Welcome back to another Tuesdays With Lazerbeak! Shouts to our trusty tour van MOUNTAIN for holding the blog down while I was away working on beats with Cecil. Here’s the proof that it actually happened. Personally, I would have played that bass quite a bit higher, but to each their own.
Dessa’s latest full length album, Parts of Speech, officially turned nine weeks old today, and to celebrate its short but significant time in the world we’ve got a nostalgic recap video of the very first 24 hours. Dessa and band traveled all around the state of Minnesota on June 25th, hitting four in-store performances in just under one day to ring in the record’s release. Colin Kopp and Ryan Truax captured a ton of footage and produced the following vizualz, all set to the backdrop of “Fighting Fish.” Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8SPy_qB2M
Speaking of other cool Dessa videos, Radio K just released her Off The Record in studio sessions recently. You can check out all three videos right HERE, and watch “Skeleton Key” below.
Oh, and don’t forget to catch Dessa all the way live on the second leg of the Parts of Speech Tour this September. Click the flyer below for all the details and ticket info.
Continuing on with the theme of live in studio performance videos (MOUNTAIN truly has nothing on my flawless segue game), Stef was out in L.A. a little while back and recorded a session with Antiquiet. You can check out all three videos HERE, and watch “Weird Friends” below. Shouts to Ander Other holding down the hypes.
Stef has a big show this Friday at the MN State Fair Bandstand, playing alongside a pretty incredible collection of MN bands (Trampled By Turtles, The Suburbs, Mason Jennings, The Chalice). It all kicks off around 5:00pm Friday. Grab tickets and more info right HERE.
This September I’ll be playing a couple of big shows with Lizzo as we gear up to drop this LIZZOBANGERS album later in the year (many more details on all of that coming real soon). First up is the annual Summit Brewery Backyard Bash on September 7th.
Doomtree played this last year and it was a total blast. This year the line up is super strong too (Haley Bonar, Night Moves, Secret Stash Soul Revue). Click HERE for tickets and more info. 50% of all ticket sales will go straight to supporting the Minnesota Music Coalition, and there will be an insane amount of Summit beer flowing all day long. What more could you ask for?
Then on September 21st Lizzo and I will be playing Hip Hop Harambee, an all day outdoor community festival on the West Bank. I got to be a part of this last year with Sims, and it was a really awesome time. The lineup is totally ridiculous this year too: Big K.R.I.T., Devin the Dude, Shabazz Palaces and on and on. You don’t wanna miss this one. Click HERE for all the details and ticket info. I’m super amped to start playing these LIZZOBANGERS out live more. Could not be more excited for this record to drop.
And now to wrap up all these upcoming shows and bring it back around to Dessa in a fluid Lion King/Circle of Life sort of vibe. We’re very excited to announce that on October 3rd the good people at Rain Taxi will be publishing Dessa’s new poetry chapbook. I can’t speak to its exact size quite yet, but I guarantee you it contains far more words than Are You Handsome?. To celebrate, Dessa is throwing a book release show of sorts at the Walker Art Center that same night (10/3), and inviting some very special guests along (Sims, Aby Wolf, Taj Raj) to perform brand new material composed just for the event. Get all the details and ticket info right HERE. Tix are moving pretty fast, so I’d recommend grabbing them sometime today if you’re trying to go.
And now for two weeks worth of make up Bonus Penny Pics for all the family members dismayed at a tour van blogging last week. We took a big family day trip out to Shafer, MN a few weekends ago to check out the Franconia Sculpture Park and enjoy the great weather. That boom box wall was definitely one of the highlights.
Here’s a couple great pictures my mom took while watching P last week. She has definitely turned into the ultimate water baby. Can not get enough of that stuff.
And finally, the incredible staff over at First Avenue sent over this personalized Penny hoody a few weeks back, along with a tear jerker of a note “to the next generation of our amazing Minneapolis music community.” I really didn’t think that place could get any cooler, but they’ve really outdone themselves this time. Penny absolutely loves the hoody. I could barely get her to stand still to take a picture.
THE BEST. Alright, that about does it for today’s post. I hope you all have a great and relaxing Labor Day weekend. See you next Tuesday with some SUPER BIG TIME NEWS worthy of the all caps. For real.
— Beak
Twitter: @_LAZERBEAK_
Instagram: @lazerbeak