Category Archives: Music

F-M artist shares stories with late-night downtowners

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Jasmine Maki, MSUM Multimedia Journalism

Hobos. Drunks. Politicians. Lawyers. Store owners. Students. Dancers.

As a street musician, Eden Parker plays and interacts with a wide variety of people in downtown Fargo.

Some drop a dollar or two in his guitar case as they pass. Others sit and listen to him play on the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue.

“That’s my territory,” Parker said. Between Old Broadway and Dempsey’s Pub, it’s the most heavily trafficked corner in downtown Fargo, he said.

Leaving Eden / Eden Parker

“It’s quiet enough for people to hear, and they all have to walk right past it.”

Parker claimed that corner about three and a half years ago after playing on street corners all across the country.

Destination-less journey brings Parker to Fargo

Parker was living in Montana helping care for his sick grandmother in 2008.

“When she passed away, I just couldn’t really be around anymore, so I just packed my car with all my instruments and suitcases and hit the road,” Parker said.

With little money and no destination, Parker made his way across the country, stopping in Long Beach, Seattle, San Antonio, Denver and Las Vegas.

Eden Parker and drummer Beth Garland perform on a street corner to earn a few bucks for gas.

“I just traveled around for a while going from city to city,” he said. “I’d play on the corner until I made enough money to get to the next one.”

Before the trip, Parker had never played on a street corner but he knew he wanted to travel and didn’t have the money to do so.

“I figured, ‘I’ll be a street musician and just play on the street until I make enough to fill the gas tank and then go somewhere else’,” Parker said.

After traveling throughout the country for a few months, Parker decided to visit a friend attending North Dakota State University.

He planned to stay for a week, but plans quickly changed when he booked a show.

“I played an open mic at the Sidestreet Bar,” Parker said. “After the open mic, they’re like ‘you’re really great. We want you for a show in June.’”

Parker said he thought “that’s awesome, but its March right now and that’s like three months away.”

He talked with his family and decided to wait it out, play the show and then move on.

Eden Parker performs at the VFW in June of 2012.

 

“But by the time June rolled around, I had shows booked from June until December in town,” he said.

Parker continued to book shows in the area, so he continued to stick around.

“It was a very happy accident that I came here,” he said.

Although Parker is now a well-known Fargo musician playing at many of the local venues, he still continues to play on the street-corner for extra cash.

 

Parker interacts with listeners on the street

Playing on the street corner gives Parker an opportunity to interact and connect with FM downtowners.

He said the main difference from playing a show is that he has to constantly work to capture audience attention.

During a show, the audience consists of people who have paid to see him, so they are fully invested and “in it to win it.” Comparatively, during a street performance, the audience is any passers-by.

“You have maybe five, 10 seconds before they pass you to catch their attention, so you really have to be on top of your game all the time and just be engaged and ready to make them stop and pay attention for long enough to toss you some change,” he said.

Parker’s favorite time to play on the street is between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. when people are out at the bars. He said he makes $70 to $80 on a bad night and $200 to $250 on a good night.

“I’ve had 50s thrown into my guitar case before,” he said. “I’m never sure if it’s an accident or if it’s on purpose, but it’s awesome.”

As people throw money into his case, he takes a second to say ‘thank you’ before continuing the song. He also tells stories and talks to listeners between songs.

“I have a lot of fun playing in the streets,” Parker said. “I’ve met so many cool people down here.”

Downtowners contribute to the music

Many of the interactions Parker has had on the street have landed him shows and news coverage, furthering his career.

“(Playing on the street) was a really good way to get a jump start into the music scene here,” Parker said.

He enjoys playing downtown because he gets to connect with a variety of people including other musicians, who will sometimes join him on the corner to play a song. Or dancers will come by and start break-dancing on the street.

It’s really neat to have people that enjoy it and contribute some of their own art as well,” he said.

Eleventh Hour Angel / Eden Parker

For more of Eden Parker’s music, view his website or Facebook page.

Downtown’s busiest lady: Diane Miller

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Charly Haley, MSUM Multimedia Journalism

Diane Miller plays many genres of music.

FARGO, N.D. – She may be found in a dark downtown music venue, with lights and a band behind her, yelling to an audience “Yo, we’re D Mills & The Thrills and we’re from right here in Fargo.”

