This Week at the Turf Club: Dec 8, 2015

THURSDAY: 7th Street Tattoo 10 Year Anniversary Party

Brothers Teague and Ian Alexy began playing music and writing songs together at an early age while growing  up on the southern coast of New Jersey. After pursuing music separately for a few years, Teague in California and Ian in New England, the brothers came together in 2005 to form Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank in their adopted home of northern Minnesota.  Hobo Nephews began recording their first album and playing their first shows in the wintery town of Duluth, Minnesota alongside other burgeoning Americana artists Trampled By Turtles and Charlie Parr. Combining what Minneapolis Star Tribune calls “timeless songwriting chops” with “tremendously played roots music” (Atlantic City Weekly), Hobo Nephews have tirelessly played, sang and stomped their own brand of Americana in big cities and small towns all over the country.  The road tested duo has recorded 4 full length records and has another on the way in early 2015 produced by Trampled By Turtles violinist Ryan Young. [Consider It Correspondence]

Sounds like: Tin Can Gin, Screen Door Porch, The McCoy Tyler Band

SATURDAY: I AM ST PAUL!

Located on the eastern border of Minnesota are two towns, similar in size and separated by a river. Together, these municipalities are commonly referenced as “The Twin Cities”. Plenty is shared between these sister cities, and both have a distinctly northern milieu with an artistic DNA. However, beneath the similarities, there are certain things about the eastern part of the duo that keeps them from being identical twins. Is it a bluer collar, made scrappier from a bit more grit and some additional flint? Is it the rich, capitol-driven history that demands a foot be placed in it while driving to be forward and progressive? Is it due to its unique brand of people that create and businesses that thrive – achieving their own fame and finding their own limelight? Is it because that being a smaller city gives you the freedom to act like a smaller town? Or maybe it’s the fact that when you’re in the shadow of a brilliant sister, you don’t have to field the same expectations, allowing you to relax and hone your craft? Who knows? All we know is that our metropolis is its own wonderful, unique, and vibrant community. And that every year, we come together as one – celebrating all of the qualities and creativity that definitively make us who we are. We’re all Minnesotans. We’re all Twin Citians. But, tonight, we say that I AM ST. PAUL! Special performances throughout the night by Ashley DuBose, B-Boy Jason Noer and his crew Praxis, special duet by Mina Moore and Eric Mayson, party beats by DJ Shannon Blowtorch + more experitial fun with Playatta + runway looks from Primp, Karma Boutique, Heimie’s Haberdashery, and Science and Kindness.

SUNDAY: Trash Film Debauchery showing TREMORS and TREMORS 2

Come snuggle up and watch a graboid double feature at the Turf Club this Sunday! First up - the one, the only, The Kevin Bacony classic, Tremors! And since I know that's not enough sandworm for you maniacs, we've got Tremors 2: Aftershocks to follow. This event is free!

Tremors (1990): Repairmen Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) are tired of their dull lives in the small desert town of Perfection, Nev. But just as the two try to skip town, they happen upon a series of mysterious deaths and a concerned seismologist (Finn Carter) studying unnatural readings below the ground. With the help of an eccentric couple (Reba McEntire, Michael Gross), the group fights for survival against giant, worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh.

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996): After spending all the reward money from his first encounter with the giant man-eating worms called "Graboids," Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) agrees to hunt more of the deadly creatures at a Mexican oil refinery for $50,000 each. Knowing that he cannot face the monsters alone, Earl recruits Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), another veteran of the incident in Nevada, to supply the firepower. There is only one problem: The Graboids have now evolved to attack above ground.

TUESDAY: An Evening with Erik Koskinen

Erik Koskinen's America Theatre is a translucent eulogy to the genuine. Musically sprouted from the blend of American folk, country, rock-n-roll, and blues, Koskinen and his top-shelf band realize a sound that is distinctive and fresh while familiar and classic. From the tender opener, 'First Time in Years' to the defiant 'Six Pack of Beer' to 'Boomtown,' a track that flays the history of the west's settlement from bedrock to fracking with a locomotive's force of barbwire guitars, marching bass and cracking drums, Koskinen moves the listener through a landscape of personal and social struggles, as well as small triumphs, of our nation and its people. Ending on the quiet heartbreaker and breath taker, 'Slow Burn,' Koskinen's album is a lyrical and musical metaphor of American's theaters of war, of history, of relationships, and of the reflections in the mirror. Knowing but not didactic, Koskinen channels the ways of Whitman and reverently enters the anthology of uniquely crafted wry songs with the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ry Cooder while speaking as plainly as your neighbor. Koskinen joins the ranks of chief musicians and sharp wordsmiths. Since moving to Minneapolis eight years ago, Koskinen has amassed a following as a musician, songwriter, producer and engineer. With experience stemming from years of traveling north to south and coast to coast, Koskinen taps those adventures and encounters in his second album, the follow-up to the acclaimed Keep It to Yourself.

Sounds like: The Defibulators, Quiet Hollers, Sinners & Saints

Blog by Gina Reis