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ONDARA: THE REBIRTH TOUR
Ondara’s new album, Spanish Villager No: 3, was predominately produced by Ondara and Mike Viola(Jenny Lewis, Dan Wilson) with contributions from Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes, Sebastian Steinberg, Tim Kuhl and Jeremy Stacey. The new collection of songs features a much more full, electric sound.Of the album, Ondara states, “This collection of work and the work that lies ahead in presenting it to the world, is a metaphor for my spiritual path. There is death and resurrection in it, a peeling of layers, a pursuit of the truest form of the self in the universe. Ironically, the adaptation of the Spanish Villager character has made me more acquainted with myself. By creating an obvious demarcation between the art and the artist, I have charted two paths of maturation. One path is the maturation of the Spanish Villager as a work of art, as a character in a narrative, as a commodity partaking in the mandatory sport of capitalism; The other is my own personal maturation into a spiritual, integrated, and useful member of society.”The namesake behind the new album is The Spanish Villager: a mysterious man with a potent message who has proven to be a versatile guy: he’s the subject of a short story Ondara wrote and turned into a graphic novel, and now a new album.Spanish Villager No: 3follows his 2020 sophomore album, Folk N’ Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation, and his2019 debut album, Tales of America, which received a nomination for Best Americana Albumatthe62nd Grammy Awards. Ondara also received a nod for Best Emerging Act at the2019 Americana Awards.Ondara grew up in Nairobi, Kenya listening to American alt-rock and making up his own songs for as long as he can remember. At an early age he fell in love with the music of Bob Dylan and was granted a visa through the immigration lottery system. He chose Minneapolis as his home to pursue a career as a singer and songwriter with Dylan in mind. He began making his way in the local music scene, continually writing songs about what he saw, felt and experienced in a place far different from home.
The Connells
The Connells, one of North Carolina’s most successful indie rock bands, have new music on the way for the first time since 2001. They’ll break their recording hiatus with “Steadman’s Wake,” a new 11-song album that will be released September 24th, 2021.Beyond the fact that “Steadman’s Wake” is the group’s first new release in over 20 years, it is the first Connells’ album to feature their two newest members, guitarist Mike Ayers and drummer Rob Ladd (who have been in the lineup since 2002 and 2012, respectively), and the band’s first record made up of songs contributed solely by Mike Connell, who happens to take on a more prominent role as vocalist.Additionally, the title track, “Steadman’s Wake,” represents the first time The Connells have ventured into overt politics. Previously, the group tended to let actions and implications do the talking when it came to current events. But taking a more concrete and literal stand was something the times seemed to demand. With references to war, the opioid crisis and the white-supremacist rioting that roiled Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 (and were reprised in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.), there is no mistaking the message of “Steadman’s Wake.”“We’ve had some oblique socio-political bits here and there over the years,” says Mike Connell. “But never as direct as this. It seems like it’s time. It’s scary, where we still stand in this country with issues of race. Of the 11 songs on the record, the clear consensus within the band was that ‘Steadman’s Wake’ best reflected the band’s take on the temper of the times and best represented the “spirit” of the record.”Off-record and onstage, The Connells have been no strangers to political activism over the years, going back to benefit shows they played for Harvey Gant when he was running against controversial Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Nevertheless, taking a musical step into current events was not a decision they made lightly. But as frontman Doug MacMillan concurs, the times are dire enough to demand a response.“Even the least politically minded bands are saying things now because they need to be said,” MacMillan says. “Mike’s never been one for hitting anybody over the head with an agenda, and his lyrics tend to be pretty subtle. But I’m glad we did this. I’ll be interested to see what people think.”Even though it’s been 20 years since their last recording, The Connells never quit playing live, and Mike Connell never quit writing songs. Eventually enough material came together to suggest it was finally time to make another record. “Steadman’s Wake” features eight new songs that have never been released, while three of the album’s songs previously appeared in different versions on 2001’s “Old-School Dropouts” – a collection of demos recorded at the group’s practice space.Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Apple Music
Essenger & Puppet with special guest Young Medicine
Essenger stands on the cutting edge of electronic music, blending an array of influences for a sound that pays tribute to modern alt rock, EDM, and synth wave. The artist marks his highly personal songwriting style with striking lyrics, and the result is a singular creative style that opens new possibilities for both retro and future synth music.The artist’s adept compositional skills and production chops helped his early singles attract a significant following while racking up hundreds of thousands of streams on individual songs. Essenger soon connected with prominent labels including Seeking Blue and Monster cat, and those early successes led to an album deal with independent synth wave label FiXT Neon in late 2019.In early 2020,Essengerand FiXT Neon released the artist’s full-length album After Dark to widespread acclaim. The album became an immediate success on Spotify and Bandcamp, earning a place alongside some of the most significant synth wave albums to date. In early summer of the same year, the artist announced a full remix album of After Dark with an eclectic mix of artists from EDM, synth wave, and all spaces in-between.The remix album sets the stage for the next chapter of Essenger’s career with innovative and exciting new music to come.Website | Instagram | Twitter | FacebookBrendan Baldwin pka Puppet is an electronic rock artist based in New York City. After his debut and consistent releases with Monster cat in 2014-2017, he quickly became known for his stand out sound, blending pop-punk vocals, rock focused song structures and real instruments with electronic production. In 2019 he released his Give Up The Dream EP independently, which showcased an even deeper fusion between traditional rock and electronic music. In 2020 he released his debut album I Know You Know Who I Am which cemented his status as a pioneer of the rock / EDM fusion. 2022 began with a mini tour which showed off his unique live set in front of hundreds of fans across the country. His sophomore album New York Family was released on May 4, 2022 and was followed by his first ever US headline tour. So far in 2023 he’s released 4 songs, the most recent being a collab with prolific edm talent, if found.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Citizen
With the ability to excel in both quiet ballads and distorted rock anthems, Citizen (which recently expanded to a full quintet with the addition of former touring members drummer Ben Russin and guitarist Mason Mercer) has an incredible knack for channeling raw emotion and energy into singalong songs. On their new album Calling The Dogs, the band exemplifies that passionate songwriting and styling while stripping back to what they do best: guitar-driven rock ‘n roll. Picking up labels ranging from post-hardcore to shoegaze over the years, it’s reductive to try to categorize Citizen as anything other than one of the best rock bands around today. Evolving from teenagers playing local dives to a vibrant band capable of selling out theaters and hitting major festivals around the world, vocalist Mat Kerekes, guitarist Nick Hamm and bassist Eric Hamm have earned their reputation as both tremendous songwriters and a must-see live act. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
An Evening of Music with Valerie June, Rachael Davis, Thao, Yasmin Williams
This is a seated show.An Evening of Music with Valerie June, Rachael Davis, Thao, Yasmin Williams is a collective of multi-instrumentalists influenced by a kaleidoscope of musical traditions. Allthese powerful artists were invited by the visionary promoter, Anya Siglin, toperform atthe Ann Arbor Folk Festival. After an exhilarating evening of songs and stories thattransfixed the audience, each artist was excited to take the show on the road. Theirperformancesweaveinteractive conversation segments with songs in a Nashville-styleround. This powerhouse collective of women from uniquely different backgrounds, ages,and views share united auras of sound and music.The Musical Conversation Meet & Greet Experience Includes: – General Admission ticket to see The Musical- Conversation live (varies by city)- Access to an exclusive pre-show experience including:- Acoustic performance of 2-3 songs not being performed during the show that night- Moderated Q&A- Meet & Greet with group photo opportunity- Commemorative VIP laminate- Merchandise shopping opportunity prior to doors opening to the public- Early entry to the venue
Squirrel Flower
