Helado Negro
Born in South Florida in 1980 to Ecuadorian immigrant parents, the world-building multi-instrumentalist Roberto Carlos Lange stitches together memories, impressions, and atmospheres to make detailed dreamscapes as Helado Negro. He produces, engineers, and mixes his own songs, literally creating and populating his own sonic world. Lange has a degree in Computer Art and Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design and works extensively with video, sculpture, sound, and performance. He brings that toolbox to whatever he makes, and there’s a seeming effortlessness to the complexity. His songs are awash with vibrant melodies, sharp lyrical vignettes, and subtle, even whispered hooks. Since his 2009 debut, Awe Owe, across multiple projects and collaborations, through his breakthrough records, 2016’s Private Energy and 2019’s This Is How You Smile, and to 2021’s Far In, Lange’s work continues to move past easy genre assignments. Showcasing that interest in open-ended multidisciplinarity, in 2022, he and his wife, the artist Kristi Sword, created the multidisciplinary exhibition, Kite Symphony, with Ballroom Marfa—it was a collection of impressionistic installations, drawings and sound pieces that encourages listeners to “open their ears to the sky, the sound of cacti, and the feeling of the wind on their skin.” Lange’s ninth studio record, Phasor, picks up on that interest in the natural world but in the form of pop music. Deep, atmospheric, and meticulously executed, it’s Lange’s tightest collection to date. Lange has been awarded a United States Artist fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant. He lives in Asheville, NC.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
G. Love & Special Sauce 30th Anniversary Tour
“I’ve been in the game a long time, but I’ve always considered myself a student,” says G. Love. “Finishing this album with Keb Mo’ felt like graduation.” Recorded in Nashville with a slew of special guests including Robert Randolph, Marcus King, and Roosevelt Collier, ‘The Juice’ is indeed diploma-worthy. Co-produced and co-written with GRAMMY-winning icon Keb Mo,’ it’s an electrifying collection, one that tips its cap to more than a century of blues greats even as it offers its own distinctly modern pop spin on the genre, mixing programmed beats and hip-hop grooves with blistering guitar and sacred steel. G. Love’s lyrics are both personal and political here, artfully balancing his appreciation for the simple joys in life with his obligation to speak out for justice and equality, and his performances are suitably riotous and rousing to match, with infectious call-and-response hooks and funky sing-along choruses at every turn. Easy as it is to succumb to cynicism these days, the songs on ‘The Juice’ refuse, insisting instead on hope and determination in the face of doubt and despair. “I’ve always tried to make music that’s a force for positivity,” G. Love explains. “It was important to me that this album be something that could empower the folks who are out there fighting the good fight every day. I wanted to make a rallying cry for empathy and unity.” Born Garrett Dutton in Philadelphia, PA, G. Love grew up equally enthralled with folk, blues, and rap, devouring everything from Lead Belly and Run D.M.C. to John Hammond and the Beastie Boys. After migrating to Boston, he and his band, Special Sauce, broke out in 1994 with their Gold-selling self-titled debut, which earned widespread critical acclaim for its bold vision and adventurous production. Over the next twenty-five years, G. Love would go on to release seven more similarly lauded studio studios albums with Special Sauce (plus four solo albums on his own), solidifying his place in music history as a genre-bending pioneer with a sound The New York Times described as “a new and urgent hybrid” and NPR called a “musical melting pot.” G. Love’s magnetic stage presence, meanwhile, made him a fixture on festival lineups from Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza, and his relentless appetite for tour and collaboration landed him on the road and in the studio with artists as diverse as Lucinda Williams, Dave Matthews, The Avett Brothers, Jack Johnson, and DJ Logic. While G. Love has covered considerable sonic ground during his prolific career, he’s always found himself drawn back to the blues, and to one bluesman in particular. “Keb Mo’ and I got signed to the same label at the same time back when I first started out, and we toured together early on in my career,” G. Love remembers. “He used to introduce me onstage as ‘a true American original,’ and I could tell that he got a kick out of what I did. We didn’t see each other for a while after that, but a few years ago we reconnected and did a co-headline tour, which was really special for me.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Dan Bern
