Acid Dad
Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018.During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars. With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society.“Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neo-psych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound.Acid Dad is Vaughn Hunt (guitars and vocals), Sean Fahey (guitars and vocals) and Trevor Mustoe (drums).Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Mikaela Davis
Mikaela Davis is a patient, meticulous songwriter. The Hudson Valley-based artist peels back the gauze of the world’s distractions to reveal the tiny details we might have missed, spotlighting the importance of nourishing friendships, perseverance in the face of adversity and the lessons the natural world can teach us. A prolific and distinctive harpist, Davis molds her classical music training to create an original and genre-bending catalog that weaves together 60s pop-soaked melodies, psychedelia and driving bluegrass rock. Davis has also shared the stage with the likes of Bob Weir, Christian McBride, Bon Iver, Lake Street Dive and Circles Around the Sun, showcasing her ability to stretch her creative talents across just about any canvas.Along with her band Southern Star, the group recently recorded at the Relix studio in New York City, releasing an exclusive Relix Studios vinyl. Featuring songs from her 2018 debut album Delivery, as well as latest single “Don’t Stop Now”, the release boasts the trajectory and intimacy of a band who have been playing together for the better part of a decade. Davis’ new album, set for release later this year and produced by Davis and the band, is the first time Southern Star will appear on a full-length studio album together. With these new songs set to confirm the Rochester-native’s inimitable skills and spirit, Davis is poised to propel to bigger stages and even brighter spotlights.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Nicotine Dolls
Nicotine Dolls is a NYC-based Pop/Rock band formed in 2017 with lead singer Sam Cieri, Guitarist John Hays, Bassist John Merritt, and Drummer Abel Tabares.The band has been steadily releasing singles and EPs since 2019. They have built a devoted and strong base through their successful Social Media engagement. The band’s most recent release “What Makes You Sad” was able to garner over 19k Pre-Saves and opened at #5 on the iTunes all Genre chart.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Happy Landing
Happy Landing is an American folk rock band formed in Oxford, Mississippi in 2020 by Matty Hendley (lead vocals, guitar), Keegan Christensen (vocals, keys), Jacob Christensen (drums), Andrew Gardner (fiddle, vocals), and WIlson Moyer (bass/guitar, vocals).The group pioneers a new wave of indie folk music, captivating audiences around the country with their energetic live shows and fresh sound, blended from the roots of southern rock, punk and folk.Following a successful year of touring with notable bands like The Head and The Heart and The 502’s, the band hits the road again in 2023 with the release of their third studio EP.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Wyatt Easterling and The Modern Day Drifters
Wyatt Easterling’s decades of success in the music industry includes a myriad of roles from performer to songwriter, and as an executive of both a major record label and publishing company. This wealth of experience and accompanying success in all these varying facets of the industry, give him a unique and valuable understanding of the music business.When Atlantic Records opened their Nashville office, Easterling signed on as Chief of A&R, and started his track record of success by signing artists such as Tracy Lawrence, Michael Johnson, Neal McCoy, and John Michael Montgomery.Easterling along with Doug Johnson, produced Montgomery’s multi-platinum debut album, Life’s A Dance.Wyatt then partnered with Miles Copeland (Sting, The Police, IRS Records) and formed the Nashville Division of Bugle Publishing Group and Firstars Management as Director of Operations. Easterling brought Keith Urban to Firstars Management and worked at length with Urban in the studio recording the project that landed Keith his first major deal at Warner Bros. Records.In addition to ushering notable artists into the mainstream, Easterling and Copeland created Bugle Publishing Group’s The Castle, the first of its kind songwriter’s retreat held yearly at Miles Copeland’s Chateau Marouatte in France. This event saw great success with a long list of esteemed artists and writers such as Keith Urban, Cher, Carole King, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Frampton, Olivia Newton-John, and Stuart Copeland, to name a few.Wyatt then signed alternative roots artist Paul Thorn into the company for management and publishing. Easterling produced Paul’s album, Hammer & Nail along with Greg Wells and Billy Maddox for A&M Records, Los Angeles.After Bugle Publishing, Easterling decided it was time to get back to songwriting and promptly signed with DreamWorks Publishing. Eventually Wyatt opened Terra Nova Music, his own publishing company in Nashville, which had eight writers on staff.Wyatt’s songwriting success includes “Modern Day Drifter” (Dierks Bentley), “Life’s So Funny” (Joe Diffie), “This Time I’m Taking My Time” (Neal McCoy).Wyatt has released his 5th album titled From Where I Stand on July 29th, 2022 and is currently touring to support this critically acclaimed release.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Medium Build
Nick Carpenter wants honesty, even when it’s uncomfortable. Under the moniker Medium Build, Carpenter finds levity in the rough edges and complications, crafting slice-of-life songs about growing up and messing up. “The worst thing a song can do is not make me feel,” Carpenter says. “I want a song to tell me too much.” After growing out of his church upbringing of mission trips and “sad Jesus songs,” Carpenter found himself in Anchorage, Alaska, where Medium Build began to take its full form. A songwriter first, Carpenter finds inspiration in storytellers like Billy Joel and Randy Newman, combining narrative lyrics with an R&B-tinged, guitar-driven production style: His first single of 2022, “comeonback,” finds Carpenter pleading for another chance with his full chest, cutting deep into a memory with brutal honesty. Medium Build is an amalgamation of genres and influences with Carpenter at its core, approaching life and music with humor, empathy and casual absurdity.Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Archers of Loaf
