Music to Your Ears
Earwig
We just launched a music interface over at Alibi.com called Earwig. It's a place for sound worshippers to create and share their favorite playlists with other amateur mixologists. Sound like you?

Spotlight
17 Hippies at ¡Globalquerque!
Unclassifiably original band merges East and West in dance grooves galore
When you slide Heimlich, the latest CD from 17 Hippies, into the computer, the disc obligingly gives up the expected data: album name, track titles, artist, etc. It’s all pretty straightforward until you get to “genre.”

Show Up!
A Fake Interview with Ani DiFranco
Somebody needs to sing me awake
Hi,Ani DiFranco. How's it going? That would have been my first question. Interesting people don't just say, "good."
Flyer on the Wall
Leave the Ankle-Biters at Home
... and meet the toe-suckers at Burt’s Tiki Lounge: Separatist Faction, FC Armenta and Jack Knife. Free, 21+. (LM)

Sonic Reducer
Blitzen Trapper Furr · New Kids On The Block The Block · Calexico Carried To Dust
It's a shame this record comes out just after the State Fair leaves town. It would be the perfect midway soundtrack. Furr is a little intimidating at first, what with its bright lights, piles of sounds and entirely too many options. But soon enough, the album finds a psychedelic-folk game it likes and wins the teddy bear. Blitzen Trapper's piano, Rhodes organ, driving guitar and multilayered, chirpy vocals are juiced up and rarin' to go. Bob Dylan is clearly in the band's collective consciousness, but Blitzen Trapper is more succinct and electronically inclined than its forefather. Partially sunbaked but also poignant at times, Furr seeks uncharted territory without getting lost along the way. (SM)