I flip through the discs that came in the mail that day searching for something, anything that’s upbeat, happy and danceable. I land on the effervescent cover of Wells, Minnesota disco-pop band The Golden Bubbles new album, A Good Time Had By All and was not disappointed.

After building their fan base in the Black Hills, TGB have brought their piano-rock trio act to the MSP area. And although piano plays an important role in each song, this ain’t no Billy Joel piano man crap. AGTHBA is intricate, bouncy and vibrant. The boys aren’t afraid to bust out the falsetto, hum along a chorus or destroy a pop chorus with electro-bleeps and samples.

Stream Tracks Here

Good stuff. Makes a great meal.

The CD release party is at the Uptown on July 4 with Supercollider (formerly Zibra Zibra)

It’s off Aeroplane Pageant’s new Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me on Stormy Ice Records.

dig it? download it here:
Aeroplane Pageant : “Stars Still Pretty” (mp3)

Saint Paul songwriter Nick Hensley, former lead singer of The District, has struck out on his own and recently shipped me his debut solo effort. And if Love Songs for Angry Men was a Jerry Maguire movie, it would be more like: “You had me at…

take your grande, soy latte
and shove it up your ass
it’ll go so well with your low fat smoothie
and your shot a wheat grass
did ya get those fabulous dreadlocks
at a ritzy uptown salon

yeah I gotta few problems with you
in fact, your life wrote this song
and the list is so long

Whether singing about barefoot prophets in his front yard or a crush on a Saint Paul girl bound for Hollywood, Nick Hensley has a knack for telling it like it is in his rootsy, alcohol-induced, alt-country way.

Love Songs for Angry Men lives up to its promise. Just don’t expect a phone call the morning after.

Hensley has many many gigs coming up, including a gig at the EP Champps tonight and Savage Bonfire tomorrow. Check his MySpace for details.

“Inara George and I grew up together in Topanga Canyon, California and it’s such a pleasure to finally get to collaborate together,” said Dengue Fever guitarist Zac Holtzman. “Recording a disco classic like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” was the ideal situation to work with Inara and still keep the feel of Dengue Fever. There was absolutely no pressure, a ton of fun play something so iconic and we still were able to get our lead singer Chhom Nimol to sing backup, which made it even better.”

Okay, I know streams suck. STREAMS SUCK. But that’s all I have to offer, and this is worth checking out:

Donna Sumer : “I Feel Love” (remix by Dengue Fever and Inara George)(.asx)
Donna Sumer : “I Feel Love” (remix by Dengue Fever and Inara George) (m3u)

Have I mentioned how much I love Dengue Fever?

After listening through a few times, I can testify the album is a safe, unobtrusive, shoulder-shrugging effort.

If this was baseball, OFTGANLG would be a base hit. Definitely not a foul ball and certainly not a home run. However, it’s a solid effort and worth a post-game pizza party with Fairchild and his teammates.

Stream the entire album on MySpace

From the press release:

Director Marcus Herring: “The visual look of the video was inspired by the beauty of low resolution pixel art in classic arcade games. I was intrigued by the idea that a face can still look beautiful even when it is scaled down to a resolution of 12 pixels tall.” As Delicious Vinyl Curator Rick Ross, who produced the video, says: “We really aimed to break that proverbial fourth wall in the gaming universe – the fine line between man, woman and machine.”

The video’s concept was based on an original arcade game specially designed for the 12-inch artwork for Bobby Evan’s “Freak-A Zoid Robotz.” Herring expanded upon that arcade game concept, fleshing it out with a video full of players/gamers including L.A. Rap duo The Keyishe, Team G, performance artist Yasmine Kittles, dancer/choreographer Amanda Furches, dancer Erin Beneze, Anthony Julio (creator of the golden robot mask seen in the video) and the world famous KXLU DJ, Bianca Bracho.

