The Babycakes bakery has done for cupcakes what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fire did for indie music: cut the crap, brought it back to its roots and refused to sell out to the cackling, cash-clogged fat man, who at some point offers every cool new kid on the block keys to a shiny, glittering golden life that often proves to be as empty, dead and sad as Midas’ blinged-out palace. (See: Pete Doherty; Michael Jackson; Britney Spears; the Magnolia Bakery).

Instead of cramming more sugar down our gagging throats, Babycakes’ Erin McKenna has eschewed the butter cream for all-natural, organic treats that taste like (synaesthesia, baby) the best concert you’ve ever been to while dancing in a slowly falling, light summer rain in the middle of a park in the middle of the night with the love of your life, slightly buzzed. (Ed note: Damn that sounds good)!

How is this seemingly magical comestible produced? According to Erin, with the help of a strict regiment of sound editing: “I’m one of those rare people who needs complete silence when creating recipes which requires a lot of concentration. I love listening to She & Him when frosting cakes, though. It’s so beautiful and fun.” (Can’t you picture her frosting to the beat? It’s almost too cute).

And as Erin’s confections rise in the oven and their sweet, mellow scents fill the airs of her outlets in NYC and LA, she and her crackerjack team of bakers and sellers often indulge in a dance parties: “We love Kid Cudi, Passion Pit, Santigold and anything else upbeat the girls have on their iPods.”

To complete the comforting circle of non-cloying sisterly huggy love, Erin and her crew try to project a sensitive, open-handed, willy-nilly spirit in their stores, through their wares and their soundtrack–songs that would inspire (and not offend) the Bronte sisters and simultaneously not totally gross out the hungover hipsters straggling to the shop at the buttcrack of their dawn after the aforementioned waltz in the park.

“We listen to all the above and also a lot of sensitive soft rock from the ’80s,” Erin said. “I like to let everyone have a chance to play their playlists. We just can’t have anything too experimental, and no profanity.” Heaven forfend!

Sonar electronic music and multimedia art festival announced its 2010 lineup featuring LCD Soundsystem, Air, Flying Lotus, Broadcast, Dizzee Rascal, Joy Orbison, Speech Debelle, Zomby, Fuck Buttons and several more. The fest takes place in Barcelona June 17-20. And oh yeah, The Chemical Brothers and Sugarhill Gang will be there, too.

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster (they own everything, even Europe), and a 3-day pass will set you back 150 euro. Single day passes are also available. But hey, it’s Spain, and they know how to party.

Photo by Edward Fausty

Tris McCall is a self-described “wimpy, declasse Jersey smartass” who cranks out piano pop-rock albums that sound like Steely Dan and Graham Parker hit the studio with a few bottles of whiskey and got in touch with their feelings. Years on the road have mellowed both his music and his taste for gut-wrenching road food.

His latest offering, Let the Night Fall, gets a boost from pals KaPow!, My Teenage Stride, The Overlord Community Choir, Matt Houser and Jun Takeshta. This time he’s little older, a little wiser and hella-prepared for the gastric tsunamis that wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am noshes can deliver while touring.

Tris’ hard-earned lessons serve as a cheat sheet for all low-budget indie bands preparing for their descent into the chaos of touring with nothing more than a few bucks in yo’ pocket and rumble in yo’ stomach.

DON’T overindulge in free samples from the random companies sponsoring your event; it can lead to random acts of violence. “The 2000 independent music festival in Hoboken was co-sponsored by Red Bull. I’d never heard of it. I figured it was a new soda,” Tris told UI via email.

“I drank five or six before somebody explained to me what I was doing to myself. About an hour later, I was having difficulty moving my jaw and grasping small objects. I spent about twenty minutes running around on Hudson street, smashing into lampposts. Other rockers can have their drug stories. An accidental Red Bull overdose story, though. Who has that?”

Indeed, Tris, indeed.

DO beware the deep-fried cravings that seem like an excellent idea after playing a show and sweating out several pints of water. Belgian waffles with a quart of maple syrup at 2 a.m. may be OK, but ordering “onion rings, mozzarella sticks, zucchini sticks, anything breaded and dunked in hot oil” in addition to the waffles will inevitably result in severe gastric distress.

DO give into the inevitable! That’s right, you, too, will become a fan of organic, responsibly sourced nutmeg. After several sessions of stomach cramps that an entire army of Tums failed to subdue, Tris started down the organic, healthy, fruit-and-granola-littered path so many rockers have explored of late. (See Franz Ferdinand on McDonald’s; Moby on the perils of steak; Peter Bjorn on the dangers of chain resto-feasting).

His post-show must-have is now quibebe, a butternut squash soup with zucchini, clove and nutmeg (“We’ve even invested in a nutmeg grater!”).

There’s only one place that boasts both The Boss and The Situation. That’s right–with Bruce Springsteen taking on Ticketmaster and the cast of the “Jersey Shore” taking on tans, hair spray and dance floors, it’s clear that New Jersey is taking over.

While the Garden State enjoys its time in the spotlight, our job is to hip you to local bands making moves. We’ve already talked to dozens of Jersey musicians on the rise, including Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls, The Feelies and Jessie Baylin. We’ve scouted dozens more, including Real Estate, Screaming Females, The Black Hollies, Gaslight Anthem, Sharon Van Etten and Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea (though Nicole recently skipped town for Brooklyn).

