MP3: Jenny Lewis-Rise Up With Fists [ysi]

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Prince’s Minneapolis’ historic music venue First Avenue, along with its loyal sidekick the 7th St Entry, has a weekly podcast filled with music and Twin Cities music news.  It’s definitely worth checking out for any midwestern guy or gal.

MP3: Atmosphere-The Woman with the Tattooed Hands [Live at First Avenue]

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Coming off one of the best albums of 2008, The Mixtape About Nothing, Wale has released another pop culture referencing mixtape. Only heard a couple tracks, but it sounds like it’s full of steam:

DOWNLOAD WALE’S BACK TO THE FEATURE MIXTAPE

It’s worth checking out merely for the N.A.S.A.-like number of collaborators on the album: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Duffy, Beanie Sigel, Black Thought, Talib Kweli, and many more.

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Spoon

No album details here, but web sites and blogs have got their dirty paws on a new track from the band. The song is an immediate stand-out, like “The Underdog” was when first leaked from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The more plays this one gets, however, the more you can begin to recognize the grooviness of the sounds they combine here: subtle ’70s guitar riffs played against shoe-gazing guitars that create a uniquely dissident sound, plunking and driving keys that have given Spoon nice weight in the past, and Brit Daniel’s half-rebelious, half-hopeless voice singing about having “nuffin to lose.”

MP3: Spoon-Got Nuffin

Beck

Beck, the man who has more genres than Joseph has colors in his coat, has taken up a new project called The Record Club. In this exercise, Beck and his bandmates get together and record a cover of an entire album in one day’s time.  Then, they slowly post the videos onto the internet, one song at a time. Their first effort has produced some beautiful results, as they have been working releasing their work covering 1967′s revolutionary work, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the Andy Warhol-produced debut album from The Velvet Underground. Thus far, Beck has unveiled three tracks: the opening track “Sunday Morning,” the Harlem/drug dealer-inspired “I’m Waiting for the Man,” and the song Warhol asked Lou Reed to write about Factory Girl Edie Sedwick “Femme Fatale.”  All three are worth repeated listens, and I am very excited to see how this is released in some sort of purchaseable/downloadable format once the entire project is released.

MP3: Beck-Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground cover)

MP3: Beck-I’m Waiting for My Main (Velvet Underground cover)

MJ

Too much has been said already. Just enjoy the video, and if that isn’t cathartic enough, head over to NME to vote for your favorite MJ songs.

MP3: Jackson 5-I Want You Back

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MySpace

MP3: Heiruspecs-5ves

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St. Vincent’s second album, Actor, is pretty darn good. She’s also a goddess… and is on tour. We’ll be seeing her in a couple weeks in SF and you should see her, too. Dare you not to fall in love.

5/5: Virgin Megastore, New York
5/20: Webster Hall, New York
5/27: Bimbo’s 365, San Francisco
6/4: First Avenue, Minneapolis

MN

MP3: Johnny Cash-Get Rhythm [ysi]

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MP3: The Hold Steady-Party Pit [ysi]

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The Jayhawks are one of those few great stories to come out of the Minneapolis rock scene in the last 20 years. Through great songwriting and a mellowed out alt-country sound, they were able to move from a completely unknown outfit to one of the shining examples of Minnesota magic.

MP3: The Jayhawks-Pray for Me

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Reminds me a little of…

Keep going, Billy Bob. You’ve got a little work to do. (I also enjoy the fact that he doesn’t even perform with his band at the end of the interview.)

Check out Billy Bob’s The Boxmasters on MySpace, if you dare.

MP3: Bob Dylan-Shooting Star [ysi]

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