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Now, if we're talking about unsung, local musical minds go ahead and add Hollow Boys' Ali Jafaar somewhere near the top of that list. Jafaar -- an architect both as a musician (e.g. Zombie Season) and in the studio (I mean, how incredible was the production on that latest Crimes record?) -- holds a venerable history of local music involvement. Most relevantly as of the last couple years, this includes the moody-pop trio Hollow Boys, who have freshly dropped their third, most polished album yet, When You Think Of Us, Pray For Us.

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​The Twin Cities are experiencing a bit of an '80s new wave renaissance at the moment. With Jake Rudh's popular British dance and new wave night Transmission taking up a residency on the Current's airwaves and expanding into larger and larger rooms (like the upcoming gig on Thanksgiving Eve at the Varsity), bands with similar retro bents are emerging in the local club scene. More »

Photo by Eric Elvendahl

​Over the weekend I had a chance to catch Sexcat at Clubhouse Jager, and was taken aback by what a huge sound was being pumped by of this new band. Walking up to the show, the group's R&B beats and lead singer Hannah von der Hoff's smokey voice pierced the air for several blocks surrounding the venue, and by the time I got to Jager's back patio I had to get a closer look at just who or what was creating such scintillating music on stage.

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Photos by Ben LaFond

The crowd that had gathered at Nick and Eddie on Sunday for the debut of Polica, the new band led by Channy Moon Casselle of the recently split Twin Cities favorite Roma di Luna, was teeming with excitement. The little that has been heard of Polica so far on the band's website is as promising as a Ryan Olson-produced project could sound: Auto-Tuned majesty, with a heavy bassline and a sexy, lonely rhythm. It is Gayngs featuring Channy, essentially, and without the whole '70s-bedroom vibe.

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Photo by Graham Tolbert

​It's been less than a month since we first learned that Roma di Luna would be disbanding, and already Channy's new project, Polica, is moving full steam ahead. Today, the group unveiled two tracks, "Dark Star" and "Lay Your Cards Out," which are both streaming on their just-launched website.

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Photos by Pedro Atkins

Big Lake is a brand-new band with songs that will creep up on you and take you by surprise. One minute, you're passively listening to one of the tracks from their debut EP January Second Election, and the next, you're tilting your ear toward the speakers, trying to sift through the sonic layers of the song to get to lead singer Patrick Mazurek's voice and discern what, exactly, he's singing about.

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​Ah, chillwave. Love it or hate it, local two-piece Elite Gymnastics are the latest to receive national attention for their contributions to the genre, and for good reason; the songs that they have made available through their site, "Montana" and "Is This On Me" have a trance-inducing quality to them, akin to sitting in a darkened opium den listening to '80s dance hits stream out of a telephone receiver, off in the distance, softly yet persistently. Chillwave fans, however vague that term may be, will eat this right up.

The New York Post picked up on Elite Gymnastics yesterday, labeling them "You Must Know" and saying their music is "not only as free as skinny dipping in the ocean, but it's just as refreshing." Pitchfork, meanwhile, has been eagerly anticipating the release of their new EP, posting not just one but a total of three of the songs off their new EP on their Forkcast. The whole EP is available for free on Elite Gymnastics' site, which also happens to feature a giant neon flashing pot leaf, shining like a beacon for fellow chillwave-seekers.

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photo via Star Sky Sailing's Myspace

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"Yeah, it's fairly unbelievable, not to mention breathtaking, dreamlike, surprising, mind-blowing, bizarre and phantasmagorical too. The past six months have been nothing but a colorful, brilliant blur," Young told MTV News via e-mail (he doesn't do on-camera interviews). "I'm so thankful for being allowed to do what I do. I'm a silly shy boy from the middle of nowhere. I have the worst sense of direction imaginable. I was afraid to eat lunch with the other kids in high school. I can't even drive in big cities. I'm a totally nobody. I spill coffee all over myself. I am so undeserving."

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