The Old Ceremony
The Old Ceremony plays lush, literate rock. With fourteen years of touring the US, Canada, and Europe and six albums under their belt, the Durham/Chapel Hill, NC band occupies its own darkly lit corner of the musical world. It is a corner filled with ominous rumblings and world-weary but hopeful characters. They have played with lots of well-known bands. Rock critics have written about them in their publications. TOC’s newest album, Sprinter, was released in July 2016 on Yep Roc Records. TOC is led by songwriter Django Haskins, and includes drummer Daniel Hall, vibes/organist Mark Simonsen, bassist Shane Hartman, and violinist Gabriel Pelli. Website | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
Panchiko
On July 21st, 2016, a user on 4chan’s /mu/ board posted a photo of a demo CD they’d discovered in an Oxfam charity store in Nottingham, UK: titled D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, purportedly released in 2000. The listener uploaded the ripped audio to file-sharing sites, and later YouTube, where it began circulating around web forums. A cult of fans banded together to solve the origin story of the mysterious disc, until eventually a long defunct local band from Nottingham who called themselves Panchiko discovered their 1998 album (limited to 30 copies) had spread virally across the internet 18 years later.By popular demand Panchiko reunited touring the music of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L to sold out audiences across the US and UK in 2022 and will self-release a new LP titled Failed at Math(s) on May 5 2023 followed by an expanded US tour.Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Plastic Picnic
Plastic Picnic is a Brooklyn band made up of PNW transplants who found one other after moving to New York. Their indie dream-rock combines shimmering synths, atmospheric guitar, and bittersweet lyrics that deal with loss, isolation, and anxiety.Recorded in a cabin in upstate NY, their debut album, As Long As You Need, explores the space between joy and sorrow, searching for hope amidst dark times. The album reached #10 Most Added on NACC radio and #25 for Sub-Modern Albums.Plastic Picnic’s orchestral blend of indie-rock has garnered them song placements on TV shows such as Homeland and Shameless, as well as festival appearances. Following a set at Governor’s Ball and a west coast tour, they’re set to tour further in 2023.”Plastic Picnic has a real knack for making synthesizers sound epic” – NPR“Catchy, danceable beats paired with melancholy lyricism and shimmery melodies” – BillboardWebsite | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
JULIA., The Hourglass Kids
JULIA. WebsiteThe Hourglass Kids Website
Chessa Rich Deeper Sleeper Album Release Show
“I’ve been a vivid and frequent dreamer my whole life,” says Chessa Rich. “I feel that my dreams are a) the portal to my truest well of creativity and image-making and b) sometimes the most fun part of my day.”However, sleeping and dreaming do not always peacefully coexist. Or at least not for the North Carolina-based Chessa Rich, who wrote the shadowy and aquatic Deeper Sleeper about the years she spent living with an undiagnosed sleep disorder that dramatically influenced her relationship to sleep, productivity, dreaming and creativity.“Each song on this record reflects a different aspect of my relationship with sleeping and dreaming,” said Rich. “Some were born in frustration and anger at a body that won’t do what I want it to do, others sound more like giving up, and one is a literal retelling of a dream I had.”Recorded at Milan Hill in March 2021, Deeper Sleeper is the narrative of finally waking up. It showcases her informed rule-breaking songwriting steeped in a past not only of musical collaboration and performance, but of a gentle persistence to discover oneself amidst a vibrant landscape of others. The nine tracks divulge—in Rich’s distinctly seasoned sound—the heartfelt importance of having mindfulness of those closest to you. Across the LP’s sonic landscapes, Rich finds herself in various states of consciousness. Sleeping but unable to wake up, awake but wanting to be asleep, dreaming but not aware of the pieces that form the whole.