Ian is also encouraging the artists that pass though his studio to upload some music to Localtone Radio. Check out i-Lash and cast your vote now.

Each weekly installment of “Arthounds” will feature three members of the Minnesota arts community talking briefly about a performance, opening, or event they’re excited to see or want others to see. The only stipulation is that it can’t be your own work or work you’re professionally associated with.

We’d love it if you could keep in touch with us on local art that you’ve discovered or expect will be captivating in some way.”

If you’d like to be a part of Arthounds, we’re asking that you fill out this form– even if you don’t have any events you’d like to highlight in the near future, filling out this form will get you on an email list that he’ll check in with every couple of weeks. (To hear the segments that have aired so far, click here!)

I think Ian made some great points that many artists, including many of those on Localtone Radio have known for some time, the days of the big “label deal” as a key to lasting succes is not necessarily the only way to making a living creating and playing the music you love.  Check out the text of his presentation here. You can also find out a little bit more about Topspin while you’re there.

The discussion of intellectual property (IP) ranged from band and domain names, performing rights organizations, user-generated radio, and covers. If you’re and artist, in a band, know a band, or love music it’s a great idea to stay up on what’s yours and how to protect in the ever changing music world.

Check it out and let us know if you have any questions. We’d be glad to put you in touch with the guys at BPG Radio.

Incidentally, any music uploaded to Localtone Radio remains the property of the artist/composer that uploaded it. We’re just happy to be a place where listeners can hear it!

With the support of over 50 local and national musicians these posts will include exclusive commentaries by the likes of Josh Grier of Tapes ‘n Tapes, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, YouTube legend Tay Zonday, Kid Dakota, Maria Isa, Kristoff Krane, M.anifest and many, many more! Additionally, Culture Bully will be debuting brand new music from 14 local acts including Jeremy Messersmith, Roma di Luna, Little Man, Nobot, Dan Israel, Heiruspecs and Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles. Visit the Culture Bully for Donors Choose – Campaign Page

DonorsChoose.org is dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials and experiences in our public schools. The mission of DonorsChoose.org is to improve public education by engaging citizens in an online marketplace where teachers describe and individuals can fund specific student needs.

Local Minneapolis powerpop group Terramara release their new LP, Dust & Fiction, with a big CD Release Show at Trocaderos this Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 pm.

Hear a sample of “Solar Meltdown” from Terramara on Localtone Radio

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with group leader Robert Meany to chat about the band, their sound and new album…

Who is Terramara?
Terramara has primarily been a vehicle for my songwriting over the last ten years or so. For most of those years, it has been a four-piece group with me on keys and vocals, and then bass, guitar, and drums added to the mix. There have been a lot of changes in the line-up over the years, but the current set of players has been solid for about five years or more: Karl Koopmann on guitar, David Thomas on drums, and we tag team on bass with James Towns doing the lion’s share, and Tom Larson when needed.

How has the group evolved from Jon Ken Po?
Jon Ken Po was my first experiment with writing and performing my own music with a group. It was fun at first, but there wasn’t much a cohesive sound as we had two main songwriters and very different styles. I would do my songs and he would do his and it ended sounding like two groups instead of one. I finally decided to break off and form Terramara so I could do my own thing. Looking back, I think needed Jon Ken Po as a starting point to gain experience and confidence in myself as a performing artist, but I soon realized I would be more happy focusing the band around my own songs.

It’s been nearly 10 years now. What’s new? What’s the same?
I think Terramara has always been centered around piano-based pop songs. And we haven’t really changed much in that regard. Although some of our material might sound of a certain golden era of piano pop in the 70-80s, my hope is that there is something timeless about it. I think a good song never goes out of style, and that is what I aim for every time out. We definitely are not chasing any trends. At first, I think our style was a little more jazz/prog-rock with dense arrangements, but over time I have moved more in a pop-rock direction with the songwriting. I think the early style came from my background in jazz piano and my classical training. I also think on a lot of the early stuff I was always trying to do something funky, with mixed results. Now I feel more influenced by singer-songwriters and have been honing my ability to write a good straight-forward pop song. What’s always been different about us is we try to do that with some refreshing twists and harmonies that you might not hear on the radio.

What demographic/psychographic are you finding best fits your musical genre?
We seem to have a broad appeal, but not necessarily mainstream. I guess I mean that there are a lot of older folks who like us because we remind them of their favorite bands from the 70-80s, but we are introducing a lot of younger folks to some interesting sounds that they don’t often hear these days in a new way. We also seem to have a lot fans who are musicians. I think it has to do with the level of our playing abilities and how musically interesting the tunes are to anyone who has studied music.

What’s the story on recording the new album?
This is our third album, and I wanted to try something different this time. As I said, I have been moving toward doing more straight up pop-rock songs and wanted to capture that with with a more modern production style. Part of that was making the guitars a little more prominent than on our other records. So we enlisted the help of Jon Herchert, a great guitarist in his own rite for Mango Jam and more recently with Johnny Lang. It turned out he was also quite a budding producer and had his own studio. He has produced Divorcee and Tim Mahoney among others. He really knew how to get some great guitar sounds and how to mold our songs into a modern sounding album. I give him a lot the credit for how great it sounds. We did the initial drums and piano at Winterland Studios in MInneapolis and the rest at Jon’s studio. We started recording around this time last year.

What’s the “Summer’s End” or “Running Down the Avenue” of this album?
It’s hard for me as the songwriter to pick a favorite cuz I like them all. Otherwise, why would I write them? I think Blue Revolution has the upbeat, catchy quality of “Running”, as does “On The Bus”. I am particularly proud of “The Other Shoe”. It all came to me so quickly over a period of a few hours and I didn’t have to do much editing. Those kind of tunes always end up sounding the best and the most natural. I still get excited about playing it and listening to it. No small feat when you consider I have heard it hundreds of times by now. And, well, everyone seems to like “Losing My Mind” as an old school Terramara song with a nice groove. “All That I Am”, I am told, is a strong one in the ballad category.