As sculpted shards of guitar—tumbling, tolling, squalling— shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener “Human,” it’s obvious that Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf’s first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina’s ’90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers’ hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. But this, the distilled shudder of “Human” (as in “It’s hard to be human / When only death can set you free”), is an entirely different noise. In fact, it’s a startling revelation.A few distinctions between 2022 Archers and the Clinton-era crew—whose “South Carolina” could be heard blaring out of Jordan Catalano’s car radio on ABC teen-angst epic My So- Called Life. First, guitarists Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band’s four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson’s signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. He still spits bile, but it’s less likely to concern scene politics, music trends, or shady record labels thwarting the dreams of a young rock band.Bachmann puts it bluntly: “What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome. It’s not aboutresponding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare. I didn’t care what it ended up sounding like.”Archers of Loaf’s first tour of duty ended after 1998’s White Trash Heroes. The album did not raise the band’s once touted commercial roof, and the members—Bachmann, Johnson, bassist Matt Gentling, and drummer Mark Price—were a bedraggled bunch of coulda-beens. Price was unable to play without extreme pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome. Bachmann itched to try a different musical approach. Everyone was tapped out in one way or another. Though the four remained good friends and convened for occasional reunion gigs (to support Merge’s 2011–12 album reissues, for instance), they never worked on new music. Gentling had joined Band of Horses; Johnson, now a criminal defense attorney in Asheville, North Carolina, contributed guitar to projects when he had the time. On his own, Bachmann thrived, releasing 11 albums of atmospheric, folky rock/pop under his own name or “group” moniker Crooked Fingers. In recent years, he’d toured as a sideman/foil for torch-country star Neko Case.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
The Royal Arctic Institute, Shark Quest, Paul Swest
Paul Swest – BandcampThe Royal Arctic Institute – Bandcamp | FacebookShark Quest – Bandcamp | Website
Joseph
For nearly a decade, Oregon-bred indie-pop trio Joseph have performed a certain emotional alchemy with their music, channeling their deepest inner tensions into songs that spark a life-changing shift in perspective. In the making of their third studio album, The Sun, Natalie Closner and her sisters, twins Meegan Closner and Allison Closner, focused their soul-searching songwriting on the quietly damaging forces that keep us from living fully in our truth (e.g., gaslighting, cultural conditioning, unconscious yet painfully limiting self-beliefs). Rooted in a newly emboldened sound that lets their breathtaking three-part harmonies shine more brightly than ever, the result is a body of work that radically expands our sense of possibility, ultimately illuminating a path toward greater peace and self-reliance even in the most chaotic of times. The follow-up to Good Luck, Kid—a 2019 release that reached #4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart—The Sun builds from its predecessor’s cinematic pop and imbues a thrilling new energy into each elegantly sculpted track. In bringing the album to life, Joseph worked with acclaimed producers like Tucker Martine (My Langdon (Meg Myers, Amos Lee, BANKS), Jessica Dobson (Deep Sea Diver), and Joey Burns (Calexico), alongside songwriting collaborators including, Tayla Parx and Wynne Bennett, known for their work with artists such as Janelle Monae, Twin Shadow, Haim, Khalid, Normani and Ariana Grande. Collectively shaping an irresistibly vibrant sound encompassing everything from the moody grandeur of the album-opening “Waves Crash” to the pure anthemic glory of tracks like “Kicking Up The Light.” With the band taking a decidedly more hands-on role in the production process, The Sun continually achieves the exquisite feat of spinning incredibly complex concepts into sing-along-ready pop songs, providing a captivating backdrop for Joseph’s fearlessly personal storytelling. The Sun endlessly reveals Joseph’s commitment to the clear-eyed self-reflection that’s guided the band since their earliest days. Raised in a musical household (their father was a jazz singer and drummer, their mother was a theater teacher), the three sisters officially formed Joseph in 2014 and got their start playing house shows, quickly landing a deal with ATO Records. After making their widely lauded debut with 2015’s I’m Alone, No You’re Not, which featured their hit song, “White Flag,” the band went on to attract the attention of artists such as Billie Eilish, and tour with the likes of James Bay, Amos Lee and most recently The Shins, in addition to taking the stage at major festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Glastonbury, and more. Over the course of The Sun’s 10 soul-stirring tracks, each member of Joseph adds new texture and detail to the album’s emotional arc by sharing her own distinct viewpoint on the journey toward self-realization. Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
The Bobby Lees
Iggy Pop, Blondie, Henry Rollins…just a few of the Punk icons who have shown support for Woodstock, NY based band THE BOBBY LEES.Their new album BELLEVUE was released on October 7th 2022 on Ipecac Recordings (The Melvins, Mr. Bungle, Faith No More) and was produced by multi-grammy winning producer and mixer Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton, Beyonce)Their last album SKIN SUIT was produced by underground punk-legend Jon Spencer of the Blues Explosion and was released via Alive Naturalsound Records in 2020. Henry Rollins said “The Bobby Lees Skin Suit album is wild and different. I dug it immediately. Dangerous music is good for you”.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