“All my dreams leave me with a specific, unique feeling, but they rarely have linear narratives that I can follow to lead me to a nice tied-up moral or lesson,” said Rich. “I have to sit with them and let them accompany me throughout my day, letting my brain’s images be what they are. Pieces of the songs on Deeper Sleeper have been floating around with me like dreams for a while, and like dreams, I had to patiently sit with them to let them become what they needed to be.”The opening track “Paper Heart” instantly drops us into both her infectious sonic textures and empathetic lyrics. “I want to put myself in your space / Be there so I know you well,” she sings, her voice clear-cutting straight to the heart. In “Julia,” Rich apologizes to an imagined mentor for needing to strip herself down to a blank slate, devoid of expectation. “The things I need are very simple now,” Rich sings, her presence with herself quietly magnified. The waking becomes further amplified in “Wanderer,” and is paired with the truth that exploration is the continued prize of life. “I learned how to just skate by,” Rich sings. “And that if you die in your dreams you don’t die in real life / I’ve died so many times / Maybe I was wiser then, but I’m still a wanderer.”An affinity with Fiona Apple and Big Thief emerges on “Wanderer,” before arriving at the burgeoning textures of “River,” which ruminates in the sonic palate of Wye Oak and Loma. The indie rock semblances hold weight, as even the title Deeper Sleeper follows from a lineage of cardinal records that lent substance to Rich’s arrival at her own percolated mélange of buoyant indie pop: Talkie Walkie (Air), Wowee Zowee (Pavement) and Nilsson Schmilsson (Harry Nilsson). “I’ve been recalling more things / My lifetime is in the palm of my hand / Like a stone shaped by persistent waves of a changing shoreline,” she sings on the record’s last track, “Mary,” as if a testament to Rich’s own trajectory as a musician taking her own weather-worn shape.Bandcamp
The Church – VIP Meet & Greet
The Church VIP Tour Package Access to soundcheck performance Exclusive Meet & Greet with The Church Merchandise shopping before doors open to the general public VIP Merch Package inc: Tote Bag Signed Copy of New Album ‘Hypnogogue’ on CD Commemorative tour laminate and more…. Very Limited availability General Admission Ticket to Concert NOT Included – You must purchase a ticket here. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Indigo De Souza
“Everything has to be said.” This is the conviction guiding Indigo De Souza’s sophomore album, Any Shape You Take. This dynamic record successfully creates a container for the full spectrum — pushing through and against every emotion: “I wanted this album to give a feeling of shifting with and embracing change. These songs came from a turbulent time when I was coming to self-love through many existential crises and shifts in perspective.”Faithful to its name, Any Shape You Take changes form to match the tenor of each story it tells. “The album title is a nod to the many shapes I take musically. I don’t feel that I fully embody any particular genre — all of the music just comes from the universe that is my ever-shifting brain/heart/world,” says Indigo. This sonic range is unified by Indigo’s strikingly confessional and effortless approach to songwriting, a signature first introduced in her debut, self-released LP, I Love My Mom. Written in quick succession, Indigo sees these two records as companion pieces, both distinct but in communion with each other: “Many of the songs on these two records came from the same season in my life and a certain version of myself which I feel much further from now.”Throughout Any Shape You Take, Indigo reflects on her relationships as she reckons with a deeper need to redefine how to fully inhabit spaces of love and connection.”It feels so important for me to see people through change. To accept people for the many shapes they take, whether those shapes fit into your life or not. This album is a reflection of that. I have undergone so much change in my life and I am so deeply grateful to the people who have seen me through it without judgment and without attachment to skins I’m shifting out of.”Lead single “Kill Me,” written during the climax of a dysfunctional relationship, opens with the lines “Kill me slowly/ Take me with you.” This powerful plea, that begins within the quiet strum of a single electric guitar, is diffused by Indigo’s ironic apathy — a slacker rock nonchalance that refuses to take itself seriously: “I was really tired and fucked up from this relationship and simultaneously so deeply in love with that person in a special way that felt very vast and more real than anything I’d ever experienced.”Across the table from that irreverence sits the sincerity of the single “Hold U,” a more energized, neo soul-inspired love song that substitutes apathy for a genuine expression of care. “I wrote ‘Hold U’ after I left that heavy season of my life and was learning how to love more simply and functionally. I wanted to write a love song that was painfully simple.”Growing up in a conservative small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Indigo started playing guitar when she was nine years old. “Music was a natural occurrence in my life. My dad is a bossa nova guitarist and singer from Brazil and so I think I just had it in my blood from birth.” It wasn’t until moving to Asheville, NC that Indigo began to move into her current sound, developing a writing practice that feeds from the currents that surround her: “Sometimes it feels like I am soaking up the energies of people around me and making art from a space that is more a collective body than just my own.