on during the lengthy, synth-led space jam "Further Out" and the provocative anti-corporate rocker "Profit Over People." It's all hippy, but not all dippy. The band is offering $10 tickets Saturday to anyone with a stub from the Red Hot Chili Peppers gig across the street.

Next door to the main room on Saturday, former teen punk-rock idol Jeff Allen of the Plastic Constellations will celebrate the release of his new group Tyte Jeff's thrilling debut LP, "Lutheran Teens." Like the band's well-received 2014 EP, the album lives in the precocious teen and young-adult years the way the Hold Steady records are set in Minneapolis, as evidenced by the cover photo of drummer Matt Johnson in his Kurt Cobain-postered bedroom circa the mid-'90s. One song, "Same Tattoos," also wryly examines modern millennial life (first line: "Everyone here is a graphic designer").

Sonically, "Lutheran Teens" expands on the EP's boisterous rock sound with more off-kilter, subversive twists and turns reminiscent of '90s bands like Pavement and Shudder to Think. Saturday's show also features Valet, Mrs. and Des Moines band Greg Wheeler & the Polygamist Mall Cops (9 p.m., $10).

Random mix

Rico Simon Mendez of Shiro Dame is launching a new Latino music label, Cultura Love, with a party Saturday at the Turf Club featuring Lester Rey & Los Leones from Chicago and such locals as Maria Isa, Manchita, Bionik and Xilam Balam. All appear on the label's debut compilation, "La Coleccìon" (9 p.m., $15, CulturaLove.com). … Former 4onthefloor members Chris Holm and Mark Larson step out under the duo moniker Heatwave & Landman at the Hook & Ladder Theatre on Friday to tout a debut album, featuring '60s-flavored psychedelic blues. Kinda Kinky and Hannah von der Hoff open (8:30 p.m., $8-$12). …

Dead Man Winter will set up shop in Minneapolis' Electric Fetus on Thursday at 7 p.m. for a free set open to those who pre-purchase his/its second album, "Furnace," coming out the next day. … The biggest gig of the year in many local households, 89.3 the Current's Rock the Cradle is expanding into multiple events this year starting with a Feb. 12 party at Afton Alps with Koo Koo Kanga Roo and McNasty Brass, then a March 5 concert with Lisa Loeb at the Fitzgerald, then the usual big bash at the Minneapolis Institute of Art on April 9. Details at TheCurrent.org. …

Busy week for Jim Walsh: He's hosting a nine-hour "Anti-Trump Pro-People" Mad Ripple Hootenanny on Friday, noon-9:30 p.m., at Studio 2 Cafe in south Minneapolis, and then he will be grilled by Andrea Swensson on stage at the Amsterdam Bar in St. Paul on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to tout his new EP-style mini-book, "Gold Experience: Following Prince in the '90s." … St. Paul's Black Dog Cafe hosts an inauguration-related benefit for the ACLU on Friday with Dakota Dave Hull, Siama Matuzungidi, Charley Dush and more (6-11 p.m.). …

While Tommy Stinson impressively barreled through his new Bash & Pop album last week at 7th Street Entry, there's news on other Replacements, too: Slim Dunlap will be feted with "Slimabration" on Feb. 17 at the Hook & Ladder with Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites, Curtiss A, Frankie Lee, John Eller and Dunlap's daughter Emily Bee's band Whale in the Thames ($20, TheHookMpls.com). Also, Chris Mars is releasing his first album in over 20 years this spring, "Down by the Tracks," the title track from which he posted on his Facebook page; and it's stellar. … Nope, nothing to report on the other Replacement.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658

@ChrisRstrib

Tyte Jeff album cover ORG XMIT: fK9pMpop_SoL3zy1qrfH
Tyte Jeff’s “Lutheran Teens” (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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