Every month, we take one week of the podcast to spotlight a number of different songs by some great local bands. Included in this week’s show:

Maus Haus (MySpace) is an exciting new group featuring Jason Kick (also of The Lovely Public) and Aaron Weiss (also of Social Studies). The band recently released a self-titled sampler and plays its first show on February 7th at the Hemlock Tavern.

We’ve included Oakland’s The Parish (MySpace/web site) on a Monthly Mix before, but this song comes from the band’s Storm Driven Bird EP, which came out in December on Gold Robot Records. You can download “Dummy in Trouble” here.

We recently interviewed Matt Jones from Master/Slave (MySpace) for an upcoming episode of the podcast and are big fans of the band’s catchy synth rock. The song we’ve included comes from the Expensive Tastes EP, but they will be releasing a new full length album soon. The band is playing at Hotel Utah on January 23rd and the band is touring the US in March and April.

With their unique mix of synth-layered folk, The Lonelyhearts (MySpace/web site) are truly one of our favorite local groups. We featured the band a while back, and the song we’ve included in this episode comes from their latest release The Four-Wheel Drive EP.

The Clarences (web site/MySpace) recently sent us their self-titled debut of catchy indie pop. The band has upcoming performances at the Ghost Town Gallery on January 25th and the Retox Lounge on February 7th.

We’ve also included a song from Touch Committee (MySpace), off of their self-titled EP–also known as The Bear Record for its cover art–which they recorded with Jack Shirley at the Atomic Garden Studio. Touch Committee’s next show is January 30th at the Edinburgh Castle.

Better Than Aliens (MySpace) provided us a song from their catchy self-titled demo. Word is the trio will be recording a studio record in the next few months. The band’s next show is at the Retox Lounge on February 15th.

Aim Low Kid (MySpace/web site) released their debut album Soundtrack for the New Depression last year on Tricycle Records. The country-influenced rock group will be at the Rickshaw Stop on Feburary 6th. They were also recently selected to play at Noise Pop 2008.

Thanks for listening!

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