Presale: Thu 2/1 at 10am (code: “andmoreagain”)
On Sale: Fri 2/2 at 10am

Note: this is a seated show.

Everything in Jon McLaughlin’s life makes its way into his music, whether he’s conscious of it or not. The artist, raised in Indiana and based in Nashville, brings all of his experiences and beliefs into each song he creates, something that is especially true now that he’s the father of two young girls.

Jon released his debut album, Indiana, in 2007 on Island Def Jam, attracting fans with his heartfelt, hook-laden songwriting and impassioned delivery. He’s released six full-lengths in the years since and revealed a true evolution in both his piano playing and singing. He’s played shows with Billy Joel, Kelly Clarkson and Adele, collaborated with longtime friend Sara Bareilles, co-written with Demi Lovato and even performed at the Academy Awards in 2008.

Jon’s album, Like Us, dropped in October of 2015 via Razor & Tie, and he spent the past few years touring extensively before heading back into his Nashville studio to work on new music. Jon released a Christmas EP in 2017 titled Red & Green with two originals and his take on a few holiday classics. In November of 2018 Jon released his album Angst & Grace which features “Still My Girl” written for his youngest daughter.

Another project started in 2018 is his Dueling Pianos video series. Every episode features a new guest artist and they perform mashups of never-before-heard arrangements.

In Fall of 2019 Jon released an instrumental piano album titled MOOD. This record demonstrates Jon's artistry and captivates his talent as a pianist. In May 2020 the second edition of the project was released entitled MOOD II.

Jon wrapped up 2020 with the release of his Christmas EP Christmas Time before putting out his most recent full length album All The Things I Say To Myself with immediate fan favorites “A Breakup Song” & “Outta My Head”.

In the fall of 2022 Jon hit the road with his band in celebration of the 15 year anniversary of his Indiana album which will be remastered and re released on vinyl spotlighting a new a capella version of the title track “Indiana” featuring Straight No Chaser as well as never-before-released b-sides.

Towards the end of 2023, Jon released the third installment in his instrumental piano series: MOOD III.

As with everything he does, Jon’s goal is to create connections. He wants to translate his experiences and ideas into music that reaches fans everywhere. His passion for music and playing is evident in each note he plays.

Nolan Taylor is a singer-songwriter based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. His voice ranges from the soft fall of rain to a heavy crack of thunder, underlining songs of hard times, wild nights and heartbreak. The emotional impact of his sound is not only heard, but felt, in the bones and in the blood. Themes of longing, desperation, joy and sorrow ring true and genuine from his lips. When Nolan sings, it will make you feel like all of the heartbreak you have ever experienced found a voice and learned how to play guitar. His passion and his energy are contagious and will draw you into his stories.

From seductive club bangers to therapeutic, night-time-cruising tunes, Slater has solidified his role as a tastemaker and star of the new wave of alternative pop. Since 2013, Southern California’s rising underground sensation, Slater, has blended the best elements of alternative, pop, and hip hop into a new, unique sound all of his own. Smooth, groovy, and infectious, his niche style is as reminiscent of early 00’s pop and radio hits as it is innovative and fresh. As a member of the collective, Vada Vada (consisting of The Garden, Enjoy, Puzzle, Cowgirl Clue, Lumina, and Glitch), Slater is no stranger to experimentation. With over 20 releases under his belt, he continues sonically evolving his signature sound.

Tony Velour is an Atlanta based genre defying artist taking r&b and pop music to new heights. Tony has worked with acts such as 100 gecs, Danger Incorporated, City Morgue and many more.

For his latest solo album, Buck Meek, lead guitarist of Big Thief, went back to Texas – to the border town of Tornillo 560 miles from his hometown of Wimberley – to record Haunted Mountain. The band - Buck (guitar, vocals), Adam Brisbin (guitar), Austin Vaughn (drums), Ken Woodward (bass), Mat Davidson (pedal steel, vocals), and Dylan Meek (keys) - recorded the eleven songs that make up Haunted Mountain over the course of two weeks at Sonic Ranch studio. The album was produced by Davidson and engineered and mixed by Adrian Olsen. The album follows Meek’s 2018 self-titled debut and 2021’s Two Saviors, with records as a part of Big Thief in-between - U.F.O.F. and Two Hands (2019), and Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (2022).

Haunted Mountain is about love and… something other. Something bigger than love, a soulfulness, or a soul seeking fullness. In the songs, (with five co-written alongside longtime friend and musical hero Jolie Holland (‘Haunted Mountain’, ‘Paradise’, ‘Where You’re Coming From’, ‘Lagrimas’, & ‘Lullabies’) and one (‘The Rainbow’) set to the words of Judee Sill’s final journal entry, written 3 weeks before she passed) love often assumes a natural form, sometimes it becomes artificial, sometimes cosmic. It is a consciousness here, interacting with the lovers, watching them sometimes, becoming them sometimes. Romance is not the only form of love Haunted Mountain explores; The epic ‘Lullabies’ examines the inexhaustible connection between mother and son; a platonic bond appears in ‘Where you’re coming from’; and grief leads to communion with the dead in ‘Lagrimas’.

The songs were written in mountains; by cold springs in the Serra da Estrela of Portugal, on the submerged volcano of Milos in the Cyclades, Valle Onsernone in the Swiss Alps (where the cover photo was taken), and the Santa Monica range where Buck now calls home - all where his new love was born. “Love inhabits your environment, animates the inanimate, charging everything around you with a sense of meaning,” Meek says. Haunted Mountain asks - is love a form of magic?

American multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, producer, and singer-songwriter Jolie Holland has been on the road since the early 2000s, releasing nine of her own albums and collaborating on countless others. Her work has been described as a syncretization of American roots, with rock and experimental elements. She’s been in the studio with Booker T, Lucinda Williams, and TV On The Radio; and shared stages with Mavis Staples, St. Vincent, Elbow, and Big Thief. Her collaborators have included Hal Willner, Kronos Quartet, and Boots Riley. Lou Reed once told her, “I could have listened to you all night.”

Album Synopsis

Jolie Holland’s Haunted Mountain is a beckoning, confronting place. At once ancient and of the moment, it hums with literary and political interconnections. The songs illuminate states of dispossession and alienation, lust and pollination: a state of reciprocity with our living planet. The record is a creation beyond genre, a refined jewel that refracts as anti-patriarchal dance music and sultry anti-fascist love songs to bats and bees. The album's rendered environments--ranging from sparse acoustic constellations to dense electronic atmospheres--are punctuated with nuanced percussion from cicadas, drums and even knuckles on piano. These sound-worlds were produced and animated by a trio of multi-instrumentalists: Jolie Holland, Adam Brisbin and Justin Veloso. Helping to conjure Haunted Mountain, the great magician Buck Meek of Big Thief authors the third verse of the title track, and duets with Holland on Highway 72. in a show of love and solidarity, both Meek and Holland include versions of their song Haunted Mountain on their 2023 releases, and both name their records after the song. After all, it is fun to say.

Recent years brought about for Julia Holter an existential focus on human connection, amid the staggering change that came with the death of loved ones (including her young nephew, to whom the album is dedicated) and the birth of her daughter. On Something in the Room She Moves, Holter vividly processes the complexity, gravity, and awe of this confluence of experience. She calls the music “sensual,” “flowing,” and “nocturnal”--a testament to how love, with all of its challenges, “reroutes neural pathways.” The cover art by Holter’s childhood friend, artist Christina Quarles, highlights the multiplicity of intimate connection: are the figures embracing or in battle?

The title Something in the Room She Moves came to Holter spontaneously as she was naming the Logic project file for an early demo of what would become the album’s title track on her computer for the first time. Coincidentally, a few months later, she found herself mesmerized by the eight-hour cinéma-vérité Beatles documentary Get Back in 2021. Her titular phrase flips the gaze of the Beatles lyrics (“Something in the way she moves…”); the woman is no longer passively observed, but actively augmenting space. Holter has loved the Beatles since childhood, but sees the title less as a tribute than as a semi-surreal bit of automatic writing from her subconscious. (She had been singing Beatles tunes to her daughter at night.)

After a string of dream pop albums that established her searching voice in independent music—from 2012 breakthrough Ekstasis to Loud City Song and Have You in My Wilderness—Holter released the sprawling and thrillingly experimental Aviary in 2018. Since then, she has scored films like Never Rarely Sometimes Always, performed a commissioned live score for The Passion of Joan of Arc with the Chorus of Opera North, and collaborated with her partner, the musician Tashi Wada, who plays synth and bagpipes on her new album. Something in the Room She Moves is a remarkable progression in Holter’s oeuvre, synthesizing her free, improvisatory energy with her signature eloquence.

