Pert Near Sandstone emerged from the same roots-based musical hotbed in Minneapolis that gave birth to Bob Dylan, The Jayhawks and Spider John Koerner. Originally formed by four friends from the same hometown, Pert Near Sandstone formed unintentionally over weekly, whiskey-fueled picking sessions in an old house in St. Paul, MN. They decided without any real intentions to start playing shows and the chemistry of their music and friendships, even early on, left people feeling like the party followed them everywhere they went. Word of the bands’ uncanny ability to whip audiences into frenzies spread and they were invited to play some of Minnesota’s most legendary venues including First Avenue, the Cedar Cultural Center and the Historic Orpheum Theater.

The band has been taking their show across the country, paying their dues in smoke filled taverns and roadside juke joints while organically building a dedicated following from coast-to-coast. Their formative years on the road painstakingly paved the Pert Near path as the band traversed from city-to-city winning over audiences “the old fashioned way”; face-to-face. Over the course of the next five years, the band maintained a full touring schedule appearing at many national festivals and sharing the stage with many legendary musical talents; the likes of Del McCoury, WILCO and Yonder Mountain Stringband.

In 2008, Pert Near Sandstone was hand-picked by Garrison Keillor to appear as the featured musical guest on A Prairie Home Companion where Garrison proclaimed that, “The group has become a force on the Minnesota roots music scene and beyond.” Fellow Minnesota speed-grass band Trampled by Turtles is proud to wave the Pert Near flag high and wide with band leader Dave Simonett calling Pert Near Sandstone one of his “favorite contemporary bluegrass acts in the United States.”

The band’s stock is sharply on the rise with their recent victory at the prestigious Northwest String Summit Band Competition. The band’s originally arranged rendition of The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus”, from the Minnesota Beatle Project Volume 2 (2010), was inducted into Minnesota Public Radio’s (89.3 The Current) Chart Show Hall of Fame in January of 2011 following 12 weeks on the Top 20 list; 10 of these weeks in the top 5, and 5 weeks at #1.

With the release of their fourth album, Paradise Hop, Pert Near Sandstone has managed to harness the raw energy of their famed live shows and inject it into 12 tracks of original material and a couple of originally arranged traditional songs sprinkled on top. The band’s trials and tribulations, encountered during life on the road as a Modern American Strigband, spill out in vivid detail on tracks like “Long Decline”, “Appalachian Girl” and “Solid Gone”. Wild-eyed, lightning fast tracks like “Reuben’s Train”, “Crossroads” and “Paradise Hop” place the band’s commanding technical prowess front-and-center, while a much more cerebral and introspective facet of the band’s songwriting shines through on tracks like “Save Me” and “Parse”. Paradise Hop is a celebration of life in all of its glorious peaks and torturously painful valleys that leaves listeners with an acute sense of what it’s like to step into the beautifully twisted world of Pert Near Sandstone.

Members

• Nate Sipe: Mandolin, Fiddle
• Kevin Kniebel: Banjo
• J Lenz: Acoustic Guitar
• Adam Kiesling: Upright Bass
• Andy Lambert: Clogs & Washboard

Discography

• 2005 – Live: Just Outside of Sandstone
• 2007 – Up & Down the River
• 2008 – Needle & Thread
• 2009 – Out On A Spree
• 2011 – Paradise Hop (release date 11.15.2011)

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The Prids are a band from Portland, Oregon. The quartet’s music can be categorized as a blend of noise pop and post-punk, influenced by Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, The Smiths, Unrest, My Bloody Valentine and Wire.

Founded in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1995 by David Frederickson and Mistina La Fave, they continued to develop in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. Omaha synthpop band The Faint were fast friends. In Lincoln they befriended Harry Dingman III, guitarist of 1980s cult legendary post-punk band For Against. Harry would create the artwork for their EP Duracraft, before the band relocated to Portland in November 1999.

The Prids follow a strong DIY ethic similar to that of Fugazi, including the home recording of several of their records. Booking their own tours, running their own label collective This-a-Way Records, which includes other Portland bands Lookbook, Soft Tags and We Miss The Earth. The “label” collective is described by founder Mistina La Fave as “Musicians coming together to support one another. No contacts, just sharing our knowledge and resources to help one another get our music out there.” Their latest record Chronosynclastic was released on the like minded Velvet Blue Music label.