Jim White
Jim White gets around. When he’s not releasing his own critically acclaimed solo albums he splits time producing records for other songwriters, exhibiting his visual art in galleries and museums across the US and Europe and publishing award winning fiction.His sixth solo studio album, Triangles & Jesus, is a mind-bending joy ride of sonic influences featuring a bevy of his hometown Athens’ roots musicians, plus west coast indie darlings Dead Rock West, and rock and roll maverick Holly Golightly.Prior to Waffles, Triangles & Jesus, White (born Mike Pratt) released five eclectic albums plus side projects.Numerous songs from his back catalog have appeared both in film and television, with his Primus-esque Word-Mule being featured in Breaking Bad, and more recently his cautionary rocker Crash Into The Sun appearing in Ray McKinnon’s highly praised Sundance Channel series Rectify.UK fans may recognize White as the narrator and defacto tour guide for the award winning BBC documentary, Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, a road movie set in the rural South, which the LA Times described as “Decidedly strange, delightfully demented.”Prior to becoming a musician White led an aimless, diverse life, working countless menial labor jobs: dishwasher, landscaper, lifeguard, cook, surfboard laminator, road builder, culminating with thirteen long years driving a taxi cab in New York City.White is presently at work completing a memoir, Incidental Contact, based on a series of uncanny coincidences that befell him during his days driving that taxi in New York City. Two chapters of Incidental Contact, The Bottom and Superwhite, have been published in the literary music journal Radio Silence, with Superwhite being awarded a Pushcart Prize.White was a pro surfer. He served as literary commentator for the National Endowment of the Arts. He was a European fashion model. Samuel Beckett once played a practical joke on him. There’s lots more non linear information that doesn’t really fit the usual bio format. But that’s Jim—he gets around.Website | Facebook | Twitter
Don Dixon
Don Dixon on Allen Toussaint, Michael Jordan, and his Least Favorite Part of Life as a Musician
The 8:59’s Album Release Event
The 8:59’s, a North Carolina based band formed in 2014, blend a range of influences to create a unique yet familiar sound. Based around the songwriting, harmonies, and guitars of Christian Fisher and Neville Handel, the band is rounded out by bassist Mike Beck and drummer Brad Goolsby. Echoes of Nashville, Athens, and Chapel Hill can be heard in the band’s songs, which draw from and cover genres from Americana and Alt-Country to Indie Rock.Facebook
Dro Kenji & midwxst
Dro Kenji’s rise is a testament to the power of the internet. Just a couple years ago, the 20-year-old artist was a senior in high school in South Carolina, releasing a string of captivating singles and mixtapes on his SoundCloud. Now that he’s released his debut album on Mira Touch/ Internet Money Records/ 10K Projects, collaborating closely with the label’s team of platinum-certified producers, he’s hoping to earn some plaques of his own. A true child of the digital age, raised on video games and the lo-fi sounds of rap’s online underground, he has a remarkable ability to capture both the apathy and aspiration of his generation in his songs and a spellbinding voice with which to tell these stories.Raised in Summerville, South Carolina, a town outside of Charleston, Dro Kenji mostly kept to himself. “There’s not really a lot going on,” he says of his hometown. “Up until I started making music at the end of 10th grade, I really didn’t do shit but play video games and listen to music.” His parents put him on to classic ’90s-era hip-hop and R&B, but some of his earliest music fandom came from an unlikely combination of his two main hobbies: the video game Rock Band. While playing, he heard songs by Weezer, Radiohead, and Soundgarden, bands whose lead singers would go on to influence his own soaring melodies.In high school, inspired by the DIY recordings he found on SoundCloud from XXXTentacion among others, Dro Kenji decided to start making music of his own. “When I wanted to make a song, I didn’t know how to do anything,” he remembers. “I didn’t have a mic; I just had a shitty laptop.” At first, he downloaded an app that allowed him to use his iPhone 6 as a microphone plugged into his computer but, eventually, his process evolved and so too did the songs he was crafting, reflecting a sound that was more melodic and off-kilter like the music he had always been drawn to online.After graduating from high school and building a steadily growing SoundCloud fanbase with mixtapes like Introvert and standout tracks like the buoyant anthem “Finnished,” Dro Kenji got a DM on Instagram an Internet Money A&R. A month later, he was in Los Angeles, recording at the Internet Money headquarters recording breakout tracks like “SAVE ME” and “HOUDINI” produced by Internet Money’s resident hitmaker Nick Mira. Mira quickly saw the promise that Kenji carried as an artist, and made him the first signing to MiraTouch, his imprint via 10K Projects. Dro Kenji went on to release a string of successful projects including EAT YOUR HEART OUT and F*CK YOUR FEELINGS, which yielded seminal tracks like “KILL CUPID” ft. $NOT and “SUPERSTAR.” These tapes led him to his first headlining tour with stops at some of the game’s biggest festivals including Rolling Loud, Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash, and SXSW.Fast forward to 2022, and Dro Kenji is beginning to emerge as one of the most promising young voices in his genre, continuing his ascent to the highest echelons of the rap game. He established himself as a force with the release of his official debut album, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU in January, which featured hit singles like “VANISH” and “FINDERS KEEPERS” ft. Scorey and Internet Money, and netted over 25M global streams across streaming platforms. He’s now putting the finishing touches on his second studio album, ANYWHERE BUT HERE, due out later this summer, which aims to build on the success of his debut and continue to push the boundaries of his creative process and musical potential.Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