She could also be found behind a desk in a quiet office at the Brownstone on 8th downtown.

If she’s not in either of those places, maybe she’s holed up somewhere with her acoustic guitar, searching for the right note.

Whether she’s writing songs, rapping on stage, editing newspaper stories or teaching guitar, Diane Miller stays busy.

“It seems like a lot, but I enjoy what I do,” Miller said.

The 26-year-old performs music in downtown Fargo with D Mills & The Thrills, Heavy is the Head and under her own name, Diane Miller. She teaches guitar and banjo lessons at Marguerite’s Music in Moorhead, Minn., and she’s also editor of Fargo’s alternative weekly newspaper, the High Plains Reader.

Working as an editor

Diane Miller performs folk music on banjo and guitar, and teaches lessons for both instruments.

The High Plains Reader is distributed throughout Fargo every Thursday, and is free for anyone to pick up.

“It’s an alternative newspaper, so we put more focus on local music and artists,” Miller said. Some of the newspaper’s goals are to help people learn about art and entertainment events in the area and to draw attention to the work of local artists. High Plains Reader also prints some miscellaneous, non-art feature stories, Miller said.

Miller started at High Plains Reader as the music editor, in fall of 2011. In March, she became the editor.

As editor, Miller works in High Plains Reader’s downtown office contacting writers, assigning stories, editing and writing stories.

“High Plains Reader definitely keeps me busy,” Miller said.

She has interns who help at the paper, too, she said.

“The best thing about High Plains is the flexibility,” Miller said. Although she’s editor, her schedule is still flexible enough for her to find time to practice and play music, and work with other musicians’ schedules.

Heavy is the Head

A few of the musicians Miller coordinates her schedule with are the other members of nine-piece reggae band Heavy is the Head.

“Of all the bands, I’m probably most active with Heavy is the Head,” Miller said. “It’s just really, really fun music.”

Before joining Heavy is the Head, Miller didn’t listen to much reggae music, she said. Now, she loves it, and describes Bob Marley as brilliant.

Miller plays a gig with Heavy is the Head one or two times a week. They play reggae cover songs at Fargo-Moorhead events and bars.

“It’s fun music to have at events,” she said.

Miller didn’t pay much attention to reggae music while growing up because she was listening to rap.

“I grew up listening to rap music, ever since elementary school,” Miller said.

Time by D Mills & The Thrills

D Mills & The Thrills

For a little more than a year, Miller has been rapping with D Mills & The Thrills. They play a couple of covers, but it’s mostly all original songs.

Diane Miller raps with D Mills & The Thrills.

“It’s hip-hop with a live band,” Miller said, which is somewhat unusual, because rappers often perform with DJs or pre-made beats.

D Mills’ sound is even more unusual because she’s a female rapper.

“It really expands our audience,” she said. “Even older people like D Mills.”

Folk music and teaching

When Miller’s fans simply see “Diane Miller,” they won’t be hearing reggae or rap – she also plays folk music.

“They’re songs I write on my acoustic guitar,” she said. “I like to write music.”

Miller’s folk-writing inspiration is drawn from the other genres of music she performs and listens to.

“It’s definitely not traditional folk music. It’s my own twist on it, but it’s rooted in folk,” she said.

Between her three bands, Miller mostly plays at downtown Fargo venues, like The Aquarium, the Hotel Donaldson, Sidestreet Grille & Pub and the VFW.

In addition to playing music and working at High Plains Reader, Miller also teaches guitar and banjo lessons at Marguerite’s Music in Moorhead.

With two jobs and three bands, it would seem that Miller may get overwhelmed, but she said she likes being busy, and she loves everything she’s doing.

Upcoming shows:

Oct. 13: D Mills opens for DJ Spooky. Plains Art Museum, Fargo. 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Photos and audio courtesy of Diane Miller.

Setting the scene: Businesses choose tunes strategically

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Story and photos by Meghan Feir

MSUM English/mass communications

Edited by Meredith Wathne

Don’t be surprised if your ears end up being as pleased as your taste buds when you go out on the town next.

