The Black Eyed Snakes Blog

The Black Eyed Snakes – “Bo Diddley”, 2011-03-11

samh — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:06:05 +0000

March 11th, 2011 The Black Eyed Snakes performed at a longtime hot bed of Duluth music, R.T. Quinlan’s. Youtube user duluthiscool was there with video camera in his hand and his eye on style.

The Black Eyed Snakes – Homegrown “Secret Show”

samh — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:53:05 +0000

Duluth’s immensely popular Homegrown Music Festival recently went off with a week of good music, good people, and good times – - or so I hear from the buzz of the Internet. I lived in Duluth for about two years and enjoyed Homegrown as a bit of a Duluth n00b. Those who have been in attendance since its inception however tend to wax poetic and get misty-eyed over times gone by. The heart and soul of any good music festival – no matter how long you’ve been attending – is the power and raw emotion of a bitchin’ rock and roll show.

Former Duluthian and blogger, Laurie attended a “Secret Show” with The Black Eyed Snakes on a return visit to Duluth she took with her family. Current Duluthian and amateur scene-documenter Ryan Dahlberg was also there taking photos. Ryan e-mailed me to point out the link to Laurie’s blog and his photos from the show. Since I wasn’t there I won’t even bother paraphrasing so check out the links and get in the moment.

Black Eyed Snakes – Flickr photo set
I <3 Dirty Rocker Boys – This is Babble On blog post

Retribution Gospel Choir Live at Kilby Court on April 16, 2010

samh — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:00:39 +0000

I recently traveled to Salt Lake City to attend the Retribution Gospel Choir’s performance at Kilby Court, April 16th, 2010. Two opening acts performed followed by a set timing in just under an hour by RGC. Attendance was around fifty people, many of whom were obviously fans judging by their reactions to each song and by the informal chat sessions with the band following the show.

I recorded the fifty-three minute, twenty-four second set and have shared the audio on archive.org. To listen, use the embedded streaming functionality below, or download the set in it’s entirety from the archive.org set page.

Set page at archive.org:
Retribution Gospel Choir Live at Kilby Court on 2010-04-16

Photos from Flickr:
Retribution Gospel Choir Live at Kilby Court with last.fm event tag

Setlist:
01 Breaker (2:21)
02 Workin’ Hard (4:15)
03 White Wolf (4:42)
04 Poor Man’s Daughter (7:25)
05 They Knew You Well (2:55)
06 Take Your Time (3:56)
07 banter (2:16)
08 Hide It Away (3:07)
09 Your Bird (3:13)
10 Something’s Going to Break (2:49)
11 Electric Guitar (9:27)
12 banter (1:33)
13 Then She Turned Into (2:23)
14 ’68 Comeback (3:10)

Streaming Audio (53:56):

Retribution Gospel Choir covers the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo”

Greg — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:16:05 +0000

I fear this could be one of the most controversial posts to ever appear on this blog.

From the Onion’s A/V Club. If you’re feeling up for hating on or defending this video, hit up the comments page over there as well. Pretty “vigorous” discussion already underway.

Alan Sparhawk interview

Greg — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:48:15 +0000

Erik Thompson at The Line of Best Fit has posted an interview with Alan Sparhawk, primarily about his work with Retribution Gospel Choir. Highlights:

Low is physically exhausting in it’s own way, but with Retribution it can be life-threatening…

…songwriting is humiliating, making records is confusing, and the industry is a joke…

…For sure the long cold season indoors has bearing, but then I think the underdog factor is also a big part of the artistic attitude in Duluth (or any other smaller town that’s sort of isolated.) Also, I think the lake is a strange factor – it disappears on the horizon, but it also freezes…

Read the whole thing »

’68 Comeback / Workin’ Hard Music Video Released

samh — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:40:05 +0000

The third and fourth tracks off Retribution Gospel Choir’s album 2 have been released by Sub Pop Records. The track “Workin’ Hard” is preceded on the album by a short number called “’68 Comeback” which is also featured in the video in an interesting use of concert footage. The two tracks have significantly different feels and the videographer has captured this nicely.

