Music
Critics' Picks: Big Trouble and more
After all of the initial "Oh, these guys sound like—" comparisons end and it's conceded that Murzik don't really sound that much like anything else out there right now, the real enjoyment can begin. Sure, they will forevermore be lumped in with bands in the vein of Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa, but they aren't nearly as overt as the former or as luminously beautiful as the latter (in a good way). In short, they aren't trying so damn hard to be something, anything. Their sound, which employs a delicate mixture of accordions, bells, and a glockenspiel along with your more "traditional" instruments, is unquestionably the stuff often referred to as "gypsy music," but it's also subdued and minimalist, yet never boring or part of the background din. And there is hardly a more appropriate space in which to celebrate their CD release than the lush, Roarin' '20s-inspired confines of the Kitty Cat Klub, which, coupled with Murzik's music, should make everyone believe that time travel is possible. With James Apollo and Black Audience. 9 p.m. 315 14th Ave. SE; Minneapolis; 612.331.9800. —Pat O'Brien
MONDAY 3.10
Yellowcard
Station 4
Yellowcard, a Florida power-punk quintet aptly named after minor soccer offenses, are the biggest thing to happen to the violin since Henny Youngman, and from the sound of their 2004 chart topper "Ocean Avenue," they get as much mileage out of the instrument as Youngman did. Like Carrot Top at the Luxor, Yellowcard have taken up a seemingly endless residency in the Billboard rock charts alongside fellow MySpace Featured Artists Jimmy Eat World. Though their squeaky-clean profile might make their anthems of the disenfranchised a bit hard to swallow, the rest of them goes down like a capful of Pepto Bismol. Yellowcard distort their guitars the way Diesel distresses their jeans, and with the furious fiddling EQ'ed into a piercing chirp, Yellowcard are here to take some starch out of Stradivarius's death shroud. In soccer, two yellow cards gets you ejected, so one can forgive them for not rocking too terribly hard. With the Spill Canvas, Play Radio Play, Treaty of Paris. All Ages. $18. 5 p.m. 201 E. Fourth St. St. Paul; 651.298.0173. —David Hansen
TUESDAY 3.11
A Fine Frenzy
Varsity Theater
Alison Sudol, more commonly known as A Fine Frenzy, has a knack for writing the kind of sweeping, piano-driven pop epics that would fit so well playing over the climax scene of a Hollywood dramedy—you know the scene: someone getting their comeuppance or triumphing over adversity of some sort. And while movie scenes like that are so common we hardly notice them anymore, one of A Fine Frenzy's songs would bring said scene up a notch or two, certainly. Sudol takes much inspiration from, and makes sideways references to, literary giants such as C.S. Lewis and E.B. White, showing she isn't just another pretty face with a piano in tow trying to take Tori Amos's quickly tarnishing crown away. The dreamlike lyrics are threaded together in odd, surprising ways and take such unexpected turns that it's impossible not to be reminded of the fuzzy, off-kilter thoughts that drift through our own heads during slumber. The difference is that Sudol has conjured the bravery to tell the world about hers. 18+. $12/$14 at the door. 7 p.m. 1308 Fourth St. SE, Minneapolis; 612.604.0222. —Pat O'Brien
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