Item World: Local news and views for 12/16

Cheers to mass transit

Let's just call light rail what it really is: the biggest sober cab around. Sure, the Hiawatha Line is great for getting to work (or a ballgame) but when the sun goes down, it's time to party. On Saturday, bargoers will jump aboard for the eighth annual LRT Bar Hop. This long train-running pub crawl never saw a dive bar it didn't like -- just take a look at the participating pubs. There's the Fort Snelling Club, Sunrise Inn and the Cardinal Bar. Those are your early evening stops (the Schooner Tavern might be included, too). The final stop is 10 p.m. at Whiskey Junction (with a costume contest and live music by the Belfast Cowboys, a Van Morrison tribute band). Check the LRT Bar Hop's Facebook event page for more details. Or, if you just want to show up, look for the biggest group of loud, obnoxious riders on Saturday night. --TOM HORGEN

Video (nearly) killed the rock star

Even though he claimed he was on psychedelic mushrooms back then, Ryan Adams gave Tuesday's sold-out crowd at the State Theatre some especially vivid memories of a defunct Minneapolis downtown video arcade -- either Game Works in Block E or Pops Arcade on Hennepin Avenue fit his description. "I remember there always being a possibility of violence in the air there," he said,. He especially misses the arcade's nachos. "I can still taste that Cheez-Wiz topping," he said. "I probably tried to snort it." In a sharp contrast to those days, the reportedly rehabilitated singer, 37, even prohibited alcohol sales at the theater Tuesday. At least he was clear-headed enough to pull off an excellent cover of Bob Mould's "Black Sheets of Rain," another nod to a lost part of Minneapolis history. --CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

A toast to Coffee House

I.W. had a mild outbreak of hometown pride when perusing New York magazine's recent Year in Books feature. Writers from Claire Messud to Junot Diaz named their 2011 faves. Alongside all the big-press titles ("The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides, the big new Malcolm X bio by Manning Marable) were not one but two books published by little old Coffee House Press of Minneapolis. Lorin Stein, editor of the Paris Review, praised "Leaving the Atocha Station," the first novel by poet Ben Lerner. And Jessica Hagedorn picked "Leche," a picaresque fiction set in Manila by R. Zamora Linmark. Coffee House, which last year had a National Book Award finalist in "I Hotel," is on a roll, with "Atocha" garnering best-of-year buzz in the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New Yorker and elsewhere. Congrats to new Coffee House publisher Christopher Fischbach, who picked up Lerner's novel when he first read the manuscript in 2010. --CLAUDE PECK

Zellar ready to 'Crow' Tracing the geographic meanderings of Martin Zellar is about to get even more confusing. The beloved Americana singer/songwriter from Austin, Minn., is still living with his family in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and he still plays most of his gigs around the Twin Cities. However, he spent a good chunk of this year in Austin, Texas, finishing his first new album with his band, the Hardways, in 10 years. Titled "Roosters Crow," the disc is set to arrive Feb. 7 with an all-star list of Austin guests, including Dixie Chicks producer/dad Lloyd Maines, alt-country starlet Kelly Willis and many more. Zellar moved the Gear Daddies' usual holiday-week gig out to the Medina Entertainment Center this year (Dec. 30), but he and the Hardways will take over the Fine Line for the "Roosters Crow" release party on Feb. 10. --CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Occupy the Internet

Hey, remember when pioneering gangsta-rap group N.W.A released that protest song about the L.A. police department? Hint: It wasn't called "Friend the Police." Well, there's a clever update of the song bouncing around the Internet by Rhode Island rapper B. Dolan featuring Minneapolis' Toki Wright. The brand-new song, called "Film the Police," piggybacks on the recent spate of Occupy-related videos documenting baton-wielding and pepper-spray-armed cops. Instead of hurling four-letter words at the police (a la N.W.A.), the rappers encourage protesters to whip out a cellphone camera and put the clip on YouTube. Wright raps: "You'd better load the footage up and get to key stroking." I.W. is guessing Wright won't be performing at any police department holiday parties this month. --TOM HORGEN

Salty poetry

Dore Kiesselbach of Minneapolis has won the Agnes Lynch Starrett poetry prize for his collection, "Salt Pier." The book will be published next fall by University of Pittsburgh Press, the sponsor of the award. He will also receive $5,000. His manuscript was chosen from a field of more than 600 entries. The prize "establishes a new before and a new after," Kiesselbach said in his poetic press release. "It makes me glad for my obstinacy and grateful to those who helped me indulge it." A Twin Cities resident for eight years, Kiesselbach, 47, won the Bridport Prize in 2009 for "Non-Invasive," a poem about his wife, Karin Ciano (a master gardener), removing buckthorn from their yard. --LAURIE HERTZEL

RANDOM MUSIC NOTES

Coincidentally or not, both Kill the Vultures and Big Quarters were picked by Atmosphere to open its second "Welcome to Minnesota" tour. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for the trek, which starts Feb. 20 in Mankato and includes stops in Bemidji, Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud, plus one (and only one) First Ave gig Feb. 22. Atmosphere will also play the first-ever winter concert at Colorado's famed Red Rocks Amphitheater Jan. 27 and make its debut in South Africa in March. ...

Thanks in large part to Kickstarter -- and their fans in and outside the Twin Cities who contributed to the fund -- John Freeman's cult-adored pop/punk band the Magnolias finally found the means to make their first album in 15 years, "Pop the Lock." The release party is not until Jan. 14 at the Ritz Theater, but it's already widely available via local shops and online retailers -- and is highly recommended. ... Howler will also host a release party Jan. 14 for its Rough Trade debut, "America Give Up," which lands Jan. 17. RollingStone.com premiered the first single/video, "Back of the Neck," this week. ...

Harrowing, frantic power trio Buildings has a release party this Saturday at the Hexagon Bar for its second album, "Melt, Cry, Sleep," offering ear-piercing echoes of classic Am/Rep bands and sorely missed early-'00s local favorites Chariots. The disc arrives via Doubleplusgood Records, the label behind Saturday's opener Self-Evident. Metallic buzz kids Bloodnstuff also perform (10 p.m., free). ...

Communist Daughter leader Johnny Solomon's great shoulda-been band Friends Like These will reunite for the first time in five years Jan. 13 at the Triple Rock. The gig is timed to a new collection of remastered odds and ends, including "7th St. Queen" with guest Craig Finn. ...

Motion City Soundtrack's second annual Popsickle festival, which was supposed to take place Saturday at First Avenue with Low and other bands, was canceled last week for rather mysterious reasons. "Scheduling conflict" was the best excuse I could get. ... Word is that Motion City's recent partners in a split charity single, Trampled by Turtles, will soon be joining MCS as another Minnesota band signed to a major record label. So that makes two of them. ...

Sorry to hear that northeast Minneapolis' Shuga Records closed and is relocating back to its owners' native Chicago. That's a good reminder to get out there and support your neighborhood indie shop this holiday season.