Right across the street from Minneapolis's famous First Avenue nightclub, where a younger Dave Grohl played some of his earliest gigs with Nirvana, his band the Foo Fighters took the stage in the arena sized Target Center for one hell of a good show. The Foos had in tow with them young, upstart punk rockers Against Me! and former System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian.

Irish and punk-rock heritage came together at the Myth in Maplewood last Sunday Nov. 11th for a rocking good time.  The Dropkick Murphys brought their unique style of celtic punk through town, complete with bagpipes. The Murphys had veteran celtic rockers The Tossers and a younger band The Briggs in tow as openers.

This review is for the new split EP being released by Gazillion and Sonicate, two St. Paul based bands making an impact with their independant record label, Limerick Records. Each side of the EP contains 4 tracks.

The Pretender, the loud, hard-hitting debuting single from the Foo Fighter's new album "Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace," is very misleading of the rest of the album. The majority of the album is mellow and upbeat compared to the brazen Pretender. It's obvious that the band's decision to move into the acoustic realm with their last album and subsequent tour has heavily impacted their sound, but in a good way.

Refined drunken smut singing puddle stomping prancing cabaret karyoke European brothel bastard of a Zeitgeist.

There are neither enough adjectives nor enough genres to describe the aural Chylamidia of the Franco-German duo Brezel (Pretzel) Göring and his wife Françoise Cactus that together make up Stereo-Total, (a moniker taken from the first mix tape Brezel gave his wife).

Tom Waits has, for years, been considered an arthouse favourite. He's not just a singer with an extremely identifiable voice, but a songwriter who has wrapped the despondence and fatalism of the last 40 years into incredible metaphors and stark details. Bone Machine follows this tradition in fine style, with spare but powerful instrumentals, fantastic subject matter, and of course, Waits' signature bourbon dripped voice that suggests he doesn't just smoke cigarettes, but eats them.

After a spectacular first LP (Laced with Romance), and a more muted, rather more Indie second album (Celebration Castle), The Ponys return to their former go-for-broke freewheeling guitar recklessness and post-punk ways.

From the moody opening track, "Untitled", to its mournful end, Turn on the Bright Lights shows Interpol to be a Joy Division for a new decade.

This whole album simply drips with bass. Untitled sags, with every strum from Carlos D.'s fingers, and Obstacle 2 demonstrates the technical proficiency with which each member of the group has mastered their instrument. At every turn, they want this album to shake you physically, and they use amplified bass and jagged, broken guitars to this end.