Jill Andrews

On Saturday mornings in a small bedroom in East Tennessee, ten-year-old Jill Andrews would slide Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation into her tape deck, jump up onto the bed, knot her t- shirt at the waist, and start jamming. She sang in front of the mirror, played all the invisible instruments, and wondered over and over about a future that would take her beyond the checkerboard lawns and fresh blacktop of the suburbs. She wasn’t left wondering for long. Just a few years later, Andrews was on tour, singing, writing, and playing with one the nation’s fastest rising Americana groups.From her years in the Everybodyfields, to her critically acclaimed solo career, to her latest collaboration, Hush Kids, which she co-founded with Nashville songwriter and producer, Peter Groenwald, Andrews has delivered irresistibly melodic, genre-bending music for nearly two decades. Anchored by frank songwriting but continuously and unapologetically evolving, Andrews’ tape deck currently hosts a range of influences from Joni Mitchell to Diana Ross to Wilco to contemporaries, Brandi Carlile and Phoebe Bridgers. The result is bold, infectious, introspective music that has served as the backdrop to some of America’s most beloved television series including Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, Nashville, and Wynnona Earp, to which she composed the theme.Modern Age, her latest release, is an unironic return to that small pink bedroom in East Tennessee, a meditation on childhood and changing times, growing up and looking back. In moments, the epitome of 90s pop perfection with airy synths and shimmering vocals and in others, pared down and heart wrenchingly intimate, Modern Age is dripping in reverence for a simpler time, when the world was as big as your high school, when love was waiting by the phone, when we wondered about the future instead of lived in it. With addictive hooks that evoke Susannah Hoffs and Kate Bush, Modern Age is at once a time capsule of and a love letter to the places we all began.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | YouTubeLittle HopesWebsite | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Cian Ducrot

Shamarr Allen

Shamarr Allen is the definition of New Orleans Music! Hailing from the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Allen has influences in jazz, hip hop, rock, funk, funk blues and country. He is the lead vocalist and trumpeter of his band “Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs” In addition to performing with his band, Allen has collaborated with many renowned artists such as Willie Nelson, Galactic, Mannie Fresh, Patti Labelle, Harry Connick Jr. and Lenny Kravitz to name a few. In addition to displaying his skills on the frontline as a lead performer, Allen is also a music composer, writer, producer and multi instrumentalist. With a scintillating and unique sound, look and exemplary talents, Allen transcends musical boundaries. He is the True Orleans Experience!Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud

Yam Haus and Sawyer

A lot of musical acts try to build on the success of their early music. But for indie pop-rock band Yam Haus, each time they release new music is a new step in their musical evolution — particularly this time around.It’s been a half-decade, a lot of touring, three EPs, more than a dozen singles, a lost band member, an appearance on American Song Contest and a global pandemic since the Minneapolis-based trio last put forth a project. In other words, the Yam Haus preparing to release new music in 2023 is nothing like the kids who took the Midwest by storm a handful of years ago.“I feel like so much has happened since the first songs and this doesn’t even feel like it’s our follow up,” says guitarist Zach Beinlich. “I feel like a new band. We have a totally different way that we’re approaching how we create music.”“I genuinely feel less concerned about whether or not the next album is going to be ‘successful’ at this point,” adds singer and guitarist Lars Pruitt. “All I’m really concerned about is doing right by us and making something that we feel motivated to play live and love every inch of it for years to come. I’m just trying to do things in a way that’s super honest to us and our tastes — and hopefully the fans come along with us.”As one of the newest additions to Big Loud Rock’s roster, Yam Haus’ search for authenticity has found the perfect home. Pruitt, Beinlich and drummer Jake Felstow know they could’ve gone down a more mainstream pop-friendly rabbit hole for their new releases if they’d listened to the industry suits and producers around them after their sold-out headlining shows before the pandemic. Instead, they spent their time taking their music in a new direction.The result is a catchy blend of indie rock that still serves up the unforgettable hooks Yam Haus became known for, while also bringing a new level of songwriting maturity and musical complexity to their tracks. The band is growing up alongside the Gen Z audience that dove into their old music, while also allowing their personality and humor to shine a bit more and earn an expanded audience with the new stuff.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube___________________________________________________ Sawyer is the Nashville based duo of Kel Taylor and Emma Harvey. Theband came into creation in 2015after merging each of their solo projects. Since blending their voices and their narratives they’ve foundfans across the country who’ve fallen in love not only with their music but their personalities. On TikTokthey’ve showcased their humor and wit garnering +40k followers on the platform. On the road they’vehad tour support slots with The Aces, Nightly, and joan among others. In September of 2021 they signedtheir first publishing deal with Sheltered Music and Nashville based producer Cameron Jaymes (Daya,Spencer Southerland, Nightly.) The duo will be releasing more music through the end of 2020 and 2021.

John C. Clark Jr. Celebration of Life

Quarantine Quartet (Daryl White, Jess Klein, Mike June and Stephen Beck)A short set by Greg Clayton (formerly of Antiseen)The Last of the Great Sideshow FreaksRadar’s Clowns of Sedation

Whitehall

Whitehall is an indie rock four-piece from Charleston, SC. They merge a dancey demeanor with an insatiable desire for more out of life, making for an incredibly energetic and heart opening live experience. When they aren’t shotgunning La Croix, Whitehall tours the east coast.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify

Skating Polly

Over the past decade, few artists have embodied the unbridled freedom of punk like Skating Polly. Formed when stepsisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse were just 9 and 13, the Oklahoma-bred band have channeled their chameleonic musicality into a sound they call “ugly-pop,” unruly and subversive and wildly melodic. With Kelli’s brother Kurtis Mayo joining on drums in 2017, they’ve also built a close-knit community of fans while earning the admiration of their musical forebears, a feat that’s found them collaborating with icons like X’s Exene Cervenka and Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson, touring with Babes In Toyland, and starring as the subject of a feature-length documentary. On their double album Chaos County Line, Skating Polly reach a whole new level of self-possession, ultimately sharing their most expansive and emotionally powerful work to date.The follow-up to 2018’s The Make It All Show, Chaos County Line finds Skating Polly working again with Brad Wood, the acclaimed producer behind indie-rock classics like Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. As their songs journey from art-punk to noise-rock to piano-driven power-pop, the band matches that musical complexity with a sharply honed narrative voice that manifests in countless forms (ultravivid poetry, diary-like confession, fearlessly detailed storytelling, etc.). Not only the outcome of their constant growth as songwriters, Chaos County Line’s scope and depth has much to do with Skating Polly’s newly heightened clarity of vision. “All these songs are the most special to me of anything I’ve ever written, and I think Kelli feels the same,” says Peyton. “In the past I didn’t always write with a clear purpose, but this time I knew exactly what I wanted to say. We both ended up writing about the most difficult emotional experiences we’ve ever been through, and instead of being terrified of saying exactly what I was feeling it just all came out so naturally.”Whether they’re opening up about matters internal (identity, disassociation, unhealthy coping mechanisms) or external (obsession, deception, gaslighting), Skating Polly imbue that outpouring with an unfettered emotional truth. On songs like Chaos County Line’s frenetic lead single “Hickey King,” Kelli and Peyton trade off vocals as they share their distinct perspectives on closely related experiences—in this case, the minefield of power dynamics in sex and relationships. “In Peyton’s verse she’s talking about never knowing how far to go or how much of yourself to give to someone, and when my part comes crashing in it’s about guys being possessive and always trying to leave their mark on you,” Kelli says. “To me it’s the most Skating Polly song on the record, because it’s all these different energies happening at once.” Meanwhile, on “I’m Sorry For Always Apologizing,” Skating Polly deliver a bouncy piece of bubblegum-punk in which Kelli calls herself out on certain messy behavior in her past. And on “Double Decker,” Peyton examines her own possibly self-sabotaging patterns, magnifying the song’s mood of confusion with a dizzying guitar solo and breakneck vocal performance.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok

Tortoise

Simply put, Tortoise has spent nearly 25 years making music that defies description. While the Chicago-based instrumental quintet has nodded to dub, rock, jazz, electronica and minimalism throughout its revered and influential six-album discography, the resulting sounds have always been distinctly, even stubbornly, their own.It’s a fact that remains true on “The Catastrophist,” Tortoise’s first studio album in nearly seven years. And it’s an album where moody, synth-swept jams like the opening title track cozy up next to hypnotic, bass-and-beat missives like “Shake Hands With Danger” and a downright strange cover of David Essex’s 1973 radio smash sung by U.S. Maple’s Todd Rittman. Throughout, the songs transcend expectations as often as they delight the eardrums.Tortoise, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker, has always thrived on sudden bursts of inspiration. And for “The Catastrophist,” the spark came in 2010 when the group was commissioned by the City of Chicago to compose a suite of music rooted in its ties to the area’s noted jazz and improvised music communities.Tortoise then performed those five loose themes at a handful of concerts, and “when we finally got around to talking about a new record, the obvious solution to begin with was to take those pieces and see what else we could do with them,” says McEntire, at whose Soma Studios the band recorded the new album. “It turned out that for them to work for Tortoise, they needed a bit more of a rethink in terms of structure. They’re all pretty different in the sense that at first they were just heads and solos. Now, they’re orchestrated and complex.”“All of the songs went through a pretty intensive process of restructuring,” adds Parker. “We actually had quite a lot of material that we ended up giving up on. Oftentimes, we’ll shelve ideas and come back to them years later.”The album’s single “Gesceap” embodies the transformation of the original suite commissions, as it morphs from two gently intersecting synth lines into a pounding, frenzied full-band finish. “To a certain extent it’s more of a reflection of how we actually sound when we play live,” says McEntire of Tortoise’s heavier side. “That hasn’t always been captured as well on past albums.”Elsewhere, “Hot Coffee” resurrects an idea abandoned from the band’s 2004 album “It’s All Around You,” gliding through only-on-a- Tortoise-album sections of funktastic bass lines, straight-up dance beats and Parker’s fusion-flecked guitar bursts. “It’s progressive experimental music with pop sensibilities,” says Parker.“Rock On,” which McEntire says he and McCombs simultaneously had the idea to cover after having remembered hearing it on the radio all the time as kids, isn’t the only vocal moment on “The Catastrophist.” Also included is the bittersweet, honest-to-goodness soul ballad “Yonder Blue,” sung by Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley. “We’d finished the track and decided it would be good to have vocals on it,” recalls McEntire. “Robert Wyatt was our first choice, but he had just retired and politely said no. We were discussing asking Georgia to do something, but not that track in particular. Then we realized it would totally work.”Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook

Cracker

Cracker has been described as a lot of things over the years: alt-rock, Americana, insurgent-country, and have even had the terms punk and classic-rock thrown at them. But more than anything Cracker are survivors. Co-founders David Lowery and Johnny Hickman have been at it for over a quarter of a century – amassing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, thousands of live performances, hit songs that are still in current radio rotation around the globe [“Low,” “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now),” “Euro-Trash Girl” and “Get Off This,” to name just a few], and a worldwide fan base – that despite the major sea-changes within the music industry – continues to grow each year.Website | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

L’Rain

Under the mononym L’Rain, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek records and performs music rooted in r&b, jazz, noise, and pop, using voice memos and manipulated samples as inspiration and source material.Cheek has toured in the US, Canada, and Europe with her band and her latest album, Fatigue, was released with critical acclaim. Rated the #1 album of 2021 according to The Wire and the #2 album of the year in Pitchfork, the record also earned praise from outlets including The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, and Artforum.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify

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