Quarters of Change
Quarters of Change is the Lower-East-Side quartet leading the charge on New York City’s rock resurgence. Composed of Ben Acker, Attila Anrather, Jasper Harris, and Ben Roter, the band has made waves online (and on the road) with their authentic brand of alternative rock.After receiving co-signs from stars like Joe Jonas, Lewis Capaldi, and Fred Durst — the band made their major label debut in July of 2022, and tapped Mikey Freedom Hart (Bleachers) and Tom Lord-Alge (U2, The Rolling Stones, Blink 182) for finishing touches on what was otherwise a self-produced project.Quarters of Change then embarked on a full North American tour supporting Bad Suns (Epitaph Records), stopping at radio stations and gracing playlist covers along the way, and now prepares for their biggest year yet. Listen to Into The Rift (Deluxe) out now on Elektra Records (Warner Music Group).Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud | TikTok
Theo Katzman
You’ve seen him strut the stage with Vulfpeck at the World’s Greatest Arena. You’ve seen his name in the credits of your favorite artist’s favorite album.You’ve seen footage from his sold-out 2020 tour and thought: is that grown man really singing an A above high C?Well…forget ALL that s**t…and dig this:Life is short. Love is eternal. Theo Katzman has captured his fiercest flame on his new album: Be The Wheel.He brings his staunchly synergistic, sober psychedelic, seeker-sensitive soul service to a HERE near you, at a NOW near then.He aims to pierce your heart.His aim is true.Will you join us?Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
The Residents
This is a seated show.Constantly defying classification, THE RESIDENTS have been regarded as icons in the world of experimental music for almost fifty years. In addition to their groundbreaking work in the areas of trance, world fusion, electronica, punk, industrial and lounge music, the group has also been credited with being among the originators of performance art and music video, with their videos included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Their lengthy career has also taken them into the world of film and television music, having scored numerous films and TV series as well as several projects for MTV. In addition, the group is also thriving in the world of digital media having released ten DVDs, and two internet series.Website | Facebook | Twitter
Runnner
For the last five years, Los Angeles-based musician Noah Weinman has been Runnner, and for much of those five years, Runnner has been working. Working on his 2021 collection album, Always Repeating; working as a producer on the Skullcrusher records; and, of course, working towards his debut full-length, Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out. From LA to Ohio and the Northeast and back, he’s been deep in the craft of sound. This is music made at home, using anything and everything: cell phones and handheld tape recorders, the hum of an a/c unit, voicemails from friends. Rubbing cardboard together, stretching acoustic sounds out to near liquid, or stacking delay pedals at random to scramble the smoothness of a song can make something known into something unknown — something ordinary into something cosmic. These are songs where the edges have been left deliberately rough because perfection invites predictability, and imperfection imbalances, and those imbalances ask the listener to listen again, and again. And in that listening, the sound can become earnest, can ask a question, can hold a conversation.”I was sifting through my demos trying to decide what songs would go on the album, and I sort of started to notice this theme about the limits of language,” explains Weinman. “You’re trying to articulate something to someone, and it either doesn’t come out right or you end up not saying anything at all. It’s a pattern I see in my life, just having a hard time expressing myself to the people I’m close with.” So it’s no surprise that from a young age, Noah was drawn to other modes of expression: first studying trumpet and jazz, then falling into guitars, banjo, pianos and synths, and along with them discovering a love for stitching together songs and recordings. “It wasn’t until I got out of the studio environment and started recording at home that it became something I really love doing,” he says.Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out is the result of years of writing, recording, and tinkering in Weinman’s home, a lovingly crafted patchwork of organic instrumentation and otherworldly digital manipulation. The unexpected sounds and lush production elevate Weinman’s already impressive skill for melody and warm vocals, always pivoting between sparse intimacy and sweeping grandeur at the right moments. “I think I just want to try to make sounds that are a little original, that you couldn’t easily identify,” he explains. “But I get there by keeping my options pretty limited. I only have one input, so I don’t record things in stereo; I only have about three microphones and a few instruments, and I try not to use MIDI. I keep the ingredient list short, but that pushes me to be more creative in the genesis of certain sounds.”This musical approach is reflected in Runnner’s lyrics as well, where the familiar is made unfamiliar, and then familiar again. With humor and heart, Weinman sifts through isolation and anxiety in the everyday: ruining the rice, buying shampoo, the way boredom and loneliness are tangled up together. And from these fragments, he makes something new, but also something already known and felt at once. “A lot of the songs have this narrative arc of rising tension that just leads to me not saying or doing anything,” he says.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Built To Spill
Built to Spill is an indie rock band from Boise, ID, formed in 1992 by guitarist/vocalist Doug Martsch.In September 2022 they released their most recent album, through SubPop – “When the Wind Forgets Your Name.” Known as well for its rotating line up, the band currently counts with Melanie Radford on bass and Teresa Esguerra on drums.Website | Facebook | Twitter
Curtis Waters
At only twenty-two years old, Curtis Waters has already established himself as a talented musical triple threat: writer, producer, and performer, and he doesn’t miss the opportunity to flex his creative muscles on the violent delight that is “STAR KILLER”. Sonically addictive, the relentless and unflinching production serves only to increase the power behind Waters’ stark lyricism. At its core “STAR KILLER” is a personal commentary for Waters, who is navigating new success whilst also staying true to his identity as a first generation immigrant from Nepal. Following one billion streams on his debut album ‘Pity Party,’ Curtis Waters followed up with the electrifying post-punk single ‘MANIC MAN’ – a brutally honest reflection on identity, insecurity, and mental health. The 22-year old singer, songwriter, & producer has earned over 150K YouTube subscribers, 60K IG followers, and 138K on Tik-Tok – earning him over 100M views across platforms. After the growth of his viral hit ‘Stunnin,’ the Nepali-born creative was covered by the likes of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Pigeons & Planes. He quickly launched himself into collaborations with acts like renforshort, Kim Petras, and Brevin Kim alongside serving as the ambassador for major brands including MCM, Mercedes, and Haagen Dazs. After experiencing rapid online success, the multi-hyphenate spent time re-imagining his creative identity & sound, working with artists like TiaCorine, Shrimp, and greek as he built a new world. His forthcoming album is a true immigrant story, a reflection on a young, brown creative being thrown into the mainstream overnight, while navigating deep issues of self-doubt & cultural identity along the way.Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube |TikTok
Kathleen Edwards
If you ask Kathleen Edwards, the best thing she ever did was quit.By 2014, the singer-songwriter had released four studio albums and amassed widespread critical acclaim. She had been touring since the release of her 2012 album, Voyageur, and the prospect of returning home—only to start writing her way toward another album, and another tour—felt impossibly daunting. She put her guitar away, at least for awhile: she moved back to her hometown of Ottawa and settled down in Stittsville, an old village on the western edge of town. A running inside joke with bandmate Jim Bryson about opening a coffee shop and naming it “Quitters” became reality. For years, the only new music she heard was playing in the background while she served her regulars at the shop, where she slowly started to fall in love with music again.“I had no desire to write, no desire to play,” she says of what she refers to as her “working sabbatical.” “It allowed me all the time and space I needed to even just enjoy listening to music again. There were so many times where, if I was thinking about my own writing or playing, my heart just wasn’t in it. Opening a cafe gave me such a clean break from the weight of what I was carrying, I worked my ass off building a shop, I didn’t have to be ‘just a singer’ anymore.”But in 2018, she received an unexpected phone call that changed that. Maren Morris, a longtime fan, invited her to Nashville for a songwriting session. Edwards accepted, and “Good Woman,” their collaboration, wound up on Morris’ 2019 album, GIRL. “It reminded me that writing and creating music is entirely my wheelhouse, and it was so easy to just jump back in and do that,” she says of her fortuitous time in Nashville. “Funny enough, the third person in the room for those two days was Ian Fitchuk, and [we] ended up starting the process of producing a record.”Edwards will make her long-anticipated return to music with Total Freedom, her fifth studio album out August 14th via Dualtone Records. Written and recorded in Canada and Nashville with longtime collaborator/guitarist, Jim Bryson, and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer, Fitchuk, Total Freedom is both a return to form and a “hard reset,” one that empowered Edwards to write and perform entirely on her terms.