Carrtoons
CARRTOONS has become one of the most sought-after producers through his eye-catching Instagram videos and the buzz of his latest album, “Homegrown” (Wichita Recordings). His unique bass lines and fills have made him a favorite, leading to a recent appearance on NPR Tiny Desk (at home), and a commercial placement with Supreme + Nike. He has performed or recorded with Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, George Clinton, Benny the Butcher, Mac Ayres, Kiefer and many more…Website | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
The Big Star Quintet: 50th Anniversary of Radio City
CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BIG STAR’S Radio City Featuring Jody Stephens (Big Star), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Jon Auer (The Posies), Pat Sansone (Wilco) & Chris Stamey (The dB’s)
Magdalena Bay: The Imaginal Mystery Tour
Embracing the volatility and vulnerability of the real world, LA-based indie-pop duo Magdalena Bay create a reality of their own — one that is equally shimmering as it is self aware. The band have used social platforms to dispatch their music, and what you might call their philosophy, in hypnotic, ephemeral bursts. To Mica Tenenbaum and Matt Lewin, reality can be unmade, manipulated beyond all recognition; their project is as much musical as it is an experiment in pop persona and visual aesthetics. In October 2021, Magdalena Bay released their debut full-length LP, Mercurial World, via Luminelle, to critical acclaim. Written, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by the duo, Mercurial World proposes an abstract theory of time and explores the staggering “what ifs” that make up the human experience. With roots in prog-rock and inspired by bleeding edge producers like Charli XCX and Grimes, the duo creates striking yet self aware soundscapes and visuals that are becoming their true Magdalena-Bay-world signature. With a live show as captivating and dimensional as the music itself, 2022 boasts a sold out North America headline tour, and support dates with the likes of Flume, Porter Robinson and Charli XCX. Approaching actuality as a construct allows Magdalena Bay to enact their own, one that is committed to nothing but expanding the possible.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Ballyhoo!
Through 25 years and eight independent albums, the last four on their own Right Coast Records, Ballyhoo! have earned the exclamation point which marks their name. Starting in the basement of their mom’s Aberdeen, MD, home, rocking out on guitar and drums respectively, practicing every day, brothers Howi and Donald Spangler formed the proto-punk band in the mold of Green Day and Nirvana, with an eye towards the emerging ska genre led by Goldfinger, Sublime, 311 and No Doubt.The group’s eighth and most recent studio album, the breezy, ska-fueled, hook- filled Message to the World, on their own Right Coast Records, finds the self- declared “beach-rockers,” having grown up in public, accepting the responsibilities of adulthood while still hanging on to their dreams of world domination. Stylistically, their music ranges from the hard-edged punk of 2018’s Detonate, which captured the feelings of anger and depression from dealing with personal loss and the exhaustion generated by over a decade on the road to the island reggae beats of the follow-up, Message to the World.“Whatever you want to achieve, just focus on that and work towards it,” explains Howi about the Ballyhoo! ethos. “Don’t worry about followers, views, or even money. Just keep making good stuff. One day it may be possible to finally quit that day job and live your dream full time.”Ballyhoo! is still doing just that, purveying good vibes, positivity and fun live shows meant to take you away from real life…Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Whitehall
Whitehall is an indie rock four-piece band based in Brooklyn, NY originally from Charleston, SC. Paddy McKiernan (vocals, guitar), Brennan Clark (bass), Davis Rowe (drums), and Avery Greeson (guitar) met in college, and got their start writing songs in a dorm room. After four years spent in the South Carolina DIY scene playing house shows throughout the state, the band recorded their debut album, Ocean Fiction, and embarked on their first tour on the East coast with a live show that is at once frenetic and introspective. In the years that followed, Whitehall recorded and released their sophomore effort Swordfish Catcher and received praise and playlist placement from national publications like NPR, Alternative Press, and American Songwriter. This album saw their sound shift from bouncy, melody-laden indie, to something grittier, with distorted guitars and imaginative lyricism that more closely resembles acts like Pavement and Car Seat Headrest. After touring extensively between 2021 and 2023 with acts such as Goo Goo Dolls, Arlie, and Carver Commodore, the band released their 3rd LP, Maizy, a collection of tracks written mostly over a period of two weeks in isolation in the Appalachian Mountains. The record came to life with help from legendary producer Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, White Reaper). Whitehall continues to tour North America and will be in a city near you soon! “I dare you to find a group of guys who has as much fun doing what they love as the members of Whitehall. What really strikes me about the band is that they were completely involved in the environment, bouncing energy off of each other in a way that radiates good vibes. The band does not have a weak member, and somehow they all manage to stand out without ever outshining one another.” – Iman Qatawi, Extra Chill “As the press release notes, it “truly is a Charleston creation” from the recording, the vibe of the song, and the label it’s being released on, Real South Records.” – David Stringer, Scene SC “The mutha f*ckin butt naked truth” – Rod “Incredible” – Luke Waldrop, YouTube Vocals, Guitar / Paddy MckiernanGuitar / Avery GreesonBass / Brennan Clark Drums / Davis RoweWebsite | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Luna Li
