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        <title>Cat&#039;s Cradle</title>
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        <link>https://catscradle.com</link>
        <description>Carrboro, NC</description>
        <lastBuildDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:12:46 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://catscradle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cradlevenue-150x150.png</url>
	<title>Cat&#039;s Cradle</title>
	<link>https://catscradle.com</link>
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                        <item>
                                <title>Liam St. John</title>
                                <eventupdate>14 minutes ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/liam-st-john/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Liam St. John is a Spokane, WA-born, Nashville-based rock and alt-country artist &#8212; a blues-tinged singer and songwriter who first turned heads with his viral streamer &#8220;Dipped In Bleach&#8221; in 2022. Liam has since built a devoted fanbase with chart-topping projects, and his debut full-length studio album Man of the North, released September 2025 via Big Loud Rock, features collaborations with Houndmouth and Grammy winner Molly Tuttle, expanding his sound further into Americana and rock &#38; roll. With 235K+ Instagram followers, a 57-date North American headline tour under his belt, and 2026 international dates including C2C (Country to Country) in Rotterdam, Berlin, and London, Liam is one of the most compelling live performers emerging from Nashville today. &#160; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>The John Wood Band</title>
                                <eventupdate>6 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-john-wood-band/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The John Wood Band is a soulful, six-piece indie rock band out of Wilmington, NC. The band formed at UNCW, led by lead singer and songwriter John Wood, who is known for songs such as Coffee On The Beach and Dry Eyes. With six pieces in the band, you can always expect a dynamic and electric set. They have played alongside acts such as Congress The Band, Winyah, Harvey Street, Innlet, The Vegabonds, Wim Tapley, and Easy Honey. Catch The John Wood Band on tour all year long! &#160; Instagram &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Mei Semones</title>
                                <eventupdate>7 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/mei-semones-3/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[On the night of the Fourth of July, fireworks over Mei Semones' Brooklyn block were competing with something more primal. Up and down the street, dogs answered each burst with a long, ragged howl of their own. Semones, alone in her apartment with her guitar while the rest of the city celebrated outside, found she didn't mind the solitude. The howling struck her less as a cry for help than as a kind of greeting: proof that she was never really by herself, not with music always keeping her company. By morning, she had the seed of the title track for her sophomore album, Howl."Sometimes making music feels like howling into the universe," Semones says. "I make music because I like it, because it feels instinctual &#8212; but it also connects me to people close and far. I like to think of this music as my howl."It's a title that might invite a familiar story of pressure and release, but Semones sees songwriting differently. Nothing was bottled up, she says, waiting to come pouring out. Music is simply something she does, every day, because it feels natural to her. That idea runs through Howl, an album that embraces the full range of her experiences rather than settling into a single emotional register. Tenderness and joy coexist with grief, self-doubt and memories of loss &#8212; the same range audible in a sound that can move from delicate fingerpicking to distorted, rhythmically restless swells within a single song.At 26, the Brooklyn-based Japanese American guitarist and singer-songwriter &#8212; already named an Artist to Watch by The New York Times and Stereogum, and Artist You Need to Know by Rolling Stone and The FADER &#8212; has developed a sound that brings together jazz, bossa nova, samba and grungy math rock without treating any of them as separate worlds. Her bilingual songwriting works in much the same way. Few songwriters weave between languages as naturally as Semones does, slipping between English and Japanese within the same song &#8212; sometimes the same line &#8212; and letting both languages become part of the music itself. As she puts it, writing in both languages "felt more true to myself."Growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing piano at age four on an instrument gifted by her Japanese grandmother before picking up electric guitar at 11, inspired in part by Marty McFly's performance of "Johnny B. Goode" in Back to the Future. Semones also spent summers as a child in Yokosuka, Japan &#8212; where her grandmother lived &#8212; attending a local elementary school for two weeks each year and spending long afternoons catching cicadas, playing soccer, building things with mud, and searching for rhinoceros beetles. Those unhurried childhood experiences would later shape her 2024 EP, Kabutomushi, named after the very beetles she would catch with her school friends in Yokosuka.In high school, she was introduced to jazz through greats like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Wes Montgomery, and around the same time she discovered bossa nova through Jo&#227;o Gilberto's recordings. She later studied music with a focus on guitar at Berklee College of Music. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Michael Shannon &#038; Jason Narducy and Friends play R.E.M.&#8217;s Document</title>
                                <eventupdate>8 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/michael-shannon-jason-narducy-and-friends-play-r-e-m-s-document/the-ritz-raleigh/raleigh-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Michael Shannon &#38; Jason Narducy and Friends are excited to announce a spring 2027 North American tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.&#8217;s, Document. After the pair’s enthusiastically received run earlier this year honoring R.E.M.’s landmark 1986 album, Lifes Rich Pageant, which saw Mike Mills &#38; Peter Buck join in at the band’s two shows [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>La Sécurité</title>
                                <eventupdate>9 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/la-s%c3%a9curit%c3%a9/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Sun, 27 Sep 2026 22:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[La S&#233;curit&#233; (Montr&#233;al/Tiohti&#224;:ke) is a collective whose art punk is equal parts: jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks; run through an insomniac filter, the result of excessive exposure to the city&#8217;s neon lights. The music is all about living dangerously, perfectly agreeable to being blasted onto dancefloors; while the lyrics share the ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement, and celebrate the autonomization of women, friends (mean and nice) as well as benevolence. Since coming together in the Spring of 2022, they have been invited to perform noteworthy events such as SXSW, End of the Road, The Great Escape, and Reeperbahn, also touring alongside The Go! Team (2024) and The Rapture (2025). Following the release of Polaris Music Prize 2024 long-listed debut Stay Safe!&#8212;as well as its joyous offspring Stay Safe! REMIXED&#8212;with Mothland, the five-piece offered singles &#8220;Detour&#8221; and &#8220;Ketchup&#8221;, setting the stage for a new influx of D.I.Y. sonic gems, this time also teaming up with Simon Raymonde&#8217;s seminal British imprint: Bella Union. Hence, the motley bunch continues to meander the fringes of punk, new wave and krautrock, mischievously flouting stylistic form every chance they get by way of sophomore long-player Bingo!, released on June 12th, 2026 via Bella Union (World) and Mothland (Canada/United States). &#160; Bandcamp &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#160;]]></description>
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                                <title>He Is Legend&#8217;s Holiday Hootenanny 4</title>
                                <eventupdate>14 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/he-is-legends-holiday-hootenanny-4/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Instagram &#183;&#160;Facebook &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Rayland Baxter &#8211; The True Violet Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>14 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/rayland-baxter-the-true-violet-tour/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Rayland Baxter has spent much of his career chasing clarity, but his newest record, True Violet, feels like the first time he's truly found it. His 2022 album If I Were A Butterfly evoked transformation, but in Baxter's own view, True Violet is the record where the true metamorphosis has unfolded. Catalyzed less by a sudden realization than by hard-earned understanding, True Violet is a record about the slow, steady process of becoming someone new. It's about looking in the mirror, taking responsibility for your own life, and sitting with difficult emotions instead of trying to outrun them. "I sat in my chair alone for a year and wrote a bunch of songs, and what started off as an attempt to write a record got sideswiped by mediocre attempts I wouldn't even sing to my dog," Baxter recalls. "Then, like many times over the last three years, I called my sister. We talked about life and family and love and heartache, and our individual experiences with all of that. She simply encouraged me to write about what I was feeling, something I was avoiding in the early stages of writing.&#8221; Rayland took his sister's advice and began writing with a newfound vulnerability. He'd sit alone each evening with his guitar for hours, excavating experiences and emotions. If a lyric or melody didn't click, he'd stop, walk around, dig up an old tour voice memo, and return to the guitar. Movies like Dances With Wolves and The Sandlot played in the background, their colors and landscapes bleeding into his creative psyche. By the time he entered the studio, he'd amassed nearly seventy songs. True Violet is the first Rayland Baxter record made without the presence of his father, Bucky Baxter, a multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Bob Dylan and as a member of Steve Earle and The Dukes, whose musicianship and encouragement had shaped every previous chapter of his career. "He used to be my phone call, my confidant, my teacher, and my musical guide," Baxter says. "He still is today, but he exists more in the invisible realm now, where feeling and intuition are how I experience his wisdom." In the wake of that loss, Baxter's sister became an essential presence in both his life and creative process. "Honestly, it was her encouragement that brought these songs to life," he says. "She was actually bringing me back to life." These days, Baxter has a steadier hand on the sails of his life, and you can hear it in his voice as he sings about living inside a feeling for too long and the hard-won relief of finally moving beyond it. "I was just letting it go," Baxter says. "The right people were in the room bringing the songs to life. I was observing. Feeling for the first time really steady in the process." True Violet is about what remains after the storm passes: the lessons, the scars, the gratitude, and the possibility of beginning again. The medicine of the record lies in the contrast between the hardship that inspired it and the clarity, patience, and community that finally brought it into focus. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Aubory Bugg</title>
                                <eventupdate>16 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/aubory-bugg/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Growing up in a blue-collar steel-mill town in Illinois, Bugg once thought she might become a lawyer &#8212; but always knew her path would ultimately lead to music. In a household shaped by hard work and creativity, her father played drums in local bands and at family gatherings. She learned early that dreaming big only matters if you&#8217;re willing to put in the work to back it up. Whether it was her parents picking up extra jobs or bartering home repairs in exchange for piano lessons from a relative, this foundation instilled a lasting belief in Bugg: anything is possible, but no one&#8217;s going to do it for you. By 13, Bugg was already performing in local coffee houses, channeling her experiences into songs that felt both deeply personal and universally resonant. Growing up in a conservative, tight-knit town made that sense of belonging complicated &#8212; a tension that would later become central to her songwriting. Reflecting on that experience, Bugg shares: &#8220;Growing up queer in a town like that, you feel different before you even understand why. I wanted to fit in so badly, but at the same time I knew I wasn&#8217;t meant to stay &#8212; and I think that tension really shaped the way I write and how I see the world. My parents always told me anything you want is within reach, as long as you&#8217;re willing to work for it &#8212; and that stuck with me. Nobody&#8217;s going to do it for you. I think everything I make comes from that place of wanting to be as honest as possible about where I&#8217;m at, even when it&#8217;s uncomfortable.&#8221; In January 2024, she began posting a cover a day on TikTok, and her version of &#8220;Tummy Hurts&#8221; by Rene&#233; Rapp quickly went viral (watch here), bringing in more than 110,000 new followers. Rather than stay in the cover lane, Bugg made a decisive shift to original music, steadily building a fanbase with a prolific output of songs that reflect her lived experience with striking clarity and intention. Now with more than 200K TikTok followers, a tour opening for Hey Nothing,, and her debut album in the works, Aubory is living her best life in Nashville, surrounded by a thriving community of artists and collaborators. The album captures a pivotal chapter for this exciting new artist &#8212; navigating identity, independence, and the emotional weight of leaving home. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>No One Mind Record Release Show, Slow Teeth, Mind Over Mirrors</title>
                                <eventupdate>19 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/no-one-mind-record-release-show-slow-teeth-mind-over-mirrors/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[No One Mind Soft Work / Hard Dreams, the third full-length album from No One Mind (out October 9, Third Uncle Records), frames the tension between artistic ambition and the need for stability. Here, the songwriter&#8217;s primitive drive to express (&#8220;I&#8217;ve got love in my bones&#8221;) meets the coercive voice of their inner critic (&#8220;Maybe there&#8217;s nothing left to love&#8221;), responsibilities of traditional work, and a culture that devalues art-making as a legitimate form of self-support (&#8220;I&#8217;m only working on Friday night / To keep the dream alive&#8221;). Though vibrant and triumphant in sound and delivery, the record invites feelings of doubt, negative comparison, and unfulfilled aspirations lingering beneath the surface. What does it mean to feel satisfied as a musician? Is success defined by financial sustainability or by the act of creation itself? Can making music be enough without external validation? For No One Mind, these misgivings drive the album&#8217;s spirit, guiding listeners through vivid, shifting perspectives toward a deeper understanding of the artist&#8217;s quest for creative satisfaction and belonging. No One Mind has been the songwriting, recording, and live performance moniker of Durham, NC-based musician Ellis Anderson since 2014. Collaborating with former bandmates Noah Dehmer and Missy Thangs, No One Mind debuted the self-titled LP in 2016 on Third Uncle Records. The album explored themes of betrayal and disaffection through biting post-punk, psych, and melancholy art-pop, earning Indy Week&#8217;s Top 10 Local Albums of 2016, and Bandcamp Daily to claim &#8220;rarely has there been a record as focused and barbed in its execution.&#8221; After a handful of single releases and the departure of Dehmer and Thangs, Anderson expanded the live and recording ensemble to include fellow musicians Sam Logan and Reed Benjamin. Together, No One Mind forged their sophomore full-length, Secondary Gain (2023, Third Uncle Records). Here, Anderson&#8217;s &#8220;mirage-like baritone&#8221; (Indy Week, 2023) blends with pop-psychedelic structure, driving rhythms, and muscular hooks as the setting for a thematic examination of characters fixated on treachery, loss, and mistrust. 7&#8221; singles Over My Dead Body / Holy Role-r (2023) and Watching the World (Fall Out of Love) (2024) followed, offering catharsis shaped by Anderson&#8217;s grief, regret, and unease with the passing of his close childhood friend and a deluge of global tragedies. Today, No One Mind embraces a more flexible creative process, with Anderson writing, recording, and mixing from home with support from a variety of local collaborators including Chesley Kalnen (Stevie, Case Sensitive), Rex McMurry (Cave, Nathan Bowles Trio), and Saman Khoujinian (T. Gold, Dunums, Delver). &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Bandcamp &#183; Youtube]]></description>
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                                <title>Jake Xerxes Fussell</title>
                                <eventupdate>20 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/jake-xerxes-fussell-3/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[This is a partially seated show. &#160; Over six unique and very personal studio albums, Jake Xerxes Fussell has found his musical future by reimagining, reorchestrating, and reunifying the past. By combining different traditional music sources in a completely original way, he routinely creates fresh works of art that are at once rooted in tradition and ingeniously modern.&#160;&#8220;It starts at a very intuitive level, it has to be natural in order for it to succeed,&#8221; Fussell explains. &#8220;I&#8217;ll really get into a song and feel like I hear something in there like a melody, a particular phrase, a chorus, and I feel like &#8216;I could use that&#8217; and one thing leads to another.&#8221;&#160;It's Fussell&#8217;s inspired intuition that remakes a classic American folk song like &#8220;Rock Island Line&#8221;&#8212;the first single from his latest album The Old Beloved Path&#8212;into something that still rings with inherent wisdom but is completely his own. An accomplished fingerpicker on guitar who&#8217;s also blessed with a smooth baritone voice that effortlessly exudes the gravitas his creations demand, he says that in the past he might have avoided a song like &#8220;Rock Island Line&#8221; because it seemed too commonplace to him&#8212;too many folksingers had already done it. This touchstone of the well-known fabric of American folk music, &#8220;didn&#8217;t really need my interpretation.&#8221; But after listening again to &#160;the recording of this train song by British skiffler Lonnie Donegan , something about the incantation of the chorus struck a chord. In typical Fussell fashion, his remarkable ear and intellect took over.&#160;&#8220;The song struck me as very beautiful, but just singing the verses wasn&#8217;t working for me. I couldn&#8217;t relate,&#8221; he says looking back. &#8220;So, I wound up putting it together with an old English nursery rhyme that I had been kicking around. &#8220;Wire, briar, limberlock /How many geese is in our flock?&#8221; and &#8220;If you want to ride you got to ride it like you&#8217;re flyin, get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.&#8221; Marrying those two things, I felt like something worked, it felt like a song to me.&#8221;&#160;Prominent artists and documentarians in their own right, Fussell&#8217;s father is a folklorist, writer, painter, and photographer and his mother is an innovative fiber artist. Fussell grew up in an extended community devoted to the preservation of traditional cultural pursuits including storytelling, log cabin building, and basketmaking. Imbued with this deep respect for the past as well as an unquenchable intellectual curiosity, he grew up appreciating the beauty in those supposed lost arts and is now privy to all that in a way a lot of his compatriots in Indie music are not. While popular music songwriters like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen will always be among his heroes, he calls people who do nothing but source traditional music and play fiddle tunes faithfully as apostles of a &#8220;noble pursuit.&#8221;&#160;&#8220;For people in the folk music world, songs are their religion. But traditional music is not a bee &#160;stuck in amber. I tend to think of everyone who plays traditional music as being on a spectrum from conservative to wildly creative. I am somebody who tends to sit on the edge of those two worlds. I don&#8217;t always present these songs in a historical context. I have to relate to them personally. I approach these songs through my own worldview.&#8221; &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Marian Hill: Act Two: The Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>20 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/marian-hill-act-two-the-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Marian Hill is an American electronic pop duo made up of vocalist Samantha Gongol and producer Jeremy Lloyd. Their sound blends moody electronics, jazz-influenced saxophone, and Gongol's distinctive vocals into a style that's sleek, intimate, and hard to categorize &#8212; somewhere between R&#38;B, pop, and avant-garde electronic music. They arrived on the scene in 2013 when their single &#8220;One Time&#8221; went viral on Vine. Before long, their song Got It was in one of the first Today&#8217;s Top Hits playlists as well as a Taco Bell commercial, leading them to sign with Republic Records. They embarked on their first national tour and a radio campaign followed, peaking with One Time at #38 on US Alt Radio. Their big breakthrough came a few years later when their single "Down" was featured in Apple's AirPods ad, pairing Gongol's smoky vocals and a sparse piano line with a stuttering electronic beat &#8212; making it one of the most Shazamed songs in the country. The track reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was recently certified double platinum. Their music has been in major commercials for All State, Calvin Klein, Hyundai and Fox Sports and seen on TV in HBO&#8217;s Industry, Lucifer, Santa Clarita Diet, So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. They&#8217;ve performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonaroo, Electric Forest, Firefly, Governor&#8217;s Ball, and more and played to sold out crowds abroad in China, Korea, Japan and all over Europe. Television performances include Good Morning America, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Conan, The Late Late Show with James Corden and internationally on Jools Holland and Che Temp Che Fa. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Holler Choir</title>
