Billy Raffoul
Telling universal stories soundtracked by unshakable melodies, Billy Raffoul strikes an intimate chord, tapping into the feelings and experiences we all share no matter where we call home. This relatability has consistently engaged listeners, yielding hundreds of millions of streams and sold-out shows around the globe for the award-winning Ontario singer, songwriter, and producer. Billy naturally absorbed a lifelong passion for music from his old man, Jody Raffoul, who shined as a singer-songwriter himself. Perfecting his songcraft and voice, he dropped music at a prolific pace, including the 1975 EP, The Running Wild EP, Live in June, and the full-length LP, A Few More Hours at YYZ. Among many highlights, “Acoustic” eclipsed 87.3 million-plus Spotify streams, and “Easy Tiger” reeled in 25.7 million Spotify streams. He progressed with For All These Years, featuring “Better,” “I Wish You Were Here,” and “Bliss.” He notably performed alongside Kings of Leon, Phoenix, and American Authors, in addition to collaborating with Amistat, Katelyn Tarver, and JJ Wilde. Plus, he garnered the 2021 SOCAN Songwriting Prize for “Western Skies” and the 2023 INDIES “Song of the Year” for “We Could Get High.” Concluding 2023, Billy canvased South Africa on tour. The experience affirmed the boundary-breaking power of music. Upon his return, he initially penned ideas at home before decamping to Los Angeles, where he worked with producer Davis Naish. Now, he makes his closest connection yet on his forthcoming self-titled album, Billy Raffoul. Website | Instagram | YouTube
almost monday
Emerging from garage jams and D.I.Y. gigs, almost monday —Dawson Daugherty (vocals), Cole Clisby (guitar) and Luke Fabry (bass)—burst onto the scene in 2020 with a sound that embodies the sun-soaked essence of California. Their debut EP, don’t say you’re ordinary, produced with Mark Needham (The Killers, Fleetwood Mac) and Simon Oscroft (The Naked and Famous, DREAMERS), quickly gained traction with hits like “parking lot view” and “come on come on.” Their infectious energy and empowering anthems, notably “broken people,” along with the Sofi Tukker remix, garnered attention, propelling them into the Top 20 at Alternative Radio. In 2021, almost monday continued to shine with their second EP, til the end of time, and singles like “live forever” and “cool enough,” earning acclaim from Alternative Press, Forbes, People, GQ Australia, Earmilk, Flaunt, Ones To Watch and more. Festival debuts at Lollapalooza, BottleRock and Firefly and sharing stages with Kings of Leon, Dayglow, Walk The Moon and Joywave further solidified their rising status. The momentum surged into 2022 with coastal-inspired singles like “sunburn” and “sun keeps on shining,” earning radio success with the latter a top 10 hit on Sirius XM Alt Nation, a top 20 hit on Alternative Radio, and the official song of the 2022 Vans US Open of Surfing. Festival slots, Governor’s Ball, WonderBus and Innings Festival, alongside touring North and South America with The Driver Era, and headline shows in Japan and South Korea wrapped up the year. In 2023, almost monday maintained their indie-pop prowess with festival appearances including WonderRoad, Wonderstruck, Have A Nice Trip (Korea), and Life is Beautiful and tours with AJR, Weathers, and The Driver Era. 2022 hosted a string of singles led by the infectious “only wanna dance,” which premiered with V Magazine, “coast to coast,” the reflective “life goes by,” and “sweet feelings.” With over 400 million streams under their belt, almost monday’s feel-good vibes continue to resonate globally as they dive into 2024 with new releases like “is it too late?” (world premiered with Australia’s Triple J) and “can’t slow down,” a U.S. tour with Beach Weather, a summer arena tour alongside AJR and MXMTOON, dates in Mexico plus a six-week European tour with The Driver Era, and, on the horizon, a debut album coming later this year. The San Diego band’s music has been featured across various media platforms from ESPN, CBS, Bravo, HBO Max and Netflix, to FOX, TNT and beyond. Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | YouTube | Spotify
Brooks Nielsen (of The Growlers)
Brooks Nielsen, celebrated frontman of The Growlers and now a critically acclaimed solo artist, has firmly established himself as one of the most distinctive voices in independent music. As the frontman and creative force behind The Growlers, Nielsen helped define and popularize the Beach Goth movement—a genre-blurring, countercultural wave that left an indelible mark on modern rock. Over more than a decade, The Growlers built a fiercely dedicated international following, performed at major festivals, and sold out venues around the world. Their celebrated discography and electrifying live shows cemented them as one of the most influential underground bands of the 21st century. In addition to their music, The Growlers also founded and curated the Beach GothFestival, a groundbreaking event that brought together a wildly eclectic mix of artists—from Patti Smith and Bon Iver to Doja Cat and Mac DeMarco—making it a defining moment in the cultural landscape of the 2010s. Now, as a solo artist, Nielsen continues to push boundaries with the same fearless spirit. Since launching his solo career in 2022, he’s released four records—three of them in 2024 alone. His latest, A Ride I’m Waiting For, features the haunting duet “Without Eyes” with Sierra Ferrell and has been praised for its cinematic scope and emotional depth. On stage, Nielsen delivers an experience unlike anything else. Backed by a powerhouse band—Growlers drummer Richard Gowen, keyboardist Cole Riddle, and guitarists J.D. Carrera and Elyadeen Anbar—Brooks crafts a set each night that’s entirely its own. Drawing from his extensive solo catalog, deep cuts, Growlers classics, and unreleased material, his shows are long, loose, and alive. With no opening acts and performances stretching two and sometimes three hours, fans are invited into a world that feels as spontaneous as it does deeply curated. This Fall 2025 run is Brooks’s most ambitious solo tour to date, featuring first-ever solo plays in small towns, Aspen and Fort Collins, CO; Carrboro and Asheville, NC; Madison, WI; Ferndale, MI; New Haven, CT; St. Louis, MO; Boise, ID; Tulsa, OK; and Nashville, TN. There’s also a rare and intimate upstate New York show at the newly revived Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock—a venue rich with music history. In New York City, Nielsen will headline the legendary Webster Hall for the first time, marking his biggest solo show in the city yet—and in Chicago, he’ll play the iconic Metro, a rite of passage for generations of boundary-pushing artists. The 28-date tour wraps with the now-iconic Helloween shows at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on October 30 and 31—two surreal, sweat-soaked nights that have instantly become a rite of passage for Nielsen’s most devoted fans. Every year, Beach Rats from across the country—and around the world—make the journey for this once-a-year celebration of the strange and the sacred. It’s more than just a show: it’s a Mecca for the hardcore fanbase, a chance to mix with fellow travelers, share stories from the past, and revel in a night of music, mystery, and magic. If you know, you go. Website | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube | Growlers Spotify
Larry
Larry — Larry found their current form in a ladies’ bar bathroom during the 2024 Hopscotch Fest. Featuring Emma Bouck on guitar and vox, Joe Porco on drums, Brendan Finn on bass, and Alex Dixon on guitar, Larry roughly resembles four overgrown kids in a trench coat wandering the streets of Carrboro, NC. Since releasing their freshman EP Puddle! in December 2024, the 4-piece has graced the stage with touring acts like Dogwood Tales and Downhaul, delivering a cathartic mix of sickly sweet romanticization and hellish obsession that lands like sour candy. At a Larry show, only two things are certain – Larry is everyone, and we are all Larry. Instagram | Bandcamp
The Legendary Pink Dots
Way way back in the early days I used to say a lot about ‘The Terminal Kaleidoscope’ , a concept comparing the fragile planet we live on to a drowning human being with life flashing before his or her eyes, the images constantly accelerating. It’s 2024, a little over 2 decades since the turn of this unbearably turbulent century and the concept appears to have become an unlikely soap opera where we are the cast. Let’s hang in there….. – Edward Ka-Spel SO LONELY IN HEAVEN – THE CREATION ‘So Lonely in Heaven’ is The Legendary Pink Dots’ second album since the World stopped for a Global Pandemic.With members scattered across three countries and two continents, our guilty confession is that quite a few Air Miles were consumed in its creation.Ideas were spun across Cyberspace for months, but the magic happened collectively in small spaces with the tape running. SO LONELY IN HEAVEN – THE MESSAGE The machine is everything we are. It sees everything, hears everything, knows everything and feeds, speeds, drinks us down, spits us out – we lost control of it at the instant of its conception. You may cough, curse and die, but the machine will resurrect you without the flaws, at your peak, smiling from a screen, bidding someone in a lonely room to join you. It’s an invitation from Heaven, where anyone can be anything they want to be, but it’s a Nation of One. You’ll be everything we are. You’ll be a shadow of yourself. You’ll repeat yourself- endlessly. You’ll be desperate for some kind of explanation . You’ll be lonely. So very lonely… credits released January 17, 2025 Erik Drost- Acoustic and Electric Guitars, bass guitar; Randall Frazier- synthesisers, devices; Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, devices; Joep Hendrikx – live electronics, devices. Simon Paul – Cover design and layout. Raymond Steeg & Peter Van Vliet – mastering. Thank you Alena for your enduring support! Website | Bandcamp | Spotify
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – The Hard Road World Tour
“Ingram plays guitar with dramatic, searing tone and sure-handed authority. And that’s just in the studio; he’s even scarier live.” –NPR Music “Muscular guitar and gorgeous vocals…[there is] an intense rolling melodicism in Ingram’s singing and soloing” –AllMusic “Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has already made his mark as one of the best, and undoubtedly most exci3ng, blues guitarists in the world.” –Guitar World GRAMMY-winning guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has quickly become the defining blues voice of his generation. From his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to stages around the globe, the young blues star has already headlined multiple U.S. and European tours, and amazed fans in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and India. Selected in summer 2022 to open for The Rolling Stones in London’s Hyde Park, Kingfish has also performed and toured with friends including Vampire Weekend, Jason Isbell, Steve Miller and Buddy Guy, a mentor of his, with whom he appeared on Austin City Limits. Since he burst onto the scene in 2019, Ingram has been nominated for 12 Blues Music Awards and won them all. Rolling Stone declared, “Kingfish is one of the most excitingyoung guitarists in years, with a sound that encompasses B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Prince.” In September 2023, Kingfish released his jaw-dropping, GRAMMY-nominated, third album, Live In London. Recorded on June 6, 2023, in front of a sweaty, sold-out, standing-room-only crowd at the famous UK club, The Garage, Live In London is the guitar-driven live album Kingfish’s fans around the world have been clamoring for since they first watched him perform as a teenager on YouTube. Sparked by his non-stop touring, writing and recording schedule, Kingfish’s natural talent just keeps growing. With his jaw-dropping guitar playing and his reach-out-and-grab-you-by-the- collar vocals, he performs every song with unmatched passion and precision. To see him live in person is an onstage snapshot of the young singer, songwriter and guitarist creating musical magic in real time, leaving his listeners spellbound and always wanting more. Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
The Rattletraps
RattletrapsFormed in Chapel Hill, NC, The Rattletraps is a band of songwriters who create a culmination of roots rock, country and blues music. With songs about bar fights, working dead end jobs, and the streets of New Orleans, The Rattletraps find ways to create anthems that are bitter, cynical, and just the right amount of pissed off. Instagram Ol’ Joey Scrums Ol Joey Scrums is a high-energy string band out of Raleigh, North Carolina, blending the raw grit of Appalachian bluegrass with the soulful storytelling of Americana. Fronted by Joe Ralli on guitar and vocals, the band features Dakotah Kelly’s groove-driven banjo, Ian Klug’s driving bass, and Martin Noffsinger’s rock-solid drumming. Known for their foot-stomping live shows and tight harmonies, Ol Joey Scrums delivers original tunes that balance modern edge with timeless tradition. After a memorable show at the Raleigh Pour House, they’re gearing up to release their second album in May 2025—an honest, hard-hitting collection that captures the spirit of the road and the heart of home. Instagram Johnny Sunrise Hailing from Western Massachusetts, Johnny Sunrise is an indie folk rock singer-songwriter who draws inspiration from love, longing, the “quarter-life crisis,” and the uncertainty of life. Although Johnny grew up with music primarily as a drummer, his unforeseen travels up and down the east coast and the isolation caused by the COVID pandemic brought him closer to his neglected guitar. Johnny is now joined by the uber talented duo Gabby Messner (bass) and Jake Richter (drums) whose contributions take the live show to another level. Johnny has carved a place in the NC triangle music scene over the past year or so performing original songs with honest lyrics and a soulful voice. Always with a smile and a healthy dose of banter. Instagram
Arcy Drive
With time to kill and an attic to jam in, Arcy Drive, a group of four good buds from Northport, New York began forming their scratchy but spirited sound.Traveling in a 1989 Toyota van, they shared their music locally which they coined “Attic-Rock.” After a summer in their hometown and newfound passion of playing live, the four renovated an old school bus and began touring the US before their first official release. Many dive bars and music halls later, their “Barefoot Tour” landed the band a new cult following. So far, the group has released a live album, ‘Attic Sessions’, a studio EP ‘Beach Plum’, and 7 new singles into the release of their debut studio album ‘The Pit’. They have amassed over 20 million combined streams and sold-out headline shows in NYC (Bowery Ballroom), LA, Boston, Chicago, Nashville, Philly & more – including sets at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Shaky Knees, Kilby Block Party & more. The debut studio album from the band, ‘The Pit’, will be released on April 18th this year. This project was compiled over months of time spent all over the country. From the abandoned winter on Nantucket Island, to Nashville, to Georgia, to recording at Applehead Studios in Woodstock, NY. This project was produced by 71-year-old legendary producer, Angelo Petraglia (Kings of Leon, Black Keys). It includes a guest appearance by 80-year-old songwriter and frontman of The Lovin’ Spoonful, John Sebastian.‘The Pit’ consists of 13 tracks that will take you on a journey through Arcy Drive’s lens on the genre of ‘Attic Rock’ . Be on the lookout for their biggest touring year yet this Fall!-Nick, Pat, Brooke, Austin Website | TikTok | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
Diggy Graves – Crash My Funeral Tour
Raised in the PNW, Diggy Graves likes to describe his music as a melting pot of genres that ranges from Rap to Horror Core. Diggy has been making music for most of his life and decided to create his persona behind the mask in 2020. You might know him from his most popular songs Red Vineyard and Circus Psycho. You can usually find him hidden in the woods making music in his cabin but in his free-time he enjoys long walks on the beach, hanging out with his son and digging graves. He always looks forward to performing live and seeing all his loyal fans. Website | YouTube | Spotify | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook
Benefit for Chapel Hill High Lady Tigers Softball Team and Track & Field Team
CY&I Instagram | Spotify The Rattletraps Instagram
