March 2025 at Union Transfer in Philadelphia promises a vibrant array of musical performances, each delivering unique narratives and emotions. From the genre-defying experiments of SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE to the heartfelt tributes by Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy, and the enchanting voices of Paris Paloma, this lineup covers diverse musical landscapes. Each event, marked by personal stories and creative explorations, offers audiences a chance to connect deeply with the artists. Whether you're drawn to indie rock, collage rock, or folk-pop, Union Transfer has something unforgettable in store.

A Harmonious March: Diverse Musical Journeys at Union Transfer

Union Transfer in Philadelphia is set to host an eclectic array of music events in 2025, featuring artists from various genres, each bringing their unique sound and vision to the stage. From Sharon Van Etten's heartfelt performances supporting social causes, to the pioneering punk rock of The Damned, and the soulful electronic beats of Maribou State, this series of concerts promises an unforgettable experience for music lovers. With the inclusion of legendary acts like Napalm Death, George Clanton, and Larkin Poe, Union Transfer is the place to be this spring for a rich tapestry of musical exploration.

Union Transfer Hosts a Diverse Musical Journey in 2025

Union Transfer in Philadelphia prepares for an unforgettable concert series in 2025 featuring a diverse lineup of artists, each with their unique sound and story. From Anees's soulful melodies to Blondshell's introspective anthems, this series promises to captivate audiences with a blend of genres and emotions. Join us as we explore how these artists, including Perfume Genius, Sleigh Bells, and OK Go, push the boundaries of music and connect with their fans on a deeper level.

Union Transfer Welcomes a Musical Odyssey in 2025

Union Transfer in Philadelphia is set to host a series of enthralling musical events in 2025. The diverse lineup includes Momma's introspective album debut, OK Go's boundary-breaking performances, Sleigh Bells' energetic shows, and Perfume Genius's emotive acts. The venue will also welcome breakout artists like Artemas and established acts such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This series of performances promises to offer something for every music lover, showcasing a blend of established icons and emerging talents. Discover the stories behind these artists as they prepare to captivate audiences in the City of Brotherly Love.

Union Transfer's Lineup: A Musical Odyssey in Philadelphia

Mo Lowda & the Humble are a self-produced indie rock band hailing from Philadelphia.  The band is set to released their 5th studio album on June 20th, 2025, entitled: Tailing the Ghost.  Since releasing their debut album in 2013, they’ve vastly expanded the sonic exploration of their recorded material whilst developing a dialed-in, yet energetic live show through persistent touring. In turn, they’ve built a ravenous and loyal following across the country, selling out clubs and theaters throughout the US each year. 'Tailing the Ghost' was recorded entirely on the road, with the majority of the songs being cut almost entirely live.  It is Mo Lowda's most cohesive, yet explorative album to date.  The band tours year around, often playing over 90 shows a year.

Mo Lowda & the Humble

Union Transfer

Ezra Furman is a boundary-breaking artist whose fearless creativity and emotional honesty have made her one of the most compelling voices in modern music. Blending punk energy, heartfelt lyricism and genre-defying innovation, Furman’s work is both deeply personal and universally resonant. The albums she’s released over the past decade demonstrate both her extraordinary talent and artistic evolution. Perpetual Motion People (2015) is a vibrant, genre-hopping explosion of wit and melody, while Transangelic Exodus (2018) pushed boundaries with its dystopian storytelling and atmospheric soundscapes, exploring themes of love, defiance, and identity. Twelve Nudes (2019) delivered raw, punk-fueled catharsis, channeling anger and resilience into fiery anthems. Her last album, All of Us Flames (2022), is a cinematic and deeply moving exploration of queer liberation, weaving intimate storytelling with grand, sweeping arrangements. She also found time to record the soundtrack for the Netflix smash hit TV series Sex Education. Ezra Furman’s music is a testament to the power of individuality and authenticity, marking her as a truly unique voice in modern music.

Ezra Furman

JOHNNYSWIM, composed of the magnetic duo Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano Ramirez, effortlessly enthralls audiences with their heartfelt melodies, intertwining personal experiences and imaginative tales. Their music is a vibrant tapestry woven with memories, emotions, and dreams, blending singer-songwriter tradition with alternative flair, rock vigor, and pop ambition. Through extensive touring, they've cultivated a devoted fanbase worldwide, connecting deeply with listeners.

