"Four years since their last release - the wonderful collaboration Macha Loved Bedhead - and five years after their last proper album, See It Another Way, came out, Macha returned with Forget Tomorrow... Not easily pigeonholed, Macha employs voice, guitar, and drums along with many non-traditional instruments - hammered dulcimer, vibraphone, gongs, and a synthesizer called "the fun machine," amongst others - to create music that is a combination of drone rock and Indonesian folk music." - All Music Guide
"Forget Tomorrow is a futurist's sonic Eden...a welcome return for Macha, who seem just as ready to expand their sound as ever." - Pitchfork Media
Macha's influences range from prog rock/post rock acts like Can to the shoegazer sound My Bloody Valentine made famous.
"produced by former Talking Heads Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. Mad haPPy...electro with hip-hop firmly tucked next to their pop notions. Each track is energetic and bouncy with fun lyrics...and they certainly have the funk down.... Beastie Boys fans who like electronica would love this...I can't have enough of this eclectic release." - Smother
"...mad fun, yo. Whether jumping around half-naked in hilariously tasteless outfits at their live shows or amusing their listeners with original lyrics set to a hip-hop hybrid-pop" - Art Voice
Mad River Glenn is on of Tucson's cooler new acts. Featuring members of the Mean Reds and Mr Free and the Satellite Freakout, the early punk/post-punk sounds MRG create should appeal to fans of the Modern Lovers, early Elvis Costello, Spoon, Art Brut, Wire and the Talking Heads.
"Maggie is: Uproariously funny, passionate, driven, provoking you to reconsider just by standing there. She moves in the writer's galaxy with side trips to the musical stage, where she collaborates with the best of the usual suspects." - Tucson Underground
"After retiring Songs: Ohia, Jason Molina started up Magnolia Electric Co, a new avenue to explore his country-rock. The name of the new group was taken from the title of the last Songs: Ohia record and proved to be the appropriate connection from the past to the next phase of Molina's projects... Critics often compare Magnloia Electric Co./Songs: Ohia to the Palace Brothers/Will Oldham, and while sonically the comparison is valid, Molina's ardent, soul-searching lyrics are more aptly compared to Neil Young or Leonard Cohen." - All Music Guide
"Gradually, Magnolia Electric Co. is making a name for itself as a trance-inducing live band, but the handle is probably still more recognized by music fans as the title of the final Songs: Ohia cd. The scales should tip with the release of this expertly recorded concert disk" - Trials & Errors - Harp
"Hard to avoid thinking of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at the peak of their '70s powers when listening to this live recording of Magnolia Electric Co." 4 stars - Mojo
"Like Young's Crazy Horse, Magnolia Electric Co. are often bluesy and noisy throughout...Trials & Errors is an advance look at the direction in which Molina is heading, this seems to be a perfect fit for him." - Billboard
"Young-ian guitar stutter remains intact." A- - Spin
Magnum Opus is the Old Pueblo's own undergrund hip-hop phenomenon. If you haven't checked these guys out, you should!
"What to expect from a Mahjongg show? Well, fans of Can, M.I.A., Remain in Light-era Talking Heads, Fela Kuti and Gang of Four will enjoy themselves." - Paste
"Kontpab (the band's latest) once again showcases Mahjongg's innate ability to nab bits of greatness and incorporate them into its vast sonic palette." 3 1/2 stars - Paste
"Mahjongg... smartass Chicago art-punks with an Africa '70s fetish... junkyard afro-new wave" - Pitchfork
"Mahjongg... are provocative. For a dance band, they don't let the hooks come easy; they provoke, they poke, they jab, they surround and taunt. Their music creates an itch within the listener, one that spreads and infects and causes one's limbs to shake and writhe... Much like Talking Heads, to whom the group is frequently compared, Mahjongg approaches post-punk with their ears toward the exotic." - Treble
"African polyrhythms turn cross-eyed and painless like Talking Heads, factory clanks obsessively overlap like Adrian Sherwood producing Einsturzende Neubauten." 3 stars - Spin
"Can you make indie kids dance? Can you do that and not alienate rhythmically challenged hipsters whose noses grow crooked at any whiff of 'dance music'? The Midwest quintet in Mahjongg have raised a second album of rhythmic rumpus as an attempted answer... they art up the works with cheap keyboards, machine noise and sub-Rapture, '80s-plundering moves. The conflict of whether to art, rock or dance gives the band their character." - Exclaim
Maintenance includes members of Chango Malo and Lloyd Dobbler!
