Anthony Raneri – The Everyday Royalty Tour
With Nate Bergman. The latest solo project from singer/songwriter Anthony Raneri, Everyday Royalty is proof of the pure unbridled magic that happens when total freedom meets intention and experience. In a departure from the blistering sound he’s delivered for nearly 25 years as frontman for iconic punk band Bayside, the seven-song EP shapeshifts from anthemic alt-rock to soul-searching indie-folk to full-tilt country as Raneri simultaneously deepens his songcraft and follows his most unfettered impulses. “Most of this record came from getting into a room with friends and working on songs for fun, then walking out with a lot of cool material without really even planning on it,” says the Nashville-based, New York City-born musician. “It reminded me of when I first started out and everything was 100 percent DIY—I was just doing what felt exciting, with absolutely no rules.” His third EP and first solo effort since 2015’s Sorry State of Mind, Everyday Royalty finds Raneri joining forces with co-writers/producers like Sam Tinnesz (Dashboard Confessional, Royal & the Serpent) and Joey Hyde (Jake Owen, Ryan Hurd), ultimately bringing a new element of nuanced self-reflection to the unflinching honesty that’s always defined his songwriting. On the EP’s gritty yet hypnotic lead single “Bones,” that dynamic takes the form of an up-close portrait of emotional desolation, achieving a larger-than-life power at its hard-hitting chorus. But while “Bones” bears a moody intensity, much of Everyday Royalty radiates a strangely hopeful spirit—a quality fully echoed in the EP’s title. “The idea behind Everyday Royalty is that greatness can exist anywhere and in anyone,” Raneri explains. “With Bayside, I tend to make heavy music that’s meant for everyone to scream along and hopefully find some catharsis, but with this record the goal was to make people feel good right off the bat. It’s something I’ve never done before in my career, and it showed me that you can write happy songs and still create something with real meaning.” Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
SASAMI
SASAMI is back with “Honeycrash,” a stadium-sized ballad that swells with cinematic grandeur brought to life via its video directed by Andrew Thomas Huang (Björk, FKA Twigs). “I wanted to write a song with all the drama of a 19th century classical opera but with the patience and understanding of someone in therapy in 2024,” SASAMI explains. “Finding a love so great you’re willing to persist through the elements, even toward certain death to bear its ravishment. It’s about wanting to fight for the pinnacle of passion and desire but knowing that you can’t change or rush someone else’s feelings or where they’re at. But with a guitar as my sword and my steed. I have been so fortunate to find a collaborator in Andrew, and together we made a sexy little drama of our own. The ‘Honeycrash’ video is a peek into the new world that I have been building and teasing out on stage. I am really thrilled to unleash this first of many new songs in an era of melodrama, romance, and hooks of course.” “Honeycrash” is a panorama of longing: SASAMI’s widest-screen rendering of the processes of love in all its devastation and expansiveness. This is SASAMI as an auteur of heartache, mixing the epic sweep of a Wagner opera with sci-fi action to say, “This is how I feel, I’m going to let you figure it out. But don’t give up on us.” Andrew Thomas Huang on “Honeycrash”:“When I first heard ‘Honeycrash’ I was moved by the thunderous romanticism and cinematic scope of SASAMI’s new sonic direction. After long conversations about the pop focus of her new album, I wanted to create a video for her that felt big, sweeping and sexy while showcasing her performance as the highlight of the piece. I wanted to create a video that evoked themes and images such as runaway fugitives, rogue sisterhood, distressed denim, rugged natural elements, primal rage, Thelma and Louise, tsunamis, tornadoes, blazing sunsets, sci-fi apocalyptic visions of the American West, and passionate ‘i would die for you’ level romance. Achieving this vision on a budget was ambitious but made possible by filming on a volume LED stage and relying on the use of epic stock footage to set the scene for the backdrop of Sasami’s new universe. I am honored to collaborate with SASAMI again on this new journey and am smitten by the world she is heralding with her new sound and vision.” Praise For 2022’s Squeeze:“Feels both darkly menacing and openly heartfelt. SASAMI assumes the roles of tormentor and tormented, contending with a world that can be emotionally overwhelming in so many ways.” -The New York Times “A collection of tracks that sound like she’s digging her nails into the walls of a black hole in an attempt to escape, her mood alternating between feverish determination and clear-eyed hope.” -Pitchfork “For a song just over two-and-a-half minutes, ‘Skin a Rat’ lands a whole bunch of different blows, each harder and more unexpected than the last. And, like all good rock & roll bruisings, the moment it’s over, you’re ready to spin it back for more.” -Rolling Stone Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Sun June
