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Frank Hoier’s Lovers & Dollars caught my attention in the recent post office box haul of “kind-of good” music. Billed as leading the new wave front of modern Americana roots music, it’s hard to tell Hoier is a SoCal to NY transplant. If you ask me — considering his slide...
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I got this album from Fidotrust Records called Trust Us…A Long Beach Comp featuring music from 26 Long Beach bands. I know what you’re thinking — damn hippies. But you’re wrong. This is a diverse collection and a great showcase of the talent, voice and creativity of LB musicians...
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I’m a big fan of Dungen out of Sweden. My first experience was listening to Ta det lugnt back in 2005 and then catching their live show at Minneapolis’ 400 bar that October. As I wrote then, Dungen’s live show is like Olivia Tremor Control meets Flaming Lips naked on a Swedish alp as Syd...
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San Francisco’s Leopold and His Fiction have set out to reinvent all the best things about rock and roll — bright guitar, blues chord progressions and dirty choruses. Regurgitating what the best of the bests have been doing for years, I hear Zeppelin, Strokes, Stripes and Dylan. All good...
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It’s no secret I love unique, odd and intricate music. I find it extremely compelling when a musician balks the AABA, chorus, verse format or goes all Philip Glass on the layers.
Japanese singer-songwriter Shugo Tokumaru’s new release today, Exit (Almost Gold Records), is exactly all this and more...
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NYC based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andy Mullen writes catchy, quirky songs about everyday life. His new album, The Toenail Jar, is available for free online. Try these tracks, and if you dig, check out the whole thing (and don’t forget to toss him a few bucks if you like it...
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We first told you about Phoenix band What Laura Says back in May, when the Terpsikhore label collective announced its first projects. Well, it’s been a long summer and today is finally Laura’s big day.
For a band from the desert, Thinks and Feels often comes off as a Beach Boys-influenced...
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Brookings, South Dakota band Welcome to the Cinema are coming to Minneapolis’ 400 Bar this Saturday, August 23 for a CD Release gig with The Hopefuls. I’ve been poking through their album, Blocks and Hills, and can attest it’s really tight, super intricate and definitely worth checking...
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This was out last week but I forgot to post something — mainly because I was so underwhelmed after reading the 15 pages of hype the label mailed me. It’s a collaboration between Inara George (The Bird and the Bee) and legendary arranger Van Dyke Parks. Check out these mp3s and decide for...
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A few months ago I was sitting at the dining room table listening to new albums wearing my tony Bose headphones to tune out the Guitar Hero championships in the living room. Between songs the faint chords of “Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies permeated my cone of silence, and I found myself...
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Unless you told me The Pack A.D. was a female duo from British Columbia, I would have sworn it was two grimy factory workers from Detroit sludging their way through devil-kissed bluesy garage rock. The Pack A.D. : “Making Gestures” (mp3)
Funeral Mixtape, out today on Mint Records, is easily...
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The cello as an instrument gets a bad rap. It’s like a big violin you can’t hold up to your chin. It’s somehow different than a viola, isn’t usually found south of the mason-dixon line, and typically plays music written by men who’ve been dead for centuries.
Enter The Portland...
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Birmingham, Alabama natives Wild Sweet Orange released their debut full-length record, We Have Cause to be Uneasy, this week on Canvasback Music. The group was last in Minneapolis this February touring on their EP, The Whale. Produced by Mike McCarthy (Spoon), the new disc is definitely an album the...
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Ottawa’s The Eric St-Cyr Band just released their first album, Things Left Unsaid. Listen here.
Gaby Moreno is a Guatemalan singer/songwriter currently living in Los Angeles. Listen here.
New Jersey songwriter Zak Smith just independently released an album
Zak Smith : “Minstrel Show”...
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I love a good PR pitch that opens with, “XX artists can’t buy beer, but he sure can rock!”
And this is definitely the case with new Annuals-offshoot band Sunfold’s frontman:
“Kenny Florence may not yet be of legal age to buy beer, but he has a clear musical vision that he...