JM Airis – Indian Summer
Eau Claire native Jon Airis' new Brooklyn-based project, JM Airis, wields impressively diverse powers of dense down-tempo country and western genres and textures on Indian Summer. Its able to blend easily accessible strides of songs with experimental ones, providing an assortment of intense contrasts.
Blakroc – Blakroc
This collaboration, orchestrated by and featuring The Black Keys, is a diverse blend of rock, hip-hop and R&B genres. Mos Def, Ludacris, Q-Tip and Ol' Dirty Bastard are among valuable contributors. Though the collaboration idea may have alienated Keys fans away from the effort, Blakroc is a testament to the band's versatility and talents.
Weed – Down in the Valley, DC Hope & To the North EPs
Perhaps because its sound is somewhat hidden behind a wall of noise and abstract lo-fi recording devices, Weed doesn't need to exist within any one genre. It can be anything and everything from indie to pop to noise-rock, but most often it draws from emo bands of the late 90s.
Amateur Love – It’s All Aquatic
Amateur Love's only full-length release, It's All Aquatic, was a beacon of shining electro-pop and alt-rock light for the Eau Claire music scene. Although the band burned out at possibly the height of its popularity and potential, the album has aged beautifully and still remains one of Eau Claire's greatest.
Leisure Birds – Copper Scroll
Former members of Thunder in the Valley and Hockey Night, and current members of GAYNGS bring many styles to Copper Scroll, the debut from Minneapolis' Leisure Birds. It works hard to make opposites attractive - 60's psych-Brit-pop, barn-stomping garage rock and fuzzed out surf rock all blends to create a sound altogether huge.
Houses – All Night
The blissful, dreamy debut from Chicago's boy-girl duo Houses was written and recorded in about a week after a vacation to Hawaii. Spontaneous and leisurely in design, All Night doesn't try to do too much, but it basks in that nostalgia.
tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l
Merrill Garbus' afro-experimental, art-pop project is back with another challenging but ultimately rewarding release. This time around, tUnE-yArDs puts down the Talkboy and harnesses the power of a studio.
We Are the Willows – A Collection Of Sounds And Something Like The Plague
Underneath and around the structure of well-written songs, A Collection of Sounds seethes with pure, unbridled sound which plays as the wilderness to the domestic quality of the music.
Do It Yourself DaIsY – Do It Yourself DaIsY
Do It Yourself DaIsY's self-titled debut album embraces the best parts of the bluesy hard rock two-piece's show. It's loud, energetic and raw, just what it needs to be.
Parenthetical Girls – The Privilege EPs
Oddball, experimental-pop outfit Parenthetical Girls just released its third EP in a set of four that will be combined upon completion to create a full-length album called Privilege. Listen to each of the EPs' singles here.
Dodos – No Color
What makes Dodos so attractive is its ability to highlight the contrasts in its own music. Folk instrumentation clashes with punk-like aggression, distortion with elegance, haste with steadiness. No Color takes advantage of this ability and embellishes it, making for yet another solid release displaying the band's uniqueness.
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