Props to Shiv and Mike over at WOXY.com for turning me onto the Spinto Band. Actually, let’s talk about WOXY.com before we get back to the music—after battling the economic realities of internet radio for a couple years, WOXY.com is turning to its listeners for support. Their goal is 7,000 members to keep the music streaming. If you’re already a listener, subscribe. If not, start listening and if you like what you hear, subscribe. Sure the internet puts power in the hands of the people, but those hands gotta be generous and help foot the bandwidth bill.
Back to the Spinto Band—they’re a bunch of East Coast boys with ties to the Mississippi delta and who like a little rhythm to their pop. “Crack the Whip” is a close runner up to what I consider the most danceable pop track from last year, Of Montreal’s “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and other games).” And since Beulah called it quits, the Spinto Band make for a respectable replacement in the post-Elephant 6 world. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for an upcoming tour with Arctic Monkeys and a new album for Bar-None in the near future. Oh, and more props to *Sixeyes for unearthing the MP3s.
It was absolutely impossible for me to pass up listening to a band called The Jimmy Cake. I expected a bout of disposable pop, something frantic, sugary and forgettable. Not so. The Jimmy Cake is anything but. They’re (at least) a nine member band out of Dublin making improvisational rock with plenty of percussion and wind instruments that give the music a bit of an Irish flavor. Did you see that 
We usually save our announcements for the Junk Drawer, but today is a momentous day of sorts here at the Hive. It was two years ago that our 
Black Mountain, unlike 
The dilemna? Keep running with this whole anti-Valentines thing that the kids and the nation’s biggest retailers got going on and throw in a little post-Valentines Norwegian death metal today on 3hive? Or try to actually extend the blessed day–after all I do have four Valentines at home–by finding a band whose name had something to do with Valentines Day, other than 
Cory over at Absolutely Kosher brought Ex-Boyfriends to my attention with perfect timing considering my re-kindled interest in XTC and the accompanying power-pop kick I’m on. Dig their Drums and Wires era vibe—mixed in with a touch of Archers of Loaf and 999. Album’s available next week and in March the band begins making rounds out West. Ready, set, pogo!
It’s been saddening for me to watch this whole Danish cartoon scandal go down because Denmark has always sat on a pedestal in my memory after I spent a few of the more peaceful and pleasing days of my life there back in 1999. Not much I can do about the recent events, except for this small gesture of distraction: Slaraffenland’s slow-burning instrumental jazz/rock goodness from Denmark, done with the effortless, artful precision Danes ought to be known for.
Clay’s 
Destroyer is Vancouver’s own Dan Bejar. “European Oils” is taken from the seventh Destroyer album. If you’ve yet to hear of Destroyer and you’re thinking SEVEN ALBUMS ALREADY?? where have I been?, fret not. Bejar keeps a low profile. He even downplays his involvement with another Canadian band, The New Pornographers. I love the opening jam of this track. Feels like you’re comfortable and couched and about to spend the next half hour with a witty gang of characters on a ’70’s sitcom. Then Bejar comes in with that voice of his–a mix of Bowie and Dylan maybe. Quirky, odd, and completely satisfying.
Sometimes I’m absolutely stumped about what to write about a particular artist. Complete writer’s block. That’s not the case with Eagle*Seagull. A laundry list of bands they remind me of, and are likely influenced by, are tumbling around in my skull, waiting for someone to just open the door. In this case, I think any one of them would cheapen the listening experience. I will say this: the band’s seven members strong, they’re from Lincoln, Nebraska, and a large majority of our 3hive audience is really going to like them. Props to