“I didn’t want to write songs that were going to keep me in a dark place on stage every night,” she says. “I didn’t have to carry a lot of the pressure of whatever course I was on previously… There’s a pressure sometimes to keep that ball rolling, and that’s what was so freeing about stopping altogether. I have this whole other experience now that grounded me and helped me rebuild my relationship with myself, and writing music. I’m entirely in control and deciding what my course of action is.”For inspiration, she turned to Bob Seger, whose “Against the Wind” struck a chord with her: “The song just reveals itself in such an effortless way. I was like, ‘That’s how I want to feel on these songs being written: that’s how I want it to feel when I play it start to finish.’”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Igorrr
With 2017’s Savage Sinusoid, Igorrr more than proved to be a truly unique musical force – and 2020’s Spirituality And Distortion cements that well-earned reputation. Slamming together disparate musical styles ranging from death and black metal to breakcore, Balkan, baroque and classical music in a manner that is as unconventional and unpredictable as it is thrilling, Igorrr are unlike any other act, and Spirituality And Distortion displays just as broad a range of emotions as sounds. “Getting stuck in only one emotion is very boring to me; life is a wide range of emotions – sometimes you’re happy, sometimes you’re sad, angry, pissed off, nostalgic or blown away,” states mastermind Gautier Serre. “Life is not only one color. These 14 tracks are a journey through different states of mind I’ve been through.”Admitting that upon starting work on the record he lacked confidence in realizing it – “I was not sure at all of what I was doing, where it was gonna lead, or if I would be able to make an album with it or not, I was just following my instinct and seeing where it might reach” – one influence pushed through and is a prominent part of Spirituality And Distortion: traditional eastern music. “No idea where it comes from, but the colors of those sounds inspired me a lot. It’s something I’ve been extremely attracted to. Those sounds have a real deepness in the emotional range, and combined with heavy music, it’s something which took me very deep into myself, and which pushed me into doing tracks like ‘Downgrade Desert’, ‘Camel Dancefloor’, ‘Himalaya Massive Ritual’ or ‘Overweight Poesy’.” At no stage was there any plan, embracing the freedom offered in the wake of achieving Savage Sinusoid and going wherever ideas took him, embracing a small army of specialist musicians to help him attain his vision. Importantly, like its predecessor, this is not a predominantly electronic record. “The organization part has been more complicated as we had to fly traditional instrumentalists to our studio, so, lots of planes, trains and cars were involved to make it happen, but all the acoustic instruments have been recorded traditionally, with no help of the computer.” These included violinist Timba Harris, bassist Mike Leon, pianist Matt Lebofsky, Oud player Mehdi Haddab, accordion player Pierre Mussi, Kanoun player Fotini Kokkala and harpsichordist Benjamin Bardiaux, among others. Vocally, the most prominent performer is Laure Le Prunenec, whose operatic strains are a longtime part of the Igorrr mix, while regular collaborator Laurent Lunoir also appears on a few tracks.Igorrr: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | SpotifyMelt-Banana: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | SpotifyOtto von Schirach: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Spotify
The Criticals
The Criticals are a Nashville based rock band formed by Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart. In November 2019, they released their first EP, “Mimosa Hygienem” starting their journey. When covid hit in early 2020, the band focused on writing, recording and releasing music and music videos. Their first music video for Treat Ya Better became popular online, leading many diehard fans to their music. Their sophomore EP, “Sour Grapes” was released in October 2020, along with several singles in ’21 and ’22. In addition to the organic traction on Spotify, along with their music videos, the band has built a loyal and growing audience eager to see them live.Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTubeHailing from their new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, dynamic songwriting duo Bird and Byron are steadily growing a loyal fan base from around the world. With their popular “One Take Tuesday” series, they have been sharing original music weekly. With influences from contemporary rock, retro soul, and world music, the duo bring a refreshing energy to the music industry.Website | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | YouTube
Mellow Swells, The Back Pocket
Links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook
