Charlie Parr and Ben Weaver, Ramblin' Bones Outlastin' You

Today on Chaperone Records, Northern Minnesota troubadour Charlie Parr and Twin Cities "indie/pop/dirt" singer-songwriter Ben Weaver release a split 7" featuring Parr's "Outlastin' You" on one side and Weaver's "Ramblin' Bones" on the other. Each musician guests on the other's track. "Charlie and I have always talked about doing something together," said Weaver in a press release. "We decided a split 7” was a good place to start. On one of the first sunny days this spring when the snow was melting fast we met up with engineer Tom Herbers and learned each other’s songs, made this little recording in a couple hours."

Terry Hughes, The Blink of an Eye

"This show is about me morphing from Terrence Hughes to Terry Hughes," says the Twin Cities musician about the June 19 release show for In the Blink of an Eye, an effort that sees the 58-year-old stalwart of world music and jazz venturing into heartland rock territory. “I didn’t listen to rock, or songwriters, or anything like that for years,” says Hughes in the Dakota Jazz Club's event listing. “But I was driving with my daughter one day and she was playing Elliot Smith, and something happened. I couldn’t believe the depth, and it was inspiring. I hadn’t sung for 40 years, but all of a sudden these songs started coming out.” You can preview the album's crunchy guitar licks and loose vibe on Hughes's website.

Leisure Birds, Tetrahedron

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Whether or not psychedelic rock needed saving, Leisure Birds are here to save it. "While much of modern psych seems to be stalled in a bygone era, Minneapolis-based Leisure Birds look squarely at the wide-open future," declares a press release announcing the band's third album Tetrahedron. Indeed, the album harks back to a time when psychedelia felt new and freeing—think Sgt. Pepper; think Pink Floyd (in a good way); think the Alan Parsons Project, the latter especially in the sci-fi vibe Leisure Birds ride through songs like the album-concluding "Waveforms." Tetrahedron is out today, co-released by Moon Glyph and Totally Gross National Product; the band will celebrate the album's release on June 25 at the Icehouse TGNP residency.