In 2007, Maria Isa performed at First Avenue's "Best New Band" showcase and was quickly named a rising star in the Twin Cities hip-hop scene. On her new album "Street Politics," Maria to fuses hip hop with traditional Afro-Boricua rhythms of Bomba and Plena.

Grizzly Bear's modus operandi for "Veckatimest" seems to have been employing composition strategies and technology from all over the musical universe. In this way, they've created an album that is instantly familiar, undeniably catchy without surrendering to obvious, and still challenging — and a sound that belongs solely to them.

The boys of Phoenix have long been a band just on the cusp of breaking. With the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the French foursome seems ready to build on the sparks of their earlier albums and grow to something riotous.

The Evening Rig formed in the summer of 2006. The band is comprised of former members of The Crush, The Cardinal Sin, and The Framed.

Handing the controls over to P.O.S (Steph) was a blast. We're lucky we got P.O.S. before he takes off to tour Europe for a month, join the Warped tour, and then go out west for shows with (GASP!) The Bad Brains!