Maja (pronounced 'Mey-juh') brings fresh themes, merged with the style and sound of current hip-hop, creating a musical fusion of New School sound. With lyrics that include Anime and Video Games, Maja caters to audiences who enjoy more main-stream hip-hop music and audiences who want a taste of the next level of hip-hop, often rhying in Japanese and Spanish, mixing them with English to make what he calls "Janglish Speak." Maja's musical influences include Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Bjork.
"Seattle's Maktub shouldn't be doing this. Sure, artists like Macy Gray and Alicia Keys have made a stab at resurrecting soul, but Maktub do the job properly...it's quite apparent that the band's heart lies in the late '60s and early '70s, the golden years of soul... (like) Al Green fronting Sly & the Family Stone - singer Reggie Watts floats into falsetto so easily and purely, he's a joy to hear." 4 stars - All Music Guide
"Nu-soul is a broad genre, and Maktub make the most of its softly defined and easily yielding parameters. Incorporating elements of rock, funk and spirit-bearing soul, with a good dash of indie pop for flavor, Say What You Mean (their latest LP) is a party waiting to happen." - Splendid Reviews
"Maktub is the band that slides you right past the "would you like to come up for a cup of coffee?" part of your date, and right into the heat and passion... Say What you Mean plays like something you've had in your CD collection your whole life. It's a sound track for those day's you wake-up on the right side of the bed. You just want to hit repeat and listen over and over." - Glide
"Maktub may well represent the epitome of neo-soul, a credible example of the new generation influenced by P-Funk and Snoop Dogg, techno and trance, Zeppelin and Screaming Trees." - Go Go Magazine
"Maktub are hyped beyond all hype here (in Tucson). Almost everyone who listens to music in this city will recommend seeing them as a must. But the hype is well worth listening to and so is the band." - In Your Ear
Malajube (say it MAL-a-zhoob) is one of the hotest new bands to come out of Montreal, Canada - a hotbed of amazing talent. Malajube is becoming huge in the Great White North. Recently nominated for a Polaris Prize (that is like being nominated for 'Best Album' at the Grammy's in the good ol' US of A), they are often compared to the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene, with elements of Animal Collective, Sparklehorse, and The Flaming Lips.
"Malajube... the latest endearingly ramshackle band to emerge from Canada's burgeoning indie scene..." - Spin
"Malajube are one of those bands with a really flexible RIYL line. It's not that they're derivative... But their approach to indie rock is so resolutely of-the-moment that it seems filled with hyper-modern allusions... They have the ramshackle exuberance of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah...vocals float in the middle distance; corkscrew guitars bleed everywhere; percussion rattles deliriously. Of course, this good-friends/good-times quality can't help but resemble Broken Social Scene, while the periodic screamy avant-pop parts conjure up Animal Collective by way of Wolf Parade, and the bracing moments of unhinged beauty and collective transportation call to mind Tilly and the Wall." 8.2/10 - Pitchfork Media
"Not only is Trompe-L'Oeil one of the finest Canadian albums of the year, but it's a huge one for Canada's Francophone music community, one that's managed to attract the attention of people outside Quebec, opening a small, hitherto unknown musical scene to a much larger audience." - Pop Matters
"This year was a good one for a lot of bands, but only one group did the impossible - become a celebrated Canadian indie act singing only in French. Many acts have tried and failed to break out of Quebec while staying true to themselves, but Malajube...not only overcame the language barrier, they destroyed it. Trompe L'Oeil is a loud, in your face blast of power pop perfection that's so layered and complex, it'll take listeners months to dissect these clever tunes." 'Top 10 Albums of 2006' - Exclaim
"No band in Lawrence takes its shit quite as seriously as Mammoth Life... twee chamber-pop that's ambitious in scope and profound in purpose." - The Pitch
"Mammoth Life is a refreshing orchestral pop act with complex and layered melodies... energetic chamber pop at its finest." - Kansas City Examiner
"By combining the ebb and swell of classic shoegaze with the anthemic rattle and hum of U2 and no-holds-barred emo-core a la Quicksand, Manifold have struck the formula for what may become the next wave of rock 'n' roll." - Alibi Weekly (Albuquerque)
"A tingly marriage between classic shoegaze and vintage psychadelia...mightily impressive." - Magnet
"Manifold has gotten props for reinvigorating shoegazer rock, the quartet dressing up My Bloody Valentine melancholy in both Hum grit and U2 jangles." - Las Vegas City Life
"Tucson rockers Manifold take their cue from bands like Superchunk and Guided by Voices." - Austin Chronicle