Growing up pretty much anywhere in America outside of New York or LA can lead to some pretty complicated feelings toward your hometown. Personally, I’ve always found it hard watching Noah Baumbach’s movies having myself grown up in a town which supplied the mid-aughts zeitgeist with an utterly depraved news cycle, one of Bush’s cronies, and unquestionably the decade’s worst pop song (the real kicker is that none of these people even feel particularly proud of their hometown), though of course in my adult life—as generally tends to happen with both physical and temporal distance—I’ve since come to embrace it.
That sense of reconciliation, though, is likely lubricated for folks whose hometowns cultivated as many disparate musical icons as Minnesota’s Twin Cities, from Prince to Soul Asylum, the “Closing Time” band to the “Chocolate Rain” kid. For Hotline TNT frontman Will Anderson, it was a slow but steady path to acceptance from childhood to the present moment. With his band’s new album Cartwheel flipping through various subcategories of ’90s-derived alt-rock—shoegaze, slacker rock, power pop—shaped in part by hometown bands, it’s no wonder the self-avowed Goo Goo Dolls fan came around to the type of music you’d get beat up for listening to in eighth grade.
As Hotline TNT close out a triumphant year (which included a signing to Third Man Records for the release of the new LP) with a string of early-December live dates, Anderson broke down his mounting affection for the Twin Cities music scene with a playlist documenting some of his favorite local songs. Tracked “in rough chronological order of when it was introduced to [him],” check out the list of songs—along with some provided context—below, and catch the band on tour through early 2024 at the dates listed here.
The Jayhawks, “Save It for a Rainy Day”
My parents played this CD for us around the house and in the car on road trips, and they’re the first Minneapolis-based band that I remember being aware of. My dad loved bluegrass and my mom was more into guitar rock, and [The Jayhawks] kind of bridged the two genres and got me started on loving the soaring vocal harmonies.
Prince, “Kiss”
I used to listen to the boombox in the shower when I was a kid and this song came on one night. I really thought it was a brand new song when it was probably 10 years after it came out—it sounded like it was from Mars. Then our D.A.R.E. police officer told our class that he was a huge Prince fan, which threw me off the trail for a little while, but then I came back around later.
The Big Wu, “Kangaroo”
Two of my cousins had a time where they played in this jam band. I went to summer camp when I was eight years old and my counselors played this song and said it was The Big Wu. They jumped out of their bunks when I casually dropped my familial connection, and I was the coolest kid at camp for the rest of the week.
12 Rods, “Twenty Four Hours Ago”
I saw a 12 Rods bumper sticker on the back of my babysitter’s girlfriend’s car and did some investigating to find out they were a.) from Minneapolis and b.) the first band to ever get a 10 on Pitchfork. This was their last record pre-hiatus and still to me has their best songwriting.
Love-Cars, “How I Get”
This is sort of a 12 Rods–adjacent band and has the same warped sense of how song structures operate, often turning traditional pop chord changes on their head. I like that. This track gets my blood flowing. I wanted to include Cowboy Curtis on this list, but they’re not on streaming services—also in the same scene though.
Now, Now Every Children, “Sleep Through Summer”
I feel like I remember this band from cruising around MySpace and then all of a sudden Chris Walla was producing them and they were touring with Paramore and I was like, “What!?” But they were cool, seemed about my age, and I just liked their songs a lot in high school. Still holds up to me in 2023…where are they now? [Editor’s note: They’re still active as Now, Now]
The Hold Steady, “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
In high school my friends and I just thought it was cool to hear a nationally popular guitar band talking about the Mississippi River and “Sweet St. Paul.” We saw them sell out a couple all-ages shows at First Avenue, and I’m still ripping off some of Craig Finn’s onstage antics to this day.
Paul Westerburg, “Love You in the Fall”
I’m skipping both The ’Mats and Paul’s proper albums to put this absolutely perfect tune on my playlist. It was the first song of his that truly made me whip my hair back and forth. It’s one of his most accessible tracks, and really shows where the Goo Goo Dolls got all their shit (another favorite band of mine, obviously).
The Courtneys, “Minnesota”
Not from the Twin Cities, but definitely about the Twin Cities. One of the best guitar bands of our generation, and the fact that my humble origin point got a nod from The Courtneys meant a lot to me.
Minneapolis Uranium Club, “Black Semen”
This band made me think it was OK to move back to the Twin Cities and that people were still doing creative punk music in the Upper Midwest. Great tempo and production, and I think this band is undeniably pretty awesome.
The Flamin’ Oh’s, “I Remember Romance”
I started working at a record store in Uptown in my late twenties and took a deep dive into the Minneapolis lore. This old head put me onto some of the lesser-known bands from back in the day and insisted that Mould was a “Mac brat.” This band stuck out to me, and I’ve put it on many a mixtape for my crushes over the years.
The Suburbs, “Love Is the Law”
Saw this legacy act play a free show with the aforementioned Bobby Mould as a Super Bowl pre-show in downtown Minneapolis on an extremely freezing cold afternoon. This is a pitch-perfect pop jawn that wouldn’t be out of place on the Career Opportunities soundtrack. The next day we cut the first Hotline 7-inch in my apartment!
Nimic Revenue, “Paramount”
Minneapolis has a rich history of underground hip-hop, which I don’t really care for…until I heard this song on my car radio driving across the Mississippi River one day after work. I remember the DJ telling us that Nimic was a Minneapolis resident and I was like, “Damn, this is cool.” Haven’t heard from her since, but I like this song a lot. [Editor’s note: Nimic also appears to still be active]
Aquarium, “Cow”
When I got settled into my life in the Twin Cities, this band got started and sort of ran the scene for a little while and put out this 12-inch on Lumpy Records. Everyone liked it, and they were the four hippest people in town, so I liked it too.
Hüsker Dü, “All Tensed Up”
Couldn’t make this playlist without something from the Dü. This song kicks off their discography for real, in my opinion, and sets the tone for the kind of fury this trio was capable of no matter how they switched up in their dynamics and production style. I love this band so much, and it’s impossible to pick a favorite song, but this one is important to me.
