Wisp
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYWISPWisp is a 19 year-old Shoegaze artist based in San Francisco. Inspired by the likes of Whirr and Deftones, she has released two singles — the first of which, ‘Your face,’ having now generated over 19m streams on Spotify since April release. Proficient at numerous instruments including violin, guitar, and piano, Wisp has quickly become the fastest growing Shoegaze artist in the streaming era, and is in the process of recording her debut project slated for early 2024 release.PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY
OUTPOST: Summer like the Season
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINE “Summer Like The Season is an indie/art rock band based out of Detroit, MI. A brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and producer Summer Krinsky, the tunes explore a hazy line where live instrumentation and modern electronics meld into one fluid sonic playground. Inspired by artists like tUnE-yArDs, St. Vincent, and Animal Collective, Summer’s sound is characterized by poppy vocals mingling with unique harmonies, breakbeats, and ethereal soundscapes. Summer Like The Season has played on bills with Soccer Mommy, Dan Deacon DJ, Speedy Ortiz and Bent Knee. For the live show Summer plays drum kit and sings alongside electronics/synth musician Scott Murphy, and guitarist Liam McNitt”” Mary Metal is based in Asheville, NC and includes band members Charlie Graham, Max Kline, Alex Cain, Lucas Ross andHaven Hager. Indie/Alternative Rock/DreamPop.”Acid Jo “On rare and horrific occaisions the other side breaks through”
of Montreal
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYOF MONTREAL Kevin Barnes did not believe they could ever leave Georgia. Barnes arrived in the erstwhile college-rock hub of Athens around 1996, a pop four-tracker in their early twenties with permissive images of Bowie, Prince, and Iggy Pop prancing through their head. Almost immediately, of Montreal became a signal flare for a slowly changing South. Barnes, who will answer to any pronoun you proffer, bent gender and genre through complicated and ever-delightful records, trouble and woe fueling kinetic tunes of radical incandescence. But there is only so much energy one can expend on the vanguard, living in a town that often felt like a frat house suffused with regressive notions of race, sexuality, and decency. It all exhausted Barnes.They had, however, built a life there—a home, a family, a studio, a reputation. Could Barnes ever really exit? The new Lady On The Cusp is not only a rapturous synthesis of most everything of Montreal has ever done but also Barnes’ final transmission from Athens, as they’re now a fresh Southern expatriate delighted to be living among the snowy peaks and progressive politics of southern Vermont. Written and recorded in the months when Barnes and partner, musician Christina Schneider, prepared to leave, Lady On The Cusp combines a keen reckoning with the past with hopeful glimpses of the future, all clad in Barnes’ purposefully scattershot pop kaleidoscopes. The glittering trauma confrontation of “PI$$ PI$$,” the devotional R&B surrealist fantasy of “Soporific Cell,” the nuevo jazz lamentation of “Sea Mines That Mr Gone”: These 10 tracks—funny and sad, sexy and brooding, playful and serious—find Barnes finding new paths ahead. Barnes is moving both from situations that felt suffocating and toward musical ideas that feel evermore freeing. Barnes and Schneider met nearly seven years ago, when of Montreal and Schneider’s Locate S,1, shared a tour. They fell in love on the road, and she relocated to Athens to begin their life together there. Barnes had certainly contemplated leaving the South but worried about the existential anxieties: Where would they go, for instance, and how would they make friends wherever that was? Easier just to stay in place, right? But the couple began visiting Vermont together, slowly seeing every season in the state where Schneider had gone to school. Barnes imagined another way to exist. What’s more, Schneider—whose own band was in part a vehicle for confronting childhood damage—encouraged Barnes to engage with the wreckage of their past, to grow beyond it in a way they admit they never had. “Christina has been extremely helpful,” Barnes says with more than a touch of relief, “in realizing that who you’ve been doesn’t make you who you are.” Nostalgia is not Barnes’ thing, never really has been. While of Montreal’s peers from mid-’00s indie bloom have often circled back for seemingly endless reissues, reunions, and retreads, Barnes mostly hasn’t, choosing instead to press for novel ways to make the kind of jubilant but tumultuous tunes they have long loved. With its views of the past not as a crutch but as a cage, its nods to what’s next, and sounds that tinker with the idea of what it means to make pop at all, Lady On The Cusp is a compelling reintroduction to of Montreal—a project that has never stalled but has here found and used several new wellsprings of inspiration, all at once.TELE NOVELLA
KIM GORDON
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYKIM GORDONThere was a space in Kim Gordon’s No Home Record. It might not have been a home and it might not have been a record, but I seem to recall there was a space. Boulevards, bedrooms, instruments were played, recorded, the voice and its utterances, straining a way through the rhythms and the chords, threaded in some shared place, we met there, the guitar came too, there fell a peal of cymbals, driving on the music. We listened, we turned our back to the walls, slithered through the city at night. Kim Gordon’s words in our ears, her eyes, she saw, she knew, she remembered, she liked. We were moving somewhere. No home record. Moving. Now I’m listening to The Collective. And I’m thinking, what has been done to this space, how has she treated it, it’s not here the same way, not quite. I mean, not at all. On this evidence, it splintered, glittered, crashed and burned. It’s dark here. Can I love you with my eyes open? “It’s Dark Inside.” Haunted by synthesised voices bodiless. Planes of projections. Mirrors get your gun and the echo of a well-known tune, comes in liminal, yet never not hanging around, part of the atmosphere, fading in and out, like she says – Grinding at the edges. Grinding at us all, grinding us away. Hurting, scraping. Sediments, layers, of recorded emissions, mined, twisted, refracted. That makes the music. This shimmering, airless geology, agitated, quarried, cries made in data, bounced down underground tunnels, reaching our ears We recalled it – but not as a memory, more like how you recall a product, when it’s flawed. She sings “Shelf Warmer” so it sounds like shelf life, it sounds radioactive, inside our relationships, juddering, the beats chattering, edgy, the pain of love in the gift shop, assembled in hollow booms, in scratching claps. Non-reciprocal gift giving, there is a return policy. But – novel idea – A hand and a kiss. How about that. Disruption. I would say that Kim Gordon is thinking about how thinking is, now. Conceptual artists do that, did that. “I Don’t Miss My Mind.” The record opens with a list, but the list is under the title “BYE BYE.” The list says milk thistle, dog sitter…. And much more. She’s leaving. Why is the list anxious? How divisive is mascara? It’s on the list. I am packing, listening to the list. Is it mine, or hers. She began seeking images from behind her closed eyes. Putting them to music. But I need to keep my eyes open as I walk the streets, with noise canceled by the airbuds rammed in my ears. quiet, aware, quiet, aware, they chant at me. What could be going through Kim’s head as she goes through mine? -Written by English artist Josephine Pryde
Cloud Nothings
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYCLOUD NOTHINGSSome bands never miss. This rare breed consistently puts out great records every couple years, avoiding the lengthy hiatuses or egregious sonic missteps that often come with achieving longevity. It’s an often unsung reliability, as few realize how truly remarkable it is to put art into the world at this rate without letting the quality slip. For nearly 15 years, Cloud Nothings have continued to hit the target, steadily becoming a part of the fabric of modern indie rock as we know it with a run of fantastic albums. This streak continues unabated with their latest full-length, Final Summer–an album that’s so assured, so instantly satisfying, that it forces you to pause and realize you’re listening to one of the great American rock bands in their prime.Formed in 2009 by guitarist/vocalist Dylan Baldi, Cloud Nothings evolved over the years from a one-man lo-fi project into a finely tuned unit also composed of drummer Jayson Gerycz and bassist Chris Brown. Cloud Nothings, over so many years and so many records (nine or ten “depending on how you look at it,” laughs Baldi), have existed long enough to witness all sorts of musical moments come and go, but the secret to their endurance isn’t about savvily navigating trends. “We’ve just never felt inclined to stop,” Baldi explains. “It’s not like this makes us millions of dollars, but it’s a great gig, it’s what we love to do.” Gerycz adds, “It’s just still so fun every time we do it, every time we go get in the basement and start writing.”And it shows. Recorded with Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Torres, Purling Hiss), mixed by Sarah Tudzin (Porches, Tim Hiedecker, Pom Pom Squad), and mastered by Jack Callahan (Ryley Walker, Merchandise, Wolf Eyes), Final Summer is bursting with the unbridled joy that only comes from playing guitars and drums loudly. This is not the work of a scrappy new band cramming all of their ideas into a debut album or grizzled veterans grinding through another release: it’s one of the tightest and most invigorating rock bands active today, driven to make the best version of themselves. Very few bands take listeners on that kind of journey within a hooky rock song as effectively as Cloud Nothings, and the album’s opening title track proves exactly why. A wash of crackling synths sets the scene before the band roars to life with a cutting riff and Gerycz’s driving beat. From there, it’s layer after layer of interlocking melodies and guitar lines, all rising action while Baldi lays out the album’s overarching lyrical ideas. “It’s about feeling alright in the moment,” Baldi says. “A lot of these songs sort of ended up being about getting by or trying to keep improving despite everything.”On Final Summer closer “Common Mistake,” Baldi sings, “This is your life, it’s a common mistake. We’ll be alright, just give more than you take.” It’s the kind of deceptively direct lyric that he excels at, a clear and real sentiment filtered through a melody that’s stuck in your head before the end of the first chorus. The line could almost be an accidental mission statement for the band itself: a group that creates with a workman-likecommitment, providing listeners with something authentic and artful at an unflinching pace. Cloud Nothings don’t miss, and you won’t want to miss them either.
