Sexbruise? w/ Minka
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYSEXBRUISE? Sexbruise? is a satirical pop band from Charleston, SC that combines elements of improvisation, electronic music, poppy hooks, and audience participation to create an unforgettable live experience. Despite their extreme wealth and lavish lifestyle, Sexbruise? grew up on a dirt road right down the street from Pappy’s Hardware Shop, and subsequently is very in tune with the struggles and plight of middle america. Sexbruise? has been featured at Sweetwater 420 Fest, Hulaween, Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival, Floyd Fest, and Resonance Fest, and will be announcing other pending festies, assuming this damn virus doesn’t fuck us at the last second again. Sexbruise?’s shows can be described as a giant party. The tunes are memorable, the stage presence exciting, and the antics unpredictable. And there are snacks. Thrown from the stage. The band has prepared pancakes and pizza on stage, brought out dancers in animal costumes, hired fake demonstrators to protest their shows, and many more other cool things.MINKA
GA-20 + LadyCouch
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYGA-20 GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It’s a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll intersect. “We make records that we would want to listen to,” says guitarist Matt Stubbs. “It’s our take on the song-based traditional electric blues we love.” Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman have been at the forefront of this traditional blues revival since they first formed in 2018. It’s no wonder they skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Blues Chart.According to Stubbs, “Since we started the band we’ve focused on the story, the melody, and on creating a mood. Playing live as much as we do, we’re finding more and more that people are discovering how cool it all is. Traditional country, soul and funk music have all had these massive recent revivals, but traditional blues so far has not.” With their new Colemine album, Crackdown, and an intensive tour schedule, that’s all about to change.On Crackdown, GA-20’s third full-length release, the band creates an unvarnished, ramshackle blues that is at once traditional and refreshingly modern. Expanding on their previous releases (2019’s Lonely Soul and 2021’s Try It…You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor) GA-20 finds inspiration on the edges of the genre, where early electric blues first converged with country and rock ‘n’ roll. The album’s nine original songs include the loping, Louisiana-flavored Dry Run, the dirty, and bare-bones Easy On The Eyes and the melodic, garage-tinged Fairweather Friend. With tight, propulsive performances and a brevity and punk energy reminiscent of The Ramones, Crackdown is rowdy and fun, filled with instantly memorable, and well-crafted songs.LADYCOUCH “Everybody’s dancing, y’all — it’s about that time,” Allen Thompson sings during the first minute of LadyCouch’s ‘Future Looks Fine,’ setting the tone for a debut album rooted in groove, soul, and the family-like bond of the musicians. A southern-rock jam band fronted by Thompson and co-founder Keshia Bailey, LadyCouch brings together a lineup of songwriters, horn players, harmony singers, and first-rate instrumentalists. The result is a larger-than-life sound inspired by the revue bands of the 1970s, bringing a contemporary approach to the timeless influence of Delaney & Bonnie, Little Feat, and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Funky and fiercely loyal, LadyCouch’s members are a community unto themselves, writing optimistic songs about the struggles and triumphs that connect us all. “We choose to make it through hard times by being together,” says Bailey, who previously cut her teeth in the throwback soul group Magnolia Sons. “There will always be struggle. You can sit and bask in it, or you can keep moving forward. For me, the best option is bond together and sing it out. That’s what this band does for me. LadyCouch heals me.”
