Picture courtesy of Alex Nordenson 's Twitter and Echo Images This week's episode of the  Ear Coffee Podcast  is a little out of the norm for us. I talked to Alex Nordenson, co-founder of Soundpruf. According to the company's website,  Soundpruf  is "a new personalized music dashboard for every serious fan that connects directly to your streaming platform account." Essentially, it's if  Last.fm  had more robust features and a social media element. I was not only interested to learn why a platform like this could be beneficial to the user, but how it would benefit bands, specifically DIY and underground bands who sometimes struggle to find footing in the sea that is Spotify. In the interview, Nordenson said that part of Soundpruf's goal is to help fans engage more with emerging artists. He said, "A big part of what we are doing is helping music fans deepen their engagement with emerging artists that they support and they want to succeed....

Everyone's favorite blue-collar goth  Monica LaPlante  has made her triumphant return with the new(ish) track "Tinted Light." LaPlante traveled to Jack White's Third Man Records pressing plant in Detriot, Michigan back in 2018 to record the song, and after many months of waiting, it was debuted last week on The Current's The Local Show .  LaPlante has always had a knack for painting pictures in her songs that the listener can easily place themselves in the middle of. Her lyrics are visceral, and "Tinted Light" is no different. The second verse of the song makes its misanthropic meaning ever apparent as she croons, "If there is a god / He would not want to welcome me / I will play no games and take no land and bear no young." The nihilistic lyrics are combined with raucous instrumentation for another instant classic from the songwriter.  "Tinted Light" is LaPlante's first release since her 2016 EP Noir . It's ou...

Minneapolis quintet,  The Symptones  are giving listeners a taste of their upcoming debut album with the release of a music video for "Rosetta." Directed by Steven George, the video depicts the band making the best of Minnesota's wintery climate while they play their personal brand of r&b infused indie rock.  "Rosetta" is a light and funky track. The rhythm section joins together to create a groove that you can't help but bop along to while vocalist Taylor Tuomie sings about running away with your love for a more carefree life. The band stays relatively contained for most of the track except for a surprise anthemic bridge that finishes out the song. The Symptones debut record  Irrational Fears / Overactive Imagination is set to be released on Friday, April 26. It was recorded at Ecstattic Studio by Ali Jaafar who has worked on projects from bands like Fury Things, Ego Death (Double Grave), and Kitten Forever. An album release show for Irration...

The combination of vocal harmonies, gentle acoustic melodies, programmed drums, and lo-fi production does not feel like it should work when you put it on paper, yet Laska 's new EP in the blossom of this  seems to have expertly blended all of these elements together into a genre-defying release. The band's 2017 debut album Ceiling Zero gave insight into Laska's genre-bending tendencies, but it is on this EP that the band fully embraced their broader sound palette. Sisters   Hanna, Bex, and Mookie Morton spend  in the blossom of this  reflecting on themselves and their relation to the world. From the opening track "Paralysis," you are instantly captivated. Shimmering guitars and skittering drum loops mixed with organic drums create an expansive landscape for the sister's vocals to float through and give form to. The Morton sisters take time to explore the feelings of disconnect, longing, and depression along with their many facets.  ...