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HANNAH VON DER HOFF shares her VONDERVISION on BACK TO THE CITY: MPLS MUSIC CONVERSATION

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“So the time has come for me to move on,” Hannah Von Der Hoff opens “Open Road,” one of three songs premiered live in-studio at the Minnehaha Recording Company on today’s episode of Back to the City.

“And you’re gonna find me somewhere on the open range.”

Earlier this month, it was not on the open range but at Tampa  International Airport that “Back to the City” host and curator SimonCalder ran into his old friend and “Back to the City” veteran, Minneapolis-bred songwriter Hannah Von Der Hoff.

Von Der Hoff’s gofundme campaign for her forthcoming debut LP launched this week, Hannah and Simon took their serendipitous Florida meeting as a sign that a “Back to the City Session” and interview needed to happen immediately; now, here both of those things are.

We invite you to enjoy both Hannah’s exclusive performance of three previously-unavailable songs and our existential musings; to check out https://www.gofundme.com/hannahvonderhoffdebutlp for Hannah’s gofundme campaign.

 

BACK TO THE CITY: MPLS MUSIC CONVERSATION: WETTER on REFLECTING TO BECOME (video interview + in-studio session)

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By Simon Calder

As we emerge from another Minneapolis winter, wetter’s Melissa Jones and Jordan Bleau join Back to the City host and curator Simon Calder for a long-form conversation about seasonal awareness, mind and body, and truth-telling throughout the wetter catalog, with focus on their forthcoming debut LP, their single “Truth Song,” and two further songs – “SAD Lamp” and “Bunny” – recently debuted by the band in their Back to the City Session at the Minnehaha Recording Company.

This Thursday, March 29th, wetter will perform at Mortimers Bar during the inaugural Back to the City Showcase, also featuring Tony the Scribe, straya and Lucid VanGuard, whose songs provide the soundtrack to our conversation.

event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/338521836645300/

Back to the City Showcase 1 YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOt8qg80_A419X_Oh9D3AUX28QTKgmWsq

SEASON 3 OF “THE BACK TO THE CITY SESSIONS” KICKS OFF TODAY WITH “THE HAVANA SLEEVE”

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photo credit: Jules Wight

By Simon Calder

“So the time has come for me to move on,” opens “Open Road,” one of three previously-unreleased songs that Hannah Von Der Hoff performed in her “Back to the City Session,” which will be released through YouTube next Wednesday, March 28th.

Time has been a recurring theme of this third season’s sessions, with Sass set to premiere a new song titled “11:11” the following Wednesday, and The Havana Sleeve premiering new song “20 past 10” in this first session of this new season, released through RIFT today:
https://youtu.be/VP2IkfWAuaQ

Each of the 45 minute “Back to the City: MPLS Music Conversation” episodes that RIFT now hosts are comprised of three songs from a recent Back to the City Session (filmed, recorded, mixed, and mastered at the Minnehaha Recording Company) plus a long-form interview with the performers, conducted by Back to the City host and curator Simon Calder.

As well as interviews conducted with season 2 guests Al Church, wetter, Wax Lead, and The Revenge Wedding, RIFT will soon release full episodes featuring all ten of the acts performing sessions for season 3.

Meanwhile, “Back to the City” will be releasing the ten three-song sessions that comprise Season 3 through its YouTube channel on the following dates:

01. The Havana Sleeve: https://youtu.be/VP2IkfWAuaQ
02. Hannah Von Der Hoff: W 3/28
03. SASS: W 4/4
04. Candid Kid: W 4/11
05. Edward the Confessor: W 4/18
06. Bathtub Cig: W 4/25
07. Courtney Yasmineh: W 5/2
08. Venus De Mars: W 5/9
09. Monica LaPlante: W 5/16
10. MURF: W 5/23

To celebrate the beginning of this third season of sessions, “Back to the City” will be hosting a party at Mortimers Bar next Thursday, March 29th, featuring performances by recent guests Straya, Lucid VanGuard, and Tony the Scribe, as well as wetter, whose interview will be released through RIFT next Monday.

