Cosmic Charlie – High Energy Grateful Dead from Athens, GA
“Cosmic Charlie really is a great band – these guys do this music the way it should be done: having the conversation in their own voices.” -David Gans, Grateful Dead archivist Cosmic Charlie was born in the musical Mecca of Athens, Georgia. From its summer 1999 inception, the band swiftly cemented its reputation as a band that puts a unique and personal twist on the Grateful Dead catalogue. Cosmic Charlie is a Dead cover band for folks that are ambivalent about Dead cover bands. Rather than mimicking the Dead exactly, Cosmic Charlie chooses to tap into the Dead’s energy and style as a foundation on which to build. The result is healthy balance of creativity and tradition, where both the band and its audience are taken to that familiar edge with the sense that, music is actually being MADE here tonight. Moving and shaking even the most skeptical of Deadheads, Cosmic Charlie storms into a town and plays with an energy that eludes other bands, an energy that sometimes eluded the Dead themselves. Those precious moments during Dead jams when the synchronicity is there and all is right with the world – these are the moments that Cosmic Charlie relishes and feverishly welcomes with open arms. Clearly, Cosmic Charlie’s audiences are also eager to partake in these moments, and together with the band, they have indulged in many memorable evenings.Most nights, Cosmic Charlie walks onstage without a setlist, not even knowing what the first song will be. Any Dead tune can rear its head at any moment, and fan requests are always welcome. “INSPIRATON, MOVE ME BRIGHTLY” is Cosmic Charlie’s mantra, allowing the music to truly play the band.Website | Facebook | YouTube
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
The Yardarm Album Release Show
The Yardarm got its start in 2017 when, in the only documented incident of this going well for anyone, JJ Westfield and Jason Bales were prompted to play together by their wives. After finding their tastes and skills in music meshed, Jason promptly ignored any conventional wisdom about not $#!{{ing where he eats and enlisted two of his co-workers, John Cowan and Palmer Smith, to play drums and bass. Since then, the Yardarm has played their twangy rock and roll across the Triangle and as far out as Brevard, NC on stages of all sizes, be they small, intimate, cozy, or cramped.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Winnetka Bowling League
The origins of Winnetka Bowling League started with an existential crisis. While singer and guitarist Matthew Koma’s childhood was spent listening to Elvis Costello and Squeeze and growing up in the East Coast hardcore and punk scenes, most of his adult life found him writing songs for electronic musicians and pop stars. Drawn to the rock music of his youth, in 2018 he started Winnetka Bowling League with his brother Kris Mazzarisi on drums, Sam Beresford on keys, giving him the freedom to explore what he truly loved about music. The band’s 2018 self-titled debut EP kickstarted a prolific streak of singles and EPs through 2023 that included the viral songs “On the 5,” “CVS,” and “Slow Dances.” On each release Winnetka Bowling League display a penchant for masterful melody-making, sardonic lyrical specificity, and a profound sense of rock’n’roll timelessness. Their most recent offering, “Sha La La” is no exception.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Elliott Fullam
Elliott Fullam is a New Jersey artist who conjures the magic of when loneliness meets hope with his ghostly vocal melodies and gentle guitar tracks that bring a tranquil feeling to the listener. Elliott’s songs are recorded in his bedroom at home and mastered by the world-renowned Alan Douches of West West Side Music. His teenage goal was to release his first album by the time he turned 18 and he achieved that goal with the release of his debut album “What’s Wrong” on his 18th birthday of September 2, 2022. Fullam followed up this effort in September of 2023 with his second full-length album “End of Ways.”Elliott is also an actor, playing the co-starring role as Jonathan in the films Terrifier 3 and Terrifier 2 which made a big smash at the box office as an uncut and unrated horror film. And as a dedicated music fan, Elliott has interviewed many musicians since the age of 9 including James Hetfield of Metallica, J Mascis, Ice-T, Jay Weinberg of Slipknot and many more. He always held his passion for music in high regard while finding inspiration in his favorites Elliott Smith, Duster, Mazzy Star, Broadcast, Radiohead and Nick Drake. With nothing else in his life plans aside from the pursuit of creating the best music he possibly could while sustaining his promising acting career, Elliott will continue to release music and play shows for as long as he exists on this planet in hopes that he may be a small part of the force for good in this trying world.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | TikTok
Bad Nerves
The bastard child of a Ramones/Strokes one night stand, Bad Nerves play ferociously fast distorted pop songs and drew acclaim with their previous releases ‘Dreaming’, ‘Baby Drummer’, & ‘Can’t Be Mine’. It would appear to be in the DNA of rock music, particularly punk music, that the music itself happens by some kind of happy accident. Nothing truer could be said of the Essex five piece speed punk band. For frontman Bobby, the formation of the band itself was an unintentional happenstance that just wound up taking off in unexpected but very exciting directions. Did band life choose Bad Nerves or did Bad Nerves choose band life? It’s hard to say. On the eve of releasing their second album, the brilliantly titled Still Nervous, the boys are still reeling from their surprise success. Their self-made, self-funded debut put them in the hearts and minds of the cream of the alternative crop in 2020; from tastemakers such as Dan P Carter to Alyx Holcombe, and from peers like Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong to Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard, Bad Nerves were instantaneously heralded with the poisoned chalice of saviours of a type of punk that promises to never die. They’ve toured with Royal Blood and The Darkness, and have drawn comparisons to Supergrass, the Ramones and Jay Reatard. And despite all that, their pop rock is a unique – and very fast – whack over the head that reminds us all of the future life left in hell-raising loud and fast music. Speaking from his dad’s garage-come-studio in Colchester, frontman Bobby recounts how he and bandmate Will had always played in bands. By chance of a random text at the end of 2015 (“let’s do a band!”), Bobby relented once more unto the breach. “Seems like a terrible idea,” he recalls. “Really?! Another band?!” However with “nothing else to do”, it became the only choice. Bad Nerves began to write songs, and promised to never play live, but the songs were so much fun they were forced to reconsider. The only challenge was the pace of said songs. “Finding a drummer was a nightmare,” he laughs. But what started off as a laugh has now become a fated mission. Gone is the blasé motivation, now Bad Nerves are laser-focused on this being the best thing they’ve ever done. “It feels like this is the main thing that any of us will do in our lives,” says Bobby. “If we’re remembered for anything…” Given that rock doesn’t have as much of a look-in on the air and in the press, Bad Nerves feel a calling to try and revive rock from the rust. Their second LP, Still Nervous, is due for release Spring 2024. Did they feel pressure approaching the sophomore slump, so to speak? Not at all. The process was more or less the same; Bobby demoing the tracks in his dad’s garage, and then the band re-recording everything “properly” with their friend Mike Curtis. The only difference was in trying to ensure that they were still writing for themselves, and not just to satiate their new audience. “When I write songs thinking about what people expect I end up mimicking the first record, but not well,” says Bobby. That internal battle was new, but Bobby quickly realised you can’t write like that, and in the process of being “pissed off trying to write a Bad Nerves song”, he found some of the best tracks on the album, doing whatever he wanted.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify
With Love
They were the greatest band in a century. Lyrics tattooed on your wrist. They were gonna stay together forever but they couldn’t keep up with the kids, and so they called it quits. Now they’re gone and you won’t get them back. At least you have this. With Love,Reilly With Love Bandcamp | Spotify | InstagramJuggs InstagramBraless Spotify | Instagram
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.”Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out XXX on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).The album’s geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. The 11 songs on Texicali also connect the duo’s shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s.Gilmore is primarily known for left-of-center country music, while Alvin’s compass points largely toward old-school blues. But there’s a lot of ground to cover beyond those foundations, and both artists also are well-known for transcending genre limitations. So it’s not surprising that they’ve spiked Texicali with cosmic folk narratives, deep R&B grooves and even swinging reggae rhythms. “There’s such a strange variety through the whole thing,” Gilmore says. “And I love that.”They’re both quick to credit the musicians who joined them in the studio as crucial to the sound and spirit of the album. On Downey To Lubbock, they recorded primarily in Los Angeles with a crew that included ringers such as the late Don Heffington on drums and Van Dyke Parks on accordion. This time, though, Alvin’s longtime rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Brad Fordham played a larger role, along with guitarist Chris Miller and keyboardist Bukka Allen. “After the time we spent touring, Jimmie and I became members of this band,” Alvin says. “The band can play just about anything, which the album shows off.”Texicali also found Alvin and Gilmore increasingly focusing on original songs. Among them are “Trying To Be Free,” which Gilmore wrote more than 50 years ago; “Southwest Chief,” a collaboration between Alvin and the late Bill Morrissey; and “Death of the Last Stripper,” which Alvin wrote with Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey Allen. Dave Alvin Website | Instagram | Facebook Jimmie Dale Gilmore Website | Instagram | Facebook
Sawyer Hill
Sawyer Hill’s soaring baritone voice halts you in your tracks and will one day shake the rafters of the most iconic venues. The diamond-in-the-rough rocker hailing from Fayetteville, Arkansas is cutting through with Gen Z listeners on Instagram and TikTok where he’s amassed an audience of nearly 400k followers thanks to an unexpected sound influenced by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. The clever lyrical hook and refreshingly contemporary take on 90s rock guitar riffs in his song “Look At The Time” (“when you say that I’m the only one, did you mean that I’m the closest one around?”) propelled it to the top of the Spotify US Viral Chart. He is currently finishing up his debut EP and hitting the road where the fervor is coming to life with Sawyer selling out 200-300 cap rooms across cities in Arkansas, Dallas, and Austin.Website | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
Queef Jerky
Instagram | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
