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There's a certain bond between music and a listener. We can all relate to it, but everyone has a different way of expressing it. For Matt Latterell and Chuck Terhark, that way of expression is through a massive cover album.

Absolutely Cuckoo is a statewide ode to the quick-witted, New York band, the Magnetic Fields' 1999 album 69 Love Songs. (The title is self-explanatory.) Compiling a nifty spreadsheet of their friends and favorite local artists, these guys managed to acquire a cover of each love song to create their own tribute, which is available for download today. 
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Lizzo photo by Erik Hess; Solid Gold by Nick Vlcek

A music scene as intimate as the Twin Cities has seen genres and styles bleed into one another, and rarely is such hybridization unwelcome. With this mindset, Wide Eyes producers Dimitry Killstorm and DJ Name have concocted a mash-up project that combines a lot of Picked to Click alums, like local rappers like Atmosphere, Prof, and the Chalice rapper Lizzo with the sounds from other scenes, including Polica, Solid Gold, and Jeremy Messersmith and have released it as a free download via Soundcloud.

See Also:
Picked to Click 2012
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Photo by Jonny Magowan

The Music Industry is a weekly column that dissects local and national music-business headlines with the help of local industry professionals and music fanatics.

This month, dark lords of alt-hip-hop Death Grips emerged from the shadows to thrill believers by leaking their latest album, NO LOVE DEEP WEB, online. The album's cover features a very NSFW shot of male genitalia  with the title scrawled on it in Sharpie, and inside, the record follows a sweaty band of punks from Sacramento as they commandeer the rap format and wipe the floor with their more commercial counterparts in the process.

Supposedly, their label Epic Records wasn't in on the decision, and they retaliated by pulling the band's website. Now, I'm a marketer by trade, and I can smell strategy a mile away. So, when casually interested bloggers and journos wondered timidly whether the Death Grips leak may have been a setup, I had to laugh.

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Photo By Pedro Atkins

​Local indie-rock quintet Big Lake have captured the hearts of Twin Cities music fans in rather small doses, releasing one all-too-brief EP after another, in addition to their captivating, but all-too-infrequent, live shows. But while fans of the band wait patiently for a full-length album from Big Lake, the group has released a brand new single called "Eight Weeks," a highly-evocative song which should keep everyone satiated until their debut record eventually comes out.

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​Rhymesayers vet I Self Devine continues his onslaught of new music with the second of four free mixtapes dropped at the front end of every month. The Upliftment Struggle was released on Soundcloud this week in anticipation of another 7th Street Entry takeover on February 19.More »

Photo by B Fresh

​Twin Cities, meet Collin Ward. He's the entire cast of Observer Drift at this point, and things are blossoming nicely for him at the moment. Add him to the exciting stories that originate from just a Bandcamp site and a dream. In Jonathan Garrett's piece in this week's issue, we find that Ward is only 20, and isn't much different than any number of post-teens crashing with their parents. Except that he toiled away to create his stellar debut, Corridors, instead of waiting around for a band to help him out. Today, Gimme Noise is pleased to point a few more eyeballs to "Warm Waves," an undeniable breath of fresh, synth-fused air.

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​Welcome to the first Gimme Noise mixtape of the new year! As usual, we're offering up 8 new songs from Twin Cities rappers for your listening pleasure.
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​Though he's been relatively quiet on the music front since dropping his solo debut Self Destruction in 2005, Minneapolis rap legend I Self Devine is back in a big way with the first of four free mixtapes in anticipation of his sophomore album, The Sounds of Low Class America, due in May.More »

​As we do every third Tuesday, Gimme Noise returns with yet another mixtape of the local rap music that's making the rounds lately. Consider it our holiday gift.

You can stream the mixtape below or download here.



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​There's something to be said for a scene that is as easily identifiable as it is unified. Over the past seven years the self-described Twin Cities electropunk scene has done an impeccable job of branding itself to outsiders via a series of free compilations.
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