The music Ella Williams makes as Squirrel Flower has always communicated a strong sense of place. Her self-released debut EP, 2015’s early winter songs from middle america, was written during her first year living in Iowa, where the winter months make those of her hometown, Boston, seem quaint by comparison. Since that first offering, Squirrel Flower amassed a fanbase beyond the Boston DIY scene and has released two more EPs and two full-lengths. The most recent, Planet (i), was laden with climate anxiety, while the subsequent Planet EP marked an important turning point in Williams’ prolific career; the collection of demos was the first self-produced material she’d released in some time. With a renewed confidence as a producer, she helmed her new album Tomorrow’s Fire at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville alongside storied engineer Alex Farrar. Before Tomorrow’s Fire, Squirrel Flower might’ve been labeled something like “indie folk,” but this is a rock record, made to be played loud. As if to signal this shift, the album opens with the soaring “i don’t use a trash can,” a re-imagining of the first ever Squirrel Flower song. Williams returns to her past to demonstrate her growth as an artist and to nod to those early shows, when her voice, looped and minimalistic, had the power to silence a room. Lead singles “Full Time Job” and “When a Plant is Dying,” narrate the universal desperation that comes with living as an artist and pushing up against a world where that’s a challenging thing to be. The frustration in Williams’ lyrics is echoed by the music’s uninhibited, ferocious production. “There must be more to life/ Than being on time,” she sings on the latter’s towering chorus. Lyrics like that one are fated to become anthemic, and Tomorrow’s Fire overflows with them. “Doing my best is a full time job/ But it doesn’t pay the rent” Williams sings on “Full Time Job” over careening feedback, her steady delivery imposing order over a song that is, at its heart, about a loss of control. Closing track “Finally Rain” speaks to the ambiguity of being a young person staring down climate catastrophe. The last verse is an homage to Williams’ relationship with her loved ones — ‘We won’t grow up.’ A stark realization, but also a manifesto. To be resolutely committed to a life of not ‘growing up,’ not losing our wonder while we’re still here.Website | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Sun June & Runnner
The five members of Sun June spent their early years spread out across the United States, from the boonies of the Hudson Valley to the sprawling outskirts of LA. Having spent their college years within the gloomy, cold winters of the North East, Laura Colwell and Stephen Salisbury found themselves in the vibrant melting-pot of inspiration that is Austin, Texas. Meeting each other while working on Terrence Malick’s ‘Song to Song’, the pair were immediately taken by the city’s bustling small clubs and honky-tonk scene, and the fact that there was always an instrument within reach, always someone to play alongside.Coming alive in this newly discovered landscape, Colwell and Salisbury formed Sun June alongside Michael Bain on lead guitar, Sarah Schultz on drums, and Justin Harris on bass and recorded their debut album live to tape, releasing it via the city’s esteemed Keeled Scales label in 2018. The band coined the term ‘regret pop’ to describe the music they made on the ‘Years’ LP. Though somewhat tongue in cheek, it made perfect sense ~ the gentle sway of their country leaning pop songs seeped in melancholy, as if each subtle turn of phrase was always grasping for something just out of reach.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | FacebookFor the last five years, Los Angeles-based musician Noah Weinman has been Runnner, and for much of those five years, Runnner has been working. Working on his 2021 collection album, Always Repeating; working as a producer on the Skullcrusher records; and, of course, working towards his debut full-length, Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out. From LA to Ohio and the Northeast and back, he’s been deep in the craft of sound. This is music made at home, using anything and everything: cell phones and handheld tape recorders, the hum of an a/c unit, voicemails from friends. Rubbing cardboard together, stretching acoustic sounds out to near liquid, or stacking delay pedals at random to scramble the smoothness of a song can make something known into something unknown — something ordinary into something cosmic. These are songs where the edges have been left deliberately rough because perfection invites predictability, and imperfection imbalances, and those imbalances ask the listener to listen again, and again. And in that listening, the sound can become earnest, can ask a question, can hold