It's Monday, so it's time to embed some Soundclouds into the blog! Wampire have another preview track to listen to from their upcoming full-length, Curiosity , which comes out on Polyvinyl on May 14. "Spirit Forest" is driven by warbling analog synth sounds, slapback bass, and a skating but slightly funky drumbeat. They've been accompanying Unknown Mortal Orchestra on their very successful US tour, and after they play SXSW, they'll open for UMO on April 5 at the Aladdin. • • • [...]
The Deli Portland has cooked up something special for you this Friday night at the fantastic Mt. Tabor Theate r. The Lower 48 will be rocking the concert hall with their captivating harmonies and vintage tones alongside the progressive indie rock compositions of Eidolons , and Bike Thief 's moving post-folk anthems. In the Lounge, The North Wind will be putting on a performance of epic proportions supported by Soft Shadows ' hypnotic brand of shoegaze and the enchanting dream-pop of Appendixes . The show starts at 9pm sharp, come on [...]
The results are in from the Open Submissions stage for our Portland Year End Poll for Emerging Artists. All of the submissions were ranked by Deli Editors from other scenes and the list of acts that have advanced to our Readers'/Fans' Poll phase are below. We will also be releasing the list of nominees chosen by our local "scene expert" jurors very soon. We would like to thank all of the talented artists who submitted. It was our largest Open Submissions pool yet, and certainly a testament to how many rad acts we [...]
In the past year, The Lower 48 have built a significant amount of momentum in Portland's music scene and for good reason. Their music is rich with soothing vocal harmonies, tight instrumentation and a captivating presentation that has been winning over audiences at some of the city's most prominent venues. Their folk pop gems are sure to build them a place among the most recognized acts in Portland over the course of the next year. <a href=" http://thelower48.bandcamp.com /album/where-all-maps-end"& ;gt;Where All Maps End by The Lower 48</a>
MFR favorites and Midwest-bred turned Portland residents The Lower 48 are in Minneapolis tonight! We saw this band play for their hometown friends last May during the release party for the debut album, Where All Maps End . The Lower 48 has spent the near half-year since then playing, writing, and recording. A growing band continuously striving to experiment and perfect, TL48 are sure to mix in some rad new tunes with the WAME goodies we know and love. Local act Prissy Clerks is opening up so [...]
The Lower 48 is back in town! The now Portland-based but Minnesota-bred trio hit the 7th Street Entry on Thursday with support from local outfit Prissy Clerks . I bet these folks are going to rock us with some new tunes as well as our favorites from Where All Maps End . To enter for a pair of tickets to the show email laura@minneapolisfuckingrocks. com with your answer to the following question. If you had to move away from the wonderful city of Minneapolis, where would you [...]
'The Lower 48 craft folk songs you could swear you have been humming for years' is what it says on their webpage and as it happens that's exactly what I thought when I heard 'The End'. It annoyed me that I couldn't remember who wrote the original but the truth was that it had popped from the grand imagination of a trio of teenagers from Minneapolis. So confident were they in their indie pop intellect that they crafted a full length called 'Where All Maps End' late last year. The result was a quiet surprise of a record, sparse except [...]
Every Wednesday we will be featuring a Sweet Five! What's a Sweet Five you may ask? Well I'll drop you five sweet songs that you should listen to once a week, that will help you get over your hump-day and set sail towards the ever-nearing weekend! Ready? Okay! The Hawaiian Islands - Old These guys just recently came on my radar, and I quite like their style of raw grunge. It's not a common sound that they have, just it works. This is the last song off their [...]
[MFR Presents] Tonight is the night! Portland-based yet Minnesota-bred trio The Lower 48 have made their way back to Minneapolis to celebrate their debut album, Where All Maps End , with us Midwestern types. This show will be brilliant. Bring your friends, bring your friends' kids (it's all ages!), bring your grandma, bring your neighbor, bring everyone you know that likes really great music. Sky lion is set to kick off the party. Friday, May 4 2012 7pm // [...]
[MFR Presents] The Lower 48 are coming to town! These Portland-by-way-of-Minnesotans will be at the Cedar this Friday for a belated celebration of their first full-length album, Where All Maps End . Kicking off the party is Minneapolis/Eau Claire outfit Sky Lion , and MFR wants you to be there to see it. For your chance to win a pair of tickets to the show, email laura@minneapolisfuckingrocks. com with your response to the following: Name two artist/musicians you would like to see compete in [...]
