In 2017, singer-songwriter Ben Noble released his heartfelt debut record  Whiskey Priest . The album garnered Noble both local and national attention including air time on Minnesota's own 89.3 The Current and features in numerous music blogs. Since the release of Whiskey Priest , Noble hasn't slowed down. He spent 2018 playing gigs and releasing a handful of performance and music videos. Behind the scenes, Ben has been hard at work on his sophomore record titled Where The Light Comes In and his instrumental side project Lake Union , who has put out two EPs since January. " Night Wakes " the lead single from the forthcoming release marked a fundamental shift in Noble's sound. In a move similar to Bon Iver, he moved away from his folk roots and embraced more synthetic elements. On Friday, August 9, Ben dropped the second single leading up to the release of Where The Light Comes In . With a grooving bassline and pulsing drum beat, "Turning" is the s...

7000apart is a project born from the budding relationship of Jon Kresin and Amelie Eiding. The now husband and wife met in high school while Eiding was studying abroad in Wisconsin. A music class was what drew the pair together, and the band 7000apart, named after the distance between Greenbay, Wis. and Sweden, kept Jon and Amelie together during their long-distance relationship. For anyone who has done long distance, whether it be another city or another country, it is difficult to hold a relationship together. Tiny cracks can easily become an impassable crevasse. After a couple of singles and an EP, the duo came together to create their debut full-length,  We Are More . The title sort of says it all when it comes to the album's concept - we are more than just the individual pieces. The duo describes themselves as an "organic pop" band, which feels like a bit of an admirable novelty. 7000apart have almost no room to hide within the minimal instrumentation, so ...

The Symptones  are a band that seems to be doing its damnedest to create the next classic American album, and their debut full-length  Irrational Fears / Overactive Imagination  has definitely given them a springboard toward that goal. The band has a unique blend of funk, soul, and folk filtered through indie rock that allows their music to feel oddly familiar yet different.  From the first triumphant notes of the opening song "Fall Guy," the Springsteen-ian need to take your partner and just run is thrust front and center.  Following "Fall Guy" is the album's single "Rosetta," which is another anthem about the familiar daydream of taking your love and running away. "Rosetta" has one of my favorite moments on this album. The breakdown in the bridge is a Beach Boys-styled vocal line mixed with a punk breakdown that should not work on paper. Drummer Steve George hammers on his kit while the guitars play delicate arpeggios and the bass ...

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.  ...

There is something to be said about the resurgence of indie record labels that take the time to curate a specific sound with the bands they work with. You know when you go to listen to a band on that label's roster, you will have an idea of what you are getting into, and  Brace Cove Records is a label that does this impeccably. After writing an article for Ear Coffee about the most recent niiice. single , I found myself perusing other bands on their list and was instantly drawn to the post-hardcore quintet  River Teeth , and their brand new EP Aimless Ghost. River Teeth is a little more post than they are hardcore, meaning they are not afraid to experiment a little in order to drive home their message.  Aimless Ghost 's opening track "False Bottom" begins with a swirling pool of dreamlike guitars and twinkling melodies that when the listener closes their eyes, they can start to feel lost as frontman Sam Halvorson sings the lines "I want so badly to breath...

The Green Bay Wisconsin based Swedish-American duo 7000apart has one of those stories that feels like it was born from a love song. Husband and wife Jon Kresin and Amelie Eiding met in high school when Eiding was studying abroad from Sweden. The two met in a music theory class began a relationship after Kresin invited Eiding to his house to show off his "basement studio" that was, in reality, just a Midwestern basement with a computer and single microphone. It was safe to say that Eiding was a little underwhelmed by the "studio," but whatever charm Kresin used worked and their relationship grew; however, the school year came to an end and Eiding had to go back to Sweden. So the two formed the band as a way to keep their relationship strong while the Kresin and Eiding were 7000 kilometers apart. 7000apart released their debut single "Blank Check" which is the first of three tracks leading up to their first album We Are More . Much like how the band w...

Minneapolis math punk trio Why Not  has a musical output that is slowly approaching the prolific levels of artists like Ty Segall or John Dwyer. This band has put out a record or EP every year since 2017. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you take into consideration that these guys are in their senior year of high school, there is a whole new level of impressiveness. It's amazing that these three friends have found time to start a band, write three releases' worth of material, and still find time for regular day-to-day activities. Their lives feel like a plot to a mid-2000s Disney Channel TV show. With 2019's EP , the band finds themself reflecting over their personal lives and musical career. The single "Ready 4 the World" has the band asking "Are you listening intently/What am I saying on the outside/Is it friendly?" The track echoes sentiments of feeling lost and looking for a foothold to move forward.  Why Not's bassist and fro...

From the first notes of Last Import's self-titled debut full-length, there is a feeling that something different is going on here. The formless and free-flowing nature of "Lunar Rhapsody" acts almost as a palate cleanser for what you, the listener, are going to experience over the next 30 or so minutes. The band's debut EP Songs For Adam was released a year and a day prior to Last Import . Since then, Last Import has been riding a wave of increasing popularity. They received play on radio stations like the Current and Go96, and they've opened for Bastille and Lany at the Palace Theater. Last Import  expands on the ideas explored on their debut EP. To boil down the band's sound, they are a punk-influenced surf rock trio, but this is a gross oversimplification. There is a fire at the musical foundation of Last Import that propels everything that is heaped on top. Staccato guitars, pummeling drums, and fluid bass lines create dynamic performances that add d...

In this week's installment of this column, we are going to look at the brand new visceral release from Minneapolis punk duo  Dirty Junk . On Yr Knees is the follow up to their debut full-length Snot . To say it's a more accomplished sibling to their debut would be a grave disservice to it. The musicianship, production, and songwriting have improved in the time between the two releases, but the unbridled energy and rage have remained a constant. What initially sold me on this release was the title track of the EP. I don't think I have ever had the wind knocked out of me by just a song alone. The cacophony of drums and dissonant guitars mixed with vocals of guitarist Renn Fontana create a slurry of sound. It provides the perfect unsettling score to a story of revenge against an abuser. To me, what makes On Yr Knees stand out against the sea of punk releases is its incredibly dynamic songs. The opening track, "Ten Thousand," rises and falls to build tension ...

Mudhoney's latest album is an aging band's daft attempt to be hip and relevant. The title of this record is a descriptor of what it actually is: Digital Garbage . Digital Garbage by Mudhoney

As a fan of heavy music from Minneapolis, I have stumbled across Tongue Party a handful of times, but I always put them on that list all music fans have but never actually get to. Thankfully, the gods of music sent me signs to nudge me toward this record. The first sign came in the form of radio. The Current's The Local Show played the track "This Exists" Sunday night. Its heaviness and frantic nature made me sit in my car to finish it before going into work. The second sign was a podcast called Pod Minutes to Cast Night where one of the guest hosts mentioned that they were going to play a show with Tongue Party later in the week. It was then and there I knew that I needed to listen to this band.  Upon first listen, Tongue Party's debut record  Looking For A Painful Death  sounds like a musical cousin of the first two Metz records but that comparison lazy and a huge disservice to this band. Their music is noisy, explosive, and just downright ag...

Last year, Calvin Heights released Worst Calligraphy , one of their most ambitious albums to date. The album is paired with The Possession of the Deer's Feet: Prologue , an EP that was released earlier in 2017 which marked a definite shift in the band's sound. The indie rock influence that characterized the first two records was left behind for something more experimental. By this point in the band's career, frontman Brett Carey acted as the sole creative force. He wrote and produced almost everything with the help of his longtime friend Jordan Wipf to cover drumming duties. Worst Calligraphy  started out as an EP but grew as Carey started pouring out his thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It was slightly unkempt and lived in a much more abstract world, but that was the charm of the album.  The ambiguous nature of the album kept the listener on their toes while they worked through it. When You Think of Me / Seasons Change by Calvin Heights Calvin Heights releas...

Summer is a time for light and upbeat songs that you can listen to while barbecuing or drinking beer on some roof top bar in a gentrified part of town. These tunes are as happy and free as a warm beach day. However, the band featured in this week's column is not that. It, in fact, is almost the opposite in the best of ways. Another Heaven (formerly known as Hollow Boys) have been churning out heavy music since 2016. Their sound is a compilation of sludge, doom, and shoegaze. In their bio, the band describes themselves as a sludgegaze/doom-pop band. Another Heaven is on the Minnesota label Modern Radio , which specializes in all things loud and sludgy. Since Another Heaven are label mates with Fury Things, I was more than willing to give their 2017 EP, You Are Loved , a listen. You Are Loved opens small but quickly grows as the guitars, bass, and synths coalesce into a dense wall of sound. Unlike other acts with elements of doom, Another Heaven maintains a level of articulat...

Finding Minnesota music that is both underground and palatable seems to be more difficult than it should be. Thankfully, when I found myself at the  Amsterdam Bar and Hall watching a Battle of The Bands hosted by Go Radio , Last Import was just launching into their set. The surf punk/indie rock trio was my personal favorite of the bands that played that night, so when I listened to their debut EP, Songs For Adam, I was happy to hear it how similar it is to the band's live show. Last Import works hard to mix sweet with angsty on Songs For Adam . This sound sits front and center during the song "Money." It opens with a typical surf rock guitar riff and drum beat that builds into a rowdy tune punctuated by the final line of the chorus - "Whatcha gonna do without the money, honey?" There is a sneer in the tone of guitarist/vocalist Emily Bjorke and bassist/vocalist Grace Baldwin's voices that drives home the meaning behind the song. "Money" has ...

