The Lumineers

Another week, another Mercury music section to dab away those tears of joy that come from watching this sign-language interpreter give the performance of a lifetime during some shitty Eurocrunk hard rock band's performance at the Swedish "Melodifestivalen" competition. Oh god, just keep watching. It's majestic.

At first glance, the Lumineers seem like any other trendy, upbeat, huggy folk band. But at second, and third, and fourth glance, it's obvious they've got something special. Seeing 'em live is electrifying—in a year's time they'll have taken over the world, mark my words.
LISTEN:

The Lumineers - "Ho Hey"

With CASH Music and countless other endeavors, Maggie Vail is crazy busy. Thank goodness she set aside some time for some Bangs shows. We missed ya.
LISTEN:

Bangs - "Sweet Revenge"

Portland's own Support Force has a new 7-inch with eight songs on it. No, they're not each under a minute long—they're all in Support Force's expansive, inventive style. How did they do this? Internet magic.
LISTEN:

Support Force - "Tense in the Water"

John K. Samson wrote a song about the love affair between The Simpsons' Seymour Skinner and Edna Krabappel. If you know Samson—or anything from his band the Weakerthans—this won't seem strange at all.
LISTEN:

John K. Samson - "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San"

Plus a bunchy bunch of Up and Coming shows, all bunched up in a bunch.