Good gimmicks are hard to come by in rock 'n' roll these days, especially ones having to do with Satan or surf-rock.
Four joe-blow local musicians you wouldn't bat an eye at passing on the street have ingeniously combined those two bastions of rock gimmickry and created a new band called Lusurfer, playing -- you've probably guessed it -- Satanic surf-rock. Their shtick includes pseudonyms such as Moloch the Manipulator, Asmoday the Tormentor and (scariest of all!) Gary the Insurance Salesman, plus they get all dressed up in ghoulishly painted faces that bleed onto their Hawaiian shirts. Underneath it all, though, they also throw down some pretty devilish guitar licks and tidal-wave rhythms.
Lusurfer performs tonight at the Uptown Bar to promote its debut album, "Vulgar Display of Reverb" (10 p.m., free). The disc includes such titles as "Welcome to Surfer's Hell," "Surf Bloody Surf" and "Summer's Over ... for You." There's also a guitar-bleeding rendition of Bach's "Little Fugue in G Minor." Alas, the cover of Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" they've been playing at shows didn't make the cut.
I actually thought about calling the guys in the band to learn their real story and get them to talk about how they brainstormed the band, but I figured that'd only spoil the fun.
Squaring off One of the many unusually cool things about the Square Lake Festival, which happens again Saturday near Square Lake County Park north of Stillwater: The eighth annual mixer for music, movies and camping sold more tickets this year (about 400 total), but it will require fewer parking spaces. That's because exactly 51 percent of those tickets are bike-in only, which were sold at a discounted price based on the distance of your ride. The two-wheeled tickets all sold out, too. So have the gas-guzzler passes.
"We might keep going down the rabbit hole next year and make it 75 percent for bicyclists," boasted fest founder Paul Creager, who is always careful to cap the fest's size "so it's a core audience of movers and shakers from the Twin Cities who appreciate independent film and music."
This year's musical headliner is the Bad Plus, who will play two sets broken up by screenings. The International Novelty Gamelan will debut a film score to go along with 1926's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed," one of the first animated features. Other performers include Roma di Luna, Zebulon Pike, Charlie Parr, the Orange Mighty Trio and Aby Wolf. Check SquareLakeFestival.com for updates and other info.
Wilson, Tapes save on gas Dan Wilson and Tapes 'N Tapes have issued their fall tour plans, and in both cases their "tours" won't take them outside the Twin Cities metro area.
