SPRINTS
“This is an exploration of pain, passion and perseverance.” The dedication for Sprints’ debut album serves as a neat summation of their story so far. Transforming pain into truth, passion into purpose and perseverance into strength, the Dublin four-piece have steadily grown in stature over the last three years, sharing two acclaimed EPs and building a fearsome live reputation opening for the likes of Yard Act and Suede. Letter To Self is the sound of Sprints co levelling up once again, revisiting their most vulnerable moments and imbuing their visceral garage-punk with a palpable sense of catharsis that we can all benefit from. Singer, guitarist and lead-songwriter Karla Chubb has never shied away from confronting inner turmoil. Born in Dublin, she spent a portion of her early childhood in Germany, initially turning to music as a consequence of feeling out-of-step with the world. “I lived in a constant state of existential crisis,” she recalls. “Music became an outlet for emotion, and a way for me to understand myself and society.” The foundations for Sprints were laid when Karla met guitarist Colm O’Reilly and drummer Jack Callan — childhood friends who’d been playing music together since the age of 10. Recruiting bassist Sam McCann to complete the line-up, the quartet found their sound after seeing Savages play Electric Picnic in 2016. “Seeing the energy of Jehnny Beth and those gnarly guitars totally captivated us,” Jack explains. Karla continues, “I’ve always loved anger-fuelled music but I had fallen into the trap of writing what felt least offensive, simply because I saw anger as a negative emotion, rather than something that can be therapeutic and cathartic. [After watching Savages] I decided I don’t really care how I’m interpreted — I’m just going to write exactly what I feel.” No longer second-guessing their sound, by 2019 the band were naturally gravitating towards abrasive punk-rock, synthesising influences ranging from early Pixies, Bauhaus and Siouxsie Sioux to King Gizzard, IDLES and LCD Soundsystem. “It was about being honest and energetic, and making people a little uncomfortable at the same time, whether that was musically or thematically,” says Karla, smiling. “Like: sadness or anger, but make it danceable.” Principled and plain-spoken, Karla has always used her platform to address inequality. Debut single ‘The Cheek’ skewered the misogynistic fetishisation she’s experienced as a bi-sexual, while the title track of their 2021 EP Manifesto was inspired by the campaign for Repeal The 8th, and women’s ongoing fight for bodily autonomy. A statement of intent, that four-track collection was their first collaboration with Daniel Fox of Gilla Band. In 2022, they shared their second, in the shape of A Modern Job. Praised by NME as “darkly defiant,” the EP saw Karla occupying what she describes as “a more self-conscious space,” laying bare her insecurities and detailing the ongoing mental health journeys within the band. For Letter To Self, the band dug even deeper, transforming so-called “negative energy” into an opportunity for communal catharsis and healing. Recorded in 12 days with Daniel Fox at Black Box Studios, in the Loire Valley, Karla describes the process as “an amazingly positive experience.” Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Christian James, Dylan Innes & The Business, Cuffing Season
Mei Semones and Mia Joy
Mei Semones’ sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. “Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new — that’s what feels most natural to me,” says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. “It’s what feels most true to who I am as an artist.” On her newest EP and Bayonet Records debut Kabutomushi, Mei’s diverse sonic palette adds depth to her experiences of the complexities of love. Through the EP’s five songs, she chronicles infatuation, devotion, vulnerability, and saying goodbye in some of her closest relationships, complete with sweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English and Japanese.Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates, including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola and violin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei’s intricate guitar work. After releasing a slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei and her band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboro and embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi.Though Mei’s music has always been a distinct combination of her gently saccharine voice with dynamic musical arrangements, Kabutomushi shows her delving into aspects of her musicianship that she’s never explored previously. Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify her forays into angular indie rock more now than ever before, most evident on the single “Wakare No Kotoba,” its wide-interval arpeggios in odd meters being some of the most technically difficult guitar work Mei has ever implemented in her songwriting. Translated to “parting words” in English, the self-described “anti-love song” serves as a farewell to a toxic friendship, complete with orchestral swells and crashing guitars. In the same sonic vein is “Inaka” (“countryside”), which details Mei’s daydreams of moving somewhere more pastoral during a period of exhaustion resulting from the hustle and bustle of newfound city life. Here she directly addresses her beloved with words of loyalty and adoration in wanting to build an idyllic life somewhere new together, while cinematic strings add romantic flares aside Mei’s leading guitar.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok ‘Celestial Mirror,’ the new EP by Mia Joy, sees the Chicago-based musician move from one stage to the next, as she delves further into her explorations on identity, self expression, and the people who come in and out of her life. The first new music since 2021’s dreampop masterclass ‘Spirit Tamer,’ which saw her tour alongside the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Squirrel Flower, Deeper and more, the EP showcases more of Joy’s trademark ethereal indie pop that envelops the listener in a shroud of gentle, personal hymns that are both intimate & warmly inviting.Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook
Infinity Song
Infinity Song is a Soft Rock band based in New York City comprised of 4 siblings, Abraham, Angel, Israel, and Momo Boyd. With a blend of tight vocal harmonies, dreamy lyricism and sublime guitar riffs, the band creates a transcendent experience for the audience on every stage and in their recorded music.Homeschooled academically and musically, along with their 5 other brothers and sisters, by parents who founded the Boys & Girls Choirs of Detroit, the siblings have performed in front of audiences since Pre-K. They were raised on classical, gospel and jazz, like Pat Methany, Marvin Gaye, The Winans Family and many others.Infinity Song’s journey was a labored yet adventurous climb. In 2006, the Boyd patriarch, John Boyd, relocated the entire family from Detroit to New York and they began performing publicly all around the city. Singing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the morning, on 5th Avenue in the afternoon and Times Square at night, eventually Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain became a permanent stage for the next 12 years of their lives. After several years of developing a following and turning casual park visitors into loyal fans, the group was introduced to Jay-Z.In 2016, the band was signed to Roc Nation by Jay-Z, who advised them to not conform to the label’s artistic culture, but rather allow Roc Nation’s artistic culture to catch up to them. 4 years later in 2020, the siblings made a giant splash with their debut album “Mad Love” and several viral videos that amassed millions of views across all social media sites, garnering attention and support from some of Hollywood’s biggest names.Infinity Song is currently reeling from the reception of their now viral single, Haters Anthem, that is being released ahead of their next project. With over 200 million people having heard the song, an endorsement by popstar Doja Cat, and a number of press write ups, the catchy single is making waves all around the world. Even leading many listeners to compare the band to legendary 70s groups such as Fifth Dimension, The Mamas and The Papas, and ABBA.With this amount of excitement surrounding their next project, Infinity Song is ready to continue to solidify their place in the space where great music is being created in today’s culture.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Be Loud! Sophie High School Showcase
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The Beaches – Blame My Ex Tour
The Beaches are doing everything their way. After more than a decade together as a band, sisters Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar), plus closest friends Leandra Earl (guitar and keys) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), are entering a new era. On the new album Blame My Ex, the 2x Juno Award-winning Toronto band channels heartbreak into self-discovery through 10 exuberant songs that revel in pain and redemption. The lead single, “Blame Brett,” an acerbic pop-rock knockout Jordan calls “a song for all the hot messes out there,” has racked up over 30 million streams on Spotify and over 10 million views on TikTok. The track peaked at #2 on Spotify’s US Viral chart, #20 at Alternative Radio in the US and #1 at Alt Radio in Canada for 13 consecutive weeks, making it the biggest alternative radio hit of the year. Mark Hoppus (blink182), Nelly Furtado, and Demi Lovato are all fans of the track. Since the success of “Blame Brett,” The Beaches sold out their worldwide Blame My Ex tour, including Toronto’s Massey Hall x2 (5400 tickets), Vancouver’s Orpheum (2750 tickets), Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Music Hall x2 (1300 tickets), Los Angeles’s Troubador x2 (1000 tickets) & London, UK’s Outernet (1300 tickets).Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Stop Light Observations
Stop Light Observations is a dynamic five-piece hailing from Charleston, South Carolina. Their sound is a unique blend of rock, pop, and indie, infused with electronic beats and soulful vocals. From songs like “2young” to “Trajic Majic,” their music is a true reflection of their unique personalities, and their live shows are a testament to their authenticity and raw talent.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Boris “Amplifier Worship Service”
Boris North American Tour 2024“Amplifier Worship Service” In 2024, Boris will undergo a tour performing all the songs off their first album. We have already reached a quarter-century since the release of that 1st album, “Amplifier Worship”. Boris has been in constant pursuit of their own ideal “heavy” since their formation in 1992. From the outset they became like a chimera, evolving at a rapid pace, establishing a unique style with extreme downtuning and megavolume. Their broad sense of “Heavy Rock” swelled grotesquely, as it engulfed powerviolence, ambient and drone, with a trance component of krautrock and so on. From Tokyo to the world, Boris spread out from the underground community to have their name become more widely known. Five years after their formation, Boris went deep into the beyond of heavy music to make their first album, one that can be said to be a palace constructed in unexplored realms. However, the album by no means serves as a peaceful “end” or resting place/”gravestone” for those compositions. Rather, it was a map to the “beyond” that Boris drew up at the time, a blueprint pointing to the future. 25 years after the release of “Amplifier Worship”, that guidance has been revealed: a full length tour for performing all of the songs on the album in a double-drum-format Drone Set. As a pioneering effort in Drone Metal, a palace under the name of “Amplifier Worship” was constructed and revealed as both a point of departure as well as a destination. Amplified oscillations and volume, going from anguish to pleasure and back, being in fear as well as in awe at what can be called heavy— we venture into this palace of worship together. For this tour Boris are taking along Starcrawler, a band that intensifies the prayer of rock ‘n’ roll. This only takes us further into the “beyond,” embarking on this worship service. Welcome to the ceremony! Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
