Unwound

Few independent bands have had a career as varied and unpredictable as the indie pop sextet Sub-Radio. Founded in Washington DC by a group of childhood friends, the band released a series of EPs between 2018 and 2020, blending the pop-punk they grew up on with the indie-pop stylings of WALK THE MOON and The 1975. Forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic, they found enormous viral success on Reddit and TikTok in 2021, streaming their high-energy live performances to more than 20 million viewers and driving a huge new audience to their single “Flashback”. The band signed with indie label Th3rd Brain in early 2022 and released their latest EP, Past Selves in February of 2023. In support of the new release, Sub-Radio announced The Past Selves Tour which kicks off in August of 2023.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok

Rock Against Glioblastoma – In Memory of Sara Romweber

Evening with Dexter Romweber, Snatches of Pink, The Bad Checks, What Peggy Wants, and The Popes. Proceeds will go to the Glioblastoma Foundation Glioblastomafoundation.org

Mike Mains & The Branches

We recollect memories like paintings on the hall of a childhood home. Certain colors and details stick out to us, while others lose their luster over time. Nevertheless, we appreciate what we do remember as it indelibly shaped our present and eventual future. As vocalist, songwriter, producer, and namesake of Mike Mains & The Branches, Mike Mains thinks aloud in his songs. He ponders events and experiences as well as their ensuing effects on his identity, telling intimate stories through artful pop rock. After generating millions of streams and consistently captivating audiences on tour, the band recognize, accept, and absorb these formative mementos on their 2023 fourth full-length offering, Memory Unfixed [Tooth & Nail Records]. “There are two ways of looking at it,” Mike notes. “I can be resentful, bitter, and angry about a lot of what happened to me growing up, or I could be grateful that I have a life filled with memories. Some of them are broken, and some of them are amazing. I’m fucking here, man. I’m breathing, I’m existing, and I get to make art and share it. On top of that, I have an incredible wife who loves and supports me. If we allow ourselves to become friends with our own unfixed memories, there are lessons we can learn and carry on. I went through a painful period and came out on the other side of it as a better person with a beautiful portrait of that season in the form of the album.” Mike Mains & The Branches have always bottled complex emotions and relatable stories within hummable homegrown anthems. They have organically progressed over the course of Home [2012], Calm Down, Everything Is Fine [2014], and When We Were In Love [2019]. Billboard hailed the “buoyant pop” of the latter, while Atwood Magazine praised its “upbeat, energetic, feelgood pop-rock.” Among many standouts, “Briggs” generated north of 5 million Spotify streams as “Breathing Underwater” and “Live Forever” each surpassed the 1 million-mark. After trading his native Michigan for Nashville, Mike underwent another era of transformation. Stuck at home mid-Pandemic, he retreated inward and began to understand his past and, ultimately, himself a bit more. “I’m just a husband, a wounded healer, and a grateful storyteller. If these songs make you feel less alone, I did my job.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube Steven Fiore’s career reads like a legendary round of two truths and a lie: co-writing with Art Garfunkel, a stint with Jeff Goldblum’s jazz band, more than 17 million Spotify streams. But it’s all true – every word of it. In a way, you could say it’s this unfiltered honesty that ultimately powers Fiore’s YOUNG MISTER to be more than just pretty melodies, but rather profoundly moving pieces of musical storytelling.Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

Ocie Elliott

Ocie Elliott pen tunes that feel lived-in. You can hear their memories, experiences, and emotions in the dusty acoustic guitars, the sparse production, and the graceful harmonies between Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy. Their life together plays out in the music as if projected on the big screen of an old small-town theater. Generating tens of millions of streams, earning a JUNO Award nomination, and inciting the applause of American Songwriter, CBC, PopMatters, Atwood Magazine, Exclaim, and many more, both of their spirits shine like never before on their 2022 EP, What Remains [Nettwerk Music Group].“Since we spend so much time together, our life becomes our songs,” observes Sierra. “We play off each other really well. One of us will start playing around, and the other will join in. We fuel one another in a way we normally wouldn’t be fueled by ourselves. We think differently when we’re together.”“Sierra makes me a better songwriter,” Jon agrees. “She makes me want to try different things and experiment with melody. She pushes me to use new words and phrases.”Their interplay borders on magical, and it continues to entrance audiences. Ocie initially emerged with EP in 2017. The single “I Got You, Honey” has amassed over 13 million Spotify streams and counting. Meanwhile, their music appeared multiple times in Grey’s Anatomy in addition to a sync on NETFLIX’s Sweet Magnolias, among others. Following 2019’s We Fall In, their 2020 In That Room EP yielded the fan favorite “Be Around,” which eclipsed 10 million Spotify streams. Remaining prolific during 2021, they unveiled the Slow Tide EP and A Place EP. Of the latter, Exclaim! praised, “Each track is a direct invitation to the listener; six strings tugging on the heart,” and PopMatters attested, “The folk duo create another collection of sweetly understated music.” Along the way, they toured with Joshua Radin, Sons of The East, Kim Churchill, and Hollow Coves. During 2022, they garnered a nomination at the JUNO Awards in the category of “Breakthrough Artist of the Year,” marking their first nod.Ocie Elliott composed What Remains during a series of writing retreats, holing up in Whistler and Sierra’s hometown of Salt Spring Island. In the midst of the process, Sierra’s dad was suddenly diagnosed with cancer.“We had one last month with him,” she recalls. “We were able to play these songs live for him in his final days. I think it helped us. He was the reason I started playing music to begin with and encouraged me to get piano lessons as a kid. My dad was the kind of guy who picks up any instrument, plays it, and makes it sound good.”“Playing those songs for him was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever gone through,” Jon exclaims. “When he was listening, he was fully immersed. It was a beautiful experience for us.”On the first single “My Everything,” lightly plucked acoustic guitar (tuned to Drop-D for the first time) underlines a soft call-and-response from Jon and Sierra. It builds towards a tender assurance, “You’re my everything.”“My dad actually kept saying during this time, ‘You’re my everything,’ to me,” recalls Sierra.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok

Slow Hollows: Dog Heaven Tour

After a three-year hiatus, Slow Hollows returns reinvented, sharing new single & video “Old Yeller.” The genre-defying Los Angeles band founded by songwriter Austin Feinstein is now his solo project. Though the group amicably disbanded in early 2020, the now 25-year-old artist never stopped writing songs. The more he fleshed out new material, the more Feinstein realized it made sense to continue on as Slow Hollows. “Ultimately making a cohesive record was the most important thing to me,” says Feinstein. “Having some time away from the band made me realize what ‘Slow Hollows’ stood for. It’s hard to realize what you’re getting at when you’re doing it, so the time to myself helped me understand what made it work.” In sharp contrast to 2019’s Actors, which interpolated R&B and dance music and was influenced by collaborations with Frank Ocean (Feinstein sings the chorus on Blonde’s “Self Control”) andTyler, the Creator (who crafted the beat for Actors’ “Heart”), “Old Yeller” focuses purely on Feinstein’s songwriting, stripping things back to only an acoustic guitar, his voice, and gentle atmospherics. “Old Yeller was recorded in two or three takes one afternoon in September ‘22” shares Feinstein, “The lyrics take inspiration from the job of an old vacuum cleaner; feeling dusty and worn down, working over the same familiar spaces over and over again, until reaching the point of frustration and resignation. Taking production inspiration from John Cale, we decided to add a drone underneath the track.” Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Birds and Arrows

Birds and Arrows latest album, Electric Bones, is a collection of thoughtful compositions, dynamic harmonies, and stellar vocal performances reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac. A lush combination of moody soundscapes, 70’s groove, and classic folk-rock, the collection as a whole is a wild ride through this longtime-married duo’s psyche during 2020’s lockdown.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok

Viv & Riley

This is a seated show.A bittersweet nostalgia lies at the heart of Imaginary People, the new album from Viv & Riley, coming September 15, 2023 on Free Dirt Records. Over ten tracks, the pair applies an indie roots sheen to newly composed pop gems. Rooted originally in the folk tradition, the pair reframe the production into experimental territory, crafting songs that speak to finding a path forward into adulthood in an uncertain world. Gifted songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno’s first album under the name Viv & Riley is a subtle masterpiece of thought and reflection. The album brings a reflectiveness to summertime jams that speak of uninhibited joy and creative camaraderie. Coming on the heels of their acclaimed earlier albums that showed preternaturally talented songwriting from such young artists, now the songs have caught up with their lives. Now in their mid-20s, the two are building a life together, creating a supportive community, and looking back on everything they’ve been through. Based out of Durham, North Carolina, they’ve tapped into the area’s eclectic and collaborative music scene, recruiting Alex Bingham of Hiss Golden Messenger to produce the album. Bingham brings a sunny, lush sound to Viv & Riley’s music, moving beyond their earlier country roots and toward a layered sound and sonic experimentation. The songwriting has evolved as well, from the world-weary, stripped-down country songs they’re known for to indie songwriting at turns sweetly sad and gently sardonic. Ultimately, Imaginary People is about carrying and honoring our pasts, about letting that inform our new steps forward. No matter how much we might cling to where we are, sometimes we need to uproot and take a leap of faith, to open ourselves up to new experiences and ideas in order to grow and blossom.Website | Instagram | Facebook | SpotifyLou Hazel is a songwriter crafting genuine folk tales of honest longing, disquieted loss, and nostalgia through a brilliant sheen of fresh insight and humble humor. Grabbing us by the ears in a new-age, Prine-like grip, Lou transforms the minutiae of everyday life into ever more evocative music that surprises us all, including himself, with where we emerge.Website

Lynn Blakey Christmas Show featuring Dave Hartman, FJ Ventre, Ecki Heins, Danny Gotham

It was probably inevitable that Lynn Blakey would eventually make a Christmas album. Such records are a challenge, as everyone has heard most holiday songs their entire lives; it takes something special to make them worth hearing again, anew. Blakey has that something special — a crystal-clear voice that rings out like yuletide silver bells, sparkles like moonglow on freshly fallen snow, and warms the heart on a silent, holy night.You might not have heard Blakey’s voice before. Or perhaps you have — in the Yep Roc Records trio Tres Chicas with Caitlin Cary and Tonya Lamm, or with her previous band Glory Fountain. Blakey has been making indie-pop music in the South since the 1980s, dating back to stints with Georgia group Oh-OK and North Carolina band Let’s Active; more recently, her backing vocals have turned up on records by the likes of Alejandro Escovedo and Chris Stamey.Along the way, she stole a German. Christmas is is credited to “Lynn Blakey and the Stolen German” thanks to Ecki Heins, a musician Blakey met on tour in 2005; he eventually joined her in North Carolina, where they’ve lived and made music together for more than a decade now. Heins is a secret weapon here, adding whimsical fiddle licks on “Let It Snow” and stepping out with a glorious violin melody on the disc’s classical-oriented hidden track. He and Blakey serve up tag-team vocals on “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” bouncing conversation back and forth with harmony and humor. Joining the duo in the studio were bassist FJ Ventre and engineer Jerry Kee, who added percussion and pedal steel.Most of Christmas consists of songs you’ll know, from traditional carols such as “Do You Hear What I Hear” to the World War II-inspired “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” to the chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire sweetness of “The Christmas Song.” But there’s also a Blakey original here: “Love Finds (Allumette)” is more romantic ballad than holiday jingle, but its setting amid candles, garland and “the bones of winter waiting for the light” help it fit right into the seasonal theme.I first heard Blakey sing upon relocating to North Carolina almost two decades ago and being knocked out by her high notes on a spectacular tune she wrote called “The Beauty of 23.” It became a love-song of sorts for my wife and me, and when we moved away many years later one December, Lynn was kind enough to sing my wife’s favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night,” on an early winter’s eve in a remote roadside tavern. To have her singing it on record now is something we’ll treasure forevermore.Peter BlackstockAustin, Texas, late 2018Twitter | Facebook

H.C. McEntire

Every Acre If naming is a form of claiming, of being claimed, how is one tethered to both the physical landscape that surrounds us, as well as our own internal emotional landscape—at times calm, at times turbulent, and ever changing? H.C. McEntire’s new album Every Acre grapples with those themes—themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming—claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage—permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs. The songs straddle the line between music and poetry, often weaving back and forth between each realm. In “New View,” McEntire cites poets “Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds”—fixtures in the world of writing, whose works are beacons of light over bleak horizons. The beginning of the song is backed by soft guitar plucks that fall on the downbeat and spangle like stars, and, throughout, guitar, bass, and drums swell together gently, mimicking ebbing and flowing tides under the moon. McEntire’s voice (at once tender and fierce) intones the truth of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming: “Bend me, break me, split me right in two. Mend me, make me—I’ll take more of you.” Permeated by the constant heartbeat-like drums, “Shadows” develops quiet ruminations on surrender and loss—reminiscing, moving on. “Walk your way into the river…Is it fever, or surrender?” This ponderous, dreamlike song asks the question of how “to make room,” lyrics that serve as echoing foils to the familiar: “Cornmeal rising high in cast-iron pans. Cattails catching all the copperheads.” How does one make room, for self and for renewal and surrender, when it is so difficult to leave what you know behind? There is the temptation to “leave [a] place just like you found it.” Playing with slivers of descending chromatics, along with the occasional downward-stepping bass, here McEntire yearns for home, and for nesting. And there is also the reality of life—sometimes a casting off, sometimes a shrouded letting go. Perhaps one of the more grief-stricken songs, “Rows of Clover” is a lamentation, one that touches on the loss of a “steadfast hound.” The lone piano in the beginning of the song is rhythmically hymn-like. The stark verse arrangement gradually leads to a chorus that reads like a moody exhale, swollen with lush guitar strums and a Bill Withers–esque understated soul groove. Images of nature, often in mid-growth or decay, are braided through the lyrics. The clover covers “wasted dirt.” Cedars stand guard the ravaged land, a rotting pasture. But what stands out the most is an image of being “down on your knees, clawing at the garden”—the only explicit mention of a person in the song. “It ain’t the easy kind of healing,” sings McEntire, seemingly from further and further away as her voice echoes; and healing takes time, time takes time—truths that linger painfully.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud

Genre: Concerts