See
more of the story
Neither of the big local albums dropping this week involves a hometown release party, but that's because the acts are already out on the road touting them.
Pert Near Sandstone landed a choice opening slot on fellow bluegrassy pickers' Yonder Mountain String Band's fall tour, including a stop last Friday at First Avenue. This Friday sees the release of "Discovery of Honey," the quintet's seventh album. They recorded it with Trampled by Turtles fiddler (and Pert Near alum) Ryan Young at his home studio, housed in an actual Cold War-era bunker with 2-foot-thick walls. Jokes about getting bombed need not apply.
"Discovery" brings Pert Near back to its rowdy, high-energy sound after 2014's more introspective LP, "The Hardest Part of Leaving." With Trampled on hiatus, Young is back in the band on tour, too. Look for Pert Near to announce its Winter String Band Gathering at the Cedar soon.
Meanwhile, Doomtree's second- or third-handsomest rapper Sims just hit the road for six weeks with the Hood Internet's offshoot act Air Credit the day before his third full-length solo effort arrives.
Titled "More Than Ever," the album is discernibly darker than Sims' prior collections, with beatmakers Paper Tiger, Lazerbeak and Icetep matching his tormented, sometimes paranoid words with similarly frayed sounds. Sims will be back to promote "More Than Ever" with his first solo headlining gig at First Ave on Jan. 6.
Random mix
Label operator, photographer and all-out scene booster David Biljan will get some well-deserved payback Friday with "Bucks for Biljan," a party at the James Ballentine VFW in Uptown to offset his recent medical bills, with performances by the Belfast Cowboys, Billy Dankert, Little Man, Mighty Mofos, Rank Strangers and more (7 p.m.-1 a.m.). Among the auction items will be one of Slim Dunlap's plaid Replacements suits. …
Former Ol' Yeller and Glenrustles frontman Rich Mattson and partner Germaine Gemberling are coming down from their studio in rural Sparta, Minn., to celebrate the second album by their band the Northstars on Friday at the Hook & Ladder Theater (ex-Patrick's Cabaret, 9 p.m., $8-$12). Titled "Star Maps," the LP is loaded with Byrds-y folk-rock and Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris twang-rock duets that should provide warmth all winter. … From the jungles of east St. Paul, singer/songwriter Charley Dush will tout his new album, "Lived That Life," at the Driftwood Char-Bar in south Minneapolis on Saturday at 7 p.m. with Sleep Study. Dush's Beatles-y rock songs get rollicking support from producer/bassist Ed Ackerson and drummer Noah Levy, but some of his best tunes are the more intimate ones, such as the Nick Lowe-like strummer "Heart of Mine" and a gospel-ized ode to sobriety, "True Clarity." …
The Triple Rock hosts another tribute to Dimebag Darrell on Saturday with an all-Pantera set featuring members of Deephaven and Metallagher, plus a set by Black Garden (Sabbath + Soundgarden) and a Misfits cover band (10 p.m., $7). … Amid the aforementioned Trampled by Turtles hiatus, frontman Dave Simonett is readying another Dead Man Winter album for release Jan. 27, songs from which he will preview with a rare solo gig Sunday at the Aster Cafe's River Room (6 p.m., $15). …
With a new anthology of his music writing already on the shelves, "Barn Yarns and Manic Depressive Mixtapes," Jim Walsh will now compile a few dozen of his favorite performers from 10 years of Mad Ripple Hootenanny songwriter circles with an anniversary party next Thursday at the Cedar Cultural Center (7:30 p.m., $12-$15). … Former Cities 97 and Go 96.3 jockey Jason Nagel is saying goodbye to corporate radio and winters and has taken an independent radio job in Key West, Fla. Nagel was one of the music scene's best champions at commercial FM radio outlets over the past 15 years and will be missed by all; or at least by all of us who don't want to hear more Train or Twenty One Pilots songs on the radio.
chrisr@startribune.com
612-673-4658
Twitter: @ChrisRstrib