Imagine going to a restaurant or coffee shop where no music is being played. Even the thought is unappealing. People don’t pay for food and beverage alone. Atmosphere is just as expensive, and a large part of setting a scene comes from background music pumping you up or settling you down. Music is known for its ability to mold our moods, so it’s no wonder businesses put thought into the soundtracks of their space.

Chelsea Thorson, a barista at Atomic Coffee on Broadway, said they use Pandora for their music playlists. “With my iPod I have Pandora. Usually, I listen to Fleet Foxes radio,” Thorson said. “Every person who’s working brings their iPod, so we have full, free range of whatever we want to listen to, as long as it’s not vulgar or obscene. But, really, there’s no limitations to what we can play in here. Sometimes it’s classical on Sundays, and whatever; jazz on Friday nights, maybe to mix it up.”

Atomic Coffee refuses to bore their patrons. Genres like classical, indie and jazz are played to broaden the musical repertoire of guests and employees.

Like Atomic, Babb’s House of Coffee on Main Avenue in Fargo, relies on their iPod to cater to not only coffee lovers’ taste buds but their musical tastes, too. Joel Onsurez, a manager at Babb’s, makes sure variety surrounds their clientele. “We play anything from opera to light country – pretty much all over the board,” Onsurez said.

Volume levels also play a major role in atmospheric appeal. Onsurez said the music at Babb’s is “usually not very obtrusive at all, so even if you’re sitting in the back you can still have a normal conversation without having to raise your voice.”

Babb’s Coffee House offers a vast array of musical selections ranging from musical scores to light country.

While many businesses are choosing to use Pandora and their iPods as personal DJs, some still like to support their local radio stations, while others prefer to play CDs to fit their theme. Betts Kopp, a server at Toscana, said they play “Italian. When we’re busier we turn it up louder. We use CDs.”

Kara Klipfel, an employee at Spicy Pie, said they use satellite radio to keep the selection flowing. “We play a lot of classic rock. We have different stations, but it’s mostly classic rock that we play. It’s a nice variety,” Klipfel said. “It’s not the same stuff every day. Sometimes, like weekends, we play more, like, upbeat, mainstream stuff – like, we’ll do an electronic channel on Friday nights for the bar crowd.”

Time of day also plays a major role in how loudly they play their music. “During the week it’s more relaxed ‘cause a lot of families come in,” Klipfel said, “so we have more relaxing music, and it’s not too loud ‘cause people like to talk when they eat. It’s usually quieter during the day, but on Fridays and Saturdays around 11 p.m. we can turn it up.”

Spicy Pie serenades Downtown Fargo with classic rock through satellite radio stations.

Other businesses like the Hotel Donaldson thrive on diversity of tunes. Nate Stensgard, one of the managers at the HoDo, said they play “a mixture of things – newer stuff – actually, kind of a great variety. We use Spotify, Pandora, things like that,” Stensgard said. “We like kind of mellow music. At night it gets a little more upbeat, a little more rock ‘n’ rollish, if you will – depends on the crowd. We just want everybody to be comfortable, so we adjust the music accordingly. We’ll accommodate.”

Stensgard noted the direction music acquisition has taken recently with the use of these accessible music programs. “Everybody’s doing Pandora, and whatnot. It’s not like we’re buying CDs. You find two songs by one artist and move on to similar stuff,” Stensgard said. “You don’t just sit there and listen to 20 songs by one artist.” Stensgard also mentioned how the majority of people today are using these music sites to enjoy music for free, rather than purchasing each song they enjoy.

So, what is the desired outcome for these local eateries’ carefully chosen taste for tunes? “Just being calm and happy, I guess,” Stensgard said, “what everybody wants for their guests at their restaurant or bar. We’re not trying to force emotions down people’s throats – we just want them to be happy.”

The HoDo, among other businesses, chooses to use accessible music programs like Spotify and Pandora to set the mood.

Grand Re-opening Offers Activities For All

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Shane Maland performs with members of Little Winter and The Season. Photo by Cassandra Maland

Story by Shane Maland

MSUM Journalism

The parking lot at 916 Main Ave. in Fargo was busier than usual on Friday, April 29.

