Minnesota Music Archive Launch Party at The Hennepin Event Center (April 2, 2026)
The Minnesota Music Archive is a new project intended to digitize the “Minnesota music scene”. At the launch party at The Hennepin in Minneapolis, we heard about the project and had bands including Agnes Uncaged.
- Paper Doll
- Capricorn
- GTFO
- Charlie
- Skin
- NKTB
- grey eyes
- never lie
- directions
■ D.E.M.O.The Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMO) is a Minnesota-based non-profit founded by Steve McClellan in 1999 (initially as DMAF, rechristened in 2004). It is dedicated to archiving, preserving, and celebrating Minnesota’s music culture. DEMO is launching the Minnesota Music Archive at The Hennepin and operates from the historic White Castle building in Northeast Minneapolis.
If you get very far into the music scene in one area for very long, you can’t help but learn some of the rhythms of the locals. Even if your interests are more on regional or national touring acts, you will inevitably be exposed to local acts as openers. Go to smaller venues and there’s no way to avoid it (Turf Club Thursdays are a great example). Maybe you find a favorite band or two and see how performances evolve over time (well, hello she’s green). Maybe you start to notice musicians performing in multiple bands (ladies and gentlemen, may I present the ever present Nate Walker). Follow along for long enough and you can see entire career arcs (Willie Wisely and Cindy Lawson, please report to the stage). And with all of that, there’s also the reminder of how ephemeral all of this can be, as bands appear and then suddenly vanish. And with the technology changes (cassettes, CD’s, and vinyl, oh my!), so much can be here today and gone tomorrow. Archival efforts for essentially transitory moments are piecemeal, as We Heart Music is a great example of recording the concerts, albums, and interactions of multiple thousands of events and yet only represent a small drop in the bucket of the diverse musical scene. There’s certainly no way to systematically approach something as vast as the “Minnesota music scene”.
Against that seemingly impossible task, there is an effort underway: The Minnesota Music Archive. Supported by Diverse Emerging Music Organization (DEMO), it is exactly what it sounds like and that you would hope for: a goal to digitize the entirety of Minnesota music. This lofty goal has a real website and archival process that will be an amazing thing to watch over the next years, with a goal of not only archiving, but making that music truly available, independent of the large streaming platforms. This isn’t about the famous, large artists, but the thousands of bands who worked the creative process without thinking about hitting the big time.
The Hennepin is a non-profit event center right in the mix of the Theatre District and was really a perfect venue for the evening. Dust of the Suns ensemble, a quartet (keyboards, viola, cello, and harp) began with a nice introduction by keyboardist Chris Lynch. Noting they have an album that is “mastered and ready to go”, the numbers were mini soundtracks and a lot of fun. The bouncy The Boulevadier was a great mood setter and the growing crowd was clearly pleased with the high quality backing music for the happy hour at the front end of the event. An intro of the of the band members highlighted one of the themes of the evening that many musicians are in a number of different projects that overlap with an even broader ecosystem of Minnesota musicians. We were informed that the cello and viola players have been part of a residency at Berlin, with guests ranging from Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum to Aby Wolf. Back to the music, The Yume Waltz was for the cats of Tokyo and could have played in the background of a Miyazaki film. The title track of the upcoming album (which I heard, but dare not try to spell) continued the fun interplay of the strings and keys, with viola carrying the melody along. Yumiko was a callback and homage to a 90’s J-pop keyboardist and had a ballroom dance feel. A late set waltzy number let the harp really shine and Dust of Suns had set the evening mood up well.
Side note: It was fun to see some familiar faces in the crowd, with a number of the Twin Cities’ preeminent music photographers in attendance.
DEMO board member Terrell X took to the stage to introduce a short program about The Minnesota Music Archive, but led with a performance of his own that was impressive for his looped beat boxing as he worked through his pedals effectively to get the crowd into it, and with a chorus of “I am a human becoming” was great for his rap flow. Board president Mitch Thompson took over as emcee to kick off this launch and really identified how Minnesota “punches above its weight” in the music world. A few more speakers (though the group had changed that day due to sickness and other events) gave an overview of the project. We also got a short excerpt of an upcoming Cornbread Harris documentary and then a good set from DJ Stage One.
Last up was Agnes Uncaged, a quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums). Formerly known as creeping charlie, the band came out with their quick tempo indie rock sound and a good lead guitar solo to finish the song in a blaze of reverb. A switch of guitars was the only pause to the next number and Agnes Uncaged was full in on that retro grunge vibe. Singer Julia Eubanks’ vocals were clear over all that noisy guitar and with crisp drums from Jack Malone really was a full and fun rock. Some solo and bright guitar from Eubanks on the verses on capricorn set up for the kill fo the full band on the chorus, and it had a great close. GTFO had the appropriate anger in its lyrics and drove forward in a frenzy with a crashing close of drums. Charlie came off their new album Cyanotype, just released at the end of January 2026. It was a sweeter number almost reminiscent of a 60’s love song, albeit with a lot of fuzzy undertones which also had bassist Esmé Eubanks playing while sitting cross-legged on the stage floor. Agnes Uncaged kept the catchy guitar hooks flowing and had successfully pulled the crowd closer to the stage (but not that close, it is Minnesota after all). A long instrumental section let all of the band simply go off and it worked extremely well. We got a “brand new, brand new” song after band introductions for the vibe, but had some more complex vocals from Eubanks and some rhythmic switches that turned a bit on a dime. Closing after a great round of thanks for DEMO and the other performers, directions was a perfect summary of Agnes Uncaged’s sound and put the exclamation point on the evening of local Minnesota music.
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