Photo provided by Faith Boblett.
Flip Rushmore and Faith Boblett are both local artists on the Minneapolis-St. Paul music scene. Serving as Flip's reporter on assignment, Alex called Faith to ask hard-hitting questions about her work as a dental hygienist. She answered those, but it turns out there are few direct parallels between dental hygiene and songwriting, so we'll skip ahead to more topical fare.
Alex: It’s been awhile now, but you *had* been keeping up a blog. Pre-COVID. Your last post was almost a document from just before the Dark Ages. You wrote that you’d had a “really stressful 2019” and you were like, “2020, please be kind to me.” Uhh ... Did you make it out OK?
Faith: God. I remember writing that. It was 2019 New Year’s Eve at my parents house. Just chilling with him. It was kind of a sassy “fuck off 2019” and “2020’s gonna be my year.” All in all, I made it out OK. I got done with (dental hygienist) school and I was able to transition into a dental hygiene role at the office I was working in. Not to say that it didn’t have its horrible moments. Of course it did. But I’m really a privileged human being, and I’m grateful that my loved ones stayed safe and I was able to stay safe while working in the dental profession, because that’s a little more high-risk of a job. I got to play a couple shows outdoors. All in all, I’m grateful for the good things that have happened. And I’m happy that the bad things are in the past.
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Vinnie Donatelle aka Friend Dog (photo courtesy of The Last Revel)
Vinnie Donatelle is a Minneapolis-based musician known primarily for his work as a multi-instrumentalist in The Last Revel. His first solo EP--Tending a Timid Flame, under the name Friend Dog—will be available in the coming months.
He took a phone call from Alex to discuss the EP, The Last Revel hiatus, and several other topics, including what he learned during a short-lived move to Portland, how "impermanence" shapes his musical vision, and the love he has for his late friend, Max Graham. (Please note: Max's family is in need of support. Please visit this link to see how you might be able to assist his wife and children.) Alex: So … Friend Dog. What was the spark to start a new project with its own name? I feel like when you name something, it becomes important. What led you to that step? Vinnie: For a long time, I thought it would be an important step in my music career to take on a solo project I can float on my own without having to go through as many logistics and creative negotiations to both produce music and play live shows. But much more on the creative content end of things. At the same time, I never really liked the idea of just putting effort into music as “Vinnie Donatelle.” Something didn’t feel right about that. Maybe it’s too egotistical for my humble Minnesotan roots. The Last Revel was kinda taking a bit of a step back, professionally. I thought it was a nice opportunity for me to establish a new project and see where it goes. 
Provided by Timisarocker.
Timisarocker is a Minneapolis-St. Paul band with a new live performance video (sponsored by Music in Minnesota) dropping Thursday. Alex called up Tim Dooley to discuss that and several other important topics, including Tim's NSFW custom mic stand.
Alex: I figured we need to start with the bull penises. We saw you break out the new mic stand at Day Block a couple years ago. Was it brand new at that point?
Tim: I think so. I honestly can't remember when my boys bought that for me. Whether it was for my birthday, or whether it was for a holiday, but it was one of the first few times I'd gotten to use it. And it is my favorite thing of all time. It is like one of the coolest things I own. Because nobody else has it. And I feel like the more I show it off, the more more people will be like, yeah, I want a bull-penis mic stand. So, so far, I'm the only one in the world that I know of that has it. And I just think it’s so so so cool. 
pure SHIFTER is Doug Deitchler (left) and John Genz (right).
Flip Rushmore and pure SHIFTER are playing Minneapolis’ legendary 7th St Entry with Denim Matriarch and VIAL on Friday, January 17. Find tickets here. Alex got both members of pure SHIFTER (John Genz and Doug Deitchler) on the phone to discuss the show and whatever the hell else.
