School of Rock Chapel Hill’s Mid-Season Preview
$10 Suggested Donation. 12:00pm House Band set (10 mins)12:10pm Chuck Berry vs Little Richard (30 mins)12:40pm Grace Slick vs Janis Joplin (30 mins)1:10pm Rock 101 set (20 mins)1:30pm Adult Band set (20 mins)2pm Arena Rock (30 mins)2:30pm Led Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door (20 mins)2:50pm Best of Beck (30 mins)3:20pm House Band set (15 mins)3:35pm Rock 201 set (30 mins)4:15pm Halftime Heroes (30 mins)4:45pm Best of Rage Against The Machine (30 mins)5:15pm Staff Band preview (30 mins) Website | Instagram | Facebook
Brigitte Calls Me Baby
The music of Brigitte Calls Me Baby is equal parts elegant time warp and up-close exploration of our modern-day neuroses. The Chicago-based band ingeniously spans genres and eras, merging the lavish romanticism of mid-century pop with the frenetic energy and spiky intensity of early millennium indie-rock. Centered on Leavins’ hypnotically crooning vocal work, the result is a rare convergence of sophistication and style and unabashed sincerity. As shown on their debut EP This House Is Made Of Corners — a five-song project made with nine-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb — Brigitte Calls Me Baby possess a singular musicality informed by Leavins’ eclectic upbringing. Originally from the Southeast Texas town of Port Arthur, he grew up listening to Roy Orbison records at his grandparents’ house next door, while his parents played him new-wave bands like The Cars and his friends turned him onto Radiohead and The Strokes. At age 13, Leavins took up guitar and began writing songs of his own, quickly discovering his distinct vocal style. “At first I didn’t like the way I sang and couldn’t really do anything about it, but as I got older I started to appreciate it more,” he reveals. “My whole inclination toward music came from being in this small town in Texas with nowhere to go and nothing to do, and wanting to be understood without having to say anything.” Upon moving to Chicago in 2016, Leavins immersed himself in the local music scene and soon linked up with guitarists Jack Fluegel and Trevor Lynch, bassist Devin Wessels, and drummer Jeremy Benshish, who joined him in co-founding Brigitte Calls Me Baby. As the band built up their catalog, Leavins was tapped to take part in recreating a series of Elvis Presley songs for Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis, a turn of events that found him crossing paths with Cobb. “Dave and I hit it off right away and started talking about the music we loved, and when we reconnected later he asked me to send him some of the songs I’d been working on,” Leavins recalls. Soon after sharing a batch of demos with Cobb (whose credits include modern classics like Jason Isbell’s Southeastern and Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music), Brigitte Calls Me Baby headed to Nashville to record their debut body of work at the legendary RCA Studio A. Co-produced by Cobb and Brigitte Calls Me Baby and mostly recorded live, This House Is Made Of Corners opens on a lush and cinematic track called “The Future is Our Way Out,” a prime introduction to the EP’s heightened yet palpably genuine emotionality. “I want to be earnest even when it’s uncomfortable, and write unapologetically about things like my intense fear of death,” says Leavins. “‘The Future is Our Way Out’ is about that fear, but it’s also about hoping there might be something beyond death, a way out of all the mess and the sadness that plagues us in life.” On “Impressively Average,” pounding rhythms and shimmering guitar tones form the backdrop to what Leavins refers to as a “a bit of a self-loathing song, about trying to cope with someone’s very high expectations of you.” And on “Eddie My Love,” Brigitte Calls Me Baby present a gorgeously aching portrait of obsession and despair. “‘Eddie My Love’ paved the way for all the songs that would come after it,” says Leavins, who first penned the track as a ballad. “It felt so vulnerable from the jump, and made me realize that there’s no point in being anything but vulnerable in what we do.” Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
Palmyra
Established in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Palmyra captures the collective spirit of three Virginia natives: Teddy Chipouras, Mānoa Bell, and Sasha Landon. Palmyra straddles at least two musical worlds. They are, on one hand, a band from the South that plays traditional instruments and indeed once lived in the old-time locus of Floyd, Virginia. Comparisons to and a kinship with The Avett Brothers and even Old Crow Medicine Show are inevitable. On the other hand, Palmyra writes about grief, gender dysphoria and identity, and coming of age in songs that flirt with soul, post-rock, and even emo; the South, too, is the place of My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Cat Power, and now, Palmyra. The band’s first full length LP, Restless, is out March 2025 on Oh Boy Records. Framed by moments of struggle, solidarity, and hard-won growth, Restless is an unqualified ringer for anyone who loves the space where the roar of indie rock collides with raw folk. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Linktree Pulled from the dense clay underneath Cahas mountain in South Western Virginia, Clover-Lynn dresses the sounds of her mountains upbringing with the veil of the Gothic. Blending 3 Finger, Clawhammer, and ballad singing she creates a unique sound that is both unsettling and familiar. Website | Instagram | Spotify
Abbey Road LIVE!
