MI Local: Debuting new tracks from Bluhm, Mother Night, Audra Kubat, Prude Boys + more

What if a radio show could almost feel as frenetically fresh as your Instagram feed? Welcome to MI Local: your one-stop shop for literally the latest in local music, particularly when a cavalcade of new releases comes tumbling into my inbox just in time for the show!

Pictured above, we have Mother Night, a new cinematic-sounding indie-rock quintet coming out of Ypsilanti; they have their debut full-length album, “Hungry Ghost,” out on Nov. 30, and we were able to premiere their lead single, “Looking Skyward,” before it even appeared on Bandcamp or iTunes (or elsewhere). Mother Night will perform an album release party next Saturday at the Dreamland Theatre in Ypsilanti.

One of my favorite new artists in town, Bluhm, recently released a full-length album, “Midnight Hill.” They were previously in-studio guests, earlier in the summer, where I interviewed vocalist and guitarist Claire Bluhm and multi-instrumentalist and producer Cameron John Marion. Bluhm will be releasing a new single, “Double Dream,” this Friday, but you can hear it — exclusively — on MI Local this week!

Singer-songwriter and music educator Audra Kubat will lead an impressive lineup of songwriters at this weekend’s “Friday Night Live,” at the DIA. Kubat is working on a follow-up to her 2019 album, “The Sliver and the Salve,” and (surprise) we were able to hear an unreleased track from this as-of-yet-untitled-follow-up, with a beautiful ballad titled “Hand and Leaf.”

But there’s more! Two local garage-pop trios, Zem and Prude Boys, are putting out a split EP, featuring three songs by each band. A digital release should be available on the internet any day now, but you can hear Zem’s “Finger,” and Prude Boys’ “Insane” on this week’s MI Local.

Plus, we heard the latest hip-hop track from happytree, the latest punk shredder from The Antibuddies, and a danceable electro-pop track from the project known as Haunted House!

• “Back N Forth” – happytree
• “EXT266” – Haunted House
• “Looking Skyward” – Mother Night
• “Imagine My Eyes” – Ronny Tibbs
• “Veterans Park Ice Arena” / “Arbor Oaks Park” – Timothy Monger
• “Double Dream” – Bluhm
• “New Forgetting” – Fred Thomas
• “First Place” – pia the band
• “Calloway” – Laurel Premo
• “Leaf and Hand” – Audra Kubat
• “Finger” – Zem
• “Insane” – Prude Boys
• “Verde” – Mooses
• “Mothman Live(s)” – The Antibuddies