Johnnyswim

This band has always been a jumble of contradictions. On the one hand, we've had a long-running career where we got to make art for a living. But on the other hand, we have always eluded any kind of traditional success. We weren't covered much in the press, we never had a song that had a lot of radio play, nothing ever went viral, we didn't have a big social media presence, we never played a good festival spot where there was a sea of people in the audience, not once opened an arena or even a big shell auditorium show or tour. We constantly lost opportunities because of the band name and were somehow always treated like nobodies or yesterday's news by most of the industry. But you, you gosh dang wonderful audience, managed to keep us growing, and we never had a career slump. When we were our busiest — playing over 200 shows a year — we were chronically underpaid and always barely scraping by. But people kept writing to us or telling us how much we mattered and kept showing up, and we started to believe it a little. And then over the years, we grew to a more manageable place and it seemed possible to carve out a niche in this massive, mean world of entertainment. When I reflect on how good our career was and how lucky we were, I'm left with just gratitude for the small team of folks who have worked with the band and this grassroots fan following that has lifted us up the entire time. I feel like we owe any and all our success to you. I never called us DIY — despite taking on much of the work ourselves — because there are always people behind the scenes helping: it takes a village. Thank you to the promoters, clubs, bands, managers, agents, artists, publishers, lawyers, publicists, crews, etc. etc. etc. who believed in us and everyone who made this work for so long. An enormous thank you to those of you who helped us through the many difficult periods. Thank you for your relentless support, your passionate listening, and your generosity. It's been the honor of my life to write, record, sing and perform for you. We are currently in the studio pouring ourselves into a new album — stay tuned for it. After this tour, we plan to continue to do our cave shows so we can have a way to meet up once a year, but that's it. Excited to see you all on this last trip out. —Adam Turla & Murder By Death