Though Portland can currently claim them, Minneapolis started as home for MFR favorites The Lower 48 . Whether it be the sweet vocal tones of Sarah Parson, the honest melodies of Ben Braden, or the brilliant percussion from Nicholas Sadler, this dream-folk trio can soothe the heaviest of woes no matter where it is they reside. Take a spin through the debut album, Where All Maps End , and it is hard to fathom that this band is made up of young adults. Mature lyrics and beautiful melodies shape their musical journey and brings something special to the [...]
Here is our final monthly Best Of mix of songs from 2011 - despite all the Christmas fayre on offer, there were still a whole plethora of cracking new tracks to enjoy, and as always we've gathered the best of our December posts into one lovely mix for you with a couple of new tracks to sample too. Don't forget to check out all our previous monthly mixes in the sidebar on the left. And off we go... Download Horse’s Mouth – As I Climb mp3 (from Horse’s Mouth) Opens with a [...]
Shortly before Christmas The Lower 48 released their new album Where All Maps End , a beautifully judged album of warm, organic folk that joyfully takes its main influences from the 1960s. Having already given you The End , the band have made a second track, the good-natured acoustic strum of Into The Woods available for download. Buy from cdbaby here . Download The Lower 48 - Into The Woods mp3 (from Where All Maps End) Download The Lower 48 – The End mp3 [...]
From Portland via Minneapolis comes The Lower 48 , a modern, indie-folk act of surprising grit and beauty. These Midwest young’ns (not one of ‘em can drink legally) have clearly thrived since heading west, as the tender lyricism and imperfectly perfect harmonies showcased by their newly released single The End suggests. The combo of warm and bouncy acoustic guitars in perfect unison with their chilled-out vocals, cooing sweetly hopeful lyrics, is endlessly appealing. Picture Sesame Street run amok with affable, ennui-filled Gen Y’sters and you begin to get [...]
Ben Braden and Sarah Parson began writing and singing folk music together in the winter of 2009 in Minneapolis, MN. Within a few months they were playing shows in Minneapolis, Chicago and other Midwestern venues, and before summer they had finished recording their first release, the critically praised EP Everywhere To Go. Following the release of Everywhere To Go, Ben and Sarah headed west, relocating The Lower 48 to Portland, OR. Playing regularly on the West Coast, they developed a more mature sound and wrote a host of new songs. In the summer of 2010, [...]
It's hard to believe that 2011 is almost over. It seemed like not really that long ago that we were putting together our Best Songs of 2010 mixtapes (now working on Vol. IV for 2011) - which by the way, are still up and running (a few missing mp3 links, but 90% operational), and well [...] Read more, get songs or stream the entire mix on Indie Rock Cafe
Photography: Olivia Larrain Heiremans The Lower 48 makes charming, low-key indie for those who like it. You can buy their debut here ! The Lower 48 - The End The Lower 48 - Into The Woods
To celebrate today’s crop of releases, here are new mp3s from the Lower 48 and Kurt von Stetten. Also, vote for your favorite of today’s new releases.
Regular readers will know that we sit down every Monday morning to track down five noteworthy and, ideally, listen-worthy albums that are streaming over the web for the week ahead. Clearly, trying to do this in the album release wasteland that is December is a bit of a mission, but never fear: we've still managed to track down a variety of interesting stuff for your pre-release listening pleasure, including a labyrinthine album of Dylan covers for Amnesty International, a John Zorn Christmas album (no, really), and various other curios. It's all after the jump. [...]
Songwriters and sweet harmonizers Ben Braden and Sarah Parson along with percussionist Nicholas Sadler, all Minneapolis natives who migrated west to Portland, form the budding alt/folk triumverate The Lower 48 . Their new debut album Where All Maps End is delightfully all over the, err, map, as 60's styled twee folk/pop melodies and intertwined vocal interplay bump up against the random odd instrumental detour -- witness the impeccable and totally unpredictable "Into the Woods" or the wonderful "Interlude 1". Not everything works quite at that level, but there's enough promise here -- particularly [...]
End Hits
The Deli Magazine
Minneapolis Fucking Rocks
mp3hugger
TheRecordStache
Mad Mackerel's Blog
My Old Kentucky Blog
Kick Kick Snare
Indie Rock Podcast Stream
musigh
MAGNET
Flavorwire
Direct Current
MVSCLES- Sweet n Sour
The National
James Blake- A Case of You (Joni Mitchell cover)
Video: Kanye West – Black Skinhead / New Slaves (Live on SNL)
