Heavy Makeup
Heavy MakeUp:🎤 Edie Brickell🎹 Trever Hagen🎺 CJ Camerieri Facebook | YouTube | NPR Podcast
Olive Klug
Olive Klug refuses to be put in a box. Working out who you are in front of an ever-growing audience is no small task, but one that the Portland-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter is up for and thriving. Olive graduated with a liberal arts degree shortly before the 2020 pandemic derailed their plans of pursuing a career in social work. Though they’d recorded and self-released the 2019 EP “Fire Alarm” from a childhood friend’s bedroom, up until early 2021, Olive categorized their music as either a hobby or a pipe dream, depending on who was asking. However, after being laid off of a teaching job in late 2020, Olive starting working as a barista and decided to commit all of their extra energy to an ever-growing community of fans online. Olive can’t help but be unapologetically themselves, something their community of fans (dubbed the “Klug Bugs” on Instagram and Discord) appreciate most about them. Their debut LP ranges from a playful Americana romp about “watching all the rules disintegrate” to folk-punk anthem “Coming of Age,” which somehow manages to reference both pop singer Taylor Swift and existential philosopher Kierkegaard in one song, to “Parched”‘s haunting modern ballad about a doomed relationship, to an indie rock closer about learning to take up space as a person with a marginalized identity. Through this no-holds-barred documentation of the struggles of their early adulthood, Klug embraces all their inner contradictions with reckless abandon. Combining their knack for storytelling with a lilting soprano voice, Klug offers observations with an unflinching honesty. “I’ll stop seeking to find, start saying what’s on my mind,” sings Klug on Out Of Line, the lead single from their 2023 label-debut album, Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded. The album takes on the world with visceral and tactile images: it finds them falling in love with reckless abandon, haunted by the ghost of an old lover, waiting for fairies in the backyard of their childhood home. Olive’s work is optimistic, but not naive. Klug emerged into the scene in fraught times: for the folk landscape, for the country, for themself. By combining Golden Age folk references and contemporary narratives with ease, Olive Klug is a singular voice for the future of folk: honest, compelling, often unsure, but willing to try anyway. 2024 finds Olive in Nashville, attempting to stabilize after a 3-year whirlwind of viral niche internet-fame, nonstop touring, and music industry naïveté. Olive’s social work background grounds them in community, a word they keep coming back to when ego proves unfulfilling. After attending Folk Alliance International for the last two years, Olive is excited to solidify themselves as a fixture of the greater folk community and return to what inspires them the most about music; the catharsis and social change that is possible when people come together and share themselves through song. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
MJ Lenderman & The Wind: Manning Fireworks Tour
No one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third album released under his initials, MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-year-old guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, getting away for self-booked tours of his own songs or with the band he’d recently joined, Wednesday, whenever possible. But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21, Lenderman—then making more money through state unemployment than he had ever serving scoops—enjoyed the sudden luxury of free time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates, and best friends would drink and jam in their catawampus rental home, singing whatever came to mind over their collective racket. Some of those lines stuck around the next morning, slowly becoming 2021’s self-made Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and then 2022’s Boat Songs, recorded in a proper studio for a grand. With its barbed little jokes, canny sports references, and gloriously ragged guitar solos, Boat Songs became one of that year’s biggest breakthroughs, a ramshackle set of charms and chuckles. Much the same happened for Wednesday. Suddenly, people were paying a lot of attention to what Jake Lenderman might make next. The answer is Manning Fireworks, recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun during multiple four-day stints whenever Lenderman had a break from the road. Coproducing it with pal and frequent collaborator Alex Farrar, Lenderman plays nearly every instrument here. It is not only his fourth full-length and studio debut for ANTI- but also a remarkable development in his story as an incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness. He wrote and made it