The first two minutes of Sun June’s third album, Bad Dream Jaguar, is a reverie – Laura Colwell’s voice floats above a slow-burn, sparse synth, conjuring a tipsy loneliness, a hazy recollection, a disco ball spinning at the end of the night for an empty dance floor. Sun June’s music often feels like a shared memory – the details so close to the edge of a song that you can touch them. And as an Austin-based project, their music has also always felt strangely and specifically Texan – unhurried, long drives across an impossible expanse of openness, refractions shimmering off the pavement in the heat. But on Bad Dream Jaguar, Sun June is unmoored. The backdrop of Texas is replaced by longing, by distance, by transience, and a quiet fear. The only sense of certainty comes from the murky past. It’s a dispatch from aging, when you’re in the strange in-between of yourself: there’s a clear image of the person you once were and the places you inhabited, generational curses and our families, but the future feels vast, unclear – and the present can’t help but slip through your fingers. There’s a constant push-and-pull in Sun June’s songwriting. Vocalist and band leader Colwell and guitarist Stephen Salisbury have shared songwriting duties since the band’s inception, but Bad Dream Jaguar is the first time they collaborated from afar. Salisbury left Texas for North Carolina in 2020, shifting the way the band recorded, and beginning a long-distance relationship between him and Colwell. It gave more room to Sun June’s other members – lead guitarist Michael Bain (whose lithe guitar parts Colwell credits as imparting that “dust ol’ Texas sound”), bassist Justin Harris, and drummer Sarah Schultz – to explore other projects. And for Colwell, it made it easier to explore songwriting as an individual, living and writing songs alone. It also meant there was a newfound privacy to these songs, as Colwell and Salisbury wrote songs for and about one another some 1300 miles apart. The distance strained their relationship, and they poured those struggles into songs. When Salisbury sent the first iteration of “Washington Square” to Colwell, it felt like a gut punch – a, “Damn, he’s really going through it” moment. It felt heavier to be collaborating and songwriting in this way, not inhabiting the same room but instead the same lonely sadness. But it also allowed for a new type of intimacy. And it was a comfort in some ways, to be allowed into someone else’s psyche and pain. To be truly seen, even from afar. Colwell left Texas in 2022 for North Carolina. The record was recorded in spurts, the first Sun June LP that wasn’t just born out of five musicians in a room. It took five or six sessions across a number of studios, with the bulk of it coming together at producer Duszynski’s Dandy Sounds. They also invited in more collaborators to flesh out their cinematic, spacious sound. Here, the existing line-up of Colwell, Salisbury, Bain, Harris, and Schultz, alongside guitars/vocals from new touring member Santiago Dietche, is built out with woodwinds from Alexis Marsh, Justin Morris’ pedal steel, and Duszynski’s guitars and synths. It required trust in new collaborators, and in each other, in a new process. Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | Soundcloud
The Mayflies USA
The Mayflies USA arrived on the post-indie-boom mid-90’s Chapel Hill scene as an anomaly, playing tuneful, ragged rock once memorably described in Spin Magazine as “r-o-c-k like they don’t make anymore… dreaming of the Replacements and Pure Prairie League and proud of it.” Their debut album “Summertown” was released in 1999 to widespread acclaim as an instant modern power-pop classic, and they released two other well-regarded albums: 2000’s The Pity List and 2002’s Walking in a Straight Line. Now, in 2024, the Mayflies USA return with a fourth album, Kickless Kids. Fans of melodic rock will rejoice in these eleven new tracks that find, after twenty-five years, the band sounding as classic, timeless, and vital as ever. Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Carrboro Music Festival Hip Hop & Grooves Showcase
‘Hip-Hop & Grooves’ Showcase presented by Carrboro Music Festival & Cat’s Cradle! Join us for our annual Hip-Hop & Grooves Showcase at the Carrboro Music Festival!! 😃🙌🏾🎹🎷🎤🎵✨ This all-day event will feature talented local Hip Hop and multi-genre artists from across North Carolina. If you’ve been to one of our showcases before, you know you’re in for a great time with amazing live music! Don’t miss out on the good vibes and unforgettable performances! 😎🤙🏾🎶 FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY:Cypher – 2:00Shambo – 2:30Jamaal Matters – 3:00Turnabout Players – 3:30Donovan Harrell – 4:00T.I.M.E. – 4:30DJ Reimei – 5:00.zone – 5:30Sarah Kaboom – 6:00ABNormal Music Group – 6:30Essi Sings – 7:00Henry Cole – 7:30SAKY – 8:00MayDayGLO – 8:30DrewShamir. – 9:00SkyBlew – 9:30 Sounds provided by: Truck Willis & Navo The Maestro Website
Carrboro Music Festival
With Warka, The Auxiliary, Deacon Orb Weaver, Winfield, Scrape, Slow Teeth Established in 1998, the Festival was originally held on June 21st as an official affiliate of the Fête de la Musique, which is also known as ‘Make Music Day’. The purpose of the event was to make all genres of music more accessible to the public through free concerts where all performers donated their time. As the Carrboro Music Festival was eventually moved to a cooler Fall date, the official relationship with ‘Make Music Day’ came to an end. More recently, the Carrboro Music Festival has been an effort to host a free one-day event (plus a kickoff show) that showcases Triangle-area performers and the varied musical styles they represent. While performers in prior years received t-shirts and food vouchers in appreciation for volunteering their time in the same spirit as the Fête de la Musique, groups who are officially selected will now receive paid compensation in the form of an honorarium. The event is a product of a coordinated effort by the Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department and the Carrboro Music Festival Planning Committee. This program is supported by the Town of Carrboro and the Carrboro Tourism Development Authority. Generous support is also provided by the local business community. Please visit the sponsorship page for a complete list of sponsors. Website
Carrboro Music Festival Kickoff: Dawn Landes & Chessa Rich