Full disclosure: I have had this record for over a year. I saw it in the back of a crate full of local releases while shopping for Record Store Day and was intrigued by the name Dingus and the record's cover. The photo of three dudes sitting in inner-tubes and the name Who Cares? called to me. So I bought it, listened to it like one-and-a-half times and put it on the shelf with my countless other records. Since this column is all about crate digging and finding new tunes, I thought it would fit in perfectly. Grabbing it off the shelf and dusting it off, I could not for the life of me remember what  Who Cares? sounded like. I knew it was a pop punk album but that was it. As the Dingus launches into "Irob," the bands technical abilities are made abundantly clear. The band's guitarist throws in some major riffage that adds melody you likely would not find on a Midwestern pop-punk song. The very next track features an intro that almost sounds like a chamber ensembl...

This week on In Pursuit Of Something Interesting we are going to take a step away from the Drag City Records roster. I just could not do another record like last week's Scene Creamers review . However, we will be returning to Drag City for one last album before we move onto something else. The EP we are going to dig into is one that I did not find on my own. Ear Coffee editor Wes Muilenburg mentioned The Northern Hue during this week's podcast and I thought that they would be worth giving a shot. The Northern Hues was an indie rock band fronted by Dan Avidan. Many of you may know him from the YouTube channel Game Grumps and the comedy rock duo Ninja Sex Party . But before all of that, he wrote for and fronted a couple "serious" bands. The first, which is the focus of today's column, released a single self-titled EP in 2004. The second, the indietronica duo Skyhill, released an album and a single. From the get go, The Northern Hue EP sounds like a contemp...

Another week and another deep dive into the  Drag City Records  vault for something interesting. While trying to pick the record for this week, I came to the conclusion that most of Drag City's catalog is either Ty Segall's massive collection of records or someones one-off release from the early 2000s. The Scene Creamers (now called Weird War) album I Suck On That Emotion is a little bit of both. Segall is not involved with the record or the band, but the 2003 release from the band sounds like a template for what Segall would be releasing eight to ten years later. The Scene Creamers is an Ian Svenonius project started in the early 2000s as an anti-authoritarian collective. The collective did not turn out like they had hoped, but Svenonius did get a band out it.  For those not familiar with Svenonius, he was the frontman to a number of seminal punk bands in the 1980s and '90s with the most famous being The Nation of Ulysses. Since then, Svenonius has gone on to estab...

With the recent news that Drag City Records has added a majority of their catalog to streaming services, I thought that "In Pursuit of Something Interesting" could be revived with a long winded and poorly written dive into the record label's massive list of artists. For those of you unfamiliar with the Chicago based label, Drag City Records focuses on more the left of center bands. Their most recent poster child, Ty Segall, has a prolific catalog that spans many genres ranging from lo-fi garage to psychedelic to glam rock. Digging into this label will be just as much as an experience for you as it will be for me. So using the formula established in previous articles, I used chance to land on the band Loose Fur and their album Born Again In The USA . Now, before this article I had no prior knowledge of this band, but using knowledge I had about Drag City Records, I assumed they were some sort of fringe act. Boy was I surprised when I learned Loose Fur was a side pro...

Ear Coffee has been a entity for at least eight months. Wes and I (Joe) started it as an outlet write about the music we love because it is something we spend a majority of time focusing on. To work as a companion of sorts to the blog, we had the idea to start a podcast. Both Wes and I worked for our college radio station so why not use those skills to help give Ear Coffee some more personality. And so in September of last year, we made a test episode and uploaded it to Soundcloud. Boy, was that podcast something. Neither of us were completely happy with the episode so we put it on hiatus. Now, we are back with a new and improved (sort of) podcast, AND we are on iTunes, Podbean, and Stitcher. You have no reason not to listen to it. For the third episode of the Ear Coffee Podcast, Wes and I sat down to discuss our rubrics for reviewing albums and then applied that rubric to the Preoccupations album New Material . You can expect these discussion-style episodes will be released twice...

Over eight albums, the Decemberists have built a career on making music that lets the listener know that the band not only plays acoustic instruments, but that they also read a lot of old books. The band has drawn inspiration from history, folklore, and other old-timey sources to spin epic tales full of beautiful melodies and poetic lyrics. However, it seems the Decmeberists have decided to upset the applecart a bit with their newest album I'll Be Your Girl . Front-man and songwriter Colin Meloy branched out from large narratives to standalone songs that act as a collection of standalone vignettes. What follows on I'll Be Your Girl is 40 minutes of mismatched song ideas. The first single, "Severed," is the band's best impression of a new wave band. The song itself is captivating, but it is an example of what Meloy and company are looking for something to do something new. The first half of the album is pretty solid. The opening track "For Once In My L...