with full awareness of the gaze Boat Songs had generated, how people now expected something great. Rather than wither, however, Lenderman used that pressure to ask himself what kind of musician he wanted to be—the funny cynic in the corner forever ready with a riposte or barbed bon mot, or one who could sort through his sea of cultural jetsam and one-liners to say something real about himself and his world, to figure out how he fits into all this mess? He chose, of course, the latter. As a result, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP, his frank introspection and observation finding the intersection of wit and sadness and taking up residence there for 39 minutes. Yes, the punchlines are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made Lenderman a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitar hero. (Speaking of solos, did you hear him leading his totally righteous band, the Wind, on his lauded live cassette last year? Wow.) But there’s a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman lets listeners clearly see the world through his warped lens, perhaps for the first time. “Please don’t laugh,” he deadpans during “Joker Lips,” a magnetic song about feeling pushed out by everyone else. “Only half of what I said was a joke.” Maybe you hear a tremble in his voice? That’s the frown behind the mask, finally slipping from Lenderman’s face. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
MJ Lenderman & The Wind: Manning Fireworks Tour
No one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third album released under his initials, MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-year-old guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, getting away for self-booked tours of his own songs or with the band he’d recently joined, Wednesday, whenever possible. But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21, Lenderman—then making more money through state unemployment than he had ever serving scoops—enjoyed the sudden luxury of free time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates, and best friends would drink and jam in their catawampus rental home, singing whatever came to mind over their collective racket. Some of those lines stuck around the next morning, slowly becoming 2021’s self-made Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and then 2022’s Boat Songs, recorded in a proper studio for a grand. With its barbed little jokes, canny sports references, and gloriously ragged guitar solos, Boat Songs became one of that year’s biggest breakthroughs, a ramshackle set of charms and chuckles. Much the same happened for Wednesday. Suddenly, people were paying a lot of attention to what Jake Lenderman might make next. The answer is Manning Fireworks, recorded at Asheville’s Drop of Sun during multiple four-day stints whenever Lenderman had a break from the road. Coproducing it with pal and frequent collaborator Alex Farrar, Lenderman plays nearly every instrument here. It is not only his fourth full-length and studio debut for ANTI- but also a remarkable development in his story as an incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness. He wrote and made it with full awareness of the gaze Boat Songs had generated, how people now expected something great. Rather than wither, however, Lenderman used that pressure to ask himself what kind of musician he wanted to be—the funny cynic in the corner forever ready with a riposte or barbed bon mot, or one who could sort through his sea of cultural jetsam and one-liners to say something real about himself and his world, to figure out how he fits into all this mess? He chose, of course, the latter. As a result, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP, his frank introspection and observation finding the intersection of wit and sadness and taking up residence there for 39 minutes. Yes, the punchlines are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made Lenderman a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitar hero. (Speaking of solos, did you hear him leading his totally righteous band, the Wind, on his lauded live cassette last year? Wow.) But there’s a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman lets listeners clearly see the world through his warped lens, perhaps for the first time. “Please don’t laugh,” he deadpans during “Joker Lips,” a magnetic song about feeling pushed out by everyone else. “Only half of what I said was a joke.” Maybe you hear a tremble in his voice? That’s the frown behind the mask, finally slipping from Lenderman’s face. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Slippery Hill – Debut Album Release Show
Them Coulee Boys
