​​Dropped as a free download a few weeks ago, Franz Diego and J-Hard's collaborative album Sense of Self will be brought to life properly with an 18+ CD release show at Conga in Northeast. The Illuminous 3 veteran is trying out some new avenues on this one, and it's already one of the strongest local releases of the year.
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​Purest Spiritual Pigs is technically Helena Thompson's solo project. Primarily recorded in her basement, the ex-Her Majesty the Baby drummer has conceived eleven tracks that blend digitally-manipulated everyday sounds, a wealth of percussion, and a direct and often brooding vocal style to deliver Body Misses, PSP's first full-length release and a companion piece to its live production as conceptual art, which includes an array of local artists--musical, visual, and performance. As such, Purest Spiritual Pigs is not merely Thompson's project, but a team of collaborating artists.

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via Haunted House's Myspace

​The record review is an aged beast. We don't necessarily need anyone to tell us if something is good, do we? It takes about as much time to acquire an album as it does to read about it these days.

That said, here is a wholly imaginary, associative, overly poetic and possibly offensive review of Haunted House's Lesh Is More, released about a week and a half ago to many smiles and craned necks at the Turf Club.

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​Hank Williams III, outlaw country artist and shit-talking Southern pride asshole of great esteem, has a new album coming out on May 25th, but for now you can check it out in entirety on Amazon.com. Just click here, and look to the right side of the page for the music-playing widget.

From what we've heard so far, his new album continues the synthesis of punk and country-western that has defined his career. Williams has greatly improved his songwriting (never his greatest strength) and the production is far tighter than previous albums. Best of all, he sounds even more like a modern version of his grandpa on this record than ever before, and that's saying something.

​Take one part Dear Landlord (Zack Gontard, also in Twin Cities punk band Off With Their Heads), one part Ergs! (Mike Yannich), and two parts Steinways (Grath Madden and Azeem Sajid), and blend. What you get is House Boat, another Minneapolis-affiliated supergroup with flavors from all of the above mentioned bands.More »

myspace.com/morethanlights

​When you first discover Minneapolis' own More Than Lights -- the eclectic septet and block party funk mob on the mic, strings, and electronics -- you might think they belong to an updated realm of "Sesame Street."

Toddlers aside, promo photos feature band members in various colored winter hats, which isn't a bad testament to their multi-flavored family vibe. Some of the tunes from their November 21 debut album, The Electric Prescription For All Your Funky Illz, are straight-up bursts of jubilation (sometimes simply thankful for the air in our lungs); others deal in the compassionate heat of some of life's chance moments. Either way, you'll want to warn the youth inside you: these pleasantries might induce lots of hand-holding, spontaneous ecstasy, and maybe a little jazz in those hips.
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​The music on Orange Mighty Trio's sophomore release, Infrastructure, ranges from the quiet, contemplative mood of opener "Point A" to the propulsive, restless urgency of "Driving With Your Eyes Open" to the chugging, train-inspired jump blues of "Orange Line," but no matter the tempo or approach, their music is always shot through with a tinge of Old World nostalgia. Part of it is down to the instrumentation: a piano, a violin, and a bass playing together without rhythm instruments are inevitably going to sound a little wistful, a throwback to simpler times. But a lot of it comes down to their gentle, way with a fragile melody, as on standout track "Convergence."

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When Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue in 1959, by way of contrast, he was looking for a way out of the straitjacket harmonies of bebop. He'd begun this work with modal compositions on Milestones and 1958 Miles (or '58 Miles as listeners in the CD age came to know it from the new cover art), but for Kind of Blue he came into the studio with nothing but sketches--scales or melody lines for the improvisers to use. The results were, of course, legendary.

And now here is Kind of Bloop, an album that re-imagines Davis' album as the soundtrack for a vintage Nintendo or Sega videogame. If that simple description doesn't already give you a clear picture, you should probably just head over to kindofbloop.com, where you can listen to samples and also buy the album.

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​Volcano Choir
Unmap
Jagjaguwar

By Erik E. Martz

There is no "Skinny Love" on Unmap, the first album from Volcano Choir, the new side project of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver with Milwaukee experimental outfit Collections of Colonies of Bees. In fact, the closest thing to a traditional song on the entire album is looped and rhythmic advance single "Island, IS." There is, instead, a meditation--an extended session of noise and music making that seemingly has no compass and defies the listener to map its course. For those who simply expected another Bon Iver album, here be shoals.

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Courtesy of Julian Plenti

​Julian Plenti
Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper
Review by Erik E. Martz

Julian Plenti is...Skyscraper is the first solo effort of Julian Plenti, nom de plume of Paul Banks, frontman of Interpol. Got all that? If not, then you may also be wondering why such an album should exist, given the established centrality of Banks' songwriting within his day band. Yes, this is all very well and good, Mr. Banks, but why not give it to the band?

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