Murder By Death

All previously purchased tickets from the postponed November 24th show will be honored at this new date!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Blondshell - If You Asked For A Picture (out May 2, 2025) - Bio The second album from Sabrina Teitelbaum, aka Blondshell, borrows its title from a 1986 poem by the cherished American writer Mary Oliver, titled “Dogfish.” In the poem, Oliver grapples with the idea of telling one’s own story: how much to share, how much to keep for oneself — all questions Teitelbaum asked herself while writing If You Asked For A Picture. “There’s a part of the poem that says: I don’t need to tell you everything I’ve been through. It’s just another story of somebody trying to survive,” Teitelbaum says. “Something I love about songs is that you’re showing a snapshot of a person or a relationship, and showing a glimpse into a story can be just as important as trying to capture the entire thing. Sometimes it’s even truer to the entire picture than if you tried to write everything down.” Blondshell’s self-titled 2023 debut unleashed a swiss-army-knife writing style that gets under your skin: songs that are as visceral and anthemic as pop music with all the specificity, self-examination, and nonchalant humor of the best indie rock — songs you want to let crash over you, even as their strength is too concrete to be washed away. It’s a formula that turned Blondshell into one of the most lauded new artists in recent memory. If You Asked For A Picture expands these artistic horizons further, resulting in a collection of songs from an artist now at the peak of her powers that brim with an urgency, ambition, and devastating potency only hinted at until now. If You Asked For A Picture is alive with a more vital nuance both sonically and thematically, gesturing towards a deeper autobiographical story that taps into something painfully universal without being too overt. Teitelbaum explains, “The first record feels really black-and-white to me. This record has more questions.” The lucid songs of If You Asked For A Picture dig into familial relationships — parents who pass on their trauma (as in “23’s A Baby”), the endless two-way critique between mothers and daughters (the alt-rock daydream “What’s Fair”), and the loyalty of a sister who won’t forget how a man wronged you (the crushingly catchy accidental-love story “T&A”). Teitelbaum acknowledges her inherent imperfections while trying to extend compassion for the flaws in others. “The last record was a lot of, ‘You’re the villain in this situation, you’ve wronged me, and I’m really pissed’” she says. “On this record it was more like: ‘How did I get here? Maybe I’m the villain too.’ There was something freeing in that.” A major theme of If You Asked For A Picture is control — and the possibility of loosening her grip on it — including two songs (“Thumbtack,” “Toy”) that touch on Teitelbaum’s lifelong struggle with OCD. In the studio, Teitelbaum found herself confident and at home like never before, trusting her instincts as she developed an almost telekinetic shorthand with producer Yves Rothman. The result is a record of astounding sonic range - including sky-scraping ballads and colossal hooks that soar over waves of distortion, mixing layered textures and harmonic flourishes, or making unexpected hairpin turns between them. Primary among her production touchstones were unexpected curveballs like Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication. Teitelbaum reveled in appropriating those hyper-masculine aesthetics for her uncompromising examinations of young womanhood, playing with performances of gender in rock. “It’s empowering for me to use sonic references that feel reserved for men,” she explains. If You Asked for a Picture’s acoustic opener “Thumbtack” is a bittersweet gut-punch of self-reckoning amid an uneasy relationship. “So much of the last record was about finding myself in relationships I didn’t want to be in and not knowing why,” Teitelbaum says. “‘Thumbtack’ is one of those songs, but this record is more about finding out why and trying to be in different types of relationships.” Who among us can’t relate to longing for someone even as they prove to be “a thumbtack in my side,” as Teitelbaum sings on the song’s slyly gigantic hook? “You’re not even a good friend,” she sings, a classic Blondshell mic-drop. Bone-deep revelations like these have become a Blondshell hallmark — startling clarity, comforting wit — and If You Asked For A Picture is full of them. “I don’t want to be your mom, but you’re not strong enough,” she sings before the tidal chorus of “Arms.” On the clear-eyed “What’s Fair,” she examines a complex maternal relationship (“I grew up fast without you”), trying to empathize even as she refuses to sweep the truth under the rug. “You always had a reason to comment on my body,” she sings, like a century of mother-daughter exchanges compressed to 10 words. Teitelbaum addresses body image throughout the record, whether observing her own changing shape or admitting “part of me still sits at home in a panic over fifteen pounds” on “Event of a Fire,” a road narrative that builds to a blaze of brutal candor, capturing a kind of cinematic back-seat interiority. In the time since Blondshell, the image of Teitelbaum’s life has changed considerably. As the accolades accrued — late-night TV performances, countless year-end accolades, landing on Obama’s Best Songs of 2023 list, covering Talking Heads for A24’s Stop Making Sense tribute — Teitelbaum spent two years on the road. She played 150+ shows in support of her debut, including major festivals and a tour with Liz Phair on top of her own sold-out headline dates. This rootlessness naturally impacted Teitelbaum’s relationships with others and with herself. “When you travel a lot, you see different possibilities for who you can be,” Teitelbaum says. “So there were a lot more questions coming up. What do I want my life to look like? Maybe it’s just the nature of being two years older, but I’m more comfortable with nuance now, and I’m more comfortable with gray areas.” There’s an open-endedness to where If You Asked For A Picture lands: it’s a no-skips, triumphant sophomore record that captures the unresolved process of figuring out who you are, too wise to suggest that it has a definitive answer.

Blondshell

At 24-years-old, UK-based singer, songwriter and producer, Artemas, believes rules are made to be broken. Inspired by the likes of Kurt Cobain and Anthony Kiedis, the self-taught multi-instrumentalist released his first music in late 2020, learning how to hone much of his craft in the confines of his bedroom. By late 2023, his eerie dark r&b sound fully connected, drawing comparisons to The Weeknd, as his single “if you think i’m pretty” amassed over 600M streams leading into the release of his pretty mixtape. The project captured global attention, landing the rising star on “Artist to Watch” lists by the likes of Hypebeast and Ones to Watch, and debuting on Zane Lowe’s “24 for ‘24” roster. Continuing the momentum, he released “i like the way you kiss me,” which zoomed up the charts globally reaching #1 on the Billboard Global 200, #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #3 on the UK Official Singles Chart, while selling out two debut headline tours. Now, Artemas proves he’s here to stay with the arrival of his yustyna mixtape.