“Freak-A-Zoid Robotz” is the lead track and theme song from Delicious Vinyl’s critically lauded RMXXOLOGY album. The song itself is inspired by a truly obscure cut from deep in the Delicious Vinyl catalog: an electro-bass number called “The Fine Line Between Hyper And Stupid” that appeared on the b-side of Tone-Loc’s 1990 single “I Got It Going On.” With “Freak-A-Zoid Robots”, Bobby Evans (half of L.A. hip-hop duo Brother Reade) has taken it back to the real pioneers of Miami Bass, with whip-it-good drums, ass-clapping bass, and synapse-snapping synthesizers… all perfect for robot booty shaking.

Trainwreck Riders : “Chug Along” (mp3)

The band plays a house show in Minneapolis on July 29 with Pretty Boy Thorston. Check their MySpace for details.

Silversun Pickups are touring on their new album, Swoon, which has already surpassed the 100k sales mark. Lead single “Panic Switch” recently ranked #1 on Billboard’s Hot Modern Rock Songs chart — even more impressive since it’s been 11 years since an independent artist hit #1.

Manchester Orchestra are touring on their sophomore release, Mean Everything to Nothing and are giving away a free download of their single, “I’ve Got Friends,” with a chance to score Lollapalooza tickets. I really do love this track. See widget below.

Manchester Orchestra – “I’ve Got Friends”

And I’m just starting to get into Cage the Elephants. Here’s their video for “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”

Get tickets for the August 10 show through TicketBastard here.

Dreamland features big, loud guitars with sloppy sustain building a junior wall of sound — a lush reverb mess serving as a backdrop for Sarah Nienaber’s pensive, sometimes entitled lyrics.

Gospel Gossip “Nashville” (mp3)

Don’t get me wrong — I really like this. But it wasn’t until Track 4 when I finally heard Nienaber burst out the expressive emotion I encountered in their live shows.

Speaking of, check out Gospel Gossip performing live in The Current studios

Gospel Gossip play their CD Release Show at The Turf Club with Lookbook, Black Horse and Mute Era.

Turns out The Lonely H are, in fact, the real deal (and you were thinking closeted sweater-wearing grungeheads). Schooled on a healthy curriculum of Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BTO, Bad Company, CCR and the like, The Lonely H aren’t out to blaze any new musical trails but they indeed pay a decent homage to the greats on their new 12-track album (recorded on analog tape, of course).

The band has a new album, Concrete Class out on The Control Group Records. Check out the single (and that sax solo):

The Lonely H : “Diggin a Hole” (mp3)

The Lonely H play Lee’s Liquor Lounge tonight. It’s actually not 100 degrees today, so consider leaving the comfort of your air conditioning to check them out.

Douglas Armour “Flushed & Flamelike, Themselves” from daft arts on Vimeo.

The Story of The Yardbirds is a comprehensive and even-handed story of the greatest band on planet earth (for the time period) using interviews from the band members (yes, all three lead guitarists), managers (yes, Peter Grant), producers (yes, Mickie Most), and features plenty of live footage.

I will say the first five minutes worried me on this documentary, as it moved so quickly over Clapton and Beck phases of The Yardbirds — merely saying Clapton in 1965 left when the group was headed in too commercial a direction after “For Your Love.” At this point I was freaking out afraid it would focus too much on Jimmy Page at that point, but I needed to take a breath and just “chill out, man.’

The Yardbirds : “For Your Love”

The film starts with a good blues foundation for the group — including interviews with Clapton talking about commercial viability and his differences. What I love about early Yardbirds material like “Louise” and “I Wish You Would” is you’re listening to Britons absorb, reinterpret and perform American blues that was an entirely new R&B sound for the UK at the time. Of course, The Yardbirds came to tour the states and became bigger here than in England.

After the departure of Clapton, who wanted to retain more of a blues sound, Jimmy Page was too busy in session gigging, so referred them to Jeff Beck. Beck became the lead guitarist at that point and was instructed to learn Clapton’s basic blues riffs at that point. But after hearing Booker T’s “Green Onion,” Beck got really insto substanative blues and jazz, including a healthy obsession with the Motown sound.

Beck’s solos on “I’m a Man” definitely stand out compared to the basic 12 bar blues, but The Yardbirds weren’t about setting up ripping blues solos. “Heart Full of Soul” features Beck borrowing and interpreting an Indian zither sound as the song’s backbone — something (some of my favorite) artists continue doing today.