If you must put him in a box, make sure it’s a big box! Undefinable by genre, crossing over and through folk, rock, singer-songwriter, and kids music, Dan Bern is a captivating live performer with a loyal, multi-generational following. He has written thousands of songs, released dozens of albums, and played shows across North America and Europe–from coffee shops to Carnegie Hall, and he most recently opened for The Who. Dan’s songs have appeared in numerous films (“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” “Get Him to the Greek” “The Bubble” “Zero Effect”) and TV shows (Amazon Prime’s award-winning kids program “The Stinky & Dirty Show”). A rare, and true renaissance artist, Dan is the author of several books, is a prolific painter, has his own podcast, and internet radio station. During Covid, his online “Hunkered in the Bunker” shows developed their own passionate community of followers. His topical sports songs are regularly featured on “The Tony Kornheiser Show.” Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
Otoboke Beaver
Otoboke Beaver おとぼけビ～バ～ are a punk-rock-garage quartet from Kyoto, Japan. The band’s name is taken from a local ‘Love Hotel’ and they describe themselves as: “Japanese girls ‘knock out or pound cake’ band”. Formed at Kyoto University’s music club, the band consists of Accorinrin (Lead Vocal & Guitar), Yoyoyoshie (Guitar & Vocals), Hirochan (Bass & Vocals) and Kahokiss (Drums & Vocals). Acco’s off-kilter self-taught compositional and confrontational performance skills, together with the band’s incredible musicianship make for a thrilling and unmissable live act. Damnably Records released the compilation ‘Okoshiyasu!! Otoboke Beaver’ in March 2016, which was championed by Gideon Coe and Tom Ravenscroft on BBC6Music & John Kennedy on XFM. 2017 was a breakthrough year for the band, with attention from Pitchfork, NPR, i-D and The Fader and more, acclaimed debuts at SXSW and FujiRock Festival, a sold-out show in London’s legendary 100 Club, and their ‘Love Is Short’ 7” charted in the UK for 4 weeks. In 2018 the band’s ‘ATTYUUMA’ tour saw them travel over 24,000 miles in a week, on a brief UK tour that was bookmarked by slots at Coachella Music Festival. Recent converts include Dave Grohl, Tadanobu Asano, Tom Moreno, Krist Novoselic, Aidan Moffat and The Cribs, the latter describing them as “PUNK AS F*CK”. After kicking things off at 2019’s SXSW music opening party and a run of wild showcases, the band released new album “ITEKOMA HITS” in April on Damnably, receiving widespread praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum, NYLON, BrooklynVegan and many more. They made their European debut at Lowlands Festival in The Netherlands, appeared as part of the line up at Koyabu Sonic Festival in Japan, and composed the opening theme song for Japanese comedy series “Susumu Inomata & 8 Mojo”. In 2020, the band quit their day jobs in order to tour the world and were announced for a slew of festival worldwide, including SXSW, Villette Sonique, Primavera Sound, Beaches Brew Festival, Eurockeenes, Green Man Festival and many more. But since the pandemic hit, live music has been put on hold, and you know the rest of the story. Otoboke Beaver released their newest album, Super Champon, in May 2022 and have started touring again. They announced they would be touring the new album across Japan and North America later this year, marking their first full length tour of North America. The tour will continue across Europe into 2023. Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band – Hello Starling 20th Anniversary Tour
Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band – Performing the Album ‘Hello Starling’ Josh and band will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Josh’s 2003 breakthrough record, Hello Starling, with a very limited North America headline tour, playing the album in full (plus more music). This follows a sold out European autumn tour celebrating the album. A note from Josh: “When I wrote Hello Starling, I was playing coffee shops and open mics. By the time it came out, I was on tour with the Frames and Joan Baez. I was practically living on the road, hearing my songs on the radio for the first time, staying up all night, touring North America & Europe with my band, doing all