Artemas

Hadreas, a Seattle native, began his music career in 2008 and released his debut album, Learning, in 2010 via long-time label home Matador. The album immediately captured critics’ attention, with Pitchfork praising its “eviscerating and naked” songs, marked by “heartbreaking sentiments and bruised characterizations delivered in a voice that ranges from an ethereal croon to a slightly cracked warble.” These descriptors became the hallmarks of Perfume Genius - Hadreas’ unique ability to convey emotional vulnerability not only lyrically, but with his impressively nuanced vocals. In 2012, Hadreas released Put Your Back N 2 It, further growing his audience and critical acclaim. His 2014 album, Too Bright, marked a bold evolution in production and confidence. Co-produced by Adrian Utley of Portishead, it featured the standout single “Queen,” which quickly became a queer anthem and powerful statement of identity. Hadreas later performed the track on Late Night with David Letterman. In 2017, Perfume Genius released the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, a breakthrough album that expanded his global fan base and brought mainstream recognition to his art. Produced by Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes), the record earned high praise, with The New Yorker noting, “The center of his music has always been a defiant delicacy—a ragged, affirmative understanding of despair. No Shape finds him unexpectedly victorious, his body exalted.” During the album’s campaign, Hadreas appeared on multiple late-night shows and graced the cover of The Fader. In 2020, Hadreas released Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, a critical masterpiece on Matador Records that garnered worldwide acclaim. Produced by GRAMMY winner Blake Mills, the album featured contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin, Rob Moose, and longtime collaborator Alan Wyffels. It explored and subverted concepts of masculinity and traditional roles, introducing distinctly American musical influences.Hadreas promoted the album with performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (“Jason”), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (“Whole Life”), and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (“On The Floor”). He followed with Ugly Season, a project born from his collaboration with choreographer Kate Wallich on The Sun Still Burns Here, a dance piece commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and performed across major cities in 2019. The release included a stunning 30-minute film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season, created with renowned visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite, blending surreal visuals with Hadreas’s music. Mike Hadreas is now based in Los Angeles with his partner in life and music, Alan Wyffels.

Perfume Genius

Sleigh Bells is an American duo formed in 2008, featuring vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek Miller. Their sound blends elements of noise pop, punk, and electro, characterized by explosive guitar riffs, pounding beats, and infectious melodies. The band gained widespread attention with their debut album Treats (2010), a high-energy mix of distortion and pop hooks, highlighted by the breakout track "Rill Rill." Following Treats, their sophomore album Reign of Terror (2012) refined their sound, incorporating darker, more personal themes while retaining their raw intensity. With Bitter Rivals (2013), they embraced a more aggressive, pop-driven approach, and their 2016 album Jessica Rabbit saw them exploring experimental textures and atmospheric production. Texis (2021) marked another shift, blending elements of early electro, new wave, and hip-hop influences. Throughout their career, Sleigh Bells has become known for their high-energy live shows and genre-defying sound, pushing boundaries in indie and alternative music. Their fearless approach to production and songwriting has earned them a dedicated fanbase and a lasting influence on a new generation of experimental artists.

Sleigh Bells

Since their inception, OK Go has been something more than a band and something different from an art project. With a career that includes award-winning videos, New York Times op-eds, collaborations with pioneering dance companies, tech giants, NASA, animators and Muppets, and an experiment that encoded their music on actual strands of DNA, OK Go continues to fearlessly dream and build new worlds in a time when creative boundaries have all but dissolved. Formed as a quartet in Chicago in 1998 and relocated to Los Angeles three years later, OK Go (Damian Kulash, Timothy Nordwind, Dan Konopka, Andy Ross) have spent their career in a steady state of transformation and continue to add to a curriculum vitae filled with experimentation in a variety of mediums. OK Go’s work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, and their achievements have been recognized with twenty-one Cannes Lions, twelve CLIOs, three VMAs, two Webbys, The Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and a Grammy.

OK Go

Momma is the musical project of Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman. After moving to New York from Los Angeles, the two brought on bassist and producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch, and drummer Preston Fulks, to flesh out their sound. Produced by Kobayashi Ritch, Momma's new album, Welcome to My Blue Sky, lays bare all of the precious and all of the ugly experiences of falling in and out of love, and the art of keeping secrets. Welcome to My Blue Sky comes out April 4th, 2025. Sincerely, Momma

Momma

Anees is an independent artist and songwriter from Virginia whose genre-blending music combines pop, hip-hop, and r&b with heartfelt lyricism and sublime melodies .Often compared to artists like Mac Miller, Jon Bellion, and Chance The Rapper, Anees creates music that is as soulful as it is healing. Love, freedom, and self-expression remain the core tenets of his artistry.  Known for his soulful and healing artistry, Anees first gained global recognition with his viral single “slip,” co-signed by Justin Bieber. His breakout hit “sun and moon” topped the Billboard Philippines charts for six weeks and amassed over 200 million streams, including a live performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Following his debut album summer camp, which garnered 250 million streams, Anees sold out both his U.S. “summer camp album tour” and his European “winter camp tour.”  Set to release in April 2025, Anees’s sophomore album, Homesick, marks a bold step forward in his career, blending genres with themes of identity and resilience. With over 500 million streams, 7.5 million followers, and support from industry icons, Anees remains deeply connected to his loyal fanbase. This April, he will debut Homesick on a 29-city tour, continuing to inspire and uplift audiences worldwide.