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Garcia Peoples & Chris Forsyth
Formed in New Jersey by guitarists Tom Malach and Danny Arakaki, the band took a few years to find their flying shape, solidifying into a lineup with Danny’s brother Cesar on drums and Derek Spaldo on bass by mid-2016. Ramping up their acceleration around the time of their 2018 Cosmic Cash debut on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records, they’ve blasted through residencies and new songs and sessions and collaborations, relocating to New York, picking up two new members in keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Pat Gubler and bassist Andy Cush, and leaving a trail of live tapes in their wake. This year, they’ve delivered not one but two new albums for BBiB: the sleek and song-oriented Natural Facts and the sprawling improvisatory opus of One Step Behind. 2019 also saw the first performances by the full Garcia Peoples lineup, a six-person behemoth with Spaldo on third guitar.With a stash of live recordings accumulating at the Live Music Archive, Garcia Peoples’ music is very much a living entity. Since the release of their previous two albums, songs have started to expand, jam suites have grown, and experiments have been undertaken. The first part of 2019 has seen Garcia Peoples back Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth (an expanded Solar Peoples Band has hit double-drummer overdrive several times now), and joined with guitarist Ryley Walker. They’ve improvised on WFMU, and jammed with the sounds of ocean waves and falling rain at strange late night happenings. Probably something else new and wonderful and weird has happened in the Garciaverse since I wrote this.Whether or not you thought you knew Garcia Peoples’ music, One Step Behind is something new and beautiful, for new heads and old. No matter where you stand–behind, beyond, or another plane altogether–One Step Behind is ready. For those about to get on the Bus, we salute you.Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | FacebookChris Forsyth connects the dots between between anthemic art rock, chiming atmospherics, and motorik precision in taut compositions and mercurial improvisations that have earned the Philadelphia-based guitarist a unique reputation as a leading guitar stylist for jam and non-jam band fans alike.His newest studio album Evolution Here We Come, featuring contributions from Douglas McCombs (Tortoise), Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitmon (Baseball Project), Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Stuart Bogie (Antibalas), and Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker), is out August 26, 2022 on No Quarter. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
Wiki
Today, Wiki announces his new album Half God – produced entirely by Navy Blue and due October 1st via Wiki’s own label Wikset Enterprise. With the new project, the NYC staple connects with Navy Blue, one of the most refreshing young, acclaimed rapper/producers to break out in recent years, for a project that pushes each of their talents to new heights. Wiki’s storytelling as the city’s young OG has never been more vivid and Navy Blue’s production pushes further into every sonic corner he’s explored today, providing a perfect canvas for Wiki’s signature voice. The release marks Wiki’s second full-length release of 2021 after releasing the Nah-produced Telephonebooth earlier this year.Wiki has become a fixture of New York City Hip Hop since, at 17 years old, he founded the boundary defying group Ratking, whose aggressive style represented a new generation of city kids and artists, hungry for innovation and raw energy. The epicenter of the group as well as Wiki’s artistic expression through music and style was Chinatown, downtown NYC. Ratking’s breakout single was called “Canal” named after the iconic, bustling Chinatown street. Coming of age in the neighborhood, living there for years while creating his solo albums, inevitably laced his music with the culture that permeates