And one may be surprised at the state’s long history of doling out great music. Frank Sinatra is a local boy, as is Dizzy Gillespie. The Misfits and Tom Verlaine of Television were both bred in Jerz, not to mention The Fugees and Naughty By Nature.

But onto the new–and there are plenty of opportunities to catch them live.

Hear Titus Andronicus dish on the state’s arguably most famous export.

And The Feelies on the NJ scene back in the day.

Plus Jessie Baylin shows some hometown love.

Former drug addled vagrant? Asshole alcoholic self-sabotaging monster? You think you know Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, but the truth is far more complex. Sure, he’s been trumpeted by TV on the Radio and calls Grizzly Bear his friends, but he’s also busked for change and crashed in practice spaces when there were few other options.

Hear the Brooklyn songwriter sound off on cleaning up his act, writing songs while surfing couches, growing up in showbiz and transcending the past.

Want free music? We’ve rounded up the best downloads from across the blogosphere so you can download all in one place, guilt free.

1. Slow Club “Giving Up on Love”
This is probably the happiest song about throwing in the towel we’ve ever heard. It’s upbeat without being corny and honest without being resentful. Call us crazy, but don’t give up!
Download track via Fluxblog

2. Harlan T. Bobo “Mlle. Chatte”
Nashville dude sings about naughty things in French. 
Download track via Tone Marrow

3. Pianos Become the Teeth “Pensive”
Screamo? Emo hardcore? Whatever. Good songwriting, angsty vocals, solid musicianship. You’ll thank us.
Download track via Aversion

4. Microphone Memory Emotion’s Protest Songs
We’re inclined to agree that almost all genres of music are currently wimpy when it comes to making protest music or taking any overt political stand, but it all seems a bit more complicated than that. Here’s a mix to ponder the art of the protest.
Download mix via Microphone Memory Emotion

5. Yellow Swans “Limited Space”
Speaking of heavy, check this meandering, introspective track from the duo’s final release.
Download track via Raven Sings the Blues

6. Woods “Rain On”
We get the feeling the content of this song from the folk band is serious, but one can’t ignore the resolve in the guitar chords. It’s like everything is all good even when it ain’t.
Download track via The Needle Drop

7. Archie Bronson Outfit “Shark’s Tooth”
There’s something metallic about the guitar riff, but in a catchy, non-annoying way. The British band’s new album, Coconut, is out March 1 via Domino.
Download track via XLR8R

8. Autechre FACT mix
The Warp Records duo created a mix for the British mag–generous for a group that largely avoids the spotlight. It’s minimal, it’s hip-hop and it’s only available until the end of month.
Download mix via FACT Magazine

9. Yea Big + Kid Static “Run to the Facts”
This song is from a split EP the hip-hop duo released with The Mae Shi. That’s right–it’s feel-good and goofy. Also up for grabs is their rendition of “Thank You For Being a Friend,” the song made famous as the theme song for The Golden Girls.
Download track via Daytrotter

10. Big Troubles “Wornout”
The bass grabs your attention, the guitar lines surprise you and then you just keep listening to see where the hell this whole thing is headed.
Download track via Chocolate Bobka

As the world of indie becomes increasingly corpie–H&M, Whole Foods, MTV, Bob Dylan, Craigslist, New Brooklyn Cuisine, Courtney Love, Jonathan Lethem, everything in Williamsburg–some hard-headed restaurateurs are doing battle with the forces of evil.

Francis Garcia and his cousin Sal Basille, the boys behind three NYC restaurants–the fabled Sicilian pizza purveyor Artichoke Basille’s Pizza & Brewery, the newly minted dessert destination Led Zeppole and the beeftastic This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef–are leading the charge against inglorious bastardization and the kind of ho-hum dining (and listening) the East Village has sadly become accustomed to.

“I’ve slept three hours in the last two days; I’m living on Red Bull and cigarettes,” Francis grinned, wiping the sweat from his brow, running between the sandwich production zone at This Little Piggy, the takeout counter, the register and the mobs of drooling customers, eager to place their order. And yes, there was more than just an aura of rock star about Francis and his team of beef specialists.

Their weapons of choice often involve cheese…and music. (Also, grease, an aversion to calorie counting, an apparent phobia of tables and chairs, salt ‘n lots of it, and sass served with a side of surl). They’ve got musical programs that espouse the temporal, philosophical, spiritual and intellectual terroir from which the food itself springs, in all of its heavily seasoned glory.

As classic 1940s swing and jazz played in the background and a chandelier from the same era found on Craigslist twinkled overhead, the smell of beef marinated for hours permeated the tiny brick-walled store front. Crocks of au jus gravy bubbled on the stove and fresh mozzarella springy enough to ball up and bounce off the walls was sliced, and I felt like I’d stepped into a time warp. Francis wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m inspired by music from different eras, old tenement buildings, old New York when the East Village streets were lined with carts and peddlers and the lives they led,” he said. “I live in the same building that Butch Cassidy lived in back in the day. At Artichoke, we play music I grew up on–I’m 32–so it’s old-school rock. You know, Pearl Jam, ’90s music that doesn’t suck.”

And at Led Zeppole? “It’s not just Led Zeppelin!” Francis said, a tad forcefully. “But there is a lot of that,” he added with a wink.

Next time you bemoan the fate of the East Village, stop in for a slice, a cake or a sandwich and prepare to be transported to a time when artisanally produced fare wasn’t a trend–it was a way of life. The food, the atmosphere, the owners…and the music.