                                <eventupdate>20 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/holler-choir/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Led by multi-instrumentalists and award winning songwriters Clint Roberts and Jackson Grimm, Asheville&#8217;s Holler Choir blends a distinctly Appalachian indie-pop sound with haunting harmonies, stirring string arrangements, and heart-wrenching ballads&#8212;yet rarely conforms to a single genre. Rooted in Old-time, Americana, and Bluegrass traditions, Holler Choir&#8217;s sound is ultimately singular by design. Alongside Roberts and Grimm, a rotating cast of gifted Appalachian musicians contributes to the group&#8217;s recordings and electrifying live performances. Holler Choir began during the recording of Roberts&#8217;s 2022 solo EP, Mountain Air, at Asheville&#8217;s Crossroads Studios. That fortuitous gathering of roots musicians proved to be the genesis of an unmistakable new sound. Produced by Grammy Award&#8211;winning multi-instrumentalist Michael Ashworth of The Steep Canyon Rangers, the five-song EP lit the fuse, setting Holler Choir on a path to delight audiences throughout the Southeast and beyond. Much of that same collective reunited to record the band&#8217;s 2024 debut full-length album, Songs Before They Write Themselves, tracked in the historic church room at Echo Mountain Studios and engineered by Jason Richmond (Avett Brothers, Rising Appalachia). Grimm officially joined the fold in the summer of 2024 after being invited to collaborate on Holler Choir&#8217;s Susto Stringband project, which reinterprets the indie-rock Americana songwriting of Susto&#8217;s Justin Osborne through old-time and bluegrass lenses. As Roberts and Grimm continued working together, Grimm&#8217;s sharp lyrical wit and wide-ranging multi-instrumentalism quickly proved to be a powerful addition to the band&#8217;s creative core. Holler Choir is slated to release its first collaborative record under this lineup in late 2026 or early 2027. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Crank It Loud Presents Emo Night Karaoke</title>
                                <eventupdate>20 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/crank-it-loud-presents-emo-night-karaoke/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Emo Night Karaoke is headlining Cats Cradle in Carrboro, NC featuring you on lead vocals! &#160; The band features seasoned professional musicians who play warped tour &#38; when we were young festival and are in real touring bands. We&#8217;ll be playing your favorite songs from back in the day, live on stage with YOU as the lead singer! With a setlist of 100+ pop punk and emo songs, full concert production, and visuals, this is a can't-miss event. Song sign-ups are first come, first served at the show, with lyrics scrolling on multiple TVs, and the band will even help with backup vocals if needed. Check out www.emonightkaraoke.com for the latest updates and setlists. &#160; TikTok &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook]]></description>
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                                <title>Eliza McLamb</title>
                                <eventupdate>21 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/eliza-mclamb-4/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Eliza McLamb's warm, intimate songs weave through confessional folk and clamorous alt-rock in a way that recalls contemporary indie heroes like Julia Jacklin and Lucy Dacus. After building a grassroots fan base through social media, the North Carolina native released her debut EP, Salt Circle, in 2022. She soon joined the roster of Royal Mountain Records, which released her full-length debut, Going Through It, in 2024. Her heightened success led to McLamb leaving Binchtopia, the popular podcast she had co-hosted since 2021, to focus exclusively on her music career. Her sophomore album, Good Story, appeared in 2025, following her first headlining tour. &#160; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Youtube &#183; Spotify &#183; Bandcamp]]></description>
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                                <title>Julien Baker</title>
                                <eventupdate>22 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/julien-baker/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[A portion of the proceeds from Julien Baker's tour will go to TAC and their work supporting LGBTQ Youth across the country. &#160; Julien Baker returns for a special run of intimate shows this fall. This tour marks her first solo performances since 2024. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Julien Baker</title>
                                <eventupdate>22 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/julien-baker-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[A portion of the proceeds from Julien Baker's tour will go to TAC and their work supporting LGBTQ Youth across the country. &#160; Julien Baker returns for a special run of intimate shows this fall. This tour marks her first solo performances since 2024. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Julien Baker</title>
                                <eventupdate>22 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/julien-baker-3/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[A portion of the proceeds from Julien Baker's tour will go to TAC and their work supporting LGBTQ Youth across the country. &#160; Julien Baker returns for a special run of intimate shows this fall. This tour marks her first solo performances since 2024. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Josie Edwards</title>
                                <eventupdate>28 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/josie-edwards/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Josie Edwards is a rising folk-pop singer-songwriter based in Nashville, TN, whose sharp storytelling and unmistakable voice have earned her more than 100 million streams and a fast-growing audience online. &#160; Raised in northern Indiana, she formed her first band in high school before moving to Nashville to study at Belmont University, where she earned a degree in songwriting. Her breakout single &#8220;good girls&#8221; introduced millions of listeners to the personal, slightly offbeat world behind her music. &#160; She carried that momentum through &#8220;The Poet and Her Vice (Happy Ending),&#8221; &#8220;Dog Prophecies,&#8221; and &#8220;Gravedigger,&#8221; into her 2026 EP Greetings From Bleak St. Its standout track, &#8220;Chemical Light,&#8221; has sparked another wave of attention online and pushed her audience higher still. &#160; Drawing on artists like Tom Odell, Twenty One Pilots, Noah Kahan, The Lumineers, and Bob Dylan, Josie pairs dark humor with folk-pop melodies that stick. It&#8217;s an identity entirely her own &#8212; and one of the most distinct arriving in the genre right now. &#160; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Tommy Fleece</title>
                                <eventupdate>28 days ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/tommy-fleece/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Detroit-born Tommy Fleece, 23, makes music for the cool kids and the normal kids, casual soundtracks and party anthems, buoyed by a uniquely sensitive and mischievous spirit. Describing his music as &#8220;all positivity, all being a Chad,&#8221; he grew up on indie sleaze delirium, punk rock his dad would show him, and the improv genius of jazz. After cutting his teeth in the underground and earning a reputation as a tweaked-out synth wizard, he&#8217;s finally ready to seize the electroclash crown. &#160; Instagram &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Cosmic Charlie does JGB</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/cosmic-charlie-does-jgb/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:25:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Join Cosmic Charlie for a lively evening of Jerry Garcia Band tunes! &#160;JGB was a quintessential part of the Deadhead experience, keeping fans connected in between Grateful Dead tours, and giving Jerry a chance to dive deeper into the music he loved. Along with their rousing versions of Grateful Dead classic repertoire such as Sugaree, They Love Each Other and Deal, JGB was legendary for their take on Bob Marley, JJ Cale, Jimmy Cliff; and of course many Hunter/Garcia originals from his Jerry's albums. The show will feature special guests, helping Cosmic Charlie capture the classic JGB sound. We look forward to a real good time!&#160; &#160; ---------------------------- &#160; "Cosmic Charlie really is a great band - these guys do this music the way it should be done: having the conversation in their own voices.&#8221; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; -David Gans, Grateful Dead Hour&#160; Cosmic Charlie was born in the musical Mecca of Athens, Georgia. From its summer 1999 inception, the band swiftly cemented its reputation as a band that puts a unique and personal twist on the Grateful Dead catalogue. Cosmic Charlie is a Dead cover band for folks that are ambivalent about Dead cover bands.&#160; Rather than mimicking the Dead exactly, Cosmic Charlie chooses to tap into the Dead&#8217;s energy and style as a foundation on which to build. The result is healthy balance of creativity and tradition, where both the band and its audience are taken to that familiar edge with the sense that, music is actually being MADE here tonight. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram&#160;&#183;&#160;Facebook &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Carrboro Bluegrass Festival Presents Bluegrass In The Backroom</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/carrboro-bluegrass-festival-presents-bluegrass-in-the-backroom-6/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:05:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[This is a seated show.]]></description>
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                                <title>Dinosaur Jr. &#8211; Spring Tour 2027</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/dinosaur-jr-spring-tour-2027/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Finally! The sixth studio album Dinosaur Jr. have recorded in the 20 years since their triumphal rebirth. There have been several live and/or closet cleaning collections to keep us punters sated for the five years since Sweep It Into Space, but there is nothing quite like having a full slab of new Dino tunes to fry your ears. And There Near has all knobs set to Extra Crispy. Created in short, intense bursts over the course of a year at Amherst's Bisquiteen Studio, There Near was recorded almost entirely by Dino's core trio -- king of the thunder tubs, Murph, human tornado Lou Barlow on bass/vocals and the inimitable J Mascis on guitar/vocals -- with a bit of piano and organ work by local master musician, Ken Mauri. And the album roars from start to finish. Trying to define the essence of Dino's sound is never easy. It's an instantly recognizable blend of loose vocals, sharp guitars and an animalistic rhythm section, but these parts combine into a whole far more magical and exciting than its components. In strict rock-write terms, you might call the approach &#8220;post-core power balladeering,&#8221; but what use is that? Dinosaur Jr. invented their formula for noise/pop jiggering around the same time Husker D&#252; were trying out some of the same ideas, all of which got made popular by a band they inspired called Nirvana. But that's an old and much-told tale. J's guitar tone throughout There Near is even more animalistic than usual, perhaps owing partly to the fact he's playing through a recently acquired 70's Mesa Boogie MK 1 amp. &#8220;I bought the same amp that Chris Dixon had when we made our first album,&#8221; J says. &#8220;Chris recorded us at his house with his amp. It has a real interesting sound I haven't gotten for a while. And it's something I was trying to get back to on this album. The Stones started using Mesa Boogies in the '70s after they heard Santana playing through them. Then The Clash copied The Stones, etc. As the years went on into the MK 2 and so on, the Boogie got more metal sounding. But the MK 1 has a souped-up Fender sound. You always hear how Rick Rubin always makes bands he's producing sit down and listen to their first album and say let's get back to that sound. So I just gave myself his advice." Asked about the philosophical opacity of his lyrical approach, J says. &#8220;I'm not always sure what a song is 'about' when I'm writing it. I guess the meaning will present itself at some point. I'll use whatever words work. And a lot of it will be influenced by whatever esoteric mumbo jumbo I'm reading at the time. I try not to think too hard about any of it. I think it's a drag that Spotify shows all the lyrics to a song. What's the fun of that? Japanese labels always wanted us to give them lyrics to print. I wouldn't hand them over so they'd just have to try and figure them out. It has always been better to make up your own version of lyrics to songs by the Stones or R.E.M. or whoever. I mean, R.E.M.'s whole thing was about mumbling. I never understood why they caved to pressure and started enunciating." &#8220;Someone suggested this album sounds more upbeat, but I guess that's to do with my delivery, because lyrics like 'No Friends' might make you think otherwise. But I usually write in the third person. It's all just make believe.&#8221; &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Scattrbrain</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/scattrbrain/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>AZ Chike</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/az-chike/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Mega Colossus</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/mega-colossus-3/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
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                                <title>Jacob Sharp: Middle Kid Album Release Show</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/jacob-sharp-middle-kid-album-release-show/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Jacob Sharp has been writing songs and playing shows for 15 years. And he finally has an album of his own worth sharing. The songs of &#8220;Middle Kid&#8221; provide nuanced insights to the relational intrigue that has long driven both his musical and interpersonal worlds. A richly-textured album that feels bound to immediately serve as a lexicon for an increasingly vast indie-folk world, it&#8217;s as equally sparse as it is confident, and full of both the emotional directness and pop hooks that have become the calling cards of Jacob&#8217;s writing and songs. &#160; From a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, Jacob grew up surrounded by music and obsessed with bands. As a founding member of Mipso, who sprang from Chapel Hill as a genre-bending stringband in 2012 and now serves as a maven to a fully-bloomed folk/americana scene, he has long been most comfortable making music with friends. Though this is a solo-debut, the collaboration at its core is what gives it its most striking edge - and the album is a celebration of the musical community Jacob has built living in Brooklyn and Los Angeles when not on the road over the last decade. It was initially conceived as an outlet for the co-writing that drives his creative world; the record features co-writing contributions from Bridget Kearney (Lake Street Dive), Benjamin Lazar Davis (Maya Hawke, Cuddle Magic), Taylor Ashton and Shane Leonard. But when demo sessions began with co-producer Benjamin Lazar Davis it became immediately clear that the batch of songs deserved a band of ringers. Jacob&#8217;s closest friends and most-treasured musical companions gathered in Los Angeles in the early summer of 2024 and gave the tunes the life they needed to become a record too good not to share. "Middle Kid" is out on October 9th - with select tour dates this fall to celebrate the release. &#160; &#160; Taylor Ashton is a shape-shifting songwriter with the heart of a novelist and the timing of a stand-up comic. Whether it&#8217;s just his warm baritone over solo clawhammer banjo or his agile falsetto soaring over an electric six-piece band with horns, his live shows unfold like a play: vulnerable, funny, and slyly profound. Laughter often gives way to a hush. Ashton&#8217;s sound evokes the intimacy of Nick Drake, the soul of Bill Withers, the tender playfulness of Harry Nilsson, and the searching spirit of Joni Mitchell.]]></description>
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                                <title>Tabitha Meeks</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/tabitha-meeks/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Queen of Retro Pop has arrived. Currently touring the country, her piano solos and live shows are unmatched for their vintage and fun energy. She is best described as &#8220;Norah Jones meets Nancy Sinatra,&#8221; and Tabitha Meeks&#8217; feel-good throwback music will make you bop your head, tap your toes, and feel empowered all at once. Her song &#8220;Cherry on Top&#8221; aired in the No. 1 Hulu/Disney+ show &#8220;The Testaments&#8221; (S1 Ep. 3) and her Holiday hit song &#8220;Ready for Christmas&#8221; has been used in over 1 million social media videos. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Frankie Gavin (of De Dannan)</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/frankie-gavin-of-de-dannan/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[This is a seated show. &#160; Frankie Gavin is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish fiddle players of all time. Best known as the founding member of the legendary Irish traditional band De Dannan, Gavin has enjoyed an extraordinary career spanning decades. He has recorded and performed with an impressive range of musical icons, including The Rolling Stones, St&#233;phane Grappelli, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Earl Scruggs, Tim O'Brien, and Nigel Kennedy. &#8212; Simon Haines]]></description>
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                                <title>Sam Shackleton &#8211; North American Headline Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/sam-shackleton-north-american-headline-tour/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Widely known for his viral videos and songs such as The Lone Prairie, The Overgate, and Rocky Road to Dublin, Sam Shackleton has developed a large touring fanbase across the UK and USA. He has become well known for his unique, rowdy, and exciting performance style, from his strong Scottish traditional ballad singing brogue reminiscent of the likes of Luke Kelly, to his masterful interpretations of traditional folk music from Scotland, Ireland, and the USA, which he blends with punk elements alongside his own original songs and deep introspective lyrics. Whether moving the audience to tears with an old folk ballad such as The Butcher Boy, or rousing the whole room to sing and dance to his rhythmic clawhammer banjo and whooping harmonica, the Scottish troubadour has been making a name for himself on the global folk scene by consistently selling out headline shows across the UK and the USA. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Palmyra</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/palmyra-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Established in Virginia&#8217;s Shenandoah Valley, Palmyra captures the collective spirit of three Virginia natives: Teddy Chipouras, Mānoa Bell, and Sasha Landon. Palmyra straddles at least two musical worlds. They are, on one hand, a band from the South that plays traditional instruments and indeed once lived in the old-time locus of Floyd, Virginia. Comparisons to and a kinship with The Avett Brothers and even Old Crow Medicine Show are inevitable. On the other hand, Palmyra writes about grief, gender dysphoria and identity, and coming of age in songs that flirt with soul, post-rock, and even emo; the South, too, is the place of My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Cat Power, and now, Palmyra. The band&#8217;s first full length LP, Restless, is out now on Oh Boy Records. Framed by moments of struggle, solidarity, and hard-won growth, Restless is an unqualified ringer for anyone who loves the space where the roar of indie rock collides with raw folk. &#160; Website &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook]]></description>