Dawn Landes is a North Carolina-based singer-songwriter whose music you might have heard if you watch The Good Wife, House or Gossip Girl. Along with releasing seven albums and five EPs since 2005, she’s a frequent collaborator with contemporaries such as Sufjan Stevens, Norah Jones and composer Nico Muhly. She has appeared with the Boston Pops, the NYC Ballet and on the TED main stage. Her musical ROW about fellow Kentucky native Tori Murden McClure’s quest to become the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean premiered in 2021 at Williamstown Theatre Festival and is available on Audible. Her latest release is The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, an album of folk songs that leads us through a history of women’s activism from the 1800’s through the high times of Women’s Lib in the 1970’s. The album was produced by her longtime collaborator Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman) and features guests including Emily Frantz (Watchhouse, formerly Mandolin Orange), Kanene Pipkin (The Lone Bellow) Charly Lowry, Rissi Palmer and Lizzy Ross (Violet Bell). Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube I’ve been a vivid and frequent dreamer my whole life,” says Chessa Rich. “I feel that my dreams are a) the portal to my truest well of creativity and image-making and b) sometimes the most fun part of my day.” However, sleeping and dreaming do not always peacefully coexist. Or at least not for the North Carolina-based Chessa Rich, who wrote the shadowy and aquatic Deeper Sleeper about the years she spent living with an undiagnosed sleep disorder that dramatically influenced her relationship to sleep, productivity, dreaming and creativity. “Each song on this record reflects a different aspect of my relationship with sleeping and dreaming,” said Rich. “Some were born in frustration and anger at a body that won’t do what I want it to do, others sound more like giving up, and one is a literal retelling of a dream I had.” Recorded at Milan Hill in March 2021, Deeper Sleeper is the narrative of finally waking up. It showcases her informed rule-breaking songwriting steeped in a past not only of musical collaboration and performance, but of a gentle persistence to discover oneself amidst a vibrant landscape of others. The nine tracks divulge—in Rich’s distinctly seasoned sound—the heartfelt importance of having mindfulness of those closest to you. Across the LP’s sonic landscapes, Rich finds herself in various states of consciousness. Sleeping but unable to wake up, awake but wanting to be asleep, dreaming but not aware of the pieces that form the whole. “All my dreams leave me with a specific, unique feeling, but they rarely have linear narratives that I can follow to lead me to a nice tied-up moral or lesson,” said Rich. “I have to sit with them and let them accompany me throughout my day, letting my brain’s images be what they are. Pieces of the songs on Deeper Sleeper have been floating around with me like dreams for a while, and like dreams, I had to patiently sit with them to let them become what they needed to be.” Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook
Sam Burchfield & The Scoundrels
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Ashley Kutcher – Thanksgiving Break Tour 2024
Ashley Kutcher is a Baltimore-born singer, songwriter, and artist. In 2019, Kutcher performed countless gigs in local bars in between attending college for nursing. Gaining traction with original music online, she answered a TikTok comment with “Love You From A Distance.” After taking over TikTok and inspiring millions of creatives, the song exploded to the tune of over 95mm Spotify streams to date and paved the way for her first two EPs: One Eighty and Survive My Own Mind. In their wake, she sold out her first two headline US Tours. Ashley released her debut album “House on The Water” in January 2024, and has released two singles this summer from her upcoming project. Ashley’s unreleased music is a return to her roots as an acoustic singer/songwriter, marrying hard hitting hooks with a more organic & country influenced sound. Ashley will be on the road in November for her fourth US headline “Thanksgiving Break” tour. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
The Strumbellas
Ever since forming in 2008 and releasing their debut album, 2012’s My Father and the Hunter, two-time JUNO award-winning alternative group The Strumbellas have steadily released follow-ups containing every ounce of stomping, hand-clapping, alt-country gusto, from 2013’s We Still Move on Dance Floors to 2016’s Hope to 2019’s Rattlesnake. They’ll soon round the corner with a brand-new fifth studio album, Part Time Believer, a collection that signals The Strumbellas’ grand return and rebirth. Now with Jimmy Chauveau on board as lead vocalist, The Strumbellas spent the last four years writing, recording, and whittling 50 songs down to 12. Honed by producers Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Kaiser Chiefs), Keith Varon (Machine Gun Kelly), Stevie Aiello (30 Seconds To Mars), and Dave Schiffman (RHCP, The Killers), Part Time Believer continues The Strumbellas’ long-standing tradition of blending anthemic, brightly coloured compositions with yearning, contemplative lyrics. “I think people often feel like things are escaping them, or they’re trying to grab on to something — happiness, gratitude, professional or personal goals — and for some reason, they just can’t get there,” says David Ritter, who handles piano, organ, percussion, and vocals. “Even if they get the thing they want, it doesn’t feel the way they thought it would. A lot of these songs are about trying to, like, figure out why we’re all feeling this way, and how we can find more peace in our lives.” Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
