Leven Kali
Born in the Netherlands and raised in Santa Monica, it doesn’t take more than one song to feel the soul and love deeply embedded in Leven Kali’s inspirational sound. His soothing voice and signature background harmonies have been making waves since his first independent single release “Joy” in 2017. Leven introduced himself to the music industry through a string of incredible collaborations and solo singles that year. Not bound by genre or style, he contributed to and was featured on projects such as Snoh Aalegra (Feels 2017), Playboi Carti (Self-Titled), Skrillex (HOWSLA), and Drake (More Life). Staying true to his roots, he remains surrounded by his hometown friends and family, crafting his unique and heartfelt sound with the people that he loves.Leven signed with Interscope in the winter of 2017. In January 2018 he released his first single “Do U Wrong (feat. Syd)”. Critically acclaimed and culturally adored, the track amassed over 50 million global streams and served as the leading single for his debut project “LOWTIDE” in 2019. “LOWTIDE”, in conjunction with the forthcoming “HIGHTIDE” serves as a two-part project which reflects on Leven’s life in the past two to three years, precisely on the time period immediately after his signing. The highly anticipated “HIGHTIDE” was released on May 1st, 2020. Produced and written by Kali, with the help of his band mates from The Moon, it was a development on the energy of “LOWTIDE”, another chapter in the story of Leven Kali, and features from Ty Dolla $ign and Syd from the Internet.In 2021 Leven became an independent artist, something he had always wanted to do. He spent much of his time that year writing and producing for other artists including Tinashe, Jazmine Sullivan, Yuna, Super Duper Kyle, and LoLo Zouai, to name a few. He also produced and wrote on 4 songs on Beyonce’s latest album, “RENAISSANCE”, including “Virgo’s Groove”, “Alien Superstar”, “Plastic off the Sofa”, and “Summer Renaissance”. In 2022, he signed to Independent Co. as his label and began releasing music again. His new EP “Let It Rain” drops in October before he heads out on his first headlining US tour.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube
5 Years of Get Sad Y’all: An Emo & Pop Punk Party
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Special Interest
On every level, Special Interest is uncompromising: in their adventurous sound, their high-energy live performances, and their convictions. Dance music and punk culture have flirted in the warehouse before, but Special Interest’s desire to dismantle genre is informed by a larger abolitionist worldview that resists constraint, category, and conformity. Their music is a soundtrack to dancing the pain away as much as raging against injustice.Brought together by New Orleans’ inventive DIY scene, Special Interest finds a new way of defining the “rock band,” a true collective unit rather than the dictated vision of a single member. Their sound is ever-fluid and continues to evolve — Special Interest actually began as the duo of Alli Logout and Maria Elena with guitar, drum machine, and a power drill, before Nathan Cassiani and Ruth Mascelli filled out its current line-up.2018’s Spiraling and 2020’s widely acclaimed The Passion Of further articulated the group’s style, driven by dance grooves and electronic textures as much as hardcore riffs, but Special Interest expands the vision with Endure. The writing of their latest album was informed not just by the bleakness of the pandemic, but the tremendous energy and righteous anger of the summer 2020 uprisings. Endure sets the intensity of that moment — from the gnawing despair of isolation to the euphoria of human contact and connection — to a driving dancefloor rhythm.Special Interest describes the experience of recording Endure as “inverted,” since the pandemic obviously stunted the possibilities of live performance, resulting in a new period of experimentation and sonic exploration in which old rules were cast out. Everything the group writes springs from the same source — a hard-hitting drum machine beat — but the possibilities are endless and the outcome always unpredictable. Ruth Mascelli’s work on drum machines and synthesizers provides a foundation, as varying beats lead the group into different directions: rave-ready drum and bass or ballroom-like house on the more dancefloor-friendly cuts, and marching kicks on No Wave-inflected tracks like “Foul” and “Love Scene.” “Cherry Blue Intention” brings together a sturdy post-punk bassline, shrieking guitar effects, and a jungle breakbeat into a driving anthem of an opening track.New songs like “(Herman’s) House” recall the art rock of Sparks and The B-52s as much as politically-minded punk, and on “Midnight Legend,” the group is more overtly pop than ever before — making something fun during a time of frequent sadness became a central priority. But that doesn’t mean anything is simple or surface-level, with a darkness often treading beneath the smooth production. For as much as the band plays with dissonance, Maria Elena’s expressive guitar work and Nathan Cassiani’s grooving bass lines effortlessly weave together, and shade out the soundscape brought into existence by Alli Logout’s commanding vocal presence. Collaboration is central to the band’s creative process, and it’s difficult to imagine even one element from the whole of Special Interest subtracted from the equation. Their songs are living organisms, open to the possibility of experimentation and interpretation, but also not the property or creation of any one person.Links: Bandcamp
EddieFest
EddieFest was created by the family of the late Eddie Watkins, to honor his memory and bring awareness to suicide and suicide prevention. It’s a day of music and art from many people who knew and loved Eddie. Local acts volunteer to play, and folks donate works for the silent art auction. Please join us for this special day. All proceeds benefit HopeLine, NC’s own crisis intervention and suicide prevention resource.Lineup:Tha MaterialsSecret Monkey WeekendPhineas Nyang’oroNikki Meets the HibachiJAMM Tha NubianZoneOort PatrolWhizthekidDonations for Silent Art Auction welcome!$10 Donation suggested. https://www.hopeline-nc.org/about
The Red Pears
The Red Pears’ founding members, Henry Vargas (vocals and guitar) and Jose Corona (drums), draw their sound from the spectrum between the early 2000s New York indie rock scene and grunge to the cumbia and corridos that soundtracked their childhoods in El Monte, a sleepy suburban town just east of Los Angeles. After cycling through an assortment of lineups, mutual friend and bassist Patrick Juarez stayed on and expanded their operation. Now a solid three-piece band, these emerging alt-rockers, have come a long way from meeting at a local Battle of the Bands, practicing in their garages, and naming themselves after their favorite color and a pun on the word “pair”— a subtle nod to sonic inspirations The White Stripes and The Black Keys.The Red Pears first got on the map with self-releases For Today, For Tomorrow, For What Is, For What Could’ve Been and We Bring Anything to the Table… Except Tables We Can’t Bring Tables to the Table, touring behind them and learning the ins-and-outs of being on the road. In 2019, the band delivered their sonically and emotionally diverse heartfelt EP Alicia, named after Corona and Vargas’ mothers, that showcased a polished alt-rock sound without sacrificing the band’s roiling, fuzzed-out garage spirit. The Red Pears North Star continues to be their undying honesty and commitment to the craft. “It all boils down to effort and humility,” says Vargas. “We just want to do our best and make the music we want to make. Now we have more help and resources, but it’s about continuing to push and keeping that humility.”In 2021, Henry, Jose and Patrick introduced and solidified a new era for the band with their latest album You Thought We Left Because The Door Was Open, But We Were Waiting Outside. The album marks a matured reinvention of their nostalgic indie attitude as their early sounds, sonic inspirations and revives the rebellious spirit of garage rock take on a fully realized form in the name of friendship, growth and timeless rock ‘n’ roll. Channeling the tenacious fervor and reception of the album, the band has utilized the momentum to relocate their moxie to stages nationwide, selling out venues as they go alongside Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing, as well as on their own headlining routes. The Red Pears will continue to tour in 2022, anticipating a return to their biggest headlining run yet.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Turnover
There is a closeness at the heart of Turnover’s aptly titled new album, ‘Altogether.’ Though it’s the first collection the trio has written while living on opposite coasts, the record actually represents the group’s most collaborative and connected work to date, showcasing the intuitive, near-telepathic relationship frontman Austin Getz has developed over the years with his bandmates. “Instead of making things more difficult, being far apart helped us learn to appreciate each other even more,” says Getz. “As a band, we’re closer now than we’ve ever been before.” Recorded at Philadelphia’s Studio 4 with longtime creative foil Will Yip at the helm, ‘Altogether’ finds the group breaking new ground on a number of fronts. Pop sensibilities inform the writing for the first time, with elements of funk, jazz, lounge, and disco mingling alongside the band’s trademark indie grit and punk energy. Lush melodies and infectious hooks reflect the newfound freedom and confidence that have inspired Getz since his cross-country move to northern California, while adventurous recording techniques and instrumentation lend a fresh perspective without sacrificing the kind of precise detail and rich intricacies that have come to define the band’s recent studio output. The result is an album that boasts both sonic sophistication and emotional accessibility in equal measure, a major leap forward in sound and vision that reveals time apart as the true key to togetherness. The title is fitting in another way as well, according to Getz. “On this record, more than in the past, we wanted to keep in mind the beauty of writing ‘popular music,’” he explains. “By that I mean music for people who don’t have the time to delve into the niches and find fringe artists, music for those of us who are busy with work or our families or whatever problems might be around. Music is real magic that can change people’s days and lives, and the more people listening and loving, the better.” Turnover first emerged roughly a decade ago in Virginia Beach, VA, but the group’s critical and commercial breakthrough didn’t arrive until six years later, when they cracked the Top 5 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart with their acclaimed sophomore album, ‘Peripheral Vision.’ The band—which consists of Getz, his brother Casey on drums, and their childhood friend Danny Dempsey on bass—followed it up in 2017 with ‘Good Nature,’ a streaming smash that racked up roughly 40 million plays on Spotify alone and which Vice proclaimed to be “their best album yet.” Reviews were similarly glowing around the world (Pitchfork praised the record’s “rhythmic propulsion and harmonized guitar sparkles,” while Exclaim! hailed its “shimmering instrumentation and luscious harmonies,” and The Line of Best Fit swooned for its “plush production” and “subtle maturity”), and the album earned the band headline dates everywhere from Brooklyn Steel to The Fonda Theatre along with their first appearance at Coachella. “With ‘Peripheral Vision,’ I was starting to experiment with psychedelics, and I was feeling alienated from a lot of the things I’d been raised to believe and accept,” Getz reflects. “That album asked a lot of questions, and I felt like ‘Good Nature’ was my attempt to find the answers to those questions. This time around, though, I found myself in a very different place, both literally and metaphorically.”Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Rapper Big Pooh
