Lunch of Champions

Minneapolis and National Music Reviews

December 20, 2009

Megadeth (Nastolgia)

Posted by Toby on Sunday, December 20th, 2009

For those of you who are new to this, Megadeth was one of the biggest bands in the world in the mid-1990′s.  They have since slithered into obscurity.  BUT their sound has aged surprisingly well.  Check out this clip from 1995:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFR5WylNrxI[/youtube]


December 16, 2009

Talking Tree | “Thursday”

Posted by Toby on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
talkingTree

Talking Tree

One of the great joys of playing in a band is that I get to meet other people who play in bands. Over the years, my band has been fortunate to play shows with one of the Twin Cities’ finest indie rock band, Charlie Van Stee Trio (CVS Trio).  Because of those gigs (and post-parties), I have had the pleasure of getting to know the CVS Trio’s fab bassist, Nathan Eliot Rowan (CVS Trio, Living Spoon, Free Grandma).

Nathan is a small-town guy in a big city.  I went to his birthday party last year, and we spent the evening playing 16-bit Sega Genesis games, drinking beer, and singing half of The Beatles repertoire.   It was awesome.  One of the highlights of the night was watching Talking Tree for the first time.

Nathan and co-singer, Molly Dworsky, played a beautifully-crafted set of around 5 songs.  Their sound was magnetic.  Their lyrics were delightful.  Their energy was a megawatt power plant explosion.    To date, I haven’t heard anything quite like it.

Their new EP, Thursday, features 4 songs that nicely capture the essence of the duo’s stage show, which I have seen a number of times.  Heavy in harmonies and sparse in instrumentation, the album is a great, albeit quick, listen.  Like their stage shows, Nathan’s and Molly’s voices do the majority of the heavy lifting on the recording, while Nathan’s guitars provide a nice foundation for their lyrics (and mad props to Molly’s percussion!).

Listen to Thursday on MySpace and check out this short video from the musical, Sarah Your Ovaries Are Drying Up:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABoD9rNT0Sw[/youtube]


December 5, 2009

Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Posted by Toby on Saturday, December 5th, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY[/youtube]