Leslie & the LY’s

Had Tracy & the Plastics started out in Ames, Iowa, instead of Olympia, Washington, they might have turned out like Leslie & the LY’s. The act combines electronic pop with hip-hop and an obvious streak of playful weirdness that would make Peaches and Cindy Wonderful proud. The band’s live shows…

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

One thing about Sharon Jones that’s often overlooked: She may be the figurehead of today’s retro-soul movement, but she was also there the first time around. Granted, Jones may not have been strutting around big stages the same time that Tina Turner was tearing up “Nutbush City Limits,” but Jones…

Dan Allen

On the back cover of Thompson Blues, Dan Allen’s latest album, there’s a photo of Allen holding a stack of Jim Thompson novels. While this might be intriguing for fans of the crime-fiction writer, who wrote some gritty, tough-ass books like The Killer Inside Me, The Getaway and The Grifters,…

Glowing House

At first listen, it’s easy to mistake Glowing House’s debut as a vehicle for Jess Parsons, the outfit’s lead vocalist and pianist/guitarist. But the more the sumptuous and heartfelt songs sink in, the more the whole project feels like a real band. And a good band. Sidestepping the trend of…

Hard Pressed

Husband and wife Cory Obert and Andrea Lecos marry fiddle and banjo and tell the story of their lives. They are inspired by bike rides, blackbirds, their two dogs and, most significantly, the amber-trapped past. They know words are inadequate and don’t use them very often, relying much more on…

Andrea Ball

Building on some of the ideas presented on her last album, 2008’s Beat Beat Pound, Andrea Ball once again sidesteps the well-worn singer-songwriter template on Dial Tone, her latest effort, in favor of more plodding, piano-heavy arrangements. Fleshed out by an array of interesting sounds, the dynamic range here swings…

The Appleseed Cast’s sound has undergone as many changes as its lineup

Christopher Crisci is a man of few words. Well, that’s only partially true. When he’s not performing, the lead singer and guitarist for the Appleseed Cast is a relatively talkative guy. But when he’s making music, Crisci’s words are few — especially on the band’s latest full-length, Sagarmatha. “On this…

Robbie Rivera at Beta

Robbie Rivera is one of those incredibly prolific artists who make normal musicians look like slackers. Since releasing his first track (“El Sorullo”) in 1996, he’s produced dozens and dozens of tracks, a seemingly unceasing stream of funky, dirty house music, incorporating everything from progressive to Latin influences. His first…

Flier of the Week: Nervesandgel at GlobGlobGlob

Not everyone’s got mad graphic design skills and access to Adobe’s powerful design and art tools. And not everyone likes what results from fliers created that way, either. Sometimes, all it takes to make a killer flier is a quick sketch and some nice hand-lettered info. Especially if the sketch…

LEGO sequencer builds sound from colored blocks

Behold the awesome majesty of the Lego Sequencer MR II. This brilliant instrument is the work of Yoshi Akai, an avant garde artist/musician/audio mad scientist from Japan currently blowing the minds of folks the world over from his base in Sweden. Akai has turned a background in textile art and…

Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous takes his own life

Over the weekend, singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, the mastermind of Sparklehorse (whom we profiled more than a decade ago), reportedly took his own life. He was most famous for his success with his own band, but he most recently worked with Danger Mouse and filmmaker David Lynch on Dark Night of…

Over the Weekend: 200 Million Years at the Meadowlark

200 Million Years • Achille Lauro • The Sunset Curse • Spouses 03.5.10 | Meadowlark It has been a long time since 200 Million Years played a show. The band’s been busy cutting a new EP and folding a hundred copies into little pyramids. Those were in the back of…

Lost Lake Lounge set to open tonight

Matt LaBarge, co-owner of the popular South Broadway spots hi-dive and Sputnik, says he’s all set to open his third spot, The Lost Lake Lounge, at 5 p.m. tonight. He’s turned the former Bulldog Bar space, and Mr. Von’s Almo before that, into something of a cabin-styled lounge since that’s…