“One of the world’s premier Beatles cover bands” -US News and World Report “unquestionably expert at what they do” -Indyweek Come and experience some Beatles magic as Abbey Road LIVE! delivers its signature performance: the entire Abbey Road album, start-to-finish. Featuring classics such as Come Together, Here Comes The Sun and the epic Side 2 medley, “Abbey Road” has been often dubbed the Fab Four’s finest musical work. And that’s just half of the evening: fans will be treated to a second set of Beatles tunes spanning the band’s 8-year, 200 song career. Abbey Road LIVE! is not your typical look-alike Beatles tribute act. Don’t expect mop-top wigs and phony British accents. Rather, this band is about bringing some of the more complex Beatles music to life in a raw & spirited fashion, while remaining true to the original recordings. And the band’s creative exuberance is infectious. At a typical Abbey Road LIVE! show, audiences young and old can found gleefully singing along with every word, many relishing the chance to hear this monumental music performed live — something the Beatles themselves never did, as they stopped touring in 1966, before many of their best albums were released. Website | Facebook | YouTube
Lauren Sanderson
Hi. It’s me, Lauren. Welcome to my bio, where I am supposed to somehow put 20+ years into a couple paragraphs so buckle in. I grew up in Indiana and let’s be real – things didn’t exactly go according to plan. I didn’t get into college, but somehow, that led me to a TED Talk at 19 where I realized I wanted to do one thing: be my authentic self and inspire people along the way. I started making music in my bedroom, just sharing everything, the highs, the lows, the real stuff. It wasn’t long before a community of people who felt like I did started to grow, and that took me to LA in 2018. In 2019, I was on stage opening for FINNEAS and Chase Atlantic—insane. Then, 2020 came around, and I dropped my debut album Midwest Kids Can Make It Big, which got love from Billboard, Complex, MTV, and even Zane Lowe on Beats 1 (he is one of my favorite interviewers on planet Earth). In 2022, life got crazy when “THERAPY!” blew up on TikTok. That year, I also collaborated with GFLIP on our song GAY 4 ME, which was massive for G & I, and then dropped my second album, Death Of A Fantasy, which has over 20 million streams on Spotify… what the ****. Fast forward to 2023, I release IDC AT ALL with the help of Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil. I’m touring the world—37 cities across North America, Europe, and the UK. It’s been surreal, and I’m so grateful for it all. But somehow, this is still just the beginning. I can’t wait to keep pushing boundaries, making music, and, most importantly, inspiring people to just be who they are. My third album will be coming in HOT in 2025. I hope you’re ready for a wild ride. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Evening Elephants
Emerging out of an illegal backyard party in Los Angeles, the duo of Sam Boggs, a disgraced LA skit actor, and Brandon Leslie, a tarot card-reading hip-hop producer, bonded over the love of two things – music and cigarettes. With the sunrise approaching and cigarette butts piled up, a three-day bender had just started to take its toll on Sam, when he and Brandon (aka B) recognized one another as kindred spirits. They plotted a jam session within weeks of meeting, adopted the name Evening Elephants (inspired by Naruto), and began disrupting the norm around L.A. Evening Elephants started throwing showcases in the same backyard they met in, bringing in over 150 RSVPs in 48 hours for their first show. Evening Elephants performed a series of now “legendary” backyard shows, cutting their teeth in front of a fervent audience. OnesToWatch chronicled one of those gigs and emerged as an ardent early supporter. INKED also raved, “With a lust for life and passion for bringing people together, Evening Elephants’ infectious grooves aren’t stopping anytime soon,” while The Luna Collective hailed their “on-brand brutal honesty.” Since their fateful encounter in 2021, the pair went on to quietly generate over 10 million streams and build an audience one fan at a time with a fluid and fiery sound anchored by B’s production with live drums, and peppering sunny melodies with the kind of truths typically reserved for diaries. Evening Elephants gained momentum with Evening Demos EP in 2022 followed by the signature single “Life Is Swell” in 2023 and the standout “Snow On The Bluff,” produced by PJ Bianco (Imagine Dragons, Jonas Brothers) which garnered over 5 million Spotify streams. During their inaugural year as a band, Evening Elephants captivated audiences across the US with performances at legendary venues such as Baby’s All Right, Teragram Ballroom, The Moroccan Lounge, Larimer Lounge, and Lost Lake including sold-out performances in New York City and Denver. The band caught the attention of coveted brands early on such as JuneShine, who sponsored the backyard shows on top of performances at the JuneShine brewery in San Diego. Given the palpable buzz and the level of cult adoration surrounding the band, the Evening Elephants signed to Republic Records and are set to release their debut and much more in 2025. Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
