Max Frost
Growing up can be a funny thing. The older you get, the more freedom you enjoy. As such, you can act more like a kid (when appropriate, of course!). Max Frost walks a fine line between exhibiting childlike excitement during the creative process as a producer and multi-instrumentalist and lyrically embracing a tried-and-tested perspective as a seasoned songwriter. As such, the Austin, TX-born and Nashville, TN-based sonic outlier breaks the rules (and the walls) between sounds and vibes, delivering a fiery, fascinating, and free interpretation of what pop music can be in the 21st century. On the heels of hundreds of millions of streams, sold out shows, and praise courtesy of Variety, NPR, Rolling Stone, and many more, this balance defines his debut for Nettwerk Music Group, Shelby Ave Pt. 1 EP. “In my life, I feel more like an adult than I’ve ever felt, but musically I’m more like a kid than ever,” he affirms. “I stopped worrying about creative consequences and over-projecting expectation or concern into the world. It’s freed me up in a great way. I’m able to make what I want to make because I’m writing for myself. I’ve done that in the past, but there are less complications and obstacles now.” As a kid in Austin, Max grabbed a guitar at the age of eight and never put it down. He achieved his first taste of virality with “White Lies” and “Adderall,” paving the way for his full-length debut Gold Rush in 2018. The standout “Good Morning” scored a slew of syncs, including Pepsi, ESPN, CBS, Shameless, Grey’s Anatomy, The War With Grandpa, and American Idol. He emerged as the rare presence who could share the stage with either Gary Clark, JR. and Fitz and The Tantrums or Panic! At The Disco and Twenty One Pilots. Between packing headline shows, he delivered show-stopping performances on Good Morning America and Live! With Kelly and Ryan. He even found himself in the studio with none other than Sir Elton John. 2022 saw him elevate again with the Flying Machines EP. Atwood Magazine praised the latter as “a freshly independent, free-spirited return that soars with irresistible energy, unbridled passion, and intimate, captivating wonder,” while American Songwriter applauded his “playful, poignant psychedelic pop fusion.” In the wake of the project, he escaped Los Angeles and put down roots in Nashville. He wrote and recorded in a house on Shelby Ave, hence the name of the EP, and creatively realized a vision all his own. “It’s like I’ve had nine lives in my career,” he admits. “Unlikely things outside of my control have happened and given me other opportunities or opened up completely different worlds. Of course, I needed to keep making music. More than ever before, this feels like a new chapter. It’s a philosophical change. Everything is new and on my own terms.” This energy courses through the first single “Creep Back.” A thumping upright piano melody sets the tempo as a slick bass line and bold beat move in lockstep with one another. Max’s hypnotic high register takes hold on the hook, “I hate the way you creep back in my mind. Don’t you know it happens all the time, and I get so lonely, lonely babe.” Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
2hollis
2hollis is a 20 year old producer, singer, composer and songwriter from Los Angeles by way of Chicago. He makes music in the experimental, rap, electronic and pop realm thus far. He shoots and edits most of his visuals alongside creating the art for his releases. The internet has blown up with his various songs already and he has begun to sell out his tours from North America to Europe including his moshpit inducing stint being chosen to open the Ken Carson North American tour recently. Pitchfork calls him “a remarkably distinctive, eagerly experimental savant whose sound never stalls or stagnates.” He is recently signed to Interscope Records. Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Be Loud Carolina!
APP AID Fundraiser for Community Foundation of Western NC
APP AID Fundraiser for Community Foundation of Western NC Mellow Swells Happy Abandon Frute
Jack the Songman Album Release Show
Jack The Songman is a refreshing new act from North Carolina determined to show you a good time straight from the heart. The man behind the song, Jack Carmichael, has been making music in Chapel Hill since he was in high school. As Jack The Songman, he writes songs with a funky, classic pop sound that feels familiar but sincere. At the heart of every Songman song, you’ll find honest and straightforward lyrics about love and friendship. A lifelong member of bands, choirs, and a cappella groups, Jack began to focus on creating a solo project when the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic forced him into a period of introspection and songwriting. As soon as people could safely gather again, Jack put together an ensemble of lifelong friends and collaborators (affectionately named “The Songman Band”) to flesh out his book of newly-written songs. The outcome is a genre-melding, piano-driven sonic identity that weaves together elements of yacht rock, funk, and power pop while calling to mind musical forces such as Michael McDonald and Ben Folds. Jack The Songman’s forthcoming debut album “Love Songs and Other Songs” comes on the heels of his marriage to his high school sweetheart. The tracklist navigates through different stages and flavors of a romantic relationship, from the high-energy, horn line forward bop “No Plans” to the soothing and reassuring ballad “Get By”. As groovy as it is heartfelt, Jack The Songman’s first album is an exposition on joy, warmth, and endearment. Website | Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook Giovanna Diora is an artist at heart. Between photography, dance, piano, and now music production, she’s relentless in finding new ways to express herself.Born into a Puerto Rican-Italian family in NYC before moving to North Carolina, Giovanna was immersed in different cultures from a young age. Her early influences of disco, salsa, reggaeton, and RnB sparked a desire to genre-bend once she began writing songs of her own. Giovanna’s current inspirations include KAYTRANADA, Amber Mark, Jorja Smith, and LION BABE.In 2023, Giovanna released her debut single, “Poolside”, experimenting with a house pop sound. Instagram | Spotify Jesse Fox – a name that echoes within the realm of soulful artistry and immersive storytelling. Each performance is a gateway to an emotional landscape where heartfelt melodies and eloquent narratives seamlessly entwine, resonating deep within the core of one’s being. Rooted in the musically diverse landscape of North Carolina, Fox emerges as a master craftsman of lyrics, weaving songs that stir even the most stoic of spirits.From his early musical explorations with the acclaimed folk band Love & Valor, Jesse embarked on a journey to define his voice as a singular singer-songwriter. Guided by the echoes of the past, he channels the timeless resonance of songsmiths like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Concurrently, he embraces the sonic tapestry of modern troubadours like The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, and The Civil Wars. The result is an enchanting fusion of Americana, folk, and deeply emotive ballads. Website
DB Edmunds Album Release Show
A founding member of late 90s guitar pop cult favorites, Gladhands, and lead singer/songwriter/guitarist for Chapel Hill- based The Stars Explode (2007-2017), DB Edmunds started his solo journey in 2022 with the release of the critically acclaimed EP, Life’s Wild Ride. His new LP, Everybody Knows By Now – mixed by Mitch Easter – drops on 11/8/2024! Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Tan Universe
With a name originating from a tanning salon, Tan Universe is the recording project and live band of North Carolina born singer/songwriter Dan O’Grady, featuring a revolving door of collaborators. As of 6/2/23, the band has officially released their first studio album, Tastefully Quaint Trinkets & Antiques. Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify
Jordana
Who is Jordana Nye? And what is her signature sound? It depends on when you ask. The 24-year-old, Maryland-raised songwriter arrived on the music scene with 2020’s Classical Notions of Happiness, an album of lo-fi pop and hushed folk songs recorded in her Maryland & Kansas bedrooms. She’d be back by the end of that same year with Something To Say To You, a compilation of two EPs featuring craggy indie rock and brokenhearted acoustic fare recorded in NYC apartment studios with friends. By 2022 she was swinging for the fences with the pristine pop of Face The Wall, all while shuttling back and forth between Brooklyn and her soon-to-be home of Eagle Rock, LA collaborating on a wide array of projects with a who’s who of Gen Z artists: Magdalena Bay, TV Girl, Yot Club, Paul Cherry, Dent May, Inner Wave. “I don’t think I’ll ever settle on a specific sound,” says Jordana. “I’m just a chameleon.” So her vibrant fourth LP, Lively Premonition, which is equal parts Laurel Canyon folk and shimmering yacht rock, should surprise no one. “Maybe it’s my LA record,” she says of the album she worked on with producer and multi-instrumentalist Emmett Kai for the entirety of 2023. “I can’t pinpoint exactly what affected it, but I do think the sun has its beam on me. Through all of these releases, it’s so cool to see which eras I’ve gone through and what I’ve experimented with,” says Jordana. Though the concept of eras is exhaustingly omnipresent at the moment, Jordana has earned the right to draw the definitive lines between her releases and musical phases. Her current iteration owes a debt to a deep love for artists like The Mamas & The Papas, Carole King, Donald Fagen & Walter Becker – all New Yorkers who, like Jordana, moved out west and found their sounds flourishing. You can hear that newfound confidence on the blissed out opening track “We Get By,” a rollicking folk rock epic brave enough to detour into a forty second violin solo. “I’m fully back on my violin shit and it feels good. I’m so glad I rediscovered the magic of it,” says Jordana of the instrument she studied as a child. “Sometimes you need time away from something to come back to it with open arms.” “The whole record is this mixed bag of tricks with plenty of cheeky lyrical and instrumental decisions,” she says. “We’re taking tons of risks here.” But it’s not just the music that takes risks on Lively Premonition, Jordana’s writing blossoms as well. For the first time ever, the thematic and conceptual preoccupations of her songs stem from stories both real and imagined. “I was actually ushered into a new process of writing I didn’t think I was capable of,” she says. “Making shit up!” On “Like A Dog” a jaunty bassline leads a sunbeam synth and staccato piano stabs under a song about being a dog for someone’s admiration. “I love how theatrical it sounds with the metaphorical humor of being a dog for someone,” says Jordana. “But the breakup songs were straight up for the most part — I don’t fuck around with that.” So ultimately the core of the record comes back to her lived experience: crumbling relationships, a newfound sobriety, finding a place in a new city and people to help build it with her. Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Mercury Rev
Since forming in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, Mercury Rev has made a career of boldly exploring the fringes of artistic perception, channeling colors and sounds and visions that always seem just beyond our mortal reach. The Guardian hailed the group as “a rarity in indie rock: a band who have continually evolved their sound, pushing at the boundaries of what rock music actually means over 25 years, borrowing from jazz, funk, doo-wop, techno, folk and more along the way,” while Rolling Stone praised their “majestic chaos,” and the BBC lauded their “shimmering psychedelic pop, immersive indie-rock, [and] spectacularly engrossing passages of sumptuous instrumentation.” The band’s 1991 debut, ‘Yerself Is Steam,’ landed on Pitchfork’s Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time, and their 1998 breakthrough, ‘Deserter’s Songs’, upon its release was named NME’s Album of the Year, Pitchfork’s 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s (2003),Melody Maker’s All Time Top 100 Albums (2000),Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time (2016) and multiple1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die lists. Diverse musical collaborations with legendary artistic luminaries as well as major festival and network television performances around the world have solidified their status as One of America’s most pioneering groups capable of straddling the line between mainstream appeal and progressive musical experimentation… Recorded in the Catskills, the band’s ninth album, Born Horses, is out now on Bella Union. Website | Instagram | Facebook
Sierra Hull
Sierra Hull is widely regarded to be a master of her instrument; A two-time Grammy Nominated artist and songwriter, recognized for both her most recent projects, 25 Trips (2020) and Weighted Mind (2016), she is also the 6x recipient of IBMA’s Mandolin Player of the Year, the first woman to ever receive this distinction. A pioneer for acoustic music throughout her already impressive multi-decade career, she has graced the country’s most iconic stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry, and the White House. Her virtuosic abilities have garnered respect from genre-defining trailblazers, friends, and collaborators such as Alison Krauss, Sturgill Simpson, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Béla Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, and Brandi Carlile. Originally hailing from Byrdstown, Tennessee, her unique sound is rooted in bluegrass, and she is widely considered one of acoustic music’s most inventive artists. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
