Virginia natives Carbon Leaf weave their signature indie-rock blend of Celtic, Appalachian, folk, and country into a rousing new brand of music best described as ‘ether-electrified porch music’.

The five-man band’s steadfast arrangement of guitar, bass, drums, and mandolin is rounded out with more exotic instruments, like the bouzouki, fiddle, accordion and penny whistle, all tied together by lead singer Barry Privett’s bold, straightforward baritone.

Their album Love Loss Hope Repeat Reneaux is available just in time for their fall tour that just started.

At the beginning of 2015, things had never looked better for The Black Lillies. Winning legions of fans through relentless touring and riding a wave of critical acclaim, the band had already successfully surpassed their PledgeMusic fundraising goals, selected a producer and booked studio time to record their new album when frontman Cruz Contreras was hit with unexpected news: two of the group’s five members would be amicably moving on. Contreras contemplated the group’s future and faced down a looming deadline to finish writing the new album for a yet-to-be-determined lineup.

“In the past, I might write a song once a month when I felt inspired, and at a much more leisurely pace,” explains Contreras, “but this time around, I realized I would have to write an entire record in two weeks before we hit the studio. I felt confident I could do it, but I also had no proof.”

The proof is now etched into vinyl with Hard To Please, the band’s fourth studio album — an alternately rip-roaring and deeply intimate record, showcasing both Contreras’ lyrical evolution as a writer and a more sonically sophisticated side of the band than we’ve heard before. Whether it was due to the pressure of the ticking clock, the injection of creative energy from recording with new faces, or simply the steadfast desire of a hardworking band to always outdo themselves, the album stands as the finest yet in The Black Lillies’ outstanding catalog.  Grab it on wax now!

Now available from Fat Wreck Chords, Stitch Puppy is comprised of 10 captivating tracks that display a further progression in Joey Cape’s sound. Poetic lyrics are set to acoustic instrumentation (guitar, piano, cello, mandolin, percussion) and driven by strong melodies.

Gospel Machine is garage gospel band out of Northeast Minneapolis resurrecting the soul and R&B styles of the 1960’s. The band features Jayanthi Kyle (Romantica, Black Audience) on vocals and members of Twin Cities rock band The Small Cities – Wes Burdine (guitar, backing vox), Jimmy Osterholt (Bass), Scott Munson (keys), and David Osborn (drums).

Gospel Machine formed in 2011 when Burdine wrote a soul/gospel liturgy for a Lutheran church in Northeast Minneapolis called Mercy Seat Lutheran Church. He asked Kyle and his bandmates from The Small Cities to back him for the occasion. They had such a good time that Wes started writing more material in the vein of his heroes Nina Simone, Otis Redding, and Sam Cooke. In 2012, they took their music to the clubs and in 2013 started recording their debut record, Your Holy Ghost – available on vinyl from the band now.

Mute Forest is Kael Smith’s solo project, as well as his most introspective and spacious work. In Mute Forest, he combines nylon guitar passages with heavily processed field recordings and subtle electronics. Mute Forest’s Infinity Pools EP is out now with it’s follow up full length, Deforestation, to be released in 2015 via Lost Tribe Sound (stay tuned – records just shipped).