Luna Li is more than a musical project. It’s a world unto itself, and a kingdom of its creator’s making. For the Korean-Canadian, Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist songwriter, composer, and producer Hannah Bussiere Kim, the universe of Luna Li is hyperlush and inclusive by design. It’s an evolving, musical transmission that takes its cues from nature’s healing properties to explore vulnerability and identity. A blend of indie rock and psych; where experimental neoclassical morphs into pristine pop, Luna Li is the sound of an everyday symphony, crafted from the perspective of the female gaze. When the pandemic started, Li started self-recording instrumental interludes as a radical form of care. By letting others into spontaneous moments of creation, she made her process transparent and communal. Her self-recorded “jams” — video snippets of her constructing beats piecemeal — went viral many times over, racking up over 8 million streams and producing a fiercely loyal following. Its resulting self-titled EP garnered widespread acclaim (“Why aren’t people queuing up to buy beats from this person?,” asked The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano.) and led to coverage in Fashion, Paper Magazine, i-D and a slot opening for Japanese Breakfast. In 2021 Li performed on the main stage of 88rising’s “Head In The Clouds” festival, and in 2022 was selected as one of NME’s Top 100 Emerging Artists. Luna Li’s debut record Duality (featuring Jay Som, Dreamer Isioma, and beabadoobee) wrestles intimate, otherworldly questions to the ground in order to better understand the collective. Capable of both detonating an incendiary riff, or slipping into the splendor of celestial strings, the album’s power lies in its most delicate moments. “Each song on the album has some element of light and dark,” Luna Li says. “Where there’s happiness there’s still uncertainty; where there’s anxiety there’s also beauty; and where there’s tension there’s freedom.”Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Conway The Machine
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Caiola
Jordan Caiola (CAI•OLA) is a songwriter/musician/producer based out of Philadelphia. He founded the indie rock band Mo Lowda & The Humble in 2010 and due to its intense touring schedule, the band became his main priority along with his side project NightSeason (founded 2016)- an indie/electro-pop producer duo. Though he always felt writing folk songs was his true “wheelhouse”, it wasn’t until the nationwide lockdown in early 2020 that he finally put aside the time to record a collection of those songs for his first solo album ‘Only Real When Shared’. Now, Caiola tours year-round with both Mo Lowda and his solo project. His second solo record is set to be released in 2024.Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
French Police
Formed in Chicago, French Police is led by vocalist and guitarist Brian Flores. Their music combines raw energy and introspection, cultivating a dedicated and underground following with their distinctive sound. With the release of their albums “French Police” (2019), “Haunted Castle” (2020), and “BLEU” (2023), they have showcased their artistic growth and have established a sense of identity. French Police has toured in Mexico and North America. Drawing from a variety of influences and inspiration, their music carries a touch of cultural richness, that sets them in a league of their own.Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Washed Out
The music of Washed Out has always levitated over a timeless frontier. You can sense it in his immersive, amorphous vocals, the expansive soundscapes, the wistful storytelling. It’s a sweet spot where, says its creative force, Ernest Greene, “any sort of association or memory from the past can transport you instantly. I love that.”Greene’s transcendent output has earned him the moniker of “Godfather of Chillwave” by Pitchfork and a co-sign from Portlandia, which borrowed his track, “Feel It All Around,” for its utopian theme song. His latest, Notes From a Quiet Life (out June 28, Sub Pop) arrives after delivering more than a decade of distinct and disparate creative re-imaginations at a remarkably high level (five albums, two EPs). Notes is bold in its intuitiveness: Greene has left the treadmill of music-as-a-business, instead letting his artistic interests lead the way. “Each album,” says Green, who also paints and sculpts, “is a world-building exercise.”The Georgia native left Atlanta in 2021 to move back to the countryside he knew growing up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today he is preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him. He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd — its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”), and it has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large scale visual-art experiments.“I’ve read that every five, maybe 10, years, you’re practically a different person — like literally, on a cellular level,” Greene explains. “The things that you’re going through will end up changing you, and you’re kind of a different person. This album is a reflection of that. Experimenting with painting and sculpture helps my music. They influence each other. That was a kind of realization for me. I don’t want to look back on my life one day, and be like, ’Oh, it was all about maximizing productivity,’” he says. “I want to enjoy this.”That purity of vision is what makes Notes From a Quiet Life so potent. It’s the first album Greene wholly self-produced, with some mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + the Machine). “Early in my career, I had a lack of technical skill, and there were some things I wasn’t 100% enthusiastic about,” he says, noting Jean-Michel Basquiat’s distinct, self-driven method as an inspiration. “Something that I was looking for was…I didn’t want any illusion of anyone else’s influences. I wanted to see this through to the end. And honestly, that was a big challenge.Illustrating that, Greene’s list of influences for Notes From a Quiet Life are mostly sculpture icons: minimalist legend Donald Judd, abstract expressionist Cy Twombly, and modernists Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Of the latter, he observes, “The majority of his working life was spent on his country estate, and he wasn’t living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. He was focused on just making good work, you know?”Notes from a Quiet Life is Washed Out’s fifth album. Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
