Aldous Harding

Aldous Harding has confirmed a run of US tour dates for 2022 alongside the announce of her new studio album, Warm Chris, the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Designer. Warm Chris will be released on March 25, 2022. Its first single “Lawn” is available now. For Warm Chris, the New Zealand musician reunited with producer John Parish, continuing a professional partnership that began in 2017 and has forged pivotal bodies of work (2017’s Party and the aforementioned Designer). All ten tracks were recorded at Rockfield Studios and includes contributions from H. Hawkline, Seb Rochford, Gavin Fitzjohn, John and Hopey Parish and Jason Williamson (Sleaford Mods).Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify

Guerilla Toss

Dig deep enough inside yourself — start treating your body as your sanctuary rather than your enemy — and eventually you’ll find yourself blooming right back out into the sun. That’s the transformation Guerilla Toss trace on their newest album Famously Alive, their effervescent Sub Pop debut. After a decade sprinkling glitter into grit, building a reputation as one of the most ferociously creative art-rock groups working, the upstate New York band have eased fully into their light. This is Guerilla Toss at their most luminescent — awake, alive, and extending an open invitation to anyone who wants to soak it all up beside them.Singer and lyricist Kassie Carlson, multi-instrumentalist Peter Negroponte and guitarist Arian Shafiee wrote Famously Alive at home in the Catskills during the pervading quiet of the pandemic year. The uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns and the total disruption of routine forced Carlson to negotiate with herself in new and challenging ways. “You have to be with yourself all the time during the pandemic,” she says. “I had to figure out a way to manage my anxiety. The pandemic was hard, but it helped me get comfortable inside my own body. My peace of mind came out of being thrust into the deepest shit. This album is all about being happy, being alive, and strength. It’s meant to inspire people.”The album’s title derives from a poem written by a close friend of the band, Jonny Tatelman, who supported Carlson through the early stages of her recovery from opiate addiction. The poem comprises the entirety of the lyrics to the title track, an exuberant ode to loving your own survival and charting a course into unconditional self-acceptance. “The song ‘Famously Alive’ is about living with purpose and excitement whether you’re famous or not, accepting your strangeness and thriving even if your successes look different than other people’s,” notes Carlson. “To me, ‘Famously Alive’ means flipping the notion of dying famously to living famously,” Negroponte adds. “I also like to think of it as a way to describe living through something traumatic and coming out of it a stronger, wiser person.”Songs like the expansive, gleaming “Live Exponential” similarly invite the listener to lean into the light. “It’s about loving yourself and finding a way to be comfortable in your own body — to live life to the fullest and beyond,” says Carlson. Throughout the record, Guerilla Toss meet themselves with curiosity, generosity, and acceptance even for the harder parts of being alive. Opener “Cannibal Capital,” a song about the exhaustion and dread of social anxiety, came together in a flurry toward the end of the album’s sessions. A taut bass groove erupts into competing squalls of guitar and synth that support one of the most immediate and arresting vocal hooks of Guerilla Toss’s catalog to date.Together with guitarist Arian Shafiee, Carlson and Negroponte cultivated a sound that spliced together psychedelic texturing and Krautrock syncopation with the gloss and glow of contemporary pop music. “I like to combine as many musical influences as possible,” says Negroponte. “We thought the sleekness of current radio pop would make our dense wall-of-sound aesthetic both more bizarre and more accessible and fun at the same time.” Carlson was similarly inspired by a wide range of artists from around the world after diving deep into obscure 7-inches for her weekly show on Radio Catskill, Rare Pear Radio.Links: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Emily Wells

Emily Wells is sharing “Love Saves the Day” from her upcoming album Regards to the End, out February 25, 2022 (Thesis & Instinct via Secretly Distribution). Wells, who recently toured as a violinist and vocalist with Japanese Breakfast, will be leading her own band across the US this spring and summer. Full dates are below and tickets go on sale this Friday at 12pm ET.A classically-trained violinist, singer, composer, producer, and video artist, Wells’s music has been described as “visionary” (NPR) and “quietly transfixing” (The New York Times). Recorded in 2020-21, Regards to the End is inspired by artists with early ties to the AIDS crisis, LGBT activists, and Wells’ own experience as a queer musician born from a long line of preachers. “Love Saves the Day” was written for David Bucknel, a prominent civil rights lawyer turned environmental advocate who committed suicide in 2018 by setting himself on fire in Prospect Park to call attention to environmental injustice. “Songs can move through the stories of other people as a means to finding our own,” says Emily. “I was beset with grief upon David’s death, not because I knew him personally or because I have any claim to his life or story, but rather through a quiet empathy that is, simply, human. In researching David I became interested in the stories of other people who’d chosen politically motivated self-immolation and each kept me following this knotty thread of humanism. Humanism and desperation, and a belief that this act of self-sacrifice was itself their only hope of getting our attention and more urgently, our action.” The Michael Stamm painting April 14, 2018 (RIP David Buckel) serves as the single cover.In his final email, Bucknel wrote, “My early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves…Here is a hope that giving a life might bring some attention to the need for expanded action.”Regards to the End finds connection with the lives and work of choreographers and visual artists, particularly those with ties to the AIDS crisis. This constellation of reference points includes Félix González-Torres (1957-1996), who made tender installations devoted to his lover, who died from AIDS-related complications; Jenny Holzer (b. 1950), a conceptual and frequently text-based artist who contributed to the New York City AIDS Memorial; and Kiki Smith (b. 1954), who has centered the human body and its fluids in her sculptures and lost a sister to AIDS. The album cover is the photo “The Piers (exterior with person sunbathing)” by Bronx-born photographer Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004), who documented Manhattan’s decrepit West Side piers that another lodestar, David Wojnarowicz, frequented. A work of radical empathy, Regards to the End foregrounds the power of art, critique, and care to connect and perhaps redeem us. The album releases digitally February 25, 2022 and the vinyl and CD release March 11, 2022 and are available for preorder.“Love Saves the Day” follows “David’s Got a Problem,” “Two Dogs Tethered Inside” and “I’m Numbers”, out now on all streaming platforms. Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

Nellie McKay

This is a seated show.Nellie McKay has released seven acclaimed albums, won a Theatre World Award for her Broadway portrayal of Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, co-created and starred in the award winning off-Broadway hit Old Hats, and has conceived and performed musical biographies of Barbara Graham, Rachel Carson, Joan Rivers, & Billy Tipton (named one of the Best Concerts of the Year by the The New York Times).A recipient of PETA’s Humanitarian Award in recognition of her dedication to animal rights, Nellie is an annoyingly vocal critic of endless war, capitalism, and the two-party system that sustains it.” A renegade songwriter with an ultraflexible Great American Songbook sensibility …”–Rolling Stone”Couching her stiletto wit behind a honeyed smile and beguiling melodic charm, the singer and composer Nellie McKay has been disarming listeners since the release of her wryly titled album “Get Away from Me,” in 2004. Artful subterfuge is still the name of her game: McKay’s skillful tunes and vocal delivery enchant while her lyrics slyly disembowel.” — New YorkerLinks: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify

The Protomen

Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter

Poguetry in Motion featuring Spider Stacy and Cait O’Riordan

‘When Spider Stacy and Cáit O’Riordan from the Pogues meet the Lost Bayou Ramblers they make Poguetry..’Links: Instagram | Facebook

Jill Sobule

This is a seated show.Jill Sobule’s work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. In a dozen albums spanning three decades of recording, the Denver-born songwriter/guitarist/singer has tackled such topics as the death penalty, anorexia nervosa, shoplifting, reproduction, the French Resistance, adolescent malaise, LGBTQ issues, and the Christian Right. Her hits include “I Kissed A Girl”—the first openly gay-themed song ever to crack the Billboard Top 20—and the alt-rock anthem “Supermodel” featured in the film “Clueless”. Sobule was one half of The Jill & Julia Show, providing music while actor Julia Sweeney contributes storytelling. Jill is considered a pioneer in crowdfunding and is constantly exploring and creating new models for artists in an ever-changing music industry. Her latest record is “Nostalgia Kills”, produced by Ben Lee and released on her own Pinko Records label. Jill’s theater credits include a musical adaptation of the Broadway classic “Yentl”, “Prozak and the Platypus”, and “Times Square”. Her latest, “F*ck 7th Grade”, was postponed due to Covid, but was performed and filmed for three days at a make-shift drive-in over the Summer. The musical is a finalist for the Lambda Literary awards in LGBTQ Drama category this June.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

JULIA. Album Release Show

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. Links: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

The Vegabonds

The Alabama-born, Tennessee-bred Southern rock band, The Vegabonds kick off 2019 with the release of their fifth album (and first for Blue Élan Records) entitled “V.”The band will support “V” with a full year of non-stop touring throughout North America and Europe. Produced by Tom Tapley (Blackberry Smoke, Sugarland, Mastodon) “V” audibly illustrates the band’s unconventional yet contagious brand of Southern rock and highlights the best of The Vegabonds’ unique musicianship, vocals, lyrics and sound. V crosses boundaries of multiple music genres. These vibrant songs travel from sad to soulful; gritty to glorious. It’s a timeless American album in the sense it deals with eerie matters working people endure and captures their salvation in a song. Songs like “Partyin’ with Strangers”, the new single “I Ain’t Having It” and “When The Smoke Clears Up” proves the group’s ability to move people with a story, beat and melody.Vocalist Daniel Allen recently revealed, “I hope fans hear stories in the album. We are in a very unique time in history, and this album touches on the struggle of every day folks doing their best to navigate love, work, beliefs and the ever-changing politics that flood our lives daily.”The Vegabonds got their start in Alabama in 2009 by playing the college circuit across the Southeastern United States. Their popularity quickly burgeoned to the point where they found their fans singing along word-for-word to their first hits like “Georgia Fire” and “Shaky Hands.” From Ole Miss to South Carolina, students were buzzing about The Vegabonds’ authentic sound and their seemingly effortless ability to bring the house down. Through pure word of mouth, the group’s fan base rapidly grew, and the guys learned they had something distinctive with their eclectic mix of Southern Rock, Country, and earnest songwriting.Their DIY ethic delivered three full-length albums and an EP before partnering with Blue Élan Records for their current release.With a sound reminiscent of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers mixed with the grit and twang of the Allman Brothers Band, The Vegabonds deliver a sensational performance, with powerhouse guitar riffs and impactful songwriting, night after night. Their hard work and unbridled talents have not gone unnoticed; the group has opened for such notable acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the late Gregg Allman and delivered rousing performances at festivals like Peach Festival, Sweetwater 420, Magnolia Fest, Sunfest and Taste of Randolph. In addition to countless dates throughout the Southeast, the band has toured Europe three times, played multiple dates in Canada and have visited every corner of the US.A group of five musicians with myriad influences between them, The Vegabonds are fronted by lead vocalist and songwriter Daniel Allen, with Richard Forehand (lead guitar/vocals), Paul Bruens (bass), Beau Cooper (keys/vocals), and Bryan Harris (drums) rounding out the quintet.Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube

Tan Universe, Tombstone Poetry, Hiding Places, Plastic Flamingos – CANCELLED

Genre: Miscellaneous