Never Sleep is a fantastic expansion of Feder’s sound, offering a more vulnerable, introspective side of the artist, and it’s set to be released June 23rd.
It’s always seemed to be an intense thing for Royal Thunder to make music – the band’s albums practically glow with vivid emotion and acute conviction.
The gloomier side of artists like The Cure or the emotional intensity of Cocteau Twins are clear influences, while stylistically she is closer to musicians including Lana Del Rey and Cat Power.
Taylor Robert has toured the country with various bands as well as a solo artist, played out at notable venues in the Twin Cites, released a multitude of albums and EPs, working with MN legends like Michael Bland (Prince, Soul Asylum) and Ryan Liestman (Jonas Bros) in production and songwriting.
LA-based collective Beauty In Chaos has joined forces with Leeds-born vocalist Julian Shah-Tayler and drummer Pete Parada (Face To Face, The Offspring) on their new collaborative single ‘Kiss Me (Goodbye)’.
Since leaving the Bad Plus a few years ago, pianist Orrin Evans has simply gone from strength to strength, putting his prodigious talent at the keyboard to the service of strong tunes and surrounding himself with top-flight backing musicians along the way.
Toronto-London collective The Flowers Of Hell have released their sixth album Keshakhtaran (their first in six years), as well as the first vinyl pressing of their Lou Reed-endorsed 2012 cult classic Odes album, now available directly from Rolling Heads , from other select UK stores, and on import.
Alternative-electronic artist Slighter presents his new single ‘Have No Fear’, an intense, moody and cinematic offering with traditional A-side and B-side versions, released via Confusion Inc. This is the first taste of his full-length album This Futile Engine, due out on July 21 via Brutal Resonance Records.
Canadian alternative pop artist Apricity presents her new single ‘Allison Wonderland’, a clever adrenaline-filled composition about imagining and seeking the type of relationship, love and companion you most want. A song that is, at the same time, a light forewarning about creating that perfect person in your mind.
Pioneering shoegazers The Veldt present “The Everlasting Gobstopper”, the first taste of their Illuminated 1989 album, the release of which has been anticipated for decades. Produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie in autumn 1989 (and remastered by him in 2023), this record was intended to be the band’s first album. However, their label Capital Records shelved the recording (resulting in their debut Marigolds album being produced by Lincoln Fong of Moose).
Malice marks a major step forward, in both songwriting and production from previous releases, but most importantly it represents a fantastically cohesive statement from a band unequivocally finding their voice.
Beggars Banquet continues its vinyl reissue series for Love and Rockets with round two: a pair of LPs that never quite found the cache of their predecessors.
Melodic indie / alternative rock duo Para Lia presents their single ‘Sunchild’, the first new music since announcing the duo has signed to Berlin-based About Us Records for their third album In Clash With The Zeitgeist (out on August 25). This driving, guitar-laden indie rock lead track is accompanied by a fun-filled nostalgic self-directed video.
Buoyed by the passionate support of the ZombieNation, their global legion of fans, The Nearly Dead sophomore album We Are The Nearly Deads is the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to their critically-acclaimed EP, Revenge of The Nearly Deads.
In between official full-lengths, the group has continued to churn out anthem and earworms. Notable highlights include “Freakshow,” “My Evil Ways,” “Watch Your Back,” and their recent Unearthed Ep which eloquently reformulated five fan favorites with a vibey ethereal panache.
Following up the deeply personal Reconnected, an album that explored his Latin and Turkish heritage, trombonist Altin Sencalar opens the doors to the wider world on his third album In Good Standing.
Bassist Vicente Archer has a quarter of a century of sessions and sideperson gigs behind him – oddly (or not), Short Stories is his first album as a leader.
How Bob spent the pandemic.
Joanna Pearl’s “Love Her” is a new original single inspired by her trip down the unspoiled coast of Highway 1 in California and is themed with nature and humanity co-exsisting through respect and love. Co-written and produced by award-winning Daniel Martin, “Love Her” floats with a light groove, warm-vocals and is anchored by a melancholic cello played by Mai Bloomfield (Jason Mraz/Raining Jane).
The stellar new *Cowboy Junkies” record captures the band reflecting on death and loss, while firing on all cylinders and engaging listeners with their signature sound.
Six years on from the masterful two-disk, one-song album Mirror Reaper, the duo returns with The Clandestine Gate.
Mostly Trees is a 4-piece band from Minneapolis, known for their take on guitar driven rock that ranges from grunge to dream pop. Their new style is a stripped down version of their earlier work, realized after bonding over a modified version of the board game Sorry! Once they made up the rules, the possibilities were endless. With a heavy influence of guitar effects pedals, their new album Moon Dogs showcases a diverse range of sounds and instruments.
