By Crystal Hohenthaner
Rapid City Journal staff

Good news for musicians looking for a venue — there’s a new stage in town. Alternative Fuel Coffee House has expanded and as a result, on Feb. 25, they brought a new stage to Rapid City.

Coffee shop owner Michelle Pulling said that Alternative Fuel currently plans to have live music every Friday night, but they may have to expand their plans. “It looks like we are going to have to expand music to Saturdays soon too because of the vast amount of submissions we’ve had.”

Pulling has been receiving performance submissions through the coffee shop’s website alternativefuelcoffeehouse.com. Musicians who want to submit to play at Alternative Fuel can go to the website and click on “MUSIC” near the top of the page. This will take you to a page where you can submit your contact information. The coffee shop will contact musicians about arranging a time to play.

Pulling did stress that because the coffee shop is open to the public and people all ages performances must be family-friendly.

What does that mean?

“More positive messages,” Pulling said. “And no curse words, or inappropriate themes.”

This past weekend, Alternative Fuel did feature music on both Friday and Saturday night and according to Pulling there has been a very good response.

“It was full,” she said. “We’ve had great turn out.”

Pulling also said audiences have a lot to look forward to.

“We have some great stuff coming up for the end of the school year,” she said.
Friday night performances are from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and the stage area currently seats over 100. The coffee shop plans on adding some additional seating soon and is very excited about their new venue.

“I think that we are another great avenue for downtown entertainment,” Pulling said.

For more information visit www.alternativefuelcoffeehouse.com or call Alternative Fuel at 341-2202.

So, has anyone been to a show at the new venue in the last month? What do you think of it?

I’ve seen the stage and it looks nice, plus I’ll be going to my friend Steve’s show there this Friday night. I’ll let you know what I think.

By Eric Lochridge

At home the other night, we had the kitchen TV on while we were getting dinner ready. We had it on TLC, and a “Trading Spaces” commercial came on, with an instantly catchy song. My astute wife said, “Isn’t that Kory and the Fireflies?”

I said, “Kind of sounds like it.”

So we continued to prep for dinner, and eventually the “Trading Spaces” spot came on again. And sure enough, the song was definitely Kory and the Fireflies, the Sioux Falls band fronted by Rapid City native Kory Van Sickle.

The band confirms on its Web site that the song, “She’s Comin’ Back Again,” indeed is a Fireflies tune and is being heard in millions of homes nationwide.

“She’s Comin’ Back Again” is from the band’s new album, “Love to Give,” which is out now.

You can hear songs from “Love to Give” at the band’s MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/koryandthefireflies.

By Eric Lochridge

The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records for using their name and music in promotions that the band say hurt its credibility:

“In a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the rockers said they have “worked hard for over two decades to accumulate a considerable amount of goodwill in the eyes of the public,” and that Virgin’s use of the band in a “Pepsi Stuff” promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi Co. threatens their reputation for “artistic integrity.”"

I laughed involuntarily at the “goodwill in the eyes of the public” part.

So what about it: Do the Pumpkins have, or have they ever had, “artisitic integrity”?

And with the industry in the state that it’s in, shouldn’t a band so far past its heyday be happy to get any attention at all?

(For Pitchfork’s take on this, click here.)

By Eric Lochridge

A band called The Trews will be opening for Ace Frehley in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center theater on Saturday night.

With two gold albums, seven Top 10 singles and two No. 1 Rock tracks, the Canadian quartet seems like a band we are likely to hear more from in the future.

Since the 2003 release of their debut album, “House of Ill Fame,” The Trews have become famous in Canada through massive radio impact, heavy exposure on MuchMusic and hundreds of high-energy live gigs the band has performed on their own and with artists such as Guns N’ Roses, Robert Plant and The Rolling Stones.

The band’s new album, “No Time For Later,” shows The Trews breaking new ground, going beyond the band’s reputation for plain-old rocking out.
The new disc boasts compelling song structures and more-articulate playing. Rootsy touches include a Hammond B3 and slide guitar. It’s the melding of new and classic rock that accounts for the band’s multi-generational appeal.

You can have a look and listen here.

By Todd Williams

Hopefully, it’s good news that Sirius has been cleared by the feds to buy rival XM, but I can’t speak authoritatively.

My wife and I began to subscribing to XM years ago and, for the most part, have been pretty happy. My wife has a receiver in her car (she can take it out, but rarely does) and likes it a lot.

I generally listen to ESPN Radio, but when it’s music, I set the dial to Fred, which basically plays College Hit Radio (i.e. alternative before alternative was called alternative). A lot of Echo and the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, stuff like that.

So what do we have look forward to? Will Fred survive? If not, is there a good substitute coming from the folks at Sirus?