There’s much to be admired in any act of longevity. When longevity comes in the humble pursuit of happiness in a volatile industry known to lift up one buzzed-about, celebrated act after another - before deriding it and calling it a sellout as it’s chewed up and spit out - to achieve longevity is absolute cause for celebration. Such volatility is the unforgiving nature of the music industry over the course of any given month, let alone each of the dozen months in a given year for a span of more than sixteen years. read more

This is Blitzen Trapper. Why have they chosen to spare the other reindeer? I don’t know. They never really seem to address their beef with Blitzen. Alas, some questions are probably better left unanswered. What I can tell you is that they’re an acclaimed indie folk/country band from Portland, Oregon and that we at LaundroMatinee are thrilled to be featuring them again. You can catch their 2009 session with us here. I can also tell you that if they finally do trap Blitzen and Santa can’t make his annual sleigh ride, they’re going to have to confront an entire generation of disappointed children. A little Blitzen Trapper might cheer them up, though. They are quite good, after all. read more

In 2008, Joe Pug stopped by for a quick set outside a heavily shingled house. His hair was long; his clothes were plain and worn. He was living in Chicago, writing and performing as an unsigned musician, though he had just released his Nation of Heat EP. Some might say this was the beginning, but for a writer, the beginning is really when you start forming memories. His songs were good, and he performed them well. You can watch the session here. read more

Watching Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros play their communal songs of love, joy and genuine heart at this particular moment in time, it’s impossible to fully extricate my mind from the mood of our country in the wake what befell our nation so heartlessly little more than a week ago. The devastation of that massacre casted a black cloud over the minds of the entirety of our land – as parents, as daughters, sons, teachers, students, friends, neighbors, and sympathetic strangers. An atrocity such as the one that occurred on December 14, 2012 is a tragedy so horrendous many of us could hardly have feared such hell beforehand. Like every senseless tragedy, it was previously an unfathomable nightmare, and now it’s a reality. read more

There’s no arguing against Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native JD McPherson having been cut from a cloth. Fortunately for us, that cloth is the sort of sweat-soaked, whiskey-stained garment that has lined the pockets of worn denim and wiped thick brows toiling in the midday sun, on factory lines, and behind roadhouse bars for generations. It’s an inherently American fabric composed of the touchstones of rock and roll as we know it with stalwart fibers of timeless power. read more

Seven years ago, The Lumineers began as folk-rock duo in Ramsey, NJ with Wesley Schultz on acoustic guitar and lead vocals and Jeremiah Fraites providing the rhythm and backing vocals. Fast-forward through a westward move, a Craigslist phone call for a cellist (filled by Neyla Pekarek), and a whole lot of singing and stomping, and you get an indie label-singed, Denver-based trio working their way up the Billboard charts, playing some of the catchiest, most energetic folk-rock around. 2012 has been a particularly good year for The Lumineers, seeing their first LP, self-titled, released by Dualtone Records, and healthy run of sold-out shows across the United States. read more

Whether they wanted to or not, CHAPPO have embraced most, if not all, the storylines for indie bands over the last five years. Borne of a craigslist roommate search, the Brooklyn-based quartet were self-producing and self-releasing their own EPs until recently signing with Majordomo Records for whom they recently recorded an LP at a remote cabin in Vermont. In the last year, they’ve been everywhere from Bonnaroo to your television screen via Apple and Sears commercials. Not bad for a self-proclaimed “space rock” band. read more

Faun Fables, the musical moniker of exceptional songstress and versatile artist Dawn McCarthy and her steadfast partner and collaborator Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), turned in a stunning performance to their loyal cadre of fans when the band brought their patented mix of music, folklore, theater and dance to The White Rabbit Cabaret in early May. Laundromatinee was fortunate enough to earn a private performance from Faun Fables at the Do317.com Lounge in its infancy earlier in the afternoon. read more

To describe Yuna as an emerging pop star is significantly misleading. This stunning young woman has already earned a law degree in her home country of Malaysia. She also owns a clothing boutique. read more

Colin Hay’s music was popular around the world more than a generation and a half or so ago back when he was the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the exceptionally popular Australian pop band Men at Work. The band came to a halt in 1985, and Hay knew what it was like to have a collection of radio hits under his belt. What casual fans of ‘80s pop and Men at Work may not realize is that Colin Hay has proven himself as a first-rate veteran of stirring, prosaic pop music of an entirely different order for more than 25 years in the time since. read more

Safe from the rain inside Indianapolis’ Big Car Service Center, Emily Wells paints us a portrait of the 21st century one-man band. First and foremost, she’s not a man, so let’s break down that barrier, shall we? The new term to use is “one-person band.” Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Hmmm. I’ll get back to you on that. But “one-man band” is out. Moving on, she blends modern music technology with the classical technique of actually playing instruments. Behind her wall of keyboards, lie a handful of instruments including a violin and three pieces of a drum set. With the exception of the drums, everything gets looped as she performs. Anyone who goes to see Wells in concert gets to witness her “building” the songs as she performs them, and it’s quite spectacular process to watch. The end result of her work is remarkable, but her way of getting there is arguably the most enjoyable part of her performance. read more

