The 5th Annual Miniboone Holiday Spectacular

When we say "Miniboone", we're talking about a band that consists of Craig Barnes and Doug Schrashun on guitars, keyboards and vocals, Drew St. Aubin on drums and Tony Aquilino on bass guitar. They are named after a science experiment and, if you ask nicely, will happily tell you about the time they got to visit the world's second largest particle collider. Since their first appearance in world of rock music back in 2008, they've shared stages with acts as diverse and acclaimed as the B-52s, Art Brut, and Real Estate, and brought their witches' brew of caffeinated, unabashedly-delivered power pop to audiences at festivals such as South By Southwest, Northeast, CMJ and Bonnaroo. Plus, their live show, along with the two EPs and one 7" they've released to date, has earned praise over the years from the likes of the Village Voice, NPR, the L Magazine and Spinner.

Their debut LP, which is self titled, covers the fertile crescent of stylistic ground between Squeezey brain-pop and Queeny big-sounds while, if you listen close enough, telling the classic story of friends trying to find their place in a rapidly changing urban environment that wants nothing more than to co-opt them, confuse them into adulthood, jerk them around from desk job to spineless desk job, and scare them straight with tales of unfulfilled dreams and missed chances. They recorded the album over the course of a year at Serious Business studios in Manhattan with producer Travis Harrison (Lifeguards, Homosexuals) while drinking beer, and the result is equal parts proto-punk rave up ("The Superposition of Human Affection"), harmony basted slow burn ("Magic Eye"), and Hall-and-Oates-spectrum smooth-rock ("Baby, I Hope So"). In between takes, Travis and the band listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen.