It's a true sign of the times that members of the old-school-leaning R&B band Mint Condition made much of its new album, "e-Life," the new-fashioned way: via e-mail.

"I'd send a track to Rick to put some bass on it, and then to O'Dell to add some guitar, and so on," singer/drummer/keyboardist Stokley Williams explained. "Usually, nothing gets lost doing it that way -- not for us, anyway. It's the way a lot of music gets done these days."

Indeed, but usually it's out of long-distance necessity -- i.e., Justin Timberlake in L.A. sends a recording of his b-boy beatboxing to Madonna in London. In the case of Mint, all five members still live close to each other around St. Paul, where they started playing together while attending Central High School in the mid-'80s.

They broke out a few years later with help from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and the 1992 top 10 hit "Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)," but aside from ex-keyboardist Keri Lewis (who married Toni Braxton) none of them left town. Instead of geographic demands, then, the electronic collaboration has more to do with personal demands. All in their late-30s to early-40s, four of the five members are dads now, and many have other pursuits and music projects on the side, including the Afro-Cuban jazz play-thang Joto and the all-star R&B group the Truth.

"We've always been a group of many different personalities and backgrounds," bassist/singer Rick Kinchen said with a laugh, "so it's not a bad thing that we don't have to always all be in the same room together to work anymore."

Their work doesn't just involve making music these days, either. Since their last album, 2005's well-received "Livin' the Luxury Brown," they've been running their own record label, CagedBird. That album topped the Billboard independent album chart the week it came out and thus ensured that Mint could live out its career however its members saw fit.

"We're on another level now independently, so we don't have to submit to the kind of commercialism the way we did before," Williams said. "Of course, we're always going to strive for more."

Enter "e-Life," an album that sounds more modern and cutting-edge than "Luxury Brown" without sacrificing too much of their classic songwriting styles. The band will celebrate the disc's release tonight at Trocaderos, their first hometown show since last summer's Taste of Minnesota gig.

Some of the new tracks, including the whirring "Right Here" and the techno-popping gem "Why Do We Try" (featuring A Tribe Called Quest turntablist Ali Shaheed Muhammad), have a strong digital-era sound. And even some of the more traditional-sounding songs have modern themes, such as the slow-funk romp "Wish I Could Love You (Pimp Juice)," which is about "sex-texting" (sexual text messaging).

"Some of the songs are about dating or being in relationships in this electronic age, and how technology has changed even romance," Williams explained.

A few other songs reflect the maturing of the members. The album's first single, "Baby Boy, Baby Girl," is a celebration of fatherhood that was inspired when Kinchen's 8-year-old daughter asked him to log off his computer and play with her. Its most personal track is "Gratitude," in which Kinchen and Williams wrote different verses about their respective fathers' influence on their lives. Williams' dad is the well-known Macalester College professor and community leader Mahmoud El-Kati, while Kinchen's late father was "a different kind of guy."

"He was hard on us, not in any kind of physical way but not always in the best kind of way," he said. "But I think he's what made me a hard worker."

Mint was already back to work touring even before the album was released Tuesday. The guys performed two weekends ago in Los Angeles, where the band also taped a performance that should be up soon on AOL.com. They're headed off to Europe this summer.

Since they weren't always together during the making of the album, Williams said, "We're having a really great time now.

"Twenty years is a long time, and we know how special it is that we are still together."

Superior sounds Already a well-known tunesmith around Duluth and at the Minnesota Folk Festival, where she won the New Folk songwriting contest in 2002, Sara Thomsen is probably just one strong album away from making a broader impact in the Twin Cities scene. That album should be "Everything Changes," which she's promoting with a Mother's Day gig Sunday at the Cedar Cultural Center (7:30 p.m., $14-$16).

Recorded at Sacred Heart Studio (an old church in Duluth), it features a patch-quilt of musical styles stitched together by Thomsen's lonely alto voice and evocative writing style. Highlights include a jazzy tribute to her late grandma, "I Remember These," the hallowed ballad "The Morning After Your Heart Breaks" and "Todo Cambia," a Latin folk gem she picked up during travels in South America.

As Thomsen heads south this weekend, a crew of adventurous jazz musicians will travel north to the Grand Marais Jazz Festival, happening tonight through Sunday. Performers include the Axis Mundi Quartet, Avishai Cohen, Erin Bode and Tony Monaco (www.grandmaraisjazzfest.com).

Polara flashback After getting his mellower, folkier ya-yas out on his first-ever solo CD last year, Ed Ackerson has returned to the feistier, fuzzier sound of his old band Polara on the band's latest album for the Susstones label, "Beekeeping." He and bandmates Jennifer Jurgens and Peter Anderson hit their pedals hard in many of the best cuts, including "Both Ends Burning," the psychedelic jam "Happy Ending" and especially the Stone Roses-ish rocker "Another Phase." You can hear a stream of the entire album at RollingStone.com (just search "Polara"), or else catch the CD-release party tonight at the Varsity, also featuring the Alarmists, Mood Swings and Mercurial Rage (8 p.m., $10). Hard to believe it, but this will be the first Polara gig in more than two years.

Random mix Organizers might need to think about lining up some heating lamps the way the weather's going, but the first few block parties of the year have been announced. Tickets are on sale for the Finnegan's ShamRock homeless fundraiser outside the Cabooze on June 7, with one of the best jam bands in indie rock, Built to Spill, plus Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Romantica, A Night in the Box and Joshua Radin ($20, www.finnegansshamrock.org). The free Red Stag Block Party lands again June 14 in northeast Minneapolis with the Owls, Electric Arc Radio, E.L.nO., Mike Mictlan and Big Trouble. Then look for Tina Schlieske and All the Pretty Horses once again at the Uptown Pride Block Party on June 27. ...

Another international installment of the Minnesota Sur Seine festival kicks off Thursday and lasts through May 25, taking place everywhere from the Triple Rock and Fine Line to a whole St. Paul Music Crawl in Lowertown. Genres range from a night of Ethiopian music to a hip-hop set to the usual abundant jazz gigs. Details at www.surseine.org. ...

Gary Louris' "Vagabonds" earned a nice 3 1/2-star review in Rolling Stone. The magazine's "Best of Rock 2008" issue also named Brother Ali the "best blind Muslim albino rapper." That's so 2006.

chrisr@startribune.com • 612-673-4658