From the staging of this session and what the band had packed in their arsenal for the performance, no time was wasted doubting whether this one was going to be special. This performance is as intimate as music gets. Elliott BROOD gave us three friends in close quarters of brick and steel, singing songs of rumination and hope, to be broadcast to an audience of God knows what size, but it was precious few for the recording between the brick walls of Big Car Service Center. read more

Tennis definitely put work into their music but also retain a sense of fun, darning their name as a joking reference to guitarist Patrick Riley’s tennis playing days as a college student. Riley and wife Alaina Moore started the band after meeting in college and were later joined by drummer (and obvious third wheel) James Barone, completing the current lineup. Only two years old, the Denver-based trio has made a fair amount of progress up the indie-rock ladder, catching the attention of NPR with their first album, Cape Dory, and having Patrick Carney of The Black Keys produce their second album, Young & Old. read more

On their fourth album, Arrow, Austin-via-Ohio band Heartless Bastards drive home the statement that they are the torchbearers as the finest purveyors of the new classic rock. The four songs of this Saturday afternoon in-store set at Luna make that downright obvious. read more

Having just completed their winter tour of the American West with A Lull, Deleted Scenes stopped by the Big Car Service Center and shared two songs from their latest LP, Young People’s Church of the Air. In this session, the D.C. area quartet – consisting of Dan Scheuerman on guitar/lead vocals, Matt Dowling on keyboard, Brian Hospital on drums, and Dominic Campanaro on lead guitar – strip their brand of indie-pop/rock to deliver a tender, yet powerful performance. read more

Despite all of the chaos and uncertainty that defines our existence on Earth, we still manage to find partnerships that are all but destined to exist; two or more seemingly unrelated entities that, when put together, create something much greater than the sum of the parts. Such partnerships include peanut butter and jelly, French wine and tailored clothing, Lennon and McCartney, the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and Burt Reynolds and the mustache. read more

As a glutton for rock & roll of most any sort – whether garage, pop, punk, lo-fi, amplified, hook-laden or ambient, sweaty or meditative, I thirst for just about anything with guitars, drums, a beating heart and voices filled with harmony or something to say. Music of that sort is the kind I can throw myself into with total fandom and immerse myself in the songs, the lyrics and, given a large enough stature and social media blitz, the faces of the band or performer. There are other, more academic and elusive genres I’ve crept my toes into throughout the years courtesy of scouring library shelves, fortuitously timing a record store visit with then-unknown music flooding the room, or chance revelations reading about influences of my beloved favorites. It is in these situations that I go into the music totally unprepared, as a novice but with an open mind and eagerness for a new love. I was that way the first several times I played A Love Supreme, Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, Robert Johnson, Serge Gainsbourg and countless others. Certain genre labels jump off the page and subconsciously make me shelve bands on the backburner to check out down the road when I’m more comfortable in the skin of such a genre fan, not just a wallflower on the perimeter of a genre’s sound, i.e. jazz, classical, Afrobeat, or the vague “world music”. Sometimes I fall back into my shy, self-conscious old ways and worry how I’m seen from the outside, like a transparent fraud in the eyes of longtime, avid fans. Thanks to everything I had read of the band and considering how an abundance of the aforementioned genres are obviously ingrained in NOMO, Elliot Bergman’s ample and raucous Chicago/MI by way of Ann Arbor collective, my self-doubt snuck back in…that is, until I purchased a couple NOMO albums and fell in love. read more

Paleface is a presence woven so deeply into the fabric of the indie-folk/anti-folk/pop-folk/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-folk scene that it’s difficult to find a related artist whom he’s not associated with in some way. Taught to write songs by Daniel Johnston, managed by the godfather of American punk Danny Fields, and one-time roommates with Beck, he has been diligently building up an arsenal of songs since 1989. If he’s not contributing to the next Avett Brothers’ album or making friends with Regina Spektor, then he’s probably hard at work on his next project. Since 1989, he’s released over fifteen albums and has been an associated act on several others. As he states in the intro video of his website, “I’m never satisfied. There’s always a better song to write.” read more

Rarely can an artist boast such an impressive list of accomplishments at the gestation of their career. Cheyenne Marie Mize reminds me of the girl from school who everyone liked and always seemed interesting but never flaunted herself enough to make all the boys’ hearts flutter. Only after you leave behind the superficial stimuli that used to draw your eyes’ double-take do you learn to appreciate the subtle brilliance and beauty that’s been right next to you for so long. That comparison is not to dismiss Cheyenne’s alluring visual aesthetics – check out her recent spread in Louisville Magazine – she’s just been too good at flying under the radar, until now. read more

Despite having thirty years of music behind them, along with two Grammy awards, They Might Be Giants seem to have about as much pretension as a man running naked through a mall. They still sing unabashedly about odd things like astronauts playing golf on the moon, the urge to flip off do-gooders, and the ancient art of cloisonné making. That’s their niche, though; walking that fine line between strange and relatable. They walk it so well, in fact, that they can go back and forth between making music for children and making music for the children stuck in adult bodies without appearing to undermine their aesthetic. Their fans know that they’re just out to have a good time playing fun, upbeat music. read more