Reigning Sound was formed in 2001 by Memphis, TN garage-punk legend Greg Cartwright (vocals/guitar), who is also known for his previous bands The Compulsive Gamblers and The Oblivians.

After Cartwright relocated his family to Asheville, N.C. in 2004, where he formed a new band. The current line-up includes: Benny Trokan (bassist), Mike Catanese (guitar), Mikey Post (drums), and Dave Amels (keyboardist).

Reigning Sound's debut,"Two Sides to Every Man", a three song 7" single, was released in May of 2001. One month later came their first full-length album "Break Up, Break Down" (Sympathy for the Record Industry). With its country-folk melodies, the first album was to be an early blueprint of where Cartwright's songwriting was headed.

"Time Bomb High School," (In the Red) was released in August 2002, and is known for its polished sound, pop hooks and near-perfect balance of classic R&B and rock-n-roll. Aside from the many stand-out originals on the album, cover songs like "Stormy Weather" and "Brown Paper Sack" prove Cartwright has mastered the art of revamping old songs and making them seem like his own.

The band's third album "Too Much Guitar," (In the Red) was released in May of 2004. With recording help from fellow Memphians Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout of the The Lost Sounds, it's by far Reigning Sound's loudest and noisiest album to date. Songs laced with psych-pop, garage and soul under a blanket of fuzz is the vibe heard throughout the entire album. The obnoxiously loud "We Repel" opens this record and from the first chord it's apparent that it's not a sequel to any of their earlier records. An opening slot on a huge American tour with the Swedish garage band The Hives helped to promote the album shortly after its release.

"Reigning Sound: Live at Maxwell's" (Telstar/Spoonful) was released in July of 2005, which was an interesting show to say the least. By the end of the gig Cartwright, with no back-up set, broke all but three guitar strings and still finishes the show for his usual rowdy crowd. This live album has a unique, rough-around-the-edges feel, not to mention it's also the only place to find the stand out track "I Need You Now," a soulful Sam Cooke cover song that allows Cartwright to pay homage to one of his favorite singers.

In September 2005 Reigning Sound released a rarities comp "Home for Orphans" (Sympathy for the Record Industry). The album features slower, moodier alternate versions of tunes from "Too Much Guitar" along with some other unreleased tracks.

Another live LP, "Reigning Sound: Live at Goner Records," (Goner Records) was released in late January 2006. This is a daytime in-store performance recorded in June of 2005, and with its crystal clear production, gives listeners an accurate account of what Reigning Sound is all about. The album also hosts great cover songs like "Black Sheep" by Sam the Sham, "Tennessee" by Carl Perkins and "Do Something" by The Swingin' Yo-Yo's.

After spending a portion of 2005 recording a George Soule album with legends Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, the band once again began recording as a backing band with another rock legend, Mary Weiss of the 60s band The Shangri-Las, who is widely know for the hit song "Leader of the Pack." Cartwright wrote nine of the 14 songs on the record, he also co-produced the album with Norton Records owner Billy Miller. The album "Dangerous Game" (Norton) was released in March 2007 and recieved rave reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine. Reigning Sound also performed the Cartwright tune "Stop & Think It Over" with Weiss on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Reigning Sound's latest album, "Love & Curses" (In the Red) was released in 2009 to rave reviews and is available on CD, vinyl and iTunes. The album features mainly all new Cartwright signature originals, and one obscure Detroit garage cover ("Stick Up For Me").

It's such an impossible thing, at this funny little point in history, to not look back: We're recording every little thing with our cameras that make the little noise like cameras used to make; we're measuring our actual selves against our online selves with hopeful resignation; we're rendering and retouching the record of our lives at every turn. If it can be perfect then let's make it so, goes the wisdom of the moment.

To be fair, there's a certain convenience about perfection. It's easy to wear and see and swallow and enjoy, and it leaves the heart light. It's also totally boring. And though occasionally friendly and welcoming, literal perfection in pop music is never, ever awesome.

Which is where Telekinesis comes in. On record, Michael Lerner is the sole member of Telekinesis, more or less. He writes, sings and plays the songs. His love of Japan knows no bounds, though he's never been. He's a fantastic drummer and a fearless singer. And he does not look back willingly.

I mean, you can forcibly crane his head around in a pinch (mortal danger and Seinfeld reruns qualify). But Michael's songs are ridiculously immediate, and he delivers them with blinding velocity. His approach to music isn't unlike those spikes at the rental car place: Backing up deflates the tires, and not in a pleasant way.

It's reflected in Michael's writing, too, this philosophy of ever- forward motion. These are big-hearted songs, written quickly and from the gut. Telekinesis is the geography of dreams; a school year abroad; love letters from Liverpool coffee shops to the Carolina coastline and Tokyo and everywhere in between everywhere; a road trip waiting to happen. And it's absolutely perfect, but not because anyone went back to fix it. It just happened that way.