Tell me what’s going on with your CD release show. Horn section?
As we did for our last release, we are putting together a massive band to celebrate this CD. Although we didn’t use horns on the recording, we have incorporated horn parts into our live show and are going to be joined by a four-piece horn section at the CD Release Show. With all the studio wizardry we employed this time around, we also needed to add a second keyboard player (Charlie Peterson) a second guitarist (Producer Jon Herchert!) and a couple background vocalists to get all the parts out there.

The celebration will begin at 8 pm on Saturday October 11th at the swanky Trocoderos night club and restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. Owen Sartori, a great local popster, and his band with be opening for us. We are planning a huge two-set concert with a brief intermission. Fans can look forward to hearing all their favorite Terramara songs old and new.

Where can people get the album?
We have local (Minneapolis/St. Paul) distribution at Cheapo and Electric Fetus, and online folks can buy the CD at our website, terramara.com, or at CDBaby.com, Amazon.com or iTunes.

From a Twitter feature, to our new MySpace page and new RSS feeds You can find out about all of it on our new “What’s new at Localtone Radio” page.

Keep checking this page to find some really exciting things coming in the very near future. Thanks for listening!

Sitting in his home studio layering himself atop of himself, tinkering with software and overall just playing good music, Minneapolis musician Keith Lynch just keeps churning out the tunes. You don’t need pro tools when you’ve got it, you know?

Now on his seventh album under the name Unknown Component, Lynch’s newest offering, In Direct Communication, is a 10-track story problem of rockers, whiny punk, creepers and ballads.

Hear a sample of “It’s a Fine Line” on Localtone Radio

If Lynch left Minneapolis traveling at 70 mph, and I sat on my couch listening to this album, who would achieve enlightenment first? Hell, I always sucked at math, but this is one Unknown Component worth striving for.

We had the opportunity to chat with Lynch about this album. You’ll see he’s a straight to the point kind of guy…

Who is Unknown Component?
Keith Lynch

How would you describe your sound?
Melodic, Original, DIY

DIY rocks! Do you play all the instruments or did you have some friends help out?
I write and record all the music myself.

What programs do you use for recording or did you hit a studio?
I use a really basic program without any sophisticated programming.

Who are your influences?
In the past I’ve relied on musical influences, but recently I’ve relied less and less on them.

By my count, In Direct Communication is your seventh album. How does it differ from past releases?
It was written a lot faster than the previous albums.

Tell me about the haunting track “Somewhere a Light Has Gone Out.” Do I hear some Black Heart Procession influence there?
Just checked it out on YouTube, sounds good, I can hear the similarities. That song was written mainly on piano and was one of the last songs written for the album.

What do you hope listeners get out of the Unknown Component experience?
I hope they get what they want to get, it’s a complicated process of listening to music and experiencing something from it, I hope they get something meaningful.

Have any shows planned in the future?
I’ll be playing at Silvie’s Lounge in Chicago on Oct 9th.

Where can people get the album?
Songs are available for free download @ www.unknowncomponent.com

Listen and vote on Unknown Component as well as other great local music now on Localtone Radio!

According to a story by NPR that “baby” is one Spencer Elden, and he just turned 17…gulp! Yeah, it was 1991 when the “grunge” sound took the world by storm. Young Spencer who is just really getting used to the smell of teen spirit himself gets to lay claim to sharing his baby photos and his “junk” to more than just immediate family or a new girl friend who’s just meeting the folks. According to Spencer, “Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis, so that’s kinda cool. (ya gotta like this kid) He goes on to say,“I’m just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I’m here.

While doing so, I hope that he has found his soundtrack like so many his age found in 1991. I’m not sure he’s “living it up” in the same musical climate. He himself says his friends spend time, “playing Rock Band on Xbox, like, that’s not a real band! That’s the difference between the ’90s and kids nowadays; kids in the ’90s would actually go out and make a [real] band!”

Before my involvement with Justin here at Localtone Radio I spent years in broadcast radio. I was programming a rock station in ‘91 and I can still remember the first time I heard Nirvana and I’ll admit it, after years of Zeppelin, Bad Company and plenty of 80’s hair, I didn’t ‘get it’ out of the box. But the younger audience sure as hell got it! They ate it up! And frankly, it’s the last time I recall when there was a real game changing sound on the radio. For a few years grunge proliferated and dominated rock stations. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting another group or artist wearing a flannel shirt and singing about their angst.

Beyond making me feel just a little bit old…Holy crap! No kidding that was 17 years ago?…my real thought is, why hasn’t there been such a sea change in music since then? Events like the British invasion, the summer of love, disco, hair bands all stand out. What since grunge has impacted music like that? Hip-hop? Not really, that was more a product of the 80’s. Thrash metal? Nope. Ska? Nah.

Perhaps the music is out there and it just hasn’t migrated from the many different sources from which music is now available…perhaps it’s right here on Localtone Radio. Maybe it’s the challenge of playing the hits in a “long tail” world. Maybe it’s traditional radio’s obsessions with catering to everyone over the age of 35. But it sure would be great to see a “sound” much less an album make a mark like that. Hopefully Spencer and his friends will take a break from Rock Band and get started on it.

Emerging Digerati

http://www.inms.umn.edu/digerati

I mention this site below at a local music wikipedia, but was not able to remember the URL in the podcast. Below is the information in case you want to check it out. If your a local band, I’d highly suggest putting a page out there on yourself.

Local Music Wikipedia

http://minnewiki.publicradio.org/index.php/Category:Group