Thirsty Thursday

Well, they won’t dance for you, and they won’t
do what you tell them to, but Private Dancer,
the Minneapolis band Frankenstein’d out of a variety
of other stellar local acts (STNNG, Hockey
Night, Total Fucking Blood) will shit straight
rock and roll all over you and have you twitching
pleasantly in the butt mud.

Back in ’06, Nate Nelson of STNNG was jonesing
to tour some more and had always wanted
to play in a band with Ben Ivascu, a longtime
friend who serves his days in oodles of other
Minneapolis groups. So when Ben tried to coerce
Nate into sledding late one winter night, Nate’s
sneaky ass dived into action.

“It was maybe ten or eleven at night and I was
like ‘I can’t go sledding,’” said Nelson, who quickly
spun things in his favor. “Then I was like ‘if I go
sledding with you, we’re starting this band’.”
So with that VERY Minnesotan beginning,
a raucaus garage-y (and occasionally sensitive
and soft), 70’s classic rock (in the best possible
sense), guitar soaked group kicked off, as did the
search for a name.

“That’s like the hardest part about being in a
band; it’s the part I dread the most about starting
a new band - coming up with a band name,”
said Nelson. “Whatever name you start with,
it’s going to sound stupid to you in a few years
anyways.”

“I don’t think I personally had ever heard that
song before we decided on the name,” said Nelson.
“There was a boat by our drummers house
called ‘Private Dancer,’ and he wanted to name
ourselves after that boat, so we named ourselves
after that boat, which I’m sure was named after
that song.”

The group is hard at work on their second LP
with Chris Rose (of Vampire Hands and Invisible
Boy) jumping in on guitar and touring with
them after their old guitarist opted to go back
to school. They’re busting their humps trying to
make their goal of hitting each coast twice a year
to build up word of mouth on their balls-to-thewall
shows. But even with the need to tour and
spread the gospel, Nelson’s heart will always be
reserved for the twin cities.

“More than anything, what I love about Minneapolis
is that there are so many musicians and
everyone’s really good…the Blind Shake, Daughters
of the Sun, Skipper, France Has the Bomb,
there’s so many good bands and always something
going on. When you tour you realize how
good of bands we have here.”

Originally published in the Winter ‘09 issue of Ghettoblaster, a quarterly culture and entertainment mag.