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Friday Five: Minnesota's looking good in new music videos

A still from the 'Still Wit' it music video from Mike Dreams ft. Christina Sophia and Teflon Don.
A still from the 'Still Wit' it music video from Mike Dreams ft. Christina Sophia and Teflon Don.YouTube

by Jay Gabler

November 26, 2021

Do you know a Minnesota music video you’d like to see featured in the Friday Five? E-mail fridayfive@mpr.org.

Red Eye Ruby, “Sunshine & Good Lookin’”

We’re pleased to premiere Rob Hilstrom’s video for the new single by Minneapolis retro-roots group Red Eye Ruby. “Rob Hilstrom and I had fun at Hot Sam's Antiques in Lakeville,” said the group’s Liz Collin, “running around the Foto Park and getting acquainted with old cars, old motorcycles, and the whole wonderfully weird and antiquated collection of items curated by Jake Hood and his late mother, Glays Hood. The park itself is a collection of antiques and opened in 1985.”

Red Eye Ruby will be part of the Last Waltz Tribute Show tonight at the Cabooze.

Lucien Parker, “Southside”

This isn’t the official video for Lucien Parker’s 2018 track “Southside”; rather, it’s a new clip by a trio of Wisconsin filmmakers who wanted to create “a collective story of the people who live there, not just an outsiders’ perspective of the city,” according to a tweet that’s now been shared over 2,000 times.

“After the killing of George Floyd, outside views of the city started to get increasingly negative,” cinematographer Sam Li told Racket. “People painted the city as dangerous, ugly, etc. I have a lot of friends from the area, so I wanted to create a video that showed the true Minneapolis.”

Fruit Bats, “Eagles Below Us”

Fruit Bats aren’t 100% a local band, but they’re getting closer. Leader Eric D. Johnson and a group of Minneapolis bandmates hit the stage at Icehouse earlier this year for a session that produced a version of “The Balcony” that aired on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Fruit Bats have just released three more performances from that session, including this warm rendition of “Eagles Below Us” from March release The Pet Parade.

Erik Koskinen, “Down in the Factory”

As my colleague Luke Taylor accurately writes, the video for singer-songwriter Erik Koskinen’s new song “puts you in the driver’s seat.” He continues, “the song unabashedly and simultaneously celebrates and laments a working-person’s life, and the song itself brings listeners right into the grind with a driving beat topped with crunchy, dirty-blues guitar…in keeping with the workaday theme, Koskinen invites you right into his work, providing a driver’s point-of-view from the cabs of various work vehicles, including farm machinery, a dump truck and a pickup.”

Mike Dreams ft. Christina Sophia and Teflon Don, “Still Wit It”

In this easy jam, emcee Mike Dreams makes clear that he’s not parochial: “I’m from the Cities/ you know where we at/ this is where all of my loyalty at,” he raps. Yet still, “shouts out to the Dirty South/ Cashville to the M-Town.” That would be Memphis, where collaborator Teflon Don was born. Christina Sophia, another Minneapolitan, joins the duo along with some friends to hit the beach and surf the lake in a Pulido Creative Studios video that features some paddleboard action so spicy that it’ll push freeze-up back for weeks.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.