Hearkening back to the funky, R&B-heavy fusion of the early seventies – Herbie Hancock/Crusaders division – Golden Mean paint colorful portraits that promote accessibility over complexity for its own sake.
If there’s a better name for a vocal group than Roomful of Teeth, we haven’t heard it.
From the evidence presented here, Boston’s Eddie Japan has never met a pop melody they didn’t like.
Drawing on influences from the likes of Blondie and The Ramones, Green Day and The Dollyrots, this tight-knit family unit uses humor and the power of music to push back on all the crap going on in the world. Bad Mary holds up a warped mirror to the current culture and reminds us that having fun is the best way to give yourself an escape from the craziness.
Not only has he just put out his memoir Easily Slip Into Another World, but he’s released his latest piece of music The Other One.
It’s as if Michael is sampling bits and pieces of the genre, a Whitman’s Sampler of rock ‘n’ roll, and Rocking Into Midnight succeeds wonderfully as a loving tribute in its own charmingly honest way.
Saturday’s Child is the latest release from Scott Zosel, a Minneapolis songwriter who works hard to exemplify the style and swagger of creative, edgy TC artists like Paul Westerberg, Prince, Dave Pirner, Gary Louris, Adam Levy, and others, who have successfully garnered national attention.
Ben Noble is a Minneapolis-based artist and producer. Noble’s serene, innocent melodies drift lithely along sonic textures that range from sleepy-time folk to intrusive, experimental hyper-synth scapes. Through any aural difference, the heart is the same: Noble wants to embody his truth and experiences in his music. His third album, Bitter Work is out today.
She Sees is as adventurous and exciting as any album the iconoclastic musician and composer has made.
Backed by guitarist Guilherme Monteiro, violinist Skye Steele, cellist Christopher Hoffman, bassist Michael Bates, and percussionists Mauro Refosco and Rogerio Boccato, Blake traverses all over the musical map here, incorporating bop, Brazil, tango, folk, and other influences into a distinctive blend all his own.
Brennan reaches into her personal experiences to pull out a general theme of hope throughout the five songs that manages to stay uplifting and optimistic without once becoming dangerously cloying.
Based in the New Jersey town of Secaucus, Clay Joule is a singer-songwriter who makes buoyant and uplifting soft rock music. Characterised by his poignant messaging and powerful, he crafts music which is genre-hopping and adventurous yet infectious and accessible.
The keyboardist from Johannesburg’s Mabuta, Bokani Dyer has more to say than can be confined to one outlet.
As the 101st release on his own Orenda label, Polarity serves to both sum up and advance his career thus far.
To celebrate their tenth anniversary as a unit, pianist/composer Omer Klein, bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo, and drummer Amir Bresler threw themselves a birthday party, entitling it Life & Fire.
The threesome’s third LP together, Our Daily Bread keeps faith with the band’s prior explorations of spiritual and free jazz Lovano compositions.
As might be discerned from the title, faith, family, and the enduring relevance of art are on Wilson’s mind.
When it came to making In What Direction Are You Headed?, Farnsworth called on peers and younger players for a session that’s both traditionalist and postmodern.
Lit is a fantastic album that bridges genres and styles effortlessly, and it will easily appeal to both nitpicky blues heads and punk purists alike.
After a decade of nifty singles, Bay Area quartet the Ironsides finally gets around to making a full-length album.
Saxophonist and NEA jazz master George Coleman has played with more luminaries than most of us have had hot dinners.
Set to be released later this year, The Beach EP doesn’t rock the boat too much or aim to challenge the status quo, but in his own brilliantly hummable way, Harris offers a folksy, optimistic point of view that is desperately needed right now.
Without being flashy whatsoever, Rocky Roberts stands out as an important voice in classic country, and Pieces of Time has a beautifully timeless feeling.
Their names are Phil Pigeon, Jimmy Pigeon and Tommy Pigeon. They are English and the concept of their first album, Bird Brain Gang, is that they all wear pigeon masks. Musically, it flies higher than with the aforementioned birds: one thinks of the beautiful experimental England of the 70s, of no wave à la James Chance and even of kraut à la CAN period Damo Suzuki.
*Dilly Dally Alley *was formed with the intent of eternally seeking out the perfect groove, as well as repairing and re-embodying communal spaces that dissolved from the pandemic. The tunes from their debut album Make You Whole are meant to be interacted with live. Crowd games and raucous nonsense are all integral to the celebration of this music.
Singer/bassist Scott Allen has released his debut album, and after a along and entertaining run as a local musician and Twin Cities front of house sound engineer. Mixing sound for much of the last three decades, Scott’s had a front row seat/backstage pass to many thousands of great shows, cool bands and talented artists to draw inspiration from.
