Alex Winston hails all the way from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  After a handful of EPs, Alex worked alongside production wizards and All Things Gold alum The Knocks on her debut album, which was met with critical acclaim. Though she’s classically trained in opera, she’s covered music greats from Chuck Berry to The Rolling Stones, and her songs have been remixed by the likes of Beach Fossils and RAC. Tomorrow night you can catch her as she makes her second stop in DC, alongside local outfit Long Walks on the Beach.

Grab a free download of her stellar Sister Wife EP here, and buy tickets for her show at U Street Music Hall HERE. Doors open at 7PM.

STREAM: Alex Winston – “Velvet Elvis”

STREAM: Alex Winston – “Everlasting Light”

Swedish label Ingrid is dropping its first release on Record Store Day, April 21. Ingrid Volume 1 will be a compilation album featuring contributions from label founders Lykke Li, Peter Bjorn and John, Miike Snow, and others. One of the tracks released so far is “It Won’t Let You Go” by Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt. The song is subtle Chamber Pop, starting off quietly with piano, strings, woodwinds, and light, steady drums. About 1:30 in, it takes flight with horns, unexpectedly recalling The Moody Blues classic Days of Future Passed. Pull out your dad’s record collection and listen for yourself.

STREAM: Andrew Wyatt – “It Won’t Let You Go”

Tenacious D make their triumphant return with a video for “To Be The Best,” an adrenaline-pumping cut off of the duo’s upcoming album, Rize of the Fenix. While the song itself clocks in at just under two minutes, “Jables” (Jack Black) and “Rage Cage” (Kyle Gass) drew the video out to six minutes of cameo-filled glory, featuring appearances from Tim Robbins, Josh Groban, Val Kilmer and, of course, Dave Grohl. Rize of the Fenix explodes onto shelves May 15th via Epic.

STREAM: Tenacious D – “Rize of the Fenix”

The Fleet Foxes were a breath of fresh West Coast air when they burst on the scene several years ago. But since then, I’ve found the Northwest’s consistently sappy, jug-band-nostalgia to be a bit underwhelming, to put it politely. Thankfully there’s a fresh breeze blowing through alt-country-USA these days, and it’s a cool, crisp, sobering one blowing down from Canada — a Northern air, if you will. Elliott Brood, hailing from Toronto and tirelessly touring the States as of late, are bringing an unadorned revivalist-rock sound back to the pop world. Like Neil Young, the desert island pick we share, these rough-neck pickers offer a range of emotions via a simple and straight forward approach: less is more. At once full-bodied and sparse, there is no postering here. Please give these Canadian crooners a listen. The band is playing DC9 on Thursday with blues-rockers The Pack A.D., and tickets are still available here.

STREAM: Elliott Brood – “Northern Air”

Sometimes the simplest things make for the best music videos. The ones that stick with me are the videos that situate us in the everyday lives of the subject. Tour footage? Clips of the band hanging out at home? I love it. Good Old War‘s video for “Calling Me Names” falls into that category. Join the indie-folk trio as they cruise around town and harmonize like the bosses they are in a vintage car. Come Back As Rain, the band’s 3rd full-length, comes out on March 6th via Sargent House.

MP3: Good Old War – “Calling Me Names”

Fresh of their last tour, the rag tag group of Vermonters, Chamberlin, is back with a new holiday single “In the Bleak Midwinter.” It’s a traditional Christmas hymn that keyboardist Eric Maier said was “arranged to reflect the classical, choral tradition with a modern, electronic edge,” a description that does the song way more justice than I could. Much like their song, “Sixty Days”, the song centers on extensive vocal harmonies backed by a simple grand piano.

It’s another tune to come out of their Goshen, VT cabin and I think the population of 200 well understands the reasoning behind this choice for a holiday cover. The forecast for the forseeable future is “snow on snow on snow”. If you like modern renditions to classic Christmas carols, you’ll love this song.

Buy the track here.

MP3: Chamberlin – “In The Bleak Midwinter”

We’ve covered Swedish electro-pop outfit jj pretty extensively here, but it would just feel wrong not to share this beautiful cover of The Outfield’s renowned 80′s pop/rock hit, “Your Love.” Sure, Bon Iver might’ve beaten jj’s Elin Kastlander to the punch on this one, but Kastlander has Vernon beat with her intimate, emotional acoustic retake on the classic track. Watch the video of jj performing “Your Love” live at WAH as part of the Monsters of Pop festival edition series.

Miami blog Beached Miami has started putting together a cool project to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of the “generation-defining” Nirvana album Nevermind. The project collects local Miami bands and has them cover specific songs off of the album. The project is aptly called Nevermind Miami. One of the first offerings is from stand-out Miami rock band PLAINS taking on “Lithium”. The song is transformed into a staccato versed singalong while maintaining break out energy in the chorus. Pretty sure there is an organ and acoustic guitar in there as well.

DOWNLOAD: PLAINS – “Lithium (Nirvana Cover)”

Who else is excited for Chez Raymond? The debut album from ME & LP, made up of Sargent House kinsfolk Matt Embree and Lisa Papineau, is due out August 9th. If you’re like me, you’ve been loving the hell out of the first single, “La Bella Tocade.” But if you need more, the duo just released another track off the album, “Bonnie Says (No Shitty Ride)”, for your listening pleasure that’s got a bit more of a kick than its predecessor. First off, the song features a lot more of Embree who starts out on vocal duty while laying down a stirring flamenco guitar riff. There’s plenty of Papineau though, who jumps in for the chorus with a voice that I swear is going to take over the world some day. From the sound of it, Chez Raymond is set to be quite a diverse release. Mark your calendars, folks.

MP3: ME & LP – “Bonnie Says (No Shitty Ride)”
MP3: ME & LP – “La Belle Tocade”

It’s been a while since U.S. Royalty have played a show in DC proper. They rocked the Sweetlife Festival pretty hard in May (as documented above) and they recently did a national tour with Third Eye Blind. It feels just about right for them to be finding their way back to the 9:30 Club for a show this Friday night with True Womanhood and Birdlips.

We’ve got one pair of tickets to giveaway to the show. In the comments section leave your favorite member of the British Royal Family – ever. Go back as far as you’d like, just make it interesting.

If you’re not one of our lucky winners, you can still grab tickets HERE.

MP3: U.S. Royalty – “Equestrian”