JULIA., By George
JULIA. is a funk four piece from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Their sound harkens back to the funk of the mid seventies, with a modern flair of soul/rap mixed in for good measure. Made up of members Danlee Gildersleeve, Torin Alston, Sean Meehan, and Todd Davis.Influences include Parliament-Funkadelic, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sly and the Family Stone, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Anderson Paak., and Grand Central Station. Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Hoodoo Gurus
The legendary Hoodoo Gurus. By any measure, one of Australia’s greatest, best loved, most enduring rock bands of all time. 2012 marks an extraordinary milestone for the Hoodoo Gurus; 30 years since the release of the band’s debut single, “Leilani”. To celebrate, the Gurus have compiled all their biggest hits and fan favourites onto a brand new best-of set, aptly-titled GOLD WATCH: 20 GOLDEN GREATS. “What’s My Scene?”, “I Want You Back”, “Miss Freelove ’69”, “Like Wow – Wipeout!”, “The Right Time”, “Bittersweet”, “Come Anytime”, “My Girl”, “1000 Miles Away”, “Waking Up Tired” – these tracks represent the unmistakable sound of the irrepressible Hoodoo Gurus, but it’s merely a sample from their canon of instantly identifiable songs that have helped provide a soundtrack to Australian life going all the way back to the 1980s. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, exactly where it’s been for much of their career, GOLD WATCH also features a brand new single, a thumping and grinding rocker entitled “Use-By Date”. GOLD WATCH? “Use-By Date”? Is there a hidden message here? Is this truly the end of the road for the Gurus? Don’t bet on it. “We’re kind of playing with the idea of being veterans and giving ourselves a gold watch, retirement age,” explains head Gurus, Dave Faulkner. “I guess it’s a case pointing out your flaws before someone else does it for you. “We always like to have a slight edge. It’s unknown territory, bands being as vintage as us, even though there’s a couple of examples in the international world, like AC/DC and the Rolling Stones. There’s a reason why there’s so few of us, because it’s damn difficult to do. We’ve basically been to the new ice age and we remember the days of the old jungle.” Hoodoo Gurus learned the hard way exactly how difficult it is to keep the old band together. Back in 1998, still at the peak of their prowess and popularity, Faulkner and his fellow Gurus – guitarist Brad Shepherd, bassist Rick Grossman and drummer Mark Kingsmill – decided it was time to call it a day and broke up the band. They all went off to perform and record with other people, but soon missed each other so much that they formed a new band together, the Persian Rugs, which they insisted for years had nothing to do with the Hoodoo Gurus, except that the two bands coincidentally shared exactly the same line-up for a time. Thankfully, in 2003, they put an end to that charade and reformed as the Hoodoo Gurus. “The real wake up call for me was when the band broke up for six years,” says singer Dave Faulkner. “I had never questioned what it was like being in the Hoodoo Gurus because I always was. After about four years, we did a one-off show at the Homebake festival in Sydney. We went up on stage and played and there was that exact same chemistry there – a more powerful entity than just the four of us on stage, a shared identity that was larger than all of us. The champion team versus the team of champions. None of us are the greatest musicians on Earth individually. It’s just when we get together, we add something to each other and harmonise in certain ways.” Since reforming, the Gurus have recorded two more critically-acclaimed studio albums, Mach Schau [2004] and Purity Of Essence [2010], which now sit seamlessly alongside the band’s pre-split classic recordings: Stoneage Romeos [1984]; Mars Needs Guitars! [1985]; Blow Your Cool! [1987]; Magnum Cum Louder [1989]; Kinky [1991]; Crank [1994] and In Blue Cave [1996]. And now comes this brilliant all-new summary of an extraordinary career thus far, the best-of companion, GOLD WATCH. Website | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Apple Music
Baked Shrimp
