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OUR CALENDAR
December
9
Monday
December
10
Tuesday
December
31
Tuesday
January
23
Thursday
January
25
Saturday
February
4
Tuesday
February
5
Wednesday
February
7
Friday
February
8
Saturday
February
10
Monday
Chanel West Coast
Young Bonnie. Keepin it real since 88. Yooooo what’s up everyone!? My name is Chanel aka C.C. and this is my official fan music page! I’m 24 years old, and I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
I am a rapper/singer and music is my one true passion in life. I write all my own lyrics, freestyle, rap, sing, dance, model, act, & design clothes. I really don’t know how to describe my style or how to describe myself….I am just Chanel. Alike every other human on this earth….I am unique. I can only say that my style is pure and based on several different life experiences and musical influences. I love music and I love poetry. I love creating art and expressing my inner feelings and emotions through it. I love being real and making music that all people everywhere can relate to and feel.
I want to be admired for being true to myself and remembered for something I put my heart and soul into. I first started recording in 2004 with the late, great, Soul Exl and Kevin Deville. Unfortunately, God had different plans for my friends and they were shot and killed in December 2007. I learned a lot when I lost my friends and it pushed me harder to achieve my dreams. Hopefully through my music and my lyrics my friends will be able to live on and hopefully I can make it big for all of us!
I am currently signed with Young Money and working with producer Rich Skillz creating that same magic I made years ago with my best friends. I know that my looks may be deceiving considering the content of my music, but I can assure you I am not your average little blonde white girl.
I have been through so much hardship and struggle in the short 24 years I’ve been alive, and I know that today after all the ups and downs, I am stronger than ever. My true passion in life is music. It is what I love to do and I do it well. Although music consumes most of my time, I am also pursuing many of my other goals and dreams on the side! I am currently working on many new projects such as, an upcoming mix tape coming out in June....an upcoming Clothing Line and Season 4 of Ridiculousness on MTV! I will have new songs up soon! And I will make sure to keep everyone posted on the daily about all the exciting things I have going on in my life! I hope everyone enjoys my page, and for those of you who do.... Keep checking back for updates, new pix, and for my new music! ~ PEACE ♥
OUR LINKS
Chase Compton
Chase Compton was born January 21, 1994 in Lawrence,Kansas. This rapper/songwriter started his musical aspirations at the age of 15. Chase has released three projects with another one on the way so far in his career and has been building his awareness throughout the Midwest region. Chase caught the attention of his peers with the release of "Midnight Music" in 2010. Fans were growing daily and more show opportunities came his way in a matter of months. Midnight Music propelled him into his first big show as the main support at the Section 8 music festival. Chase has blessed the stage with the likes of Juicy J, Chevy Woods, Problem, Dubo, Chris Webby, MGK, Currensy, Talib kweli, TimeFlies, Asher Roth, Berner, XV, T Mills, Kid Ink, Mac Miller, Big Krit, Wiz Khalifa, and Smoke Dza. During the fall of 2012 came the release of "Elevated Preview". The response was unbelievable and the first single "Acknowledge" visuals received over 40 thousand views via YouTube and 150 thousand views on gorilla leak hip-hop music site. The spring of 2013 took Chase to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas where he performed at 3 official showcases. One month later Chase was invited to accompany Chevy Woods as support on the Good Stock tour. Chase is now spinning on 14 major college radio stations throughout the country and has been named a headliner for the music festival “Dancefestopia” in Kansas City. Needless to say Chase is working his heart out to make good music. He is always saying that "this is for the fans." So, what started as a hobby has now turned into something special. His "Wake Up” project is coming soon. This Phenom ''CHASE COMPTON" is the Real Deal. Just you wait and see....
OUR LINKS
The Wood Brothers
Ways Not To Lose, the 2006 debut from the Wood Brothers had, in a sense, been a lifetime in the making—the first public collaboration between vocalist and guitarist Oliver Wood, who fronts Atlanta-based blues band King Johnson, and upright bassist Chris Wood, of the long-running, genre-blasting trio Medeski Martin and Wood. As players, they displayed an easy-going virtuosity; as siblings, they had an extraordinary rapport. Their folk and acoustic blues tunes, tinged with gospel hopefulness and country melancholy, were welcomed like old friends by both fans and pundits. National Public Radio named their debut disc one of their top ten discoveries that year. Rolling Stone declared, “The flip, easygoing party music on ‘Lose’ disguises sneakily deep inquiries into what it means to be alive, struggle with temptation, and every once in a while seek some truth.”
With the 2008 release of Loaded, the Wood Brothers engage in a more expansive musical dialogue that commenced well before they hit the studio; they collaborated for the first time on writing material together. John Medeski, returning as producer, got into the mix as the songs were just taking shape, and he plays keyboards on several tracks. The crew, working at a studio near Woodstock, New York, opened up the sessions to other musicians and friends—singers Amos Lee, Pieta Brown and Frazey Ford, steel guitarist Darick Campbell, violinists David Mansfield and Jennifer Choi, cellist David Eggar, drummers Billy Martin and Kenny Wolleson, and percussionist Donnie McCormick—making this a more fleshed-out, multi-layered band effort compared to the spare, live-in-the-studio approach of Ways Not To Lose.
OUR LINKS
Seth Walker
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
12/27
Mouth
3 Son Green
18 & Over | 8 pm
Mouth
"Kansas City band Mouth combines the elements of guitar, bass and drums to form a delectable musical stew... The band adds the fresh spices of jazz, funk, dance and hip hop to create an eclectic mix." - Ink
Formed in late 2008 by guitarist Jeremy Anderson, bassist Zach Rizer and drummer Stephen Gunn, Mouth plays original "cyberfunk" music: bass-heavy, deep funk grooves that combine rhythmic elements from funk, house, dubstep and hip hop with the improvisational approach of a jam band.
Having quickly established a name for themselves in their hometown with their exhilarating live shows, Mouth is now branching out with tour dates and festival performances throughout the Midwest.
"Fans wanting to pigeonhole Mouth's music, do so at their own risk. The three-piece Kansas City band combines elements of funk, jazz, hip hop, electronica and progressive rock in their unique, dance-friendly instrumental songs." - The Daily Record
OUR LINKS
3 Son Green
Since 2007, 3 Son Green has been interweaving their vast web of sound, sense, and solidarity into the ever‐evolving architect it has become. Their RockJamJazzFunk style breaks genre bylaws, and pulls crowds out of their seats everywhere they play. 3 Son Green’s intricate songwriting combined with their natural improvisation is guaranteed to satisfy every music lover’s palette. Their well fueled, expanding flame has, even now, lapped at the feet of the music world at all manner of festivals across the Midwest. These Kansas City grown virtuosos are vaulting to new heights, and leaving no slack behind.
Jamie Anderson – Guitar/Vocals
Evan Carlson – Guitar/Vocals
Steven Pearson – Drums
Trey Green – Bass/Vocals
OUR LINKS
Split Lip Rayfield
The Kansas-based post-punk progressive bluegrass outfit Split Lip Rayfield was comprised of vocalist/banjoist David Lawrence, guitarist/dobroist Kirk Rundstrom, and one-string bassist Jeff Eaton, whose instrument was fashioned from the gas tank of a 1965 Ford. An outgrowth of the group Scroat Belly (though it didn't take long for them to outlive the band that spawned them), the trio debuted in 1998 with a self-titled LP issued on the Bloodshot label. In the Mud followed a year later; by this time, singer and mandolin player Wayne Gottstine had expanded the lineup to four pieces and Eric Mardis had replaced Lawrence on banjo. The new millennium saw the release of a third effort, Never Make It Home, which arrived in stores in late 2000. After three years of touring, which saw the group opening for everyone from Del McCoury to Nashville Pussy, Split Lip Rayfield recorded and released a fourth long-player, Should Have Seen It Coming, in 2004. In early 2006, Rundstrom (who had also released a few solo records) was diagnosed with cancer. He continued to perform with the band for months as he fought and underwent treatment, but Rundstrom ultimately succumbed to the disease in February 2007, just about a week after playing what would be his last show. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
OUR LINKS
Granny Tweed
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
The Sunflower Colonels
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
Freddy Todd
Band Interests
Fractals and Intergalactic Slime Travelling. Owls too.
Genre wompalicious beats / lazer-crunkedelic bAsS
OUR LINKS
Marvel Year
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
Thumpur
THUMPUR AKA IAN LEFTWICH
PsySwerve, SwivelHop-BassMusic, Midtempo-Downtempo, Glitch-SaiyanStep- ♥ -SpaceBlap-MidwestPhonk
OUR LINKS
1/24
Super Nerd Night
All Ages | 8 pm
Super Nerd Night
Starting at 9pm and running until 2 in the am...SUPER NERD NIGHT is back! Right around the corner from Astrokitty itself, the Bottleneck is the new venue for an expanded and even more awesome night of drinking, drawing, video-games, movie-watching, music, singing, Magic, and more!
Drink & Draw: There will be a theme, there will be prizes, and you will have access to cheap markers, crayons, and pieces of chipboard to draw on! Enter our theme contest and win stuff (prizes awarded at midnight) or just draw for fun! All drawings will end up in our online gallery! :)
Geekaraoke: Try your best to do your very own version of a randomly-chosen theme song or geek anthem. Prizes will be awarded based on applause!
SINemascope: Take a drink every time you witness one of the 7 Deadly Sins playing out on our selected (and mostly muted) films! How do you win? Well, if you finish your drink, you win the chance to buy yourself another! Plus, who needs all those pesky brain cells? Goes throughout the night!
The Magic Seal: If you show up at 7pm, you can play in our MAGIC SEALED DECK event! $20 to play! Keep what you open! We'll have sleeves and deck boxes for purchase as well. The event will be multiple rounds swiss pairing if we have enough players! Bring a friend! Winner goes home with a FAT PACK! (NOTE: entry fee for remainder of the night will be waived if you play in the Magic event)
Electric Bar: 8 monitors & 8 different old-school video-game systems, for all to play! Want to try a different game? Just ask the Electric Bartenders to switch it up!
OUR LINKS
Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin "AMERICAN KID"
American Kid, Patty Griffin’s seventh album, is her first album of mainly new material since Children Running Through in 2007. In between, she made the Grammy Award-winning Downtown Church (2010), her version of classic gospel (though it featured three original songs). She also became a member of Band of Joy, the group in which leader Robert Plant and his cohorts meld British and American folk, rock and spiritual music.
American Kid, much of which Griffin says “was written to honor my father,” returns to typical Patty Griffin territory, which is to say that it features a group of remarkably powerful, personal and unpredictable songs arranged and performed in a style that doesn’t entirely repeat anything she’s done on her previous albums while drawing on all of them. Yet Griffin’s catalog is among the most unified in modern popular music, because her singing is as unmistakable and inimitable as her songwriting.
OUR LINKS
Anais Mitchell
Anaïs Mitchell is first and foremost a storyteller. As a Vermont- and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, Mitchell recorded for Ani Difranco's Righteous Babe Records for several years before starting her own Wilderland label in 2012. Among her recorded work are four full-length albums, including 2010's sensationally-reviewed Hadestown-- a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth-- and 2012's Young Man in America, which was described by the UK's Independent as 'an epic tale of American becoming'. Mitchell has headlined solo and band performances worldwide as well as supporting tours for artists like Bon Iver, Ani Difranco, and the Low Anthem (all of whom appear as guest singers on Hadestown). At the moment, she's touring with friend and collaborator Jefferson Hamer in support of Child Ballads, a co-arranged collection of traditional Celtic and British Isles ballads. If there's a common thread in Mitchell's work-- from her earliest acoustic records, to the opera, to this new chapter-- it's that she's as interested in the world around her as the one inside her. She has a way of tackling big themes with the same emotional intimacy most artists use to describe their inner lives. "That's why," as one journalist put it, "there's a sexual ambiguity about her work and why, even in her most intimate moments, she never sounds like a confessional songwriter."
OUR LINKS
Dopapod
Dopapod is not so much a jam band as they are a band that improvises. They are an electronic band without computers. They are a metal band with groove and soul. They are a funk band that’s not afraid to get intricate. With no regard towards toward stylistic boundaries, the sound that emerges from the quartet both live and in the studio is as varied and diverse as the many influences that they adapt from. Their approach to complementing a distinct genre bending sound to top-notch musicianship is what has kept the quartet committed to evolving their unique brand. This progressive song writing leaves room for boundless improvisational exploration and has been the root of why more and more music lovers are steadily growing in numbers eagerly returning for more.
In the past three years, Dopapod has been tirelessly planting its seed in ears throughout the entire East Coast and into the Midwest with their infectious and sensory live performances. Covering all this ground has seen the young, yet seasoned group make appearances at numerous festivals including Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, Gathering Of the Vibes, Bonnaroo, Burning Man, Catskill Chill, Bear Creek, The Big Up, Rootwire, and more. Their electric live showcase has been cultivating a fast growing, loyal fan base, and seen them share bills with artists such as Moe, Lotus, EOTO, Papadosio, Zach Deputy, Sam Kininger (Lettuce, Soulive), and Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer).
Redivider is Dopapod’s third studio effort. Having been recorded and released less than a year after the band’s last record Drawn Onward came out, recording was done at Tyrone Farm, a scenic and completely solar powered farm in the small town of Pomfret, CT. Opting to take a different route than recording in a studio, the band brought their own to the barn of the farm and produced it by themselves. Redivider displays a drastic evolution in the band’s songwriting skills as well as marking the first time ever that the band has added vocals into songs. The added texture serves as yet another dimension in what allows the band to look in multiple directions at one time while remaining focused on a cohesive blend of sound.
OUR LINKS
Andrew Ripp
Singer, writer, laugher, occasional cryer, bad golfer.
OUR LINKS
Judah & the Lion
Judah & the Lion is an americana-folk band with their roots planted in Nashville, TN. Their music comes from many influences that cumulates in a blend of folk instruments, played with fresh musicianship and powerful vocal harmonies. They got their start in December of 2011 and exist to create honest and relatable music. The lead singer, Judah Akers, Banjo player, Nate Zuercher, and Mandolinist, Brian Macdonald, lead the group and are honored to play with a band of talented musicians. They love music, love life, and love people.
OUR LINKS
The Floozies
Just outside the jazz mecca of Kansas City springs liberal oasis Lawrence, Kansas—separated only by the waves of wheat from the epicenter of the electronic music revolution in Colorado. From Lawrence, it would logically follow that an act could rise to prominence fueled by the swing of Basie, the birth of Charlie Parker’s bebop, and the wild frontier of electronica. Born in funk and bred in the digital age, live electronic duo The Floozies have burst onto the scene at a time when the industry needed them the most.
Brothers Matt and Mark Hill share the stage just as easily as they share a musical brain. Without a setlist, and without a word between them, Matt’s guitar is in lockstep with the thud of Mark’s kick. Endless looping and production builds the raw scenery upon which palm muted chugs, searing solos, and wobbling bass paint their dazzling array of colors.
Well versed in everything from Chris Cornell to Kavinsky, the sonic vision shared by the brothers eschews contemporary electronic influences in favor of broader, deeper tastes including Zapp & Roger, Lettuce, and Amon Tobin. That wide-angle view of a century of popular music allows the Hills to remix Toto and The Dead—in the music you can hear reverence for the giants of the past, all the while producing wildly futuristic tunes for the masses to dig now.
When the pendulum swung as far as it could away from live instrumentation to laptops, The Floozies rose up to the challenge, swinging as hard as they could in the other direction with neck-snapping, knee-breaking funk so dirty that the gatekeepers stood up, wiped themselves off, and took notice. A bold live show full of sonic exploration and unbreakably deep pocket grooves has landed the brothers on stage with luminaries of the jam world Umphrey’s McGee as readily as electronic elites GRiZ and Big Gigantic. A nationwide tour with Archnemesis and Wick-it The Instigator cemented the duo’s ascent while major festival appearances at Wakarusa, Summer Camp, Kanrocksas, and Sonic Bloom dot the horizon.
The Floozies are bringing the funk back, and they’re right on time.
OUR LINKS
- The Floozies Homepage
- On Facebook
- On Youtube
- On Spotify (Will launch Spotify Application)
- On SoundCloud
- On Twitter
- On MySpace
Manic Focus
Manic Focus is the musical conception of John “JmaC” McCarten that breaks the bounds of the typical electronic music realm. Being classically-trained on piano at an early age, his musical talents have brought him through the realms of hip-hop beats and electronic music, having now evolved into the dynamic, bass-induced sounds of Manic Focus. A Minnesota native and recent transplant to Chicago, this producer is blowing up the EDM scene.
Manic Focus isn't your typical electronic dance music. His first album, Definition of the Rhythm, provides a broad array of tracks, from energized electro hip-hop to tranquil, melodious grooves. His deep bass lines and popping beats drive the tracks along, while spellbinding melodies and carefully-chosen vocal samples entrance the listener. The essence of Manic Focus lies within his flawless production, weaving together rhythms and effects to create a sheer masterpiece every time.
His second album, Expanding Mind, showcases how Manic Focus is broadening his spectrum, going from dark, majestic sounds toward a funky, bass-laden dance vibe. Now dipping into the realms of house, drum & bass, and glitch-hop, Manic Focus is exploring new genres and continuing to produce pure musical magic along the way.
With continuous new releases and dates stacking up across the country, Manic Focus is on pace to take the music industry by storm. The talents of this producer create a spell-binding effect that only further showcases the evolution of his undeniable musical ability.
OUR LINKS
Purusa
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
The Floozies
Just outside the jazz mecca of Kansas City springs liberal oasis Lawrence, Kansas—separated only by the waves of wheat from the epicenter of the electronic music revolution in Colorado. From Lawrence, it would logically follow that an act could rise to prominence fueled by the swing of Basie, the birth of Charlie Parker’s bebop, and the wild frontier of electronica. Born in funk and bred in the digital age, live electronic duo The Floozies have burst onto the scene at a time when the industry needed them the most.
Brothers Matt and Mark Hill share the stage just as easily as they share a musical brain. Without a setlist, and without a word between them, Matt’s guitar is in lockstep with the thud of Mark’s kick. Endless looping and production builds the raw scenery upon which palm muted chugs, searing solos, and wobbling bass paint their dazzling array of colors.
Well versed in everything from Chris Cornell to Kavinsky, the sonic vision shared by the brothers eschews contemporary electronic influences in favor of broader, deeper tastes including Zapp & Roger, Lettuce, and Amon Tobin. That wide-angle view of a century of popular music allows the Hills to remix Toto and The Dead—in the music you can hear reverence for the giants of the past, all the while producing wildly futuristic tunes for the masses to dig now.
When the pendulum swung as far as it could away from live instrumentation to laptops, The Floozies rose up to the challenge, swinging as hard as they could in the other direction with neck-snapping, knee-breaking funk so dirty that the gatekeepers stood up, wiped themselves off, and took notice. A bold live show full of sonic exploration and unbreakably deep pocket grooves has landed the brothers on stage with luminaries of the jam world Umphrey’s McGee as readily as electronic elites GRiZ and Big Gigantic. A nationwide tour with Archnemesis and Wick-it The Instigator cemented the duo’s ascent while major festival appearances at Wakarusa, Summer Camp, Kanrocksas, and Sonic Bloom dot the horizon.
The Floozies are bringing the funk back, and they’re right on time.
OUR LINKS
- The Floozies Homepage
- On Facebook
- On Youtube
- On Spotify (Will launch Spotify Application)
- On SoundCloud
- On Twitter
- On MySpace
Muzzy
MuzzY is Detroit-Based Producer/Musician Dan Hacker. Thrust onto the scene at a young age, Dan found solace in the old school. Stylistically blending Motown and Jazz samples with modern hip-hop drum breaks, his music can best be described as "Soul-Hop". He combines a wide variety of influences from Stevie Wonder, to Led Zeppelin, to J Dilla with his own live Guitar playing; which together makes for an interesting recipe set to tantalize your ear drums. You can catch MuzzY bringing back the funk around Michigan and the Midwest, and also with the likes of GRiZ and Tone Poets (Live Jam Band with Freddy Todd, ill.so.naj, and Unc).
OUR LINKS
Thumpur
THUMPUR AKA IAN LEFTWICH
PsySwerve, SwivelHop-BassMusic, Midtempo-Downtempo, Glitch-SaiyanStep- ♥ -SpaceBlap-MidwestPhonk
OUR LINKS
The Revivalists
The formation of The Revivalists was all about chance, but everything since then has been a combination of hard work, awesome music, and friendship. The septet has been playing nonstop since 2007, crafting a genre-hopping sound that rounds out traditional rock instrumentation with horns and pedal steel guitar and mixes the divergent backgrounds of its individual members with the humid, funky undercurrents of the band’s New Orleans home. The result is like English spoken with an exotic accent: familiar, yet difficult to pin down.
Religion aside, a revival is all about the tangible electricity that can only be created when enough like minds are crammed under a single roof for a singular purpose. It’s a spiritual spectacle, a carnival of the divine, a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The same could be said for The Revivalists’ searing live performances. The band has a knack for bringing music to life on a stage, and they have tuned their talents to Swiss-watch precision over years of relentless touring. Their bombastic showmanship is the outgrowth of a desire to connect with audiences on a personal level, and that intimate connection is what elevates their shows above simple entertainment.
True to their name, The Revivalists lean more heavily on the older styles and warmer sounds of the golden age of rock ‘n roll, but the band isn’t afraid to dabble in electronics and sleight-of-studio when it’s right for the song. The group tends not to bother with questions like “does this sound like us?” or “does this fit with our other stuff?”, instead allowing songs to define themselves and take shape organically, each on its own terms. Is this a dark, heavy rock manifesto driven by a steel guitar line that borders on electronica, or is it an airy, acoustic story about star-crossed lovers, rich in vocal harmony and sparsely arranged until the coda? This one’s funky, that one’s sweet, this one’s heavy….
To The Revivalists, it doesn’t matter. They just write songs that they want to play.
OUR LINKS
- The Revivalists Homepage
- On Facebook
- On Spotify (Will launch Spotify Application)
- On Twitter
- On MySpace
Houndmouth
That first November 2011 night, when it all fell together at the Green House, was nothing more complicated than four friends playing music, armed with something to drink and a curiosity about what might happen. They were the generation who has come of age in the new economy, already adept at shuffling jobs and get-bys, firmly acclimated to the diminished expectations that come with growing up somewhere the rest of the world assumes is nowhere. Which, in this case, is New Albany, Indiana.
Houndmouth, then, knew each other from…around. Matt Myers and Zak Appleby had played in cover bands together for years, schooled in blues and classic rock and Motown, toughened by indifferent audiences and the clatter of empty bottles. Matt and Katie Toupin had worked as an acoustic duo for three years, when she wasn’t on the road tending to a straight job. Katie and Shane Cody had gone to high school together, before Shane disappeared off to Chicago and New York to study audio engineering. In the beginning it was Shane and Matt who’d started knocking around at first, just drums and guitar, once Shane got home and free of a brief bluegrass flirtation.
The rest happened in a tumble, Zak and Katie switching from guitars to bass and keyboards, respectively. Four months later, their homemade EP in hand, Houndmouth made the pilgrimage to South By Southwest. Their booking agent convinced Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis to come have a listen. Of such things are dreams made. Months of conversation and a proper studio later, their debut album, From the Hills Below the City, will be released by Rough Trade.
“We lucked out,” Matt says. “We knew we were making good music. We knew we had something. But we didn’t know it would escalate so quickly. Always the element of luck.”
Before and after that bit of luck, Houndmouth have been on the road, building their audience. Working. Opening for the Drive-By Truckers, the Lumineers, the Alabama Shakes, Lucero, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Headlining on their own. Turning heads.
“You know good art when you see it,” says Newport Folk Festival booker Jay Sweet, an early adopter, “and you know good food when you taste it. Well, you also know good music when you hear it, and when I first heard Houndmouth it was like freshest tasting art I had heard in many moons. A true musical omnivore’s delight.”
“I’m going down where nobody knows me,” they sing during the jaunty chorus of “On the Road.” The opening track to From the Hills Below the City, which is more or less the relationship New Albany has to Louisville, across the river: “I had a job had to leave behind me…I had to move to another city.” A two and a half minute slightly bent pop confection, conscious of all kinds of music which went before. Self-conscious about nothing, not even the neo-rap cutting contest that snaps across one break. A blues for now, then.
The older heads are noticing, the ones who are hardest to convince. “Houndmouth is a great young band,” testifies Patterson Hood of the Truckers. “They toured with us last month and brought it each and every night. They were extremely popular with our fanbase and our band. I look forward to hearing what they do next.”
Rolling Stone’s David Fricke joined the chorus of praise after seeing Houndmouth during SXSW ’13: “They are all singers, leading with individual character and harmonizing in saloon-choir empathy. The music is earthy melancholy with a rude garage-rock streak.”
Houndmouth’s songs emerge with a loose-limbed swing, anchored by a sturdy rhythm and a cagey melodic sensibility. “Penitentiary,” revived from Matt and Katie’s acoustic days, is all dressed up as a rock anthem. It’s dark, yet fun, with all those voices singing, “come on down to the Penitentiary/oh mama, the law came crashing down on me.”
Matt sketches the origins of his song, which became their song. “I met a guy in Reno on a road trip before we started the band, and he was super down on his luck,” he says. “We met him at a gas station, bumming money. He told me a few details that are probably in the song, but I made most of it up. I changed the setting to Texas, because it sounded authentic.” And then he mentions that he was listening to Jimmie Rodgers at the time.
Hard-luck songs, to be sure, betraying a certain criminal bent. Not their stories, Katie is careful to note, but the world they’ve watched walk on by. “We grew up in Southern Indiana,” she says. “It’s not always the classiest place. So all that is not unfamiliar even if we haven’t personally been through the darkest parts of it.”
And yet, as she also says, “No matter how much anyone wants to write a completely fictional or narrative song, there’s ALWAYS part of you in it. I think that it is important, even when writing narrative songs, that there is something real about them. That there is part of yourself in them.” Houndmouth’s truths, then, are emotional. For the most part.
“The dealers and the bootleggers/Got me hooked on freebasing/And I can’t trust my government/So I looked into the other dimension,” Katie sings, tough and innocent. “And now they got me doing bad things.” “The song is a story,” Katie says. “I didn’t get hooked on freebasing. Yet there is part of me in it…It’s also maybe about me wanting to escape, loosen my morals, not opening my heart to people.”
So are the songs. Deeply emotional, that weird, powerful, essential thing the blues does that makes you feel better through the tears. Especially the songs which are deeply personal, like “Halfway to Hardinsburg” or “Palmyra.” Or the sad, slurring loss of “Long as You’re Home,” on which they sing, “Who am I supposed to be?”
Themselves, of course.
Four musicians from New Albany, Indiana, across the river from Louisville. Where Will Oldham, Jim James, and Freakwater’s Catherine Irwin live. A fecund place, and place
matters. Not a sound, not a scene, but a place. A real place. “There is a familiar element about My Morning Jacket that I can’t really pinpoint,” Katie says. “It’s kinda like what I can’t pinpoint about what Houndmouth is that we all sort of get. It just makes us feel at home.”
OUR LINKS
Willie Watson
In the exploding world of acoustic music, Willie Watson needs no introduction.
During his decade plus tenure with Old Crow Medicine Show, Willie’s driving rhythm guitar, transcendent lead vocals and pure tenor were an essential part of the band’s success (over 600,000 records sold not to mention the platinum selling single “Wagon Wheel”), but nowhere in OCMS’s catalog does his instrumental artistry and vocal prowess shine as in this new solo incarnation. A vast catalog of traditional songs are reinterpreted and given new life, fitting seamlessly besides self-penned classics cut from the very same cloth, creating a rich new patchwork of Americana.
Willie is on tour through 2013 and has teamed up with producer David Rawlings (Gillian Welch, OCMS) on a forthcoming project to be released in early 2014.
OUR LINKS
J BOOG
J Boog is a man of many influences. The singer of Samoan descent was born in Long Beach and raised in Compton, California. Growing up in the rough streets of Compton, the strong sense of tradition and culture that J Boog absorbed from his family was instrumental in his path to stay off the streets and begin a successful music career.
At the age of four, after hearing his older sister playing the piano, he developed an interest and started watching her and learning about music. Soon, J was singing along to the notes & melodies he heard his sister play. A while later, she brought home a Bob Marley song book. Even at this young age, J knew Bob's name and his music. Upon hearing his sister begin to play, something clicked inside J. He hasn't been the same since.
The first time J Boog performed in front of an audience, he was nine years old. It was a large family reunion at a church and there were about 200 people present. J's mother and sister insisted for him to sing Whitney Houston's "One Moment In Time" and J obliged them. Though he was nervous, it went quite well.
J Boog's music career became serious in 2005, when a couple of brothers from his neighborhood brought him to one of J's favorite artists, George "Fiji" Veikoso". The two began working together immediately and J ended up moving to Hawaii in 2006 to continue developing his craft. After releasing his debut album "Hear Me Roar" in 2007, he joined the musical family Wash House Music Inc, a record label based in Hawaii and San Francisco.
A year later, in 2008, J Boog met Gramps Morgan of Morgan Heritage and there was an instant chemistry. Gramps was keen on working with J, and set out to make a way. Shortly after, Gramps, J Boog and other Wash House family members were in Jamaica recording in such prestigious places as Bob Marley's "Tuff Gong" Studio, Don Corleone's "Hit Maker", Bobby Digital's "Digital B", Shaggy's "Big Yard", Sugar Minott's "Youth Man Promotion" and more.
The results are apparent when listening to Boog's new music. It is authentic Island Music and genuine Jamaican reggae at the same time. Truly a new and exciting combination. There is a natural theme to Boog's writing: love. It recurs throughout his work and never once seems contrived. When you listen, you will feel he truly knows matters of the heart.
These days Boog is either in a studio, on a stage or catching a flight. Radio interviews have become a daily thing and it's a little overwhelming for the young artist, though he has been smart enough to keep his humility. He has a great sense of humor and an even better sense of reality. He can be overheard saying how blessed he is on a daily basis. It's easy to see why J Boog has been winning over fans when you meet him. He has the right spirit and attitude to carry him to the next level.
His new album, "Backyard Boogie" is slated for release September 27th 2011 and features Tarrus Riley, Jacob Hemphill (of SOJA), Peetah Morgan (of Morgan Heritage), Fiji and others.
Leading up to the release of his official new album, J Boog released the "J Boog EP" on June 14th 2011 via Wash House Hawaii/EMPIRE Distribution. The EP featured five brand new songs, along with three previously released songs, including his smash hits "Let's Do It Again" and "So Far Gone".
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Los Rakas
Los Rakas is comprised of cousins Raka Rich & Raka Dun, pioneering Panamanians by way of the Bay Area on the frontier of a new Latin urban sound. Known for their fresh mix of hip-hop, plena, reggae and dancehall music with both Spanish and English lyricism, Los Rakas represent the cutting edge of Pan-American flows. Taking their name from the Panamanian word “Rakataka” – a negative slur used to describe someone from the ghetto – Los Rakas have set out to both inspire fellow “Rakas” by empowering them to become successful despite their circumstances, turning the current Latin hip-hop world on its head. In 2012, Los Rakas released their EP, Raka Love, touring nationally and internationally. They are set to introduce their next project, a double album, "Soy Raka presents: 'El Negrito Dun Dun' & 'Ricardo', later this year.
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Passafire
Calling Savannah, GA home, Passafire was formed in 2003 by students attending Savannah College of
Art and Design. After performing on a stage outside Atlanta’s Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre in 2006 where
the hybrid rock band, Pepper, was opening for 311, a member of Passafire slipped to Pepper a copy of
the band’s self-titled debut album, Passafire. Pepper had just founded the independent LAW Records
with plans to selectively recruit and nurture bands they actually experienced and were impressed by while
out on the road - as opposed to sitting in some distant office and combing through piles of demos. “We’re
out there every day, meeting and playing with new bands,” says Pepper bassist/singer, Bret Bollinger.
“It’s not a guessing game. We get to meet them, watch them live...”
“And spot their work ethic,” Singer/guitarist, Kaleo Wassman interjects with emphasis,
Passafire developed their sizable fanbase by logging miles all over the US (particularly, in the southeast),
which attracted the established booking agent, Monterey International who has taken the band to the
next level of touring. Passafire has performed with a variety of major acts including The Wailers, Van
Halen, Israel Vibrations, 311, Toots and the Maytals, Los Lonely Boys, Bares Hammond, John
Brown’s Body, Matisyahu, the Aggrolites and Dub Trio. The band lives on the road, playing live
throughout the year. Singer, Ted Bowne doesn’t mind the grueling schedule and adds, “Touring is the
best way to keep the buzz about the band going. What keeps it fun and exciting is the people we meet
and places we get to see. We are in a new city every day so there's always something to go see or do. If
we didn't tour constantly, we wouldn't be doing as well as we are. That's a fact.”
Buy Tickets Here: http://pipelineticketing.frontgatesolutions.com/choose.php?a=1&lid=72575&eid=82010
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Ballyhoo!
A rock band with punk energy and pop reggae grooves, Baltimore’s BALLYHOO! are a fun, fan-loving powerhouse. These road dogs have tirelessly toured coast-to-coast taking their music to the people. Between the road and the studio, BALLYHOO! have crafted a sound distinctly their own; fresh, fun, and embodied by the soul of the party lifestyle. Lead singer and guitarist, Howi Spangler, has a reputation for mixing slick lyrics with his smooth but powerful voice. Drummer Donald “Big D” Spangler lays out the hard-hitting beats, which are underlined by JR Gregory’s funky and witty bass lines. Scott Vandrey (aka DJ Blaze) rounds it out on the turntables and keys.
BALLYHOO!’s unique sound, hardcore devotion to the road and their fans has pitched them into snowballing success. The band has performed with a myriad of national touring acts; 311, Slightly Stoopid, SOJA, The Dirty Heads, Matisyahu, and more. In 2011, after concluding the Last Calls and Liabilities tour with respected contemporaries, Pepper, they were honored with being included on the ever-popular Hollister Holiday Playlist. They were listed on MTV’s Top 100 Bands to Watch and even featured 2 downloadable songs on the popular video game ROCK BAND. Tour highlights include the 2011 311 Pow Wow Festival, the 2012 311 Caribbean Cruise, Bamboozle 2012, & the entire 2012 Vans Warped Tour.
The band’s last single “Last Night” saw rotation at various alternative radio stations including WHFS Baltimore, WRFF Philadelphia, KUKQ Phoenix, Star 101.9 Honolulu, & SiriusXM/Faction, as well as various specialty shows around the country. The band's new single "Walk Away" is next and poised to open even more doors at radio with it's melodic chorus and sing along vibe. Yesod Williams, owner of the band’s label LAW Records says of his newest addition, “Having BALLYHOO! join the LAW family is a perfect fit. They are an incredibly talented band with a really catchy style”.
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MartyParty
MartyParty is a music producer and performer. Born and raised in South Africa and residing in Brooklyn, NY, his music runs the gambit from sexy hip hop to intense dance to dirty dubstep… sometimes pretty and soft, sometimes hard and dirty, but always emotional.
MartyParty started producing his own flavor of music in 2005 with the mission to change the monotony of electronic music by creating an entirely different electronic sound: more musical, more story telling, and more diversity in the beats. The result is a growing anthology of MartyParty music crossing over most popular genres into a rich sound he calls Purple.
MartyParty’s live “Purple Opera” is a seamless voyage through an original music collection taking the audience on a the roller coaster ride of emotion and dance. Intense bass, huge beats, emotional melodies and cutting edge sound design all come together for a wild trip – unique to every performance.
There are no “disks” and he is no “jockey.” Working without headphones using Ableton Live on a laptop, the ability to mix more than two channels creates an entirely new audio experience for the audience. The live set is a show… a high energy, intense dance party.
“I just want to make kids freak out and let loose – we all came to party – I make a party – you have no choice but to get into it – young and old – one thing is for sure, you’ll be going nuts.” – MartyParty
MartyParty plays MartyParty music although he will mix in some hot tracks from other dope producers…. “Because I love hearing the latest sick tracks on the big system too.” He then overlays his music with one shot’s, crunky acappella vocal samples, and brings it all together with his custom filter and delay system he manipulates live with a pad and slider controller.
MartyParty is always writing new music, on the plane, in the hotel, wherever. In his studio in Brooklyn he writes a track a day all the way to final master and releases it onto his website. The music comes fast and this is how MartyParty likes it. He wants his audience to never know what to expect in each show, and loves to play the new material for the first time for maximum effect. MartyParty live sets are always spontaneous and never choreographed. They are always different, depending on the crowd, venue, sound system and energy in the room.
“It’s all about experimentation and invention – that’s why I make music the way I do. The new tooling in digital music production allows me to sit alone in my room on my iMac with two KRK Rockit monitors and a subwoofer, and produce original music from the first chord, right through to mastering and release on the internet – in one day. This freedom and power make it easy to explore the limits of the audible sound spectrum, including sub bass, poly-melodic harmonics and sound design, with incredible speed, productivity and without complying to any convention. My mission is to change the way people think about electronic music and to bring the art of musical composition back into popular music. My dream is that I inspire others to do the same. We live in a digital world, I’m not interested in emulating anything that has been done before.” – MartyParty
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Joker
MORE INFO COMING SOON!
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Buttered Rum lives for songs. Songs to sing in the shower.
Songs to crank through your earbuds at the DMV. Songs to name
your babies after, and then make more babies to. The band's three
songwriters — Aaron Redner, Nat Keefe and Erik Yates — spin tales
about the good times, the bad times, and the roads in between, and
belt them from the heart in three-part harmony. Bryan Horne's athletic
standup bass and Lucas Carlton's tasteful percussion combine with
the acoustic instruments to create what is California's own acoustic
music.
Hot Buttered Rum lives for a good time. The group's onstage
chemistry fuels the lovefest that is a live HBR show. A mindful
recklessness settles in whenever these five guys step out of their
front doors in northern California to entertain crowds from Anchorage
to Miami.
Hot Buttered Rum's years of touring have given the band the chance
to work and play with a wide cross-section of musicians, people
like Phil Lesh, Chris Thile, Brett Dennen, and Robert Earl Keen.
Seasoned veteran Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), acoustic guru Mike
Marshall, and left-coast rocker Tim Bluhm (Mother Hips, Nicki Bluhm)
have all produced studio albums for the band. Each guided HBR
towards the next step in its evolution. It's a sound that's as tough to
describe as it is easy to love, and it has found its way to the most
prestigious pop, folk, and bluegrass stages in the country: Telluride,
Newport, Bonnaroo, Strawberry, Hardly Strictly, Kate Wolf, Horning’s
Hideout, String Summit, Grey Fox, All Good, High Sierra, Wakarusa,
and many more.
At the center of Hot Buttered Rum is the enduring camaraderie of five
best friends. The band was conceived on a backpacking trip of high
school and college buddies in the High Sierra. What was dreamed
up on mountaintops and around campfires has found its way into the
hearts, minds, and bodies of thousands.
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Gangstagrass
There are only three bands that can tame a mountain lion just by playing. Gangstagrass is one of them. Gangstagrass is also the other two of them.
When you armwrestle Bigfoot, don't win. And for god's sake don't cheat.
Gangstagrass is a dirty fightin', gator wrestlin', foot stompin' bluegrass-hip-hop project of Brooklyn based producer Rench, who has spent the last decade making gritty, soulful country hip-hop music that you will actually like.
Yeah, Gangstagrass did the theme song to Justified. Yeah, Rench and T.O.N.E-z got nominated for an Emmy for it. Yeah, this is real bluegrass pickers and real emcees making music. And yeah, we do it live too.
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2/26
Keller Williams and More Than a Little
Jon Wayne & the Pain
$21 - $23 | All Ages | 8 pm
BUY TICKETS!Keller Williams and More Than a Little
Those who’ve followed Keller Williams’ recording career to date know that he has given each of his albums a single-word title: Laugh, Buzz, Dance, Home, Loop, Odd, etc. Each title serves not only as a concise summation of the concept guiding the particular project but also as another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is Keller Williams. Grass, for example, is a bluegrass recording, cut with the husband-wife duo the Keels. Stage is a live album and Dream the end product of a wish list: Keller collaborating with some of his greatest musical heroes.
The naming trend has continued with 2010’s Thief and Kids, respectively a set of cover songs and Williams’ first children’s record. What all of the titles reveal, when taken together, is an artist of great stylistic breadth and infinite imagination, a singer, songwriter and musician, always on a quest for the new. Keller Williams has never followed the prescribed path laid out by the conventional music business but rather one of his own making. It’s a path that has served him well.
Since he first appeared on the scene in the early ’90s, Williams has defined the term independent artist. And his recordings tell only half the story. Keller built his reputation initially on his engaging live performances, no two of which are ever alike. For most of his career he has performed as a one-man band—his stage shows are constructed around Keller singing his compositions and choice cover songs while accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar connected to a Gibson Echoplex delay system that allows him to simulate a full band. That approach, Williams explains, was derived from “hours of playing solo with just a guitar and a microphone, and then wanting to go down different avenues musically. I couldn’t afford humans and didn’t want to step into the cheesy world of automated sequencers where you hit a button and the whole band starts to play, then you’ve got to solo along or sing on top of it. I wanted something more organic yet with a dance groove that I could create myself.”
Williams’ solo live shows—and his ability to improvise to his determinedly quirky tunes despite the absence of an actual band—quickly became the stuff of legend, and his audience grew exponentially when word spread about this exciting, unpredictable performer. Once he began releasing recordings, starting with 1994’s Freek, Williams was embraced by an even wider community of music fans, particularly the jam band crowd. While his live gigs have largely been solo affairs, Williams has nearly always used his albums as a forum for collaborations with fellow musicians. An alliance with The String Cheese Incident on 1999’s Breathe marked Williams’ first release on the band’s label SCI Fidelity Records, an imprint he still partners with today for recordings. Dream, Keller’s 2007 release, found him in the company of such iconic musicians as the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, banjo master Béla Fleck, bass great Victor Wooten and many others.
“That album took, from start to release time,” says Williams, “about three years. The object was to get people that I admire musically to play my stuff, so when I’m old I can crank this album in my pimped-out golf cart and have something that I’m really proud of. I was going for the historical effect for my own personal listening pleasure.
“Each record,” he continues, “is a little snapshot of history. I like to think of it as a period piece for an artist. Each record is a little bit different but all of them have some kind of common thread, which is my musical ability as far as I can take it. They each show how I progress with age. I enjoy making records. In some people’s eyes, they’re a dying breed, but I’m very passionate about it. They document where my head is at that time in my career and where I am in my songwriting.”
Williams’ story begins in Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C. There he was exposed to a wide variety of music at an early age, starting with country and bluegrass and working his way up through hip-hop and go-go, a brand of funk particular to that part of the country. Once he began playing guitar, Williams’ sphere expanded to what he calls “the post-pseudo-skateboarder punk-rock rebellious type of thing, Black Flag and Sex Pistols and Ramones, Dead Kennedys, things like that. That slid into the more melodic college rock, like the Cure and the Cult, the Smiths, R.E.M.’s first five or six records.”
Then came the Grateful Dead, a seminal influence on Williams’ own music. “I studied and learned their music and went to the shows,” he says, adding that the impact of Jerry Garcia on his attitude toward music remains incalculable. Another major influence was Michael Hedges, the late virtuoso acoustic guitarist. “He was really excelling in a whole different world from what I knew,” says Williams.
After relocating to Colorado, further exposure to bluegrass music and progressive acoustic artists such as Béla Fleck and the Flecktones also had a major impression on Williams. As he began to develop his own distinctive compositional and performing style, Williams incorporated all of the lessons he’d learned from the long list of artists who’d found their way into his world, then filtered their music through his own experiences until something wholly unique emerged. The list of artists whose music he has covered either in concert or on his recordings constitutes a mind-blowing spread: songs originally performed by everyone from Pink Floyd and Ozzy Osbourne to Ani DiFranco and old-school rappers the Sugar Hill Gang!
When he first started out, Williams played in regional bands but also performed as a solo artist, “me sitting on a stool playing covers, like a happy hour situation,” he says. “I’d get dinner and maybe tips. There were bands in high school and in college. But it turned out I could get the same money playing solo that I was getting with the band. Around that time I was also doing temporary jobs like landscaping, and I was making the same amount playing music as I was shoveling mulch and digging up weeds for eight hours in the summertime at minimum wage. So it seemed like the obvious choice was to play music. I started to work and over the years I incorporated more technology. The looping thing started to happen and tickets were sold and people came to shows, so there wasn’t any reason to fix something that wasn’t broken.”
What Williams calls “the looping thing” is actually a big part of what has made him such a compelling live performer. “Basically, I have these machines that are essentially delay units,” he explains. “What I do is step on a button and sing or play something. Then I step on the same button in time and it repeats what I just played or sang. Once that initial loop is created, I can layer on a bass line or a drum line and then have this layer that I just created in front of an audience that I could sing over and solo over. Nothing is pre-recorded. Everything is created onstage in front of the audience.”
If it sounds complicated, it is: but the basic thrust is that the technology has allowed Williams to go out on tour week after week, year after year, and play music by himself—without limiting his sound to what we most often associate with the solo singer-songwriter: a guy strumming a guitar and singing. With his arsenal of tech toys, Williams can expand his reach onstage by, in essence, jamming with himself.
But he has, on several occasions, also performed with real bands. The summer of 2010 found Keller sharing a bus with two of his biggest heroes, former Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, as a member of their powerhouse assemblage the Rhythm Devils. “That was a very surreal experience,” Williams says. “We rehearsed for a few days and then we were on a bus with 12 people, two of them being the original drummers from the Grateful Dead.” On that tour, Williams was put in the enviable position of singing many songs from the Grateful Dead catalog for audiences that loved every minute of it.
Williams has also toured as part of a string trio with singer/guitarist Larry Keel and his wife, singer/bassist Jenny Keel, hitting key stops on the bluegrass festival circuit. And he has a band of his own, with Keller on rhythm guitar and vocals, Jeff Sipe on drums, Keith Moseley on bass and Gibb Droll on lead guitar. They toured throughout the spring of 2007 to the fall of 2008, and subsequently released a double live record with a companion DVD. In true Keller Williams fashion, it’s called Live.
If it seems as if this is a man who never stops, that would be about right. Having already released the amusingly titled Thief—his all-covers project with the Keels—early in 2010, Williams was getting ready to release Kids, his sixteenth album, in the fall. A father of two himself, Williams was, of course, inspired by his own offspring but, he says, some of the songs were written before his children were born. “When Not For Kids Only by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman came out, I knew that there was hope for me with kids music,” he says. “I was really attached to that record.” The songwriting for Kids, Keller says, “was not necessarily singing to the kids. A lot of it was me singing from the perspective of the kids. That was my plan, to get on their wavelength, on their level, and be one of them, so it’s kind of like one of their friends singing to them.”
The tracks, with titles like “Car Seat,” “Because I Said So,” “Mama Tooted” and “Taking a Bath,” are witty, catchy and never speak down to the intended audience. All of them will resonate with any parent as well as the little ones. “I was thinking not only of the kid getting it but also of the parents having to listen to it,” Williams says. “That played a large role in the writing of this record. I’ve been in the place of the parent having to sit through something the kid loves but I’m not so into. And the music, of course, had to be light and positive but still organic and not too far away from where my musical head is. This record’s not a compromise from what I normally do.” To coincide with the release of Kids, Williams planned several live dates as a touring member of the Yo Gabba Gabba! tour—and if you have no idea what that is or think it’s a Ramones cover band, you probably don’t have young kids of your own.
As if all of this doesn’t keep him busy enough, Keller’s thirst for music of all kinds has also led him to the world of radio. For the past several years he has hosted Keller’s Cellar, a weekly syndicated program available on both terrestrial stations and online at www.kellerwilliams.net. Williams describes the show as “a self-indulgent, hour-long narrated mix tape of stuff I’m into. It’s rule-less except for what the FCC says we can’t do. I don’t play contemporary country music. I don’t play contemporary Christian music—however, there is possibly some old gospel. I don’t play opera. Everything else is fair. World music from all around—African music from all the countries, jazz, funk, reggae, techno, chill, lounge, lounge singers, rub-a-dub, dancehall. I pretty much stay away from smooth jazz. It’s definitely a fun outlet for me. I’m trying to do something different.”
Something different. That, we can assume, is how it will always be with Keller Williams.
OUR LINKS
Jon Wayne & the Pain
If Lee Scratch Perry and Deadmau5 died, went to heaven, and recorded an album with Bradley Nowell and Jerry Garcia, they’d end up with something like Jon Wayne and The Pain’s new full length album “Surrender”. In addition to the Minneapolis trio’s signature sound of roots infused Reggae Rock, their latest release adds a bold fusion of Jam and EDM into the fold.
The trio’s previous album “Follow Through” for the most part only teases with a few subtle, dark electronic elements but stays true to the roots infused Reggae Rock sound that could be described as an ideal poolside soundtrack. Until the release of “Surrender”, their sometimes sinister combination of organic drums and guitar with electronic bass and synths could only be heard if fans could catch the band’s live act in clubs and festivals around the U.S. or sift through bootleg uploads on Youtube. Their third full length album is full of electronic instrumentals that build from entrasic dub loops (wait for the drop) then explode into high energy party anthems with intense vocals and powerful acoustic drums.
Pushing boundaries further, Jon Wayne and The Pain inject Roots, Jam, and Ska into the mix with sounds that band members Jon, Chuckie, and Teeto have grown to love while playing alongside some of the most influential musicians in the festival scene. Complete with a sanctioned Grateful Dead cover and a festie-fan shout out track “Festival Friends”, JWP pays tribute to the Jam scene in a big way. Keeping in tune with the sound that made fans rush to see Jon Wayne and The Pain since the band’s early days, heartfelt Reggae-Rock tunes are still a staple in the diverse collection of songs that make up “Surrender”
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Diane Birch
BIOGRAPHY
Singer-songwriter Diane Birch took half her lifetime, and traveled across the globe, to get to America, where she literally found her voice and made her remarkable debut, Bible Belt in 2009. Now several years on, following worldwide touring success, Birch is readying to release her sophomore album, Speak A Little Louder, on October 15th.
Writing both alone and with acclaimed Dap Kings-drummer-turned-producer, Homer Steinweiss on much of this new record, together with Aqualung’s Matt Hales (Lianne La Havas, Paloma Faith) and Eg White (of Adele fame), this new collection of songs mark a distinct progression for Diane. Throughout this new record, she lays bare the emotional rollercoaster of her life over the past couple of years; coping with heartbreak at the end of a long-lasting relationship, the pain of losing her father to cancer, and her dance with the light and dark of self on the road to womanhood.
Though only in her late-twenties, Birch likes to think of herself as an “old soul,” and indeed there is a startling maturity in her singing and a veteran’s self-assurance in her writing. With hook-driven songs, Birch mixes piano-playing virtuosity with easy-going soul, and can strike an uplifting groove on even the most melancholy tune. Her work bears hints of Laura Nyro (when she was hanging out with LaBelle) and early 70’s Karen Carpenter (when she was ruling the charts), while effortlessly incorporating New Orleans second-line rhythms, gospel fervor, doo-wop harmonies, country-blues guitar and classic AM radio-style melodies.
Her first album, Bible Belt, was recorded in New York City and New Orleans with a formidable team of Grammy-winning producers: S-Curve Records founder Steve Greenberg, soul legend Betty Wright and Mike Mangini. And among the players accompanying Birch were guitarist Lenny Kaye of The Patti Smith Group, bassists Adam Blackstone from The Roots, and George Porter of The Meters, acclaimed drummers Stanton Mooreof Galactic andCindy Blackman of Lenny Kravitz fame, saxophonist-about-town Lenny Pickett, and trombonist Tom “Bones” Malone, along with veteran singer Eugene Pitt, lead vocalist of fabled Brooklyn vocal group, the Jive Five.
A lengthy period of touring – both at home and overseas – followed, where Birch and her band honed their skills on the road, playing to bigger and bigger audiences and winning die-hard fans. When she returned, while starting to work on new material, she recorded an EP of her favorite Goth covers, released under the title The Velveteen Age.
Now with this incredible body of new work recorded, Diane is poised and ready to introduce to the world the treasures of her personal journey over the past few years.
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Andrew Belle
Andrew Belle is a new artist on the pop singer/songwriter scene. Residing in both Chicago and Nashville, he is currently a member of the critically acclaimed national tour Ten Out Of Tenn. Andrew released his debut EP All Those Pretty Lights in 2008, containing songs featured in hit TV shows including “90210” and “The Real World.” His song “I’ll Be Your Breeze” garnered nationwide airplay including Los Angeles tastemaker station KCRW. Andrew recently was named “Best Breakout Artist, Chicago” by MTV. His music and vocal stylings draw comparisons to Coldplay, The Fray, and John Mayer. Fans and critics often refer to his songs as “smart pop”—nuanced melodies and contemplative lyrics coupled with bold, infectious hooks. Look out for his debut full-length album The Ladder, released in February 2010.
“Since I was a child, I’ve always been around music; taught to appreciate the art form but only at a reasonable distance. My parents never let me listen to the radio or any kind of secular music until I was well into High-school. Before that, in Junior high, I recall making mix tapes from local radio stations during the day, and then lying in bed at night listening to all the pop hits of that time through a small, plastic walkman that I had received a few Christmases earlier. Third Eye Blind, the Counting Crows, the Verve Pipe…these were the artists that first welcomed me into the world of meaningful pop-music. The first album that I ever bought for myself was the Counting Crow’s ‘August and Everything After’ when I was a Sophomore in High-school. It had already been out for several years at that point, but I can still remember sneaking it up to my room and listening to it very softly out of the dusty sony boombox in my bedroom; pouring over every melody and marveling over the lyrical genious in Adam Duritz; thinking, ‘maybe I can do this someday?’. Not that I think of myself now as important to music as Adam Duritz or the Counting Crows have been, nor do I even dare to compare myself to such talent, but thinking back on my earliest experiences with music, there is no doubt that those quiet moments spent alone in my bedroom shaped my desires and passions and gave me the hope to make my small mark on this world, one song at a time.”
-Andrew Belle
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Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
"Formed in late 2009, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. is the off-kilter title under which Detroit-area natives Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott record, release and perform music.
Initially beginning as an exercise in collaboration undertaken with very little intention of ever being publicly consumed, the band’s trajectory has been as unexpected as it has been unlikely. In just a few short years, fans have seen the project grow from basement recording project--to media curiosity--to an international touring ensemble widely recognized for their joy-fueled live offerings.
While Epstein and Zott have no ties to popular NASCAR circuit driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. nor his late father, the band’s peculiar name was initially suggested to the pair on a lark. The pair assert that the strange moniker has been kept in tact due to the freedom they came to realize such a title gave them to explore whatever musical endeavors they could think up. “The idea being”, Epstein says, “that if one can accept a band being named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., then you’ve already opened yourself up to listening to anything that band can come up with. You’ve already decided to leave expectations behind”.
From that mantra, the foundation of their partnership was built. Each having spent a good deal of time in various recording and performance environments prior to working with one another, Epstein & Zott set out to explore the many intricacies of cross-genre songwriting and production together with a willingness to borrow as much from the Beach Boys as the Geto Boys if it meant a more dynamic form of pop music. An organic vs. synthesized perspective which by necessity lacked a specified audience or desired outcome, outside of challenging oneself."