"Who's Blood and who's Stuff?" I ask drummer Dylan Gouert before one of their Grumpy's residency shows. Laughing, he says, "I'm Stuff." Later, when I ask guitarist/bassist/vocalist Ed Holmberg, he replies without hesitation: "I'm Blood." The two blood&stuff mates play off each other even when in different rooms. Dark, Gallic Gouert and his blond Nordic bandmate, Holmberg, perform headbanging, mind-blowing rock shows as blood&stuff. Within months of meeting Gouert at arts high school at age 17, Holmberg asked him to be his drummer. They performed as Economy Team as band members came and left, but Holmberg and Gouert stuck together. "We played exclusively together for 10 years. I didn't have other projects and neither did he," says Gouert. "We'd end up writing most of the songs anyway," quips Holmberg.

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Everything blood&stuff does is born out of necessity. Holmberg began his versatile singing when a former bass player/singer didn't show up for a gig. Holmberg convinced Gouert they could do everything as a duo when Economy Team bassist Ted Johnson left. "I went with it, figuring we would eventually find another bass player. Instead I realized we really didn't need a bass player," says Gouert. He designed and built a secret weapon, enabling Holmberg to dexterously play bass and guitar live while singing, simultaneously layering riffs and melodies. With a sound bigger than that of most four-pieces, the music is amazingly all created live. "No recordings or looping, and never will be," Holmberg states flatly.

Blood&stuff honed their musical skills by holing up for a year and a half, pursuing perfection before finally performing live in April 2011. It was the longest period they'd not performed since they were children. "Friends thought we'd never play out," Gouert says. Seemingly old vets in young men's bodies, blood&stuff evolve so quickly that their young songs are old to them the second they're recorded. "We recorded twice already, but we tossed out both recordings. Because we were moving so fast, it was still so experimental, that months after both the recordings were done, they weren't us anymore," says Gouert. Only a few of those old songs, including their first, "Not the Cow People," remain in their high-energy performances. Now, they need a record and to tour. "We've spent all our money on that recording, and all this gear. We're trying to figure out a way we can record one or two songs in the next couple months because we realize we really, really need something to put out," says Gouert. "We're perfectionists." He holds out his bandaged wrist. "I'm fucking falling apart. My hand could fall off while playing drums," he feebly notes. "That will be totally fine," Holmberg assures him. "Just make sure there's a couple thousand people there to see it. Then that's fine." [CIty Pages, October 2011]

Reanimated from the miscellaneous body parts of three local bands, Fire in the Northern Firs stitches together a darkly beautiful monster of psychedlelia, shoegaze, improvisational music that draws equally from Siouxsie Sioux and Mogwai, Dead Can Dance and Swans. Like the Bride of Frankenstein meets a belligerent wine-o meets Found Magazine. With Carin Barno (of First Communion After Party) on augmented vocals, guitarist Adam Kirsch (of Good Day, Montag) consistently harshing your buzz with walls o’ sound and galvanized histrionics, and Sun in the Satellite’s former rhythm soldiers Shane Kramer and Scott Weller rounding out the overwhelming shoegaze-cum-Turing-Machine aesthetic, you’re in for a loud case of blown-out dreamcore. [Will Wlizilo, Reviler]

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Being invited to play Soundset can act as a barometer of who in the local rap scene is really pushing themselves and their craft forward. Each year a few up-and-coming artists get the chance to rock the same stage as certified legends, and MaLLy not only got the opportunity to play the festival this year, he also witnessed Slug wearing one of his T-shirts during Atmosphere's closing performance. "There's only a few things I could see ever making me cry, but looking at it and just watching it happen, I almost cried," MaLLy recalls. "It was the highest level of respect I've ever seen from any artist, especially one that's from here of his accolades and his stature.... He didn't have to do that, you know what I mean?"

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The co-sign led to a Slug cameo in MaLLy's video for "Heir Time" and a notably higher profile. He chalks it up to good timing and being well prepared for the opportunity. MaLLy has been steadily dropping albums since 2007's The Letter (when he went by MaLLy from the 612), but teaming up with like-minded producer the Sundance Kid in 2010 for the ongoing "Free on the 15th" series helped catapult the young MC both musically and business-wise. "A big piece of it, too, was presentation and ease of access," says MaLLy, citing his improved takes on self-promotion. He recalls being told he was looked at to perform at Soundset in 2010 but was ultimately passed over. "I'm glad they didn't pick me in 2010; I can't even lie. Who knows if I would've capitalized on the moment as much as I did in 2011? I don't think I would have felt as prepared. I didn't really feel like I had a huge amount of momentum."

After a number of high-profile shows this past year, including opening for Grieves and Budo and Guilty Simpson, it's evident his momentum has been steadily increasing. "I definitely have taken the mistakes I learned from my last record and decided to do what I have to do to make myself stand out, in addition to just having good music. I want all avenues, from a business standpoint, to be sharp and on-point." With a slick design sense (also provided by the Sundance Kid), he associated each month's new free download with imagery, such as depictions of Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee, that visually sum up the track's confident energy and powerful tone. Along with the new sounds came a new philosophy, which MaLLy calls "HEIRoggance"; the term speaks to his humble confidence and yearning for success, all while maintaining a level of genuine humanity. As he prepares for the release of his next album, The Last Great, MaLLy intends to continue to "ride the wave" and push himself even further. [City Pages, October 2011]

Formed in the early hours of a debaucherous night in New York, SEXCAT returned to Minneapolis with a mission to lay down lush vocals and sexy MCing over synthtastic beats that'll have you making babies on the dancefloor.

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