Rapper Big Pooh, born Thomas Jones, is a member of the group Little Brother. Rapper Pooh released his debut solo album, “Sleepers,” in 2005. Rapper Pooh has toured with De La Soul, MURS, and Apollo Brown. In 2022 he will be releasing his first solo project since 2018 and 12th overall.Links: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter
Eugene Chadbourne Contemporary Rock Band featuring David Licht and David Menestres
Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook
Meechy Darko
The bio you are reading right now, like all bios, is by its very nature inaccurate. Okay, “inaccurate” may be too strong a word. Let’s go with “imprecise.” In a perfect world, this bio would express the thoughts, feelings and motivations of its subject as close as you can get with the written word. But what if the subject is perpetually changing? Not on a yearly or monthly basis, but weekly? Daily? Hourly? By the minute?For an artist like Meechy Darko, who has achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success as one-third of Brooklyn hip-hop group Flatbush Zombies, getting more personal was a fait accompli decided for him by external forces.”I had no choice but to make this the most personal thing I’ve ever done because fortunately or unfortunately, I’m in an extremely soul-stirring part of my life right now,” he says. “Who I was yesterday may not be who I am tomorrow. I’m not who I was last week. There’s no telling who I’ll be next year or the year after, so it’s very important to capture this while I can still feel.”He’s talking about Gothic Luxury, the rapper’s debut album after numerous LPs, EPs and mixtapes with his group. Meechy Darko is well aware that the “crazy shit, crazy-colored hair and psychedelics” of his group “are imprinted in the brains of many fans.” But on Gothic Luxury, drawn-out piano intros and laid-back funk meld with dark mini-symphonies that complement the album’s intensely candid themes; as a result, the album comes off as far more a solo album than an offshoot of the group.“Gothic Luxury is a terminology and a mood I created in my head so I knew where to stay when I’m writing,” the rapper says, noting that it’s a quasi-continuation to the group’s acclaimed 2018 album Vacation in Hell. “Even with success, you can have the biggest king-sized bed, but you still can be lonely as hell at night. Even with all this great stuff going on around you, I don’t ever forget the darkness. I can’t escape it. It’s about finding comfort in the darkness, accepting it and becoming part of it, but in the boss way possible.”While the genesis of some songs go back to 2018, the album was started in earnest in early 2020. For the record, the Zombies are still very much together. However, Meechy eschews the production of Zombies producer Erick the Architect to avoid falling back into “a comfort zone I’ve been in for years.” Inspired by Rick Ross — “His voice has so much bravado and bass over angelic, symphonic beats” — it’s an album informed by many things, not the least of which is the killing of the rapper’s father in 2020.Grief is an amorphous, mutable emotion, with the rapper admitting to still processing the death. “I didn’t want to exploit it,” he says. “I really want to understand how I feel before I tell people how I feel. Once you tell your story, people are not always gonna know the backstory or give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s very conflicting.”The autobiographical “On God” invokes his father’s funeral; the man who molded the rapper’s personality and psyche. “He may be dead in the flesh, but what it really did is resurrect me,” Meechy says. “His spirit is in me now.” Elsewhere, “Every Time,” written before his father’s death, recalls the rapper talking to his dad in stark detail.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Shane Smith and the Saints
A native of Terrell, Texas, Shane Smith made music a full-time pursuit after moving to Austin. A passionate musician and songwriter, Shane soon connected with Bennett Brown, along with other musicians many of whom now make up The Saints. That group includes Bennett on fiddle, Dustin Schaefer on lead guitar, Chase Satterwhite on bass, and Zach Stover on drums.With a reputation as a high-energy live act with stunning four-part harmonies, Smith follows in the footsteps of such Lone Star songsmiths as Chris Stapleton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hayes Carll, and Ryan Bingham. Their first album, Coast, was released in 2013, and two years later came Geronimo, followed by Hail Mary in 2019. “I don’t like just throwing stuff out there. If I’m going to be singing about something every night, I try to make it personal, make it something I can really relate to,” says Smith, the band’s lyricist and primary songwriter. “I like to sing with conviction, an honest conviction.”It’s with this passion, timing and intention that Shane offers up his newest studio recording, “Hummingbird.” You may have heard about Shane Smith & The Saints from a friend who saw their amazing live show, or from a playlist on your favorite streaming service. Perhaps you heard the cast of Yellowstone shout them out in Season Four or maybe you’re just hearing of them now. Whatever the case may be, we hope you enjoy this latest single!Keep checking back, there’s lots more music on the horizon. Shane Smith & The Saints are currently on tour all summer with Whiskey Myers.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
