OUTPOST: Phuncle Sam
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINEPhuncle Sam is Asheville’s own Dead-Centric “jam band”. Since their formation in 2004, Phuncle Sam has been firmly rooted in musical exploration. The band serves up inventive interpretations of Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead, and many others. They have built up a faithful following by using an approach that respects the improvisational traditions of The Grateful Dead, while exploring what can happen when individual band members bring their unique influences and interpretations into the mix.
OUTPOST: Phuncle Sam
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINEPhuncle Sam is Asheville’s own Dead-Centric “jam band”. Since their formation in 2004, Phuncle Sam has been firmly rooted in musical exploration. The band serves up inventive interpretations of Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead, and many others. They have built up a faithful following by using an approach that respects the improvisational traditions of The Grateful Dead, while exploring what can happen when individual band members bring their unique influences and interpretations into the mix.
OUTPOST: Chikomo Marimba
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINE Chikomo Marimba is a lively and extremely danceable world percussion ensemble based in Asheville, NC, that has been playing around the Southeast for over a decade. Their music is played on an array of large wooden African-style marimbas, accompanied by hand percussion and drum kit. Chikomo Marimba is known for their high-energy, tight arrangements, and infectiously joyful grooves. They are sure to get people of all ages up and shaking their bodies!
mssv (mike baggetta + stephen hodges + mike watt)
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYmssv No less an authority than Nels Cline, the high priest of art-rock guitarists, has called Knoxville’s Mike Baggetta a “guitar poet.” That poetry, alternately gnarled and flowing, is on fine display in Main Steam Stop Valve, the second album by (and the decompressed namesake of) mssv, an experimental rock trio featuring Baggetta, the legendary punk bassist Mike Watt, and the versatile drummer Stephen Hodges. The collaboration began when Watt, of The Minutemen fame, joined Baggetta and seasoned session drummer Jim Keltner to record an improvised jazz-rock album called Wall of Flowers, an eight-track romp from pastoral splendor to urban din and back again. When Keltner declined to tour, they brought in Hodges, whose credits as a player include Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, and David Lynch, not to mention Contemplating the Engine Room with Watt. Solidified as mssv—some heretofore unimagined hybrid of a punky power trio and a dreamy experimental rock band—they released Main Steam Stop Valve, which blends industrial vigor and impressionistic languor into a lingering impression of “pressure, combustion, power, and hissing clouds of sonic poetry,” as Premier Guitar said. From the throttled surf guitar of “The Mystery Of” and the glimmering post-rock of “Every Growing Thing” to groovy, songful numbers like “Old Crow,” there’s no telling which way the band will turn at any given moment, a proposition that becomes a promise when they break down and reassemble these songs live, with an instinct for restraint and an openness to anarchy.RED ZEPHYRRed Zephyr is based out of Knoxville, Tennessee and has been playing together since 2013, experimenting with psychedelic prog rock with funk, jazz, classical and many other styles. We play a wide variety of styles with a lot of instrumentals, changes, experiments, and occasionally sprinkling in some vocals here and there about feelings, thoughts, and experiences. We have been performing in and around Asheville for a couple years, and would love to do it again.¿WATCHES?Formed as Fortezza in 2016, founding members Emma Garau and Tristan Smith reorganized the group as a duo in 2022, leaning in to their inclination towards the avant-garde and bombastic minimalism. Ever dancing between Smith’s garage rock sensibilities and Garau’s background in jazz, ¿Watches? finds common ground in a mutual love of all things loud and weird. No-wave punk / Asheville, NC.
Twin Tribes
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTWIN TRIBES Hailing from Texas, Twin Tribes is an emerging force in the darkwave scene, turning heads in 2018 with the release of their debut album “Shadows” that featured dark melodic sounds, synthesizers, lyrics about the undead, and the occult and parallel universes. They returned in 2020 with the ten-track album “Ceremony” with an evolved sound that explored love and loss while showcasing their progression as a band. With songs that are both dynamic and introspective, they balance the darker shades of the emotional spectrum with an energy and momentum that gifts their music a powerful sense of urgency and drama. Their lyrics dig deep into the personal turmoil of love, life and loss, and have forged a new aesthetic that fuses the gothic with the romantic, viewing emotional themes through a darker lens. As their second LP gains increasing critical and commercial attention, these pillars of the independent music scene continue to re-define what genres such as darkwave and post-punk mean in 2023. BOOTBLACKSBOOTBLACKS IS A BROOKLYN-BASED POST-PUNK BAND THAT WAS FORMED IN 2010. THE CURRENT LINEUP OF THE BAND CONSISTS OF PANTHER ALMQVIST ON VOCALS, BARRETT HIATT ON SYNTH, AND KALLE FAGERBERG ON GUITAR. BOOTBLACKS’ SOUND IS CHARACTERIZED BY ITS BROODING AND ATMOSPHERIC MELODIES, DRIVING RHYTHMS, AND ALMQVIST’S EMOTIVE VOCALS. THE BAND DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM THE POST-PUNK AND DARKWAVE MOVEMENTS OF THE 1980S, BUT ALSO INCORPORATES CONTEMPORARY ELEMENTS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC INTO THEIR SOUND. SINCE THEIR FORMATION, BOOTBLACKS HAVE RELEASED SEVERAL CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ALBUMS, INCLUDING “VEINS” (2016), “FRAGMENTS” (2018), AND “THIN SKIES” (2020). THE BAND HAS ALSO TOURED EXTENSIVELY THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE, PERFORMING AT RENOWNED VENUES AND FESTIVALS. WITH THE ADDITION OF FAGERBERG, BOOTBLACKS ARE LOOKING TO EXPLORE NEW SONIC TERRITORIES AND EXPAND THEIR ALREADY FORMIDABLE MUSICAL HORIZONS. FANS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO MORE EXCITING MUSIC AND PERFORMANCES FROM THE BAND IN THE YEARS TO COME.COLD CHOIRCold Choir is an Electro/Darkwave duo with poetic, evocative lyrics, sensual vocals dressed in a cloak of moody soul, with a ferociously powerful delivery.
