Clover County
Clover County grew up under the sweet orange blossoms and the spiky palms of sunny Central Florida. She began songwriting at the age of 13, teaching herself to play from her dad’s collection of 1980’s songbooks. She drew inspiration from documentaries and interviews with influential women in music, such as Stevie Nicks, Carol King, Taylor Swift, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dolly Parton. The name “Clover County”, is a tribute to all the places she’s called home. After moving from Orlando to Denver, Atlanta to Birmingham, to Athens, Clover grew tired of seeking a sense of home and relying on the next city to be the “lucky one” where things would fall into place. “Clover County” represents a state of mind, no matter where you’re planted you have the choice to grow. With every open mic and backyard show, the Clover County following rapidly expanded, despite no official music releases or means to afford recording. Clover turned this to her advantage, performing weekly in Athens, building her audience the old-fashioned way. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify
In Color
In and of itself, chemistry may be quiet, but you see, hear, and feel its impact. Such close chemistry drives the interplay of In Color. The Nashville band—Holden Clontz, Matthew Hastings, Val Hoyt, and Miles Laderman—lean on a silent bond sealed by years of friendship and a collective passion for pushing boundaries. They bring dimension to alternative pop, threading unshakable melodies through multi-layered soundscapes. After buzzing with millions of streams independently, the group simply transfix and invigorate on their 2025 debut EP, Snow Day [Big Loud Rock]. “To us, there’s definitely an unspoken vision for what In Color is,” observes Holden. “We don’t talk about it a lot. It comes from being friends for so long and listening to the same music. We’re all different in our own ways, but it works so well.” “It’s a special thing, because we trust each other’s instincts,” agrees Val. “We enjoy writing together. So, we’re able to authentically create and put out music that feels like we’re putting ourselves on the line.” Though the members’ paths had crosses over the years, you can trace the band’s genesis back to a particularly brutal snowstorm in early 2024. Val and Miles first met at an Atlanta middle school, attended the same high school, made their way to Belmont University, and lived together for a handful of years in Nashville. Holden had moved to Music City at 19-years-old and linked up with Matt through his roommate, hitting it off and “becoming best friends.” By way of this friend group, Matt eventually moved in with Val. Not to mention, the guys had separately played in various bands or released solo music. However, it took a blizzard to unlock the potential among them. “The four of us were hanging out every day,” says Matt. “Val and I lived together. Once the snow started, everybody just decided to stay over at our place. Musically, we had been doing different things, but getting snowed in was the catalyst we needed. A few days later, Val sent everyone a text, and it was a picture of all of us. He was like, ‘We would look really cool as a band’. That’s all it took!” “We all secretly wanted to be a part of something bigger,” notes Holden. “We had lived life as friends, so why not do this?” For the next year, the band operated “in private,” as they like to say. Under the radar, the guys got together, jammed, wrote songs, and tightened up a collective approach. They drew on inspirations as diverse as Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Switchfoot, The Beatles, U2, and Michael Jackson, cultivating a signature style. With the sound dialed in, the group started to record. “When you listen to the music, it’s multi-faceted,” says Miles. “We don’t abide by any confines of genre. We look and feel like a ‘rock band’, but it’s not traditional.” Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Spotify
Remember Sports
Remember Sports have always sounded like a band in motion—chasing a feeling, chasing each other, sometimes running from themselves. Over the past decade, the Philadelphia-based band has built a cult following on the strength of bruising live shows, emotionally honest lyrics, and an ever-evolving sound that refuses to be pinned down. With their newest album, The Refrigerator, out February 13, 2026 via Get Better Records, the band captures the messy, cathartic energy of transformation: it’s a record born from uncertainty, grief, growth, and ultimately, love—for the music, for each other, and for the many past selves colliding into the present. Website | Instagram | Bandcamp
Tobacco Road
Take your art seriously, not yourself. That’s the motto emerging blues-rock band Tobacco Road lives by – whether they’re on the road, in the studio, or in practicing their East Nashville garage. Playful, energetic, and equal parts modern and soulful, the band’s spirited personality turns a room full of strangers into a group of friends in minutes. With a little central Texas spunk, old-school Louisiana blues, and roots in North Carolina’s Piedmont, the past lives of Tobacco Road’s members blend into a sound that moves seamlessly between beltable diary entries, Southern-rock storytelling, and indie-rock groove. They draw from the nostalgia of Creedence Clearwater Revival, the soul of Susan Tedeschi, and the dynamics of Fleetwood Mac, while taking cues from modern role models like Maggie Rogers and Marcus King Band. In their first year as a band, Tobacco Road released their six-song debut EP All in Time and shared the stage with rising contemporaries like Marlon Funaki, Winyah, and Liam St. John. Tobacco Road’s quick development stems from a live show that’s both high-energy and disarmingly intimate – despite the sweeping vocals and wailing solos, they make you feel like part of the band, whether it’s your first or fiftieth show. The shifting moods of the band’s sound reflect the uniqueness of its members as five twenty-somethings learning to navigate love, loss, joy, confusion, and identity. Tobacco Road captures the chaos of growing up and the peace that comes with finding your people. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | YouTube
Nothing
Nothing have always been rule-breakers. Shoegaze renegades who’ve rebuilt the stereotypically lightweight genre in their own bloodyknuckled American image. Outlaw poets spilling existential dread on mile-wide canvasses of fuzz and reverb. Beginning as a Philly-born bedroom solo project in 2010, Nothing’s music has always captured the full scale of the human condition, both the blaring anger and the whispering sadness. A Short History of Decay, Nothing’s fifth solo album and first for Run For Cover Records, widens that aperture even further, providing the most hi-def rendering of Nothing to date. The band have never sounded this colossal, never felt this intimate, never been this honest. With the strongest arsenal in Nothing’s ever-shifting lineup locked in — guitarist Doyle Martin (Cloakroom), bassist Bobb Bruno (Best Coast), drummer Zachary Jones (MSC, Manslaughter 777), and third guitarist Cam Smith (Ladder To God, also of Cloakroom) — singer-songwriter Domenic “Nicky” Palermo knew he had the manpower to make the band’s most ambitious record yet. Co-written and produced with Whirr guitarist Nicholas Bassett, and with additional production and mixing work from Sonny Diperri (DIIV, Julie), A Short History of Decay is the most evolved musical statement in Nothing’s catalog. Songs like “Cannibal World” and “Toothless Coal” are cataclysmic lashings of mechanized industrial-gaze that sound like My Bloody Valentine — except more extreme. On the other end of the spectrum, the ornately morose “Purple Strings” boasts a beautiful string arrangement that includes harpist — and two-time Nothing contributor — Mary Lattimore. That baroque delicacy permeates other A Short History of Decay highlights, particularly “The Rain Don’t Care,” a lilting ballad that channels the worn-down elegance of Mojave 3, and also “Nerve Scales,” a pattering bop that resembles Radiohead in its marriage of otherworldly atmosphere and mortal precision. Palermo calls the new record “a final chapter.” Not the end of Nothing, but the conclusion of a story that began with Nothing’s 2014 debut, Guilty of Everything — another album about time, regret, and confronting uncomfortable truths — and now resolves with A Short History of Decay. As much a snapshot of Palermo’s past as it is a leap into Nothing’s future. Website | Instagram | Facebook
Secret Monkey Weekend, jPhono1, Mad Starlings
A family band like no other, Secret Monkey Weekend returned with a sparkling sophomore album Lemon Drop Hammer on June 6. Comprising seasoned guitarist/vocalist Jefferson Hart and his stepdaughters Ella (bass/vocals) and Lila Brown-Hart (drums/vocals), the North Carolina trio’s harmony-heavy Beatles/Squeeze songwriting, charming lyricism, and familial chemistry is channeled into 10 tracks helmed by revered REM/Smithereens producer Don Dixon. “I wasn’t prepared for Jefferson’s tremendous talent as a writer, player and singer,” said Dixon. “These three individuals have combined to make something I love [and] grown, literally and figuratively, in front of my eyes.” Secret Monkey Weekend (a name derived from a vintage Tiger Beat magazine headline) began as purely organic family therapy, with no plans for anything more. Yet by 2016 they were playing casual shows and soon graduated to a busy calendar of club and festival dates. Debut album All The Time In The World, also produced by Dixon, followed in 2022. It’s a tale so remarkable that the trio is the subject of Emmy-winning 2023 PBS documentary, Secret Monkey Weekend. Website Jphono1 and friends explore new elements in sounds and arrangements with his fuzz-frayed folk-pop. Fragments ofelectronics, acoustic guitars, and keys join what at first resemble straight-forward compositions, only to break apart into unassuming lo-fi with casual psychedelia, finding a comfortable station at the intersection of Meat Puppets whimsy and Steve Gunn introspection. “Jphono1’s ‘Rectify Mercy’ Extends Psych-Rock Vignettes Into Joyful Meditations. Some of its atmospheric, dream-pop guitar runs and Byrds-esque harmonies might sound at home on the soundtrack to a modern-day remake of Easy Rider.” – Indyweek Website | Bandcamp Brothers Nick, Mike and Mark are an indie rock trio based in Durham, NC. They were previously the core of 90s local favorites Gravity’s Pull. Their music is a combo of post-punk late 70s power pop mixed with early 90s pop-rock alternative. Think The Cars X Pixies X Eve 6 X Toad plus a dash of Nirvana for good measure. That combo of sounds (and more) melds seamlessly into pure Mad Starlings Magic!
New Year’s Eve Hootenanny The Rattletraps, delia-h, Kit McKay
Formed in Chapel Hill, NC, The Rattletraps are a band of songwriters who create a culmination of roots rock, country and blues music. With songs about bar fights, working dead end jobs and the streets of New Orleans, The Rattletraps find ways to create anthems that are bitter, cynical, and just the right amount of pissed off. We’ll have our first two singles out in 10 days and can send that link over as well! Website delia-h is a writer who prioritizes purity and wit in her work. Less concerned with genre and more interested in feeling, her songs combine wordplay, groove, colloquialism, and rhyme in attempts to dissect familial, romantic, and platonic relationships. Influenced by Carolinian folk pop melodies and Upstate New York DIY punk scene attitude, delia-h recorded her first live album “delia-h and The Male Gaze” at the Cat’s Cradle Backroom in 2025 and is releasing her debut EP “The Killjoy” in January 2026.
Kinda Nice
KINDA NICE is a ridiculously fun femme indie rock band based in Durham, North Carolina. The group formed in 2019 thanks to the magic of Girls Rock NC’s Rock Roulette. Unconstrained by genre, Kinda Nice’s sound is a synthesis of their kaleidoscopic musical experiences, while their lyrics voice messages of joy, justice, and empowerment. Instagram CHICKEN RANCH ROAD SHOW plays country music for everyone. Founded in Raleigh, NC in 2023, the Road Show hits the stage with instruments in hand and tongues in cheek. Is it camp? Is it country? In the end, it’s somewhere between The Judds and the Jacobins, as the band blends roots rock and Americana sensibilities with a heaping helping of queer rage. Instagram LARRY. – Since releasing their debut EP Puddle! in 2024, Durham-based Larry has graced stages across NC with a live show once described as “high energy and insane.” Larry delivers a cathartic mix of sickly sweet romanticization and hellish obsession that lands like sour candy. At a Larry show, only two things are certain – Larry is everyone, and we are all Larry. Instagram
Congress The Band
Congress The Band is one of the Southeast’s most exciting emerging rock acts bring a new wave of rock music out of the Carolinas. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, the band has built a fast-growing reputation for turning every stage – whether a packed club, a college town, or a full festival field into an all-out rager. With vocals from William Bennett, guitar work from Daniel Guy and Lukas Mishustin, locked-in grooves from Rob Farmer on bass, and explosive drums from Jett Seawell, Congress delivers a dynamic performance that feels both modern and timeless. Their music pulls from indie rock, Americana, and classic Southern roots, creating an anthemic sound that resonates across generations. In just a short time, Congress has grown from a local Charleston favorite into a regional touring force. Selling out venues from Charlotte to Athens to Bloomington. The concerts have become known for heartfelt crowd connections, big-chorus singalongs, and a level of passion that leaves audiences lined up hours before each show. With new music on the way and a packed touring schedule ahead, Congress is poised for their biggest year yet. Instagram
Surfing for Daisy
Surfing for Daisy’s sound flows like the tides of Asbury Park – smooth, soothing, yet unpredictable. The guitars undulate like ocean waves, calm and hypnotic one moment, crashing with raw energy the next. With rhythms that pulse like the sea, and vocal harmonies that announce the sunrise – their music balances serene lulls with bursts of righteous clamor, capturing both the tranquility and wildness of the coast. Each song is a journey, where moments of quiet beauty give way to sonic storms. Their sound is a reminder that life, like the ocean, is ever changing – a mix of peace and chaos, flowing together in perfect harmony. Website | Facebook | TikTok | YouTube | Instagram
