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OK, I know these are the first playlists of 2026, but I think I have a pretty good excuse for procrastinating this time, huh? Huh?<\/p>\n
The good news is, great music has continued to emerge from Minnesota and beyond even as our state has become a war zone, and an actual war has been launched overseas.\u00a0Music\u2014it’s good!\u00a0<\/p>\n
In additional good news, I’ve finally ditched Spotify. The playlists themselves are now on Tidal. As always, each individual song is linked to the artist’s Bandcamp, Soundcloud, or YouTube.<\/p>\n
Agnes Uncaged, \u201cPaperdoll<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Goodbye, Creeping Charlie. Hello, Agnes Uncaged. Julia Eubanks sings from behind a scrim of fuzz, as in the style in our neo-shoegaze age<\/a>, but the distortion and melodies are sonically youthful in a DGC sort of way. Onetime go-to alt-rock producer John Agnello working on the band\u2019s new album, Cyanotype<\/em>, might have something to do with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Durry, \u201cTold You So\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Not really a \u201cprotest song\u201d so much as \u201ceverything you ever wanted to say to your dumbass MAGA family member song.\u201d Exhausted from the same pointless family arguments, sarcastically snarling \u201cEvery expert in every field\/All got together to lie to you,\u201d Adam Durry imagines a moment when the duped finally open their eyes. I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath.<\/p>\n Favourite Girl, \u201cConfetti\u201d Field Hospitals, \u201cEveryfire\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Makr an Eris, \u201cUndefeated\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sometimes a vocalist and a producer gel so well together that there\u2019s not much more than that to say. It\u2019s usually a matter of trust, and anyone who grooved to Sophia Eris and Makr\u2019s 2022 EP debut as a duo has heard the feel that these two collaborators have for each other. On this housey track, they\u2019re abetted by Naeem and Ben Ivascu, and Eris is so willing to share the spotlight that her vocals don\u2019t show up until about a minute in.\u00a0<\/p>\n Modern Wildlife, \u201cThe Whole Boot\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Is this punky, foot-forward jam a BDSM command or a satire of submitting to authority? Either way, what\u2019ll hook ya is that busy little bassline providing a twisted spine as the guitar artfully drops in and out, regardless of your taste for leather.\u00a0The band’s new album, A Glamorous Facade<\/em>, is out today, and that Cloudland show I mentioned earlier? That’s their release party.<\/p>\n Parent Patrol, \u201cif you seek ice\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n While responsible protestors have tried to make \u201cICE Out\u201d the slogan of the Minnesota resistance, \u201cFuck ICE\u201d has consistently won the day, and this breakneck playground chant-along will help you realize why. Of all the local protest numbers I\u2019ve heard, from the truly stirring to the merely well-meaning, this track is the one that most treats the thugs with all the dignity they deserve. Who is Parent Patrol? Who was Parent Patrol? Maybe we\u2019re all Parent Patrol?\u00a0<\/p>\n Dua Saleh, \u201cFlood”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sooner or later, every forward-thinking musician from the Upper Midwest gets drawn into Justin Vernon\u2019s orbit. Dua Saleh\u2019s first brush with Bon Iver came on the 2000 Andrew Broder track \u201cBloodrush\u201d; now Vernon has produced two tracks on Saleh\u2019s upcoming album, Of Earth and Wires<\/em>, due in May, and he sings on both too. Both “Glow” and “Flood” sound great, but I especially dig the way Saleh\u2019s falsetto gets a workout on the hypnotic latter, about a brush with global warning in Cardiff.\u00a0<\/p>\n True Green, \u201cItalian Lightning\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Our first taste of Dan Hornsby\u2019s upcoming album, Hail Disaster<\/em>, jangles along with hooky ease, and the lyrics (\u201cI\u2019m a hotel by the airport\/You\u2019re a timeshare by the sea\u201d) wouldn\u2019t be out of place in an extended version of \u201cYou\u2019re the Top.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Vial, \u201cNever Been Better\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Believe me, I\u2019m not complaining, but doesn\u2019t it seem like every time you turn around there\u2019s a new Vial track? The band has a new album out today called Hellhound<\/em>; this was the first single, dropped unpropitiously on the same day an ICE goon killed Renee Good. (Doesn\u2019t that seem like ages ago? Less than two months have passed.) The swarming guitars here buzz like mosquitos and sting twice as hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtney Barnett, \u201cSite Unseen\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Well now, don\u2019t Barnett sound right at home harmonizing with Katie Crutchfield? Then again, who wouldn\u2019t? Barnett\u2019s first album in three years, Creature of Habit<\/em>, is due later this month; this single is as straightforward and punchy as its title pun is mild.