RGC at The Triple Rock Social Club, Feb. 20 2010

Greg — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:29:55 +0000

Alan Sparhawk, Retribution Gospel Choir (photo by Jon Behm)

In the City Pages, Erik Thompson provides an appropriately concise but complete review of Retribution Gospel Choir’s recent show in Minneapolis.

The three-piece were locked in all evening long, hardly giving themselves (or the crowd) time to catch their breath before it was on to the next song, which only served to add to the intensity and frenzy of the songs themselves. The spotlight was clearly on Sparhawk’s guitar work during the entire set, tearing it up on “Your Bird” and an extended, fierce version of — appropriately enough — “Electric Guitar.” Sparhawk joked recently about how he’s done things in reverse and gotten louder as he’s grown older, and this was by far the loudest show I’ve ever seen him play.

Retribution Gospel Choir get intense at the Triple Rock

To kick off the show, Alan Sparhawk stood on the stage and yelled, “We bring you greetings from Lake Superior.” Somewhere in the middle of one of the greatest jams in rock and roll history on “Poor Man’s Daughter,” I almost had a euphoric coronary.

Meanwhile, over at the website Reviler, photographer Jon Behm has posted several images from the concert that pretty well captured the energy.

Retribution Gospel Choir – Homegrown Music Festival, 2009

samh — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:06:15 +0000

Here’s an intimate location that would be fun to catch RGC. Check out Retribution Gospel Choir during Duluth’s Homegrown Music Festival in 2009. The band gives a lively, afternoon performance of Take Your Time to a small crowd of excited Duluthians.

The house in the video is the same one RGC gave a recent private show, a report of which can be read at: Retribution Gospel Choir – Private East Hillside Performance.

The Current covers the Choir

Greg — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:24:16 +0000

Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current radio station recently featured an interview and in-studio performance with Retribution Gospel Choir, and the station’s weekly music talk show featured a discussion of “2.”

Interview, awkwardly facilitated by Mary Lucia:

Video of the band doing “Working Hard”:

And here is the Musicheads episode in which DJs Bill DeVille, Steve Seel and Jade discuss the album (segment starts at 16:45):
Download audio file (musicheads_20100216_128.mp3)

“2″ is 89.3 The Current’s CD of the week

Greg — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:25:17 +0000

The Current, Minnesota Public Radio’s indie music station, has chosen “2″ as its CD of the Week. The weekly pick is given to new members when they donate to the station and also receives a review from one of the station’s DJs. Morning show co-host Steve Seel offered a largely positive review of the album:

…2‘s in-your-face, anthemic classic-rock wallop hits you immediately on the record’s first track and lead single, “Hide It Away,” which may be the most fist-pumping hunk of melodic guitar pop Sparhawk has ever offered up. You will bow down to its awesome rock awesomeness, and it’s [sic] gorgeous, mile-wide hook will guarantee that you’ll be quite happy all the while you’re doing it.

I have to disagree with at least one of Seel’s points, though: in that, when contrasting Alan Sparhawk’s powerful vocals on “2″ with his previous work with Low, Seel says:

“It’s actually rather funny to be talking about Alan Sparhawk in terms of vocal muscle and assuredness, since part of the appeal in his early performances with Low was precisely his nonchalant lack of those things.”

I don’t doubt Seel knows Low’s music well–he closes the review by stating that “2″ doesn’t live up to early Low records like “Secret Name” or “Long Division,” which I also would disagree with as an unfair comparison–but to characterize Sparhawk’s work with Low as a “nonchalant lack of [vocal muscle and assuredness]” just misses the point entirely.

There is a vast difference between the restrained power of Low and anything akin to “nonchalance.” One of Low’s chief appeals has always been the intensity lurking below the surface of its quiet sound and the tremendous meaning and feeling delivered in each song, primarily through the subtle, but confident, talents of Sparhawk on guitar and microphone.

Nonetheless, if you haven’t purchased “2″ yet and want to, The Current is a great radio station and supporting it and getting a copy of the album is a pretty good bargain.