John Moreland
This is a seated show. After an impressive 2010s run of albums that earned him a devoted fanbase, accolades from outlets like The New York Times, Fresh Air, and Pitchfork, and a place in the upper echelon of modern Americana singer-songwriters, John Moreland has already taken two unexpected turns this decade, both of which highlight his fierce artistic independence. First, he released a brilliant and sonically layered folk-electronica meditation on modern alienation, 2022’s Birds In The Ceiling, that took some of his fans by surprise. Then, after wrapping up a difficult tour behind that record in November 2022, he stopped working entirely. He took an entire year off from playing shows and didn’t use a smartphone for 6 months. “At the end of that year, I was just like ‘Nobody call me’. I needed to not do anything for a while and just process,” Moreland says. After nearly a decade in the limelight, constantly jostled by the expectations of his audience, the music industry, and anonymous strangers online, he carved out some time to rest, heal, and reflect for the first time. The result of that unplugged year at home is 2024’s Visitor, a folk-rock record that is intimate, immediate, deeply thoughtful, and catchy as hell. Moreland recorded the album at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself (his wife Pearl Rachinsky sang on one song, and his longtime collaborator John Calvin Abney contributed a guitar solo), as well as engineering and mixing the album. “Simplicity and immediacy felt very important to the process,” he says. This is a return to the approach Moreland took on his breakthrough albums, 2013’s In The Throes and 2015’s High On Tulsa Heat, both of which were largely self-recorded at home with a small cadre of additional musicians. Echoes of these early albums can be heard on Visitor (Moreland makes a passing reference to In The Throes’ opening track “I Need You To Tell Me Who I Am” in two different songs on Visitor), which finds Moreland shutting out the noisy world outside, and the even noisier digital world in his pocket, to reconnect with a muse that’s had to increasingly compete for his attention in the intervening years. Visitor charts his journey back to this muse. If Birds In The Ceiling’s theme was alienation, Visitor’s theme is un-alienation. Moreland begins the album where he began his year-long process of healing: doomscrolling past images of political turmoil, war, and environmental destruction, in a trio of surprisingly hooky folk songs that address present-day social realities more directly than any previous John Moreland songs. On opening track “The Future Is Coming Fast”, Moreland describes the perpetually logged-on life in a time of rolling catastrophe over gentle fingerpicking: “The news keeps steady coming in / Our condition shows its teeth again / A nightmare we all thought would end.” Website | Instagram | Facebook
ALEXSUCKS
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Folkknot
Folkknot is a seafaring six-piece band based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Never afraid to sail against the wind, Folkknot crafts enchanting indie-folk-pop-rock escapism that beats back against the mainstream current of our modern era, harking at the essence of folk storytelling elements from yesteryear. Captained by frontman Grey Hyatt’s vivid songwriting & lucid vision for his songs, Folkknot’s eclectic instrumentation provides a lush soundscape that brings their songs & stories to life. Website | Facebook | Instagram
The Crystal Casino Band
The Crystal Casino Band is an indie rock quartet from Washington, D.C., whose music marries the early 2010s Tumblr-era aesthetic with introspective and socially-conscious lyrics. Many of their songs, such as “Waste My Time,”“Twenty-something Socialist,” and “Boys and Girls,”resonate with Gen Z audiences by articulating shared feelings toward modern dating culture and growing existential fears of climate change and radical politics. Their guitar-centered sound is a welcome return to form for classic rock lovers in search of a modern pop twist. Instagram | Spotify
