The Chart Show: Messersmith returns to #1
by Mark Wheat
April 03, 2014
Massive change on the Chart, a spring cleaning!? After five inductees to the Hall of Fame last week and Gary Clark Jr. dropping off after a two-week stay we have a record six new entries and a new — or should I say renewed — #1! Also big moves up for Jake Bugg and another local outfit Atmosphere. Slug from the band has been involved in an ongoing discussion about the Twin Cities hip hop community, and the State of Hip-Hop show that was to take place May 10 has been postponed.
Highest new entry goes to Blitzen Trapper, who must have made a few friends at their gig last week opening for Drive-By Truckers at their sold out First Avenue gig. Apparently DBT played for over 3 hours?!? Or maybe it was on the Coffee Break with The Morning Show's Steve Seel and Jill Riley the next day, when Blitzen Trapper serenaded a local business with coffee and treats. You can enter to be the next workplace for this month's Coffee Break on the Road here.
Cage The Elephant are back in, too. They're playing the hooj Lollapalooza festivals this week in Argentina and Brazil, Coachella next week and the Myth in Maplewood on May 15 with Foals and fellow chart denizens J. Roddy Walston and the Business.
Sharon Jones is back too ahead of her show at the State theater next Wednesday. In a new interview with Under the Radar she says; "When I recorded 'Retreat!' I was thinking of this guy, like, 'You crazy! You play with me, you mess with fire.' That's a whole different story now. I'm telling my cancer that, my sickness. I look at the little wolves as my cancer, and I'm overpowering it. I'm telling the world that I'm back--this cancer did not get me down. 'Retreat! Get behind me.'"
The Strypes debut on our Chart for the very first time. It's been a big week for the young Irishmen, appearing on Letterman last week instead of playing here in the Twin Cities. Their local paper the Irish Independent reported their introduction to a massive US TV audience: "It's The Strypes, that's all you need to know," the hugely influential Letterman told his audience.
Coldplay also sneak back onto the chart this week, perhaps a sympathy vote for Chris Martin who recently announced that he was separating from his long time partner Gwyneth Paltrow. Unfortunately they used a phrase to describe the move, "conscious uncoupling" without crediting the person who apparently came up with the idea!