a conversation.”I was sifting through my demos trying to decide what songs would go on the album, and I sort of started to notice this theme about the limits of language,” explains Weinman. “You’re trying to articulate something to someone, and it either doesn’t come out right or you end up not saying anything at all. It’s a pattern I see in my life, just having a hard time expressing myself to the people I’m close with.” So it’s no surprise that from a young age, Noah was drawn to other modes of expression: first studying trumpet and jazz, then falling into guitars, banjo, pianos and synths, and along with them discovering a love for stitching together songs and recordings. “It wasn’t until I got out of the studio environment and started recording at home that it became something I really love doing,” he says.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Caique Vidal and Também
Também – Ingrid Nora Knight & Deborah Rosengarth founded Também in 2018 over a mutual love for Brazilian jazz and their first songs exemplified samba and bossa nova styles. It soon became clear, however, that they were meant to create something more…daring. Welcome to an electric mashup of Brazilian music heavily influenced by classical chamber music and American jazz. Over the past three and a half years the ensemble has grown from a duo to a quartet with the addition of bassist Andy Powell and drummer Gastón Reggio. The quartet includes a diverse set of musicians who have unique backgrounds and skill sets. This medley of musicians allows the ensemble to explore a wide range of rhythms, textures, and languages all involving the intersection of Brazilian and American music. Caique Vidal – Caique Vidal (ka-EE-kee vee-DAHL) faithfully shares the Afro-Brazilian traditions of his Bahia birthplace. He is an educator and community organizer for the Brazilian diaspora in North Carolina. As a young man, Caique joined a new wave of politically-charged street musicians in the city of Salvador da Bahia, known as “the Black Rome of the Americas”. Playing with Olodum, the founding family of samba-reggae, Caique established the genre’s infectious rhythms and message of Black empowerment in Brasil, Europe, and the Americas, starring in a Spike Lee and Michael Jackson music video along the way.A studied rhythmic and choral arranger, Caique collaborated with producer Mikael Mutti on Percussivo Mundo Novo, an experimental reinterpretation of traditional Bahian percussion. He has proudly shared the stage with acclaimed musical ambassadors Suzana Baca, Carlinhos Brown and Gilberto Gil.
A. Savage
Parquet Courts frontman A. Savage presents his new single/video, “Thanksgiving Prayer,” and announces a fall North American tour. “Thanksgiving Prayer” marks Savage’s first new solo music since 2017’s Thawing Dawn — “a handy guide for keeping your cool as the world degenerates into a hot mess” (Pitchfork) — and follows the release of Parquet Courts’ acclaimed 2021 album, Sympathy For Life. “Thanksgiving Prayer” is anchored by Savage’s poetic musings, observations that are accentuated by saxophone flourishes from Euan Hinshelwood. “Thanksgiving Day is every day I write a song like this,” Savage croons atop instrumentation from Magdalena McLean (violin), Jack Cooper (guitar), and Dylan Hadley (drums/percussion). “When I get down on all four paws and drag myself // by my own jaws toward a feeling.” Of the single, Savage adds: “Well, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and every year on that day I write down some words having to do with gratitude. Some years are better than others, but the last one I celebrated these words just sort of came out of me. It was a pretty special holiday actually, because in fact we were recording this song, but I made everybody take a day off. [Producer] John Parish and his wife Michelle were kind enough to allow me to take over their kitchen to cook the meal for everyone. Dylan and I were the only Americans, so there was a bit of explaining to do. So it was the band, the studio staff and the Parish family, and it was an absolutely lovely day. I was in awe of the kindness and mercy, and that’s what the song is about; being in awe of humans. When I got back to my room I was on such a high so I started writing and this song is what was on the page the next morning, when we recorded it.” The accompanying “Thanksgiving Prayer” video — directed by Tiff Pritchett —is a black-and-white homage to silent film, with Savage adorned in makeup and surrounded by his band and handmade decoration. Of the “Thanksgiving Prayer” video, Savage adds: “The video is directed by a brilliant young director Tiff Pritchett, and she had this idea to sort of do a silent film tribute. The scene from Renoir’s film Rules of the Game where Danse Macabre is played was referenced, as was Klaus Nomi.”