BACK TO THE CITY: MPLS MUSIC CONVERSATION: LUCID VANGUARD premiere “PSEUDO SPIRITS” (video interview + in-studio session)

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By Simon Calder

Next Thursday, March 29th, “Back to the City” will host its first showcase event at Mortimers Bar, with performances by Lucid Vanguard, wetter, Straya, and Tony the Scribe, and music videos from the first 2 seasons of “Back to the City Sessions” projected on the big screen between the bands.

Ahead of the release of Lucid VanGuard’s “pseudo spirits” EP at the Hook & Ladder this Friday, March 23rd, “Back to the City: MPLS Music Conversation” and RIFT are pleased to premiere that EP, which serves as both soundtrack and subject matter to this long-form conversation between frontman Karl Remus and “Back to the City” host and curator Simon Calder.

Also premiered at the start of this episode is “Holly, My Harmony,” one of 3 songs performed live at the Minnehaha Recording Company as part of Lucid VanGuard’s recent “Back to the City Session.” As with “Twin Peaks” and “Don’t Move to L.A.,” in-studio performances of which are also featured and discussed in this episode, “Holly, My Harmony” is slated for release as part of a larger project in fall 2018.

Catch Lucid VanGuard live at the Hook & Ladder this Friday, then also at Mortimers Bar next Thursday, March 29th. Also performing on that Mortimers bill are Tony the Scribe, whose interview series with Back to the City is viewable here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOt8qg80_A419X_Oh9D3AUX28QTKgmWsq​

BACK TO THE CITY: MPLS MUSIC CONVERSATION: STRAYA on Symbiosis in “SOBEREYED” – Video Interview

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By Simon Calder

Next Thursday, March 29th, “Back to the City” will host its first showcase event at Mortimers Bar. With performances by Straya, Lucid Vanguard, wetter, and Tony the Scribe, and music videos from the first two seasons of the weekly “Back to the City Sessions” projected on the big screen between the bands.

Following last week’s interview with showcase opener Tony the Scribe, RIFT Magazine today premieres a 45-minute episode of “Back to the City.” Devoted to showcasing headliners Straya, featuring live footage recorded, mixed, and mastered at the Minnehaha Recording Company during Straya’s recent Back to the City Session, and a long-form conversation about “Sobereyed” featuring all four members of Straya and Back to the City host and curator Simon Calder.

“Sobereyed,” which was released last month, is Straya’s second full-length record and the first to be released by Los Angeles based record label Chain Letter Collective. It is, as the progressive/post-metal quartet’s website describes a “57-minute work thatrepresents two years of writing and growth.” Throughout this interview, Straya considers some new ways in which “Sobereyed” explores the idea of growth, with a new emphasis on symbiosis and circularity, as opposed to the more linear ascent narrative implied by the title and cover of Straya’s first record, “Healthy Steps.”

At the heart of the episode is an in-depth discussion of “Acoustic Song (for rock quartet and fixed media),” the opening lyrics to which are “fall down the stairwell,” suggesting descent. Throughout the song, the synth parts and percussion of Mark Engelmann, Cody Nelson, and Toby Ramaswamy then both accentuate and challenge the structure first set by Sanjeev Mishra’s acoustic chord pattern; with each chord change, the rhythmic feel radically alters.

“In the cyclical, I’ve found structural stability,” asserts Mishra, with Engelmann observing that the album’s sequencing elicits a sort of return to the point of origin, and Ramaswamy noting that “every re-occurrence is slightly different” due to the combination of two prominent attributes of the record: co-existing layers and cycling.

Ultimately, though, the record is – as Mishra concludes “an invitation: come into our home, and see where we’ve been hanging out.”

Straya can be seen live and hung out with at Mortimers Bar next Thursday, March 29th. Also on that bill is Tony the Scribe, whose series of interviews with Back to the City is available here: http://riftmagazine.com/2018/03/08/back-to-the-city-mpls-music-conversation-presents-mixed-messages/ Lucid Vanguard and wetter, whose long-form Back to the City interviews will be released by RIFT on Wednesday, March 21st, and Friday, March 23rd, respectively.

event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/338521836645300/

Back to the City Showcase 1 YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOt8qg80_A419X_Oh9D3AUX28QTKgmWsq