Gustaf began without a name or, for that matter, many official members. In 2018, after someone’s tour bound for South by Southwest collapsed, Brooklyn musician Tarra Thiessen suddenly had a van headed to South by Southwest with no band in it. When she told friend Lydia Gammill about the conundrum, Gammill jumped at the chance to get in a now-empty van and head south with some songs she’d demoed. Friends were quickly recruited. Caution was instantly abandoned. And Gustaf—a devil-may-care quintet with the improvisational elan of their city’s No Wave forebears—was born.

During the next three years, four of the five folks who had climbed in that van without much notice, Gammill and Thiessen included, continued to climb atop any stage or into any living room space that would have them. Their charisma was clear in their slashing riffs, their call-and-response vocals, and their tricky drum-and-percussion tandem. When they released their thrilling debut, 2021’s Audio Drag for Ego Slobs, NME dubbed them one of New York’s most exciting new names—not bad for a band that, three years earlier, didn’t have one. Beck soon touted them as his new favorite group and remixed a track; they soon toured with the likes of Idles, Sleaford Mods, and Yard Act.

That first album, like Gustaf’s shows, was kinetic, fun, and loose, an invitation to shake off the absurdity of existence. Of course, a record with a handle like Audio Drag for Ego Slobs couldn’t be that straightforward or simple. Rather, Gammill was building a world inside of Gustaf, where a character—that being the previously mentioned Ego Slob—struggled to deal with their surroundings, to behave in a way where their emotions and actions didn’t alienate most everyone. But now, on Gustaf’s second album, the endlessly fascinating Package Pt. 2, that Ego Slob turns inward, wondering what they might change to make life, relationships, and love a little more manageable. If that sounds heavy or heady, well, it is; existence is like that, you know? But, importantly, Gustaf never sound heavy, choosing instead to spring forward like some dizzying post-punk dream, moving with the same irrepressible energy that made them.

Gustaf has long had a credo, reflecting their impromptu origins: There are no mistakes, just new arrangements. In conversation, it is something that everyone in the band—the aforementioned Gammill and percussionist Thiessen, plus drummer Melissa Lucciola, bassist Tine Hill, and guitarist Vram Kherlopian—readily acknowledges. That is an easy edict for a debut, of course, when no one has expectations. But it’s more challenging when people are paying attention, when a band has a sense of self and an album to build upon. So in February 2022, before a spate of tours, Gustaf headed into Brooklyn’s Studio G, putting down first takes that they could warp or try again when they returned from the road. They eventually did just that alongside Erin Tonkon, a friend who had worked on David Bowie’s Blackstar and with Richard Hell. Gustaf could now choose what sounded best, a process meant to ensure that the final version wasn’t too stiff, that it moved with the same elasticity that Gustaf has always treasured.

And Package Pt. 2 is a total joy to hear, with Gustaf in full command of a lineage that radiates from obvious touchstones like the B-52s and Talking Heads to DNA and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. “Statue” makes a righteous prologue, with Gammill’s chants about taking up space at the center of the stage in order to ask complicated questions propelled by Lucciola’s throbbing drums and Kherlopian’s jarring riff. It’s tempting to chant along with “I Won” the first time you hear the song, its grievances guided by Hill’s incisive bassline and bolstered by Thiessen’s background vocals. It feels like an open invitation to vent. Don’t you wanna vent?

Where “Here Hair” is a brooding, slow-motion growl peppered by birdsong and stabbed by pinpricks of guitar, its chaser, “Hard Hair,” is a 45-second outburst, all energy and invective and regret. The shout-out-loud question and luminous hook of “Happiest Thought,” the push-and-pull dynamics of “What Does It Mean,” the rhythmic games of “Produce”: Package Pt. 2, is first and foremost, a magnetic rock album, Gammill’s speak-sing verses and uncanny hooks the tip of Gustaf’s colorful spear.

The hooks, riffs, and rhythms dig in instantly on Package Pt. 2. But it’s the larger questions Gustaf asks about how we deal with ourselves and one another that make these songs so repeatable, so that you can dig back into what they’re saying. “What Does It Mean” explores the internal cycles that drive us mad, that make us doubt we’re capable of anything. “Weighing Me Down” wonders how it is we know what we want in life and how we know when it may be ruining us. “I don’t lose time/It just moves forward,” Gammill intones with touches of menace and dread during “End of the Year,” the record’s stinging closer. “And I don’t lose my sight/It just stops working.” How are we—Ego Slobs, all of us—supposed to find our way to something better if we can’t even depend on our senses of self or the world?

Gammill will be the first to tell you that maybe that’s too much to consider for a rock album that’s this breathless and fun. Sometimes, she even wonders if she should mention it at all, but Gustaf was built in part to have fun thinking, shouting, and playing about our collective flaws. It’s at the very core. Indeed, like the best of their New York No Wave predecessors, Gustaf finds the space between the good-times rock gig and the late-night philosophizing that happens when it’s over. Sing along, read along, dance along: Package Pt. 2 works on whatever level you need it.

Since forming in 2003 at school in their hometown of St Albans, U.K, Enter Shikari has, thus far, released seven full-length studio albums; TAKE TO THE SKIES (2007), COMMON DREADS (2009), A FLASH FLOOD OF COLOUR (2012), THE MINDSWEEP (2015), THE SPARK (2017). NOTHING IS TRUE & EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE (2020), and the latest, A KISS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD which was released Friday 21st April 2023.

All seven albums debuted in the UK Album Chart top 5 “midweeks”, with 2023’s 'A Kiss For The Whole World' finally scoring the band their first ever UK Album Chart #1 record. Enter Shikari have been recipients of multiple awards and topped many a magazine reader’s poll, picking up 'Best Live Band’ gongs like there’s no tomorrow, as well as a plethora of ‘Best UK Artist’ and ‘Best Album’ statuettes, from the likes of Kerrang!, Rock Sound, the Heavy Music Awards and NME.

Summer 2020 saw the band announce a partnership / shirt sponsorship with local football team St Albans City FC. Frontman / songwriter / producer Rou Reynolds has published four books with Faber Music, the most recent (and most ambitious) being a ‘A Treatise On Possibility’ in the summer of 2021. As well as Rou Reynolds authored publications, in October 2022 Faber Music also published ‘Standing Like Statues - The Enter Shikari Biography’ written by Kerrang! Magazine editor Luke Morton.

Enter Shikari have played somewhere in the region of 3000 live shows around the globe, including three headline arena-sized tours in the UK, substantial UK / Europe arena supports in their early career with The Prodigy, Linkin Park and 30 Seconds To Mars, and more big and small festivals worldwide than it would be possible to list. The band’s last full U.K tour (December 2021) sold out across the board, including the band’s fourth headline show at London’s 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace.

2023 kicked straight off with Enter Shikari releasing the single ‘(pls) set me on fire’ in January, accompanying an announcement of their new album, and what became known as the Residency Tour, which took in five British cities over the course of one week, repeating for three months. In May 2023, Enter Shikari announced UK arena tour dates for 2024, including the band’s first ever Wembley Arena show. In recognition of the grassroots touring scene which birthed the band, the band has pledged £1 from every ticket sale for the tour to be donated to the Music Venue Trust to support grassroots music venues in the UK. The band also announced a short European run, including the largest German and Netherlands shows Enter Shikari has played thus far. The band kicked off festival season for summer 2023 by headlining the UK’s Slam Dunk Festival in Hertfordshire and Leeds.

Musician Pachy García’s life took a devastating swerve during the fraught summer of 2020. Following an illness, his mother suddenly passed away. Several months later, right as the ink was drying on a record deal for his solo project Pachyman, his father died. “It was the worst and best year of my life,” García says. “My parents were super influential and super supportive of me wanting to do music, wanting to leave Puerto Rico…I’ve been in bands all of my life. All of a sudden I get my big break, and they’re not there.”

A veteran of bands like noise-pop provocateurs Prettiest Eyes, the Los Angeles-based García has always worked through things with music. But faced with these devastating losses back to back, his drive to create evaporated. For a full year he couldn’t bring himself to write. But when the 2021 Omicron surge temporarily shuttered businesses throughout the city, including where García works, he was forced to sit with his thoughts.

One day García ventured down to his basement recording studio, 333 House, and tried to let loose. He found that a lack of expectations “liberated me from the fact that I needed to work on music,” and songs cascaded from his brain. These experiments morphed into his new album, the reggae and dub-drenched Switched-On. The follow-up to 2021’s The Return of Pachyman, it’s out on September 29th via ATO Records.

Every moment and flourish heard on the record is intentional, down to the equipment he used. The refurbished mixing board that García utilized to mix the album is the same model Lee “Scratch” Perry had at his legendary Black Ark Studio in Kingston, Jamaica. The album’s title, Switched-On, gestures to García’s chirring synthesizers, like the Roland SH- 01a in the effervescent electronic interlude “Mi Sala,” and the Korg Poly800, that form the spine of these songs. The name of the album is an homage, too, to the generative artistic era when musicians first began manipulating synthesizers to emit gloriously off-kilter bleeps, bloops, and whooshes.

García first became interested in reggae as a young man growing up in Puerto Rico. Forged by ingenious musicians, distinctly Jamaican riddims wended their way into Boricua sonic traditions over the years. In the 1990s a Puerto Rican strain of reggae emerged, flush with cheeky humor and higher-pitched harmonics. These complementary influences surface on the enchanting “Toyota Nuevo,” a tune buoyed by a reggae backbeat and the percussive patter of a güiro, an instrument often used in Puerto Rico fashioned out of gourds plucked from a higüero tree. And “Sale el Sol” calls back to his life in the Caribbean, with a deconstructed rhythm and a repetitive vocal
pattern greeting the sun that rises each morning. “We have a very good sense of wanting to move and knowing how to play music that moves us,” García says of Puerto Rican artistry. “So that seeps into the music.”

While conceptualizing Switched-On, García gravitated towards listening to Lovers’ Rock-era reggae and transmissions from the iconic Studio One Records — a thread that surfaces in “Goldline.” The song, inspired by García’s job at a hifi listening bar that plays a lot of disco and funk at night, intentionally pulled at a “Studio One disco-soul vibe” with a splash of dub mixed in. But through the writing process for Switched-On, he realized that his past two solo albums, In Dub (2019) and The Return Of Pachyman (2021) had been a direct response to the sounds of his musical heroes, especially King Tubby and Scientist. García reached a creative crossroads. “Okay, do I want to continue being a cloth cut from my heroes or do I want to become my own artist?” he asked himself. “Do I start bringing my complete ideas and being more myself rather than trying to emulate my favorite artists?”

For Switched-On, García challenged himself to steer his songwriting towards another dimension. A bold step forward from his previous work, this creative evolution emerges on “You Looked at Me,” fusing a mesmerizing, Krautrock-esque beat with synth musings reminiscent of bands such as Boards of Canada and his own minimalist vocals for added texture. His ear for expansiveness comes through the winking “Trago Coqueto,” a cheeky love song crooned through the prism of a cocktail named after a flirty lemon-ginger drink. In a uniquely Pachyman twist, it acts as an ode to his life in Puerto Rico. It couldn’t be a more fitting testament to Switched-On’s ethos, which meditates on García’s conviction to move his art forward while simultaneously honoring his roots.

Described by NPR’s Alt.Latino as an “otherworldly presence,” Combo Chimbita is the creative unity of Carolina Oliveros (vocals, guacharaca), Niño Lento es Fuego (guitar), Prince of Queens (bass, synthesizers) and Dilemastronauta (drums), who together transcend common concepts of time and nationality.

Afro-Caribbean transcendance, bewildering chants, booming drums and psychedelic distortion lay the rhythmic foundation for IRÉ; a testament to the ever expanding scope of Combo Chimbita’s sonic palette and their modes of resistance in realms both spiritual and terrestrial.

“Within the saga of Combo Chimbita,” reflects Niño Lento es Fuego about each of the band’s releases, “El Corredor del Jaguar (2016) finds this eternal being lost outside their realm and returning to Abya Yala (2017) in order to heal and restore peace to the continent. Ahomale (2019) appears as a guiding energy of resistance and now IRÉ (2022) represents those chosen to lead the revolution and materialize the good fortunes foretold in their divinations.” Like the jaguar before them, Combo Chimbita carries on; delicate, resilient and roaring.

A mix of sprawling, exploratory, psych-pop, prog rock, and heavy garage riffs, Australia's Psychedelic Porn Crumpets rose out of Perth's indie underground, earning a devoted fan base through hard touring and releases like 2016's High Visceral, Pt. 1 and 2019's more muscular And Now for the Whatchamacallit.

In the past few years, 25-year-old Sabrina Teitelbaum has transformed into a songwriter without fear. The loud-quiet excavations that comprise her hook-filled debut as Blondshell don’t only stare traumas in the eye—they tear them at the root and shake them, bringing precise detail to colossal feelings. They’re clear-eyed statements of and about digging your way towards confidence, self-possession, and relief.

Teitelbaum grew up in a classic rock-loving household in several Midtown Manhattan apartments, raised primarily by her single dad. During an era of sleek teen radio pop, her most formative childhood obsession was the Rolling Stones. Piano and guitar offered a means of processing the instability around her. “I had a lot of really big feelings, but I had learned as a child that I couldn’t really express them,” she says. “Performing and writing ended up being the only place where I could get any feelings out.” In high school, she discovered new indie-rock bands by scouring the websites of Bowery venues with her fake ID in hand—teen fascinations that instilled in her a love for lyrics with specificity and intensity, particularly as learned from The National, whose lyrics “informed a lot of the way I write.”

But when Teitelbaum moved to Los Angeles for music school in 2015, she began forging a different path. Entering USC’s Pop Program, she was swept into a context where the brooding pop legacies of Lorde and Lana Del Rey reigned. She dropped out after two years, but Teitelbaum studied classic and jazz theory, the art of harmonies, and found herself writing songs inside the world of pop studio sessions.

The biggest gift the pop machine gave her was the stark clarity of realizing that she didn’t quite belong there. Her music was increasingly too raw and intense to easily categorize, and after finishing her last full-on pop EP with producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Girlpool, Porches) at the start of the pandemic, she gave herself permission to write without expectation. She began penning songs just for herself, with no thought that she would release them. The process emboldened her. Subtracting self-consciousness became a catalyst for the lucid songs of Blondshell, on which her experiences all coalesce to form her truest expressions of self yet. “It was me, as a person, in my songs,” she says. When she showed a few to Rothman, he encouraged her to write an album, joining a chorus of friends saying, “This is you.”

This moment of creative self-reckoning was the tip of the iceberg for Teitelbaum during a season of profound change; she had also gotten sober in early 2020. “There was a rush of really intense emotions,” she says. “I was going through a lot of things that put me in a position to be as honest as possible.”

That bracing honesty charges every note of Blondshell. With the world at a screeching halt, she recommitted to guitar and revisited the galvanic 90s alt-rock of Nirvana and Hole, absorbing their simmers and explosions, the crests and contours that made their abrasive version of pop so potent. Immersing herself into books, too—particularly the writing of Patti Smith, Rebecca Solnit, Rachel Cusk, and Clare Sestanovich—she found patience and permission. “I loved how seriously she took her own experiences,” Teitelbaum says of Solnit’s Recollections of My Nonexistence. “It helped me not trivialize the things I was going through.”

Powered by brilliant, crystalline melodies, Teitelbaum’s eloquent writing takes root in the concrete: every line is literal, a keyhole to a bigger truth. “I think my kink is when you tell me that you think I’m pretty,” she sings on “Kiss City,” a witty expression of learning to state desire; “I think you watched way too much HBO growing up,” goes “Joiner,” a blunt address of formative damage. Blondshell is about learning and unlearning, about untangling the ways we’re taught to accept bad behavior, about peeling the layers back. These intelligent songs often contain the epiphanies of therapy sessions more than pop sessions, even when the hooks are simply a blast. “The lyrics are really vulnerable and they were scary to say,” she says. “I feel like the shredding guitars are a protective shell.”

When Teitelbaum sings “Logan’s a dick/I’m learning that’s hot” on the explosive opener “Veronica Mars,” there’s a subtly-stated depiction of how the media conditions us as kids. Later, in the gigantic chorus of “Sepsis”—“It should take a whole lot less to turn me off”—she offers a concise, mic-dropping summary of how those ingrained standards play out later in life, as the song chronicles the process of learning self-respect in the face of toxic behavior. (“It was about how it shouldn’t take as much gross behavior for me to be turned off,” Teitelbaum elaborates. “After one or two negative experiences with someone, I should be like, ‘OK, going to move on now, that’s too fucked up and disrespectful.’”) And when “Olympus” arrives at its refrain, “I want to save myself/You’re part of my addiction,” Teitelbaum vividly captures how addictions can be transferred from substances to people.

For all its complicated, soul-baring subject matter—processing post-lockdown social anxiety, her relationships with men as well as with women—Blondshell is a comfort, and its songs often contain the perfectly-calibrated humor and levity we need to survive. “There were a lot of things that I was running away from—mainly loneliness, self-esteem stuff,” Teitelbaum says.

It all left her yearning to make the kind of music that has helped her feel empowered herself—and the way there was in telling the truth. “I always want to make people feel like they have more power and control and peace because I know what it feels like to want that for myself. I know how music has helped me get there,” she says. “What I’ve realized I need to do is write realistically, and try to not bring shame into the writing. Each song gave me more confidence. I hope the songs help people in that way, too.”

Note: This is a partially seated show.

The Bygones are an indie folk band fronted by Joshua Lee Turner and Allison Young. Their sound ties together unexpected genres, from traditional jazz to 70’s singer-songwriter, classic country to bossa nova. Josh’s classical guitar background and ear for vocal harmony provide the underpinning for Allison’s powerful songwriting and nostalgic voice, in duo arrangements that are intricate yet accessible, classic yet fresh. Josh and Allison first worked together in 2018, recording a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” which now has over 4.5 million YouTube views. They soon realized that their musical styles were a natural fit for one another, and in 2022 they recorded their first EP, May 9-12, which they toured to sold out audiences across the UK later that year. They made their US debut as The Bygones in February 2023, selling out shows at Rockwood Stage 2 in New York and The Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville. Their self-titled debut album is slated for spring 2024, followed by a U.S. album release tour.

The sound of the future as imagined in the 1980s. The nostalgic theme song to your favourite childhood cartoon that may have never existed. The hopefulness of someone from the future describing the utopia of tomorrow. Like a paradox of time travel, TWRP is all of these things and yet none of them.

This optimistic fascination with the future, grounded in the nostalgia of the past, is what has shaped TWRP. They are the product of many eclectic styles and eras, crafted into something simultaneously playful, heartfelt, and tongue-in-cheek, all delivered with self-aware bombast and an uncommon musical precision. Old funk, modern electronic, and classic rock converge in their science fiction universe, as if Earth, Wind & Fire, Justice, and Casiopeia provided the soundtrack to a 80s cult classic film directed by John Carpenter.

The official credit tells it like it is. “Recorded in an old building in Ripley, Mississippi” – that’s all the info we get, and all that we need.

When Cedric Burnside prepared to record Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in the seat of Tippah County, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues style.

“That building was actually going to be my juke joint. Everything was made out of wood, which made the sound resonate like a big wooden box,” said Burnside. He called up producer Luther Dickinson (co-founder of the acclaimed North Mississippi Allstars and the son of legendary Memphis producer/musician Jim Dickinson), who brought recording equipment into the empty space. “We recorded in the middle of a bunch of rubbish – wood everywhere and garbage cans,” Burnside says. “We just laid everything out the way and recorded the album right there.”

The 14 songs on the record were finished in two days, but in addition to being satisfied with the sound, Burnside believes that Hill Country Love represents real creative progress. “Every time I write an album, it's always different,” he says. “I'm always looking to express myself a little bit better than I did on the last one and talk about more things happen in my life. I think that every day that you’re able to open your eyes, life is gonna throw you something to write about and to talk about.

“So on this album,” he continues, “I'm a little bit more upfront and direct, because I went through some crazy feelings with family and with friends. Winning the Grammy was awesome, but people tend to treat you a little different when things like that happen.”

Certainly, plenty of things have happened in Cedric Burnside’s life since he went on the road at age 13, drumming for his grandfather, the pioneering bluesman R.L. Burnside. His two albums before I Be Trying – 2015’s Descendants of Hill Country and 2018’s Benton County Relic – were both nominated for Grammys. He has also appeared in several films, including Tempted and Big Bad Love (both released in 2001) and the 2006 hit Black Snake Moan, and he played the title character in 2021’s Texas Red.

Burnside is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts and was recently recognized with the 2024 Mississippi Governor's Art Award for Excellence in Music. He has performed and recorded with such diverse musicians as Jimmy Buffett, Bobby Rush, and Widespread Panic.

Yet as the title of the new album indicates, Burnside has never strayed far from the distinctive blues style introduced to the world by his “Big Daddy” R.L. and such other greats as Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, and Otha Turner. “I’ve been traveling my whole life, and the song ‘Hill Country Love’ gave me a chance to let people know that I love what I do and give a sense of how we do it in Mississippi – like, the house party is a tradition here, Big Daddy threw a lot of them. So that's what I was thinking about as I was writing that song – where I come from and also where I'm going, and how my journey has been to get to where I'm at now.”

Another song, “Juke Joint,” pays tribute to the local nightlife institutions that were central to Burnside’s growth both personally and musically. “The juke joint was a big part of my life,” he says. “I didn't go to church, the juke joint was my church, and the juke joint was my school. I was there all the time, from 10 years old until I was grown.”

At the same time, Burnside sees himself as an inheritor, not an imitator, of his native region’s blues style. “Big Daddy’s music, Junior’s music, Mister Otha’s music – my music is similar to theirs, but I'm a younger generation,” he says. “Whether we want to or not, we move on, and so my music will automatically sound a little more modern. But even if I tried to sound really modern, that old feel and old sound is just there. You might hear a song and think. ‘Wow, that sounds like it was recorded in 1959.’ I like that, but it's really just me growing up around it and falling in love with that sound.”

The album displays rock, R&B, and hip-hop elements, a range of sounds and emotions, from the self-explanatory instrumental “Get Funky” to the harsh truths of “Toll on your Life” and “Coming Real to You.” The most familiar composition is Burnside’s version of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move,” popularized by the Rolling Stones but often performed by Burnside’s grandfather at his Holly Springs farm. “He would get off the tractor and go sit on the porch and play for a couple hours, drink a little moonshine, and then go back to the tractor,” says Burnside, “and that's one of the songs that I always loved to hear him play.”

Many have drawn parallels between the polyrhythmic, droning sound of the Hill Country style, with its unpredictable chord progressions and bar counts, to West African music; that link is most obvious on the extended guitar introduction to “Love You Music.” But Burnside never really heard music from that part of the world until a few years ago, when a friend born in Gambia played him a record by Malian artist Ali Farka Toure. “I thought it was some old, underground Junior Kimbrough,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, man, I wonder do the Kimbrough family know about this?’ And then he started singing and my friend just started laughing!”

With “Closer,” Burnside strives for spiritual redemption; “I fall short on you, Lord, on some days/Please forgive me Lord, every day I pray,” he sings. “That song really resonates to me,” he says. “When I was writing it, I didn't just think about myself, I thought about everybody in the world, and getting closer to God. Every day you wake up, life is challenging, and it throws you all kinds of curveballs. Your faith is tested every day – that line is actually in the song, and I know people can relate to that as I can.”

To Cedric Burnside, Hill Country Love is a culmination of a career that’s already seen astonishing accomplishments and only keeps growing. What he wanted this time out was a real sense of honesty and integrity. “I compromised a little bit with my albums in the past,” he says, “and I didn't really have to compromise with this one, because I did it by myself. I paid for the engineer, paid for the musicians, I didn't have a record company there. We just went to play music, and how it came out was how it came out – and it came out great.

“I have to be true to where I'm coming from,” he continues. “On this album, the feeling that I had was like, I’m going to write what I feel, I’m going to write what's going on. Life gives you good and life gives you bad and you have to cope with it however you need to cope with it. My way of coping with things is through my music, so I thank the Lord for music. I really do.”

Note: There are two available show times for this world-class performance at Downtown Durham’s newest music venue, Missy Lanes Assembly Room.

Early show: Doors at 5:30pm, music at 6:30pm.
Late show: Doors at 8:30pm, music at 9pm.

“just saw THE REBIRTH BRASS BAND, unbelievable. hard as hell, free as a ray of light, there is not a band on earth that is better. stunning.” - Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers

For almost 4 decades, the Grammy winning Rebirth Brass Band has been “stunning” fans with a fiery live show and a rich musical catalog. Their trademark sound pays homage to the New Orleans brass band tradition while weaving a tapestry that combines elements of jazz, funk, soul, R&B and the sounds from the streets they grew up on. From their legendary 25+ year run of Tuesday nights at the Maple Leaf to stages all over the world, Rebirth is the soundtrack of the Crescent City and her premier musical ambassador.

Founded by brothers Phil and Keith Frazier over 35 years ago, Rebirth began their career playing on the sidewalks of the French Quarter, and quickly landed gigs at second line parades. Those auspicious beginnings have led to thousands of shows to music aficionados everywhere, including heads of state and royalty.

The bands unique “soundtrack of New Orleans” has also garnered admiration from artists of all genres. They’ve shared the stage and collaborated with everyone from the Grateful Dead to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Maceo Parker, Green Day, U2, James Brown, 311, G-Love, MuteMath, Juvenile, Train, Big Freedia, Ani Difranco, Galactic, Allen Touisant, Neville Brothers, Quincy Jones and Trombone Shorty.

Sweet Pill has a style earmarked by an earnest ingenuity that many young artists are quick to romanticize and aspire to but slow to cultivate and execute. It takes time. For singer Zayna Youssef, guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney, however, their 5 years together have seen their hard work rewarded tenfold in half as long as it would take almost anyone else. From their 2018 inception, Sweet Pill forged a storied path leading to this moment: the release of their new EP, Starchild, their first for new label home, Hopeless Records.

There’s a cinematic quality to Sweet Pill’s forming in college in New Jersey, converting a small school bus into a tour-ready, cross-country capable vehicle (complete with bunks!) and driving it to SXSW in efforts to draw attention to their newly growing passion. In true film fashion, Sweet Pill arrived at the world- famous Austin festival only to be informed of its cancellation as the introduction of shelter-in-place restrictions surrounding the emergence of COVID-19. Proceeding to return home, their converted vehicle buckled under the pressure of the excursion, leaving them stranded for several days in Baton Rouge, LA before returning to their new home of Philadelphia.

It was this struggle that set the stage for the writing process that conceived what would become Sweet Pill’s first full-length LP, ‘Where the Heart Is.’ When it came time to record, the group went to the studio Gradwell House with Matt Weber (A Great Big Pile of Leaves), eventually releasing it on classic emo label Topshelf Records in 2021. ‘Where the Heart Is’ and the support tours it led to (La Dispute, Their/They’re/There, and Origami Angel) didn’t come directly next, either. The band waited another year after their SXSW snafu before signing to Topshelf. With time, though, offers materialized, and their song “High Hopes” even earned itself a spin by Paramore’s Hayley Williams on her BBC Radio podcast “Everything Is Emo.” Bit by bit, buzz started to grow, leading the band to land a tour with The Wonder Years and, soon after, catching the ear of veteran indie label, Hopeless Records.

Starchild sees Sweet Pill returning to Weber and Gradwell House for another triumph, tapping in Dave Downham for mastering, and ‘Where the Heart Is’ art illustrator Kerry Dunn to continue the style their debut established. With these two releases, Sweet Pill only hopes to inspire others into a life lived passionately in close community with like-minded individuals, as they have been by bands like Algernon Cadwallader, Hop Along, and, of course, Paramore. For Williams, the only intention is “to live a sustainable life while playing music and uplift the people around me,” while drummer Chris Kearney feels it is his only path. “I don’t know what else I would do, I don’t have another purpose in life.”

emo/pop-punk/power-pop from Toledo, Ohio.

Have a Good Season is a power trio from Eatontown, NJ who have crafted a signature sound that takes inspiration from 90’s college rock, vintage power pop, and midwest emo. The rhythm section of Daniel Stattner (bass) and Dan Sakumoto (drums) pushes and pulls with intricacy and motion, leaving open space for Nic Palermo (guitar/vocals) to lay down rich, open chords and melodic lead playing.

This detail-oriented approach coupled with nostalgic lyricism has allowed Have a Good Season to produce new ideas while paying homage to the influences that are weaved into their songcraft.

HAGS’ latest single “Shoes” is their attempt at capturing the memories of boundless imagination and freedom we have as children. You’ll never want it to end.

From the depths of the Midwest alt rock scene arises a soulful and passionate quintet ready to bend genres and produce tunes that’ll make you jump, shake, and move: Post Sex Nachos. Charging into battle for the love of the groove, these roller-coaster rockers are here to redefine the term "boy band" forever. Breathing new life into genres across the spectrum - from jazz, to pop, to straight up funk rock - Post Sex Nachos continuously reimagines the scope of what they can do with their art. Where most find a wall, they find a door, in a get-me-a-sledge-hammer-so-I-can-show-this-wall-a-thing-or-two kind of way.

 Accompanied by two previously released singles, the title track of their new “Keep Moving” EP is the thematic culmination of the band's last two years traversing the country and writing music for a world that can't seem to get out of its own way. Ingratiated with mesmerizing guitar riffs, synth leads that transport you to a hot sand beach on a scorching summer's day, and bouncing rhythms that anyone can get lost inside of, their music paints a portrait of a group who's unsure of what the future holds for them but are eager to find out anyways. A shout into the void, the "Keep Moving" EP unabashedly declares that the only thing you can do in a world full of uncertainty is to roll with the punches, keep your head up, and keep on moving.

 Post Sex Nachos is (surprisingly) 100% Vegan, Organic, and Homemade. 

On sophomore album Just What? North Carolina’s Whoop traverse indie-pop, rock, reggae, and jazzy hip-hop with instinctive musicality, rare chemistry, and palpable joy.
Due on Porcelain Records on April 8th, the foursome’s second full-length in as many years evolves an innately diverse palette channeled through force-of-nature vocalist Fal and shaped by Grammy-winning guitarist/producer Steve Bigas.
“Music is supposed to bring people together, shake things up, cause a ruckus, and make a mark,” said Fal. “I always want Whoop to leave a lasting impression in someone’s mind/heart/ears.”
Formed in 2020, Whoop evolved organically from Friday night jams in Bigas’ barn studio in Raleigh. Consisting of musical moments captured, distilled, and tastefully shaped into songs, the band’s celebratory yet introspective eponymous debut emerged to rave reviews just a year later.
Since then, the prolific quartet, completed by bassist Nick Clarke and drummer William Perrone, has been performing electrifying live shows – including Carolina Indie Fest and the NC State Fair – between the writing/recording sessions that ultimately spawned Just What? “We normally start with a single idea, whether it be on bass, guitar, or drums,” Nick explained. “We build off that until it evolves into a vibe. Fal then takes that vibe and sings the first thing that comes to mind. Later, we chop up the best parts to form outlines for songs.”

With transplanted Canadian Bigas (Ziggy Marley, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal etc.) once again at the controls, Just What? announces itself with the visceral, guitar-driven call-to-arms of opener “Rise Up” – a song that seamlessly juxtaposes reggae grooves, indie sensibilities, and an anthemic rock hook. Second track “The Way” confirms Whoop’s adventurous genre-blending with its playful big-band horns, sultry vocal, and burbling percussion.

Further Just What? highlights include the streetwise, syncopated angst-funk of “Cherry Cola”; delicate and dreamy acoustic standout “New Disposition”; and the gorgeous, late-night jazzy soul and finely grained Fal performance on “Here.” Meanwhile, breezy, contemplative “Time Machine” contrasts with the rhythmic exotica of “Nothing Changes” and the title track’s gritty grooves and sardonic narrative.
And Whoop’s four contrasting yet uniquely complimentary characters just can’t stop/won’t, stop creating. “Album number three is already fifty percent written..” Bigas revealed.

Small Crush began in Logan Hammon's bedroom when she was 13 years old, writing songs on her dad's old guitar and recording covers on garageband. In her sophomore year of high school, she found some friends in jazz band class to help fulfill her dream of playing her songs in a full band. Together the band began developing their indie rock sound by getting inspired by 90s alternative and early 2000s indie. In 2019, the band released their self-titled debut album on a local Bay Area label Asian Man Records, and a second full length "Penelope" in 2023. Since then the band has supported artists like Hunny, Mom Jeans and Jeff Rosenstock out on tour. Through it all, the band has made the joy of playing music and having fun the most important thing.

Similar Kind is an indie pop band from Norwalk, CT. It originated as just a few friends jamming in a garage and has blossomed into a five piece band playing shows all over the northeast. Similar Kind has played with acts such as Sunflower Bean, Bad Bad Hats, Charly Bliss, & more. The band is currently working on a follow up EP to their debut “Faces & Places” a project chock-full of indie pop, reminiscent of The Cure and Talking Heads, described as “dance-ready synth-pop. equal parts R&B, pop, and indie rock, the EP is a highly-polished, thoroughly-confident release”.

The band has released various singles throughout 2020 with “Nobody Loves You” & “Lost & Lonely” being the latest two!

My Sister Maura is an indie shoegaze outfit based in Raleigh, NC, and composed of 3 members: guitarist Katie Quinn, bassist Elijah Hall, and drummer David Moore. The trio blends elements of shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk into a formidable wall of sound, proving that they are not afraid to experiment by shifting from heavily distorted guitars to haunting jangle pop riffs to soft and blissful near-ballads. With the release of their debut full length LP “So Long” in September 2023, My Sister Maura honed in on a sound that stays true to their identity and established themselves as a fresh voice in the indie rock scene.

Arm's Length are a Canadian emo band from Quinte West, Ontario. The group formed in 2018 with Allen Steinberg on guitar and vocals, and brothers Jeremy and Jeff Whyte on guitar and drums, respectively. Benjamin Greenblatt, originally from New Jersey, joined the band on bass in 2022.

Philly Nostalgiacore

Oklahoma emo band and butt rock.

Saturdays at Your Place is an alternative emo band from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Their sound consists of both heavy and twinkly guitar parts, group vocals and heart on sleeve lyrics.

To date Atlanta, Georgia based songwriter Christopher Paul Stelling has released 7 albums and played thousands of concerts across the US and EU. Over the last decade Stelling has toured as both headliner and as support for Son Little, Mavis Staples, and The Devil Makes Three, Ben Harper (who produced his 2020 album Best of Luck) and many others. Stelling released a trio of albums for indie favorite Anti- records (Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Niko Case) and has performed multiple times at Newport Folk Festival and on CBS Saturday Morning. Stelling is known for his intricate finger-style guitar and road tested vocal delivery.

Tired Hearts, the new album from rising indie-pop power trio, BAILEN, delivers a dazzling set of songs that navigates the space between the heart’s expectation and the head’s sober reality. New York based siblings, Daniel, David, and Julia’s second full-length album for Fantasy beats with empathy, vulnerability, and resolve.

At times intricate and playful, measured and elaborate, the 12 original songs on Tired Hearts wrestle with an uncertain future where ethics and morality—both communal and personal—seem to be constantly shifting. Locating one’s compass amidst the chaos—a world-wide pandemic, toxic social media culture, economic insecurity and political turbulence—is at the LP’s core.

Producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Snail Mail) who, along with the band, co-produced Tired Hearts, helped to expand BAILEN’s ambition beyond what they initially envisioned. “We’d played the last record live a hundred times before recording it, so we tracked a lot of it live,” Daniel explains. “With Brad, we took a collagist’s approach. It freed us up to explore and be sonically adventurous.”

In contrast to the road-tested songs on their accomplished debut LP, 2019’s Thrilled to Be Here produced by John Congleton, many of the songs on Tired Hearts were honed in the studio as opposed to live on tour – “the songs changed so much over the course of recording process,” Julia remarks.

Most noticeably, Cook encouraged the trio to experiment with how they sing. “We deliberately used the more vulnerable parts of our voices,” Julia says. “After not being in the studio for years, we were in vulnerable places, and this record reflects the frustration and tenderness of that time.” “We pushed ourselves lyrically, it’s the most exposed, intimate music we’ve written as a result,” David affirms.

Indeed, BAILEN’s radiant harmonies, spare, synth-driven tracks, and futuristic, ear-catching arrangements usher in Tired Heart’s exhilarating avant-pop evolution. “Shadows,” affectingly captures “the moment you see someone and realize you can spend the rest of your life with them.” “Nothing Left to Give” echoes of HAIM’s sparkling pop, while “These Bones,” contains a hint of Phoebe Bridgers’ hushed intimacy.

Perhaps no two songs embody that fresh ethos (and the band’s incredible range) more than the high-gloss, New Wave dance track “Call It Like It Is,” and the stunning “BRCA (Nothing Takes Me Down),” which takes its name from the hereditary breast cancer gene that Julia and her mother (who is a breast cancer survivor) share. Over the track’s slow building rhythmic pulse, Julia sings of hospital gowns and uncertainty, untying a complex knot of familial anxiety, guilt, and acceptance, while embracing the determination to move forward: I’ll still live like I’m dying/ But I won’t let it take me down, she insists. “It’s about finding ways to not be defined by these circumstances, and to move past them with resilience.”

Raised and rooted in New York City by classically trained musician parents and their wide-ranging, eclectic record collection, BAILEN has emerged as a favorite in indie circles by cultivating a passionate following via word of mouth, robust playlisting and a stream of steady touring and collaborating with artists such as Amos Lee, The Lone Bellow, Joseph, and Hozier to name a few.
On Tired Hearts, their exquisite and thought-provoking new album, BAILEN learns how to dream in the face of life’s uncertainty and in the process, moves forward aware, resilient, and hopeful. “This album is a breakthrough for us,” Daniel says. “It’s been a rocky road, but we’re really grateful that it’s led us here.”

Cece Coakley is hitting her stride. In the wake of her debut 2022 EP “Tender,” the 22-year old singer-songwriter is exploring a world beyond her native Knoxville, literally and metaphorically.

Fresh off touring with rising acts like Medium Build, Stephen Sanchez, Field Guide and Ella Jane, Coakley has no shortage of new experiences to draw from. “The first EP came out of living at my parents’ house,” she explains. “Now I’m writing new songs on the road and trying them out live the same night – I’ve grown up so much making this new music.” Splitting her time between Nashville and LA, Coakley partnered with new collaborators like Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers, Samia) and Jake Munk (Miley Cyrus, Ethan Tasch) to help her cultivate her ideas without “dimming their light.”

Throughout her new writing, Coakley examines life on a larger scale – from missing friends across time zones to the bittersweet feeling of returning home. The old version of Coakley is its own character in her writing, forcing her to look over her shoulder at the life she grew out of. In the lineage of other crossover artists like Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves, Coakley’s reflections on coming of age feel both universal and intimate, delivered in soaring pop hooks over beds of jangly acoustics, banjo and slide guitar. The influence of the country artists she grew up on shines through, delivering her narrative lyricism with an emotional, powerhouse voice.

Since her debut in 2021, Coakley has cemented herself in the indie landscape, amassing over 4.9 million Spotify streams to date and nabbing slots at festivals like Bonnaroo and Briston Maroney’s Paradise Festival. Her upcoming sophomore EP deepens Coakley’s journey of self-discovery, as she continues to strike a chord with her young audience. She may have found her footing, but this is only the beginning for Cece Coakley.

Lizzie Powell has always been a risk-taker. As the creative force behind the influential Canadian outfit Land of Talk, the Montreal-based songwriter has over the past 15 years amassed a catalog of four unimpeachable albums that stretch the boundaries of indie rock. But Performances, their fifth LP, feels like a total reinvention: an unflinching statement from an artist who’s not afraid to say how they feel. Though it trades muscular guitar rock for understated piano, it’s still the most urgent, cathartic, and personal release of Powell’s career so far. “It's the weirdest, mightiest little record I've made since I used to write music on my four-track when I was 14,” says Powell. “I needed to make a love letter to my teenage self by being more vulnerable and doing all the production myself.” Here, they doggedly value their own intuition over anything else to make their most rewarding album yet. 

Work on Performances started in 2021 during a time that Powell refers to as a period of “identity confusion,” where they had trouble finding a place for the intimate, piano-based recordings they were making. ”I realized right away that I was not feeling electric guitar for this album,” says Powell. “At first, I felt like something was wrong with me: Land of Talk is about guitars and me rocking out. But is that all I am? Can I get away with doing a Land of Talk record without a ton of electric guitar?” Instead of pandering to arbitrary expectations and preconceived notions about their career so far, Powell decided to follow the muse and immerse themself into this new artistic lane. “I would write demos and think, ‘Oh, that doesn't really kind of sound like Land of Talk,’” they say. “But then I realized that I'm Land of Talk.” 

With the confidence to freely create what they want, Powell decamped to a rental in Sutton, Quebec owned by a dear friend to write and record. Lead single “Your Beautiful Self” was one of the first songs Powell brought to life. The track’s a slow burn with Powell’s voice starting the song at a lower register. It slowly builds with steady drums and a throbbing bassline until Powell sings, “Take a deep breath / Let it out / Show the love in.” As they sing that line, an electric guitar riff punctures the space in the song allowing for tangible catharsis to seep in. Powell credits another standout song they wrote during this time, the gentle beast “Marry It,” as being the lightbulb moment for the album. “When I wrote the song, I thought that it’s everything I’m trying to say,” they say. “It's such a cryptic poem of a song but it’s actually me trying my best to explain everything. It’s almost my memoir: it's really me.” 

Many of the tracks Powell worked on were original ideas that have been percolating in their head for years: songs that they loved but never released or properly fleshed out. “Over the past few years in the music industry, being a musician is such a precarious situation and it had me thinking, "What if this is the last album I ever make?" they say. “I just wanted to honor all these ideas that have been living in my brain throughout my life. They deserve a place in my catalog.” The sprawling single and LP closer “Pwintiques” is a perfect example of this. One of several instrumentals on the album, it sparked as a piano riff Powell wrote as a university student almost two decades ago. When they brought it to the Montreal studio to record with engineer Rena Kozak and multi-instrumentalist Laurie Torres (Julia Jacklin), the initial minute-long riff turned into seven eventful minutes with multiple drum fills and a psychedelic jam that evokes Slint, Tortoise, and Sonic Youth. 

While Performances is undoubtedly an ambitious leap and marked shift in focus for Land of Talk, to Powell, it’s a return to their roots. “My ears are always drawn to things that aren’t perfectly polished,” says Powell. “I came up as like a strapping lo-fi experimental recording artist. How can I get that feeling back and why not now? I may not pull it off perfectly, but I owe it to myself to play the music that's in my head.” Though Powell cites everything from rapper Nappy Nina, producers Sounwave and Pi’erre Bourne, as well as The Banshees of Inisherin as indirect inspirations of the LP, the single “Sitcom” takes cues from Christopher Cross and the Family Ties intro. Over hazy synths, they sing, “Just something I’m feeling / I’ll never figure it out Just a touch, a feeling / I’ll never figure it out.” 

Performances is a defiant and resonant blow against expectations and outside pressure. It’s an LP showcasing an artist without constraints and allowing themself to be radically honest. “The album title is very literal,” says Powell. “I'm performing what's in my brain but I'm tired of performing femininity for the music industry, femininity in my life, respectability, and vulnerability. I'm trying to grow out of these and break out of these roles in my life.” Powell’s fearlessness as a songwriter has already led to Land of Talk boasting an unmistakably essential discography but with this album, they find the perfect opportunity to give themself the grace to truly double down on their own vital sensibilities. They usher the songs every step of the way from demoing to producing, imbuing each track with immense care and unfiltered feeling. 

“This is me reclaiming Land of Talk as it always has been,” says Powell. “Every record we've made has just been one step closer to me figuring out how I want to make a record myself. I might not ever make an album like this again, but I just felt like I owed it to myself to try.” 

Hua Li’s project has often worked the fruitful tension between opposing forces, whether being mixed-race, bisexual, or overtly political and softly vulnerable. Now the “half-Chinese, half-militant, half-rapper of your heart” is back with ripe fruit falls but not in your mouth, her most ambitious and personal record to date. Playing between hazy R&B, hip-hop, jazz and electronic, Hua Li’s sophomore LP takes the imaginary garden as a proxy for cultivating home. With complex vocal arrangements, lush production by Alex Thibault (aka Gloze), and big, vibrant mixing by TNGHT’s Lunice, ripe fruit is a private confessional on a loud-ass record.

Following 2019’s Dynasty and 2020’s critically acclaimed Yellow Crane EP, ripe fruit is characteristically libertine. Textured and sensual, the Montreal multi hyphenate balances her rich, waveforming tone with danceable, electronic signatures. The rapper is fierce and frequently funny, erupting from gauzy runs to deliver a quick uppercut that stings. With hooky, addictive features by Ambrose Getz and Darkus Millon, ripe fruit is an intimate record of healing, with Montreal’s nightlife at its heart.

An artful collaborator, Hua Li co-wrote and performed on Gayance's 2023 Polaris short-listed album, Masquerade, and is the touring DJ for Inuk electro-pop throat singer, Riit. Her charismatic stage show has taken her around the world, including tours with Cadence Weapon and Fat Tony (serving as the former’s touring DJ), to Reykjavik’s Secret Solstice Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Pride Toronto.

Luminous and compelling, Hua Li shows it takes tenderness to let things ripen, and guts to let things die. In-between is a kind of rapture that begs to be savoured.

Nashville/LA indie-rockers Smallpools erupted onto the scene with their head turning opening statement, “Dreaming” (now RIAA Certified Gold). The song surged to the top of the HypeMachine chart; quickly earning the band support from alternative radio stations across the country, multiple late night television appearances and a home on the road as the opening act for Twenty One Pilots, Walk the Moon, Grouplove and Two Door Cinema Club on their national tours. Smallpools then released their acclaimed, debut album LOVETAP! and spent the majority of the next two years selling out venues nationwide in support of its release.

Grayscale has never felt more true to themselves than on their latest single, “Not Afraid To Die.” The band spent the last couple of years writing and dialing in their sound at a deeper level than ever before, and the attention to detail in their craft shines through this track. “Not Afraid To Die” encapsulates a lot of the unapologetic and immovable nature of Philadelphia families in its lyrics. “It’s a song about mine and my band mates’ upbringing in the northeast. It’s sort of a celebration of our ruggedness and ridiculousness, I suppose,” says Collin Walsh, the band’s lead vocalist.

Following the same commitment to raw authenticity that fueled 2021’s My Lullaby, Jonathan has further honed his singular sound in the upcoming Life Distortions, the fullest expression yet of Jonathan’s evolution as both a person and artist. While still featuring the strong hooks and melodies that made his music so popular in the early years of his career, the sonic terrain of this album is truer to Jonathan than anything else he’s done to date. Emblematic of the fresh new sound is his latest single, “Stay in Bed and F*** (While the World Burns),” a vintage Motown-like tune with a contemporary R’n’B backbeat that adds edge to his soulful vocals.

Jonathan tapped Juno award-winning musician/producer Brian Howes (Hinder, Skillet, Nickelback) to help produce the EP, along with Marc Beland, the drummer/percussionist in Jonathan’s band and one of his go-to creative partners for years now. Other producers on the Life Distortions include Tee (Drake, Alessia Cara), Stevie Aiello (Thirty Seconds to Mars, Of Mice & Men), Drew Polovick (Oston, Friday Pilots Club), and Heavy (lovelytheband, Dirty Heads). Surrounding himself with collaborators he trusts, Jonathan is following his own vision and eager for fans to experience what’s ahead.

“I think people will connect with what’s real,” says Jonathan. “People have bullshit detectors. I’m playing what I like in the songs. I’m trying to grab all the things I like from bands and people that I admire and I’m trying to put it in my soup, in my writing and melodies. I feel like I’m an old-school cat creating this weird pop alternative music and I love it.”

Life Distortions featuring “Still Holding On” is it now.

Portair encodes ponderous thoughts inside of cinematic soundscapes stitched together from analog synthesizers and live instrumentation. Generating millions of streams and earning widespread acclaim from Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Atwood Magazine, Paste, and Variance, the Australia-born and Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist provokes big questions by way of intimate songcraft on his 2023 EP, Learning How To Die. “On the EP, there are philosophical themes of existentialism,” he observes. “Many of the songs are about the acceptance of death, what life is, and why we’re here.” The record was recorded in Joshua Tree and features collaborations with VÉRITÉ, Wynn, and Emily James. Portair began to incite conversation with a series of independent releases in 2018.

Emerging as a sought-after songwriter and producer, he composed original score and contributed music to programming across NETFLIX, NBC, MTV, CBS, and beyond. His 2020 solo single “Lying To Myself” amassed millions of streams and paved the way for The Light That Gives EP [2021] and The Ice That Breaks EP [2022]. Meanwhile, “Gloaming Hour” unassumingly achieved viral impact on TikTok with millions of plays. In the end, Portair connects through examining what it means to be human.

The Los Angeles League of Musicians, LA LOM, are an instrumental trio formed in Los Angeles in 2021. They blend the sounds of Cumbia Sonidera, 60’s soul ballads and classic romantic boleros that emanate from radios, backyard parties and dance clubs of Los Angeles with the twang of Peruvian Chicha and Bakersfield Country.

Philadelphia-based artist Rosali makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might first appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a subtly sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. A child of two musicians, Rosali grew up as part of a large family that sang together and taught themselves various instruments, finding the earliest forms of her musical voice harmonizing and making up songs with her sisters. As an adult, Rosali merged this musical upbringing with an active involvement in Philly’s experimental and D.I.Y. community.

Her 2016 solo debut Out of Love was released on Siltbreeze, a long-running label that champions abstract noise and challenging listening. While Rosali’s earliest work was far nearer to folk-informed rock than harsh sonics, it held an intensity of its own in its strange angles and unexpected vulnerability. Second album Trouble Anyway expanded on the debut with clearer production and more involved arrangements. A host of friends from Philly’s freak scene contributed to the album, including appearances from ambient harpist/pianist Mary Lattimore, Purling Hiss/Birds of Maya shredder Mike Polizze, glistening lap-steel from Mike Sobel, understated percussion from War On Drugs drummer Charlie Hall, and several others. Trouble Anyway brought Rosali a new level of exposure, with a flood of positive critical press and tours supporting acts like The Weather Station and J Mascis.

Along with her solo work, Rosali’s output has materialized as a broad spectrum of disparate collaborations, including the hypnotic garage trio Long Hots, slow-burning psych scrawl in duo Monocot with Cloud Nothings drummer Jayson Gerycz, and Wandering Shade, a three-guitar improv act with Headroom’s Kryssi Battalene and Thrill Jockey artist Sarah Louise.