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                                <title>tiLLie</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/tillie-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[tiLLie is a genre-bending alt-pop artist whose music shapeshifts between glittering pop hooks, grungy guitars, and 90s-inspired electronic chaos. Described by BBC Radio&#8217;s Jack Saunders as &#8220;a maverick artist born from the gates of Hell,&#8221; tiLLie&#8217;s lyrics go deep, tackling mental health, abuse, and empowerment head-on. With co-signs and co-writes from the likes of mgk, Daniel James, Bishop Briggs, Evan Bogart, Lights, Skyler Stonestreet, and Kevin Lyman (Vans Warped Tour), editorial support from Alt Press, The Fader, Spin, Billboard and more, she unleashed her new EP, &#8220;i miss when monsters were only shadows,&#8221; in January 2026 - led by the single &#8220;earn a living,&#8221; which landed her on Amazon Music&#8217;s #alt playlist cover. Anticipate raw, unfiltered alt-pop, a fearless voice, and a sonic evolution that keeps you leaning in. Having toured alongside Lights, girli, TX2, and Delilah Bon, and stormed stages at Vans Warped Tour, Slam Dunk Festival, and Rock for People, tiLLie has built her reputation as a firecracker of a performer - chaotic, cathartic, and impossible to look away from. With a brand-new era on the horizon, expect to catch her tearing up stages across the U.S. and Europe in 2026 (including Vans Warped Tour D.C., Long Beach, and Orlando) turning every show into a glitter-streaked, scream-along exorcism of joy. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify &#160;]]></description>
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                                <title>Missio</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/missio/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>The Stews</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-stews-4/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[&#160; Forming at Auburn University, The Stews ultimately decided to leave school to meet the massive demand for their live shows and raw, high-energy rock music. The now-Atlanta-based band since have graduated from the &#8216;college band&#8217; label, selling out venues nationwide from NYC&#8217;s Bowery Ballroom, to DC&#8217;s 9:30 Club and Wilmington's Greenfield Lake Amphitheater, and bringing their electrifying stage presence to festival stages like Bonnaroo, Hangout, Lollapalooza, Shaky Knees &#160;and more in only a couple of years. Comprised of Preston Hall (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Blake Dobbs (Guitar), Bennett Baugus (Bass), and Wyatt Griffith (Drums), The Stews burst onto the southeastern rock scene in 2021 with their self titled EP, all while recording and releasing music in a frenzy. From that EP, single &#8220;Make It Out&#8221; continues to make waves, eclipsing over 6 million streams on Spotify, earning radio play nationwide, and being placed in Netflix&#8217;s hit show &#8216;Outer Banks.&#8217;&#160;The southern four-piece&#8217;s debut album 'What Was' came out in April 2022, and 2024&#8217;s follow up record 'Chicken Fight' has already taken them to new heights. A daring body of work that can&#8217;t be confined to one genre, &#8216;Chicken Fight&#8217; delivers as a single sit-through record, with its 11 songs touching on sonic palettes of The Allman Brothers, Audioslave, Pink Floyd, and Kings of Leon, amongst others, yet still uniquely The Stews.&#160;Since then, The Stews have been hard at work back in the kitchen, continuing to cook up new recipes for high fidelity head-banging and heart-capturing music. Their first release from this new batch of songs is &#8220;Used To&#8221; (releasing October 2nd, 2026 via No Coincidence Records), an upbeat rock anthem about moving on and letting go. Produced alongside Will Turpin (Collective Soul) at Real To Reel Studios in Atlanta, GA, &#8220;Used To&#8221; builds from a sparse, driving intro, and erupts into a soaring earworm chorus alongside whole band vocals, showcasing the band&#8217;s knack for infectious hooks and high-energy rock.&#160; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Open Mike Eagle</title>
                                <eventupdate>1 month ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/open-mike-eagle/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Open Mike Eagle: Open Mike Eagle spent the 2010s finding comedy in rap music and American nightmares. On albums like Brick Body Kids Still Daydream and Dark Comedy, he delivered hilarious socio-political insights via half-sung verses laid atop progressive production. Acclaim from publications like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and NPR coincided with headlining solo tours and top-billing at events like Adult Swim Festival. Between studio sessions, Eagle co-founded The New Negroes, a standup-meets-music variety show that explores perceptions of Blackness. He and co-founder Baron Vaughn brought the show to Upright Citizens Brigade, Comedy Central, and venues around the U.S. With over a dozen solo and collaborative projects to his name, Eagle has spent his career redefining and expanding the parameters of &#8220;art rap,&#8221; the term he coined as a shorthand for leftfield and avant-garde rap music. On Dark Comedy, he chronicled everything from smartphone addiction to the realities of being an indie artist in the streaming era with self-deprecation and side-splitting absurdity. 2017&#8217;s Brick Body Kids Still Daydream marked Eagle&#8217;s shift toward examining trauma, wading through the rubble of Chicago&#8217;s demolished Robert Taylor Homes, where several family members once lived. Anime, Trauma, and Divorce, his first full-length album on Auto Reverse Records, was among the most personal projects of his career. Neighborhood Gods Unlimited expanded that autobiographical and surrealist language further, turning an unrealized television concept into an album with an opening theme, flashbacks, a climax, and commercials. &#160; Instagram&#160;&#183; Website &#160; Kenny Segal: Kenny Segal is a Los Angeles-based producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work has helped shape some of the most adventurous corners of independent rap and experimental music. A longtime fixture of LA&#8217;s underground, Segal has built a reputation for productions that feel tactile, strange, melodic, and deeply lived-in. His recent collaborations span acclaimed projects with rappers including billy woods and K-the-I???, as well as work with jazz trio Human Error Club and bluesy indie rocker Benjamin Booker. On DOOMED!, Segal brings that full range into focus, constructing a singular sonic world around Mike Eagle&#8217;s fractured romantic postmortem. &#160; Instagram &#183; Bandcamp]]></description>
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                                <title>The Whom</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-whom/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 06:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>More Souvenirs from Paradise &#8211; A Tribute to John Prine</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/more-souvenirs-from-paradise-a-tribute-to-john-prine/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[This is a seated show. &#160; Rebecca Newton, John Saylor, Kimmie Wilson, Lance White, Zach White, Charles Latham, Danny Gotham, Jones Bell, Emma Davis, and other local favorites. &#160; By the folks that brought you the Stax shows.]]></description>
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                                <title>Charlie Parr</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/charlie-parr-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing&#8212;including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie&#8212;imbue Parr&#8217;s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: &#8220;I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,&#8221; he said in an interview. &#8220;I hope that I&#8217;ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.&#8221; With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr&#8217;s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless. Parr&#8217;s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: &#8220;I don&#8217;t see that I&#8217;d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren&#8217;t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,&#8221; Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father&#8217;s record collection&#8212;sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves&#8212;and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired. &#160; Website &#183;&#160;Spotify &#183;&#160;Facebook &#183;&#160;Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Joy Oladokun: The Heavy Things Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/joy-oladokun-the-heavy-things-tour/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Joy Oladokun is one of today&#8217;s most compelling genre-defying voices. A queer Black musician and daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Oladokun has become a vital cultural voice, writing songs that explore identity, faith, mental health, and social justice with honesty and restraint. Those themes remain at the heart of Hope Is A Heavy Thing, Oladokun's new 12-track album, due September 25. Produced by Oladokun with additional contributions from Nigerian producer Spellz and a feature from Nigerian artist Adekunle Gold, the album marks a bold new creative chapter, broadening her sound while continuing to explore questions of identity, resilience, and belonging with the emotional depth that has become her signature. The project further reflects Oladokun&#8217;s ability to draw from diverse influences while creating music that transcends genre and geography. Since her 2020 breakthrough, Oladokun has released three critically acclaimed albums, was nominated for Americana Artist of the Year, and saw her protest anthem &#8220;i see america&#8221; named a finalist for the Recording Academy&#8217;s Special Merit Award for Best Song for Social Change. Praised by The New York Times, NPR Music, and Billboard for her ability to turn quiet introspection into lasting impact, Oladokun has brought her music to national television on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS Saturday Morning, and Austin City Limits, while her songs have been featured across major TV series. With collaborations spanning artists like Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Noah Kahan, and Maxo Kream, she is entering her next chapter by bringing an even broader, bolder sound to the table, continuing to prove herself as an artist who not only bends genre but bridges culture. Website]]></description>
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                                <title>Winyah</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/winyah-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Winyah has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting organizations working for equity, access, and dignity for all.&#160;www.plus1.org &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Quadeca</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/quadeca-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Quadeca has partnered with City of Hope, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the organization&#8217;s efforts to advance cancer research, provide lifesaving treatments, and support children and families facing cancer.City of Hope Website &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Greg Freeman</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/greg-freeman-2/motorco-music-hall/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website]]></description>
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                                <title>Yana &#8211; The Feelings Are Forever Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/yana-the-feelings-are-forever-tour/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>East Nash Grass</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/east-nash-grass/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[How did East Nash Grass follow up their 2024 International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) award for Best New Artist? By earning a nomination for Entertainer of the Year, IBMA&#8217;s highest honor, in 2025, and celebrating fiddler Maddie Denton&#8217;s win as Fiddler of the Year. In short, East Nash Grass have quickly established themselves as the fresh new face of Nashville&#8217;s storied bluegrass tradition, a supergroup of rising stars: Grand Master Fiddle champion Denton is joined by banjo player Cory Walker (banjo player on the five-time nominated &#8220;Carter &#38; Cleveland&#8221; album this year, among numerous accolades), 2022 IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year Harry Clark, and new guitar player Frank Rische. This is an all-star band that harkens back to the sort of talent collected in the original Blue Grass Boys and a powerhouse leader of the next generation in bluegrass excellence. Rolling Stone had them among the &#8220;best of what we saw&#8221; at RockyGrass in 2025, praising their &#8220;rowdy set of high-octane bluegrass numbers,&#8221; and noting, &#8220;The group itself is a rapidly-rising force on the national touring scene.&#8221; And &#8220;rowdy&#8221; is right. They are far more than just a group of impressive instrumental technicians, building on night after night of three-set gigs on Nashville&#8217;s East Side, playing tiny stages for the love of it between tours backing bigger acts. It&#8217;s a hard-forged bond that translates into an infectious on-stage energy that audiences can&#8217;t seem to get enough of. With their new release, &#8220;All God&#8217;s Children&#8221; (Mountain Fever, August 22, 2025), they show a depth and feel, too, that goes well beyond the traditional bluegrass fair, with nods to Gypsy jazz and East Village folk, and eye toward moving bluegrass forward and keeping it from being too mired in the past. If East Nash Grass isn&#8217;t the future of the genre it&#8217;s only because they&#8217;re already among its leading lights. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>After</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/after/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website]]></description>
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                                <title>River Shook (Full Band) Album Release Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/river-shook-full-band-album-release-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[River Shook is an artist in constant evolution. After a decade spent making their mark on country music, River Shook is closing the door on their first project (Sarah Shook &#38; the Disarmers) and entering an exciting new era, debuting as a solo artist. River&#8217;s reputation for writing galvanizing, strikingly honest lyrics, and their penchant for tapping elements of Indie rock and pop have forever cemented them as a country artist who energetically pushes the boundaries of their genre into a new frontier. River has delivered fiery fusions of country music and rock n&#8217; roll all over the USA, Canada, and Europe, selling out headlining shows at home and abroad. Whether they&#8217;re backed by a full band or appearing as a duo, River Shook is hitting the road in 2026 with their unmistakable voice, a growing collection of brand new songs, smoking talent, and the promise of real, raw, unforgettable live shows. Onstage and off, River Shook isn&#8217;t just an artist &#8211; they&#8217;re a force of nature. &#160; Website]]></description>
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                                <title>Harvey Street</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/harvey-street-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website &#183; YouTube &#183; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Guardin, Kennedy XOXO, Fijimar</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/guardin-kennedy-xoxo-fijimar/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; Soundcloud]]></description>
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                                <title>Magoo</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/magoo/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Magoo is a progressive bluegrass quartet from Denver, Colorado, redefining the boundaries of modern bluegrass with fearless creativity and world-class musicianship. Known for their dynamic live performances, the band delivers a powerful blend of intricate arrangements, tight three-part harmonies, and extended improvisations that bring new life to the genre. Their debut album What a Life arrived in February 2026, capturing the group&#8217;s adventurous spirit and balance between heartfelt songwriting and soaring instrumental work. The record honors the roots of bluegrass while boldly exploring its modern evolution, featuring a guest appearance from bluegrass legend Sam Bush on fiddle and harmony vocals and mastering by two-time GRAMMY Award winner David Glasser at Airshow Mastering. Each member of Magoo brings a distinctive voice and musical strength to the project. Dobroist Dylan Flynn, winner of the 2024 RockyGrass Dobro Competition, adds soulful depth and melodic warmth. Guitarist Erik Hill, runner-up in the RockyGrass Flatpicking Contest, drives the band&#8217;s rhythmic pulse with power and precision. Mandolinist Courtlyn Bills injects fiery solos and inventive arrangements, while bassist Denton Turner grounds the sound with groove, timing, and subtle dynamics. Together, they form a sound that is rich, cohesive, and unmistakably their own. Magoo&#8217;s recent achievements include first place at UllrGrass Band Competition and Clash of the Strings, second at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition, and a sold-out headlining show at the Bluebird Theater in Denver. Their festival appearances at Winter WonderGrass, Grand Lake Folk Festival, RapidGrass, and Huck Finn Jubilee have solidified their reputation as one of the most exciting new acts in the progressive bluegrass scene. With What a Life now out to the world, Magoo stands poised for a breakout year, bridging the heart of traditional bluegrass with the fearless innovation of a new generation. &#160; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Dev Lemons &#8211; Eat The Pavement Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/dev-lemons-eat-the-pavement-tour/motorco-music-hall/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Dev Lemons has built a career by refusing to fit neatly into a single lane. Equal parts alt-pop artist, songwriter, comedian, and internet personality, she has cultivated a fiercely loyal audience through her sharp wit, fearless authenticity, and genre-blurring music that balances vulnerability with humor. Originally gaining attention through her viral online content, Dev quickly [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>Dillon Fence</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/dillon-fence/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Dillon Fence&#8212;Greg Humphreys, Chis Goode, Scott Carle, and Kent Alphin&#8212;returns in 2026 to celebrate their second album, Outside In! The band, formed as college students at UNC Chapel Hill and Wake Forest in the late &#8216;80s, made a splash with their first album Rosemary, with songs honed at countless beer-soaked frat parties and nightclub shows. Their follow-up sophomore album, Outside In&#8212;produced by Lou Giordano at Fort Apache Studios in Boston, MA&#8212;was quite different than Rosemary. Many DF fans consider Outside In to be the band&#8217;s &#160;best collection of songs. Outside In took the band out on tours with bands like X, Lush, and Weezer, and onto MTV&#8217;s 120 Minutes with music videos for &#8220;Collapsis&#8221; and &#8220;Black Eyed Susan.&#8221; Dillon Fence will feature songs from Outside In at this year&#8217;s run of holiday dates&#8212;along with many crowd favorites. &#160; Website &#183; Spotify &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Porch Light &#8211; Hush Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/porch-light-hush-tour/kings/raleigh-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Minneapolis five-piece Porch Light&#8217;s year ahead has a collection of big, unabashed rock tunes, full of riffs that&#160;announce themselves and choruses that reach and grab. All of them are songs meant to be played on stage, by five&#160;people without bells or whistles. It&#8217;s an approach that&#8217;s taken them far &#8212; the five-piece have reached over a&#160;million monthly Spotify listeners and sold-out headline shows across the country before their debut project hit the&#160;market. They are all over this year's festival circuit playing Summerfest, Yacht Club, Hinterland, Lollapalooza and Shaky&#160;Knees. They also are setting out on the road this Fall for the 'Hush Tour', spanning across 30+ dates including shows&#160;at the Troubadour, Bowery Ballroom and more. &#160; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Brigitte Calls Me Baby &#8211; Irreversible Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/brigitte-calls-me-baby-irreversible-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Since their widely lauded debut album, The Future Is Our Way Out, Chicago-based 5 piece Brigitte Calls Me Baby have brought a greater intensity of vision to their lavish breed of alt-rock, arriving at a boldly singular sound that is both thrillingly new and immediately essential to the modern rock landscape. In a major leap forward for the band, Brigitte Calls Me Baby&#8217;s sophomore album Irreversible captures the energy, intrigue and &#160;grandeur of their live show, all while pushing further into the exquisite pathos of their songwriting. &#160; &#8220;Our first album taught me that you&#8217;ve got to reach as far down into your soul as possible and be willing to show something real and raw to the world, and with this album that felt even easier and more natural,&#8221; says Leavins, whose signature croon imbues every track on Irreversible with a potent emotionality. &#8220;There was a time when I tried to bury the kind of feelings we&#8217;re displaying on this record, but now I&#8217;m at the point where I don&#8217;t feel the need to hold anything back.&#8221; Produced by Yves Rothman and Lawrence Rothman (Blondshell, Yves Tumor), Irreversible came to life in the midst of a relentless live schedule that&#8217;s included performing at leading festivals like Lollapalooza, sharing bills with the likes of Morrissey &#38; Muse, and headlining sold-out tours across the U.S., U.K., and Europe. Recorded live at Lawrence&#8217;s the result is a majestic suite of songs that burn bright, hit hard, and passionately celebrate the drama of being alive. &#160; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Friendship, Charlotte Cornfield</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/friendship-charlotte-cornfield/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Friendship Music for sleeping and waking, walking and driving, hunting and fishing, for loitering outside a roadhouse on the haunted tundra. Okay in elevators, not great for dinner. On Caveman Wakes Up, Friendship&#8217;s new album and second for Merge Records, the band&#8217;s historically capacious definition of country music grows wider still. Shambolic guitars are offset by flute pads, bleary poetry is set against a Motown rhythm section, a song about Jerry Garcia and First Lady Betty Ford fades out with a drum solo, like if Talk Talk came from a dingy Philadelphia basement, and was fronted by James Tate. Songwriter Dan Wriggins&#8217; ragged baritone cuts through eleven murky, swirling country-rock songs with profound lyrical substance and sincerity. Like an alarm clock incorporated into the edge of a dream, Caveman Wakes Up belongs equally to the conscious and subconscious mind, fraught with background, steeped in reference and experimentation, delivered casually and as a dire warning, dedicated, above all, to music&#8217;s creative soul. Over the years, dedication has paid off. Friendship has become a kind of reverse supergroup, wherein the band itself and each individual member is located centrally in an increasingly prominent scene of young folk and country musicians and songwriters. Drummer Michael Cormier O&#8217;Leary leads the instrumental collective Hour and, along with bassist Jon Samuels, run Dear Life Records, home to friends and peers who count Friendship as a major influence, including MJ Lenderman, Florry, and Fust. (Samuels also plays lead guitar in MJ Lenderman and the Wind). Guitarist Peter Gill&#8217;s band 2nd Grade records prolifically. Wriggins began writing the songs of Caveman Wakes Up on a downtuned classical guitar of Lenderman&#8217;s, and finished on a barely-tuned piano in an apartment he shared with Sadurn&#8217;s G DeGroot. In the summer of 2023, Wriggins had just left the Iowa Writers&#8217; Workshop, where his love for poetry and mistrust for the academic poetry world grew in tandem. A relationship fell apart, and Wriggins crashed for several weeks at Lenderman&#8217;s and Wednesday&#8217;s Karly Hartzman&#8217;s home in North Carolina, where he recorded the first demos of &#8220;Resident Evil,&#8221; &#8220;All Over the World,&#8221; and &#8220;Love Vape.&#8221; Wriggins returned to Philadelphia, and the band got to work on new ideas, finally tracking the album in five days with engineer Jeff Ziegler (Mary Lattimore, War on Drugs). Wriggins recorded vocals with Love the Stranger engineer Bradford Kreiger, and organ, violin (Jason Calhoun), and flute (Adelyn Strei) were recorded by Lucas Knapp in a West Philadelphia church. Charlotte Cornfield Hurts Like Hell, Toronto songwriter Charlotte Cornfield&#8217;s March 27, 2026 Merge Records debut, is the most open-hearted, full-voiced album of her career and the first she&#8217;s recorded since the birth of her daughter in 2023. Decamping to Philip Weinrobe&#8217;s Sugar Mountain studio in Brooklyn, New York in January 2025, Cornfield was joined by Palehound&#8217;s El Kempner (guitar/vocals), Lake Street Drive&#8217;s Bridget Kearney (bass/vocals), Adam Brisbin (guitar/pedal steel), and Sean Mullins (drums). She and Weinrobe then recruited Feist, Buck Meek, Christian Lee Hutson, and Maia Friedman to sing on the album. &#8220;Every musician involved was a dream collaborator,&#8221; Cornfield says. These ten songs are at once a reaffirmation of Cornfield standing among the great singer-songwriters of her generation and the first articulation of her future, whatever uncertainty and love it may bring.]]></description>
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                                <title>The Linda Lindas</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-linda-lindas/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Linda Lindas have partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold on our tour will go towards supporting organizations working for equity, access, and dignity for all. www.plus1.org &#160; Every day around 4 p.m., The Linda Lindas put down their instruments and jumped in the pool. They used these aquatic moments as a reset during a week-long writing retreat in Palm Springs where phones were banned, the outside world was suspended, and four young people who&#8217;ve been making music since tweenhood were writing together in the same room for the first time.&#160; In the process, they figured out who they really are. GOTTA GET OUT, the third album from Bela Salazar, Eloise Wong, and Lucia and Mila de la Garza, is the sound of a band discovering itself. Historically, The Linda Lindas have written individually and brought songs to the table. It was a process that served them well through their impressive, Ramones-esque debut Growing Up (2022) and its forceful follow-up No Obligation (2024). The two records took them from L.A. Chinatown all-ages scene mainstays to tours with Green Day and song placements in Inside Out 2. But for this one, they wanted something a little different. &#8220;For the first time, we were presenting ideas to each other that weren&#8217;t fully formed. That was scary. But we worked through everything together and figured out the role each of us naturally plays,&#8221; Lucia explains. &#8220;Writing together was a way to find our collective sound,&#8221; adds Eloise. &#8220;Anything can work if we&#8217;re all shaping it together. We can write this slow indie song or a funky dance-y song. And it can all be for the band because we all worked on it together.&#8221; At the house with the pool, &#8220;I haven't finished this, but do you wanna hear what I have?&#8221; became credo. Bela would conjure a &#8220;vibe&#8221; &#8212; a Logic loop, a guitar part twisted through pedals, a chord progression that was unmistakably hers &#8212; and they&#8217;d construct a song from there, working out lyrics in real time. They tinkered with synths for the first time, and graduated beyond bar chords. At a second retreat in Long Beach, a Mission Impossible marathon was the background ambiance as they worked out yet more songs &#8212; by the end, they had 30 total. &#8220;We discovered a lot about being very intentional,&#8221; says Lucia, who had recently graduated high school. &#8220;Gotta Get Out&#8221; was the very first song they wrote. They didn&#8217;t intend to make it the title or the theme, but kept coming back to it, rewriting verses right before tracking vocals, clipboard and pen in hand, until, as Lucia says, &#8220;we made it mean something.&#8221; Opening the LP with big spicy synths and an ominous groove, it captures a central restlessness: the itchiness of being inside while the world moves &#8212; the desire to break out of the old habits, the old sounds, the old you. &#160; The album&#8217;s visual world, designed by Eloise, makes the same argument through imagery: inspired by an old Audubon guidebook, clouds grow across the singles&#8217; art from fair-weather cumulus to full cumulonimbus, viewed from a windowsill. The lyrics are rubber-stamped, the paper is glued, and every smudge is maintained. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube&#160;&#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Deerhoof</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/deerhoof-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[For a band that seems to thrive on collapse, it's simply amazing that this US/Japanese quartet is now celebrating their 31st year. Though Deerhoof long ago established itself as one of the greatest rock groups ever to stride the earth-and if you think that's hyperbole, you haven't seen them live-the furiously inventive quartet releases new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for its first break. Each one discovers some previously unknown combination of candy-coated hard-rock riffs and free-jazz percussive freakouts, sideways J-pop hooks and fearsome dissonance, trenchant social commentary and surrealist humor. Fronting it all is Satomi Matsuzaki's inimitable alto, whose plainspoken calm can seem strangely outside of the band's maelstrom. This music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, carrying an implicit note of defiant optimism in their refusal to bow to convention or received wisdom. Deerhoof is defined by such paradoxes. Missive 3-19-25: Deerhoof today announced their new album Noble and Godlike in Ruin will be released April 25th (Joyful Noise Recordings), and took an unexpected turn by exclusively premiering its lead single "Immigrant Songs" via Craigslist-two days ahead of the song's official release at streaming services. In a series of Craigslist 'Services' posts advertising themselves for hire in their local communities, including Brooklyn, Tucson, Portland, and Minneapolis, the band shared a message directing readers how to hear their epic album closer alongside photos of the album artwork (front/back, insert, center label). This unconventional premiere serves to spotlight a tech platform that isn't blatantly supporting fascism. "Immigrant Songs" is an odyssey like only Deerhoof could dream up: beginning with an innocuous lyric about showing up to a party, set to a delicate ostinato for bells and sparkling guitar; and ending with a noise-rock blowout that sounds like reality coming apart at the seams. The band of Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich, and Greg Saunier get from one extreme to the other through expertly managed tension and inventive juxtaposition, weaving four-on-the-floor beats through bossa nova guitar chords, following passages of tightly coiled rhythm with wide-open vistas. All the while, the narrative about the party gradually reveals the allegory hinted at in the title. (Which, given Deerhoof's encyclopedic relationship to music history, is probably also a Led Zeppelin reference.) "Kindness is all I needed from you," Matsuzaki sings to an unwelcoming host, "but you think we're in your house." Not long after, the song detonates, its tightly wound art-pop giving way to several minutes of howling noise. "This song is kind of a sequel to Satomi describing her immigration tribulations in 'Exit Only.' It's what it feels like to see the discourse around immigration get so twisted. The most criminal and barbaric 'migrant horde' to invade America was from Europe. There's a sector of racialized, underpaid immigrants, doing labor white people won't, who are getting deported and dehumanized in record numbers in recent years. They are really the glue keeping our society from collapsing. It's these heroic fugitives, not millionaire politicians holding little signs with one hand while sending out fundraising emails about 'strengthening our borders' with the other, who actually have a thing or two to teach us all about how to resist and survive." - Greg from Deerhoof &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Bandcamp &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Protomartyr</title>
                                <eventupdate>2 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/protomartyr-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Since their 2012 debut No Passion All Technique, the Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. Protomartyr&#8212;vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson&#8212;have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique. The group&#8217;s sixth album, recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, is called Formal Growth In The Desert. And though frontman Joe Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things &#8211; as recounted in the single &#8220;Elimination Dances&#8221; - the title is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the southwest. Detroit, too, is like a desert. &#8220;The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,&#8221; Casey says, &#8220;of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.&#8221; The desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal. The &#8220;growth&#8221; came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life until 2021, when a surge of break-ins signaled that it was time to move out. As with all touring artists, the pandemic years also brought on other inner quandaries about the purpose and feasibility of a musician&#8217;s life. But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to &#8220;getting on with life,&#8221; even when it feels impossibly hard. &#8220;I was trying to find a way forward after some pretty heavy things, without lyrically resorting to, Oh my god, my life sucks,&#8221; Casey says. &#8220;I was trying to see what was beyond the trouble.&#8221; The titles of the two opening songs&#8212;the moody &#8220;Make Way&#8221; followed by the charging ennui of &#8220;For Tomorrow&#8221;&#8212;complete that thought. The band&#8217;s music&#8212;more spacious and dynamic than ever&#8212;pulled him up, too. Guitarist Greg Ahee, who co-produced Formal Growth In The Desert alongside Jake Aron (Snail Mail, L&#8217;Rain), knew what Casey was going through. Conceptualizing the music, he considered how to make it all &#8220;like a narrative film.&#8221; Having recently scored a pair of short films, Ahee found himself immersed in the cinematic Spaghetti Western music of Ennio Morricone. &#8220;I started to write at home on a piano and on a keyboard and then play along to short films, and watch how you can affect and heighten moods as you play,&#8221; Ahee explains. The filmic sensibility is manifest in Casey&#8217;s storytelling, too, whether he&#8217;s critiquing ominous techno-capitalism or processing aging, the future, and the possibility of love. Casey calls the centerpiece, &#8220;Graft Vs. Host,&#8221; written in the immediate wake of his mother&#8217;s death, the heaviest song on the record, but it is also among Protomartyr&#8217;s most beautiful. It opens with an ominous sprawl before Casey&#8217;s sweet, coiling melody buoys the subject matter: &#8220;Sadness running through my mind/She wouldn&#8217;t want to see me live this way,&#8221; he sings, an earnest inquiry into how grief manages to eventually make way for other emotions. &#160; Website &#183; Bandcamp &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>L’Rain</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/lrain-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[L'Rain has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold goes to Sounds of Saving and their work designing and providing tools, content, resources, and curriculum to young people on how to discover and utilize music to support their mental health and wellness. L&#8217;Rain is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and curator Taja Cheek. Operating between the worlds of art and music, and outwards into film, fashion and cultural discourse, Cheek is forging a unique path that transcends disciplines to become one of the most vital and adventurous voices for this warped contemporary moment. Currently the artistic director of Performance Space NY and readying the release of L&#8217;Rain&#8217;s fourth album, fata morgana, Cheek&#8217;s creative impact resonates through her uncompromising commitment to community-building, navigating structural inequality while challenging musical conventions and expectations at every turn. L&#8217;Rain is its thrilling manifestation. Raised in Brooklyn and rooted in the city&#8217;s vibrant noise community, Cheek&#8217;s world was defined by a tension of contrasts from the off &#8212; classically trained yet steeped in DIY iconoclasm, drawn to lush orchestrations and gritty tape loops alike, finding cracks in established forms, taking risks and letting the light pour through. Fascinated by the schisms, feedbacks and distortions that emerge between identity and society at large, Cheek worked closely with collaborators Ben Chapoteau-Katz and Andrew Lappin to hone a sound for L&#8217;Rain that is intense, playful, seductive and deeply personal, deconstructing pop tropes with impressionistic flair and subverting the very notion of experimental music within the Black American tradition. Where the &#8220;psychic collage&#8221; of self-titled 2017 debut revelled in the collisions of hi- and lo-fi technology, it was 2021&#8217;s Fatigue that propelled L&#8217;Rain to a wider audience. Gaining critical acclaim from NPR, album of the year in The Wire and #2 in Pitchfork&#8217;s best albums of 2021, it set the foundations for 2023 album I Killed Your Dog, which skewed towards &#8216;90s RnB influences &#8212; a bold, bratty, diabolical anti-break-up record that untangled Cheek&#8217;s relationship with femininity and the formal musical conventions that others imposed on her. fata morgana is the daring and ambitious high point of this quadrilogy of L&#8217;Rain releases. A heady synthesis of sonic influences, from digi-dub, dream pop and gospel slow jams to tape meditations and crunched thrash metal, it is an album that effervesces in the messiness of life, interrogating power relations while reckoning with self-doubt, self-love and the mirages of belonging and alienation that shape Cheek&#8217;s lived experience of the United States today. This capacity to articulate emotional nuance within a wider societal critique has defined Cheek&#8217;s curatorial work with major institutions like Creative Time, the High Line, and MoMA PS1, where she reframed the music programme over several years. Challenging the systemic barriers to representation in the arts, Cheek&#8217;s accessible and community-centred approach defined her success as guest curator of the 2024 Whitney Biennial and extends to her current role at Performance Space NY, whose programming has shaped cultural, theoretical and political discourse over four decades. &#160; Website&#160;&#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Southern Culture on the Skids</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/southern-culture-on-the-skids-6/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Southern Culture On The Skids has been consistently recording and touring around the world since 1983. The band (Rick Miller &#8211; guitar and vocals, Mary Huff &#8211; bass and vocals, Dave Hartman &#8211; drums) has been playing together for over 30 years. Their musical journey has taken them from all-night North Carolina house parties to late night TV talk shows (Conan O&#8217;Brien, The Tonight Show), from performing at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan to rockin&#8217; out for the inmates at North Carolina correctional facilities. They&#8217;ve shared a stage with many musical luminaries including Link Wray, Loretta Lynn, Hasil Adkins and Patti Smith. Their music has been featured in movies and TV, parodied by Weird Al, and used to sell everything from diamonds to pork sausage. In 2014 the band was honored by the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with an exhibition featuring their music and cultural contributions. Their legendary live shows are a testament to the therapeutic powers of foot-stomping, butt-shaking rock and roll and what Rolling Stone dubbed &#8220;a hell raising rock and roll party.&#8221;At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids is the latest full length album from the band and is due to drop into stores on March 12th. The album consists of 11 tracks recorded and mixed in Rick Miller&#8217;s living room with some additional tracks recorded at his studio, The Kudzu Ranch.The first radio single off the album is &#8220;Run Baby Run&#8221;&#8212;a rocking number with deep garage roots. SCOTS bassist Mary Huff provides an urgent vocal while the band pulls back the throttle on a full race fuzz fest&#8212;cause she&#8217;s gotta to go fast! Run Baby Run!The other songs on the album are a combination of the band&#8217;s unique mix of musical genres: rock and roll, surf, folk and country&#8212;all a bit off-center, what Rick proudly calls &#8220;our wobbly Americana&#8221;. Rick goes on, &#8220;We put a few more acoustic guitars on this one, as you would expect if you recorded in your living room, but it still rocks like SCOTS. So put your headphones on, get in your favorite chair/sofa/recliner, put on &#8220;At Home With&#8221; and let&#8217;s hang out for a while.&#8221; Guitar riffs as lumpy as a camel, rough as a jackhammer or smooth and bright as Tennessee sippin&#8217; whiskey, all slung loose and loud over salacious beats - No Depression For over thirty years, Southern Culture On The Skids have played an eclectic range of Americana including rockabilly, surf rock, country and R&#38;B, with a punk edge and heaps of humor. They are known for their legendary live shows and wacky antics...But it&#8217;s more than just great fun; they are fantastic musicians to boot. - Elmore Magazine This Chapel Hill-based trio is flat-out amazing. Without resorting to needless flash or attention-hungry showboating, Miller in particular is one of the most spectacularly gifted guitar players I&#8217;ve ever seen. He juggles a lot of styles &#8211; country, garage rock, surf, rockabilly and soul to name just a few. - Stomp &#38; Stammer Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Popsicle</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/popsicle/cats-cradle-back-yard/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Featuring The Connells, Superdrag, Chuck Prophet, Young Fresh Fellows, The Mayflies USA, The Popes, Jonny Polonsky, Five Eight, Bass Battery. &#160; Taking place at Cat's Cradle Back Yard, Cat's Cradle, and Cat's Cradle Back Room.]]></description>
