Carroll

Last week, we mentioned in this space about how we’ve noticed a distinct stirring within ourselves of late to move; to travel; to step from one place into another so as to dislodge our bodies + minds from the funk that is post-winter-holiday New York. One place that is unquestionably not on our list of place to go, though—Minneapolis, Minnesota. Please, mid-westerners, I beg of you not to take offense. We, in fact, love the City of Lakes, with its superb parks system, sincerely earthy old-school hippie feel, and oddly cute way of saying the word ‘bagel’. We would just never willingly place ourselves anywhere near it this time of year. I mean, we can barely handle New York right now and you have to employ heated tubes to make it around town. Heated tubes! So hats off to the hale and hearty who dare to populate such a place in these harsh white months. Were it not for you, everything north of Saugerties would be a wasteland of culture and society. One particular honoree we would like to highlight today—the very difficult to Google, Carroll, a band of four transplants to Minneapolis by way of Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and…somewhere in Nebraska. From the band’s Facebook page: “Carroll was a twinkle in your father’s eye. Carroll was your grandmother’s name and the street you grew up on. Carroll is the combined effort of people who eat, sleep, and dream in close proximity to one another. Brian Hurlow, Charlie Rudoy, Max Kulicke, and Charles McClung gathered together their guitars and synths, their basses and percussion and did what felt right. They stopped running away from Pop and instead invited it in for a snack in a house made of candy, only to lock it in a cage and fatten it up for their own devices. Carroll has been found on quite a few stages and radio dials around the Twin Cities. If their sound is anything, it’s eerie warmth—a Minnesota winter that barely goes below zero.” For the record, it’s supposed to be -10° there Thursday. Warm up with the band’s superbly pleasant pop gem, “Lead Balloon”, below. The track will be part of their debut EP, Needs, out February 12 on Minneapolis-based Humans Win! You can hear another track from the forthcoming EP—“Sticks”—via YouTube.