Them Coulee Boys: With four full-length albums and an EP behind them, including 2019’s Die Happy (produced by Trampled By Turtles’ Dave Simonett on Lo-Hi Records) and 2021’s Namesake (produced by Grammy winner Brian Joseph), the band has garnered international attention and earned press in American Songwriter, Ditty TV, Folk Alley, and The Bluegrass Situation, as well as tours with Trampled By Turtles and a spot on the songwriter’s Cayamo Cruise. In 2020, they were named Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Band to Watch. In 2021, they won Bluegrass/Americana Band of the Year by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Anthony Raneri – The Everyday Royalty Tour
With Nate Bergman. The latest solo project from singer/songwriter Anthony Raneri, Everyday Royalty is proof of the pure unbridled magic that happens when total freedom meets intention and experience. In a departure from the blistering sound he’s delivered for nearly 25 years as frontman for iconic punk band Bayside, the seven-song EP shapeshifts from anthemic alt-rock to soul-searching indie-folk to full-tilt country as Raneri simultaneously deepens his songcraft and follows his most unfettered impulses. “Most of this record came from getting into a room with friends and working on songs for fun, then walking out with a lot of cool material without really even planning on it,” says the Nashville-based, New York City-born musician. “It reminded me of when I first started out and everything was 100 percent DIY—I was just doing what felt exciting, with absolutely no rules.” His third EP and first solo effort since 2015’s Sorry State of Mind, Everyday Royalty finds Raneri joining forces with co-writers/producers like Sam Tinnesz (Dashboard Confessional, Royal & the Serpent) and Joey Hyde (Jake Owen, Ryan Hurd), ultimately bringing a new element of nuanced self-reflection to the unflinching honesty that’s always defined his songwriting. On the EP’s gritty yet hypnotic lead single “Bones,” that dynamic takes the form of an up-close portrait of emotional desolation, achieving a larger-than-life power at its hard-hitting chorus. But while “Bones” bears a moody intensity, much of Everyday Royalty radiates a strangely hopeful spirit—a quality fully echoed in the EP’s title. “The idea behind Everyday Royalty is that greatness can exist anywhere and in anyone,” Raneri explains. “With Bayside, I tend to make heavy music that’s meant for everyone to scream along and hopefully find some catharsis, but with this record the goal was to make people feel good right off the bat. It’s something I’ve never done before in my career, and it showed me that you can write happy songs and still create something with real meaning.” Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
SASAMI
SASAMI is back with “Honeycrash,” a stadium-sized ballad that swells with cinematic grandeur brought to life via its video directed by Andrew Thomas Huang (Björk, FKA Twigs). “I wanted to write a song with all the drama of a 19th century classical opera but with the patience and understanding of someone in therapy in 2024,” SASAMI explains. “Finding a love so great you’re willing to persist through the elements, even toward certain death to bear its ravishment. It’s about wanting to fight for the pinnacle of passion and desire but knowing that you can’t change or rush someone else’s feelings or where they’re at. But with a guitar as my sword and my steed. I have been so fortunate to find a collaborator in Andrew, and together we made a sexy little drama of our own. The ‘Honeycrash’ video is a peek into the new world that I have been building and teasing out on stage. I am really thrilled to unleash this first of many new songs in an era of melodrama, romance, and hooks of course.” “Honeycrash” is a panorama of longing: SASAMI’s widest-screen rendering of the processes of love in all its devastation and expansiveness. This is SASAMI as an auteur of heartache, mixing the epic sweep of a Wagner opera with sci-fi action to say, “This is how I feel, I’m going to let you figure it out. But don’t give up on us.” Andrew Thomas Huang on “Honeycrash”:“When I first heard ‘Honeycrash’ I was moved by the thunderous romanticism and cinematic scope of SASAMI’s new sonic direction. After long conversations about the pop focus of her new album, I wanted to create a video for her that felt big, sweeping and sexy while showcasing her performance as the highlight of the piece. I wanted to create a video that evoked themes and images such as runaway fugitives, rogue sisterhood, distressed denim, rugged natural elements, primal rage, Thelma and Louise, tsunamis, tornadoes, blazing sunsets, sci-fi apocalyptic visions of the American West, and passionate ‘i would die for you’ level romance. Achieving this vision on a budget was ambitious but made possible by filming on a volume LED stage and relying on the use of epic stock footage to set the scene for the backdrop of Sasami’s new universe. I am honored to collaborate with SASAMI again on this new journey and am smitten by the world