The Dead Tongues
Across the last 15 years, Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues has emerged as one of modern folk’s most distinct voices. As idiosyncratic and spectral as the songs have sometimes been, Gustafson has always tied his visions and verses to the kinds of hooks you tuck away like talismans, pulled out in case of emergency. Dust, Unsung Passage, Desert: The Dead Tongues’ albums remain some of the more compelling and curious works in their field on this side of a century. The latest edition to The Dead Tongues’ catalog, the song-centric and magnetic Body of Light and the discursive and wonderfully elliptical I Am a Cloud, is 16 complete tunes split across interweaving and disparate albums. Before heading to Betty’s, Gustafson spent a month at “the Shack,” a primitive and private structure in rural western North Carolina, working on new material and sorting through piles of poems, sticky notes scattered across the windows, and stacks of free writing streams of thought. Most of the songs were written during this time – the exquisite “Daylily,” a warm little gift for his partner, or “I’m a Cloud Now,” a fever dream of song and spoken-word about the toggle between identity and ephemerality. The creative energy was free flowing, deep and explorative, songs somehow coming together in a manner both freakishly fast and patient. In this energy and specific space the groundwork for the album was rooted, springing forth from the thick of the elemental and natural beauty these songs reference. The daylily on the cover of the album was picked from the land the shack is built upon – there’s a connection between the physical natural setting and the creative work itself, intertwined and natural bloom. Gustafson wanted to continue with that explorative energy once he got into the formal studio, allowing it to lead the group of players assembled – the albums feature performances by Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Bon Iver), Mat Davidson (Twain), Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats), Joe Westerlund (Califone, Megafaun), Jeff Ratner (Bing and Ruth), and more. Gustafson wanted to dedicate the studio time to not just recording songs but also making something new, with new improvisations. The results feel at once casual and tremendous, the camaraderie and conversation between the players resulting in pieces that are lived-in but new. “Baby there ain’t no rules here/We can just slide,” Gustafson sings at the start of Body of Light’s opening title track, establishing a collective credo inside this gorgeous anthem about finding sanctuary with someone else. Notice how it seems to nod to flamenco before lifting into electronic abstraction, or how Wasner’s harmonies summon the deepest Southern soul over electric phosphorescence. And then there’s “Dirt for a Dying Sun,” where freight-train harmonica and spectral guitar frame a romantic dust-to-dust realism, where the best we can do is live wildly before we die. The characters on Body of Light are restless, damaged, and beautiful, whether clinging to an underground amid gentrification’s high rises during “Wolves” or holding on to the most intoxicating wisps of love during “Moon Shadow.” The band plays as if they’re just meeting these people for the first time, responding with an admixture of recognition and astonishment. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Frankie Gavin (leader of De Dannan) & Catherine McHugh – Jigs, Reels & Sit-Down Comedy Straight from Ireland
This is a fully seated show In addition to leading the new De Dannan line-up, Frankie Gavin also plays with Catherine McHugh, widely regarded as Ireland’s foremost piano accompanist who is featured on Frankie’s recent album Port Eireann. As a duo, they have toured Ireland, Europe and the USA to promote this excellent 18-track recording of traditional music. Wherever they have appeared, they have been greeted with rapturous applause and standing ovations.—–“The concert from Frankie Gavin in Armagh last night was seriously life-affirming. All present were blown away by the unfettered display of genius, fiddle-craft, knowledge of the music and deadly delivery from Frankie backed by the equally all-in perceptive and empathetic accompaniment from Catherine McHugh who was doing an inside job of accompanying Frankie that was nothing if it wasn’t mind reading.Whilst the fireworks were continually mind-blowing and entertaining, the music was intact in its true dignity and fresh originality, a feat that only a true genius on fire could deliver. The raw simplicity of the tunes from his early mentors were shared in the same time and space as was given to the tunes of virtuosic complexity. Hornpipes, barndances, slow airs, flings, complex harmonic variations, intricate bow work, were all in the tapestry of the great story than Frankie had to tell us. He brought a feast of music-lore and craic to us, like the great hero he is.” Website | Facebook
