Last fall we ran a contest to find a student filmmaker to create a music video for Jon Lindsay’s “Frequent Flyer.” After reviewing one-page treatments we decided to go with Columbia College Chicago’s Marc Wilkinson’s idea of making the two romantic leads female. It was a fun idea and we’re all proud to support the LGBT community. Marc did a great job and even some fun beach performances with the band while they were on tour in Chicago. So, without further ado…

We’re going to be reissuing our boy Jon Lindsay’s 2009 EP, Magic Winter and the Dirty South next month. MW&TDS is a 6-track semi-lo-fi EP Jon released on his own a couple years ago. It features some really standout tracks like “The Sideman” and “Red Dawn Soon.” It will be on sale digitally at our store and through all digital channels as well as in a small batch of hand made limited edition CD pressings. Stay tuned and in the meantime enjoy a free download of  “The Sideman.”

Jon Lindsay – “The Sideman” (MP3)

Whether you dig the indie-pop, folk, Americana, post-rock prog or any combinations therein, we would love to point you to our 2010 releases. It’s been a solid year, with a number of different genres represented. Needless to say, we’re really pleased to be working with some of the coolest bands in the world!

The Houston Brothers
The Archer
January 26

Two brothers with a shared love for home-spun indie rock songs and multi-instrumentation – topped with production from legendary Mitch Easter. More than another EP, this six-track album packed more Americana-laced pop than most full-lengths. RIYL: Sparklehorse, the Avett Brothers, Monroe Mustang

www.myspace.com/thehoustons

• “Wasted Youth” MP3 featured on UTNE Reader Music Sampler
• “What sounds like a quartet is bashing out Indian summer indie pop with mercurial crescendos and transcendent middle eights, you better take a look-see because it could just be the Houston Brothers – both of ‘em.” – Blurt Magazine
• “Imagine if the prodigious talent of Colin Meloy and The Decemberists decided to drop their grandiose attempts at crafting prog-folk and chose instead to re-interpret the smooth, but emotional ’70s pop of artists like Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel, and Hall and Oates.” – Dryvetyme Online

Motion Turns It On
Kaleidoscopic Equinox
February 16

Jazzy post-rockers, Motion Turns It On released their debut studio full-length, drawing tons of critical praise for their deft maneuvering of sonic landscapes. RIYL: Maserati, Explosions in the Sky, Mono

www.myspace.com/motionturnsiton

• “Like a fireworks display – explosive, unpredictable, electrifying and over far too soon.” – Houston Press
• “Motion Turns It On’s schizophrenic, frenetic energy leaves you teetering precariously on the wall of sanity.“- Redefine
• “It’s jazz-rock, it’s dance, it’s post-rock…it’s simply a joyous juggernaut that you’ll never want to run out of steam.” – [sic] Magazine

Jon Lindsay
Escape From Plaza-Midwood
August 17

Jon Lindsay’s debut full-length came out of Charlotte, NC with a bullet this summer shattering all expectations for the son-of-a-preacher-man with a croon like silk. Equal parts indie rock, ’70s pop and singer-songwriter. RIYL: Rufus Wainwright, Elliott Smith, Sufjan

www.myspace.com/jonlindsaymusic

• MP3 premieres at Magnet, Fuse and AOL Spinner
• “What Sufjan Stevens did for Chicago, Jon Lindsay just might pull off for Charlotte.” – Charlotte Magazine
• “Hints of John Lennon, the Beach Boys against a modern musical backdrop. Lyrically, he writes beyond his years.” – Charlotte Observer
• “Jon Lindsay arranges like a wizened master.” – Grayson Currin / Indy Weekly

We’re excited to announce that Jon Lindsay’s on the road with a full band all this month touring in support of Escape From Plaza-Midwood. He’ll be running up the east coast then crossing over the midwest before wrapping up in the south. Dates are listed below. We’re also stoked to be offering EFPM downloads for only $2.00 now through Thanksgiving. It’s just our little way of apologizing to the native inhabitants of America that we wronged all those years ago. If you live in any of the following cities we’d love to have you catch a show. Jon’s also doing appearances on Chic-a-Go-Go and Daytrotter this month.

Tour Dates:
11/13 – Wilmington, NC @ Gravity Records (in-store)
11/13 – Wilmington, NC @ The Soapbox Upstairs
11/16 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall (Presented by Sunsetintherearview.com)
11/17 – Dover, DE @ The Golden Fleece Tavern
11/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fire w/ Everyday Rockets
11/19 – New York, NY @ Piano’s
11/20 – Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon Street
11/21 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies’s w/ tintincan
11/22 – Daytrotter Session
11/23 – Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot w/ The Suicide Hearts
12/3 – Plaza-Midwood, NC @ Snug Harbor, w/ Stephanie’s id

Chocolate Lab Records – “We’re bringing 1992 back!”

Without wasting characters on a horrible pun involving blurting here is the hot-off-the-presses Blurt review for Jon Lindsay’s Escape From Plaza-Midwood.

Jon Lindsay

(Chocolate Lab)

Plaza-Midwood is a residential area located in proximity to the business district of Charlotte, NC; as such, with its broad mix of working class and bohemian, across multiple ethnicities and shifting demographics, it has experienced wild swings of decline and gentrification over the years. As one might imagine – and as I experienced during my own decade-long Charlotte tenure – it’s also long been a fertile petri dish for artistic types. Multiinstrumentalist Jon Lindsay is the latest Queen City musician to represent that legacy, and he represents in fine fashion. A veteran of numerous power pop outfits (among them the Young Sons and the Catch Fire) as well as a notable collaborator with the likes of Benji Hughes and Nicole Atkins, Lindsay’s got all the classic influences, from Beatles, Beach Boys and Zombies to Posies, Guided By Voices and Elliott Smith, and he’s also got the chops to mine those influences for pop gold.

Chief among the nuggets are opening track “These Are the End Times,” which slowly grows from a wistful acoustic strum/harmonica motif into a subtly Spectorian neo-orchestral wall of sound, complete with gospellish harmonies and – no lie – sleigh bells; and “The Launch Codes,” which comes near the end, and, with its gentle R&B lope, horn charts and falsetto vocals, suggests a Squeeze-Beach Boys musical fantasy summit come true. In between are plenty of other blissed-out moments no student of pop will be able to resist, from the exultant romp that is “My Blue Angels” to the chugging, synth-strafed “Bring the Old You Back.” Throughout, Lindsay demonstrates both an eye for sonic nuance (a lot of little flourishes prompt a “did I just hear him do that?” flash of recognition on the listener’s part) and lyric detail (very few of life’s vicissitudes seem to escape that eye, in fact, with Lindsay consistently finding fodder wherever he looks).

Lindsay may intend his solo debut’s title to be either ironic or literal; after all, since the dawn of time, it’s been a prime directive of rock ‘n’ rollers to get out and get away. But purely based on the aural evidence offered by these 15 tunes, there’s something in the titular Plaza-Midwood water he should bottle up and carry with him regardless of where his muse ultimately takes him. His future looks bright.

DOWNLOAD: “Bring the Old You Back,” “These Are the End Times,” “Launch Codes” FRED MILLS