The (Local) Fresh Five: Wolf Blood, Mean Magic, Emmy Woods, Sunless, and Bryn Davis

For the Fresh Five we pick out five great new(ish) jams that we’re currently obsessing over. All of these songs come from local (Minnesota) bands/artists.

Wolf Blood have long been one of my favorite Minnesota bands. Even so, somehow this split they released back in 2020 completely circumvented my radar. It features this excellent metal/thrash cover of Funkadelic’s “I’ve Got A Thing, You’ve Got a Thing, Everybody’s Got a Thing.” Wolf Blood will be performing in Minneapolis soon at Cloudland on 9/21 (details). The bill is also notable for including Alan Sparhawk’s new noise project Feast of Lanterns (which I know next to nothing about). 

There is something refreshing about Mean Magic’s straightforward approach to rock and roll. I appreciate a good barebones garage rock sound, especially if you have some great guitar licks and vocal melodies which these guys do. The band’s debut self-titled album could benefit from a little production love but you can definitely still hear the strength of these songs coming through. Stream/purchase here.

Emmy Woods (real name: Emily Royer) is a Saint Paul based country/americana artist. She recently released an EP Volume 1 with her backing band the Red Pine Ramblers. The whole thing is great but I appreciate the rollicking-yet-melancholy vibe of “Takes One To Know,” which expertly pairs Woods’ excellent vocals with Jake (Jacob) Johnson’s pedal steel. Stream/purchase the whole EP here and check out the band at their next show at the Entry on 9/13 (details).

And now for a slight change of pace! Sunless are an experimental trio that combine genres of metal, a spirit of mysticism, and technical skill to form a dark, aggressive, and thoroughly complicated energy. Their record Ylem is by no means new (it came out in 2021) but the band has a show coming up at Cloudland (9/21) which should be great. Details here. 

Bryn Davis is an accomplished local experimental composer whose most recent album, Virginia Bluebells, was created out of a patchwork of field recordings that Davis collected in her life and travels. It’s an engaging listen – at times dissonant, others eerie, but overall compelling in a way that I feel like I can hear but never quite describe when it comes to this type of music. Stream/purchase here.