Secret Monkey Weekend, jPhono1, Mad Starlings
A family band like no other, Secret Monkey Weekend returned with a sparkling sophomore album Lemon Drop Hammer on June 6. Comprising seasoned guitarist/vocalist Jefferson Hart and his stepdaughters Ella (bass/vocals) and Lila Brown-Hart (drums/vocals), the North Carolina trio’s harmony-heavy Beatles/Squeeze songwriting, charming lyricism, and familial chemistry is channeled into 10 tracks helmed by revered REM/Smithereens producer Don Dixon. “I wasn’t prepared for Jefferson’s tremendous talent as a writer, player and singer,” said Dixon. “These three individuals have combined to make something I love [and] grown, literally and figuratively, in front of my eyes.” Secret Monkey Weekend (a name derived from a vintage Tiger Beat magazine headline) began as purely organic family therapy, with no plans for anything more. Yet by 2016 they were playing casual shows and soon graduated to a busy calendar of club and festival dates. Debut album All The Time In The World, also produced by Dixon, followed in 2022. It’s a tale so remarkable that the trio is the subject of Emmy-winning 2023 PBS documentary, Secret Monkey Weekend. Website Jphono1 and friends explore new elements in sounds and arrangements with his fuzz-frayed folk-pop. Fragments ofelectronics, acoustic guitars, and keys join what at first resemble straight-forward compositions, only to break apart into unassuming lo-fi with casual psychedelia, finding a comfortable station at the intersection of Meat Puppets whimsy and Steve Gunn introspection. “Jphono1’s ‘Rectify Mercy’ Extends Psych-Rock Vignettes Into Joyful Meditations. Some of its atmospheric, dream-pop guitar runs and Byrds-esque harmonies might sound at home on the soundtrack to a modern-day remake of Easy Rider.” – Indyweek Website | Bandcamp Brothers Nick, Mike and Mark are an indie rock trio based in Durham, NC. They were previously the core of 90s local favorites Gravity’s Pull. Their music is a combo of post-punk late 70s power pop mixed with early 90s pop-rock alternative. Think The Cars X Pixies X Eve 6 X Toad plus a dash of Nirvana for good measure. That combo of sounds (and more) melds seamlessly into pure Mad Starlings Magic!
New Year’s Eve Hootenanny The Rattletraps, delia-h, Kit McKay
Formed in Chapel Hill, NC, The Rattletraps are a band of songwriters who create a culmination of roots rock, country and blues music. With songs about bar fights, working dead end jobs and the streets of New Orleans, The Rattletraps find ways to create anthems that are bitter, cynical, and just the right amount of pissed off. Their debut EP Natural Crawl is due for release in 2026. Website delia-h is a writer who prioritizes purity and wit in her work. Less concerned with genre and more interested in feeling, her songs combine wordplay, groove, colloquialism, and rhyme in attempts to dissect familial, romantic, and platonic relationships. Influenced by Carolinian folk pop melodies and Upstate New York DIY punk scene attitude, delia-h recorded her first live album “delia-h and The Male Gaze” at the Cat’s Cradle Backroom in 2025 and is releasing her debut EP “The Killjoy” in January 2026.
Kinda Nice
KINDA NICE is a ridiculously fun femme indie rock band based in Durham, North Carolina. The group formed in 2019 thanks to the magic of Girls Rock NC’s Rock Roulette. Unconstrained by genre, Kinda Nice’s sound is a synthesis of their kaleidoscopic musical experiences, while their lyrics voice messages of joy, justice, and empowerment. Instagram CHICKEN RANCH ROAD SHOW plays country music for everyone. Founded in Raleigh, NC in 2023, the Road Show hits the stage with instruments in hand and tongues in cheek. Is it camp? Is it country? In the end, it’s somewhere between The Judds and the Jacobins, as the band blends roots rock and Americana sensibilities with a heaping helping of queer rage. Instagram LARRY. – Since releasing their debut EP Puddle! in 2024, Durham-based Larry has graced stages across NC with a live show once described as “high energy and insane.” Larry delivers a cathartic mix of sickly sweet romanticization and hellish obsession that lands like sour candy. At a Larry show, only two things are certain – Larry is everyone, and we are all Larry. Instagram
Congress The Band
Congress The Band is one of the Southeast’s most exciting emerging rock acts bring a new wave of rock music out of the Carolinas. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, the band has built a fast-growing reputation for turning every stage – whether a packed club, a college town, or a full festival field into an all-out rager. With vocals from William Bennett, guitar work from Daniel Guy and Lukas Mishustin, locked-in grooves from Rob Farmer on bass, and explosive drums from Jett Seawell, Congress delivers a dynamic performance that feels both modern and timeless. Their music pulls from indie rock, Americana, and classic Southern roots, creating an anthemic sound that resonates across generations. In just a short time, Congress has grown from a local Charleston favorite into a regional touring force. Selling out venues from Charlotte to Athens to Bloomington. The concerts have become known for heartfelt crowd connections, big-chorus singalongs, and a level of passion that leaves audiences lined up hours before each show. With new music on the way and a packed touring schedule ahead, Congress is poised for their biggest year yet. Instagram
Turtle Smash – Live Band Pop-Punk & Emo Tribute
Get ready for a full night of early-2000s nostalgia as Turtle Smash brings a massive 3-hour set of pop-punk and emo anthems to Cat’s Cradle. This is the soundtrack of your youth performed LIVE — high-energy, loud, and unapologetically emotional. Expect a nonstop tribute to the golden era of the Warped Tour scene, featuring hits from: My Chemical Romance Paramore Blink-182 Fall Out Boy Green Day Taking Back Sunday And many more essential 2000s favorites Whether you lived in the pit, blasted these songs in your car, or screamed them into a hairbrush microphone, this show delivers everything you loved about the era — with full-band performances, big vocals, and all the chaos and catharsis that made the music unforgettable. No opener. No filler. Just three straight hours of the anthems that defined a generation. Don’t wait — grab your tickets and relive the night your teenage self always wanted. Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Surfing for Daisy
Surfing for Daisy’s sound flows like the tides of Asbury Park – smooth, soothing, yet unpredictable. The guitars undulate like ocean waves, calm and hypnotic one moment, crashing with raw energy the next. With rhythms that pulse like the sea, and vocal harmonies that announce the sunrise – their music balances serene lulls with bursts of righteous clamor, capturing both the tranquility and wildness of the coast. Each song is a journey, where moments of quiet beauty give way to sonic storms. Their sound is a reminder that life, like the ocean, is ever changing – a mix of peace and chaos, flowing together in perfect harmony. Website | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube | Instagram
Bahamas
My Second Last Album Afie Jurvanen does not spend too much time in cities these days. For nearly two decades, Jurvanen was a fixture of the Toronto scene, both as a valued multi-instrumentalist and producer for friends like Feist, The Weather Station, and Kathleen Edwards and as the architect of one of his country’s most celebrated artists, Bahamas. Jurvanen came of age across Bahamas’ first six albums, the restlessness of jumpy early hits like Pink Strat and Barchords slowly shifting into the generous domesticity of 2023’s Bootcut. But Jurvanen has long been drawn to open spaces, to a quieter life. In 2009, the year of his aforementioned debut, he began visiting Nova Scotia, the Atlantic Ocean. Over the next decade, his trips became more consistent, then more frequent, and then longer, until, in 2019, Jurvanen and his family of four finally made the move—nearly 2,000 kilometers northeast, to Nova Scotia. They live a lifestyle, Jurvanen half-jokes, that is “close to Mennonite.” The kids are homeschooled. No one has an iPad. Text messages can feel like miracles. But in 2022, Jurvanen went back to a city—namely, Music City, or Nashville, Tenn. During five days at the Sound Emporium, he worked with some of America’s true country greats, aces like Vince Gill and Sam Bush, Russ Pahl and Mickey Raphael. Bootcut, he reminisces, was maybe the easiest record he’s ever made, his songs and visions executed with utter clarity by absolute pros. When Jurvanen came home, though, he still had a few tunes and plenty of energy. Could he make more music, he wondered, outsideof a city? Despite his extended résumé, Jurvanen has never been much of a tech guy or studio hound, never one for making his own records. In 2021, however, producer and multiinstrumentalist Joshua Van Tassel had also left Toronto, moving back to Nova Scotia and building a little studio, called DreamDate, in a backyard shed there. It was just small enough to skirt inspections, just big enough to house everything. Jurvanen had once rented Van Tassel’s space back in Toronto to listen to his Earthtones album on someone else’s speakers, to decide if it was ready for release. He’d been impressed by the place’s minimalism and tidiness, by the studio rarity of everything working. So Jurvanen began driving the 20 minutes from his cottage to Van Tassel’s spot via a winding ocean road, passing his days hanging out with his local friend and recording some songs. There was no real agenda but to work and play. And that’s how two people in a little shed made what may be the most effortlessly magnetic record in the entire Bahamas catalogue, My Second Last Album. Van Tassel and Jurvanen played every sound on My Second Last Album, from the buzzing acoustics of “Shadows” to the Mellotron ostinato of “Play the Game.” This self- dependence allowed them to do anything they wanted, to follow musical enthusiasms into any space they favored. Jurvanen wrote “The Bridge” via text with Hiss Golden Messenger’s M.C. Taylor, and he and Van Tassel turned it into an infectious country-funk tune, the strutting refrain closing the gap between Little Feat and Canned Heat. “Ready for a New Thing” echoes Joni Mitchell’s famous electric guitar tone, using it as the core of a buoyant little pop song about growing up, about being happy with growing older. “Feels So Good” is a modern soul wonder, its perfect groove framed by bass, piano, and finger-snap drums and built with a brilliant amount of negative space. Website | Facebook | Instagram
Field Medic
For ten years, singer-songwriter Kevin Patrick Sullivan has been releasing music as Field Medic that meshes the magical and the ordinary. His dreamy lo-fi bedroom folk discography is vast, with 5 full length albums, multiple EPs and singles, and has no plans on stopping. Newly sober, Sullivan plans on continuing to build his world through his poetic lyricism and imagery through his experiences that has amassed him a fanbase that can relate to the feelings his music evokes.Field Medic’s latest record, dope girl chronicles, is something of a spiritual sequel to his 2015 debut full length, but it also marks a sonic shift, deconstructing his as we know it in order to start an exciting new chapter. Highlights Featured on Green Day’s Tribute Album Supported tours for Beach Bunny, Backseat Lovers, Indigo DeSouza, The Neighbourhood Featured on New Music Friday and covers on all of the top Indie playlists Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Grace Lucia
Shelley Star & The Galaxy are making cosmic waves in Washington, DC, bringing out-of-this-world lyrics, vibrant pop-rock melodies, and theatrical flair to the Nation’s capital. The enigmatic Shelley Star powerfully belts and stomps the stage in platform space boots while high-octane musicians “The Galaxy” shred by her side. The band takes musical inspiration from icons such as Lady Gaga, ABBA, and The Killers, and their style comes from deep roots in the art of drag. Since their inception in 2022, the band has released two award-winning full-length albums “Shelley Star and The Galaxy” and “Crystal Beach”. They received two WAMMIE award nominations for their songs “Battery Baby” and “Lucky” in 2023, and in 2024 “Glass House” received high honors in the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competition (MASC). Their live shows are unforgettable, bringing out-of-this-world music, dance, and glamour to planet earth. Website | Instagram Lily Hain is a North Carolina raised, NYC based Indie artist. The singer/songwriter got her start posting covers and originals on Youtube and has since taken the industry by storm. She released her debut album, Fatal Flaws, in 2024 which garnered attention from BBC1 Future Alternative Radio, Clash, American Songwriter, The International Songwriting Contest, and landed one of her singles, “Internalize,” in Dove’s “Self Esteem Project” Campaign. Website | Instagram Grace Lucia is a genre-blending rock and roll artist based in Wake Forest, NC, known for high-energy and heartfelt performances that light up bars, restaurants, and stages across the Research Triangle. Her original music fuses elements of dreampop, goth, pop punk, and classic rock, balancing grit and vulnerability in songs about resilience, love, and loss. With a voice that cuts through and a stage presence that pulls you in, Grace and her backup band create an atmosphere where every show feels personal. She doesn’t just play for a crowd—she plays with them. Grace Lucia delivers whether you’re ready to dance, laugh, cry, or connect. Instagram Lena Traynham is a second-generation DC area musician whose eclectic original music and infectious stage presence make her a standout in the local music scene. This indie-pop-twang-rock concoction draws from a lifetime of influences creating something undeniably unique. Her long awaited debut project dropped last year with her first single, “Brick by Brick” — having just celebrated the release of her debut EP, “twenty somethin'” early this summer. Her latest voiage has ignited to the launch of her debut music video featuring her newest single “Break Down Easy” — a deceptively upbeat and undeniably raw love letter to anyone that’s experienced heartbreak. Website | Instagram
Sarah Kinsley
New York based Sarah Kinsley’s music evokes all the feelings. A schooled but intuitive musician/singer/producer, she explores doubts and dreams in her captivating and sometimesironic alt-pop songs. Distinctive and atmospheric she delves into the intimate and the expansive, the introspective and the cinematic. Narratively driven, there’s a dreamlike quality to her lyrics, whilst musically it runs the gamut from a hazy, alluring dream-pop to the more adventurous leftfield pop too. Escaper, Sarah’s debut album, was the 2024 follow-up to her introductory EPs ~ The near instantaneous virality of The King (2021), the cinematic Cypress (2022) and the widescreenAscension (2023). A vibrant collection of songs, Escaper was born from Sarah’s boundless desire to escape into portals and other realms. It was a musician rejoicing in holding nothing back and whose love of all things experimental and raw were reflected in her words and melodies. It was in the spring of 2025, while riding in cabs and walking the streets of New York by night, inspiration struck again. A moment of realisation hit her imagination like a bolt of electricity, afeeling so cathartic it became the foundation for her returning single, Fleeting: a euphoric, pulsating and richly melodic dance-pop track. If Escaper was the sound of an artist getting a feel for where she might fit in, Fleeting is exactly that. A feeling. A freedom. A rush. A dance floor? An introduction to her next world. Instagram | Spotify | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