these things I had only dreamt of. It was a grand time. For the 20th anniversary of the album, the band and I will be taking a swing through Hello Starling this February. We’ll play the entire album in full, front to back, and then play a bunch more music. Thank you all for listening all these years! Love, Josh” Praise for Josh Ritter: “There have been plenty of highlights in Ritter’s 20-year (plus) recording career.” – AP “Harking back to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and maybe a little Mark Knopfler, Mr. Ritter has always been a slinger of serious ideas and high-flown imagery.” – The New York Times “Josh Ritter remains at the top of his game two decades into a highlight-strewn career. He’d be forgiven for loosening his grip, but his hand has never felt surer.” – NPR Music “If you love music and have a device on which to play it, you should listen to Josh Ritter whenever you need sound.”—Mary-Louise Parker in Esquire “Mysterious, melancholy, melodic…and those are only the M’s.”—Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
MIKE
MIKE is a quintessential old soul. The 24-year-old artist’s wisdom is evident in both his calm delivery and measured questioning, even if he doesn’t always understand the depth of his words until they’re written. “All of these random ideas come to my head, but always end up making sense after it’s done,” the NY-based rapper-producer says about his method. Known for introspective, subtly profound rhymes that explore grief, family, and identity, and melt over muffled, soul-seasoned samples, on his expansive new record Burning Desire MIKE reaches new heights far above the sonic foundation he laid with his previous project. As MIKE’s career flourishes – already spanning numerous critically celebrated albums and tours with artists like Blood Orange, Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, and Freddie Gibbs – his inner world demands nurturing. In a noisy metropolis, it can be hard to see beyond what’s right in front you, to find stillness. “So much shit is happening on surface level, it’s hard to have some idea of external shit outside of that,” MIKE says. The beloved rapper has come a long way from making waves in underground hip-hop circles with the [sLUms] collective—a group of young rappers Adé Hakim, Darryl Johnson, King Carter, Jazz Jodi, and DJ Mason formed in New York in 2015. In 2017 MIKE released his mixtape May God Bless Your Hustle, capturing a singular moment in a city where the only constant is change. It received a Best New Music review from Pitchfork as MIKE started to gain international attention outside of New York City. At the end of 2018 MIKE released his album War In My Pen independently, and followed it up in mid 2019 with Tears of Joy, his second album to be selected for Pitchfork’s Best New Music. MIKE’s Weight of the World, released in 2020, is nearly entirely self-produced, and only contains features from Jadasea and Earl Sweatshirt. It is one of MIKE’s most introspective and sonically diverse releases. Disco! followed Weight of the World, and saw MIKE combine his new style of production with his top tier songwriting and delivery. On his most recent record, Beware of the Monkey, MIKE polished the sound he established with Weight of the World and Disco! and cemented himself as one of the main figures at the front of a new wave of hip hop that is showing early signs of cracking the mainstream – a wave that MIKE himself pioneered. Three weeks ahead of Burning Desire, MIKE released Faith Is A Rock, a collaborative LP with fellow NYC rapper Wiki and legendary producer The Alchemist. The project is a kind of passing of the torch, that sees Alchemist cosign MIKE as the future of hip hop not only within New York but far beyond the city. As producer dj blackpower, MIKE has armed himself with a tapestry of ancestral sound built upon repurposed material, from soulful cuts to archival motifs. The ethos of dj blackpower shows up throughout episodes of IFE Radio, an ecosystem of black sound (Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Roy Ayers, Yesterday’s New Quintet) he hosts, featuring guest conversations and sets from artists like duendita and Frank Dorrey. “You don’t have to ask to be a leader. You have to do things and if the spot is open and needed, it will be there for you,” MIKE says about using his platform to build community. Young World III, the third iteration of the day-long festival he organizes at Bed Stuy’s Herbert Von King Park (performers included Noname, MAVI, Jay Critch, 454 and more), epitomized his impact. Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Soundcloud
