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Spafford is a four piece funk rock act hailing from Phoenix, Arizona. The band is comprised of Brian Moss (Guitar), Jordan Fairless (Bass), Andrew “Red” Johnson (Keys), and Cameron Laforest (Drums). Refusing to be restricted to any musical boundaries, Spafford seamlessly blends together an eclectic mixture of all of their collective musical experience. The heart of their sound is rooted in deep sonic exploration with a focus on improvisational elements. With jams stretching well beyond the typical structures of their songs, fans have flocked to their live shows to experience the unique energy captured within each performance. A focus on blending genres with a deep foundation of patient groove building has helped craft a sound all their own. Formed in 2012 by happenstance, the band has been building an organic fanbase in the Southwestern United States through word of mouth ever since. As the secret has gotten out Spafford has moved onto national touring, sharing the stage on a coast to coast tour with jam heavyweights Umphrey’s Mcgee in 2017. Reaching the next level in their ascent in an ever changing jam band landscape, Spafford has risen to the top of the next wave of acts by providing quality improvisation and a truly unique musical experience. Spafford has hit the road full time and is bringing their high energy performances nationwide.
He’s got a reputation for doing some thoughtfully fresh and mindblowingly original remixes that take him from beyond a standard dub step or mash-up artist to a DJ/producer with skills that have turned heads and caught ears all over the Southeast. In a live setting, he sends people off with his mix of humor, ingenious pop culture samples and beats that can’t be touched. While his roots are firmly planted in hip hop, there is no shortage of heavy electronic bass music at a Wick-it show.
It wouldn’t be hard to make the argument that rock and roll in its purest form is pretty much a teenage fantasy writ large. Like a blacklight poster sprung to life, the lure of picking up a guitar that will transform your adolescent bedroom into an arena filled with screaming fans and pot smoke is the myth that keeps rock and roll forever young, and it’s a kind of dream narrative that has keeps getting re-told, whether it’s The Byrds’ “So You Want To Be A Rock-N-Roll Star” or about half the tracks on Weezer’s blue album, the burning adolescent desire to nothing less than fucking rock is the very thing that makes rock music a constantly renewable resource—and it’s also what makes Radkey—a trio of power riffing brothers—such a classic kind of rock and roll phenomenon.
Formed in the quiet enclaves of St. Joseph Missouri, the trio of 20 year-old Isaiah Radke (bass), 18 year-old Solomon Radke (drums), and 22 year-old Dee Radke (vocals/guitar) began making music together in 2010. Fueled by a steady diet of Nevermind and small town boredom, Radkey’s music quickly went from a bedroom hobby into a full-time pursuit. The band opened for Fishbone in 2011 – less than a year after first playing together – and eventually headed out on the road to play shows with the likes of Red Fang, Against Me, and Touche Amore. Given that the band members were homeschooled (and thanks to their incredibly supportive parents), the idea of jumping in the family van and hitting the road gradually morphed from a kind of surreal fantasy into a much-celebrated reality. In 2013 the band unleashed two EPs (Cat And Mouse and Devil Fruit) and knocked out tons of big-ticket live appearances (including Riot Fest, Download, and, in 2015, Coachella and Japan’s Punksping) in addition to taping a memorable spot for Later with Jools Holland. Though early press on the band often focused on their unconventional backstory—a rock band comprised of three homeschooled African-American teenagers from Missouri—the band’s backstory was always eclipsed by their incendiary live sets: balls-to-the-wall garage punk that is messy, explosive, and crazy loud.
“The last couple of years have been really crazy,” says Isaiah, the group’s most outspoken member. “Traveling in England in Europe was really cool for us. It’s incredible—and such a weird feeling—that you are doing something that is actually important to people. To travel to other countries and see people singing along with us is just…it’s really strange. I never thought our music would become a thing that could take us to all of these places.”
After nearly five years of playing and touring together as a band, all of the Radkey’s hard work comes full circle on Dark Black Makeup—the band’s full-length debut. Recorded primarily in the UK alongside producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Jarvis Cocker), the album is a blistering punk opus—13 tracks that show off the band’s knack for combining stadium-sized riffs with surprising pop sensibilities. Tracks like “Love Spills” and “Evil Doer” rank among some of the best—and hookiest—songs the band has ever written, while tracks like “Le Song” and the album’s title track show just what an unstoppable live juggernaut the band has become. The songs are both tightly wound and explosively huge-sounding “We wanted to show people that you can still make a proper rock record,” explains Isaiah, “Something that is both super catchy and super heavy. We want people to hear it and think Fuck Yeah! Mostly we just try and only write songs that we love—that we love the shit out of—and that way it never gets boring and it never feels like a drag to play them live even if we’ve been playing them for years. It seems like a simple thing, but we really just want to make the music that we want to hear.”
Dark Black Makeup tackles more than a few teenage tropes—boredom, anger, girl problems, broken friendships—but does so in a way that is not only clever, but also refreshingly honest. No where is this more evident than on the record’s title track, which itself is a kind of high-decibel wake up call for young people to take ownership of their own lives: a sort of punch in the face for teen angst that is made all the more visceral coming from three musicians just barely out of their own teen years. “That song is about how much of your teenage years can just be such a waste,” says Isaiah, “If you spend all of your time not caring about anything just because you think you’re not supposed to then you’re probably leading such a boring life. You could be partying or making something, as opposed to just spending all your time worrying about what other people think. It’s like, wake up. Hang out. Do something. It’s annoying that you can’t necessarily change the fucking world at that age, but you can make your own situation better. Stop wasting time”
Five years in and the brothers Radkey are happy to be making a musical statement that will hopefully put to rest a few of the preconceptions that have followed them throughout their career thus far—namely those based around their age, their hometown, and race. “Surprisingly that—the racial thing—hasn’t been a factor for us,” says Dee. “Honestly, it’s never been about that. Mostly we get given a hard time about our age, but that’s also something we can’t really change. We might walk into a venue and feel like people are taken a little bit by surprise when they see us, but usually after we play all of that stuff kind of goes away. We get a lot of questions about being brothers—like, do we argue?—and it’s a good question I guess, but the answer is no, we don’t really argue very much. And yes, we all write the songs together—everyone writes—so it’s not a thing we really spend too much time thinking or talking about it.”
The ambition of Dark Black Makeup is evidenced by the heightened songwriting and broadened sonic palette, but the energy behind the music remains the same—visceral, urgent, and raw. It is the sound of three people doing what they love…loudly. “Our only ambitions have ever really been to make a record that people will love and to be able to play as many shows as we can,” says Isaiah, “It’s also a personal journey. We’ve been living this for years now. This is literally all that we do and the record is the evidence of that. I stop and think, man I’m 20 years old and I’ve been doing this since I was basically 14. We’re still making the same kind of music we were when we started, but we’re better at it now. Thankfully, we’ve had the opportunity to actually go out into the world and experience some real shit, which gives us something to write about now. We just want people to listen. And play it really loud.”
TRADING WITH THE ENEMY!!!
Founded in 1975, G. Blanzden & Associates (dba DROP A GRAND) is one of the world’s largest providers of Psych and Shmooze services in the industry of face melting.
MEMBERS:
GERN BLANZDEN guitar vox phase
UNICRON bass vox fx
WHITE N SHITTY II keys keytar synth
2 DOLLA BILL skins vox
GUESTS:
DR FLASH!! shredder
SACRED HORNS OF MANITOBA (aka Brass Flag)
WHITE N SHITTY I plastic saxxx
SHEILA P digital percussives
Z phazer accordion
Drop a Grand is a Kansas City band or a performance-art ensemble. Or both.
Its members wear costumes and go by pseudonyms or noms-de-tunes. Their performances are loud, brash, dramatic and subversive. Their music is a deranged, riff-roaring clamor that clings to a steel-toed groove.
“It’s psychotropic blues-punk,” said Unicron, the band’s bassist. We recently interviewed the band’s founder, Gern Blanzden, about the band’s music and the art of costuming.
What was the concept of Drop a Grand from the beginning?
It’s very self-serving: I have $1,000 to blow with my buddies. … What should we do? Sure as hell ain’t gonna play a round of golf, now are we? Mommy always said if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing. In DAG we’d get blurry-eyed, make some enemies and blame it on the Tiger.
Were costumes part of the concept from the start?
Complete disguise was initially the only means of getting others to join me on a stage. Kind of an afterthought, but whatever. The art of costuming has significant advantages: minimal stalkers and no unwarranted shop talk from town to town.
The Bad Ideas is an American punk band from Kansas City, Missouri formed in August 2011. They've written all original songs and are influenced by post-hardcore, punk, and early 80's punk. Their EP, Worse Thoughts, was recorded on January 22, 2012 and released March, 2012. Their first self-produced full length, Lesson #1 was released March 8, 2013. The Bad Ideas also released a 7" split with Red Kate on March 31, 2014. Their most recent release is a full length cassette, "Leave Me Alone." Released in June 6, 2015.
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Ras Neville and the Kingstonians have deep roots in the Lawrence music scene. The band is essentially a revised version of Common Ground, the local reggae act that formed in 1981. A mix of roots reggae and dancehall party with a heavy emphasis on original material, Common Ground scored three Klammies awards for best worldbeat/reggae band in the 1990s before splitting up. Most of the lineup is back in this 10-piece expansion of the act.
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Heavy space rock from Lawrence, KS.
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Traptis an American rock band hailing from Los Gatos, California. Since its formation in 1997, Trapt has released six studio albums, one live album, one compilation album, three EPs and thirteen singles. This includes number one hits, a platinum album, and placements in movies and video games. Trapt has also traveled the world with some of the best known rock bands of today and of all-time, while managing to sell more than 2.4 million albums.The members of Trapt met in high school in the mid-'90s and shortly thereafter developed an act with Chris Taylor Brownon vocals, Simon Ormandyon guitar, Peter Charellon bass, and David Stegeon drums. The band's first few rehearsals were in Ormandy's guesthouse, which had a party-like atmosphere with its loft overlooking the living room.They began playing at local venues in 1997 before any members had graduated high school. The band received a great response and a positive buzz soon started to grow. In 1998, still before graduation, they were already opening for up-and-coming fellow acts like Papa Roach.Amalgamationwas thedebut independent release by Trapt, released in June 1999 and sold only in the Los Gatos, California area. The album wasconsidereda local success, even though this album sports a drastically different sound compared to later releases. In 2000, Trapt followed-up with an EP entitled The Glimpse.With these two releases and vigorous touring, Trapt caught the attention of major labels. In 2001, the band proceeded to sign with Warner Bros. Recordsand started recording their debut album.. On November 5, 2002,the band released their self-titled album, Trapt,which produced a total of three singles. In 2002, Trapt’s debut single"Headstrong" reached No.1 on both the Modern Rock Tracksand Hot Mainstream Rock Trackscharts, as well as No.16 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Headstrong”also won the 2003 Billboard Music Award for Modern Rock Track of the Yearand Rock Track of the Year, in addition to the Larry Award for Guilty Pleasure Award. Since then, “Headstrong”has been certified Platinum and was rated the No. 1 Alternative Song and No. 8 Rock Song of the Decade (2000s) by Billboard.The second single from the album, "Still Frame,”alsomanaged to achieve No.1 spot on the US Mainstream Rock chart and No.3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The third single, "Echo" peaked at No.10 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Traptalbum was certified Platinum by the RIAA, selling over 1.8 million copies to date. "New Beginning,"wasalsofeatured in the film Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler.Before releasing their next full-length album, the band released a self-titled three-track EP, released March 30, 2004, that included live versions of the "Made of Glass" and "Echo" tracks from their debut album, as well as a previously unreleased non-LP track, "Promise".Their second full length album, Someone in Control, was released September 13, 2005.It produced three singles for the band: "Stand Up,""Waiting,"and "Disconnected (Out of Touch).""Stand Up" peaked at No.3 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. In support of this album, Trapt toured with Thousand Foot Krutch, Silvertide, Chevelle, Three Days Grace, Nickelback, and others.
Their live album titled Trapt Live!, was released September 18, 2007.The album featured two new studio songs ("Stay Alive" and "Everything to Lose") as well as live versions of nine songs from their earlier records. On June 10, 2008, Trapt released "Who's Going Home with You Tonight?" as a single. They also recorded a music video for the song.On July 1, 2008 "Who's Going Home with You Tonight?" was released as part of the weekly downloadable content for the Rock Bandgame series. Only Through the Painwas released on August 5, 2008. Trapt toured in support of the album by opening for Hinderon the Jägermeister Music Tourwith Rev Theoryas well aspart of Mötley Crüe's Crüe Festalong with Buckcherry, Papa Roachand Sixx:A.M.. In March 2009, Trapt started the Contagious Tour, also featuring Red, Halestorm, Inept and Since Octoberat several shows. "Contagious" was the album's second and last single, and was also available as a free playable track in the iPhoneand iPod Touchgame Tap Tap Revenge 2.No Apologieswas released on October 12,2010. A year later, Cleopatra Records and Trapt released a compilation album called Headstrong. It featured re-recorded versions of songs, demo tracks, remixes, and acoustic versions of "Headstrong" and "Echo."Trapt’s latest album Rebornwas releasedindependentlyin January 2013. Reborn peakedat No. 44 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top Hard Rock Albums. From Reborn, “Bring It”climbedintothe Top 20 of the Mainstream Rock chart andwas used by ESPN as its promo song for Nascar Series.“Love Hate Relationship”was also released as a singleand peaked at No. 29 on Mainstream Rock chart.Trapt will be beginning the Self-Titled Tour in June of 2014, playing tracks off of their major-label debut album Trapt, as well as many fan favorites. Get Trapt music and tour updates at trapt.com.
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On the title track of “This Land,” Gary Clark Jr. is staking his claim to a literal place on the map, settling
in and declaring: “I told you there goes the neighborhood… This is mine now, legit.” It’s a song with real-
life roots in how Clark and his family have traded up in turf in his native Texas and been met with some
suspicious glances upon move-in. And if it sounds like he’s had some practice in defiantly ignoring
expectations about where he ought to live, well, that’s something he’s been doing musically his whole life.
He’s a rock-and-soul omnivore who can survey the entire landscape of American music — not just the
blues with which he’s so often associated, but reggae, punk, R&B and hip-hop, too — and say: This land
was made for you and me.
He owns it all on This Land, his third studio album for Warner Bros. Records, which is sure to be seen as
a breakthrough in establishing just how much stylistic variation Clark has at his command. There are
plenty of the guitar-hero sounds that have already established him as a headliner, with tunes that reiterate
that Cream influences always rise to the top, from a guy who’s long since come to be considered by
Clapton as a friend and contemporary, not just acolyte. But if a lot of fans would consider Clark the
closest thing we have to a modern Hendrix, what comes through implicitly in This Land is the sense of
just how much Jimi loved and borrowed from Curtis Mayfield. You can think of Clark as one of the last of
the real rock gods, along with fellow master singer/guitarists like Jack White, John Mayer, or the late,
great Prince and the new album certainly won’t do anything to diminish that perception. But This Land is
also a great soul record — one in which it’s easy to hear the lineage that connects Muddy Waters and
Childish Gambino, with distinct nods to Marvin Gaye somewhere in the middle.
You’ll hear strains of Gaye not just in Clark using his falsetto more than he ever has before. It’s in the
mixture of social consciousness and sensuality that was a matter of course for records like “What’s Goin’
On”… not to mention “Sign O’ the Times.” Obviously you hear the awareness of what’s goin’ on in the
song This Land itself, in which Clark finds himself “paranoid and pissed off” among well-heeled neighbors
who “think I’m up to something” just because his family doesn’t fit the local demographics. The attention
to the greater good also informs “What About Us,” which has Clark announces that “the young bloods
are taking over” — something he says to a fictional figure who recurs in several songs, “Mr. Williams,” a
guy who could be a past-his-prime neighborhood boss… or, who knows, a stand-in for some bigger
political figure who also has to go. “Feed the Babies” brings in the brass to augment a call for
understanding that’s a pleading, purposeful antidote to the raw nerves of the title song.
Yet Clark also uses the album to get more personal than he ever has on record before, often assessing
the tough balance between career and family. “Pearl Cadillac” is a payback to a mother’s devotion. He’s
the parent in “When I’m Gone,” preparing a child for yet another trip away on the road, a topic he also
takes up with a significant other in “Guitar Man,” where he’s weighing the “stamps in my blue book” and
the fellowship of the road against the fear of a toll taken by time apart at home.
But if it’s the ballsy tropes of rock, blues and R&B that you’d like a fresh spin on, This Land hardly
foregoes the twin towers of swagger and regret. “Friday night and I just got paid/I’m out looking for some
trouble,” he sings in “Feel Like a Million,” a number that starts out as Peter Tosh and ends up
somewhere closer to an arena-rock anthem. He’s found that trouble and then some in “Don’t Wait Til
Tomorrow,” a balladic plea to the woman at home to forgive dalliances, with the knowledge that she may
exact some what’s-good-for-the-goose revenge. “Low Down Rolling Stone” is an affair-ending lament
from a wayward soul who’s discovered “darkness is my comfort zone.” But there’s no sorrow — yet – in a
pair of kick-ass “got to” songs. “Got to Get Up” brings on the trumpet as Clark repeats “Kill ‘em all!” like
the rock mantra it is, and “Gotta Get Into Something” finds him reaching to pure Chuck Berry territory…
or maybe not so pure, since there’s something positively Ramones-y in his take on furious proto-punk
rock and roll.
It may sound diffuse as an album, but it all holds together as part of a singular vision from Clark and his
co-producer, Jacob Sciba, a longtime Austin friend and chief engineer at Arlyn Studios where most of
This Land was laid down. Clark has had interest from some of the top producers in music but has found
most of them are interested in bringing out just one aspect of his multi-faceted musical persona. Sciba is
the pal and sonic wizard who comprehends the scope of what Clark does, and welcomes it… and is faced
with the challenge of making something sonically coherent out of all these styles.
How to position Clark has been a cheerful problem from the start, since he was a blues aficionado who
loved hanging with the hip-hop kids just as much as he relished going to local Pinetop Perkins shows. He
grew up watching music television, but not so much MTV. “I kind of got introduced to everything by
watching ‘Austin City Limits,’ which had Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert
Cray,” he’s said. “It all kind of hit me at once, and I just loved anything that sounded bluesy or rock & roll
that felt dangerous and had loud guitar solos up front. Ultimately I figured out where it all came from, and I
think the thing that really resonated with me was guys like Albert King and Freddie King — the three
Kings,” along with B.B. Soon, as a barely-teen prodigy, he was making his way out in to the real world,
being mentored by Austin club owner Clifford Antone as he hooked up with every available local legend.
Local legend Doyle Bramhall brought him to meet Eric Clapton at a Crossroads Festival in 2010, where
they jammed with Sheryl Crow. A year later, his Warner Bros. debut release Bright Lights EP became
the first EP ever to get the lead review in Rolling Stone, which wrote, “A genuine 21 st -century bluesman,
raised on the form in all its roughneck roadhouse glory but marked by the present day? That’s been as
hard to find as a 21 st century clockmaker.”
But Rolling Stone may have really been on to something when the magazine got past his prodigious licks
and added, “Suddenly you can envision him dueting with Adele, swapping tunes with Jack Johnson or
singing hooks for Nas.” Not all those collaborations came to be, but soon enough he was asked by Alicia
Keys to co-write and play guitar on “Fire We Make,” a song from her Girl on Fire album, not long before
he released his Warner Bros. Records debut album, Blak And Blu, in 2012. Not long after, "Ain't Messin
Round", from Blak And Blu was also nominated for Grammy in 2013 and in 2014, Clark had won his
first Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the track "Please Come Home", from that album.
Before long he was benefitting from the advocacy of the Rolling Stones, who’ve repeatedly enlisted him
as an opening act and on-stage guest. He played for the Obamas at the White House alongside not just
Mick Jagger but B.B. King, Jeff Beck, and Buddy Guy. On a prime-time tribute to the Beatles, he
performed alongside Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh. On a similar TV tribute to Stevie Wonder, he teamed up
with Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran. On record, he co-wrote and played guitar on Childish Gambino’s “The
Night Me and Your Mama Met.” In 2017 he was widely praised as a standout among standouts at the
MusiCares benefit honoring Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, making two appearances that night, one by
himself and once in collaboration with the Foo Fighters, huge fans who had recorded with and taken Clark
out as their opening act before he graduated to major headliner status.
When the (then-) president of the United States has not only included you on his famous Spotify playlists
but called you “the future,” is there anywhere to go from there? This Land proves there is — and it’s a
genre-free future that encompasses virtually the entirety of electric roots music and African-American
forms and moves forward from there. It’s a landscape that’s his eminent domain.
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The Phantastics are a eight member musical ensemble that specializes genre-blending hip-hop. Expect to hear rock, rap, dance, funk, jazz and soul in our music. We were formed in December of 2010 and have been trying to save live music ever since.
thePhantom*- Lead Spokesman/Vocals / Bowties
Leigh Gibbs - Vocals/ Soul Sista lovin'
JJ Cantrell- Lead Guitar/ Vocals/ Nipples
Danny Florez- Elictric Bass/ Vocals/Kill Streak
Ashley Thompson- Drums / Twizzlers
DJ Mitchell- Saxophone/ Karate chops
Tim Pistone- Percussion / loaded brownies
ZSonic Bailey- DJ / busted ear drums
Austin Quick-Keyboard / Bee Gee
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