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                                <title>The Jayhawks</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-jayhawks/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[For more than forty years, The Jayhawks have created music that embodies the enduring spirit and soul of classic American songwriting. &#160; The Jayhawks emerged from Minneapolis in the post-punk era of The Replacements, H&#252;sker D&#252; and Soul Asylum. They pioneered today&#8217;s Americana movement through a series of classic albums that introduced rock audiences to their unique musical stew of country, folk, soul, Britpop and rock 'n' roll.The band has played most every major music festival, from Farm Aid to Primavera Sound, Pinkpop to Wilco&#8217;s Sky Blue Sky. In the tradition of The Band and Tom Petty &#38; The Heartbreakers, The Jayhawks have toured with and served as backup band for many of music&#8217;s most acclaimed visionaries, including Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, and Johnny Cash.Today, Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg and Tim O&#8217;Reagan continue to record and tour worldwide. Over 12 studio albums and three live albums, The Jayhawks are still building a legacy of music that stands the test of time.The band once again teamed up with legendary producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed) to create their upcoming album entitled Sanctuary Park, set to be released late summer 2026. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Liana Flores</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/liana-flores/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[&#8220;This record is the story of the country girl moving to the city,&#8221; Liana Flores says. &#8220;It&#8217;s bossa nova meets pop, inspired by the people, relationships and glamour of city life.&#8221; Since the release of her acclaimed 2024 debut album Flower of the Soul, British-Brazilian singer-songwriter Liana Flores has been at the forefront of a bossa nova revival. Drawing on the &#8217;60s sound of genre pioneers like Jo&#227;o Gilberto alongside pop songwriting, Flores combines the dual aspects of her cultural heritage to create an emotive sound. Following extensive tour dates across North America, Asia, and Europe, Flores now returns with a new EP, And so it goes&#8230;, that expands her palette to encompass the playful and ebullient experiences of moving from her rural hometown in Norfolk to St. Andrews before coming to London. The result is a six-track collection that shifts between the finger-picked guitar and gossamer bossa vocals of &#8220;So it goes,&#8221; the upbeat funk inflections of the heavy-grooving love song &#8220;So Mysterious,&#8221; the Carole King-influenced folk storytelling of &#8220;Here to Stay,&#8221; and the sprightly, glittering pop melodies of &#8220;Silvershoes.&#8221; &#8220;These songs were informed by my experiences living in the city and touring for the first time. I grew up and studied in small towns with nature in my surroundings, so that&#8217;s what came naturally in terms of lyrics. With So it goes, the lyrics are more centred on human connection, and I wanted to explore a part of my identity that&#8217;s more playful and matter-of-fact. I also wanted to challenge myself to write songs with strong melodies that would be fun to sing or to get ready to.&#8221; Raised by an immigrant Brazilian mother and British father in East Anglia, Flores first began learning music while listening to &#8217;80s and &#8217;90s bossa nova artists like Bebel Gilberto and Leila Pinheiro alongside Top 40 pop radio. In her late teens, she picked up a guitar and started emulating finger-picked bossa nova guitar chords by ear, first covering Tom Jobim standards, then writing her own songs combining the bossa guitar style with her own introspective lyrics, expressing loneliness, self-doubt, and endurance. &#8220;Music is the way I best communicate and connect with the world, through the listener, collaboration with fellow musicians, and the guidance of my musical forbears. I'm particularly drawn to the use of sophisticated harmonic structures in popular song - Tom Jobim, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson were early inspirations.&#8221; Debut EP The Water&#8217;s Fine! was released in 2018, while ensuing 2019 EP Recently delved deeper into Flores&#8217; current reimagining of Brazilian singer-songwriting with its combination of syncopated melodies and warm vocal harmony. EP track &#8220;rises the moon&#8221; became a surprise hit, picking up traction across TikTok and social media in 2021, although by that point Flores had decided to take a break from making music and focus on her degree instead. &#160; Bandcamp &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Russian Circles</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/russian-circles-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Across the span of their previous seven studio albums, Chicago-based instrumental trio Russian Circles traversed a diverse topography of sounds, moods, and approaches with their limited armory of drums, bass, and guitar. It&#8217;s difficult to chart an evolution in their sound when their records have always felt like well-curated playlists. It wasn&#8217;t uncommon to hear drone-heavy meditations, dazzling prog exercises, knuckle-dragging riff-fests, haunting folk ballads, and tension-baiting noise rock all within the span of one album. Still, it&#8217;s difficult to ignore the progression from the pensive and intricate melodies of Enter (2006) to the layered distorted dirges of Blood Year (2019). It&#8217;s been a gradual sonic shift owing to the band&#8217;s rigorous tour schedule and a predilection towards playing their more authoritative material on stage. But with their latest album, Gnosis, Russian Circles eschew the varied terrain of their past work and bulldoze a path through the most tumultuous and harrowing territory of their sound. As was the case for so many artists in the age of COVID, the obstacles of geography and isolation forced Russian Circles to reevaluate their writing process. Rather than crafting songs out of fragmented ideas in the practice room, full songs were written and recorded independently before being shared with other members, so that their initial vision was retained. While these demos spanned the full breadth of the band&#8217;s varied styles, the more cinematic compositions were ultimately excised in favor of the physically cathartic pieces. Gnosis was engineered and mixed by Kurt Ballou. Drums and bass were tracked at Electrical Audio in Chicago to maximize the natural room sounds of the rhythm section. Guitar and synth overdubs were conducted at God City in Salem, MA to take advantage of Ballou&#8217;s vast inventory of amps and effects pedals. Despite the entirety of the album being written remotely, the songs were recorded with the full band playing together to retain the live feel of the material. Owing to the climate of the times and a new writing method, Russian Circles created their most fuming and focused work to date&#8212;an album that favors the exorcism of two years&#8217; worth of tension over the melancholy and restraint that often colored their past endeavors. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>HARBOUR</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/harbour-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Since their formation in 2014, HARBOUR has gone from packing rooms in their native Cincinnati, to selling out venues across the United States. Members Ryan Green (vocals/guitar), Jarett Lewis (guitar), Zack Lemons (guitar), Ryan Sulken (drums), and Devon Turner (bass) have curated an infectious high energy sound that transfers seamlessly into their live shows. During their tenure as a group, HARBOUR has delivered 5 full length albums &#8211; the latest of which, entitled Great, Big, Insignificant, was released in October 2025 after much anticipation. After supportings artists such as Bilmuri &#38; Wilderado, HARBOUR successfully completed their first multinational headline tour in 2025. With more shows on the way in celebration of the new album, and even more music in the works, the band&#8217;s future is sure to be anything but insignificant. &#160; Website]]></description>
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                                <title>The Hails &#8211; Duckpond Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-hails-duckpond-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Following a string of encounters too strange to be coincidence, Robbie Kingsley, Franco Solari, Dylan McCue and Zach Levy came together to form The Hails. Despite first playing in an insular Miami high school music scene, the band officially formed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, turning the tattered carpeting and beer bottle lined shelves of their shitty college house into a distinct, refined sound that is now synonymous with their name. After graduation, the group made the pilgrimage back to their home of Miami, the city that directly influenced the sound of their early shimmering singles &#8220;Younger&#8221; and &#8220;Stay,&#8221; debut EP He Seems Upset (2020), and the subsequent Alive in Strange Ways (2021).After releasing their debut album What&#8217;s Your Motive (2023) and gaining international praise, The Hails have created their own unique style of collaboration with band members living in Miami, DC and Brooklyn. Recent highlights of the road include holding court at festivals like Governors Ball, III Points and Okeechobee, interspersed between sold-out headline shows and tour support for The Revivalists, Quarters, The Beaches, flipturn and the moss. This year will see The Hails back out on the road as they ready for the release of their second full-length album later this year. &#160; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>The Tubs</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-tubs/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Upon arriving in the United States for The Tubs&#8217; first tour of the country, frontman Owen Williams told The New Yorker, &#8220;We&#8217;re here to unite the country. We&#8217;re gonna come, like, three times. By that point, I think this place will start healing.&#8221; Then, joyously, they did just that, piling into a van and criss-crossing the States, bringing their literary, bleary-eyed, world-weary, night-of-your-life highwire act to the masses when it was needed most. Along the way, they signed to Merge Records, who will release The Tubs&#8217; third full-length album, Hard Life, on September 11, 2026. &#160; The Tubs have never lacked for ambition &#8212; on Hard Life, theirs is to complicate the Tub-ullar experience. Having perfected their sound across two albums and hundreds of shows, the London-based Celtic jangle boyband &#8212; Williams (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Dan Lucas (guitar), Taylor Stewart (drums), and Max Warren (bass) &#8212; push themselves even further into the shimmering heart of virtuosic indie rock. They&#8217;re joined by frequent collaborators Lan McArdle (vocals), George Nicholls (guitar), and Rachel Kenedy (keyboards), all of whom have orbited various Tubs and Gob Nation-adjacent efforts dating back to Joanna Gruesome, but the secret to Hard Life&#8217;s lushness is the addition of fiddle player Chris Haigh, an instructor and session musician who left an indelible mark on British pop on Steps&#8217; &#8220;5, 6, 7, 8.&#8221; &#160; Mirroring Williams' use of trilling on vocal melodies, Haigh&#8217;s fiddle shades the vocalist's rueful croon like a bruise. On &#8220;Stoop to Me,&#8221; the folkiest, jangliest pop song on the album, Haigh&#8217;s licks complement Williams at his most self-deprecating, the lopsided smile of a guy trying not to let on how wounded he is in unrequited love. On album opener and title track &#8220;Hard Life,&#8221; it&#8217;s the sweetness of the ascending fiddle lines in the mix that weds the harshness of Williams&#8217; lyrics to The Tubs&#8217; fist-pumping anthemics. &#160; The hard line Williams takes here and elsewhere on Hard Life further troubles one&#8217;s idea of a Tubs song. The persona familiar to listeners of Cotton Crown and Dead Meat &#8212; to quote Williams, &#8220;navel gazing about romantic abjection, London squalor, and the indignities of grief and OCD&#8221; &#8212; is still present, but so too is a second voice, steelier and more experienced. &#8220;The second persona doesn&#8217;t have much time for the first,&#8221; Williams explains, &#8220;often haranguing him for his self-indulgence and immaturity; sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly.&#8221; &#160; It&#8217;s the scold who takes center stage on lead single &#8220;Who&#8217;s Gonna Love You Now?&#8221; His questions, from the titular one to more concrete concerns like &#8220;Who&#8217;s gonna pay the rent?&#8221; existing in mocking opposition to ideas like moving to the city and really starting to live. Though Williams plays the crank, the song is a raver, guitars ringing out over an organ-brightened horizon. &#8220;It&#8217;s your life,&#8221; Williams sings, the life chugging away beneath him sounding exceptionally keen. He wouldn&#8217;t have much sympathy for the lovelorn Williams of &#8220;If You Don&#8217;t Love Me&#8221; &#8212; hell, his whole existence seems like a warning that the kinds of romantic entanglements one suffers when they&#8217;re young will end in loneliness, failure, and an inbox choked with unread Substacks. &#160; Linktree &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Bandcamp &#183; Substack]]></description>
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                                <title>Karina Rykman &#8211; Late Checkout Tour 2026</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/karina-rykman-late-checkout-tour-2026/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Karina Rykman plays bass, sings, jumps around, and laughs a lot. In doing so, she has garnered rare attention and avid listenership. Straddling the worlds of jam rock and indie pop drenched in psychedelia, Karina&#8217;s effervescent presence comes to life in musical form. Born &#38; raised in New York City, Karina Rykman&#8217;s musical path began in her early teens playing in bands whenever she could while attending a veritable ton of live music as a fan. By the end of her senior year at NYU, Rykman&#8217;s virtuoso talent &#38; infectious spirit saw her invited to join pianist Marco Benevento&#8217;s band (as recommended by Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz), with whom she&#8217;s performed countless shows including dates with Vulfpeck, Dispatch, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, &#38; many more. Rykman soon formed her own namesake band, accompanied by Adam November (guitar, loopers, effects) and Chris Corsico (drums). She quickly earned a reputation as an unmissable live act - a bombastic exposition that floats freely between dreamy indie pop and thick, distorted rock - &#160;with &#8220;fun&#8221; as its guiding light. Tearing up sold out headline performances to ravenous fans, show-stealing festival performances (including Bonnaroo, Peach Music Festival, and Sweetwater 420 Fest), opening for Khruangbin, My Morning Jacket, the Tedeschi Trucks Band (+ many more), plus recent appearances in the house band on NBC&#8217;s Late Night with Seth Meyers, Karina stays busy. Rykman released her debut album, JOYRIDE via AWAL in August 2023. Written &#38; recorded with childhood friend and producer Gabe Monro, the album serves as a vivid canvas for Rykman&#8217;s vibrant expression &#38; chameleonic songcraft. JOYRIDE features Trey Anastasio as co-producer &#38; featured musician, contributing guitar on five of the album&#8217;s nine tracks. The bassist/vocalist&#8217;s concerts are often packed with fans who feel more like friends&#8212;a testament to her undeniable charisma and her embrace of the live music community&#8212;and that circle continues to expand at alarming rates. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>The Wldlfe</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-wldlfe-3/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Wldlfe, comprised of Jansen Hogan, Carson Hogan, &#38; Jack Crane, entered into the independent scene in 2016 with their smash EP "New, 2016" and have continued to grow one the most steadfast fanbases around through their consistent releases and relentless appetite for touring. An electrifying live act, The Wldlfe has toured sold-out shows across North America in 2023, 2024, and 2025 while cultivating an audience hungry for more. Frontman Jansen Hogan's magnetic stage presence and infectious charisma, paired with the skillful instrumentation of Carson Hogan and Jack Crane, leave fans with unforgettable experience. With over 100 million global streams to date, The Wldlfe released the Deluxe version of their highest streaming project yet, Heaven is a place, 2024. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>The War And Treaty</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-war-and-treaty-2/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[For the past decade, soulful duo The War And Treaty&#8212;the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Tanya Trotter&#8212;have released music that continues to elevate them beyond beloved industry favorites, as well as award-season and touring staples, capable of performing on stages worldwide with widespread acclaim and standing ovations. Every aspect of their new project exemplifies the pinnacle of the group&#8217;s ever-creative growth within these mentioned ideas. Twelve years after their founding, The War And Treaty have redefined themselves beyond Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, and GRAMMY nominations. Moreover, being lauded by the Rock &#38; Roll Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Americana Music Association, which named them Duo/Group of the Year for two consecutive years, cannot contain them as a group greater than the sum of their most successful parts. Immediately upon listening to their latest album, it&#8217;s clear that a more vibrant energy now guides a duo confidently shaping their own destiny. Album collaborators include titans of the arts who are as much friends, mentors, and trusted confidants as they are legends across multiple industries: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner Whoopi Goldberg (who provides the spoken word intro for &#8220;Litty&#8221;), Songwriters Hall of Famer Kenneth &#8220;Babyface&#8221; Edmonds (writer of &#8220;You Can&#8217;t Hurt Me Anymore&#8221;), Country Music Hall of Famer Wynonna Judd, and Grammy-nominated performer Valerie June (both on &#8220;Reclaim All Of Your Time&#8221;) all contribute as guest artists. Hall of Fame-caliber mentors and influential friends, now serving as relaxed collaborators, shape how powerhouse country-soul vocalists like Valerie June and Wynonna Judd influence The War And Treaty&#8217;s latest sound. The duo&#8217;s pairing is less unlikely than it appears at first glance: both grew up listening to classic country and Memphis soul records, among many other genres. As a result, on the song &#8220;Reclaim All of Your Time,&#8221; their styles blend seamlessly with Tanya Trotter&#8217;s veteran gospel-soul stylings. For nearly five years after writing the folksy, female-empowerment ballad, Michael Trotter, its creator, believed it should be presented as a conversational piece with layered harmonies. He was right. The song, both in its composition and vocal delivery, combines warmth and strength to forge a rare genre bridge. Beyond collaborations, The War And Treaty&#8217;s latest work also thoughtfully seeks to expand Ray Charles&#8217; 50-year-old idea that the best music exists in the tension between sacred sounds and secular desires. Given that Michael and Tanya Trotter are a married couple, their ability to explore that space is obvious. Yet, their decade-long efforts to meet industry expectations in folk, Americana, and country music left significant raw and romantic potential in their sound untapped. &#8220;We&#8217;re finally performing material that shows people how, beyond being mature and intentional, how sanctified and sexual we can be,&#8221; says Tanya Trotter. &#8220;For Michael and me, it&#8217;s important to show the combination of rawness and sweetness that underlies our soulful sound.