Just posted, an interview with Son Ambulance's Joe Knapp and Jeff Koster in anticipation of SA's CD release show tomorrow night at Slowdown Jr. (and Saturday night at Lincoln's Box Awesome). Joe and Jeff talk about what happened to SA after the release of Key in late 2004 and how the band slowly regenerated itself to its current glory. Check it out. The marathon interview focused almost entirely on the making of Someone Else's Déjà Vu, which very likely will make my year-end list of favorite albums of '08. Sitting in on the discussion were two new members of SA, bassist Dereck Higgins and multi-instrumentalist James Cuato. I've been a fan of Son Ambulance stretching back to the first time I saw Joe perform (along with Landon Hedges and Matt Whipkey) at McFoster's back in 2000. Here's hoping that this new one gets the attention it deserves.

Last week I posted the Pitchfork review of Déjà Vu (here). Now the good news. All Music posted its review, and gave the disc four out of five stars, declaring it an "AMG Album Pick" (read the review here). Popmatter just gave the CD an 8-out-of-10 rating, here. Crawdaddy also gave it a positive nod, here.

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O'Leaver's is unveiling its new fancy/schmancy beer garden tonight -- a good thing. The new no-smoking policy impacted O'Leaver's more than any other club I've visited since the ban began. It's not affecting their business -- it's affecting their... smell. O'Leaver's needed that smoke to mask the bar's unique, um, aroma. Now with the new beer garden, you can step outside and get some fresh air all over again. I'm told there could be a new routing situation in terms of how you enter the bar -- i.e., the old entrance is now the beer garden entrance, so that entrance by the pool room will be the new front entrance. Don't know if they implemented that yet or not. Guess we'll find out at tonight's show, featuring Dance Me Pregnant, Minneapolis' Vampire Hands and Daughters of the Sun. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight (next Thursday, oops.), David Matysiak's Telephono Project (described here) is celebrating the release of its 5-record set at the Bemis Underground at 8 p.m. Local artist and Saddle Creek Records designer Jadon Ulrich will be doing live visual interpretations as the records are playing in sequence.

Meanwhile, tonight at Slowdown Jr., Jake Bellows and McCarthy Trenching are opening for touring band I Was Totally Destroying It. $5, 9 p.m.

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