the singularly New York, Chinese neighborhood. His song Chinatown Swing off his first LP No Mountains in Manhattan paints a picture of walking through the neighborhood and the feelings and sites one encounters. When painting lyrical pictures of New York scenes one gets a sense of Wiki’s skill as a story teller and visionary. He has solidified his role in carrying the torch for NYC’s master MC’s; representing for the freaks, weirdos and underbelly culture.Alongside revealing the release date of his new album, the NYC rapper also shares the announcement of an upcoming collaboration with the brand Warrior Shanghai, which will feature a customized merch line with sneakers, jerseys, t-shirts, and caps. The Warriors brand brings a classic, everyday life, hard-souled sense of style and functionality to the table in a way that connects with Wiki’s art, and upbringing. Wiki’s collaboration with the brand was intended to pay homage to these characteristics, calling on Wiki to utilize an art project that began as a visual identity in the Ratking days: the Wiki Flag. The green and orange are derived from his mother’s Irish heritage, while set in the shape of the Puerto Rican flag to honor his paternal roots; two ancestries that, like Chinese, are vital to New York City culture and history.Additionally, Wiki will play a set of shows in NYC following the album’s release on October 8th at Soho Roof and on November 7th at Knockdown Center in support of Armand Hammer also with Navy Blue, Quelle Chris, Saint Mela, Fielded, KAYANA and Dreamcrusher.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Soul Glo
If you gave Soul Glo a snapshot of what was in store for them in 2020 at the end of their first practice in 2014, you might put the space time continuum in flux. If you were to tell vocalist Pierce Jordan and guitarist Ruben Polo that everything that they had spent their first month as a band joking about, playing shows with artists from punk vets Paint It Black to Kurt Cobain’s favorites Flipper; from Memphis underground legend Tommy Wright III to platinum producer Pi’erre Bourne, were to actually happen, they might ask you if your hands were as fast as your jokes were. Despite the constant barrage of setbacks, from member changes, to financial strife, to run-ins with the law, Soul Glo has both repeatedly defied the kinds of odds that would fold lesser bands, not to mention their own standards for what they believed they could endure. Simultaneously, stopping or slowing down has never exactly been on the table for them, either.“When we were stranded in Missouri, we started to weigh out the pros and cons of relocating there. We weren’t just about to leave our mans,” Jordan says. “Songs started getting crafted out there that we still have in the chamber.”That said, their next release, Songs To Yeet At The Sun, serves as a perfect respite from the silence in between LP’s and the current lull in live performances that the band has become known for nationwide. The five song blessing gives a further insight into the frankly deranged production of bassist/producer Gianmarco Guerra, who served as the sole producer and one of three engineers for the record. Songs like “(Quietly) Do The Right Thing” and “29” continue to show Soul Glo’s affinity for speed as a vehicle for their aggression and messages, while songs like “I’m On Probation” and the previously released “Mathed Up” shows the bands love of chaotic-yet-atmospheric noise and the most popular rhythmic vocal styles of today’s current rap on top of the pummelling heaviness of the drums of TJ Stevenson. The band continues to showcase the rhythmic synergy existing between the entirety of the ensemble throughout the record, while the song “2K” features the straightforward rap production that peeked through on crowd-favorite songs “31” and “32” on the bands previous record The Nigga In Me Is Me, and also features a verse with instantly quotable lines from Richmond, VA artist Archangel.All things considered, in a year where it feels as though quite literally anything could happen at any given moment, a record like the one that Soul Glo shorthandledly refers to as Yeet, one that features a violent and compelling sonic fusion that only they are capable of, is deeply necessary to times in which we currently find ourselves. In times where we are simply trying to survive from one minute to the next, one day to the next, it feels good in its own way, less lonely perhaps, to have music that reflects that uncertainty and fear.Vocals: Pierce JordanGuitars: Ruben PoloBass/Vocals/Programming: Gianmarco GuerraDrums: TJ StevensonBandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud
