Made In America - EX HEX "Hot and Cold" 7" (2014)

With the future of Wild Flag up in the air, guitarist Mary Timony (Helium, Autoclave) decided to formed a new band called Ex Hex and signed to Merge Records at the end of last year. A power-pop trio, Ex Hex, along with Timony is made up of bassist Betsy Wright (The Fire Tapes) and drummer Laura Harris (Aquarius). The Washington, D.C. based band will release their debut 7" single via the Merge label on March 18th and follow with a full length album later this year.

Made In America - VERTICAL SCRATCHERS, "Daughter of Everything" (2014)

Happy New Year everyone! "Made In America" is back from a nice long holiday break and we are excited for the new year and excited for some new music in 2014. The recent "Polar Vortex", which would NOT be a cool band name, had temperatures diving into uncharted territory this past week but it looks like we're climbing back into normal winter ranges now here in the U.S. But what better way to get the mercury climbing than to barricade yourself into your house, crank the stereo volume up to ten, and to thrash around like a fish out of water. So that's what I did, and Vertical Scratchers is what happened. 

Made In America - Bad Sports, "Bras" (2013)

Musica Cronica's Made In America is back from vacation and man was it ever an exciting August for music fans in the States. First let me address "vacation" from an American point of view. Americans don't generally take vacations like Europeans do. We spend a lot of time hoping that a national holiday falls on a Friday or a Monday where we can have three days off instead of two and during that time off we just think about how to work more. Basically, Americans work and then they die.

Now on to the music! August brought us the highly anticipated reunion of The Replacments. Twenty-one years ago after their last gig, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson reunited on stage at Toronto's Riot Fest. Of course I couldn't go because I had to work. Stereogum has the 22-song audience-recorded set available for your downloading pleasure.

Made In America - Mikal Cronin

Currently on heavy rotation on my Spotify Radio is Mikal Cronin’s second solo album and Merge Records debut MCII. I’m not talking about casual heavy rotation either, I’m talking about I’ve been playing this record on repeat, non-stop, for a couple of days now, and probably won’t stop for a while. 

Orange County, California native, Mikal Cronin began making waves in the mid 2000’s with fellow west coaster Ty Segall. If there were a revivalist garage rock version of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo then Cronin and Segall were as close as you could have gotten to it at the time. 

Cronin released several singles and played on albums over the years with The Ty Segall Band, Party Fowl, Okie Dokie, The Moonhearts, and the Epsilons before releasing his self-titled debut album on Trouble In Mind Records in 2011.

On MCII, Cronin continues on his self-reflective journey where his debut album left off. This time a little older, a little wiser, and a little more capable of fleshing out songs filled with the uncertainties of life and love. Cronin sets the tone early when crying “Do I shout it out / do I let it go / do I need to know / what I’m waiting for / no I want it now, do I need it though?” in a way that would make Ben Kweller proud.

While Cronin’s sound is more refined and less raucous and knife-like than in the past, his songs are still well-polished sparkling gems that work their way into your head and eventually become anthems to your own life.