As a member of Beasthead, Doug has "crossed paths" with various members of Flip Rushmore and Denim Matriarch in the past. Friday will serve as a chance to reconnect, as well as a chance to show off the difference between pure SHIFTER and Beasthead. Alex: When you start a new project, there’s always a reason. So what was pure SHIFTER gonna allow you to express differently? Doug: You want to take that one, John? John: This music is pretty much all my stuff, and Doug came on to help me reign in some of my … how do I put this … Doug helps to organize the music and put it together. He’s an arranger, in a way. Doug: We’ve actually had a little bit of confusion with this recently. Just with The Current and City Pages. I’m from Beasthead. And John and I brought Mitch Miller from Beasthead on the drums, so it sorta seemed like because there were two members (that it was a Beasthead project) … but the actual genesis of this was, this is John’s music. We just made songs out of it. And I don’t think I’ve picked your brain about this, John, but are the songs we’re playing right now, were they written in the past few years on acoustic instruments? This is sort of a rewrite of all those songs with different genres and newer tastes involved? I stepped in last spring to reform his songs and give them some new life. Making a live band and a show out of it. You’re taking John’s original arrangements and reworking them. But are you sitting down together and doing that? Or is Doug just going into the lab and coming back with something? Doug: When we got together last spring, John had all of this done. Pretty much all written. John: A lot of was done, but sort of in imperfect form. The beats would be sort of made and laid out, and the songs would exist, but sort of, like, they’d just be a couple loops, maybe a chorus. Very little fully-formed stuff. Or it would go on for 10 minutes and nothing would change. Doug would be the guy who would say, “Let’s think about the average attention span here.” Doug: He played me a lot of these nine-minute “blob ideas,” and I was like, “I can hear the 15 percent that’s usable here. Let’s carve out some songs. Early on, we ran into some things, like, you’re gonna have to rewrite this. Or rewrite lyrics. Figure out a different synth. And sort of against my instincts, any rewriting that comes up, I’ve purposely been uninvolved. Just to keep the core of it in the same stylistic vein … It’s interesting doing that with songs that I technically didn’t write, but did everything else for. 
Denim Matriarch is (background from left) Jon Lindquist, Will Burnton, Sam Ruff, and (foreground) Nathan Levin.
Flip Rushmore and Denim Matriarch are playing Minneapolis’ legendary 7th St Entry with VIAL and pure SHIFTER on Friday, January 17. Find tickets here. Alex caught up with the entire Denim gang for a phone chat. They were in a car. “Not driving. Just sitting.” Totally normal.
Early in the conversation, Alex realized that it would be next to impossible to accurately attribute each quote to a member—three of them sound exactly alike when they speak. So some of the responses will just be labeled with “No ID.”
Alex: A couple days ago, I spoke with Kate from VIAL. She said Friday is their first time playing the Entry. Any advice for new artists at 7th St? Nathan: Just rock your socks off. Seize the moment. Try to find a good spot on the street to load in there. No ID: Oh, that’s actually real advice. It can be kinda hard to load in there. What is the sweet spot? Will: It’s the garage now. Nathan: I guess now you have to load in through the garage. Never mind. No ID (continuing advice): Definitely get a good meal in ya at the Depot. No ID: Buy drinks in the Depot because it’s 50 percent off. Nathan: Yeah, take that 50 percent discount and you’ll be playing like you’ve never played. 
VIAL is (clockwise from left): Taylor Kraemer, Katie Fischer, Kate Kanfield, and KT Branscom.
Flip Rushmore and VIAL are playing Minneapolis’ legendary 7th St Entry with Denim Matriarch and Pure Shifter on Friday, January 17. Find tickets here. Alex got on the phone with VIAL bassist Kate Kanfield to discuss the gig and—apparently—everything else.
Alex: You guys have way too many Kates in your band. Did you purposely seek each other out? Kate: Absolutely no planning or anything. It just happened that way. Taylor knew myself and KT, and we thought, “Oh my god, that’s funny.” Then we were on Tinder and we were looking for a drummer, and we matched with Katie. We thought, “Oh, that’s perfect. Three Katies or Kates or KTs. That’s just hilarious.” So there was a little bit of fate. You saw the name, and it made sense. Yeah. “We need to message them just because their name is Katie.” It worked out perfectly. How did you guys all start playing music with each other? I’ve known Taylor since we were both in high school. Five or six years now. We played together in a program back then and did some stuff together. Taylor messaged me earlier this year and said, “I want to get a band together.” Taylor also knew KT through a program called She Rock She Rock. Taylor connected us, and then we found Katie on Tinder! Is that how bands are being formed now? On Tinder? We haven’t found another band yet who’s used Tinder, but we highly recommend it. |
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