Rosie Thomas

I was recently told I don’t represent my ‘hood enough in my music selections, so here’s a little something unexpected from the 313 (by way of Seattle)…
Rosie Thomas recorded her last record in Detroit’s oldest church, a telling indication of her timeless approach to music and storytelling. Thomas pits her confident, downhome pipes against simple arrangements and open, innocent lyrics, bringing in members of her musician family to help out along the way. So perfect and cute, without the annoying aftertaste.

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Mice Parade

Adam Pierce once again takes the bedroom dweller aesthetic more as a spiritual guide than a sonic one: skittish percussion bounces off the walls like random thoughts and warm vibes and synthesizers fill the background while his ever-gentle acoustic guitar seemingly plays for an audience of one.

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Volcano, I’m Still Excited

Comparisons are usually poor. However, just imagine a four-way intersection in a small town, the only intersection in town. Now imagine that Modest Mouse, Human League, Peter Hook, and, let’s say, an ice cream truck are converging on this intersection. Well, Mr. Hook, the crazy Brit, is driving on the left-hand side of the road! From the resulting crash emerges Volcano, I’m Still Excited.

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Secret Mommy

Andy Dixon, a Vancouver-based web designer/audio saboteur, plays Olympic-paced ping pong (or is it table tennis?) with odd samples and found sounds until they become a blur of sound and rhythm. The results range from buoyant (“An Apple a Day…”) to jarring (“Save As”) to satirical (“Bottom 40,” wherein Britney Spears is revealed as the cat in heat that she is).

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Minmae

Fragile vocals over fragile guitars, Minmae’s songs could fall apart at any moment. Make one mistake and face utter cacophony. It’s in the band’s unflinching push to the next chord, verse, or just to the next riff that these songs transcend the notion of popular music and teeter on the verge of pure art.

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Trans Am

Many artists have offered up the requisite anti-Bush song this summer; Trans Am opted for an entire album’s worth with Liberation. Not every track holds its own: “Uninvited Guest” is unoriginal B-side material, based on the well-circulated “Bushwhacked” MP3s. But the other two cuts featured here prove that Trans Am can make their point quite effectively by speaking softly and carrying a big bassline.

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Tommy Guerrero

Like his Southern California counterpart, Ray Barbee, Tommy Guerrero is a skateboarder turned musician, using simple, 4-track technology to capture his loose, laid-back grooves. Between the two they’ve practically defined a new genre: skate-soul.

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Devendra Banhart

Banhart’s voice and eerie gaze only add to the fragility of the song. “The Body Breaks” is hardly a pick-me-up, but it’s good to hear a songwriter with genuine eccentricity freely create something that nobody else can.

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Bloc Party

Bloc Party churn out quirky, spastic post-punk curiosities that you can imagine were recorded in a bitter cold South London practice space around 1982 — only half of which could be true. Their debut LP drops September 14; the major label bidding war should start shortly thereafter (if it hasn’t already).

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