Aspects of the more free-floating side of Rosali’s oeuvre inform her songwriting process, with songs often emerging from the ether of lengthy improvisation sessions, new ideas congealing through a boundless exploration of possibilities. Brought to life with help from Omaha’s David Nance Group as the backing band, 2021’s song-centered No Medium was a sharply realized example of Rosali’s distinctive synthesis of metered songwriting and unfettered searching. Around the same time, she offered a completely separate side of her craft with cassette release Chokeweed, a collection of auburn-hued solo guitar improvisations. In whatever form it takes, Rosali’s softly glowing music is malleable and deceptively fluid, able to appear patient and refined or at the edge of unraveling depending on how closely you chose to look.

Mannequin Pussy’s music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard.
Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass,
vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths), and Marisa Dabice
(guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. “There’s just so much
constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like
a radical act ,” says Dabice. “The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together.”
Their latest I Got Heaven, which is out March 1 via Epitaph Records, is the band’s most fully
realized LP yet. Over 10 ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting pop,
the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an
unfeeling and unkind world. It’s a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond
to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.

Following the 2019 release of their critically acclaimed third album Patience, Mannequin Pussy
returned in 2021 for their EP Perfect. They toured that release relentlessly and added guitarist
Maxine Steen to the band’s official lineup. Where the band members’ personal lives were in
transition with breakups, changing living situations, and periods of self-reevaluation, their time
together on the road was a grounding and clarifying force. “There was so much going on in our
lives that it was the perfect opportunity to recalibrate who we were as people and musicians,”
says Regisford. The band changed their entire formula, choosing to write together in Los
Angeles with producer John Congleton over slowly crafting tracks at home. “When I've written
songs, it's usually a very solitary process,” says Dabice. “So this was shedding a lot of those
hermit-like qualities to do something intensively collaborative. Your best work comes when you
allow other people into it.”
By December 2022, the band had 17 new songs written with Congleton in Los Angeles.
“Everyone felt empowered to speak up about their own ideas to make this thing the best it could
possibly be,” says Regisford. New member Maxine Steen, who has made music with Dabice for
years including their side project Rosie Thorne, was especially essential to the writing sessions.
The album opener “I Got Heaven” initially started as one of Steen’s demos. “When she showed
it to me I knew it was going to be fun because the verses have this hard-hitting and aggressive
approach but the chorus allows for a really soaring melody,” says Dabice. The result is electric.
Over walloping guitar riffs, Dabice defiantly yells, “And what if I’m an angel? Oh what if I’m a
bore? And what if I was confident would you just hate me more?
The song with its righteous lyrical blending of the sacred and profane is an unapologetic look at
Christian hypocrisy. “I don't think there's ever been anything in need of a spiritual revolution
more than modern-day Christianity,” says Dabice. “It sickens me the way that people use it as a
way to do the worst things imaginable, say the worst things imaginable, and pass the worst
imaginable legislation that directly harms people.” Instead of judgment, greed, and avarice, the
songs on I Got Heaven ask what it really means to genuinely care about the people around you

and help your communities in ways you can. “The world that we live in is heaven,” says Dabice.
“We live on the most beautiful planet in the solar system, just by a chance and we are
continuingly destroying it.”
This sentiment is mirrored by the album’s cover art: a figure and a pig in nature. There’s an
intentional ambiguity there that makes you wonder if this person is leading the animal to
slaughter or its protector. “We should really be the shepherds and the protectors of everything
that we have and the world we live in,” says Dabice. I Got Heaven is an album that understands
the stakes of its message: there are countless references to fire, hunger, and holiness. Here,
teeth gnash and bodies are temples that ache with desire. On the yearning single “Nothing
Like,” which is anchored by a dancey, shuffling drum beat from Reading, Dabice’s voice
eventually morphs from a coo to a roar as she sings, “Oh what’s wrong with dreaming of burning
this all down?”
Even when the songs on I Got Heaven don’t deal with fundamental human questions about how
to live, Mannequin Pussy still finds ways to add urgency and resonance. Just take the buoyant
and playful single “I Don’t Know You,” which slowly builds to a hair-raising peak with Reading’s
brushed percussion, Steen’s enveloping synths, and a thoughtful groove from Regisford. “On
that song, I changed the tuning last minute which transformed the song but everyone
instinctively knew what to do,” says Dabice. “It was really cool to watch a song come alive in
real-time. It's such a gift to meet other people who are creatively on the same wavelength as
you, where there's no judgment in sharing ideas.”
The lightness of this track pairs perfectly with the rest of the tracklist, even when it’s snarling
rock like “Loud Bark” or punishing hardcore punk with Regisford sharing lead vocal duties on
“OK? OK! OK? OK!” “If you're a Mannequin Pussy fan, you know that we're going to have some
rippers,” says Regisford. “We're gonna have something that's going to be in your face. But we're
also going to give you something that's going to be light to the touch with its own version of
aggression.” The loud and uncompromising single “Of Her,” finds Dabice screaming, “I was born
/ Of her fire / Of sacrifices That were made / So I could make it.” It’s a song about living life
without regrets and understanding the sacrifices that you and your parents, especially your
mother, made to allow you to live the life you want.
I Got Heaven is a visceral and stunning album for people who aren’t content with the status quo,
made by people who challenged themselves and got out of their comfort zone. ”We're supposed
to be living in the freest era ever so what it means to be a young person in this society is the
freedom to challenge these systems that have been put on to us,” says Dabice. “It makes sense
to ask, what ultimately am I living for? What is it that makes me want to live?”

Born of the 2010’s folk boom and now comfortably stationed in their rock and roll era, The Crane Wives epitomize the evolving sound of the indie genre. Having performed hundreds of shows on stages across the country, they gravitate toward high energy melodies, featuring the kinetic percussion of Dan Rickabus, the silky, driving bass lines of Ben Zito and playful guitar leads from front women Emilee Petersmark and Kate Pillsbury. Counterbalancing their lively stage presence, their lyrics extol the shadow side of the human condition, delving into mythology and themes of darkness and inner conflict. The band softens the blows of their emotional candor with soulful three-part vocal harmonies, like a 21st century Cerberus, the hound of Hades reimagined as an emotional support animal. To date, they have released five full length albums, including their 2020 live album, “Here I Am”.

Life runs in rhythmic loops, from the endless rotations of the earth to the running of tides and yearly rebirth of spring. Rachel Bobbitt knows that the bottom of those cycles can feel pretty chaotic. “Every woman I’ve ever talked to is in some amount of pain almost all the time,” the Toronto-based singer-songwriter says. “That could be physical pain, emotional pain, familial pain, but it’s there in cycles.” On her piercing and profound new EP, The Ceiling Could Collapse (due July 15th, 2022, via Fantasy Records), Bobbitt picks through the dizzying rubble of folk and indie rock for moments of resonant emotion and frames them in heartbreaking lyrics and openhearted expanses.

VNV Nation is an alternative electronic music project led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer.

Mirroring the misery of modern life with their soaring melodies and horror-inspired lyrics and imagery, Canadian cold wave duo TRAITRS have cemented themselves as one of the fastest rising bands in goth and post-punk today. Formed in Toronto, Canada in late 2015, vocalist/guitarist Shawn Tucker and synth player Sean-Patrick Nolan bonded over a shared fondness for new wave, punk and post-punk, art house horror films and dark electronic music. In April 2016, before they played their first ever live show, TRAITRS released their debut LP Rites and Ritual on the boutique Toronto label Pleasence Records. The duo quickly garnered attention with their critically acclaimed 2018 follow up Butcher’s Coin (Pleasence Records, Manic Depression Records, Alchera Visions), coming off the strength of songs like lead single “Thin Flesh”, “The Lovely Wounded” and “The Suffering of Spiders''. TRAITRS established themselves the old school way with relentless touring and scintillating live performances in 17 different countries, including showcases at Wave Gothik Treffen, Castle Party, Extramuralhas, Nocturnal Culture Night, Wavefest, Canadian Music Week and Pop! Montreal. Their breakneck touring schedule and work ethic caught the attention of Schubert Music Publishing’s Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton, and in October 2020 they announced TRAITRS as the first signing to their brand-new record label Freakwave Records. In November 2021, TRAITRS released the heartrending Horses in the Abattoir, another critically acclaimed LP which was Sonic Seducer’s Album of the Month and topped several “year end” lists. TRAITRS spent the better part of 2022 supporting She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover and She Wants Revenge all across North America. Starting on February 23 in Copenhagen, DK, TRAITRS will open for alternative EDM legends VNV Nation on the European and North American legs of the “Electric Sun Tour”, as well as performing at Amphi Festival, Wave Gothik Treffen and Nocturnal Culture Night.