Being Dead
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY BEING DEAD Being Dead — the Austin, TX-based duo consisting of Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy — announces its new album, EELS, out September 27th on Bayonet, lead single/video “Firefighters,” and a fall headline tour. Being Dead’s records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead’s psyche, it is, most importantly, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next. It’s a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas. When Horses Would Run, Being Dead’s “glorious and timeless” (Gorilla vs. Bear) debut record released in 2023, took years to release. The final product was excellent and expertly polished, at odds with the live rowdiness they’d cultivated a reputation for throughout Austin and beyond across seven years of being a band. For the next one, they knew they’d have to do things differently. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome – a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Nicole Roman-Johnston who also co-wrote and recorded bass and vocals on several album tracks. The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within. It’s a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There’s heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing – we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don’t. This is never more apparent than on lead single, “Firefighters,” which might be the first of its kind told from the perspective of a Dalmatian who is overworked at their fire station. The pummeling, distorted garage rock ripper’s accompanying video by director URZULKA “came together through a group hallucination.” The band adds, “We love marbles and outdoor play and decided to get it on video for y’all. Making this was like creating an intricate handshake with all your buddies—riddled with inside jokes and giggles.” PILGRIM PARTY GIRL Abe Leonard & Hannah Eicholtz craft lo-fi experimental pop in Asheville, NC. By trading tapes using a portable Tascam, they blend warped elements with ethereal melodies. Their latest EP featuring chirping organs, warm pianos, and emotive strings, bathes the listener in a milky bath of luscious sound for night crawlers. SEISMIC SUTRA Formed and based in Asheville, NC, Seismic Sutra’s unique fusion of past and present psychedelia creates an immersive, ever- changing listening experience curated by the diverse musical and personal backgrounds of songwriters Torren Brown and Jono Cerrud. Joined by Morgan Bevis and Andrew Stevens. Seismic Sutra is a powerhouse of prog experimentation, genre fluidity, and the live experience.
Vincent Neil Emerson
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY VINCENT NEIL EMERSON Vincent Neil Emerson has become a staple among folk and country music fans nationwide, celebrated for his honest tales of life on the road, heartbreak, and struggles of all sorts. His first LP, Fried Chicken & Evil Women, from 2019, established him as a refreshing voice in the modern country music landscape. The songs from that first album were charming and playful songs, but didn’t reveal the entirety of Emerson’s story. On his brilliant new album, The Golden Crystal Kingdom, Emerson transcends the role of a honky-tonk country singer and becomes a chronicler of his history. The album is a bold continuation of the story he tells on Vincent Neil Emerson, with songs like the title track exploring the feelings he was left with after his days spent playing in Texas honky-tonks and dancehalls, and the track “The Time of The Rambler,” inspired by the early days of living in his car and busking on the streets. Sonically, The Golden Crystal Kingdom finds Emerson expanding his scope into rock and roll territory, tapping into the storied sounds of folk music gone electric, and following in the footsteps of artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. On the album, Emerson retains his diamond-sharp storytelling while imbuing the work with a freewheeling rock and roll aesthetic, creating an album as fun as his live shows and as cathartic as his previous work. The Golden Crystal Kingdom also pays tribute to some of the peers Emerson cut his teeth with in the music scene. He covers the Charley Crockett song, “Time of the Cottonwood Trees,” and is quick to pay tribute to his labelmate and dear friend Colter Wall. “Those two had my back since day one. They’ve been some of my biggest supporters, and they’ve always inspired me to write better songs and encouraged me to pursue this,” Emerson reflects. “Especially at a time when I was starting out and I didn’t really have a lot of encouragement or even self-confidence to do this, they were always there for me.” LEON MAJCEN Leon Majcen is a musician whose story is one of resilience and determination. He grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida, the son of Bosnian war refugees who had fled their homeland in search of a better life for their children. From a young age, Leon was drawn to the power of storytelling through music, particularly the work of artists like Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Guy Clark. Leon began playing in local bars while still in high school, honing his craft and building a loyal following. After graduating, he decided to pursue his passion for music in New York City, while attending college at New York University and playing shows around town. After a while, Leon came to the realization that the hustle and bustle of the city wasn’t where his heart was at.
The Bones of JR Jones
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY THE BONES OF JR JONES Growing up, Jonathon Linaberry was obsessed with the radio. “I remember sitting there at night, glued to the boombox, cassette player ready to record whenever my favorite songs came on,” he recalls. “There was something so thrilling about it, something romantic that I think we’ve lost now that everything’s available at our fingertips. I wanted to find a way to get back to that place, to recapture those feelings of excitement and anticipation and possibility.” Linaberry does precisely that on Radio Waves, his sixth studio album as The Bones Of J.R. Jones. Recorded in Toronto with producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas), the collection is moody and hypnotic, steeped in the sonic landscape of the ’80s and ’90s as it excavates the past with equal parts nostalgia and curiosity. The arrangements are utterly entrancing here, built on the tension between acoustic instruments and retro synthesizers, and Linaberry’s performances are raw and visceral, at times aching in their vulnerability. Put it all together and you’ve got a poignant exploration of memory and longing delivered by a relentless searcher, a revelatory work of personal reflection steeped in the endless beauty, pain, and chaos of youth.“I’ve never really resonated with the idea of ‘the good old days,’” Linaberry reflects. “Your understanding of the past and your relationship with it change as you get older, and I’ve always been more interested in the evolution of those feelings than in wearing any kind of rose-colored glasses.” RUEN BROTHERS After their Rick-Rubin-produced debut album, and a self-produced second record featuring songs they’d written for an award winning Netflix film, Ruen Brothers emerged with a powerful and timeless ode to Western classics on their 2023 ‘Ten Paces’. Showcasing their mixing, mastering, writing and soundscape design talents, the British duo hit neo-noir gold on the ten song collection – their first for Yep Roc Records – with classic melodies and dulcet, soaring vocal tones, laced with western guitar motifs and reverberant production.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND Celebrating over 45 years since their founding in 1977, the GRAMMY Award-winning New Orleans-based Dirty Dozen Brass Band has taken the traditional foundation of brass band music and incorporated it into a blend of genres, including bebop jazz, funk and R&B/soul. This unique sound, described by the band as a “musical gumbo”, has allowed the Dirty Dozen to tour across five continents and more than thirty countries, record twelve studio albums and collaborate with a range of artists from Modest Mouse to Widespread Panic to Norah Jones. Forty-five plus years later, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a world-famous music machine whose name is synonymous with genre-bending romps and high-octane performances. THE HISTORY OF THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND: In 1977, The Dirty Dozen Social Aid and Pleasure Club in New Orleans began showcasing a traditional Crescent City brass band. It was a joining of two proud, but antiquated, traditions at the time: social aid and pleasure clubs dated back over a century to a time when black southerners could rarely afford life insurance, and the clubs would provide proper funeral arrangements. Brass bands, early predecessors of jazz as we know it, would often follow the funeral procession playing somber dirges, then once the family of the deceased was out of earshot, burst into jubilant dance tunes as casual onlookers danced in the streets. By the late ’70s, few of either existed. The Dirty Dozen Social Aid and Pleasure Club decided to assemble this group as a house band, and over the course of these early gigs, the seven-member ensemble adopted the venue’s name: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
ABSFest Friday FanDom Nerdlesque
ABSFest Friday FanDom NerdlesqueWe’re bringing back our Friday Nerdlesque show for our 16th year, bringing together national burlesque, sideshow and variety artists! See your favorite Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Music and Pop Culture FanDoms flying their freak flags. Hosted by the mighty powerhouse of Atlanta, Lola Le Soleil. VIPs enjoy 7 PM doors, preferential seating, VIP goodies, AND a special VIP sword-swallowing show! General Admission doors at 7:30pm. AGES 18+.
The Wildmans
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY THE WILDMANS The Wildmans come from the hills of Floyd, Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian mountain music tradition. From campsite jamming at festivals and fiddler’s conventions and a college level music education comes the foundation for musical exploration that sets this group apart, taking the audience on a musical journey that reflects the growth and passion of these talented musicians. The group has appeared on stages large and small, performing in festivals such as Red Wing Roots, Chantilly Farm’s Bluegrass and BBQ festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass, Floyd Fest, and The Steep Canyon Rangers’ Mountain Song Festival. They also regularly represent young talent along the Crooked Road in regional fiddler’s conventions. Having shared the stage with talents such as Bela Fleck, The Steep Canyon Rangers. The Steel Wheels, Danny Knicely, Sammy Shelor, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, and more. These young musicians are making their way in the American stringband scene. DORI FREEMAN Dori Freeman has sharpened her vision of Appalachian Americana over five studio albums. From the country traditionalism of her self-titled debut to the amplified folk of Ten Thousand Roses, it’s a sound that nods to her mountain-town roots even as it reaches beyond them. Freeman continues creating her own musical geography with Do You Recall, the songwriter’s most eclectic — and electric — record yet. Like a counterpart to Ten Thousand Roses — the 2021 release that found Freeman trading the acoustic textures of her earlier work for a more expansive, electrified version of American roots music — Do You Recall nods to the full range of Freeman’s influences and abilities. She still sings with the unforced vibrato of a classic folksinger, but she’s more of a modern trailblazer than a throwback traditionalist, funneling her Blue Ridge roots into a contemporary sound that’s both broad and bold.
