Spiritualized, melting faces on NPR.

Rats, video stream is off for the moment while they reorganize as the show just finished. I'll drop it in later.

I'm taking the day off work in a couple of weeks to drive a few hundred miles and see them in Portland. Hell yeah.

I love the local music scene in the Twin Cities. Check out these two very different songs that debuted in the last six months here. Thaadd was crazy to move away.

This is a live-in-studio performance of the dreamy Wandering Star (not the Portishead song) by Polica. That is her voice, with a bit of reverb but none of that Autotune crap. You can see a bit of downtown Saint Paul outside the window:



And this is local backpack rappers from The Doomtree Collective, doing Little Mercy:

I used to love the Minneapolis scene back when Amphetamine Reptile Records were still around. The most important label of the early 90s for me.

Currently listening to Fake Meets Failure by Red Dons, it's such a joy to find great new punk rock bands.



And Melvins are making big time comeback with me, how can anyone not like Melvins?

Not Sure wrote:



I saw them Monday night here in NY. Great set, but the sund as turned waaaay down at the venue. (Terminal 5. Avoid if possible)

mikko_r wrote:



Ha! Saw them the week before with my buddies The Unsane. Their drummer is sick so Unsane got the Melvins treatment with Dale and Cody switching off on drums then playing together for the last few songs. Pretty badass.

The Melvins didn't play anything pre Stag though (aside from a Wipers cover) which was a real bummer. I've probably seen the Melvins more than just about any other band, up there with Fugazi and Rocket from the Crypt, and they rarely disapoint, but I wanted to hear some Bullhead or at least something off Stoner Witch. Still incredibly tight though. I kind of miss them as a three piece, but the Big Business merger is really something else.

Am-Rep was the shit. I was just listening to Halo of Flies yesterday.

Been listening to the new Joey Ramone album. Always interesting to see what an estate digs up posthumously, and I was a bit skeptical because I wasn't a super fan of 2002's Don't Worry About Me (though it had some gems).

This album I'm really liking though. Oddly, I always preferred Joey's voice on the ballads so Waiting For That Railroad is been a big hit for me:




Another standout track is Party Line:

Keep meaning to share these guys with you, saw them 4 years ago at the warped tour, then again the year after at the Austin City limits show. Dude's wife set her scrub board on fire the first tiem I saw them and I've been in love with these guys since. I believe that the drummer plays on pickle tubs, so really, the only thing missing is a tub thumper and you've got yourself a redneck steriotype.
If you get the chance to catch these guys, do everything you can to do it, the show is just as much fun as a Legendary Shack Shakers show... which leads me to:

just discovered RAZORLIGHT recently. I like, I like.

I cancelled my SIRIUS radio membership back in April and I'm really starting to miss channel 31, THE COFFEE HOUSE. I think I was buying a new song each week based on stuff I was hearing on that station. Lot of fun music.

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers:

I get goosebumps every time this song kicks off. Saw them in a little hole in the wall in Calgary of all places, one of my favourite shows of all time. There must have been 60 or so sweaty Pabst drinking bodies all getting off together.

Too good not to share: