City Pages gives us props and a new logo

Thanks to David Hansen at City Pages for this blurb on our upcoming releases. We'll have to get back to you on that logo, though.

Mike Gunther highly featured on Monday's Mischke Mix

T.D. Mischke played five Mike Gunther songs on his show Monday.

You can download Monday's show here.

City Pages Review!

City Pages just posted a great feature on The Evening Rig and review of Is Doin' Stuff.

Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages - The Evening Rig

Check out the great write up in City Pages.

Thanks to Andrea Swensson and Alexa Jones!

The Evening Rig announce forthcoming album

By Andrea Swensson in Local Music

Tuesday, Feb. 10 2009

Photo by Alexa Jones

Fans of local bar rock band the Evening Rig will be delighted to hear that the group is releasing their next album, Is Doin' Stuff, on March 27 at the Entry. The hardworking folks over at Switchblade Comb have an exclusive preview track from the forthcoming album, so head over there to sample "The Hilltop Pines."Personally, I was most excited to catch a glimpse of the new album artwork, which is a continuation of the vintage photograph theme that they started with their debut album, 2007's Never Been'er.

There's something about these old photographs that captures the Evening Rig's worn-in, beer-soaked sound perfectly. Here's a graphic of the new album cover:

And here's their first album cover, for comparison:

Check out the link:

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2009/02/the_evening_rig.php

Mike Gunther repeats as "Best Vocalist" in City Pages Best of Twin Cities 2008

BEST VOCALIST (MALE)

Mike Gunther

When it comes to the discography of Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls, comparisons to Tom Waits are a necessary evil. But while Waits's voice box took nearly three decades to stagger from the piano lounge to the flophouse to the chicken coop to the machine shed, local Mike Gunther has developed a powerful vocal presence that manages to telescope not just Waits's career but whole epochs of American roots music in the span of a single chorus. Equally adept at a buttery croon, a scrapyard growl, and the frenzied, multi-register incantations of a traveling evangelist, Gunther expresses in his singing a predilection for all things antique and bygone. On Burn It Down for the Nails, his sophomore full-length, Gunther exhibits a sweeping vocal versatility. One hears echoes of Howlin' Wolf, of Charlie Parker, and of vintage Leonard Cohen. Even if it didn't come all gussied up in Gunther's immaculately rumpled three-piece suit, his would still be the most singular and unmistakable voice in the Twin Cities since Craig Finn packed his steamer trunk and split for the Big Apple.

Mike Gunther named "Best Vocalist" in City Pages Best of Twin Cities 2007

BEST VOCALIST (MALE)

Mike Gunther

With a wail of reprobation and a warning howl, stripped-down blues barnstormer Mike Gunther sings tales of souls gone astray and the mortal consequences they face. There's high drama in his delivery: On last year's Burn It Down for the Nails, Gunther inflected his voice with rollicking country-road rhythms and dark pulpit-bark. God may not have seen fit to grace him with a golden throat; he must summon emotions as if they're spirits, rather than coast on natural beauty. But Gunther still uses his weather-worn instrument to send chills down the spines of straying sinners—that is, all of us.

City Pages: Uncover Me - A tour of Twin Cities weird with Mike Gunther

2006 City Pages feature of Mike Gunther, coinciding with the release of Burn It Down For the Nails.














photo by Richard Fleischman

City Pages: Veteran Record Store Dudes for Truth

Jim Walsh's City Pages feature on the Brother Mark Treehouse "Masters of War" single.

Photo by Diana Watters

Little Dirt CD review in City Pages

September 2004 review of Little Dirt's The Land and the Feet Down Before Us EP.

City Pages: Getting Lucky

Melissa Maerz's 2003 interview and review of Lucky Jeremy & The New Minneapolis' Call It What You Want... But This City Is Mine.

Mike Gunther featured in City Pages' "Rock Stars in their Natural Habitat"

Mike Gunther was featured in Melissa Maerz's piece on local musicians at their favorite hangouts.













photo by Tema Stauffer

City Pages: Bad Religion

Michael Metzger's great 2003 City Pages feature on Mike Gunther and his debut album Every Dream That's Dropped and Died.













photo by Daniel Corrigan

Mike Gunther "Best Songwriter" in City Pages Best of Twin Cities 2003

BEST SONGWRITER

Mike Gunther

"Our little town is no Jerusalem," hisses Mike Gunther on Every Dream That's Dropped and Died (Heart of a Champion). And the way the words scratch his tongue like a dusky swig of paper-bagged whiskey, you aren't sure whether the line is a warning or an exaltation of all bad things to come. After all, this is a guy whose idea of a holy city is a place where truck-stop Romeos cower in their backseats, fortunetellers see lost men in their crystal balls, and God carries a shotgun in his overcoat. But even as Gunther's apocalyptic audio novellas recall the foreboding lyricism of Nick Cave's "(I'll Love You) Til the End of the World" or Tom Waits's "Down, Down, Down," you get the sense that his downturned mouth sometimes speaks the surreal and sadistic humor of Nabokov or T. Coraghessan Boyle. On the twangy Americana track "Heart Hearted," Gunther's voice changes from the Saturday-night drunk of previous songs to a Sunday-morning church camp leader, crooning sweetly about the one who cut up his body into deli-sliced pieces. "I know that you want me, 'cuz I go well with a beer," he insists hopefully. Leave it to the darkly punchy songsmith to find a bright side to dismemberment: If your life ain't a bowl of cherries, just serve yourself some flesh chunks in a dish. Only thing is, unless you're gonna swallow that logic whole, you'd better hope your bite is as sharp as Gunther's.

City Pages review of Lucky Jeremy's "Happy Get Lucky"

February 2002 review of the Lucky Jeremy Happy Get Lucky EP by the lovely Kate Silver.

City Pages review of The Hidden Chord's "Eight Blue Eyes"

November 2000 review by our dear friend Kate Silver.


















photo by Daniel Corrigan