Time to celebrate

It was the start of a big weekend for The Red Raven. Celebrating its grand re-opening, the coffee shop put on quite a show throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For starters, on Friday a plant and seed exchange was held in the courtyard while an 8-bit music show blasted retro-gaming tones through the walls of the re-invented fire station. Day two, Saturday, was for the artists. Do-it-yourself art markets, poetry readings and a variety show to close the night kept the coffee shop grinding through the day.  Closing out the celebratory weekend in style, a cut-throat cribbage tournament on Sunday proved to be the whipped-cream on top of this coffee shop’s great celebration.

Something for everyone

I’m not a cribbage player. I’m also not that great at performing electronic music. I’m much better at dancing to it, but that also isn’t saying much. Have you ever seen an old Turkish grandpa dancing to house music? Look it up.

The day that caught my attention was Saturday. Sara Curry, co-owner of The Red Raven asked me to perform at the Saturday night variety show. How could I say no?

A seasoned veteran

I’ve had my share of shows in town. The Red Raven nearly tops my list of favorite venues, if not overshooting it. It is a beautiful building, and the community feeling between patrons will keep the espresso-fueled scene chugging along for years to come.

That night, I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with fellow MSUM student and local funny-man Adam Quisnell. Have you ever imagined what the offspring of Thor and Jack Black would look like? Meet Adam Quisnell. He would tell you the same thing.

After rousing applause, I was joined on stage by two members of the local favorites Little Winter, Kris Adamson and Ryan Weisse, and by The Season’s drummer, Joel Lunsetter. We had started playing together the morning of, but were lucky enough to work out the kinks before the performance.

Enjoyable place to play

The Raven is an interesting place to play. Located inside a renovated fire station, the nearly unreachable ceilings and narrow corridor of the performance area offers acoustics unlike any other in town.

We played a 45-minute set – long by my standards. The Red Raven will give performers and listeners a musical experience that is hard to find anywhere else in Fargo. And if you’re wondering, all artists and attendees are safely recovered from a three-day caffeine binge and ready to begin the next.

What is your favorite thing about The Red Raven? If I missed something, comment! 

1) Coffee
2) Music
3) Friends
4) The atmosphere
5) Events

View Results

Make your own poll

Pink is in—Local musician Michael Pink gains attention from coast to coast

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Text and Photos by Shane Maland

MSUM Journalism

Michael Pink

Turn up your radios. Michael Pink is about to blow up the airwaves.

“Another one of those stupidly talented pop guys,” said music critic and author John Borack.

“Anytime a guy who has written a book on John Lennon puts me in their top 20, I’m a happy man for an open-ended amount of time,” said Pink.

Going Coast to Coast

Michael Pink, the preeminent pop/rock musician of North Dakota, has a growing following of loyal listeners, and not just in the Valley. From New York City to Eugene, Oregon, Pink’s songs are reaching an audience of ears he could only dream of playing for. It wasn’t a long road that he had to take for his music to bloom, but it was a winding one that took him out of living rooms and into venues as historic as the Fargo Theatre. He even earned himself a trip to a Grammy winning producer’s studio.

The Recording Environment

Pink has been used to recording his albums in various houses across the Midwest, working the knobs and mixer boards himself. He won’t have to do that anymore.

Monthly, Pink has been traveling to Minneapolis to record with Kevin Bowe, writer and producer. Bowe is the producer that discovered Fargo’s own Jonny Lang, and has written with the likes of Leo Kottke, Robben Ford, The Rembrandts and Peter Case (just to name a few).

"When Grammy award winning people take notice, it’s definitely settling. I’m doing something right."

“There is a confirmation there. He is associated with some of my heroes. When Grammy award winning people take notice, it’s definitely settling. I’m doing something right,” said Pink.

But don’t think that the golden roads of the music business can steer Pink away from the rural dirt roads of his home state.

A Wagon Full of Vagabonds

Michael’s favorite guitar is his grandfather’s 1961 Gretsch Tennessean.

“He took out a loan at the bank in Enderlin to get it. He played in a band with my grandmother and played this guitar at my parents wedding dance in 1976. He was a hard working farmer. He did a fine job of raising my mother and played a fine guitar, although I never got the chance to hear him play it.”

His grandparents, Bernerd and Marilyn Stangler, were in a band called The Vagabonds.