Eddie Fest 2023
Secret Monkey Weekend Rachel Hirsh Nikki Meets The HibachiMy hopes for a Valley Missing Receipts Oort PatrolZone Jamm tha Nubian iannie
Paul Thorn and Steve Poltz
This show is seated.Similar backgrounds yet different paths. Paul Thorn and Steve Poltz have a 20+ year friendship and are taking it on the road and in the ring together this Spring for a multi-city tour, surely to bring love, laughter and mischief along with them. Equal parts humor, poignant stories, and expert musicianship, these two storytellers with contagious smiles will put on a show that will make you laugh one minute and cry the next.Paul Thorn: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTubeSteve Poltz: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Mitch Rowland
Even as a little kid, singer-songwriter Mitch Rowland was obsessed with guitar music. He will never forget how it initially hit him, sitting in front of the first jukebox he ever saw, letting the sound wash over him. He was four years old, growing up with his family on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. “My dad had a friend who was single but owned a house,” he says. “And instead of normal furniture in his living room, he had a pool table and this vintage jukebox in the corner. You’d stick the quarter in and it would fall out the bottom and you could just keep putting on songs.” Rowland was instantly fascinated with bands like The Black Crowes and Aerosmith, and would listen to their singles over and over again. The beautiful, introspective folk music on Rowland’s debut album, Come June, can be traced back to that jukebox, which inspired a lifelong exploration of why he loves certain sounds, and how to make them himself. Although Rowland already has impressive songwriting credits to his name, as one of Harry Styles’ collaborators on major hits like “Watermelon Sugar” and “Golden,” Come June is truly the beginning of the most important chapter yet in Rowland’s artistic evolution. By the time he was five and his older brother got a drum kit, Rowland already had the urge to play. “My brother would kick my ass if I tried to sit behind his kit while he was home,” he says, “so I had to get my time in when he was out with friends. From there I was self-taught, just by playing along to records.” He started with Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and then added some of those Aerosmith and Crowes tunes to his repertoire on drums, and then began teaching himself guitar, alone in his bedroom. By college, he had started experimenting with writing his own songs, but still yearned for a sense of direction. Cut to 2008, and Rowland is at an arts festival in Columbus, playing a game where you spin a wheel to win tickets to different upcoming concerts. “Out of all these shows, it landed on the Black Crowes, and I won two tickets,” he says. “So I asked my dad if he wanted to go with me. I hadn’t listened to the Black Crowes since I was a kid, so it seemed like something fun to do. But then it turned into a show that really grabbed me, where I had to go listen to everything they’d ever done. And I got really into wondering, ‘Why do I like the sound of Rich Robinson’s guitar so much?’ And that was how I discovered the world of open tunings. Because sometimes Rich is coming from Keith Richards’ world of playing open G, but then if you read enough interviews with him, he cites Nick Drake as his gateway into open tunings. And so that became my gateway into Nick Drake and other artists like that, as well. And I think all of that goes back to the jukebox.”Rowland started putting songs together after that Black Crowes show, spending countless hours in his bedroom, playing and playing and playing, figuring out his own sound. Then, in 2013, Rowland decided to move out to Los Angeles, following a friend who was heading out there to be an engineer. “If you would have asked me back then, I don’t know what I would have said I was planning to do,” he admits. “The goal was to play music, but I was kind of in the slow lane.” He looked for work as a dishwasher, applying everywhere in LA, “but I had no dishwashing experience,” he says, “so I couldn’t get hired.”Website | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
Dyke Night: Haunted House
Brace yourself for Dyke Night: Haunted House, a queer horror show hosted by King Shade and Lady Dyke. Featuring drag from Asmodeous, Kali Fuchis, and Poison, as well as the original music of Found Family and the Hyphenellas. Bring your friends, your nail polish remover, and DRESS OUT!!!