&#8221; &#160; Instagram &#183; Spotify &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Tiny Habits &#8211; The Keepers Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/tiny-habits-the-keepers-tour/lincoln-theatre/raleigh-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Tiny Habits were still students in Boston when they began gaining recognition for the harmony-focused song covers recorded in their dorm stairwell and posted to millions of listeners on TikTok. They released their first EP of original songs, Tiny Things, in April 2023 and soon earned a spot opening for Gracie Abrams on her ‘Good [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>Brian Fallon &amp; The Painkillers</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/brian-fallon-the-painkillers/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Brian Fallon is known far and wide for his elemental gifts as a songwriter, musician, and storyteller, including four acclaimed solo albums and his role as founding member and frontman of The Gaslight Anthem. Over the course of nearly three decades, the New Jersey-based artist has crafted a constantly evolving body of work, booming with insistent imagery, defiant romanticism, and an extraordinary emotional acuity that has marked all variations of his music from the very start. 2023 saw The Gaslight Anthem return from a long hiatus with History Books, their sixth full-length album and first new studio LP in nine years. The much-beloved band marked the acclaimed album with an epic tour schedule that saw sold-out headline dates and show-stopping festival performances around the world, confirming their ongoing place among the top ranks of American rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll bands. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Ak&#8217;chamel</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/akchamel/local-506/chapel-hill-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[For over 15 winters, the name Ak'chamel has drifted like smoke through the underground-a thing half-seen, yet impossible to forget. Wearing nightmarish costumes and engaging in hallucinatory ceremonies; their singular sound comprising desert-scorched psychedelia, post-apocalyptic shamanism, and lo-fi ritual-folk is as unique as the physical theater of their live performances. They have released dozens of cassettes, several vinyl records, and a handful of cryptic VHS tapes. Their ungodly reels have been seen by millions yet understood by few. The group remains veiled in mystery, yet they tour often-through the United States, Canada, and Europe; bringing their unearthly plague to the world. &#160; Instagram &#183; Bandcamp &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>YHWH Nailgun</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/yhwh-nailgun/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The quartet of Zack Borzone (vox), Jack Tobias (synth), Sam Pickard (drums), and Saguiv Rosenstock (guitar) display an innate ability to translate a primitive spirit into a modern form. Born during the lockdown as an experimental project between Borzone and Pickard in Philadelphia, the group expanded as the two moved to New York, adding Tobias for their debut self-titled EP, which was produced by Rosenstock, who was then integrated into the band. That first collection is one of self-discovery, of finding the tools necessary to make songs within the band&#8217;s own ecosystem. They honed in on their own world and their collaborative, close-knit writing process, discovering the essential structures and feelings that make YHWH Nailgun. &#160; Website]]></description>
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                                <title>Whitney</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/whitney-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Whitney return to the road in 2026 with a North American tour celebrating their forthcoming fourth &#160;studio album Small Talk (out November 7, 2025). Formed in Chicago in 2015 by Julien Ehrlich and &#160;Max Kakacek, the band has earned a devoted following for their soulful blend of tender melancholy &#160;and radiant warmth.&#160; Their debut Light Upon the Lake introduced Whitney with the beloved single &#8220;No Woman,&#8221; earning &#160;Pitchfork&#8217;s coveted Best New Music designation and praise for its &#8220;near flawless&#8230; low-key &#160;perfectionism.&#8221; Nearly a decade later, the band continues to evolve while preserving the intimacy &#160;and spirit that made them so cherished from the start.&#160; On this run, Whitney will share new songs from Small Talk alongside fan favorites, bringing their &#160;signature mix of laid-back charm and intricate musicianship to stages across the US and Canada, &#160;with stops in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Toronto, Montreal, and more.&#160; &#8220;If you&#8217;ve ever seen Whitney live, you already know what a treasure their performances are. The &#160;Chicago-based outfit, led by the effortlessly cool Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek, has a gift for &#160;crafting songs that feel both timeless and deeply personal - sunny yet melancholic, tender yet &#160;bold.&#8221; - We Write About Music &#160; Website &#183; Threads &#183; YouTube &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Carbon Leaf</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/carbon-leaf-4/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Carbon Leaf&#8217;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&#8217;s equal parts urgent epiphany and contented exhalation. &#8220;Everybody says people don&#8217;t listen to albums anymore,&#8221; mulled Carbon Leaf frontman Barry Privett, holed up in a coastal cottage. &#8220;So, the challenge for us was to make something that felt good to get through from beginning to end &#8230; to listen to like a story.&#8221; 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 &#8220;The Boxer,&#8221; 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. &#8220;The Boxer&#8221; entered regular radio rotation, Carbon Leaf&#8217;s tours grew bigger and better, and within a couple of years they quit their day jobs and inked a record deal. The band&#8217;s fanbase snowballed, drawn to their infectious spirit of commitment, empathy, communion, and self-reliance &#8211; 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&#8217;s Two-Car Studio, where they&#8217;ve recorded releases for their own Constant Ivy imprint ever since. Carbon Leaf&#8217;s DIY spirit even extended to re-recording their three Vanguard albums in order to regain the rights. Due in September,&#160;Time is the Playground is Carbon Leaf&#8217;s first full-length album in a decade, during which they released two EPs and a 27-song live performance album and Blu-ray.&#160;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 &#8211; completed by longtime bassist Jon Markel and drummer Jesse Humphrey &#8211; spent a year and a half recording and mixing the resulting songs. &#8220;Thinking about these disparate pieces of music, I began ruminating on time itself,&#8221; Privett recalled. &#8220;The band&#8217;s been together a long time. You mature a bit and see yourself in place on the timeline &#8230; rolling around the scenes of love and growth.&#8221; Masterfully melding saturated AC/DC guitar and squelchy Cars synth, &#8220;Backmask 1983&#8221; is a fun flipbook of evocative era emblems &#8211; Farah Fawcett, &#8220;Satanic Panic,&#8221; Time Life Books, Bigfoot and more &#8211; that traverses the simultaneous nexus of Privett&#8217;s childhood/adolescence and the world&#8217;s analog/digital ages. It&#8217;s about morphing into a new person and a new planet with wide-eyed wonder and a longing to believe. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>The Arcadian Wild &#8211; Make It Out Alive Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-arcadian-wild-make-it-out-alive-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Arcadian Wild is an indie folk/pop group from Nashville, TN, led by songwriters Isaac Horn, Lincoln Mick and Bailey Warren, The Arcadian Wild confidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending the traditional with the contemporary. Combining elements of confessional pop, folk, progressive bluegrass, and formal vocal music, The Arcadian Wild offer up songs of invitation; calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, to journey and wonder, to laugh and cry, to share joy and community and sing along. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Rafael Green performs Pink Moon, Georgia Moon performs Blue</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/rafael-green-performs-pink-moon-georgia-moon-performs-blue/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[This is a seated show. &#160; Rafael Green is a progressive-folk/art-rock songwriter currently based in the Triangle area of North Carolina. He was born in Essen, Germany to musician parents and spent his early years in Wraysbury, England while his mother taught at the Guildhall School of Music &#38; Drama in London. After moving to Tucson, Arizona, Green began showing an interest in playing an instrument and acquired his first guitar. He discovered a love for performing and songwriting in junior high school and, after graduating from high school, attended Berklee College of Music where he studied guitar, voice, arranging, production, and songwriting. He graduated with honors in 2013 and shortly thereafter moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he performed in various bands alongside fellow alumni. His songwriting style borrows from English folk and rock bands as well as progressive rock and classical guitarists such as Andr&#233;s Segovia and Leo Brouwer. &#160; Instagram &#160; Georgia Moon is an artist, writer, and multi-instrumentalist from the foothills of North Carolina. She started on piano at age four with a classical teacher who thought ragtime was too contemporary, taught herself alto saxophone at age ten, but it was the hum of the guitar that truly drew her in. She has long confessed that singing Joni Mitchell songs in her childhood bedroom is how she found the courage to perform in front of others in the first place, and the importance of Mitchell&#8217;s excavating lyricism and melodic explorations cannot be understated in terms of understanding Moon&#8217;s own songwriting. &#160; She recorded her first demo of original songs in her hometown of Winston-Salem at age eighteen and she&#8217;s been playing gigs in bands and as a solo musician ever since, picking up more instruments in her travels around the American south, England, and western Michigan. Her self-titled EP was recorded and released in 2019, and several other musical offerings have additionally been birthed to the world including the full-band EP Linger Longer, which was released May 31st, 2026. A forthcoming solo album Fare Well is also due at the end of September 2026. &#160; Since her return to North Carolina in 2020, she has found camaraderie among the multitude of musicians who call the Triangle home - especially with Crazy Chester, Carrboro&#8217;s homage to The Band and The Last Waltz, with whom she has performed annually as Joni Mitchell and saxophonist. &#160; This performance of Joni Mitchell&#8217;s iconic 1971 album Blue is the culmination of thirty years of Georgia Moon&#8217;s devotion to music, and is a natural offshoot of her participation in Crazy Chester before the 50th anniversary celebration of the original Last Waltz concert this Thanksgiving. &#160; Website]]></description>
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                                <title>The Brook &amp; The Bluff: The Werewolf Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-brook-the-bluff-the-werewolf-tour/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Brook &#38; The Bluff return to their rock &#38; roll roots with Werewolf - a high-voltage, live-inspired album that turns up the amps, pushes the tempo, and howls in four-part harmony. Fueled by the sharp songwriting and stacked vocals that have defined their catalog, the collection captures the raw, supercharged energy of the band&#8217;s concerts.After nearly a decade of nonstop touring - earning hundreds of millions of streams with fan favorites like &#8220;Halfway Up&#8221; and &#8220;Everything Is Just a Mess&#8221; - the band regrouped in Nashville, meeting every morning to write and rehearse like their early days in Birmingham, Alabama. Life unfolded in the background: weddings, divorces, real-world growing pains. Inside the room, it was all music.The band channels the swamp rock spirit of legendary artists like Creedence, Petty, and The Eagles, delivering loud, melodic, deeply human songs like lead single &#8220;Super Bowl Sunday&#8221; - a crashing, introspective anthem about ego and emotional blind spots. &#8220;The goal was to treat the record like a live set,&#8221; says frontman Joseph Settine. And that&#8217;s exactly what they&#8217;ve done.Armed with a new album and an unflinching spirit, The Brook &#38; The Bluff are ready to hit the road again to continue their 2026 Werewolf tour. The band boasts a history of sold out headline tours across the continent, a number of major festival performances, and have supported artists like Noah Kahan, Mt. Joy, The Avett Brothers, Ashe, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Evan Honer: It’s An Even Longer Road Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/evan-honer-its-an-even-longer-road-tour/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[$1 per ticket will go to The Cloverdale Project, which supports organizations taking care of people, animals, and the world around us.A cross-country move to Nashville. An international touring schedule. A record label with 25 artists and more than 100 releases, all operating out of his living room. A recording studio built into his four-car garage. Evan Honer spent 2024 in a blur of momentum, expanding his life in all directions, playing nearly 100 shows in support of his second album, Fighting For, while writing new songs for its follow-up. Only two years earlier, his cover of Tyler Childers' "Jersey Giant" had become a viral juggernaut, earning more than 200 million streams and launching his music career. He was busy then, too, balancing his college classes with nighttime gigs as a solo act and daily practices with the school's Division 1 swimming team. Things only intensified as school came to a close. Honer released the debut album West On I-10 on graduation day and quickly remade himself into a road warrior, balancing the challenges of early adulthood with an unbending commitment to music.Then, one day, he learned to look around him and take stock of the present. Everything I Wanted finds Honer planting new roots in Nashville, his adopted hometown after a multi-year stint in Southern California. Recorded over 18 days in a garage studio that he built himself, it's a homemade record with big-studio sparkle, its 13 songs emphasizing the indie and alternative-pop influences that have always lingered on the outskirts of his sound. Here, they're moved to the forefront, pushing Honer beyond his roots as an acoustic Americana act and into something more eclectic and electrifying. There are string arrangements courtesy of a talented neighbor, Kate Stephenson. There are horn arrangements, pedal steel swells, and contributions from his roommates, too. At the center of that sound is Evan Honer himself: an acclaimed songwriter, storyteller, and bleeding-heart vocalist who, after years on the move, has learned to slow down a bit and appreciate the moment."My life completely changed this past year," he says. "I'm learning to be happy with where I'm at. I'm grateful that I get to stand onstage and sing songs I wrote in my bedroom, and people know the words and sing them back to me. How can you be upset about that?"It's true; there's a lot to be grateful for. 500 million streams, for starters. An RIAA gold certification for his "Jersey Giant" cover. Sold-out shows alongside headliners like Wyatt Flores. The ongoing success of his own label, Cloverdale Records. With Everything I Wanted, though, Honer turns his gaze inward, writing autobiographical songs about romance, resilience, roots, and his relationship with his audience."When the going gets tough, I'll stick through the season," he promises during "Maybe For Once." On the surface, it's a love song to a woman he met on the road, her memory lingering in the rear-review mirror every time his van pulls away. For someone who's used to living life at 80 miles per hour, though, the song is something more: a self-made promise to focus not only upon the destination, but on the journey itself. "These songs are about me not getting in my own way," he clarifies. "I've stopped looking for reasons not to commit. I'm pushing myself to just let things happen." The rest of the record is similarly personal. On the cinematic piano ballad "It's a Home," Honer whisks himself back to childhood to unpack some traumatic family baggage. &#160; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>AJ Lee &amp; Blue Summit</title>
                                <eventupdate>3 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/aj-lee-blue-summit-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[AJ Lee &#38; Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals and jams until one day, they decided they would be a band. &#8220;Our roots go really deep,&#8221; explains de facto band leader Lee. &#8220;We met when we were young kids&#8230; We definitely decided to choose each other as a chosen family band later on in life, but in a lot of ways it was naturally just like that in the beginning.&#8221; &#8220;It was like one of those late at night things,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;We were sitting on a trailer at Grass Valley&#8221; at the annual Father&#8217;s Day Bluegrass Festival held in the Sierra Nevada foothills &#8211; &#8220;Someone said, &#8216;All of us right here, we're a band now.&#8217; We kind of didn't take it seriously, but we were like, okay, we'll be a band!&#8221; &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183;&#160;YouTube &#183;&#160;TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>The Afghan Whigs</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-afghan-whigs-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The Afghan Whigs new album, Soft Control is testament to the old David Bowie quote, where he describes aging as &#8220;an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.&#8221; By now, the volatile years of band leader Greg Dulli&#8217;s youth have been substituted with a wry and self-aware satori. The edge and sensitive temperament remain but the unchecked infernos of ego and rage no longer threaten personal immolation. And Dulli&#8217;s vocals are simultaneously the strongest and most delicate that they&#8217;ve ever been. &#8220;I&#8217;ve worked hard on my inner peace,&#8221; Dulli commented. &#8220;I was an angry young man, and it fueled my art, ambition and my drive. I wouldn&#8217;t change anything because I can&#8217;t. But as I got into photography and other art forms, I realized that I&#8217;m not in competition with anyone &#8211; including myself. Now, I know what I&#8217;m doing and there&#8217;s a quiet confidence that comes with being able to back it up.&#8221; Soft Control was recorded at Fireside Sound in Joshua Tree, Marigny Studios in New Orleans, Gold Diggers Sound in East Hollywood, and Sycamore in Cincinnati. The band recorded 22 songs for the record, discarding several favorites because they didn&#8217;t seamlessly fit the taut 37-minute track listing. Additional cameos on the album come from former Afghan Whigs drummer Patrick Keeler, vocalist/violist Petra Haden, Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), and many others. The album captures The Afghan Whigs&#8217; unique ability to conflagrate stab-you-in-your-nose bone guitars and cubist refractions of soul and R&#38;B. You expect bangers from The Afghan Whigs, and there are bangers. Yet there is a reconciliation of loud volume and somber reflections, living life with joy and purpose while keeping one eye on the clock and remaining aware of the absurdity. The Afghan Whigs&#8217; tenth album is a sterling addition to a singular body of work &#8211;a double-sided invitation to embrace the light and welcome the darkness. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Dana and Alden</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/dana-and-alden/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Jazz duo Dana &#38; Alden have always had a wanderlust, something they credit to their maternal grandfather. Affectionately known as Papa, he was the kind of person others naturally gravitate towards. It was a photograph from one of his trips to Asia that inspired the Eugene, OR duo&#8217;s new album Papa&#8217;s Boat. In the image Papa is looking out across the horizon and stood next to his boat Sŵn y M&#244;r (Welsh for &#8220;Sound of the Sea.