Wyatt Moran, Well Kept, Convalescent, Mary’s Letter
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYWYATT MORAN Raised in the driftless north of Minnesota, Wyatt Moran has become an underground mainstay in the folk and indie rock scenes of the Twin Cities. Playing such legendary venues as 7th Street Entry like many before him, Moran has been inspired by the countless names and faces that have walked across those very same stages. From finger-picked guitars to heavy indie rock instrumentals, Moran’s music spans many genres but his intentions are always clear: write songs with integrity that people can connect to. Explosive and crushing drums lurk behind Moran’s cyclical baritone guitar riffs. Bass lines float in and out of focus as Moran’s voice carries his emo-adjacent style of songwriting. Moran currently lives in Boston, MA where he is finishing his undergrad program at Berklee College of Music, but regularly returns to Minnesota to play, record, and perform his music. With two national tours under his belt and another being planned for winter 2022, Moran plans to record his debut record in January 2023, with plans for a west coast tour and record release in the summer/fall of the same year. WELL KEPTWell Kept is an alternative rock band from Athens, GA, harnessing a potent combination of modern indie rock and classic emo. Originally formed in 2019 as the songwriting vehicle for Athens producer Tommy Trautwein, Well Kept has blossomed into a 5-piece band that is just as imaginative in the studio as they are powerful onstage. Their new record The Inquirer was self-produced by Trautwein and features a denser and more detailed sound, filled with both honest and reflective songwriting and the type of hooks that have fit in smoothly when Well Kept has shared bills with modern pop bands like Dayglow and COIN. With The Inquirer, Well Kept appear to be on the cusp of thrilling change, having proven they can craft ambitious widescreen rock songs without losing the intimacy of their home recording roots.CONVALESCENTDrawing from emo, pop punk, and Americana influences, Convalescent strives for raw, honest expression through music. Officially bearing the moniker since 2019, songwriter Joel Ragan has been writing and performing in Asheville since 2012. Convalescent’s six-song EP “I Swear I’m Trying” touches on themes of motivation, hopelessness, and questions about the meaning of life.MARY’S LETTERSeamlessly blurring the lines between 2nd wave emo acts and post rock songwriting, Mary’s Letter is a unique blend of heart on the sleeve lyricism with patient buildups and climaxes. Maintaining a sense of pop sensibility, the Asheville 5 piece manages to create sonic soundscapes which evoke intense emotions out of the listener, without losing a sense of accessibility.
Secret Shame (Album Release Show)
– w/ CAVE GRAVE, DOT COM BUBBLE, THE EMOTRON, DJ GOTHDAD – ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYSECRET SHAME Secret Shame refuse to limit their sound to a single genre but instead pull from a wide range of influences including post-punk, death rock, shoegaze, and dream-pop. Infectious guitar melodies and interlocking bass lines lead a narrative shaped by dynamic drums. There is a sonic tension between rage and melancholy, the beautiful and the bleak, that finds resolution in the way the music reflects the mood of the lyrics. So too does the dynamic range of Lena’s distinct voice, with the subdued resonance of gentler songs beckoning the listener nearer to her commanding presence in aggressive songs. Secret Shame first took shape when bassist Matthew met vocalist Lena through mutual friends in summer of 2016. Nathan, who had released the band’s first EP, later joined on drums, and not long after, Aster joined on guitar. Secret Shame’s debut full-length, Dark Synthetics, received widespread critical acclaim with the single Calm being featured on The New York Time’s weekly playlist and the album landing on many album-of-the-year lists, including #77 on Bandcamp Daily and #1 on Post-Punk.com. Secret Shame recorded Autonomy at Drop of Sun with engineer/producer Alex Farrar. Both musically and lyrically, the band reaches a new level of maturity in the album. The diverse yet cohesive eleven song record touches on addiction, body dysmorphia, abuse, and mental illness. The band is releasing their sophomore album, Autonomy, October 28th before embarking on a month-long full US tour sharing east coast dates with the goth-pop band Vision Video.CAVE GRAVEDOT COM BUBBLETHE EMOTRONDJ GOTHDAD
“Are You Ready For It?”: A Taylor Swift Inspired Dance Party
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYReady to dance? LET’S PARTY! Brought to you by Le Petite Fete
NIGHT TWO: Watchhouse (Special Duo Set) at Asheville Masonic Temple
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- AT ASHEVILLE MASONIC TEMPLEWATCHHOUSE Over a year after Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz of Watchhouse (formerly known as Mandolin Orange) reintroduced themselves on their 2021 self-titled LP, the pair shared a special surprise release: Watchhouse (Duo), a self-produced recording of Marlin and Frantz performing the most elemental possible arrangements of all nine songs from Watchhouse. It’s a project that captures the fundamental power of Watchhouse: Two singers and musicians with profound chemistry, performing earnest yet masterfully crafted songs that encompass the unknowable mysteries, existential heartbreak, and communal joys of modern life. Starting over a decade ago playing coffee shops and local restaurants around North Carolina, Watchhouse is a grassroots success story that’s been driven by Marlin’s poignant songwriting. They’ve sold out iconic venues (Red Rocks, Ryman Auditorium) and attract hundreds of millions of streams while producing exploratory music that “redefines roots music for a younger generation” (Washington Post). 2022 was filled with many endeavors including the American Acoustic Tour with Punch Brothers, headlining shows across the US, collaborating with Planet Bluegrass on Mabon, an autumn equinox concert series, and of course Watchhouse (Duo). In 2023, Marlin and Frantz will celebrate the release of Watchhouse (Duo) with a short run of shows that will feature just the two of them, harkening back to their earliest days of performing.SAMANTHA CRAINSamantha Crain is a Choctaw singer, songwriter, poet, producer, and musician from Oklahoma. She is a two-time Native American Music Award winner and winner of an Indigenous Music Award. Her genre spanning discography has been critically acclaimed by media outlets such as Rolling Stone, SPIN, Paste, No Depression, NPR, PRI, The Guardian, NME, Uncut, and others. She has toured extensively over the past 15 yearsnationally and internationally, presenting ambitious orchestrated shows with a band and intimate folk leaning solo performances. She has toured with First Aid Kit, Neutral Milk Hotel, Gregory Alan Isakov, The Avett Brothers, The Mountain Goats, Brandi Carlile, Langhorne Slim, The Staves, and many other bands and artists. With her new album, “A Small Death”, and newer EP, “I Guess We Live Here Now”, she continues her traditionof keeping things close to the heart and the ground by leaning into the fulfillment of affinity with an audience and the satisfaction of a song with a memorable melody and an honest story.
