Tag: Cannon Falls MN

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Minneapolis’ Solid Gold Shares Shimmering, Politically Charged “Government Grade”

Minneapolis-based electro rock trio Solid Gold — Zachary Coulter, Adam Hurlbut and Matthew Locher — have released two critically applauded albums to date, 2008’s Ryan Olcott-produced Bodies of Water and 2012’s BJ Burton-produced Eat Your Young, as well as a handful of singles. The trio have supported all of their recorded output with a busy international touring schedule.

The trio are currently working on their long-awaited third album. Recorded at Cannon Falls, MN-based Pachyderm Studios, their new album reportedly showcases a dramatic shift in sound and approach: According to the band, the new songs are “maximalist psychedelic dreamscapes filled with shimmering synthesizers and pop vocal hooks.” They add that the album’s “sound is a reflection of the modern world, beautiful, but with an underlying essence of tragedy.”

Solid Gold’s latest single “Government Grade” is a a remarkably crafted and meditative song anchored around a shimmering psych pop arrangement, some incredibly catchy, well-placed hooks and a gorgeous melody. The song as the band explains is a direct response to the ongoing, violent occupation of Minnesota by ICE. And as a result, the song is a forcefully urgent documentation of our moment — one of many, of course — that also feels timeless and absolutely fucking necessary.

The band will be donating all proceeds from the sale of the song on Bandcamp to Minnesota Mutual Aid groups to support the good, resilient. diverse and deeply proud folks of the Twin Cities.

The Bandcamp link to purchase is here: https://solidgold.bandcamp.com/track/government-grade

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Darren Jackson, is a Bison, SD-born, Minneapolis, MN-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose solo recording project Kid Dakota partially derives its name as a loving homage to Jackson’s home state and a play on Kid Rock. In 1999, Jackson along with long-time friend and producer Alex Oana, wrote and recorded the five songs that would eventually comprise his 2000 self-released EP So Pretty before permanently relocating to Minneapolis.

Interestingly, Jackson’s debut EP caught the attention of Low‘s Alan Sparhawk, who offered to release the EP on his label Chairkickers’ Union under the condition that Jackson expand it to a full-length album — with the full-length version of So Pretty being released in 2002. Sparhawk’s label released Jackson’s sophomore effort, 2004’s The West is the Future, which continued the Bison, SD-born, Minneapolis, MN-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumetanlist’s collaboration with Oana while featuring Low’s Zak Sally. However, his last two albums — 2008’s A Winner’s Shadow and 2011’s Listen to the Crows as They Take Flight was released by Graveface Records.

Jackson’s fifth, full-length album Denervation can trace its origins to a brief summer vacation at his parents’ house in the Black Hills in 2014 that turned into an extended nine-month stay convalescing in a hospital bed, after fracturing his pelvis in a horrific bicycle accident. The blunt force trauma from the accident also caused severe nerve damage, which made it extremely questionable whether or not Jackson would ever be able to walk again without a brace. And naturally, he found himself in a rather dark place. To cope with crippling depression, Jackson began writing the material that would eventually comprise Denervation, which will be released by Graveface Records on February 9, 2018.

After making some rough demos, Jackson sent them to his longtime friend and producer John Kuker, with whom he has collaborated with on several Kid Dakota recordings. And as the story goes, Kuker recognized the material’s raw potential and suggested that the Bison, SD-born, Minneapolis-based artist record the album at famed Cannon Falls, MN-based studio Pachyderm, which Kuker had recently purchased and renovated. Along with that Kuker suggested that Jackson enlist Birthday Suits‘ Matthew Kazama to play drums on the album. Jackson agreed and flew out to Minneapolis in late 2014 to meet with Kazama — and the duo spent several weeks woodshedding the material before heading to the studio in early 2015. After three days of tracking, the duo planned to record the album at Kuker’s studio that spring. Tragically, however, Kuker died from a heart attack in early February 2015, and the album’s came to a standstill. And understandably the album’s material was linked both with Jackson attempting to come to terms with the trauma and aftermath of his bicycle accident and the death of one of his dear friends.

Interestingly, it was only after Jackson got married and returned to Minneapolis from a stint teaching music in rural South Dakota and his Ph.D. studies in philosophy and film at Virginia Tech that he began to find the fortitude to finally finish the album he had started with his dear friend two years prior. And when he went to the studio, he enlisted the help of an All-Star cast of friends and collaborators for the Denervation sessions including Martin Dosh, Andrew Broder, Alan Spearhawk, Johnny and Molly Solomon, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Jeremy Messersmith, Todd Trainer and Dave Simonett. And as you’ll hear on the album’s first single “The Convalescent” the material possesses a feeling of loss, as the material focuses on loss from similar although different perspectives. Whereas some of the album’s songs focus on the potential loss of the use of a limb and its subsequent sense of helplessness, this particular song focuses on the loss of someone close — and as a result, their lingering and inescapable presence. Sonically speaking, the song pairs precise, math rock-like, angular guitar chords and drumming with arpeggiated synths, and arena rock-like hooks, evoking an uneasy, tense vibe.