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Jayhawks, Lowest Pair, and more of this week’s new Minnesota music releases

  Play Now [3:07]

by Jay Gabler

April 26, 2016

The Jayhawks: Paging Mr. Proust

Georgian guitarist Peter Buck, best known for being in R.E.M., is a recurring figure in Minnesota music history. He played on the Replacements' Let It Be, he was at the Purple Rain show, and now here he is co-producing a new album by the Jayhawks. Marcel Proust is famous for his epic Remembrance of Things Past, and the title of the Jayhawks' new album just might be a sly reference to the sense of history repeating you'll have when you sink into this vintage-sounding collection from the storied alt-country heroes. The album drops on Friday, and the band will be at Prince's favorite record store for an in-studio performance that very day.

The Lowest Pair: Fern Girl & Ice Man and Uncertain As It Is Even

That's right, the Lowest Pair are simultaneously releasing two albums with a Thursday night show at the Cedar Cultural Center. The band are bicoastal, if you consider the Mississippi River a coast: Palmer T. Lee is a Minneapolitan, while Kendl Winter lives in Olympia, Wash. Uncertain is a quiet collection, while Fern Girl includes uptempo stompers like "When They Dance the Mountains Shake" — all delivered with the duo's signature warmth. High, but not so lonesome.

Corey Palmer: This Could Be About Anyone

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Local music veteran Corey Palmer (These Modern Socks, Daykit) continues his revival with his second solo release, the seven-track This Could Be About Anyone. He's assembled an all-star band to help perform this eclectic collection at an Icehouse release show on Friday.

Rob Meany: Ferris Wheels Unbound

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Terramara frontman Rob Meany is making his solo debut with Ferris Wheels Unbound, a pop-rock collection that comes out Sunday; Meany will be at Icehouse to celebrate the album. This shimmering collection might be recommended to fans of Marshall Crenshaw, XTC, and chamber pop.

Fraea: Bend Your Bones

Fraea, a new local duo, specialize in luscious electropop like "Criminal," the first single from their EP Bend Your Bones. "Singer/songwriter Jessie Daley (Roma di Luna) and producer Drew Preiner call their new band Fraea," explains Cecilia Johnson, as "an homage to the Norse goddess Freyja." The EP is now streaming at The Current, and will be released on Friday with a show to follow on Saturday at Icehouse.

Derek Lynch: All Is Not Lost — Spring

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Derek Lynch is taking an unusual approach to the release of his new album, which was recorded in his Minneapolis apartment "at a painfully delicate point in my life," he writes. The album is being released in four seasonal installments, the first of which came out last week. Lynch aptly describes the project's sound as "lo-fi storytelling folk mixed with synth-pop."

VukaMaya: Sporophyte

Sporophyte, the accurately-titled new release by Minneapolis artist VukaMaya (from the Sanskrit maya for "magic" and the Zulu vuka for "awaken, little chickens"), "uses only voice to tell the story of his personal relationship with plants."

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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.