A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:
Brianna Lane, "The Porchlight Song." This homegrown folkie is one of the best-kept secrets in town. I'm a sucker for tunes that go to that late-night yearning place, and this one (from "Let You In") does it with a mandolin-flecked lilt and a sexy purr that make mincemeat out of the ache.
The Rapture, "Pieces of the People We Love." A minimal, noisy, gnarly celebration of past loves and lovers and how they live on in our hearts, no matter how much time or distance has come between.
Fran King and Duncan Maitland. These ace Irish craftsmen return to spread their wry, warm, sweet smart-assery that owes as much to XTC as it does to their punk-rock lineage. Catch 'em tonight (Nomad), Monday (Acadia), Tuesday (400 Bar) or Thursday (Kitty Kat Club).
JIM WALSH, WRITER/SONGWRITER, MPLS.
TO CONTRIBUTE: POPMUSIC@STARTRIBUNE.COM
B4U Music. Sitting at an East Indian restaurant in Boston, I was entertained by this music channel from India. The music is mostly exotic dance-pop, but the Bollywood-inspired videos are campy, colorful and cinematic.
"The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars" by Jeremy Simmonds. It's a chronological survey, starting in 1965, of famous and not-so-famous music stars (including Soul Asylum's Karl Mueller) who have died. British TV producer Simmonds discusses their careers, how they died and often who attended their funeral. Neither encyclopedically boring nor rock-crit glib, he mines trivia and clarifies rumors (a heart attack, not a ham sandwich, killed Mama Cass Elliot).
