Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Over the course of five years and five LP’s, L.A. veterans, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, have been mutating and perfecting their high-powered rock n’ roll sound. After savagely touring the USA and Europe, this four-headed beast has shown no signs of relenting—appearing like summoned daemons and dosing crowds with cerebral party fuel.The main attraction of Frankie and the Witch Fingers is their explosive performance. With their rowdy and visceral approach to live shows, each member brings their own devilry to induce an experience of bacchanal proportions.Using absurd lyrical imagery—soaked in hallucination, paranoia, and lust—the band’s M.O. strikes into dark yet playful territory. This sense of radical duality is astir at every turn, in every time signature change. Airy vocal harmonies over heavily-serrated riffs. Low-key shamanic roots under vivid high-strangeness. Rambling stretches and punctuated licks. Cutting heads and kissing lips. All this revealing a stereophonic schizophrenia that has flowed throughout their body of work: an ebb & flow of flowery-poppy horror.The band’s latest incarnation is primed to break new sonic ground, edging into the funky and preternatural. Just when you think the trip couldn’t get any weirder, Frankie and the Witch Fingers cranks up the dial, shatters the mundane, and summons new visions. Links: Website | Instagram | FacebookKairos Creature Club is a collection of songwriters and collaborators brought together by Lena Simon (La Luz) and Glenn Michael Van Dyke (Boytoy). Their debut EP Join the Club, out now on Greenway Records, is an array of seven songs recorded during the pandemic at Simon and Van Dyke’s home studio in Jacksonville, Florida. While not wholly a concept album, their debut project’s tongue-in-cheek branding as an exclusive organization that requires membership, is a nod to a few of the record’s binding thematic threads – the confluence of religion, multi-level marketing and multi-level-marketing as a feature of late-stage capitalism. But the irony of music as a commodity is not lost on the group. Their self-aware approach to self promotion amidst a beautiful and tragic world is still unfolding, as is their identity. Join the Club features songs and parts by Lucas Harwood (King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard), Sarah Palin (Kush K), James Rubia (Animal Clinic), and Matthew Shaw (The Mother Gooses).Links: Website
Psychic Hotline Block Party
PSYCHIC HOTLINE BLOCK PARTYat Cat’s Cradle, Cat’s Cradle Back Room, and The ArtsCenter.featuringThe A’sArooj AftabBartees StrangeGRRL x Made of OakHand HabitsIndigo De Souza (DJ Set)Joe RaineyJoe WesterlundLambchop (duo) – Kurt Wagner & Andrew Broder with special guestLoamlandsMaiani / Sanborn / WesterlundQueticoTruth ClubWell$plus Psychic Hotline Pop-Up Shop & Record Fair
Tenille Townes
Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Tenille Townes released her new project Masquerades April 22 via Columbia Nashville/Sony Music Nashville in partnership with RCA Records. A meditation on duality, self-reflection, and embracing flaws, Masqueradesfollows her acclaimed debut album The Lemonade Stand, which was named Country Album of the Year at the 50th JUNO Awards and Album of the Year at the 2021 Canadian CMA Awards, where Townes also earned her third consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year trophy. The two-time ACM Award-winner is also the first female artist in Mediabase Canada history to achieve two No. 1 singles (Music Canada Gold-certified “Jersey On The Wall (I’m Just Asking),” Music Canada Platinum-certified and RIAA Gold-certified “Somebody’s Daughter”). Following standout support runs with Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne, George Strait and Reba, Townes recently wrapped her first headlining U.S. trek, the VILLAIN IN ME TOUR, and will head out this summer opening for the likes of Jake Owen and Brad Paisley, before heading traveling to Europe, Australia and Canada this fall. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Townes has been featured by NPR, Variety, Refinery29, Billboard, Rolling Stone, NBC’s “TODAY,” BBC and more. Additionally, she has raised over $2.5 million for Big Hearts For Big Kids, a non-profit she started when she was 12 years old to benefit a youth shelter in her hometown, which has grown to support organizations such as Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, S.A.F.E. Animal Haven, and the Manan House.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, Jeff Cosgrove Trio
The collective ensemble of Jeff Cosgrove/drums, Ivo Perelman/saxophone, and Matthew Shipp/piano showcase improvisation and spontaneous composition of the highest magnitude. These musicians delight in exploring the unknown and pushing the boundaries to where their music can extend. The group’s collective thought, Live In Baltimore (Leo Records), captures their spirit for creating a complete story from their unique, conversational, and personal perspective.Links: Jeff Cosgrove Website | Ivo Perelman Website | YouTube | SpotifyTragic Assembly is a North Carolina free jazz trio consisting of veteran players Crowmeat Bob (reeds), Charles Chace (drums), and Phil Venable (upright bass). Initially meeting in Charles’ group The Paul Swest, the three musicians convened in January 2022 to record their first release, Instability. Their follow up, Blood Drains And Memories was released on August 5, 2022.
Shoaldiggers
The Shoaldiggers’ eight pieces produce a one of a kind sound that is completely unique, yet familiar enough to embrace. From rolling seascapes to the hollers of the smokey mountains, Shoaldiggers shows are a swamp grass blast!Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify
The Stews
Blending genres such as hard rock, alternative, indie and more- The Stews are a rock band that isn’t confined to just one sound. Spawned out of impromptu basement jam sessions in the fall on 2020, the band started as a group of friends who also happened to be musicians. This chemistry is what fuels their electric (often sweaty) live shows and allows them to write the music that they love to play. The Stews consist of Preston Hall, Blake Dobbs, Bennett Baugus, and Wyatt Griffith. In March of 2021, The band chose 5 songs of the works compiled over the past year of playing and traveled to Muscle Shoals, AL to record their debut EP at Fame Studios. The Stews EP was released on April 15th, 2021.Links: Website | InstagramNote: Early Bird tickets are now Sold Out
Tigers Jaw
I Won’t Care How You Remember Me, by the Scranton, Pennsylvania-based band Tigers Jaw, is an ode to living in the present. As this hectic era of distraction whirrs, ticks, swipes, and scrolls by each of us at an alarming speed, the ability to maintain a sense of priority for the human elements in our lives as well as a reflective understanding of self, remains a lost art. But here, the group has seized upon it. Tigers Jaw’s sixth album—and first for new label home Hopeless Records—finds members Ben Walsh (vocals/guitar), Brianna Collins (vocals/keyboards), Teddy Roberts (drums), and Colin Gorman (bass) at the height of their powers, fusing their collective skills with the synchronicity and energy the band honed over several years of non-stop touring. The result is a back-to-the-basement approach elevated by the unmistakable production of their longtime friend and collaborator Will Yip. The band’s most sonically ambitious and lyrically affecting album to date, I Won’t Care How You Remember Me sees a newfound freshness and creative freedom crystalizing the lush and dynamic world of Tigers Jaw.Opening with the urgent strums of Walsh’s striking title track—featuring Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull on backing vocals—“I Won’t Care How You Remember Me” is a super-charged and emotional ripper about the importance of being direct and truthful with the people in one’s life. While at first the song seemed to be an unapologetically defiant statement, it ended up carrying a greater significance for the band, who rallied around it as a sentiment of a shared personal renaissance that sets the tone for the album, as well as the band as a whole. “This album is a hopeful time capsule of a band who has been through a lot together. It’s about growth, self-reflection, and figuring out how to be present in the moment to really take stock of what’s important, without getting sidetracked by the opinions of others or things out of our control,” Walsh says. “Tigers Jaw can get through anything and be stronger because of it. We’ve endured lots of change over the last 15 years, but a lot of things have remained consistent. We make the music we want to make, we push each other to continue evolving and growing as musicians, and we are so proud of where we are now.”One of the biggest steps of the band’s evolution has been in songwriting; while their 2017 album spin found Walsh and Collins splitting the writing duties, I Won’t Care marks the first time all four members shared input. “I’m newer to songwriting, but the encouragement and collaboration that happened between us as a band while writing this record built up my confidence and excitement in being a songwriter,” Collins says. “Collaborating together not only pushed me as a songwriter, but it also reinforced how good it feels to be in this band.”Gathering together on the heels of a long, intense stretch of touring in early 2019 to work on new material, the foursome found that their dynamic as musicians and friends was firing on all cylinders. The band was tighter than ever before, and considered the writing process a chance to get back to the band’s roots with all members in a room together working collaboratively toward a common goal. “We were tearing apart demos and making these songs the best representation of this group of four people that we could,” Walsh recalls.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
The Pink Stones + Teddy and the Rough Riders
Teddy and the Rough Riders are a country rock band based in Nashville, Tennessee, with a keen sense for making songs that are as twangy and electrified as they are expansive and sensitive. Their music is both down-home and far-out; delightfully lysergic and subtly nostalgic, propped up by fine-tuned instrumentation and ingenuity. They’ve got the synergistic groove of The Band, the psychedelic tendencies of New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the rich lyrical imagery and hazy sonic textures of The Flying Burrito Brothers. Their debut studio album Teddy and the Rough Riders, produced by Margo Price and featuring the pedal steel talents of Luke Schneider, is due out Friday, July 1 via Appalachia Record Co. It’s a highly creative country rock record that transitions between barroom anthems and imaginative ballads with ease. Teddy and the Rough Riders are currently on the 2022 Bronco Tour with Orville Peck through May 27, including a homecoming stop on May 13 at The Ryman.“One of the best country acts making music today. Teddy and The Rough Riders combine a beautiful sincerity with their incredible neo-classic country sound,” Orville Peck attests.The group, which consists of Jack Quiggins (vocals, guitar), Ryan Jennings (vocals, bass) and Nick Swafford (drums), has long bridged the gap between Nashville’s rock and honky-tonk scenes. Their sound is the direct product of being born ‘n’ bred in Nashville, steeped in its country music history and mysticism, while coming up in its DIY rock community. Jennings and Quiggins, who pen the group’s tunes, grew up just blocks from Music Row, in Nashville’s West End (where the original outlaw movement came together during the ‘70s), where both the shiny and gritty influences of country music intersected. In the earliest iteration of the band, these influences and experiences distilled into songs over many nights in college of the two writing and playing covers together over whiskey.