By the time they hit 1968, Jimmy Page had a huge stockpile of material ready to push new limits of feedback, sustain, fuzztone and new heights in the emerging heavy metal genre. Watching The Yardbirds play “Dazed and Confused” you can tell this was not even Yardbirds 3.0 material. It was much better suited to his new band — a little group called Led Zeppelin.

The 18 page liner notes feature an indepth analysis of the band’s career and use the term “tributary” between white R&B of early-sixties London and the psychedelica and power-chorded heavy metal of the late sixties and throughout the seventies. I think that’s a succinct analysis of the impact one little band can have on the musical world in just under five years.

Beyond the classic interviews — both group and individual — I appreciated executive producer Ira Bruggmann not going sensational (e.g., discussing bad blood in the breakups or finding girls who slept with Chris Dreja). He let the music speak for itself.

The film runs just shy of an hour and in keeping with the period, is only in mono sound. Yet — thankfully — it speaks loudly enough without all the gossipy crap.

Here’s a preview of the title track:
Junkyard Empire : “Rebellion Politik!” (mp3)

Look for the EP in September. Meanwhile, check out the group’s MySpace page for Twitter feeds from all five band members. This is very cool, guys. Kudos.

Today’s e-mail reading soundtrack was brought to me by beer — or more accurately, the folks at Red Stripe, who sent a sweet Red Stripe flash drive filled with the It Was Written EP, by DJ Johan Hugo and Jamaica-based emerging artist Terry Lynn.

Terry Lynn and Johan Hugo : “Jamaican Girl” (mp3)

From the press release:

The five original musical tracks that compose the release were commissioned by the brewers of Red Stripe to celebrate the worldwide influence, importance and appeal of the rhythms and pulse of Jamaican music. The songs will be available for free downloads exclusively at http://www.thefader.com/RedStripe beginning June 15, 2009.

Red Stripe beer has been brewed in Jamaica since 1928. Along with import company, Diageo, the brand has a tradition of supporting emerging artists and celebrating the most optimistic and progressive aspects of the country’s culture. Hugo’s musical background was the perfect match to produce the project. He is a well-versed music-lover with extensive production work in dance music from his previous projects and world music through his 2008 critically acclaimed collaboration under the moniker The Very Best.

It’s pretty great, actually. I was thinking it was going to be traditional reggae, but this is premium dancehall e-mail-sorting music.

Get the whole thing here.

For a look at how it works, check out the two current places to crash in Minneapolis versus the 10 bands looking for a place to crash. Cool concept, and you can tell there’s demand.

The site doesn’t bring in a lot of money, but it’s getting popular enough Todd and the gang need to do some site upgrades. They’ve set up a Kickstarter project and are only $482 on their way to the $3,000 goal.

More info and donation details below:

NORTHERN OUTPOST – Episode 12 – 6/19/09 – Speed’s The Name from Northern Outpost on Vimeo.

Check out previous episodes here.

Elizabeth & The Catapult seem to think we’re all just taller children. But what if children are just shorter adults? Huh.

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Check. it. out.

The Get-Rites have posted multiple “Short Sets” videos on their YouTube channel and now feature a link to their Wisconsin PBS visit last year.

It’s a huge weekend for music. Most notably, there’s Rock the Garden at the Walker featuring Solid Gold, Yeasayer, Calexico and The Decemberists.

But guess what’s free, starts before noon and not sold out?

The Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, which runs along the Minneapolis Riverfront by St. Anthony Main and takes place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Let’s see, there’s….

• Magnetic Poetry’s large board of awesome in the Youth Arts Quarter
• Lego Stone Arch Bridge & play area in Father Hennepin Park
• Art of the Car classic car show (50s & 60s cars + more)
• Food booths like ice cream, cheese curds, & malts from the dairy counsel
• 2 beer & wine gardens
• 4 performance stages
• Over 250 fine artist booths

Music? Yeah, just a couple bands…

Saturday, June 20, 2009
Star Tribune Stage (Father Henn Park)
11:30am Satin Dolls Dance Co.
12:15pm Koo Koo Kanga Roo
1:15pm Adam Svec
2:15pm Dan Israel
3:15pm Spaghetti Western String Co.
4:15pm The Cloud Hymn
5:15pm Hayor Bibimma Dance Company

