This Weekend In Minneapolis: Bound Stems, Yer Cronies

Download: Bound Stems - "Wake Up, Ma and Pa are Gone"
Download: Bound Stems - "Andover"
Download: Bound Stems - "Happens To Us Otherwise"

(via Bound Stems Audio Page)

Though Bound Stems', the Chicago-based indie-rock outfit known for dabbling in whiplash-inducing time-and-tempo-bait-and-switches found frequently in math-rock, newest album, The Family Afloat, doesn't technically come out until September, those ambitious enough to catch the band on their current tour will be able to pick up their latest in a legitimate fashion. What they may also find, based on the advance single "Happens To Us All Otherwise", is a band going for the indie-rock anthem gold.

Helping seal that impression is "Cloak of Blue Sky", a new track posted on the band's MySpace Page which shows singer Bobby Gallivan emulating the tremble-heavy Dylan-isms of Conor Oberst, with only the last 20 seconds of the song showing the genre-leaps of past efforts like Appreciation Night and The Logic of Building the Body Plan. That might seem like a disappointment to those who enjoyed the band's more fractured, joyfully anarchic work, but rest assured. Bound Stems are a band with a card perpetually up their sleeves, one that's shown in glipses during their rambunctious live performances. Opening up are local power-poppers Wishbook.

Read an interview with Bound Stems over at Reveille.

Show Details:

Saturday, Aug 9 @ 10 pm
Triple Rock Social Club
$10
21+



Yer Cronies, a Minneapolis-based quintet who are celebrating the release of their CD When I Grow Up with a show at 7th Street Entry, may remind listeners of David Byrne, or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with their soaring-to-the-breaking-point vocals. However, Yer Cronies have a sound much darker and foreboding than either one of those reference points would indicate. Like fellow art-rockers Dallas Orbiter, Yer Cronies are an amalgam of different influences, but also manage to come out with something unique and memorable at the end of the music tunnel. Tracks like "In Absentia" have cathartic choruses, certainly, but there's also haunting piano-lines, noisy guitar riffs, and style-change toward blues, complete with harmonica-solo, which helps accentuate the effect. Other songs, like "Sacramentosaurus" are indicative of what can happen when a band embraces its whimsy--catch songs that still have substance. Expect both at the band's CD release show tomorrow night.

Show details:

Yer Cronies
7th St. Entry
18+
The Floorbirds
The Van Gobots
So & So.

Also happening:

The Blind Shake, Daughters of The Sun at the Turf Club.

Reveille Mag Birthday Bash

(Jonathan Graef)