Weekly Roundup: Feb 20-26, 2011

It's time once again for Weekly Roundup, a place to recap some of the week's interesting and important news and share some great songs and videos we dug over the past seven days.

 

Some of the week's interesting and important music news (or at least, cool music-related stuff):

-"News" might be a bit of a misnomer here because it was actually a big week for the 1990s. The AV Club concluded their excellent series "Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation?" a ten installment, year-by-year look at the decade. Author Steven Hyden did a great job tracing the shifts from one year to the next, but he really knocks it out of the park at the conclusion in his discussion of how we relate to music and what it means to our lives. Definitely worth a read.

-And if your 90s itch still needs scratched, check out this week's edition of the All Songs Considered podcast, in which the crew (Bob, Robin, Stephen, and newcomer Ann) have a roundtable discussion of the decade, with frequent musical accompaniment.

-Ok, let's get back to 2011 with some TV on the Radio news. They announced they will release a new album, Nine Types of Light, on April 12, will tour this spring, and premiered the song "Will Do." Whew!

 

Some music we dug this week:

Last week, we were thrilled to discover Bad Panda Records via the band Dumbo Gets Mad, whose new album was the label's first physical release. But Bad Panda has been a regular digital label for more than a year now, releasing a new track or two each week. I was particularly taken with this week's selection, a cut from the electronic artist Lineland called "Northside." I dig how it is a modern electronic song built from global, tribal-sounding percussion and strings, blending the organic with the machine. The snow outside my window may indicate otherwise, but listening to this, I can't help thinking the first tentative signs of spring are close.

Lineland – Northside

-If you listen to this song by Jordan Bolton, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn he only started recording music a year ago, that this is one of a handful of songs he's ever recorded, or even that he's merely 18. It all points to Jordan being a talented musician who surely has a promising future. His recent EP is called Silver Age on which he performed everything but the drums. I really dig the song "Control," it grooves and flows in a way that gets my head nodding. Yet it's not content to simply be catchy, as Jordan reminds us that "to live your life upon on one knee is to lose all control of your own destiny." You can find more info on Jordan here.

Control by Jordan Bolton

-We were introduced to the foot-stomping folk-bluegrass from Portland's The Builders and the Butchers and it should not surprise regular readers that we found it highly diggable. A song about all the problems in the world that nevertheless sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a night of drinking and dancing, such as "Rotten to the Core," is always going to get heavy spins at the Dig. The group released their new album Dead Reckoning on Tuesday and we can only imagine how much fun their live show would be. Cool band name too. Here's their page.

rotten to the core by buildersbutchers

-And to complete the trifecta of songs that each sound different but are united in their energy and the very strong likelihood of being awesome to hear live, here are two more tracks: the raucous, shout-along art-pop of The Dogs

Dance More by The Dogs

…and the straight up blues rock of Filigar. Hope you dig 'em!

Guilty Good Intentions by Filligar