Yesterday it seemed to be a good day to be from Minnesota in the film industry - the Coen brothers walked away with three Oscars for "No Country for Old Men" (best adapted screenplay, best director and best film) and Diablo Cody won the best original screenplay award for her quirky hit, "Juno." Woohoo! Go Minnesotans! See a list of the rest of the winners here.
Speaking of Minnesotans, it's Minnesota Monday here at Guilt Free Pleasures and our band this week is The Honeydogs. These guys have been a staple of the Minneapolis music scene since I was but a wee child (since the mid-1990s to be more specific). I saw them perform and met them once briefly years ago, back when I still lived in Minnesota. They seemed like nice, down-to-earth guys. Their music is a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll, a little bit pop, a little bit folk, a little bit psychedelic, a little bit jazz, a little salsa, a little funk, etc. They masterfully utilize a number of different styles, sometimes all at once, which is what I love most about The Honeydogs.
Their most recent album, "Amygdala" (pronounced uh-mig’-dull-uh), which came out in 2006, is even more stylistically diverse than the album that introduced me to The Honeydogs back in 2003, "10,000 Years." For those of you wondering what an "Amygdala" is, it's an "almond-shaped group of neurons in the brain which regulate emotions, specifically fear." As with all their music, "Amygdala" is smart and political. In case you couldn't ascertain this by listening, just look at the telling track titles such as Tar Baby Napalm, The Firing Squad Reloads and Blues For Castro. While less consipuously political, the title track - Amygdala - is the essence of The Honeydogs to me. This track is just so unmistakably them. Overall, "Amygdala" is the perfect follow-up album to "10,000 Years," expanding on the strengths they already had and drawing on new influences and strengths. Although, I have to say, I hadn't listened to "10,000 Years" in a while until I decided to write this post and it's one of those albums that when you go back to it, it's even better than you remember it being and you wonder why it's been so long since you last listened to it. Both albums are also those rare finds in which I seem to like almost every single track.
Some samples for you, of which I selected my favorite Honeydog tracks:
Speaking of Minnesotans, it's Minnesota Monday here at Guilt Free Pleasures and our band this week is The Honeydogs. These guys have been a staple of the Minneapolis music scene since I was but a wee child (since the mid-1990s to be more specific). I saw them perform and met them once briefly years ago, back when I still lived in Minnesota. They seemed like nice, down-to-earth guys. Their music is a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll, a little bit pop, a little bit folk, a little bit psychedelic, a little bit jazz, a little salsa, a little funk, etc. They masterfully utilize a number of different styles, sometimes all at once, which is what I love most about The Honeydogs.Their most recent album, "Amygdala" (pronounced uh-mig’-dull-uh), which came out in 2006, is even more stylistically diverse than the album that introduced me to The Honeydogs back in 2003, "10,000 Years." For those of you wondering what an "Amygdala" is, it's an "almond-shaped group of neurons in the brain which regulate emotions, specifically fear." As with all their music, "Amygdala" is smart and political. In case you couldn't ascertain this by listening, just look at the telling track titles such as Tar Baby Napalm, The Firing Squad Reloads and Blues For Castro. While less consipuously political, the title track - Amygdala - is the essence of The Honeydogs to me. This track is just so unmistakably them. Overall, "Amygdala" is the perfect follow-up album to "10,000 Years," expanding on the strengths they already had and drawing on new influences and strengths. Although, I have to say, I hadn't listened to "10,000 Years" in a while until I decided to write this post and it's one of those albums that when you go back to it, it's even better than you remember it being and you wonder why it's been so long since you last listened to it. Both albums are also those rare finds in which I seem to like almost every single track.
Some samples for you, of which I selected my favorite Honeydog tracks:
Ms. Ketchup And The Arsonist [mp3] - "Amygdala"
Amygdala [mp3] - "Amygdala"
Test Tube Kid [mp3] - "10,000 Years"
The Rake's Progress [mp3] - "10,000 Years"
Amygdala [mp3] - "Amygdala"
Test Tube Kid [mp3] - "10,000 Years"
The Rake's Progress [mp3] - "10,000 Years"
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