Rusty Willoughby shares a mixtape with Magnet!

"You can undoubtedly make a lot of musician friends when you play in a successful rock band. Luckily for Seattle-based artist Rusty Willoughby, he’s been in three. So for his most recent album, Cobirds Unite (out now on Local 638 Records), he teamed up with Rachel Flotard (Visqueen), Barret Martin (Screaming Trees), Barb Hunter (Afghan Whigs), Maggie Bjorklund (Mark Lanegan) and Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney), who add vocals and prowess on instruments such as vibraphone, violin, cello, banjo and pedal steel. The result is gorgeous folk rock with the perfect amount of country tinge, featuring tight duet vocals between Willoughby and Flotard. Get inside Willoughby’s head with this mix tape he made for MAGNET." Head over to Magnet to scope the jams!

Solvents featured as KEXP's Song Of The Day

"We Were Guests Here" is the Song of the Day today over at KEXP:

"Listening to Forgive Yr. Blood, the latest album from Port Townsend-based Solvents, is a folk-punk indie rock joy all the way through. The melancholic, urgently melodic vocals get into your memory and leave elegant lived-in ruminations alongside sharply funny lyrical observations about working class love, life, failure, and desire. This is indie-based pop, but not chilly or arch, more like a warm blanket given by an old friend as you sit down by the space heater in his basement to chatter over old times and flames with a little bourbon. The fact this is music is created by an engaged couple who played together in a traditional Irish folk band, with a friend on drums, in an area known as a laid back, inspired artists community is not surprising.

The middle of the eight song CD is the tour-inspired confessions of “We Were Guests Here,” on which singer-songwriter Jarrod Paul Bramson (also guitar, bass, piano, some drums, etc.) captures that smoking-behind-the-club-after-an-exhausting-set, before-hitting-getting-in-the-van-again mood perfectly. We also asked Bramson about his unique relationship to band-members Emily Madden (violin, vocals) and percussionist Sasha Landis." Head on over to KEXP to download the song and read a wonderful interview with Solvents' frontman, Jarrod Bramson!

Laura Stevenson & the Cans check in from the studio...

New album on Don Giovanni in April of 2011!

Peter Holmstrom on Learning Curve shows us how he manipulates his effects pedals!

Wonderful Billygoat interview!

How did you guys meet? What inspired you to work together?

We (David and Nick) met at the Echo nightclub in Los Angeles. We started recording lo-fi 4-track experiments in David’s living room. Putting paper and foil in the upright piano, painting our faces, hitting out of tune guitars, (really coming up with some bizzarre sounds). Now almost five years later, we really have a more structured formula. I think what inspired us (David and Nick) to work together was that our approach and interest in music is very opposite which results in a broader sound. (Think Courtney Love and Kate Bush in a celebrity death-match). Corey, our drummer, is great to work with not only because of his musical abilities but also the fact that he’s a solid and humble guy in general.

Read the rest over at Cinedork!

Catch The Lights in a short documentary about them over at $5 Cover!

You can also see them in two shredding performances in $5 Cover!

Sea Of Bees named to NPR's Robin Hilton's Top 10 of 2010, sign with the Windish Agency

Well, Jules from Sea Of Bees just put the cherry on the sunday that has been 2010! Her debut album, Songs For The Ravens from Crossbill Records, won the hearts of many. She signed on with Heavenly in Europe, toured around the US and the UK and wound up #8 of the top ten records of the year from NPR's Robin Hilton. Then, to top that all off, she's gone and signed with the Windish Agency for US tours. We couldn't be more proud!

Hot Panda... dang!

Hot Panda had every last person in the house shakin' their booty last night in Portland. California, they're headed your way! "Mindlessnesslessness"

Laura Stevenson & the Cans check in on their recording sessions

Solvents have a brand new video for "we were guests here"

Chris Estey gives "Cobirds Unite" a stellar review!

"But you don't need any deep knowledge of his pedigree to pine for Cobirds Unite. Itsounds like something he's been patiently planning his whole life for, is as timeless as Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and it's all happening right now. There's no reason not to start here, with these dozen gems." Read the rest over at Three Imaginary Girls!