The Heavy Heavy
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTHE HEAVY HEAVY The Heavy Heavy create the kind of unfettered rock-and-roll that warps time and place, immediately pulling the audience into a euphoric fugue state with its own sun-soaked atmosphere. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, the Brighton, UK-based band began with a shared ambition of “making records that sound like our favorite records ever,” and soon arrived at a reverb-drenched collision of psychedelia and blues, acid rock and sunshine pop. As revealed on their gloriously hazy debut EP Life and Life Only, The Heavy Heavy breathe an incandescent new energy into sounds from decades ago, transcending eras with a hypnotic ease.SHANE GUERRETTEIt’s the old way of doing things that inspires a new sound for upstate NY based artist, Shane Guerrette. Drawing influence from classic soul and roots rock genres, Shane has only just begun to craft his own retro flavored sound. With a recent self-released debut album called “Here’s Hoping” and plans of touring in the near future, you’ll want to keep an eye out for what’s to come from this rising star.
Joshua Ray Walker w/ Vandoliers
– w/ VANDOLIERS- ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYJOSHUA RAY WALKEROn his new album See You Next Time, Texas-bred singer/songwriter Joshua Ray Walker shares an imagined yet truthful portrait of a brokedown honky-tonk and the misfits who call it home: barflies and wannabe cowboys, bleary-eyed dreamers and hopelessly lost souls. His third full-length in three years, the album marks the final installment in a trilogy that originated with Walker’s globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stone’s Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020 list).“The whole idea with the trilogy was to use the honky-tonk as a setting where all these different characters could interact with each other,” says Walker, who drew immense inspiration from the local dive bars he first started sneaking into and gigging at as a teenager growing up in East Dallas. “In my mind, this album’s taking place on the night before the bar closes forever—the songs are just me taking snapshots of that world, and all the moments that happen in it.”VANDOLIERSVandoliers are a uniquely Texas band, distilling the Lone Star State’s vast and diverse musical identity into a raucous, breakneck vibe that’s all their own. After spending much of the last three years furiously writing and recording music, this Dallas-Fort Worth six-piece is back with The Vandoliers, a new album that proves these rowdy, rollicking country punks are tighter, more cohesive and more sonically compelling than ever.OLD HEAVY HANDSOld Heavy Hands is a Southern Rock band from Greensboro, NC. The band name pays tribute to their roots and conception. Many of their songs started on acoustics at Legacy Irons Tattoo in downtown Greensboro where three of the members earn their living. They blend together nostalgia from the golden era of Muscle Shoals and their adolescent years of punk rock influence to create a unique brand of Rock music for the modern age. The upcoming record “Small Fires” was tracked at The Fidelitorium and Earthtones Recording studio.
An Evening With Ben Sollee + Scott Mulvahill
– ALL AGES- FULLY SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE BEN SOLLEE Over the last two decades, Kentuckian Ben Sollee has distinguished himself as multi-faceted creative, blurring the lines between music, tech, and activism. A graduate of the Univeristy of Louisville School of Music, he holds a BFA in cello performance. Since his debut record in 2008, Mr. Sollee has released 6 studio records and nearly 10 EPs garnering praise from the New York Times and NPR. His music has been featured in tv shows such as Weeds and Parenthood. In addition, Sollee has a growing career as a composer for film, tv, and interactive media earning a Emmy Award in 2018 for his score on the ABC special Base Ballet. Beyond music, Mr. Sollee is known for his social and environmental advocacy working with organizations like Oxfam America, The Nature Conservancy, and Canopy KY to protect people and the land. He currently lives in Louisville, KY with his wife and three children.SCOTT MULVAHILL Frontman. Singer-songwriter. World-renowned upright bassist. Multi-instrumentalist. Scott Mulvahill is leaving his unique mark on the intersecting worlds of Americana, bluegrass, folk, jazz, rock & roll, and roots music. Raised in Houston, Mulvahill cut his teeth as a member of Ricky Skaggs’ acclaimed band, Kentucky Thunder. The group toured internationally for five years, backed by the bottom-heavy pulse of Mulvahill’s upright bass. Along the way, he also composed music of his own, shining a light on the genre-jumping influences — Paul Simon’s sophisticated pop, James Taylor’s folk, Jaco Pastorius’ innovative jazz, and more — that would eventually inspire the material on his 2018 solo debut, Himalayas. His performances as part of Skaggs’ nightly shows laid the brickwork for Mulvahill’s transition from hotshot sideman to compelling frontman. Encouraged by musical mentor Bruce Hornsby, Mulvahill developed a unique approach to his songwriting — one that mixed his chops as an upright bassist with hook-heavy melodies and compelling narratives. A true “musician’s musician,” Mulvahill fills his solo debut with complex fingerwork and innovative progressions. At the same time, Himalayas is a song-driven record that focuses its attention not upon Mulvahill’s virtuosity, but upon the sheer listenability of his material. This is acoustic-leaning roots music of the highest caliber, shot through with elastic vocals, dobro, fiddle, and the honest, biographical lyrics of a songwriter who gave up an enviable position in Skaggs’ band to pursue his own muse. “I wanna go over where I’ve never been,” he sings during the sparsely-decorated title track, one of several tracks to deal with the universal themes of facing one’s fears, taking leaps, and chasing down new horizons. Those messages are reflected in Mulvahill’s own career, as he pioneers a sound centered upon his voice and upright bass. “As important as the bass is to the sound of my music, it’s not a crutch,” he says. “To me, the songwriting, the voice, and the message are what really matter. 2020’s “Creative Potential” and 2021’s “Surrounded” EPs have found him taking those leaps while keeping true to the core of his musicianship, songwriting, unique concept of artistry. For a lifelong musician like Scott Mulvahill, the climb is never over.
The Get Right Band: Summer in the Winter Beach Bash w/ Random Animals
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTHE GET RIGHT BAND “The Get Right Band are the type of performers that you just know will break out. Their songs are infectious and take you immediately to a place. The lyrics are smart and bear weight.” -The Huffington Post The Get Right Band is a psychedelic indie rock power trio from Asheville, NC. They are a band focused on following their muses to honest self-expression, to whatever excites them and pushes them into unexplored territory. The Get Right Band proudly carries the torch for a long line of genre-bending power trios from Cream to The Jimi Hendrix Experience to The Police to Violent Femmes to Primus to Green Day to Nirvana to Sublime. It’s the space between the notes, the rawness and the maneuverability, that makes a power trio, well, so damn powerful. “An ass shaking good time.” -Relix Magazine The Get Right Band’s career highlights include shows with Everclear, Rusted Root, Dr. Dog, Smash Mouth, Ozomatli, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and Victor Wooten; appearances on NPR’s World Cafe and Nashville’s Music City Roots television show; and performances at major festivals and venues including FloydFest, StrangeCreek, Riverbend Fest, The Orange Peel, Brooklyn Bowl, and The Hamilton. “I love this song!” -Marc Maron, of WTF podcast The band is built on the musical brotherhood that guitarist/vocalist Silas Durocher and bassist Jesse Gentry have formed playing music together since middle school. Durocher, who is a trained composer and has been commissioned to write for symphonies and chamber groups, has guitar chops that can soothe or rage and a charismatic swagger as a frontman and a singer. “Durocher has an impressive range and rich clarity to his vocals—think a more soulful Dan Auerbach” (Connect Savannah). Gentry’s virtuosic bass playing “catapults from elastic to nasty” (The Mountain Xpress). With the addition of Jian-Claude Mears, a drummer with “precision, passion, and an inescapable momentum” (Live For Live Music), the group’s sound has become an unstoppable force. They have been wowing audiences around the country and the Caribbean since their inception in 2011 with an unparalleled live show and a relentless tour schedule. “Tight and diverse jams and a distinctive, intellectual but accessible worldview.” -Live For Live Music RANDOM ANIMALSRandom Animals is an Asheville, North Carolina based Indie-Soul quintet formed in 2016.