she is heralding with her new sound and vision.” Praise For 2022’s Squeeze:“Feels both darkly menacing and openly heartfelt. SASAMI assumes the roles of tormentor and tormented, contending with a world that can be emotionally overwhelming in so many ways.” -The New York Times “A collection of tracks that sound like she’s digging her nails into the walls of a black hole in an attempt to escape, her mood alternating between feverish determination and clear-eyed hope.” -Pitchfork “For a song just over two-and-a-half minutes, ‘Skin a Rat’ lands a whole bunch of different blows, each harder and more unexpected than the last. And, like all good rock & roll bruisings, the moment it’s over, you’re ready to spin it back for more.” -Rolling Stone Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Sun June
The first two minutes of Sun June’s third album, Bad Dream Jaguar, is a reverie – Laura Colwell’s voice floats above a slow-burn, sparse synth, conjuring a tipsy loneliness, a hazy recollection, a disco ball spinning at the end of the night for an empty dance floor. Sun June’s music often feels like a shared memory – the details so close to the edge of a song that you can touch them. And as an Austin-based project, their music has also always felt strangely and specifically Texan – unhurried, long drives across an impossible expanse of openness, refractions shimmering off the pavement in the heat. But on Bad Dream Jaguar, Sun June is unmoored. The backdrop of Texas is replaced by longing, by distance, by transience, and a quiet fear. The only sense of certainty comes from the murky past. It’s a dispatch from aging, when you’re in the strange in-between of yourself: there’s a clear image of the person you once were and the places you inhabited, generational curses and our families, but the future feels vast, unclear – and the present can’t help but slip through your fingers. There’s a constant push-and-pull in Sun June’s songwriting. Vocalist and band leader Colwell and guitarist Stephen Salisbury have shared songwriting duties since the band’s inception, but Bad Dream Jaguar is the first time they collaborated from afar. Salisbury left Texas for North Carolina in 2020, shifting the way the band recorded, and beginning a long-distance relationship between him and Colwell. It gave more room to Sun June’s other members – lead guitarist Michael Bain (whose lithe guitar parts Colwell credits as imparting that “dust ol’ Texas sound”), bassist Justin Harris, and drummer Sarah Schultz – to explore other projects. And for Colwell, it made it easier to explore songwriting as an individual, living and writing songs alone. It also meant there was a newfound privacy to these songs, as Colwell and Salisbury wrote songs for and about one another some 1300 miles apart. The distance strained their relationship, and they poured those struggles into songs. When Salisbury sent the first iteration of “Washington Square” to Colwell, it felt like a gut punch – a, “Damn, he’s really going through it” moment. It felt heavier to be collaborating and songwriting in this way, not inhabiting the same room but instead the same lonely sadness. But it also allowed for a new type of intimacy. And it was a comfort in some ways, to be allowed into someone else’s psyche and pain. To be truly seen, even from afar. Colwell left Texas in 2022 for North Carolina. The record was recorded in spurts, the first Sun June LP that wasn’t just born out of five musicians in a room. It took five or six sessions across a number of studios, with the bulk of it coming together at producer Duszynski’s Dandy Sounds. They also invited in more collaborators to flesh out their cinematic, spacious sound. Here, the existing line-up of Colwell, Salisbury, Bain, Harris, and Schultz, alongside guitars/vocals from new touring member Santiago Dietche, is built out with woodwinds from Alexis Marsh, Justin Morris’ pedal steel, and Duszynski’s guitars and synths. It required trust in new collaborators, and in each other, in a new process. Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | Soundcloud
The Mayflies USA
The Mayflies USA arrived on the post-indie-boom mid-90’s Chapel Hill scene as an anomaly, playing tuneful, ragged rock once memorably described in Spin Magazine as “r-o-c-k like they don’t make anymore… dreaming of the Replacements and Pure Prairie League and proud of it.” Their debut album “Summertown” was released in 1999 to widespread acclaim as an instant modern power-pop classic, and they released two other well-regarded albums: 2000’s The Pity List and 2002’s Walking in a Straight Line. Now, in 2024, the Mayflies USA return with a fourth album, Kickless Kids. Fans of melodic rock will rejoice in these eleven new tracks that find, after twenty-five years, the band sounding as classic, timeless, and vital as ever. Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