Homeshake
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYHOMESHAKEIt’s the early 2000’s. A music video plays on a nearby loop on the Much Music TV channel. A man stands in a room, the background is nothing, non existent, as if in a void. The camera rolls and does not stop. He is shirtless. Sparse guitars begin as the camera sways effortlessly through the abyss, never taking its omnipotent gaze off the man. He is shirtless, cut from stone like a statue from antiquity. Flawless in all regards, but we have not seen everything yet. The music ungulates towards an apex as the camera begins to lower its gaze. Revealed are two lines few have seen before. Angular muscles beginning at the navel and ending at the thighs. A new style of music video is formed, a unique take of R&B is created, the artistry of D’angelo is now truly whole. Peter sits at home transfixed to the screen. He is amazed as his perception of what is possible in music has changed. Peter is now on the precipice of a new dawn. Morning has broken. “Wake up, grandma why don’t you put on a little makeup.” Or so he thought the lyrics went to the new music video playing. Chop Suey by System of a Down. Peter is flabbergasted again. More new styles of music, more new guitar riffs! He sits, mouth open, with a copy of Guitar World magazine open to the tablature of Chop Suey. Reading the fine print with a magnifying glass he is now completely stunned, knocked flat onto his back, when he learns a guitar can be tuned much lower than he had expected! Drop C in fact. A tuning he uses to this day. “Time to go to school young man. This essay isn’t going to read itself,” he thinks to himself clutching his homework. At school a classmate of Peter reads his essay aloud for marks. They stumble through the quote “Be careful when staring into the abyss because the abyss will stare back into you.” After class, amazed at his friend’s penmanship, Peter does a secret handshake with the author to celebrate the success of the essay. A ‘home-shake.’ That was the moment he Realized how to unite his new inspirations. An artist is born. -written by an interested third party FREAK HEAT WAVESFreak Heat Waves make a highly anticipated return with their fifth LP, Mondo Tempo, courtesy of Vancouver’s esteemed Mood Hut label. The duo, consisting of Steven Lind and Thomas DiNinno, has been exploring a sonic landscape that defies easy categorization since the release oftheir self-titled debut in 2012. With Mondo Tempo Freak Heat Waves have tastefully infused dancehall grooves, ambient textures, trance mantras and midi smoothness. The sonic result is a heady cocktail that seamlessly blends elements of post-punk, psych, dub, ambient, house, and techno. With their latest release the Freaks deliver their most alluring output to date, solidifying their reputation as one of the most unpredictable and exciting acts around.
Mates of State
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYMATES OF STATE Mates of State, the iconic indie band featuring married couple Jason and Kori, today announce a 17-show tour for this summer 2024 in conjunction with going back into the studio to record all new songs. Mates garnered a rabid following beginning in 1998 and toured nearly non-stop for 15 years, performing all over the world including runs with NPR’s This American Life, The Postal Service, The Strokes, Jimmy Eat World, Santigold and Death Cab for Cutie. They’ve also been seen on David Letterman, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Conan O’Brien, and Yo Gabba Gabba. Since 2000, Mates’ have released 7 full length albums (on labels including Barsuk and Polyvinyl) while simultaneously starting a family of 3 daughters(!) who travelled the world with them on tour. The Mates’ paused touring for a minute to “give their girls a bit of an anchor through their teenage years”, while continuing to write and explore to find their next musical phase. This new direction is coming to light and Mates are hitting the road hard with 17 shows in 17 days, no days off. They also are currently recording a full-length album with long-time collaborator, producer Peter Katis, at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT.
Satsang
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYSATSANG I just want to write and perform songs that touch the heart and help others”. Letting go of genre, expectation, and boxes, Satsang has leaned into the power of songwriting to drive their forthcoming release, Flowers From The Fray (the band’s 5th album in 6 years) due out Fall 2022. Recorded and self-produced with the help of bandmate and longtime collaborator Parker Brown, this record finds the duo tucked away in a secluded cabin in Southwest Montana digging back into the foundation on which Satsang was founded on. “These songs were all so personal to me” says Drew McManus. “Whether it was really sifting through the stage of life I had found myself in which was a kind of dark night of the soul, or leaning into the love of my wife. This record is truly me bearing my heart. I needed to seclude myself to find out where these songs wanted to go, and having Parker’s musical guidance had a big hand in that.” This record, coupled with the band’s last release All. Right. Now. is a maturing. A growing into the songwriter and musicians that the band was destined to be. A settled and firm foundation of influences and sound that brings every external aspect in and finds it internalized and distilled into “Flowers From the Fray”. TIM SNIDER Whether he’s playing alongside Trevor Hall and the Great In Between, performing his solo show, fronting his band, or jamming with the many artists he’s shared the stage with had the pleasure of sharing the stage with, Tim Snider’s passion for music always shines through. He brings his unique style and energy to the stage and has captivated the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. Music runs deep for Tim, spanning back generations. His great-grandfather was a doctoral graduate violinist and composer from Harvard. His great-grandmother was an opera singer and his grandmother—a passionate violinist as well—prophesied that he would be the family’s next violinist while holding him on her deathbed when he was two months old. An Itzhak Perlman performance on Sesame Street became his earliest musical inspiration—at just three-and-a-half—and classical music first provided the impetus to learn his instrument. Over the years other influences have come into play: from exposure to the raw energy of rock music he picked up guitar, watching a Ben Harper concert turned him onto songwriting, and sojourns in Spain and Cuba introduced flamenco, salsa, and Afro-Cuban rhythms into his repertoire. Embracing these diverse influences, Tim’s musical odyssey took him to uncharted territories. Returning to college, he spent a year studying jazz and eventually rediscovered his love of classical music. With a career now spanning international borders, music has led Tim to tour throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. He has written and recorded countless string arrangements for artists across the globe including hip-hop Icon Talib Kweli, Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, Kairo, Baby Fisher, Justine Sky, Hire, Satsang, and many more.
OUTPOST: The Ain’t Sisters + Brother Fat
– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLY- RAIN OR SHINEThe Aint Sisters Musicfest News calls The Ain’t Sisters “A legendary must-see.” Described by Holler magazine as “A jolt of energy,” their sound is perhaps best summed up by Chat GPT: “The Ain’t Sisters’ music is so eclectic they can play you down the aisle at your wedding and fight your ex at the Waffle House parking lot all in the same night.”Brother Fat is a band formed as a tribute to the late Count M’Butu, a Grammy Award-winning member of The Derek Trucks Band. Their name honors Count M’Butu’s nickname from his youth, and the band’s formation, initially for his memorial show, has grown into a passionate endeavor dedicated to honoring his legacy. Prepare for some percussive FUNK and trippy blues!
Bermuda Search Party + Pocket Strange
ALL AGESSTANDING ROOM ONLYBERMUDA SEARCH PARTY Since their inception in early 2018, Bermuda Search Party (formerly known as The Q-Tip Bandits) have emerged into the Boston music scene as an energetic and vibrant act that continues to touch audience’s hearts while getting them up on their feet. Their smooth yet powerful sound is backed by the raw energy of rock and the coolness and colors of R&B and funk — with palpable grooves coated with savory, soul-inspired riffs, anthemic horns and meaningful lyrics. In 2023, the band played stages across the country, touring the South and the Midwest and hitting festivals along the way including SXSW, Levitate Music Festival, and Boston Calling. In September, the band returned to the studio to record their sophomore LP with Eric Palmquist, known for his work with half•alive, Tate McRae, and Bad Suns. With singles coming in 2024, the record is a departure from the band’s previous work, putting a pop spin on their signature horn-driven indie rock sound. LURKY SKUNKPOCKET STRANGE Asheville-based Pocket Strange explores the chaotic balance that lies between solace and jubilance. A half-hearted “we should start a band” conversation during a 2019 road trip became a reality with the release of their first song, Carmel by the Sea – a track recorded in Haydon Welsh’s bedroom in Charlotte when the band was existing as a long distance duo, with Porter Watson making the trip from Asheville up I-26 to finish their first track in April of 2021. Since then, Pocket Strange has focused on songwriting and comradery – with founding members Welsh (Guitar, Vocals) and Watson (Bass, Vocals) tapping into a spiritual journey to a South Carolina farm to work on new material in July of 2021. Returning with a stronger creative connection and a handful of songs, it became apparent that they needed to grow their sound. A sonic evolution came to fruition with the addition of Harrison Sytz (Guitar, Vocals), Pierce Deason (Pedal Steel, Percussion), and Jeremy Bryan (Metal Drums) in early 2022, aiding in expanding the types of music they can explore, and fighting the lines drawn by the definitions of genre. Pocket Strange’s music will transport you somewhere between the tie-dyed side of southern rock and psych-rock indie… with a polite splash of spacy jamming that ties together the loose ends that exist outside the constructs of their songs.