Corridor
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY CORRIDOR You get older, you have a family, and you start to slow down—that’s how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album Mimi with a sound and style that’s more widescreen and expansive than anything that’s preceded it. The follow-up to 2019’s Junior is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with music that’s richly detailed, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that’s already established themselves as forward-thinkers. Mimi immediately recalls the best of the best when it comes to indie rock—Deerhunter’s silvery atmospherics immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of classic post-punk—but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes Mimi all the more thrilling as a listen. The road to this point, as roads to greatness often are, was not without challenge; if the elastic guitar rock of Junior came together quickly—or, as guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Robert describes the process, “in a rush”—then the steady-as-they-go creative pace of Mimi marked a desire to break from the “exhausting” work ethic that previously birthed Junior. “The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” Robert explains. “This time, we took our time.” And so in the summer of 2020, Corridor’s members—Robert, vocalist/bassist Dominic Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux—holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi’s ultimate creation. We went there to write, and a lot of ideas came from that retreat,” Berthiaume explains. “We didn’t end up with songs as much as we did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.” After that productive session together, Corridor continued to tinker with the songs’ raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years, with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) lending their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. “For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that,” Berthiaume states while admitting that the band encountered their own challenges as a result: “We had to figure out how to make new songs without having the chance to play together. It was complicated sometimes.” Berthiaume also describes Mimi—which, fun fact, is also named after Jonathan’s cat—as a record about “getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life”—but despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, Mimi is a record bursting with new energy and life, a vibrance that’s owed in no small part to Gougoux joining the band full-time after pitching in on live performances in the past. ROBBER ROBBER
John Craigie
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY JOHN CRAIGIE John Craigie has mastered the art of creating live shows that feel more like intimate conversations than performances. Infusing humor, wit, and poignant storytelling, his shows are a space where audience members feel like old friends. Whether he’s headlining solo or sharing the stage with longtime collaborators, Craigie’s ability to make his crowd laugh, reflect, and connect is second to none. As he prepares to release Greatest Hits… Just Kidding… Live – No Hits, his latest live album captures the warmth and spontaneity of these memorable nights. At this point, there have been quite a few good shows in the rearview… As a tried-and-true performer, he has regularly sold out solo tours in addition to hitting the road with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Brett Dennen, Mason Jennings, Bella White and Jack Johnson. He has picked up fans with sets at Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon, Edmonton Folk Festival, and High Sierra Music Festival. Including numerous European tours and his first Australian tour in spring of 2024 Moreover, his annual river trip on the Tuolumne River—just outside of Yosemite in California—has remained a hit with his audience, hosting one sellout after another. Giving back as much as possible, he notably launched the #KeepItWarm Tour during the holidays. By donating $1 from every ticket sale, this headline run has raised money for regional non-profits with the goal of fighting food insecurity. An avowed Beatles acolyte, he has performed acoustic renditions of the albums Abbey Road and Let It Be live in front of packed crowds and partnered with Record Store Day for limited-edition vinyl releases of those concerts. To him, the live albums seek to achieve a sound where the listener will feel like they’re in the venue, sitting and experiencing the show with the rest of the crowd. CAT CLYDE Cat Clyde is a singer/songwriter based out of rural Ontario, Canada. A combination of driven, soulful blues and sweet, folk- tinged, dulcet tones that carry a particular sense of familiarity provide the structure on which she creates her unique sound. With influences ranging from Patsy Cline and Lead Belly to Karen Dalton and Bobbie Gentry, this patchwork of musical significance, when stitched to her modern approach, fits like a well-tailored, corduroy-road cloth. Cat’s latest album Down Rounder is a wonder of deeply felt songwriting, a record that finds her marveling at what’s around her while considering her own place within it all. After racking up millions of streams across multiple platforms with previous releases, Down Rounder sounds like the work of someone who’s found themselves artistically and holistically, while extending a hand to any listener who wants to follow Clyde on her singular and thrilling path.
BERTHA: Grateful Drag
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY BERTHA – GRATEFUL DRAG The world’s first Grateful Drag band, BERTHA is an all-star collective of queer and allied East Nashville talent coming together in wigs and full face for a good cause. Fronted by a harmony trio of Berthas and backed by a rocking all-Bertha band, BERTHA has captured the heart and imagination of Deadheads everywhere, with coast-to-coast demand for their electrifying live show. Whether collaborating with local drag queens in Mexico, or playing the most prestigious festival lineups in the States, BERTHA: Grateful Drag has only begun to make her impact on the world. ORIGIN STORY: In the mid 1990’s, just after Jerry Garcia’s tragic and untimely demise, a deadhead janitor working at Area 51 gained access to top secret time travel technology and took it upon himself to retrieve Jerry’s severed middle finger at the moment he lost it in 1946. He thought, if he could just get the DNA to the right scientists, cloning technology might one day be able to bring Jerry back. Breakthroughs in the early 2000’s found that a compound in LSD could activate dormant genes to replicate sufficiently to grow a functioning human body in a lab. The theory was: if they could mix Jerry’s DNA with the original Owsley acid, it could create a Jerry clone that would reunite the Grateful Dead to continue their “long strange trip”. Unfortunately, they mixed up the vials and the first seven clones were the bastard children of Jerry’s finger DNA and the infamous Brown Acid. These pitiful yet beautiful creatures were musical mutants, with the chops of their father but a physical form yet unseen in the jam band world – that of a woman. After being cast out of the lab, and the experiment shut down as a failure, these orphan queens each took the name BERTHA in solidarity with one another and formed a band.
Kishi Bashi
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLY KISHI BASHI The latest full-length from Kishi Bashi, Kantos is a work of exquisite duality: a party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it, at turns deeply unsettling and sublimely joyful. In a sonic departure from the symphonic folk of his critically lauded 2019 LP Omoiyari—a career-defining body of work born from his intensive meditation on the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II—the Seattle-born singer/songwriter/producer’s fifth studio album encompasses everything from Brazilian jazz and ’70s funk to orchestral rock and city pop (a Japanese genre that peaked in the mid-’80s). Informed by an equally kaleidoscopic mix of inspirations—the cult-classic sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, the writings of 18th century enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, a revelatory trip to ancient ruins on the island of Crete—Kantos ultimately serves as an unbridled exaltation of the human spirit and all its wild complexities. “At a time when so many people had begun to panic about AI and what it might mean for our future, I started working on this record as a way to explore the concept of grounding ourselves in our humanity,” says the Santa Cruz, California-based multi-instrumentalist otherwise known as Kaoru Ishibashi. “The album title is a nod to Hyperion Cantos and to Immanuel Kant, but it also refers to ‘canto’ meaning ‘I sing’ in Spanish. The idea is that even with so much technological advancement, songs are still something we very much rely on to connect with other people.” The follow-up to his bluegrass-infused 2021 EP Emigrant, Kantos marks Kishi Bashi’s first full-length since Omoiyari—an album accompanied by a feature-length documentary film and praised by such outlets as NPR, who hailed it as “another sure-footed surprise from an artist who never stops seeking new ways to engage, connect and delight.” During the earliest stages of creating songs for Kantos, Ishibashi’s main intent was to return to his highly eclectic musical roots, in part by tapping into his jazz background and by delving into the dance-rock-leaning sensibilities he previously embraced as co-founder of Brooklyn-bred indie band Jupiter One. But not too long into the songwriting process, he stumbled upon an AI-equipped website capable of composing catchy song hooks based on a prompt—a turn of events that quickly catalyzed the existential inquiry at the heart of Kantos. “On the one hand I’m very intrigued by the possibilities of AI: it’s extremely powerful, and has the potential to solve a lot of important problems,” says Ishibashi. “But there’s also a great deal of value in human innovation, and I’m worried about what happens if we lose sight of that. Because if we don’t value our humanity, what are we valuing at all?” Produced by Kishi Bashi and mixed by Tucan (Hot Chip, Jungle, Aluna), Kantos unfolds with a potent and palpable energy that has much to do with his revisiting of the dance-punk acts who infiltrated the zeitgeist back in his Jupiter One days. “Being immersed in that whole scene in New York in the 2000s was very formative for me, and a lot of this record was heavily influenced by bands like The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem,” notes Ishibashi, whose past experience also includes touring and recording as a violinist for Regina Spektor. OSHIMA BROTHERS