City Pages Stage (Water Power Park)
11:00 am Crowd Control
12:00 pm The Alrights
1:15 pm Joey Ryan & The Inks
2:30 pm The Pendrakes
3:45 pm The Idle Hands
5:00 pm Roma di Luna

Cities 97 Stage (3rd Ave Bridge)
11:15am Neal Swanger
12:15pm Peter Lochner
1:15pm Bob & Lynn Dixon
2:15pm Thomas Kivi
3:15pm Shawn Gibbons
4:15pm Brad Senne
5:15pm Eliza Blue

St. Anthony Courtyard Stage
11:00 am Aria Souder
12:15 pm The Badinovs
1:30 pm Brian Just Band
2:45 pm Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps
4:00 pm Farewell Milwaukee
5:15 pm The Smarts
6:30 pm Mississippi Mud

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Star Tribune Stage (Father Henn Park)
12:30pm Mystik Toys
1:15pm Café Accordian Orchestra
2:15pm Anna Laube
3:15pm Cromulent Shakespeare Company
4:15pm Jistoray
5:15pm Pezzettino

City Pages Stage (Water Power Park)
12:00 pm Half Demon Doll
1:15 pm We Became Actors
2:30 pm Wars of 1812
3:45 pm The Absent Arch
5:00 pm Me & My Arrow

Cities 97 Stage (3rd Ave Bridge)
11:15 am Scott Wooldridge
12:15pm Andy Juhl
1:15pm Chicane Theory
2:15pm Andy Elwell
3:15pm Dustin Thomas
4:15pm Kyle Turck & Patrick Henz
5:15pm John Swardson

St. Anthony Courtyard Stage
11:00 am Dustin Thomas
12:00 pm The Suits
1:15 pm Lynhurst
2:30 pm Jenny Dalton
3:45 pm Ryan Paul & the Ardent
5:00 pm Chastity Brown

Holy crap, you guys. Better get to bed early tonight, huh?

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, a Brainerd mother of four, was found liable for downloading and distributing more than 1,700 songs on Kazaa, an Internet file-sharing network.

…a federal jury in Duluth found her liable up to $220,000 for copyright infringement of the 24 songs the RIAA focused on — $9,250 per song

While I respect that artists and labels deserve to be paid for their work, the RIAA isn’t going to save itself by sticking to archaic business practices nor suing individuals who download music.

Considering the popularity of iTunes and today’s prevalent marketing strategy of giving away your hit single via mp3, a court ruling like this doesn’t send a warning message not to download music. It sends a message that the music industry still doesn’t understand we’re in a new environment that requires innovation and creativity to monetize.

All of the mp3s I post here on Perfect Porridge are artists/label-approved. Every day people send me mp3s to post for people to download FOR FREE. It’s a mixed message.

Meanwhile, it sucks to be a scapegoat for an unprovable accusation of distribution:

[attorney for the recording industry] said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That’s an important point, given Davis’ new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren’t able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it’s only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that’s what Kazaa was there for.

Alas…hopefully the RIAA can spend some of the $1.92 million on a marketing plan rooted in the current century.

LCD Soundsystem : “All My Friends” (cover by The Main Drag)

They’ll be playing Minneapolis’ Fine Line Music Cafe on June 23. Btw, all the members of the Main Drag work at Harmonix — the developers of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games — although I expect they’ll be playing real instruments.

If I didn’t have a tiny fresh baby at home, I would absolutely be at this show:
The Wooden Birds, Other Lives and Paragraphs at the 7th Street Entry this Friday, June 19.

Brand new Minneapolis based indie/rock trio The Arms Akimbo. dropped us a note about a few of their upcoming gigs and plans to record their debut EP later this summer.

First gig is this Friday at the Fine Line Music Cafe. Stream three of their tracks on MySpace.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band : “15 to 20″ (mp3)

Go to MySpace, click on “Testimony,” pretend the band is from Southern California, crank your bass and close your eyes. Then try not to clap your hands.

The album’s out June 23 on Friendly Fire Recordings.