Carbon Leaf
Carbon Leaf’s fifteenth studio album, Time is the Playground is both a call to action and an embrace of the moment. Marrying nostalgic storytelling to nuanced, folk-infused indie rock, the Richmond, Virginia band embroiders heartfelt melody and harmony with acoustic and electric instrumentation to create a 12-song rumination on time, love and personal growth that’s equal parts urgent epiphany and contented exhalation. “Everybody says people don’t listen to albums anymore,” mulled Carbon Leaf frontman Barry Privett, holed up in a coastal cottage. “So, the challenge for us was to make something that felt good to get through from beginning to end … to listen to like a story.” Originally formed as a college cover band in 1992 and with over 3,500 famously enthused live shows together, Carbon Leaf helped to define the aughts indie rock that they ultimately outgrew and outlasted. They first earned national recognition with “The Boxer,” a song that won the American Music Awards 2002 New Music Award and made Carbon Leaf the first unsigned band to perform before millions on the AMAs. “The Boxer” entered regular radio rotation, Carbon Leaf’s tours grew bigger and better, and within a couple of years they quit their day jobs and inked a record deal. The band’s fanbase snowballed, drawn to their infectious spirit of commitment, empathy, communion, and self-reliance – not to mention supremely crafted songs with ultra-relatable, thought-provoking lyrics. After a trio of charting albums for Vanguard Records, multiple songwriting awards and headlining shows, Carbon Leaf opted to return to the complete creative control of their indie roots. Guitarist Terry Clark, who co-founded the band with Privett and multi-instrumentalist Carter Gravatt, converted his garage into the band’s Two-Car Studio, where they’ve recorded releases for their own Constant Ivy imprint ever since. Carbon Leaf’s DIY spirit even extended to re-recording their three Vanguard albums in order to regain the rights. Due in September, Time is the Playground is Carbon Leaf’s first full-length album in a decade, during which they released two EPS and a 27-song live performance album and Blu-ray. Time is the Playground gathers the best of songs written, in fits and starts, over 15 years, alongside brand new ideas. Privett dusted off old demos and shut himself away for months to finish their stories, while also honing recent compositions. With Clark engineering, Carbon Leaf – completed by longtime bassist Jon Markel and drummer Jesse Humphrey – spent a year and a half recording and mixing the resulting songs. “Thinking about these disparate pieces of music, I began ruminating on time itself,” Privett recalled. “The band’s been together a long time. You mature a bit and see yourself in place on the timeline … rolling around the scenes of love and growth.” Masterfully melding saturated AC/DC guitar and squelchy Cars synth, “Backmask 1983” is a fun flipbook of evocative era emblems – Farah Fawcett, “Satanic Panic,” Time Life Books, Bigfoot and more – that traverses the simultaneous nexus of Privett’s childhood/adolescence and the world’s analog/digital ages. It’s about morphing into a new person and a new planet with wide-eyed wonder and a longing to believe. Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Rio Romeo Good Grief! Tour
Rio Romeo is a force of nature whose open-book honesty and unbounded curiosity have made them a 2020s cult hero. They’ve amassed more than 713,000 followers on TikTok, and their breakthrough single, the longing “Nothing’s New, ” has racked up more than 308 million streams on Spotify. With their new album Good Grief, they’re taking stock of their whirlwind last five years, which have included cross-country relocations, a new romance, a horrifying accident that resulted in brain and hip injuries—and the support of a fanbase that’s helped them not just survive, but thrive. Good Grief brings together nine songs from Rio’s last five years. A companion piece to their 2022 EP Good God!, which contained “Nothing’s New, ” Good Grief shows how Rio’s songwriting and vocal skills have blossomed—their genre-fluid songs possess a musical-theater grandness while also vibrating with punk vitality and the righteousness of queer folk. “I’ve been waiting forever to put this project out,” they say. “Forever” could mean all the way back to Rio’s childhood, when they were a fervent journaler who—because of their religious, homeschooled upbringing in southern California—quickly developed their autodidactic side. “It definitely was an isolating experience, but it was creatively motivating, ” Rio recalls of those early years. They were exposed to musicals at a very young age (“I now Identify as an escaped theater kid, ” they note) and eventually enrolled in an art-focused high school in Pomona, where they began focusing on their visual art practice while also realizing that they were “not the same, gender-wise, as other girls. “Rio then applied to and was accepted by the scene design program at DePaul University’s Theatre School. “I ended up moving to Chicago at 18—and mind you, this entire time I’ve been living in a very conservative Christian environment,” they say. “Being gay was simply not an option. I get to Chicago, and I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this is so cool. I have independence. For the first time, I really get to figure out who I am and what I want and the people that I want to be friends with. ‘ I had some queer friends growing up, but it’s a red bubble within the larger blue California, so, I knew very few queer people.” While Rio’s world had blown open in Chicago, they ultimately decided to leave university after a quarter and move home—until their parents found out that Rio was gay and kicked them out. Following a stint of couch-surfing and living in their car, Rio moved back to Chicago. Having lived in California all their life, Rio realized, led them to having “no fucking idea what people do in the winter” in sometimes-frigid Chicago. So Rio spent time back at DePaul, waiting for their friends to finish classes in piano-equipped rehearsal rooms on campus. “I ended up playing the piano a lot, and coping with this really fucked-up situation—all of this transition and loss—through writing songs,” they say. Being able to write on their own and share songs on their own terms was liberating: “There was this secrecy that I could have with my music, where I could only choose to share it with people when I wanted to,” they say. “It was really empowering to be able to have choice, after not having any choice. “Rio recorded a project in 2018 but ended up not telling anyone about it. “It was there mostly for me to listen to and be like, ‘Yeah, I did this.'” Website | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Spotify
verygently and Brother Elsey
verygently is the collective force of three established Nashville singer-songwriters—Drew Erwin, Joey Hendricks, and Tristan Bushman—who came together in early 2024. With tours alongside Augustana, The Band Camino, and The Fray, combined with their debut EP, the band quickly turned heads thanks to their high-energy live shows and songs that blend wit and vulnerability, weaving heartache with the undeniable charm of three best friends sharing the stage. Their recently released EP, ‘FAME!’, produced by Noah Gundersen, marks a confident evolution for the band. Combining Bushman’s moody storytelling, Erwin’s soaring melodies, and Hendricks’ ‘70s-infused songwriting, the record feels both fresh and nostalgic. Recorded to analog tape at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, ‘FAME!’ solidifies verygently as a band whose collaborative collective artistry is greater than the sum of its parts—setting the stage for an exciting future. verygently has been steadily building momentum, gaining a growing base of monthly listeners and buzz across streaming platforms. Ahead of the EP’s April 25th release, the band secured placements on Apple Music’s New in Alternative and INDIY, Tidal’s Rising, and SoundCloud’s New Rock Now: The Dive—proving they’re not just a side project, but a creative force all their own. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify Brother Elsey Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | YouTube
The Criticals
The Criticals are a Nashville based rock band formed by Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart. The Criticals have proven themselves a powerful and fierce duo — one with both a diverse musical appetite in songwriting and a whiplash live show that’s drawn sellout crowds in major US markets including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The band recently released their highly regarded EP Front Door Confrontations and continued a steady diet of raucous live shows across the country. The band are now set to release a handful of singles leading up to their debut album release on Fantasy Records in 2025. Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify
Dex Fest 2025
Reigning Sound Reigning Sound formed 25 yrs ago in Memphis, TN. When vocalist/songwriter Greg Cartwright moved to Asheville, NC in 2004, he reformed the band with the rhythm section of Dave Gay and Lance Wille. This line-up recorded one record “Live at Goner” and subsequently released a studio album “love and curses” with the addition of long time Reigning Sound keyboardist Dave Amels. The trio of Greg, Lance and Dave will perform for one last time, celebrating the life of friend and hero Dexter Romweber, June 12th in Chapel Hill. Instagram | Facebook Henri Cash & Seth Carolina (of Starcrawler) in Tribute to Dex Henri Cash and Seth Carolina are the guitarist and drummer for the Los Angeles band Starcrawler. The band formed in LA in 2017 and have released three full length albums and numerous 7″ records on both Rough Trade Records and Big Machine. Starcrawler have toured all over the world several times in the past eight years, both as a headlining act and also with other artists like Jack White, MC5, The Distillers and Boris. They are currently in the recording studio and will be touring the United States this fall in support of Garbage. Henri and Seth both have great love and respect for Dex Romweber, drawing inspiration from his frantic and aggressive on stage persona. They performed together at Dex’s Memorial at Haw River Ballroom in April 2024, and are once again traveling across the country from LA solely to pay tribute to the memory of Dex Romweber, one of North Carolina’s finest musicians. They will be playing a combination of Dex/Flat Duo Jet songs and other songs that Dex loved and performed. Website | Instagram | Facebook Boogie Reverie Boogie Reverie is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer-songwriter from Carrboro, NC. His solo act integrates elements of blues, classical, country, and psychedelic rock. Instagram | Facebook
Stacey Ryan
Stacey Ryan has a rare gift for turning heartache into bubbly, soul-infused pop. She first went viral with “Don’t Text Me When You’re Drunk” (25M+ streams), followed by her breakout hit “Fall In Love Alone” (#1 Billboard charting song in Indonesia & Top 5 in most of Southeast Asia), which earned over 500M global streams. A classically trained jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist, Stacey has performed on The Late Late Show with James Corden, played major festivals like Montreux, MAD Cool, and BST Hyde Park (invited by Duran Duran), and headlined sold-out shows across the US, Europe, and Asia. Her 2023 debut EP I Don’t Know What Love Is was praised by V Magazine for its refreshing, soulful songwriting. Stacey recently released “Everything Everything,” the first single from her upcoming debut album. Her next single, “Homewrecker,” drops May 9, with the full album out in August. Originally from Montreal and now based in LA, Stacey continues to embrace her French-Canadian roots, going viral for her bilingual sound that blends Amy Winehouse charm with Laufey’s jazz-pop elegance. Instagram | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
