It's pretty easy to criticise award ceremonies and lists.

& on Minneapoliscast, Download MP3 Interview & Songs belowLucy Michelle & Chris Graham from Lucy Michelle & The Velvet Lapelles stopped by the lab to perform some songs and discuss the band and their new CD.Songs Performed:“Mouth of the Beast”“With You”“Chinese Lanterns”“Magnolia Tree”Upcoming Shows:Jul 25 2008 7:00P Lucy Michelle CD release/ the Bedlam [...]

I really need to pay better attention to the weekly Tuesday release lists because it’s inevitable I’ll miss something like the jam-packed goodness of People Under the Stairs’ The Om Years collection, which came out this past week. Granted, “the Om Years” lasted for just three records and various singles. But great records they [...]

Vashti Bunyan - “Train Song”From Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind

The critically acclaimed debut album from Johnny Foreigner will see a Stateside release this October via Nettwerk Records. Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light has received a significant amount of praise from NME, Drowned In Sound, Pitchfork Media, and Kerrang! among others. Did I forget to mention that I find the album quite enjoyable as [...]

[source]The Walkmen - "On the Water"On the water, written in invisible lines, invisible for now, are secret water countries. Ocean, river, and nation lakes that are far older than our mere land states. Immense wars, vast campaigns of espionage and intrigue, gruesome battles, even interminable grudges and millennial stalemates. The countries are not stratified along lines of species, that's a classic human mistake, most ocean states (like Br'fellia, Nochvaleee Kingdom, and The Huv) will have many whales in their fleet, but also hundreds of thousands of jellyfish, a few dozen sting rays, and carp carp carp.

Boasting a crew of 7 Midi & The Modern Dance are a Connecticut collective I’ve had my ear on for a while now. I’ve featured their talented mates the Seascape a while back and it’s good to see that both are on an upward trajectory. Midi’s myspace is stocked high with top quality downloads and I’ve yet to get through them all. In fact they now have an self-titled EP up for grabs which I will be checking out pronto. At this moment in time ‘Baby, Don’t Deprave Me’ is certainly the one that sticks out because of Omeed Goodarzi’s part fragile/part brazen vocal turn and the intricate instrumentation. It all adds up to a near epic listen, the baby steps of a group that have the potential to go the whole way. KD

[Note: This interview was originally published via audio format last February. However, since I can't host the mp3 forever, I'm revisiting the interview in article format, for internet posterity.]Last winter, before they played a stellar show to a sold out crowd at the Paradise Lounge, I had a moment to sit down with Elizabeth and most of the Catapult. I've been super excited about this band since the 2006 release of their self-titled EP, and have been eagerly awaiting the release of their debut full-length. Once that sucker comes out, I guarantee you that these guys are going to blow up. I mean, they've already played at Carnegie Hall, as part of an event for the Young People's Chorus of New York City. Elizabeth explained the story behind that: "I was in this choir years and years ago, and I guess they're really kicking butt now. They're performing all over the world, Rufus Wainwright wrote a song for them for this specific gala, James Taylor and all these really cool people were part of the night -- when we were asked to play, it was just like, 'Of course! Hells yeah, let's do this!' Obviously, that was one of the highlights of our year." Pete, Elizabeth & The Catapult's guitarist, chimed in, "It might have been the last time we'll ever set foot on that stage, so we enjoyed it."

Parisian electro-popstar Sébastien Tellier is sexually charged. We’ve been amp’d up for the stateside release of Tellier’s third studio album, ‘Sexuality’, for months now. You’ll remember that the record is produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk fame. Well now we have it, Record Makers have given us something special for our eager hands…Beginning [...]