&#8221;) &#8220;I think so much of what Alden and I are doing comes from just watching him live his own unique life,&#8221; says Dana. Alden agrees. &#8220;His emboldened, passionate personality gave us permission to be our own selves, to be unconventional and draw outside of the box.&#8221; Recorded with Malcolm Catto in London in March 2025, Papa&#8217;s Boat combines all their childhood love and global experience to create an ecstatic sound built on Dana&#8217;s saxophone and Alden&#8217;s drums. Recorded with the duo&#8217;s backing band, Ebba Dankel (vocals and keys), Andrew Mitchell (bass), Eli Torgersen (vocals and guitar) and Salim Charvet (sax and synths), Papa&#8217;s Boat is rooted in jazz but pulling influence from indie, pop, rap, bossa nova, and beyond. A hypnotic combination of sax and buzzing synths on &#8220;Lighthouse&#8221; sets the tone for an album that uses water as both a reflective surface and a body to get lost in. Elsewhere there are collaborations with Mei Semones, Melanie Charles, and legendary Brazilian songwriter Marcos Valle, a hero figure to the band who appears on &#8220;El Gaucho&#8221; and &#8220;Friendship Is A Boat.&#8221; Throughout its runtime Papa&#8217;s Boat sails purposefully between memories of the past and visions of a brighter future. It doesn&#8217;t just commemorate their Papa as a beloved character, but shares him with the world. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Julia Jacklin</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/julia-jacklin-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Julia Jacklin is celebrated for her emotionally direct lyricism, captivating performances, and commanding voice. Since the release of her acclaimed debut Don&#8217;t Let The Kids Win (2016), Jacklin has become one of the most respected artists in contemporary independent music, with follow-up albums Crushing (2019) and PRE PLEASURE (2022) &#8212; the latter debuting at #2 on the ARIA Charts. Across her career, she has earned two ARIA Awards and had thirteen nominations and widespread international critical acclaim, with both Crushing and PRE PLEASURE landing on numerous year-end best-of lists and receiving universal praise from outlets including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME, MOJO, and Uncut. &#160; A formidable live performer, Jacklin has built a substantial global touring audience through sold out headline shows at venues including London&#8217;s Roundhouse, Melbourne&#8217;s Forum, and Brooklyn Steel in New York, alongside appearances at major festivals such as Glastonbury, Primavera Sound, Austin City Limits, Pitchfork Music Festival, and Laneway. In addition to extensive headline touring, she has shared stages with artists including Mitski, Lana Del Rey, Courtney Barnett, and Faye Webster, with whom she has also collaborated musically. &#160; Following previous partnerships with Polyvinyl, Transgressive, and Liberation Records, Jacklin recently signed her first-ever global record deal with 4AD, marking a new chapter for one of Australia&#8217;s most internationally celebrated songwriters. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Saxsquatch</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/saxsquatch-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; TikTok &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Gilla Band</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/gilla-band/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Giraffe is the first new music from Gilla Band in nearly 4 years. This follows their critically acclaimed 3rd album Most Normal which Pitchfork described in a best new music review as &#8220;a masterpiece of panic and deconstruction&#8221;. Live The Guardian described the band&#8217;s set as feeling &#8220;genuinely dangerous, like one last rave before the apocalypse, and as perfect an expression of rock&#8217;n&#8217;roll&#8217;s essential auto-destructive impulse as this writer&#8217;s ever heard.&#8221;For over ten years now, the Dublin quartet &#8212; vocalist Dara Kiely, guitarist Alan Duggan Borges, bassist Daniel Fox, and drummer Adam Faulkner &#8212; have been redefining what you could loosely call &#8220;rock music&#8221; in the 21st century, influencing a wide swath of similarly forward-thinking guitar acts along the way. The band perfected a vision that wasn&#8217;t quite post-punk, wasn&#8217;t quite noise-rock, wasn&#8217;t quite anything besides an idiosyncratic, ground-breaking hybrid that could only come from the four of them - Giraffe is their bold new offering. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Robert Lester Folsom</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/robert-lester-folsom-2/motorco-music-hall/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Sunshine Only Sometimes: Archives Vol. 2, 1972–1975 continues Anthology Recordings’ excavation, and exploration, of southern singer, songwriter, and psychedelic serviceman Robert Lester Folsom’s bountiful archives. Recorded across Georgia in various bedrooms, a barn, and a motel room with a reel-to-reel and a revolving cast of whip smart studio musicians in the first half of a [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>The Bends</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-bends/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[You&#8217;ll encounter all kinds of relatable, yet colorful characters in the music of The Bends. There&#8217;s the over-&#160;bored hipster chick in ripped jeans and a tight t-shirt, the friend who&#8217;s only there for the party, the dude&#160;who&#8217;d rather smoke in his room than pay attention to his girl, and so on and so forth. These personalities&#160;come to life between the group&#8217;s hypnotic hooks and garage-born production. The Baton Rouge-bred&#160;and Nashville-based quartet&#8212;Hayden Field [vocals, guitar], Ian Marmande [guitar], Jacob Rhodes&#160;[drums], and Chase Perkins [bass]&#8212;craft the kind of undeniable alternative rock that could just as easily&#160;soundtrack a scene in your favorite Reality Bites-style nineties flick or a TikTok trend. It&#8217;s as quotable as it&#160;is quixotic, lacing fuzz-ed out power chords with unapologetically candid lyrics. It&#8217;s also resonated with&#160;fans worldwide, leading to millions of streams and even the applause of megastars like Zach&#160;Bryan. Meeting at LSU, the band seized any opportunity to perform in front of an audience, gigging&#160;marathon cover sets at college bars and frat parties. By the time senior year rolled around, the four-&#160;piece cut their first original &#8220;Makeup.&#8221; It organically exploded online once Zach Bryan shared it on his&#160;Instagram story, calling it &#8220;the song of the year.&#8221; It eventually amassed over 6.2 million Spotify streams&#160;and paved the way for &#8220;Fair Weather&#8221; and 2025&#8217;s Leeward Drive EP. Along the way, they notably&#160;captured the ear of Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin who jumped at the chance to produce and&#160;co-write &#8220;Virginia&#8221; and introduced them to Warner Records. Now, The Bends&#8217; raw and real sound that&#160;powers a series of 2026 singles and their forthcoming debut for Warner Records. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>The Tallest Man On Earth</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-tallest-man-on-earth-2/haw-river-ballroom/saxapahaw-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA["Matsson has made some of the best and most-compelling folk songs of the 21st century.&#8221; &#8212; Paste &#160; &#8220;The Tallest Man on Earth has released some of the best modern folk music of this century. He writes elegant, homespun ballads that draw you in toward the proverbial campfire.&#8221; &#8212; GQ &#160; Swedish singer-songwriter The Tallest Man On Earth aka Kristian Matsson is announcing a 2026 US fall tour today and the song &#8220;Colors&#8221;, his first new music in nearly three years. Recorded by Matsson in his home studio, the song whirls and swirls with his violin, guitar playing and signature croon. Yearning for the verdant inspiration of summer, head below to listen and watch the song&#8217;s new video featuring handheld camera footage from Kristian and his crew on a recent run of European shows. &#160; Watch/Listen to &#8220;Colors&#8221;: https://thetallestmanonearth.ffm.to/colors &#160; The Tallest Man On Earth has captivated audiences using &#8220;every inch of his long guitar cord to roam the stage: darting around, crouching, stretching, hip-twitching, perching briefly and jittering away&#8230;&#8221; (The New York Times). His tour this fall begins October 15 in North Carolina and snakes through the East and West coasts, ending in Phoenix on November 15. Head below to check out all upcoming tour dates. &#160; Critics often draw comparisons between The Tallest Man on Earth and Bob Dylan, citing similarities in both songwriting and vocal style. Matsson himself has acknowledged Dylan's influence, revealing that he started listening to him at the age of fifteen. Fascinated by Dylan's covers, he delved into their origins, which gradually introduced him to early American folk artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. However, Matsson is quick to distance himself from being part of any specific tradition, stating, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to be part of a tradition. I just want to do what feels natural to me. This is how I play, and this is how I write songs.&#8221; &#160; His 2023 album &#8216;Henry St.&#8217; marks the first time Matsson recorded an album in a band setting. As described by Matsson, it&#8217;s the &#8220;most me album yet, because it covers so many of the different noises in my head. Having been away from it taught me that making music and performing is what I&#8217;m doing for the rest of my life, and I&#8217;m so grateful for it. It has given me new confidence and playfulness. This is what I do. It&#8217;s unconditional.&#8221;&#160; &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>King Buffalo</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/king-buffalo-2/motorco-music-hall/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2026 14:25:29 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[King Buffalo is the trio of vocalist/guitarist Sean McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds, and drummer Scott Donaldson. Since forming in 2013, the self-proclaimed “heavy psych” band has made its name via 4 Full-lengths, 4EPs, and tours with Clutch, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, All Them Witches, The Sword, and Elder.]]></description>
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                                <title>Ax and the Hatchetmen: The Late Checkout Tour 2026</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/ax-and-the-hatchetmen-the-late-checkout-tour-2026/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Check out was hours ago, but Ax and the Hatchetmen aren&#8217;t leaving. The indie rock six piece, fronted by Axel Ellis, hit the road this fall for the &#8220;Late Check Out Tour&#8221; &#8212; a coast to coast run bringing their sunburnt guitars and jangly tunes to the masses. What started in high school hallways outside Chicago has grown into a band with millions of listeners, diehard fans, and nearly a decade of life on the road. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify &#183; Bandcamp &#183; TikTok]]></description>
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                                <title>Good Moon Festival</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/good-moon-festival/durham-performing-arts-center/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 16:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[We are excited to announce the return of GOOD MOON. After taking a year away we are back and in a new phase.  This year’s festival will function a little differently than in the past. We’re saying goodbye to our previous home at the ballpark and are spreading out to more venues across our beloved [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>Slow Pulp</title>
                                <eventupdate>4 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/slow-pulp-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 16:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[When the members of Slow Pulp discuss Yard, their second full-length record and first for ANTI-, their vocabulary often defaults to synesthetic imagery and sensation. &#160; "We have so many visual cues for how we talk about music," singer and guitarist Emily Massey says as she stops herself in the middle of explaining how the album's second song, "Doubt," sounds like wakeboarding. "Doubt is quite dark lyrically, but it is found in this upbeat and almost campy environment." &#160; On Yard, the Wisconsin-bred, Chicago-based four-piece nestles comfortably into pockets of nuance, impressions, contradictions -- sonics and lyrics finessed together to bottle the specific tension of a feeling you've never quite been able to find the right words for. In that regard, listening to Slow Pulp can feel like being in a room with someone who's known you so long that they can read your every micro-expression and pinpoint exactly how you're feeling before you can. Perhaps this spawns from the band's own shared history and chemistry; in various ways, the four of them grew up -- are still growing up -- together. &#160; Guitarist Henry Stoehr and drummer Teddy Mathews attended elementary school together in Madison. Not long after, they met bassist Alex Leeds at the west side location of the now-closed local music program called Good'nLoud Music. And while Massey didn't enter the fold until later on in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Mathews and Stoehr, it turns out she was in the same program on the other side of town at Good'nLoud's east side location. In fact, the chords to Yard's addictive track "Slugs" are from a song Stoehr wrote for his crush in the sixth grade. "Imagination," Mathews immediately chimes in with the name of Stoehr's original. The album's iteration of the song is, fittingly, also about a crush: "You're a summer hit, I'm singing it," Massey swoons over a warm wave of guitar fuzz and syrupy background vocals. &#160; With Leeds attending college in Minneapolis and the other members in Madison, the quartet started recording, playing shows around the Midwest, and eventually released their first EP as a four-piece, EP2, in 2017. It's an intimate, restless, and decidedly lo-fi 17-minute debut by a band with an obvious knack for creating sticky hooks that tend to stay in the space behind your eyes long after the songs are finished playing. So obvious that, without much promotion on the band's end, EP2 picked up traction across YouTube channels and blogs, and thanks to the power of the internet, Slow Pulp unexpectedly found themselves amid their first wave of buzz. &#160; In September 2018, the band relocated to Chicago and moved in together, writing and recording most of their Big Day EP at a cabin in Michigan the following January. As they put in the hours on stage and in the studio, the buzz continued to grow, they kept refining their work, and by 2019, they were touring with Alex G and working on their debut full-length record, Moveys. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram&#160;&#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube &#183; Soundcloud]]></description>
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                                <title>Michigander</title>
                                <eventupdate>5 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/michigander-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[$1 from each ticket will be donated to Headcount via GanderGives, the band&#8217;s 501c3 partnership with Plus1. Join the band in making a difference. &#160; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; Instagram &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>The Menzingers</title>
                                <eventupdate>5 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/the-menzingers-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Everything I Ever Saw finds the Menzingers entering a new era in what&#8217;s already been a storied career. The Philadelphia punk legends&#8217; eighth album chronicles moments of significant change&#8212;the personal, the political, and the universal&#8212;while returning to the core creative principles that first put them on the map with listeners the world over. Twenty years in, the Menzingers have discovered that the wisdom gained with time&#8217;s passing is even stronger than the emotional armor they once wore in their youth, and Everything I Ever Saw captures the quartet embracing the here and now while strengthening the bonds that have held them together. Work on Everything I Ever Saw started in earnest after touring behind 2023&#8217;s Some Of It Was True, as the group felt a re-energized urgency while their worlds changed around them. &#8220;It wasn't something that we initially set out to do,&#8221; vocalist/guitarist Greg Barnett says. &#8220;We started writing immediately after our last record in a very fun, casual way&#8212;but we were going through really special moments that we wanted to document.&#8221; &#8220;We've been doing this for so long that it&#8217;s routine,&#8221; vocalist/guitarist Tom May adds. &#8220;Between this record and the last record, however, so much happened in our lives, and we always write about what's going on.&#8221; Indeed, the last three years have been plenty busy in the Menzingers&#8217; world: while Barnett got married and welcomed his first child, May got divorced and navigated new emotional territory both in and outside of the band. &#8220;We're no strangers to writing about breakups, but divorce is different,&#8221; he says. &#8220;There's a weirdness to it that cuts so much deeper and hurts much more. The most devastating part is that you had a vision for your life that's gone now, and you have to figure out how to navigate that while growing as a person. But through that suffering, I definitely became a better person than I was before. When you're broken, you can put yourself back together in a way where you are who you truly want to become.&#8221; &#8220;It was sad for him, but he became the person that he always wanted to be, and he found so much happiness in this way his life changed,&#8221; Barnett adds. &#8220;I'll always look back on this record as living in the moment of these massive changes in our lives.&#8221; While working on the record in the band&#8217;s new studio space in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, the quartet&#8212;rounded out by bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino&#8212;engaged in some group camaraderie (and, yes, a couple of frosty beverages) to help their bandmate and lifelong friend navigate this particular era of growing pains in his personal life. &#8220;Those guys took care of me,&#8221; May says, &#8220;and I can't even put it into words how powerful that was. It solidified our creative relationship, because they&#8217;re some of the few people that I can talk about these things with.&#8221; It&#8217;s that sense of coming together that inspired Barnett&#8217;s lyrics on the charging &#8220;Nobody's Heroes,&#8221; which opens with the glowing tick-tock of a drum machine before launching into the type of passionate burn the Menzingers have long been known for. &#8220;It feels like the story of the Menzingers to me,&#8221; he says while talking about the song. &#8220;I wanted to write about my experiences of trying to be there for him through everything he was going through. Then, the approach became the whole band rallying around each other, and an anthem for everything that we've been through, while shining a light on the connection that we have together.&#8221; &#160; Website]]></description>
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                                <title>Crazy Chester: A Very Carrboro Tribute To The Band &amp; The Last Waltz 50th Anniversary Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>5 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/crazy-chester-a-very-carrboro-tribute-to-the-band-the-last-waltz-50th-anniversary-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Formed in early 2020 for a series of one-off events in the piedmont region of North Carolina, Crazy Chester is a homegrown tribute act to The Band, consisting of Carrboro musicians Jones Bell (Mellow Swells, Ravary), Charles Cleaver (Big Star's Third, Fancy Gap, Lemon Sparks), Rob DiMauro (Heat Preacher, Mixtape Grab Bag, One After 919), Justin Ellis (Slow Teeth, Ravary, Easter Island, One After 919), and Rafael Green (solo artist, Ravary, One After 919), respectively recreating and playing the parts of Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Robbie Robertson. &#160; For the sixth year in a row, Crazy Chester will be performing most of The Band's legendary farewell performance from Thanksgiving Day 1976, immortalized in the 1978 Martin Scorsese film "The Last Waltz" - complete with additional musicians and special local guests to play the songs originally performed in the film by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and many more. But this time - they're taking the show on the road to celebrate 50 Years of The Last Waltz. &#160;A show that must be seen to be believed. &#160; Full list of guest performers TBD!]]></description>
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                                <title>Aaron Lee Tasjan</title>
