Trampled By Turtles will be donating all proceeds from their performance to flood relief efforts, as will all the other acts on the second day of the festival. After the Saturday fundraising goal for the Music Resource Center is met, all net proceeds from the first day will go to flood relief efforts as well.

The money raised will go to a United Way fund for long term flood relief that was just announced today, routing money raised directly to the people that need it most. The kids activity tent from Saturday will turn into a flood relief tent for Sunday to house organizations looking for flood relief volunteers.

Sunday tickets go on sale here at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 26 for $35. Saturday is the same price and both days of the festival can be purchased for $60. The Sunday lineup includes Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles, Trapper Schoepp, Solomon Witherspoon, Sarah Krueger (moved from Saturday), Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, Mary Bue, Matt Ray & Those Damn Horses and The Boomchucks.

The mission of the Twin Ports Bridge Festival has always been to unite the community under a dynamic entertainment experience. After the flood, it now serves as a fundraiser to kick off many other community-building events, some of which are already being planned.

Email laugh@laughingstockdesign.com to get involved in this extraordinary celebration of regional musicians and communities coming together around this cause. And don’t forget to thank our hometown heroes, Trampled By Turtles, the next time you see them for making it all possible!

It’s not clear if Adam Levy, frontman and creative force behind The Honeydogs, meant the title of their 10th studio release (and first full-length effort since 2006) as a statement or a question. The album’s songs merge simpler lyrical content of early works with the deceptively sophisticated music making of The Honeydogs more recent offerings. Written in a short spell and recorded in just 5 ½ days, these lilting, memorable tunes lent themselves to a bare-bones recording approach. With shades of Leonard Cohen, Nilsson, Nick Drake, and Tony Joe White the band has created a soul folk and country record tracked as an ensemble with minimal overdubs. Despite it’s sense of ease, the album still brings moments of unabashed rock, including the impassioned title track and the almost-psychedelic “Devil We Do”. On What Comes After the band truly marries it’s original roots sensibility with complex orchestral pop and soul arrangements. Continue reading →

A self-confessed failure (and modest to a fault), Minnesota’s Charlie Parr is nonetheless stubborn enough not to quit. Parr released his first recording, Criminals & Sinners, to mild local acclaim in 2001. In any case, since that first recording, Charlie Parr has managed to release seven additional raw, lo-fi albums right up to the latest, When the Devil Goes Blind and perhaps his best-known, 1922. His newest batch of recordings is entitled Barnswallow, set to be released in 2012. Continue reading →