“They were actually kind of a big deal, back in the day. They had a wagon that they would hook up to the pickup with the band’s name on it, and they’d come pull in to your town and play in some un-air-conditioned town hall. They always encouraged me,” said Pink.

“Anytime a guy who has written a book on John Lennon puts me in their top 20, I'm a happy man for an open-ended amount of time.”

The Way Music Should Be

“There’s something about the downtown feel. It’s where music lives. It doesn’t live out in Rose Creek. I love how you can just walk off the street and there is music. The next place has more music. That’s the way it should be. People can knock on the local music scene, but there is still music going on. It could be better, but it could be worse,” said Pink.

No matter what your music scene, it’s time to turn up your stereos and help Michael paint this town Pink.

Edited by Isabella Cody, MSUM journalism

Pandora Internet radio and The Music Genome experience with Tim Westergren

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Tim Westergren, brainchild of the Music Genome Project and founder of Pandora Internet radio spoke at Babb’s Coffee House in Fargo, at a town hall style meeting on Nov 2.

Musical Background

Tim Westergren, a musician by background played in rock bands and traveled all over the western U.S.  He is a native from Minnesota and he attended college at Stanford university. Traveling throughout the Colorado West as a pianist and playing with different bands, he was able to understand the challenges struggling musicians face in finding audiences and listeners.

Westergren said that traveling back and forth from small towns to big towns in search of music led him to seek technology as help. That gave birth to Pandora Internet radio and the Music Genome Project.

Town Hall-Style meetings

Westergren first started these meetups in Manhattan, N.Y. and admired the feedback that he got and he decided to keep doing it. Today the 250-some-town hall style meetings he has held keep growing with audiences.

Westergren informed the audience that the purpose of these events is to collect feedback to the company. He wants to speak for the listeners of Pandora.

Music Genome Project

The purpose of the Music Genome Project was to analyze music in a granular way. It was created 10 years ago and uses about 400 different attributes in the taxonomy of each song. Every detail of the song is manually scored by musicians and thus, there is a 400-string musical DNA of each song.

Using sequence based musical co-relations with thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons that have been used about 7 billion times already in the site, the genomes learn what the listener likes and each time his or her personal station is recurated.

Artists in the system are used as identifiers and once they are there in the system about 70 percent independent artists have an equal chance to be heard on the website. This way radio could support musicians.

Westergren further said, “the Music Genome Project built a critical mass of music which was a powerful music generator. Its goal was to have a huge range of genres, about 90 percent of the songs play every month.”

Pandora

“With about 850,000 songs in the collection and about 10,000 new songs being added every month, Pandora is very quick to get you to the right musical neighborhood” said Westergren.

He said he now sees an opportunity to reshape radio. He talked about millions of radio hours that are spent in radio online and the new change in business because of invention of smartphones.

Westergren said that he thinks that today Pandora competes with broadcast radio and is a very effective forum. Unlike radio Pandora pays royalty to both composers of the songs and the performers of the songs. With Pandora Tim sees an opportunity to reshape radio. He sees Pandora as the broad mass consumer opportunity now further scoping flat screen TVs, cars etc.

The future

Westergren said there might be a place for human DJs in Pandora. He acknowledges that Pandora can on one hand be a part of a listener’s social experience and on the other hand their very private one. There are also devices like Roku in the market and these kind of devices are an effective way to stream Pandora to the households.

There are also plans to catalog Asia and East Asia and their music markets. Westergren says that Internet radio companies are not competing with each other but with broadcast radio. On-demand streaming makes sense and in each context for any given song if people are thumbing down gradually a thumbed down song will play less often. Skipping a song would have a neutral effect on a song and thumbing up a song would mean it would play more frequently.

He said there are huge ambitions to impact musicians and to help audience in discovering bands. Westergren also said that the web is a wonderful medium to deliver targeted music and the web can also deliver geographically specific advertisements. Two percent of all radio listened which is one hour out of every 50 hours of radio listened is through Pandora.

Pandora is hoping to go global soon, said Westergren and remembered how Pandora grew from word-of-mouth and now it has about 70 million listeners. It is considering international markets and is willing to work locally.

The weblink to Tim Westergren’s personal blog.