                                <eventupdate>5 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/aaron-lee-tasjan-2/cats-cradle-back-room/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Aaron Lee Tasjan was experiencing the worst bout of imposter syndrome of his career when he sat down and wrote Todd Snider a vulnerable email asking for advice. Tasjan, despite writing and recording some of the most astute Americana rock songs of the last decade and being nominated for a Grammy, just didn&#8217;t see a future for an independent singer, songwriter, and guitarist like himself. Snider read Tasjan&#8217;s email and immediately replied: &#8220;I think I have some ideas. I&#8217;ll write you back tomorrow.&#8221; The next morning, Tasjan awoke to a signature Todd Snider missive for how to move forward as an artist. It was a novel-length email that read like the battle plans for the Invasion of Normandy. Do this, Snider wrote. Then this. But never that. The specifics don&#8217;t matter&#8212;besides, that&#8217;d be giving away the secret&#8212;but Tasjan devoured his mentor&#8217;s words and took them to heart. He began writing feverishly, unbothered by expectations and immune to any pressure to match his acclaimed albums like *In the Blazes*, *Karma for Cheap*, or his most recent, 2024&#8217;s *Stellar Evolution*. When he was through, Tasjan had *Get Over It, Underdog*, his most inspiring LP to date. Produced by Tasjan and his longtime sound engineer Mark Miller, the album is a celebration of the power of songwriting, the unbreakable bond of friendship, and the determination of the dark horse. &#8220;I went to the ultimate oasis for a singer, songwriter, and troubadour: Todd Snider. And he said, in very Todd fashion, &#8216;You can find your path forward by going backwards,&#8217;&#8221; Tasjan says with a laugh. &#8220;But he was right. I set aside my ego, played shows solo without my band, and wrote a lot of songs. In that process, I found my confidence again.&#8221; Tragically, however, he lost his mentor. Snider died shortly after *Get Over It, Underdog* was finished, leaving a void in the folk-rock scene that will prove nearly impossible to fill. But Tasjan is committed to carrying on Snider&#8217;s unbridled spirit and lifting up underdogs everywhere. Over 11 tracks, Tasjan&#8217;s new album kills sacred cows and pokes holes in the dam, while leaning hard into the idea of perseverance. In the talking-blues of &#8220;Science Friction,&#8221; he tells an abridged origin story of civilization that culminates with humankind editing itself out of its own picture. &#8220;Man made machines/putting man out of business,&#8221; he sings with a knowing wink. &#8220;Lost &#38; Alone,&#8221; meanwhile, finds him feeling like a &#8220;stranger in this town.&#8221; It&#8217;s a compact blast of indie-rock with a sing-along chorus that underscores Tasjan&#8217;s gift for writing infectious hooks. In &#8220;Twilight Zone Blues,&#8221; a shot of gritty T. Rex glam-rock, Tasjan wonders why we&#8217;re compelled to press the mysterious button just to find out what happens. &#8220;In society today, all this bad shit can become tempting, especially as the situation feels more and more dangerous as time goes on,&#8221; he says. &#8220;&#8216;Twilight Zone Blues&#8217; builds to that tension of, &#8216;What happens if I just give in to this or succumb to that?&#8217;&#8221; Website &#183; Facebook &#183; TikTok &#183; Youtube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Temples</title>
                                <eventupdate>5 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/temples/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Temples&#8217; name has become synonymous with a band with an adventurous spirit; constantly exploring new ideas. On their fifth album, Bliss, they shake up the perception of the Kettering-formed four-piece with a record that ventures into electronic territory while staying true to their core DNA. Euphoric and melancholic melodies of late &#8216;90s dance music blend with psych-tinged riffs and loops to create something fresh. &#160; After the 2023 release of Exotico felt overlooked, the band - James Bagshaw (vocals/guitar), Thomas Walmsley (bass), Adam Smith (keyboards/guitar), and Rens Ottink (drums) - hit a creative standstill. &#8220;There&#8217;s so much more to us as a band and as a group of people,&#8221; says Walmsley. &#8220;We&#8217;re completely reconnecting with why we started and who we&#8217;re making the music for - which is ourselves.&#8221; &#160; Reinvigorated, Temples signed with V2 Records and returned to working together in person. Unlike Exotico, Bliss was produced entirely by the band. Bagshaw explains: &#8220;It was very freeing. It felt like you could just improvise.&#8221; The album features self-sampling, creating a shared palette of sounds that could be lifted, reversed, or reimagined across tracks - &#8220;building up audio Pantones,&#8221; as Bagshaw puts it. &#160; Sonically, Bliss reinterprets dance music in Temples&#8217; style. Lead single Jet Stream Heart captures the thrill of being drawn into music, while Vendetta merges scuzzy riffs with lasering synths and dance melodies. Blue Flame, drawn from a chorus Smith had in his pocket for some years, explores disconnection with a slower, icier sound. Revelations nods to Gregorian chants, blending spiritual and matter-of-fact elements. Megalith tackles frustrations, surrender, and the fear of being stuck amidst a moving world. &#160; Though the band missed the late &#8216;90s rave culture firsthand, Bliss channels that era&#8217;s bittersweet euphoria, drawing inspiration from Faithless, Underworld, Prodigy, Air, R&#246;yksopp, Moby, Massive Attack, Orbital, Portishead, and more. Psych and dance share a natural lineage, with repetition, loops, and trance-like states forming the album&#8217;s foundation. &#160; For Temples, Bliss represents creative freedom and a shared sense of joy in making music. &#8220;We&#8217;ve just done exactly what we want to do in a purely selfish way, and that becomes not selfish when people connect with it,&#8221; says Bagshaw. Forward-looking yet aware of its roots, the album is unmistakably Temples: &#8220;People should throw out whatever they thought we were &#8211; this is what we are.&#8221; &#160; Website &#183; Facebok &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; YouTube &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Fruit Bats</title>
                                <eventupdate>6 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/fruit-bats-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The midwest, particularly the part of the midwest Eric D. Johnson hails from, is a largely flat expanse. Zipping through it on the highway, you&#8217;ll see cities and towns rise up in the distance, but blink and you&#8217;ll miss other man-made rejoinders to horizontal living dotting the landscape, hill after hill, built from the refuse of the past: landfills. Some of these hills make for great sledding spots, parks, and trails. Others turn organic waste into compost. The Landfill, Fruit Bats&#8217; June 12, 2026 album from Merge Records, is something else entirely: a mountain dominating the landscape of Johnson&#8217;s heart.&#160;This being a Fruit Bats record, one scales that mountain to take in the view, to see the future spread out as wide and endless as the midwestern plains. &#8220;But the mountain that gives us this vantage point,&#8221; Johnson says, &#8220;is made out of the trash that we&#8217;ve created, the collective weight of the past and where it&#8217;s taken us.&#8221; When he details that view on title track and lead single &#8220;The Landfill&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;a holy vision / of what could be / and couldn&#8217;t be / and could have been&#8221; &#8212; it&#8217;s thrilling to hear him sent soaring by a full complement of instruments. But what&#8217;s truly stunning is how, in his recontouring from could to couldn&#8217;t to could have been, he has lost none of the vulnerability that was brought to the foreground of his songwriting by 2025&#8217;s solo outing, Baby Man.&#160;Over the course of his now 25-year career under the moniker, most of Eric D. Johnson&#8217;s output as Fruit Bats has been the product of patience and fine-tuning. His songs, to borrow a phrase, are slow growers, given life on albums that encompass long stretches of time and memory. Baby Man changed that &#8212; he disallowed himself from referring to material he&#8217;d been working on before laying the album down, utilizing the morning pages technique of stream-of-consciousness, observational songwriting which flowed directly into his afternoon recording sessions. It was both a breathtaking document of Johnson&#8217;s skill as a singer-songwriter and an unvarnished account of the two weeks in which he recorded the album.&#160;Baby Man&#8217;s closeness to Johnson&#8217;s heart and the close attention to his voice and instrument its minimalist-maximalist ethos required uncorked something in him as he wrote towards a new full band effort. &#8220;That session was over,&#8221; he explains, &#8220;but there was way more to explore. I liked the immediacy of it, and I wanted to see how that would translate into a full-band Fruit Bats record.&#8221; Within weeks, he was back in a studio, this time with his band &#8212; David Dawda (bass), Josh Mease (guitars, synth), Frank LoCrasto (piano, synth), and Kosta Galanopoulos (drums) &#8212; with whom Johnson has spent over a decade building Fruit Bats into one of the most in-demand live acts in indie rock. Listening to The Landfill, it&#8217;s not hard to understand why: simply put, this band smokes.&#160;Producing the initial recording sessions in Washington&#8217;s Bear Creek Studios, Johnson set out to capture &#8220;the sound of this band I constantly marvel at, the feeling of being in a room with musicians you love and trust enough to let them cook.&#8221; They laid most of it down on the floor &#8212; no click tracks, no comped vocals, and minimal overdubs, with frequent collaborator Thom Monahan returning to provide additional production and The Landfill&#8217;s final mix. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify]]></description>
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                                <title>Deer Tick</title>
                                <eventupdate>6 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/deer-tick/motorco-music-hall/durham-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[The ninth studio album from Deer Tick, Coin-O-Matic casts a bright light on a little-known facet of the American mythos: the hidden histories of the band’s home state of Rhode Island, where the everyday dramas of working-class families long collided with the menace of the mafia underworld. As they tapped into their infinite fascination with [&#8230;]]]></description>
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                                <title>Die Spitz</title>
                                <eventupdate>7 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/die-spitz-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[When the Venn diagram of passion, friendship, identity, and artistry collide, it can feel as if fighting words are spitting from your veins. And as postmodern society crumbles, Die Spitz giddily bounce between a dozen different ways to push back. If the world of rock music were an ice cream shop, the Austin quartet have sampled each flavor, flipped the freezer over, and started dancing with the employees they helped unionize. On their debut album, Something to Consume (due Sept 12 via Third Man Records), Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Eleanor Livingston, and Kate Halter fight against the inescapable consumption that surrounds life. &#8220;There&#8217;s a political side to it, but addiction and love can also be all-consuming,&#8221; Livingston says. And as the foursome trade off instruments, swapping songwriting and vocal duties, and generating powerful songwriting in concussive bursts, Die Spitz have created their own little pocket of the world where we can all stand on the edge together. That unity comes in part from the deep bonds between the 22-year-olds. All four are Austin natives, with Schrobilgen and Livingston having met in preschool, befriending Halter in middle school, and immediately bringing De St. Aubin into their inner circle when they formed the band in 2022. Though they&#8217;ve only been playing together a few years (not to mention Halter only learning to play bass to start the band), Something to Consume shows a maturity and technical prowess always wielded in service of their profound friendship. The group settled on the name Die Spitz over a &#8220;brown bag of Fireball,&#8221; opting for the feminine German definite article in place of the English. &#8220;It reminds me of the Grim Reaper spitting,&#8221; Livingston jokes. At their first live shows, they paired originals with covers from some of their inspirations: Black Sabbath, Pixies, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey, and Nirvana. The beguiling &#8220;Pop Punk Anthem&#8221; somehow encapsulates elements throughout that large musical swath, building from roiling verses to a growled chorus. &#8220;It may sound like a love song at first, but when the beat kicks in it&#8217;s the obsession that takes over,&#8221; Schrobilgen says. &#8220;The words &#8216;you&#8217;re a part of me&#8217; sound loving but it can be an insane emotion and privilege over someone else&#8217;s life.&#8221; As if their closeness as a band weren&#8217;t enough, the members of Die Spitz have also intermittently been roommates and still live near each other. &#8220;We call it sitcom life,&#8221; Livingston laughs. That said, the Die Spitz TV show would have a significantly different soundtrack to your usual sitcom fare. The Austinites express their ideas through a blend of classic punk, hardcore, metal, alt rock and more. The group have become known for their riotous live shows, where dueling cartwheels, Halter playing bass mid-crowdsurf, Schrobilgen unleashing a growling bark, and Livingston posing with the microphone on top of the venue&#8217;s bar or climbing into the rafters could happen at any moment. Pairing their mind-melting gigs with even more impressive songs has led to stints opening for (and rivaling the energy of) bands like OFF!, Amyl and the Sniffers, Viagra Boys, and Sleater-Kinney. &#160; Website &#183; Instagram &#183; TikTok &#183; Facebook &#183; Spotify &#183; YouTube]]></description>
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                                <title>Hiss Golden Messenger &#8211; I&#8217;m People Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>7 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/hiss-golden-messenger-im-people-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[A limited number of Two Night Passes are available here. &#160; Hiss Golden Messenger is the long-running musical project led by North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and producer M.C. Taylor. The project has evolved over the last decade into one of the most respected and celebrated in contemporary Americana, blending folk, country, soul and gospel influences with deeply introspective, poetic, and conscious songwriting. &#160; Across multiple critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated albums, Hiss Golden Messenger has become known for its warmth and emotional clarity, as well as Taylor&#8217;s ability to connect the personal and poetic with the political without losing intimacy or musical grace. &#160; The forthcoming I&#8217;m People continues this trajectory, offering a reflective collection of songs that speaks to resilience, community, radical hopefulness, and the quiet human moments that animate and illuminate the everyday. It is among Taylor&#8217;s greatest and most profound work.&#160;Hiss Golden Messenger sits naturally alongside artists and releases that value craft, storytelling, and authenticity, and aligns well with audiences attuned to indie, folk, Americana, roots, and contemporary country music. &#160; Website &#124; Facebook&#160;&#124; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Hiss Golden Messenger &#8211; I&#8217;m People Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>7 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/hiss-golden-messenger-im-people-tour-2/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[A limited number of Two Night Passes are available here. &#160; Hiss Golden Messenger is the long-running musical project led by North Carolina-based singer, songwriter, and producer M.C. Taylor. The project has evolved over the last decade into one of the most respected and celebrated in contemporary Americana, blending folk, country, soul and gospel influences with deeply introspective, poetic, and conscious songwriting. &#160; Across multiple critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated albums, Hiss Golden Messenger has become known for its warmth and emotional clarity, as well as Taylor&#8217;s ability to connect the personal and poetic with the political without losing intimacy or musical grace. &#160; The forthcoming I&#8217;m People continues this trajectory, offering a reflective collection of songs that speaks to resilience, community, radical hopefulness, and the quiet human moments that animate and illuminate the everyday. It is among Taylor&#8217;s greatest and most profound work.&#160;Hiss Golden Messenger sits naturally alongside artists and releases that value craft, storytelling, and authenticity, and aligns well with audiences attuned to indie, folk, Americana, roots, and contemporary country music. &#160; Website &#124; Facebook&#160;&#124; Instagram]]></description>
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                                <title>Benjamin Tod &amp; Lost Dog Street Band 2026 Tour</title>
                                <eventupdate>10 months ago</eventupdate>
                                <link>https://catscradle.com/event/benjamin-tod-lost-dog-street-band-2026-tour/cats-cradle/carrboro-north-carolina/</link>
                                <pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
                                <description><![CDATA[Sitting at a corner caf&#233; table, Benjamin Tod's eyes light up when asked what it's like to finally embrace happiness and accept love. With a slight grin, he sips his coffee and leans back, one arm draped casually and comfortably over the chair. "I'm kind of settling into my age, into allowing myself to be happy," the 33-year-old says. "For years, I led myself and the people around me into a lot of unnecessary darkness. And now, I've learned how to give and receive affection &#8212; it's helped heal a lot of parts of myself." Tod's demeanor is a far cry from his usual stiff posture stance with arms folded, this permeating sense of trepidation and scrutiny for what trouble may be coming down the pike. The relaxed, calm aura is a sign of a human being who has overcome lifelong personal demons, one who has finally become liberated &#8212; not only in his personal life, but also his music. "This latest record is so unusual for what I do," Tod says. "It's almost a spite album, to prove what I can do as a writer in whatever medium I step into." Titled Shooting Star, the album carves a fresh creative path for Tod, a storied singer-songwriter and frontman of Lost Dog Street Band. The self-proclaimed "proprietor of misery," Tod finds himself transcending into a life of gratitude, patience, and stability. "People evolve and change. You're growing as a person," Tod says. "If you want to get healthier, you have to start intentionally behaving like a healthy person. You have to look around you and adapt to those things &#8212; if you don't change your identity, it's hard to change yourself." For this latest solo endeavor, Tod tapped some of Nashville's finest to conjure country gold. Shifting from his signature somber tone of struggle and survival, Tod and his coal fire throat radiate a feeling of clarity and new beginnings in the face of adversity. The result is this intrinsic, musical crossroads &#8212; more Hank Williams than Bob Wills, more Marty Stuart than George Jones. "Most of my career has been laser-focused on poetic, piercing songwriting in mainly a folk tradition." Tod says. "I wanted to prove to myself and the industry that I could write an elite country record with ease. Either way, if I didn't accomplish that goal, I sure as hell came closer than anyone on pop country radio." The inspiration for the project struck in the summer of 2022, with Tod penning the opening track "I Ain't The Man." From there, it became this unrelenting, internal thirst for Tod to begin "imagining what all I could do within a genre slightly outside my comfort zone." With a thick thread of honkytonk woven into it, the album leaves fingerprints on seemingly every style of country, from outlaw to red dirt, folk to indie, the culmination of which being a happily welcomed challenge for Tod &#8212; the ethos of his life and career at this juncture howling loudly "obstacles are opportunities." Shooting Star is also a full-circle moment for Tod. Coming of age in Music City, he found himself squarely in the midst of rough-n-tumble Lower Broadway. Busking on street corners playing Woody Guthrie and Jim Ringer tunes for spare change. And getting kicked out of Robert's Western World or Layla's Honky Tonk "more times than most regulars had been before the age of 20." &#160; Website &#124; Instagram &#124; Facebook &#124; YouTube &#124; Spotify]]></description>
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