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cain Culto, Jarina De Marco, \u201cChismosa\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Culto is a gay former pastor who, ICYMI (I certainly MI), is responsible for a 2025 anti-ICE song, \u201c\u00a1BASTA YA!,\u201d<\/a> that meets our horrific moment with all the frustration and joy it requires. As its title suggests, the more-lighthearted \u201cChismosa\u201d deals with gossip, over an irresistible dayglo pop-reggaeton beat.\u00a0Didn’t realize he was opening for Sudan Archives’ recent Fine Line show, which I already regretted missing, and now I’m kicking myself with both feet.<\/p>\n The Scythe feat. Denzel Curry, Bktherula, & Lazer Dim 700, “Lit Effect”\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n I don\u2019t entirely understand what \u201cThe Scythe\u201d is. As far as I can tell, it involves Denzel Curry and a rotating cast of\u00a0MCs. I’d call it a rap supergroup, but those don\u2019t have such a great track record. Strictly 4 the Scythe<\/em> sounds great on first listen, with this cut headed to the front of the line thanks to the ever-welcome Bktherula and a great chorus: “Y’all n****s don’t got no money, can tell by the way that you beef on the internet.” <\/p>\n Girl Scout, \u201cOperator\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Kim Gordon, \u201cNot Today\u201d<\/a> Mandy, Indiana (feat. billy woods), \u201cSicko!\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Mandy, Indiana is an international group of synthy noise-rockers that has developed just as much as you\u2019d hope a hot new band would between a 2023 debut and their latest, Urgh!<\/em> Bassy yet tuneful, the beatwork here is perfect for midlife rap MVP woods, who obliquely tackles the sickness industry in the U.S. with lines like \u201cHarm reduction is hiding the body so they can keep hope alive\u201d and a kicker that puns \u201cbig pharma\u201d and \u201cbuy the farm.\u201d There\u2019s even an Eraserhead reference (theirs, not his).<\/p>\n Megan Moroney, \u201cMedicine\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n I know your ears glaze over when I get giddy about pop-country gals, but with Cloud 9<\/em>, Moroney has now released three consecutive albums that put your sullen, flannel-Americana boy of choice to shame. And she’s only getting better: I swear she’s been listening to Sabrina Carpenter and taking notes. On this perky good-for-the-gander two-stepper, Moroney lets her little black dress hit some other hunk’s floor, advises the fuckboy addressee to try crying in the shower, and rhymes the title with “head again.” Anyway, I\u2019m not gonna push my luck\u2014I won\u2019t try to sell you on Ella Langley till next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, \u201cDeface the Currency\u201d<\/strong><\/a>
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It has not been a particularly celebratory year so far, I know. But with its snappy beat and mariachi-style trumpet, the latest from Katy Vernon\u2019s pop group refuses to wait for special occasions. When your actions don\u2019t get the response you deserve, \u201cThrow your own confetti,\u201d Vernon advises, and I concur. You contributed to mutual aid? You blew a whistle at an ICE thug? You took a shower and got dressed? Celebrate!\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a>Last year, these guitar pop formalists placed in Picked to Click<\/a> and released their excellent debut, Ethel Green<\/em>. The chiming guitars on this follow-up sound no less confident as they convey a message from our \u201cdays of occupation,\u201d and you might just get a little lift out of it. That\u2019s what chiming guitars are for, after all. They’re at Cloudland tonight<\/a>, by the way.<\/p>\nNon-Local Picks<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Full Playlist Here<\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Emma Janson has a crush on a telephone operator. What\u2019s funny about that isn\u2019t just that she hasn\u2019t ever seen the operator. It\u2019s that telephone operators ceased to be a thing long before Janson was born. But hey, what\u2019s a little creative anachronism if it ensures an irresistible bit of Swedish guitar pop, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Gordon\u2019s still working with rap-adjacent producer Justin Raisen, but with its straightforward 4\/4 and controlled cacophony, this track from her upcoming album Play Me<\/em> (due next Friday), recalls her old band than anything on her two previous solo records. She also accesses a smidgen of vulnerability to leaven her forbidding cool. <\/p>\n
<\/a>Thinking The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis<\/em> was a one off, I was thrilled to learn that these rock instrumentalists (Fugazi\u2019s rhythm section + guitarist Anthony Pirog) and jazz saxophonist Lewis had enough fun to go for a second round. And if anything, they sound more comfortable together on the new Deface the Currency <\/em>than they did last time. Just dig their interactions on this title cut.<\/p>\n