“Ryan and I had this deal, where whenever we ran out of whiskey, it was the other person’s turn to buy more. We were switch-hitting bottles of George Dickel for months,” says Quiggins of their early days.Swafford started playing percussion for them around this time and, in 2015, they all returned to Nashville where pedal steel player Luke Schneider joined the band. Schneider (who has played in Margo Price and William Tyler’s bands and released a solo ambient pedal steel album through Third Man Records) became an integral part of the group’s foundational musical configurations and overall sound. Since then, they’ve released a home-recorded EP and LP, and several singles including a 7” record from Third Man Records. They’ve shared bills with artists such as Margo Price, The Raconteurs, Jeff the Brotherhood and Soccer Mommy, and have played as the backing band in most of Emily Nenni’s recordings and live shows. Musical collaborators include Skyway Man, Erin Rae, Sean Thompson and David Leonard, among others.Bandcamp | Instagram | FacebookThe Pink Stones deliver a full serving of Peach State picked country-rock from Athens, Georgia with the release of their debut album, Introducing… The Pink Stones, via the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records. Mixing elements of classic cosmic country, raucous rock’n’roll and fresh humor and heartaches, The Pink Stones are authoring a new chapter in the annals of Cosmic American Music.Website | Twitter | Facebook
Sarah Borges
One way or another, Sarah Borges connects with casual mastery. Whether it’s with the comrades she’s collaborated with over nearly 20 sparkling years of music-making, or the vivid portraits of people’s lives – and occasionally her own – she’s sketched in scores of emotionally resonant songs. But most of all, Borges has built a loyal following by connecting, through her own charismatic, down-to-earth spirit, with her audience – whether they’re longtime fans from back when she broke through with her terrific “Silver City” debut in 2004, or newcomers just now joining the party with her brand new 2022 album, “Together Alone”, her eighth. “Sarah’s a fearless writer and performer,” says producer Eric ‘Roscoe’ Ambel, “and she’s a very good musician.” As anyone familiar with Sarah’s songs and performances knows, genuinely soulful music that connects with us — and connects us to each other — can simultaneously steal, and heal, hearts. This connection is what has kept Sarah touring and making music for many years, and what keeps us coming back to see her do it.Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Violet Bell Album Release Party
Hailing from the forests of North Carolina’s Eno River, Violet Bell brings forth the lush and sinuous sounds of Americana-Folk music. Lizzy Ross and Omar Ruiz-Lopez draw on a thread of untamable energy and natural magic passed down through generations of storytelling. As a duo with wildly different backgrounds, Violet Bell has a unique perspective on the roots music traditions that inform their sound. They’re tending to traditions and creating a new way forward for like-minded musical innovators, with their shared humanity at the forefront. With their forthcoming album, Shapeshifter, Violet Bell encapsulates the sound and mystery of Appalachia while unveiling how ancient folklore can connect to modern day life.As a kid, Ross bounced from the Chesapeake Bay to New York City after her parents divorced. The city was magic for her young brain and her divergent families brought a wide array of musical influences – Neil Young, Patty Griffin, 90’s pop-rock – into her life (the latter of which resulted in a very short stint in a Green Day cover band – “yes, really” she says). Fifteen hundred miles away, Panama-born Ruiz-Lopez was growing up in Fajardo, Puerto Rico and soaking up the sounds of Caribbean folk, bachata, traditional salsa music, and the occasional American classic-rock. Nearly an ocean apart, both fell in love with playing music and all it afforded them – creativity, independence, an outlet for excessive energy. In their twenties, they both found themselves in North Carolina where their musical sensibilities were honed, appreciated, and expanded. Their introduction felt serendipitous; the two started playing music together and noticed almost instantly that the connection was real and important. Violet Bell emerged.After a few years of touring, recording, and building a home together, the sound of Violet Bell has mellowed and settled into a rhythm that feels unapologetically their own. Shapeshifter initially began as a re-telling of an ancient Celtic myth. In the story, a fisherman steals the seal skin of a selkie, a mythical creature who is part seal, part woman. Imprisoned on land, the selkie lives with the man for years, even having a child with him, all the while slowly fading away and endlessly trying to find her way back home. While not every song is a direct reference, the selkie myth became a focal point for the duo’s creative process. They found modern questions in the ancient archetype – how do we stay true to ourselves in a world defined by dominating and conformist systems? What does it mean to have – or not have – bodily autonomy? How do we close the gulf between who we are and who we pretend to be? Just as the selkie tries to conform and adjust to life on land, are we all just trying to fit our dreams, aspirations, shadows and wounds into tidy boxes so that we can survive? What would it take to recover our wild souls and a sense of being at home in ourselves?Throughout the entire album, Violet Bell gently reveals their supreme talent of storytelling and prominent gift of transporting their listeners to places deep within each song, divulging intimate moments through the album that feels distinctive to each listener. Letting go of control and allowing the music to lead is what makes the music come to life, as Ross and Ruiz-Lopez breathe life into each song, one note, one tone and one word at a time.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