PATIO: Brittany Ann Tranbaugh (EP Release Show) w/ Liv Greene
– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVEDBRITTANY ANN TRANBAUGHBrittany Ann Tranbaugh (pronounced TRAN-baw) is a Philadelphia-based songwriter whose queer Americana heartbreaker “Kiss You” won Song of the Year in the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Tranbaugh has been writing songs and playing shows as a side gig since she was a teenager, but in February 2023, at 31 years old, she finally quit her office job to pursue a full-time career in music. Listeners can expect a self-titled EP produced by Grammy-winner Tyler Chester (Madison Cunningham) in the fall.LIV GREENEUnassumingly charming with a velvety voice… she envelops a forlorn loneliness that’s at once poignant and crushing.” – American Songwriter. Queer americana artist Liv Greene has been processing the world around her through writing songs since teaching herself her first guitar chords at 12. In school, Greene honed her skills at Interlochen Arts Academy in northern Michigan and New England Conservatory in Boston, studying songwriting and contemporary improvisation. Now Nashville-based, Greene just finished up work on her second album, due out in the next year, collaborating with engineer Matt Andrews (Gillian Welch), and employing the help of talented friends like Jordan Tice, and Sarah Jarosz.
TORTOISE
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTORTOISE Simply put, Tortoise has spent nearly 25 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential six-album discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own. It’s a fact that remains true on “The Catastrophist,” Tortoise’s first studio album in nearly seven years. And it’s an album where moody, synth-swept jams like the opening title track cozy up next to hypnotic, bass-and-beat missives like “Shake Hands With Danger” and a downright strange cover of David Essex’s 1973 radio smash sung by U.S. Maple’s Todd Rittman. Throughout, the songs transcend expectations as often as they delight the eardrums. Tortoise, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker, has always thrived on sudden bursts of inspiration. And for “The Catastrophist,” the spark came in 2010 when the group was commissioned by the City of Chicago to compose a suite of music rooted in its ties to the area’s noted jazz and improvised music communities. Tortoise then performed those five loose themes at a handful of concerts, and “when we finally got around to talking about a new record, the obvious solution to begin with was to take those pieces and see what else we could do with them,” says McEntire, at whose Soma Studios the band recorded the new album. “It turned out that for them to work for Tortoise, they needed a bit more of a rethink in terms of structure. They’re all pretty different in the sense that at first they were just heads and solos. Now, they’re orchestrated and complex.” As ever, Tortoise has conjured sounds on “The Catastrophist” that aren’t being purveyed anywhere else in music today. There’s a deeply intuitive interplay between the group members that comes only from two decades of experimentation, revision and improvisation. And at a time when our brains are constantly bombarded by myriad distractions, “The Catastrophist” reminds us that there’s something much greater out there. All we have to do is listen. Tortoise’s reissue of their classic, long out-of-print remixes album Rhythms, Resolutions & Clusters is out April 22nd on Thrill Jockey.BRETT W. NAUCKEBrett W. Naucke is an American experimental composer and visual artist from Chicago, IL currently based in Asheville, NC. With a sonic output primarily focused on marrying an ever-evolving practice of audio-synthesis with conceptual narratives, his recordings have been released by a wide variety of acclaimed labels in addition to providing original scores for several films and presented many works for multi-channel audio and video installations.RICH RUTHRecorded under a loft bed in the guest bedroom of his Nashville home, Michael Ruth aka Rich Ruth’s I Survived, It’s Over starts in a humble space. And while many contemporary music projects are produced in such an environment, I Survived, It’s Over sets itself apart in its transformative properties as well as its transparency.
Greg Ruby, Don Stiernberg, Evan Price and Kevin Kehrberg
– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLE Greg Ruby, Don Stiernberg, Evan Price and Kevin Kehrberg will bring their unique tapestry of acoustic string swing to the Grey Eagle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Performing work from their latest record “Rhythm Twist,” they will weave together elements of Hot Club jazz, mando-bop and old school swing – all on an acoustic guitar, mandolin, violin and upright bass. With Greg from New York, Don from Chicago, Evan from San Francisco and Kevin from Asheville, the four have collaborated every summer while in residency as teaching staff at the Swannanoa Gathering. In 2020 and 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic prevented them from getting together so instead they created a remote record – “Rhythm Twist”. Each musician composed one song and arranged two others. Passing charts, tracks and ideas between them, they created something unique and collective. Guitarist Greg Ruby states, “not only did this project help us maintain a sense of sanity and ground us in creativity, it kept us in touch with each other while riding out a very strange period of human history.” “Spontaneity, conversation, and swingin’ good vibes” – The Mandolin Café
Caitlin Rose + The Kernal
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYCAITLIN ROSENashville-based Caitlin Rose’s new album CAZIMI finds itself released into the world at the exact right time. We’re not quite post-pandemic but we’re certainly post-vibe shift. Things are falling apart, systems are failing in front of us; chaos and danger await us the moment we step out our front doors. The perpetual mood is that of a constant hum of anxiety as we try to cope, with varying degrees of success, with the collective trauma that has consumed us unrelentingly for the past few years.THE KERNAL It all started with a red polyester suit. The western-style outfit belonged to Joe Garner’s father Charlie, who played bass on the Grand Ole Opry for thirty years, famously backing ‘doodle-doo-doo’ star Del Reeves. After his dad passed, Joe went into the attic of his family home, looking for a keepsake. What he found was an alter ego and the beginning of a rich, cathartic ten-year musical journey that culminates with his latest release, Listen to the Blood. “I thought, I’m going to put this old suit on and I’m going to be my own version of some of these country guys, like my dad and Del,” says Garner. “That’s how the project began. I thought of the name The Kernal in terms of ‘kerning,’ as in getting the letters straight in a design. Aligning myself is kind of the idea behind the name. I obviously had the love of country music that I got from my dad. But there were definitely some loose ends in our relationship that weren’t tied before he died. That part of it drove me to put myself into this world and try to iron out some demons. Listen to the Blood is the last of a three-album arc, which has been about me trying to prove myself worthy in some ways in a game that my dad had ostensibly mastered.” With a storyteller’s eye and sly sense of humor that echoes not only his “honorary uncle” Del Reeves, but Tom T. Hall and Roger Miller, Garner delves deep into everything from family dysfunction to road trips to matters of the heart. The music, which he describes with a laugh as “diet country,” embodies the spirit of that genre without any of the slavishness or self-seriousness of much modern Americana. Rolling Stone has called his style “sweetly subversive, intellectual and addictive,” while Lo-Down said “the songs have an air of nostalgia but they sound far from old – modern, yet timeless. ” “I think a lot of people can probably relate to the ideas I’ve been exploring,” Garner says. “Even if you come from a good family, you inherit these negative qualities that your parents hand down to you And then they die, and here you are, left dealing with them. I’ve enjoyed The Kernal project, because it reminds me of the good things in my family and the ways that I’m able to conquer some of the negative aspects. That part is sometimes hard to communicate, and I’m not even sure people are interested in that. Otherwise, the album can be appreciated in a pretty straightforward way – let’s play some music and have a good time.”
Jupiter & Okwess
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYJUPITER & OKWESSExplosive! Na Kozonga, the new album by Jupiter and his band Okwess is a blast of energy that bewitches the body and feeds the spirit. Since the beginning, the Rebel General and his fellow pyrotechnicians have been drawing the rhythms of the Congo out of obscurity to reveal their superpowers: the powers of rock and funk, ready for every kind of musical coupling and any kind of invitation! From Damon Albarn to Money Mark (Beastie Boys) via, on this new album, the samba of Rogê, the rap of Marcelo D2, the horns of New Orleans or the voice of the militant Chilean singer Ana Tijoux. Jupiter & Okwess have no fear of strange encounters, nor the craziest journeys. They’ve even managed to conquer Latin America, and are currently busy recreating the triangular trade, in sounds! No surprise from one who, on his first album, declared “Ich bin ein Congolese…The world is my land.” “We all have ancestors in Africa,” Jupiter reminds us, “and they also played music. And if Africa looks like a revolver, its trigger can be found…in the Congo!’ Ready, Steady, Go! Jupiter and his joyous pistoleros are giving us the go-ahead. A new world tour awaits them. It’s up to you to follow their incandescent star.
