St. Vincent on NPR's "First Listen"

Listen to St. Vincent's new album, "Actor," in its entirety at NPR's "First Listen" here.

It's amazing.

(Ian Anderson)

Video: The Dodos Play Live on NPR's "The Bryant Park Project"

(The Dodos - "Fools" - Live on NPR's Bryant Park)



(The Dodos - "Red and Purple" - Live on NPR's Bryant Park)

The Dodos, unlike their namesake, keep flying along at a stealth fighter-like speed, and for very good reason. Their second album, Visiter, which was released last month, is unequivocally one of the best records of the year and one that more and more people are surely hearing everyday. As of yesterday, those new people included listeners of NPR's "The Bryant Park Project". The propulsive psyche-folk band performed two songs from their stellar second record (here's my review: A-), those being first single "Fools" and album track "Red and Purple". The audio on the drums is unforgivably muted (what the deuce, NPR!?), but the quality and creativity in the songcraft still manages to shine through despite any perceived technical setbacks.

Listen to the podcast here

In other Dodos news, Stereogum debuted another Visiter track called "Ashley". The track is more reflective, and almost like a lullaby in its gentle quality, but with a little more forceful percussive angle. Listen to it here:


Download: The Dodos - "Ashley"

Buy Visiter here or at your local record store.

The Dodos MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

She and Him Interviewed on NPR's "Fresh Air"

Download: She and Him - "Sentimental Heart"

NPR's Fresh Air, a program hosted by Hobo #127, has had many interesting guests on it over the years. You can now add cuter-than-buttons indie-duo She and Him to that list. Zooey Deschanel, the group's pianist-singer (apparently, she's been in some movies as well. Who knew!?) was interviewed by Terry Gross, the show's host. You can listen to the interview in its entirety here, along with some snippets of tracks from Volume One, She and Him's debut record.

Read MFR's take on Volume One here.

Volume One is out now.

She and Him MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

The Ponys on "All Things Considered"

Speaking of The Ponys, the band, currently touring with Spoon, had their concert recorded by NPR's All Things Considered. The set was recorded at Washington D.C.'s the 9:30 Club. Listen here.

(Jonathan Graef)

*If you are in a band (Minneapolis/Chicago-based or otherwise) and want to send out a record or MP3, please contact me at jon@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com.

Arcade Fire on NPR's Fresh Air

Click here to listen to our favorite Canadian orch-pop/art-rock collective on NPR staple Fresh Air. The interview is a good one.

(Jonathan Graef)

NPR hearts Andrew Bird

Download: Andrew Bird - "Dark Matters"
Download: Andrew Bird- "Fake Palindromes"

Andrew Bird has got two NPR-related activities going on this week. First, he appeared on the show "World Cafe," he discussed all things musical and performed a few songs. You can stream that appearence here.

Second, Bird's Sunday night concert at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 club will be broadcasted all over the world as part of NPR's "Live Concert Series. Find out more here.

And lastly (and non-NPR related), Bird has posted the first of what will be a series of live performance videos on his MySpace page. This first part is from his March show in Paris, and it is a clip of Bird perfoming "Imitosis" from his latest record, Armchair Apocrypha. Below is the video in all of its glory:

Andrew Bird - Episode # 01 - Imitosis

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(Jonathan Graef)