The Shoaldiggers
Cat’s Cradle, in conjunction with North Carolina veteran music documentary filmmakers Magic Umbrella, Inc, present a special night of eclectic performances that define the region, all to be filmed live. The initial salvo of a new project to document the best musical artists of the community will be capturing an evening with the Shoaldiggers, Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band, and Teeth of England in the Cradle’s Main Room on Friday, June 13. Under the moniker “Live at Cat’s Cradle” the evening brings you: The Shoaldiggers, propelling their hybrid mix of deep roots rock, swamp grass, Americana, black & blues, freak folk, and good times party music through their 9-piece configuration that they are so known for. From Durham, NC, wry lyricist and charismatic frontman Charles Latham leads the dynamic, high-octane Borrowed Band (which includes former members of Ben Folds Five, Shooter Jennings, Six-String Drag and more) on a wild ride from ballads to barnstormers.Hailing from Wilmington, NC, and no stranger to the Triangle area’s audiences, (remembered fondly in this area for his involvement with crunching maniacs Rural Swine 20 years ago) Dave Sinclair’s proto-rock Teeth of England plies its trade, jammed through the detour of the Memphis underground scene. This rollicking night should have something to offer to everyone, and a wonderful crossover of styles to energize each act. With a concept to memorialize these bands’ sets by filming them on the legendary stage at the big room at Cat’s Cradle. Don’t miss this! Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify
Beach Fossils
Throughout the last fifteen years, Beach Fossils have steadily earned their stature as one of the most definitive and enduring bands of the 2010s New York underground, consistently reaching new listeners as their sound has grown from the DIY solo project of Dustin Payseur to an influential four-piece dream pop band, self-produced and self-released. Bunny (2023) continues the stunning evolution of Beach Fossils’ sound, pulling elements from the jangly melancholy of the self-titled debut Beach Fossils (2010) and What a Pleasure (2011), the gritty, post-punk inspired tracks from Clash the Truth (2013), and the lush arrangements of Somersault (2017). Throughout, Payseur is joined by core band members Tommy Davidson (guitar), Jack Doyle Smith (bass), and Anton Hochheim (drums). Through tone and mood, Beach Fossils communicate a coming-of-age narrative of self-discovery. Payseur’s slice-of-life lyrics reflect on depression, love, adventure, loss, mistakes, New York City, friendships coming and going — a mélange of granular pieces in the process of continuing to find yourself. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
“Our catalog has never been short on big dumb riffs, but the idea on this record was to really turn the screw,” says RBBP bassist Aaron Metzdorf. On Big Dumb Riffs, that screw is cranked incredibly tight. “We just wanted ‘the part’: The opening of Pantera’s ‘Primal Concrete Sledge’, the breakdown in Primus’ ‘Pudding Time’ — the shit that makes you move and lose your mind. Just that part the whole time.” Across 11 concise, taut songs — most clocking in around 2 minutes or less — Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol demonstrates their skillful ability to blend the merciless low end of Leo Lydon’s 8-string guitar, Aaron Metzdorf’s masterful chordwork on the bass, and Sean St.Germain’s driving drumming. Hot on the heels of their breakout 5th studio release Doom Wop (2023), Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol returns with Big Dumb Riffs: A whole new variant of the fuzzed out, overdriven, melodic, groovy music they have been making since 2016. While Big Dumb Riffs is decidedly more aggressive and rhythmic, it still retains the overtly melodic feel of Doom Wop. But Leo Lydon’s vocals are considerably more angry and negative (song titles like “1-800-EAT-SHIT” and “Body Bag” should be a clue.) “The whole writing process was, ‘what if we just played two notes the whole song’,” Metzdorf says. “‘What if we tuned down to almost unusable string tension?’, ‘what if we write a record that will make everyone say ‘wow that is dumb’? Leo and I really move around on stage a lot. Being a dingus is crucial to the groove. All these riffs were designed to allow us to act bigger and dumber on stage.” Big Dumb Riffs will be available for streaming and download on March 22, 2024. LP to follow in late Spring. Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
Nation of Language
Four years on from the release of their unexpectedly self-assured debut album, NYC based Nation of Language have attracted a rapidly growing international audience via their danceable and impassioned take on new wave, post-punk & shoegaze genres. Following the critical acclaim of their their first LP Introduction, Presence, its 2021 follow-up A Way Forward pushed them to a wider audience—landing them their late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a string of sold out tours—and their 2023 record Strange Disciple has continued this momentum, landing Rough Trade’s coveted #1 album of the year spot. Now a mainstay atop lists of the best live acts of recent years, the band continue to charge synth-first into their latest chapter as a major festival draw at recent iterations of Austin City Limits Festival, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and many others. Website | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Facebook
