Party at the Magic Castle, Psych-Pop will be Provided

by Doug MacRostie

First off, an apology in advance for the sound of my voice; I seem to have Santa's bag behind my nose, but instead of toys for all the girls and boys...it's snot. And I've been coughing more and more so yeah, don't sit too close to the radio so you don't get sick :p

This week on Centerstage MN I'm excited to have Jason Edmonds from Bemidji back on the show. He is singer, songwriter and guitarist with The Magic Castles, a psychedelic pop band out of Minneapolis. I had Jason on last year to talk about their debut record "The Lore of Mysticore," and he joins me this time to talk about their excellent follow up, "Dreams of Dreams of Dreams," which takes the band to a whole new level of expirmental music. The band has a very unique style that is all-the-more defined with this new album. And check out that album cover! A perfect match for this creative and artful music, The Magic Castles have local artists design and screen-print their album covers (so yes, they are limited edition). I'll talk w Jason about the album, the cover and the inspiration behind the music (spoiler alert: he likes old-school Syd Barrett Floyd :D).

Also this week I've got new music from Ely musician Aaron Kaercher, his debut (?) release "User Friendly Radio." And we'll hear another song from Matt Ray, who's self-described as 'a fork in a world of soup." His new CD is called 'Old Crow,' and he is an upcoming guest for Centerstage MN.

Speaking of which, my guest next week will be singer/songwriter Faith Boblett from Outing for some conversation and she'll bring her guitar along for some in-studio music! She's a recent highschool grad (I hear she plans to attend the McNally School of Music) and has a BEAUTIFUL singing voice!

Oh, and be sure to click here and check out my conversation with Ian and Teague Alexy of the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank from last week - it was an indepth look at the style and sound that is their experimental limited edition EP 'One for the Time Capsule." As Ian said, "It's almost like a rebellion to spend time on your art...we're not even really taught to do that, which is ridiculous...its a form of rebellion to spend time on art, but I think it's completely necessary..." The Hobo Nephews are one of the four MN bands that we're featuring for the 5th Annual 91.7 KAXE Mississippi River Festival.

Centerstage MN is Thursday evening's at 6, streaming live online at www.KAXE.org; or 91.7 Grand Rapids, 89.9 Brainerd and 105.3 Bemidji. All interviews are archived at www.KAXE.org and the show is rebroadcast Sunday mornings at 6.