In five short years, high-octane power funk trio Baked Shrimp has become a top up-and-coming artist in the jam scene. The high energy young talents Jared Cowen (Guitar/Vocals), Scott Reill (Bass/Vocals), and Jager Soss (Drums/Vocals) from Long Island, NY keep it fresh from night to night with their repertoire of over one-hundred original songs and have performed over two-hundred concerts on their many extensive tours throughout the east coast and mid-west. Baked Shrimp has provided direct support for artists such as Aqueous, Mihali (from Twiddle), Kung Fu, Freekbass, and more. In the past year they have also become a well-known name in the festival circuit. Highlighted festivals include Adirondack Independence Music Festival, Catskill Mountain Jubilee, Great South Bay Music Festival, Memorial Meltdown, Some Kind of Jam, Karnival of the Arts, and their very own hosted LonCon festival.Baked Shrimp founded LonCon in 2021 following the passing of their most loyal supporter and ambassador, Lon “Conscious” Gellman. The initial festival was announced during a virtual music festival live stream called “Live for Lon” which featured a live Baked Shrimp set in addition to performances submitted by members of Twiddle, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, Andy Frasco, and more. The event raised $2,700 for White Light Foundation. The inaugural LonCon festival took place in August of 2021 at legendary Arrowhead Ranch in Parksville, NY. In 2022, Baked Shrimp will bring the festival to Yasgur Farm in Bethel, NY and feature artists such as lespecial, Cabinet, Dogs in a Pile, members of Trey Anastasio Band, Goose, the Disco Biscuits, and more, with two headlining performances by Baked Shrimp.Despite Baked Shrimp’s very intense touring schedule, the trio has managed to find time to release five official albums in the timespan of five years. The band’s 2021 release of Conscious received high praise by media outlets such as LiveForLiveMusic, Grateful Web, The Sound Podcast with Ira Haberman, and more. After a quick release of a three-disc live album The Prawno Tapes, Vol. 1, Baked Shrimp went back into the studio to finish their early-2022 release Pork Etiquette. Pork Etiquette was featured on JamBase’s Release Day Picks which highlighted five other albums, four of which were by Vulfpeck, The Weeknd, Lotus, and Cory Wong. Baked Shrimp celebrated the release of Pork Etiquette with a virtual release party in New York City at Relix Studio. The performance was live streamed on Relix’s Twitch Channel to their 40k followers, and featured The Horn Section (members of Turkuaz).With a goal of 100 shows in 2022, Baked Shrimp prepares to head out on the road for a 50+ date Summer Tour. The band is already well on their way to achieving their goal after starting the year with a 30-date Winter/Spring Tour in which the young trio performed at well-known venues such as Brooklyn Bowl, Cafe Wha?, and The Westcott Theater. Baked Shrimp is constantly turning heads and has moved from “Long Island’s best kept secret” to the hardest working band in the business, a secret impossible to keep.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Crazy Chester: A Very Carrboro Tribute to The Band and The Last Waltz
Formed in early 2020 for a series of one-off events, Crazy Chester is a homegrown tribute act to The Band, consisting of Carrboro musicians Jones Bell (Mellow Swells, Ravary), Charles Cleaver (Big Star’s Third, Tripp), Rob DiMauro (Heat Preacher, Mixtape Grab Bag), Justin Ellis (Slow Teeth, Ravary), and Rafael Green (Little Raven, Ravary), respectively recreating and playing the parts of Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Robbie Robertson.For this special Black Friday concert, Crazy Chester will be performing most of The Band’s legendary farewell performance from Thanksgiving Day 1976, immortalized in the 1978 Martin Scorsese film “The Last Waltz” – complete with additional musicians and special local guests to play the songs originally performed in the film by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and many more. Join for an unforgettable live performance of a Thanksgiving tradition, live at the Cat’s Cradle.Featuring guest performances from Danny Grewen, Owen Matthew FitzGerald, Charles Latham, Brad Porter, Jeremy Haire, Jodi Jones, Brendan Macie, Glenn Jones, Paul Messinger, Georgia Moon, Christian Cail, and more. Come early for a special opening set from the School of Rock Chapel Hill House Band!
Covet
Covet started in 2014 as a bedroom project by guitarist Yvette Young, who at the time, was balancing writing music part time with working as an art teacher. Over the years, the project has certainly grown beyond its “Bay Area garage band” roots and has been fortunate enough to reach people all over the world- enough so that Young eventually left her teaching job to pursue making music with a band full-time.With a background in visual art, art therapy/education, and classical piano/violin, Young aims to write emotive songs that capture colorful imagery, uplift, and tell stories. Their sound can be described as “instrumental progressive rock” but the music draws influence from many genres like Midwest emo and shoegaze and doesn’t try to adhere to one main sound. Young’s fluid and polyphonic fingerstyle approach to guitar is often described as very piano-like, and although her playing at surface level is technical and intricate, the music still aims to make people feel something and make people want to dance.The band has released an EP Currents, an acoustic EP, and 2 full length albums Effloresce and Technicolor. Over time the sound has really transformed from its twinkly mathrock origins to a more evolved, fuller, more melodically complex sound that incorporates a myriad of tones and textures. There is currently one new album in the works, which the band will be playing songs from.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Magic City Hippies
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
