The recently opened CO Exhibitions returned last night with another unorthodox art show, “Smell The Glove”, a tribute to the mockumentary Spinal Tap, curated by local illustrator and musician Michael Gaughan.  If you haven’t seen the classic film about the ficticious 80’s hair metal band Spinal Tap’s fall from grace, one of the classic scenes involves the band’s label censoring the controversial cover for the upcoming release “Smell The Glove”.  Originally intended to depict a woman on all fours wearing a dog collar and smelling a glove, the new cover is simply an all black LP.  (“How much more black could this be?  The answer is none.  None more black”)  The original cover is never actually seen in the movie, so Michael Gaughan decided he’d like to see what the cover would/should have looked like and offered an open call to artists to do their version of the cover in any media.

The show is a scattershot collection of everything from drawings, paintings, screenprints, and photgraphs, to crochet, video pieces, and soiled socks (um…)  Fans of metal art will be pleased by the artists who played it straight, fans of script-flipping will be happy to see the men in the band on their knees in some depictions, and and fans of quirky visual collections will be pleased by basically everything.  There’s a great range of pieces, from professional to less-studied, plain-faced to ironic, and many just plain weird. The show is labeled PG-13, and there are some naughty bits as one would expect.

As with last month’s Doomtree art show, the night culminated with live music.  The live Spinal Tap karaoke encouraged audience members to belt out their favorite Tap tunes, and some of these amateur performances were truly inspired.  The whole event was a lot of fun and a great place to catch art, people-watch, and revel in 80’s inspired schlock.

If you missed the opening, the show will be up for a few weeks. CO Exhibitions can be found at 1101 Stinson Blvd in NE Minneapolis.

Sauce Spirits and Soundbar in Uptown on Lyndale and Lake is on the rise as one of the hip places to be in Minneapolis. The relatively new nightlife spot has quickly become one of my favorite spots to see music, grab a cocktail, or just chill in the bar. The trendy bar has a couple of music events this week that are worth checking out:

Local producer Big Cats! brings his rap crew The Tribe and Mally along with him to host Up In Here, a free hip-hop dance event going down Tuesday the 27th. The producer known for working with Guante and Sage Francis is on his way to becoming a well-known name locally, crafting introspective bangers for The Tribe’s mixtape and his own recent album of instrumentals, Loud That Shit!. His work has always displayed the drum machine rolls that shine light on a love for dirty rap, which there’s certain to be plenty of here. Come groove as Big Cats! and DJ Pete of The Tribe trade rowdy tunes all night, all with a happy hour til midnight.

The following night, Wednesday the 28th, Toki Wright brings back the monthly Galactic Soul Lounge, his established night of hip-hop, soul, R’n’B, jazz, reggae, and more. This night has a cover charge of $5, but offers a caliber of show that’s worth it. DJ Booka B is going to spin Earth, Wind and Fire tributes, while latin rappers Los Nativos, Twinkie Jiggles’ Heiruspecs jazz side-project Broken Orchestra, and up-and-coming rapper Yakub bring more noise with performances throughout the night.

Both events are 21+ with doors opening at 9:30 PM. Sauce Soundbar is located at 3001 Lyndale Ave S.