Credit: August Schultz Despite the world dragging by amidst the pandemic, it hasn't been too long since we last heard from Minneapolis' Double Grave. The band released their second full-length album Goodbye, Nowhere! in August of last year, which gave them some of the national attention they deserve. While continuing to work on new music, Double Grave is putting out a few shorter, quieter releases as a stop-gap between albums. Today, we're premiering the title track to the first EP, "Chrysanthemum." You've already heard "Chrysanthemum" if you were among the lucky few who snagged one of the first 50 vinyl copies of  Goodbye, Nowhere! — the entire EP was included on CD with a cardboard sleeve and handwritten tracklist. The songs themselves originated from guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warden's now-defunct Animal Actor  solo project, which featured Warden singing with a four-string bass. There were plans to put out a full-length Animal Actor record, bu...

  (Cover art by Chloe Crimmins ) Zaq Baker can't stop writing songs. Many of these songs have yet to see the light of day, but in recent months, the vaults have been opened. Baker's first album since 2018, Cardio , was released towards the end of 2020. Barely two months later, the theatrical master of song is putting out a new "mini LP," titled Maddie's Delivery Service .The lead single, which we're excited to be premiering here, is the studio version of a track originally released just before the pandemic. "She's Nocturnal" was originally part of Baker's as-yet-unfinished Good Kid Manic Summer project; now it serves as a hint of what's to come with the four new songs on his new record. Listening to the new, studio version of the song is like bursting into Technicolor compared to the sparse, black-and-white rendition from last year. The same group of musicians that gave Cardio its rollicking sense of momentum show up again here to invig...

I first wrote about Greg Siganos' solo project Pinched. about a year ago when he released his self-titled " 3-P ." With a single seven-minute song  released in the interim, Siganos is back with (fool) , his first full-length album since 2018. Pinched. has always been Siganos' place to tap into the raw energy that comes from making music in your bedroom with a few pieces of equipment; this record harnesses that rawness and pushes it to Siganos' creative limits, blending subtlety and introspection with chaos.  (fool) starts out in the aftermath of change, leaving Siganos to pick up the pieces. Most of the lyrics in "Change," the opening track, flow in a stream of consciousness, almost cutting each other off. The shock and rawness are apparent with the final lines of verse one - "You say, 'Hey man, all okay?' / How could one with all this change?" Much of (fool) 's opener feels like a back and forth between that inner monolog and the ...

(Cover art by Emily Schoonover) "Take it as it comes" is a phrase that sits atop the pile of things that are easier said than done. Emily Schoonover sings those words right at the start of bugsy's new single "overwhelming" and subsequently points out the emptiness that these platitudes tend to have on the surface. "overwhelming" is a push-and-pull battle between being pulled under the tide and swallowed by worry and continuing to swim against the tide, despite being unable to see the shore. Each new song from bugsy is an unexpected ray of sunlight on a gloomy day. I'm not sure if I can call the guitar interplay and harmonized vocals a bugsy Trademark™ at this point, but it's something to look forward to hearing every single time. The balance of dynamics perfectly matches the lyrics' emotional duality, cutting through gray, stagnant sadness with aplomb. "overwhelming" captures a period of uncertainty, pain, and paralyzing anxiety,...

  (Cover art by Present Company) Minneapolis pop-rock quartet Present Company spent most of 2020 in a whirlwind surrounding the release of their gleaming debut album, Talking on Couches . However, the band is flaunting their work ethic and releasing a new single already. "It's Not Looking Good" is the band's most effortless song yet. Present Company embraces their new wave heritage and play with some of the most iconic elements of that era — hooky bass lines, primitive yet effective synth programming, and the wild vocal fluctuations of David Byrne. I really can't understate how much the song evokes the Talking Heads. The band clearly knew how perfectly they were nailing the aesthetic and how catchy every part of their songwriting was when they structured the song as a loop. The first seconds are spent fading in; the last are a fade out. In between, a M.C. Escher drawing's worth of intersecting melodies and hooks is constructed. The honed-in version of Presen...

(Cover art by Kathy Callahan ) Rochester, MN's Dylan Hilliker normally spent his days managing bands ( Why Not , Gully Boys ) and putting together the yearly Rockchester music festival. However, without the ability to host live shows or for bands to tour, Hilliker found himself drawn into music in a different way. Over the spring and summer of 2020, he picked up his guitar again and started writing. Time spent processing our universal isolation translated into The Great Pause , Hilliker's debut album under the Horse Tornado moniker; "Make the Bend" is our first taste. This technically isn't a new project — Hilliker dumped six years' worth of demos on the Horse Tornado Bandcamp page in 2018. But "Make the Bend" marks a much more focused and deliberate launch. Local friends from Greentop , Why Not, and Hilliker's old band Dystonia contribute across the record, with songwriter Zach Zurn handling the production. "Make the Bend" starts inn...