Chris Walla, January 2009

As record store clerks in Chapel Hill NC, Heather McEntire (of post-punk veterans Bellafea) and Jenks Miller (of heavy-psych/metal outfit Horseback) spent their evenings creating Mount Moriah as an outlet for their mutual interest in classic American folk and rock music. Born in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, McEntire weaves narratives into spectral tapestries imbued with the complex majesty of the South and its deep-seeded spirituality. With nods to both classic folk-rock (Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Emmylou Harris) and their contemporaries (Gillian Welch, My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes) Mount Moriah challenges existing traditional folk music forms with arrangements born from Miller's interest in minimalism and sound texture. The 2010 EP, The Letting Go, highlighted the band’s thematic range, moving from delicate acoustic narratives to a dark, fuzzed-out, soulful stomper in just three tracks. Mount Moriah’s long-awaited, self-titled debut -- featuring guest instrumentation by members of St. Vincent, Megafaun, Gayngs, Bowerbirds and many other North Carolina-based musicians -- is cut from the same cloth, offering a far-reaching and non-traditional take on classic folk themes like devotion, tribulation, redemption, and an indelible sense of place.

You probably think you know everything there is to know about Eleanor Friedberger. “She’s that girl from The Fiery Furnaces,” you’re thinking. “She is a great singer, I think she plays guitar… .does she play guitar?” you’re asking. “She has a really great haircut,” you’re musing. And yes, you’d be right about all of these things.

But what you likely don’t know is that Eleanor Friedberger is not just the enigmatic mouthpiece of one of music’s most interesting, dynamic and constantly exciting bands. In fact, Eleanor Friedberger is an exceptional songwriter herself, playing a variety of instruments and crafting the very sorts of choruses that made you fall in love with The Fiery Furnaces in the first place. (Their song “Tropical Ice-land” supports this statement very well if you’re somewhat doubtful, which you shouldn’t be.) She’s a lover of Led Zeppelin and Jorge Ben; she’s a fearless performer, as comfortable fronting a band as she is playing alone on a stage with an acoustic guitar; she’s one of the sweetest alto voices in music. Nowhere is all of this more apparent than on her very first solo album, Last Summer, out on Merge Records on July 12th, 2011. And to give you a taste of what’s to come, the album’s first single, “My Mistakes,” can be heard HERE now.

Last Summer, which was written, well, last summer, and recorded in fall 2010, was born out of Take Me Round Again, a collection of cover songs from the previous Fiery Furnaces album. Both Eleanor and Matthew did their own inspired versions of songs they’d written together for their last LP I’m Going Away. Matt’s were otherworldly affairs, while Eleanor’s were lo-fi and lovely, all recorded in her home, the sound of an artist kicking off her shoes, settling into a big comfy chair with an acoustic guitar, a glass of scotch, and a four-track. She enjoyed the experience so much she decided to move forward with recording songs she had written in her spare time, songs that hadn’t been included on any of The Fiery Furnaces’ nine incredible albums. This, of course, begs the question: does Last Summer sound like a Fiery Furnaces record? No. It sounds like Eleanor Friedberger.

And what you don’t know about Eleanor Friedberger, Last Summer is able to teach you. You learn Friedberger has an effortless ear for melody and arrangements, as evident on songs like “Scenes from Bensonhurst” with echoing piano pulses and gorgeous vocal washes that sound half-human, half-keyboard. You understand that Friedberger doesn’t shy away from that oh-so-complicated genre “pop,” wrangling Phil Spector harmonies and 60′s girl group shimmers, as seen on amazing, instantly-stuck-in-your-head first single “My Mistakes,” and the clavinet disco of “Roosevelt Island.” You know Friedberger is a surveyor of the scenes around her in her home of New York City, naming songs after Brooklyn neighborhoods and describing whirlwind New York moments within her narratives. You hear Friedberger’s more forthright emotional side, something first revealed on I’m Going Away, in the breakup rocker “I Won’t Fall Apart on You Tonight” with its plaintive chorus “I won’t fall apart on you tonight / but I don’t know what tomorrow may bring.” You get that Friedberger is a connoisseur of classic rock, peppering her songs with dashes of Donovan, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and more. You understand that she truly is a masterful wordsmith, mashing up colorful, complicated lyrical lines into beautiful refrains, one of the only people capable of singing about riding her bike through Coney Island without, well, sounding like she’s singing about riding her bike through Coney Island. It’s a testament to her passionate vocal phrasing and manipulation of melody that she can combine things like earthquakes and heart shakes without sounding trite, contrived or like she’s bitten off more than she can chew.

We’re pretty confident that when you know all this about Eleanor Friedberger, you will agree wholeheartedly that she continues to be one of the best damn songwriters we’ve got, never ceasing in her explorations of sound and constantly setting herself apart from her musical peers. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the dazzling Last Summer.

Eleanor will be touring in support of Last Summer; dates will be announced further into the spring.

Superchunk frontman

William Tyler is a native of Nashville, Tennessee and a guitarist who has spent the last several years recording and touring with Silver Jews and Lambchop among others. In addition he has contributed to albums by artists as diverse as Charlie Louvin, Candi Staton, and Wooden Wand, as well as taking part in a large ensemble piece by composer Rhys Chatham. He also recently contributed a track to Tompkins Square's acoustic guitar compilation, 'Imaginational Anthem v 4 : New Possibilities.'

'Behold The Spirit' reveals an astounding array of talents. In addition to his beautiful playing, Tyler is also an ace arranger, augmenting complex textures and various instrumentation alongside his lyrical compositions. A stunning, beautiful and varied guitar album for the ages.