anees

Acclaimed indie band Lucius has been turning heads since the start thanks to their irrepressibly catchy songs, explosive harmonies, and bold aesthetic. Formed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the Los Angeles group got rolling with their 2013 debut album Wildewoman — featuring long-standing hits like “Two of Us on the Run”. Rolling Stone hailed the record for "an updated ’60s girl-group sound at once fresh and thrilling". Lucius shifted towards a folk rock sound with 2016’s Good Grief before taking a break from the studio to join Roger Waters on his Us + Them Tour in 2017-18. The GRAMMY-nominated band returned to the studio in 2022 with the dance-ready collection Second Nature, which features singles “Next to Normal”, one of NPR Music’s top songs of the year and “Dance Around It” the pulsing song with Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile.

Lucius

Knuckle Puck is an American rock band, formed in 2010 in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The group released several EPs, one of which, While I Stay Secluded, peaked at number 5 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. The band released a split EP with the UK band Neck Deep.

Knuckle Puck

For the past ten years, the seminal San Francisco band Deafheaven has been driven by evolution and innovation within themselves and their respective genres. With their forthcoming album Infinite Granite, available August 20th via Sargent House, they’ve taken another giant leap forward. With production from Justin Meldal-Johnsen, known for his stellar work with M83, Wolf Alice, Paramore, Metric, among others, Deafheaven embarks on a new chapter of defiant beauty. Across the album, vocalist George Clarke showcases a startling vocal range; falsettos, whispers, multi-part harmonies, and other adventurous vocal treatments, with his trademark black metal-inspired howls mostly absent. Guitarists Kerry McCoy and Shiv Mehra expand their sonic palette to include synth textures using them to enrich their astral guitar work rather than outright replace it. Drummer Daniel Tracy has always been a force to reckon with behind the kit, but where he used to floor audiences with his speed and stamina, he’s now free to broaden his approach and lay down authoritative drum patterns that together with bassist Christopher Johnson’s punchy bass lines anchor the band’s lofty arrangements. Ultimately, Infinite Granite is Deafheaven’s most goosebump-inducing album to date. Jack Shirley, who recorded all the previous Deafheaven albums, remained on board to engineer part of Infinite Granite at his Atomic Garden East studio in Oakland, CA with additional engineering and mixing coming from nine-time Grammy Award winner Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Beck)

Deafheaven

The music of Memphis May Fire is the sound of hope and compassion, delivered by a dedicated group of men striving for something greater than the world around them. Memphis May Fire is a clarion call to those who insist on bettering themselves, their loved ones and the conditions afflicting the world. It’s not about divisive politics, it’s not about polarizing debate – it’s about the transcendent power of love through heavy rock.

Memphis May Fire

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah celebrate the 20th anniversary of their landmark self-titled debut album througout 2025 with a worldwide tour performing the album in its entirety alongside other surprises, and an exclusive new reissue. A heady blend of leftfield pop and melodic, exuberant indie rock, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is unquestionably among the finest and most influential independent releases of the 2000s. The celebration officially gets underway with the premiere of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s original 2004 version of the fan favorite, “Heavy Metal”. The newly remixed and mastered track was recently discovered among the original project files and captures what Clap Your Hands Say Yeah founder and frontman Alec Ounsworth calls “a special moment in time – a young group of guys all piling into one hotel room to wake up and go to a real studio (!) to try to come up with something special just for the fun of it.” In addition to the digital anniversary release featuring the original version of “Heavy Metal,” a special deluxe reissue will arrive on limited edition vinyl LP in early 2025, released on CYHSY’s own label via Secretly Distribution, the defiantly independent home to over two decades of Alec Ounsworth’s music.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Larkin Poe, the dynamic sister duo known for their electrifying blend of Southern rock, blues, and Americana, emerges once again onto the musical landscape with their eagerly anticipated album, ‘Bloom’. Following their Grammy-winning success with ‘Blood Harmony’ in 2024, the duo has ventured deeper into their musical journey, crafting a collection of songs that resonate with introspection, authenticity, and a profound connection to their roots in American music. The album "Bloom" marks a significant evolution in Larkin Poe's creative journey. All the songs were born from collaborations between Megan, Rebecca, and co-producer Tyler Bryant, reflecting a synergy that extends beyond mere musical partnership. As Rebecca observes, "'Bloom' is about finding oneself amidst the noise of the world, about wholeheartedly embracing the flaws and idiosyncrasies that make us real." This theme of self-acceptance is central to the album's narrative: celebrating individuality against a backdrop of contemporary blues and rock influences. Reflecting on the album’s thematic core, Megan explains, “In one way or another, pretty much all of the songs on this album are about finding yourself, knowing yourself, and separating the truth of who you are from societal expectations.” This sentiment permeates through the first song, “Mockingbird”, a contemplative piece on personal growth and staying true to oneself amidst life’s twists and turns. Rebecca adds, “‘Mockingbird’ is a tender reflection on the perpetual journey of becoming. When viewed through a reductive lens, the inevitable countless missteps I’ve taken in my life can feel disheartening — but looking too long in the rearview can be harmful to one’s future. Choosing to find the hidden meaning in the pitstops and messy detours that life sometimes demands has felt like a very important perspective shift.” Known for their sincere songwriting, the Lovell sisters place a spotlight on storytelling with ‘Bloom’. Each track unfolds like a chapter, with lyrics that wind deeper and deeper towards the heart of Larkin Poe. Rebecca reflects, “Songwriting takes center stage with this record; the lyrics hit home in a real way.” Their influences from ‘70s Southern rock are unmistakable, yet woven into a modern context that feels simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. The album’s lead single, “Bluephoria”, captures the essence of Larkin Poe’s genre-bending exploration. Rebecca describes, "It's a rock ’n’ roll rumination on the duality of the human experience, where suffering and joy intertwine to create meaning." With lyrics inspired by blues legend Furry Lewis, the track exemplifies their ability to blend personal narratives with universal themes; while the riff-heavy, psychedelic-flavored musical underpinnings make it primed for take off into the stratosphere on the live stage. Another standout track, “If God Is A Woman”, melds lush sonic landscapes with lyrics that ground listeners in contemporary questions through the blues-soaked sounds of the Mississippi hill country; while the gritty rock anthem and punk energy of “Pearls” addresses the challenges of maintaining authenticity in a digital age where public personas are under constant scrutiny. It’s a testament to Larkin Poe’s willingness to confront modern realities while staying true to their musical heritage. Closing the album is “Bloom Again”, a poignant love song in the style of the Everly Brothers, showcasing the sisters’ harmonies in a deeply personal light. Megan fondly recalls, “One of our friends and heroes, Mike Campbell suggested we write a song following in the footsteps of Phil and Don Everly to showcase our sister harmonies; we took his counsel to heart, and ‘Bloom Again’ was born.” It’s a fitting finale that leaves listeners with a sense of catharsis and a desire for more. With their distinctive blend of poetic lyricism, masterful instrumentation, and soulful harmonies ‘Bloom’ not only cements Larkin Poe’s status as musical innovators, but also reaffirms their commitment to crafting meaningful, soul-stirring music. As modern torchbearers of American roots music, the Lovell sisters continue their journey of self-discovery and celebration of the authentic self. With this album, Larkin Poe invites us to bloom alongside them, embracing the beauty of growth and the richness of their American, musical heritage.

Larkin Poe

Maribou State are Chris Davids and Liam Ivory, the UK duo giving electronic music a much-needed shot of soul. Since 2011, they’ve established themselves as major players on the global dance music circuit, melding a genre-fluid range of influences into a distinctly organic sound, redefining downtempo electronica for a new generation. They’ve become a hugely acclaimed live act who’ve performed roadblock shows from Glastonbury to the Sydney Opera House, as well as back-to-back sold-out UK, EU and North American tours. Over three albums – including a new, forthcoming release – Maribou State have honed a delicate balance of intricacy, intimacy and electronic expansiveness. Their vast sonic universe pulls on UK club music, vintage soul and evocative samples to create something completely unique. Their 2015 debut, Portraits, was written and recorded in the shed at the bottom of Liam’s parents’ garden in leafy Hertfordshire, just outside of London, where the duo both grew up. Building on Portrait’s success, Maribou State relocated to the UK capital but looked further afield for inspiration: 2018’s Kingdom of Colour wove together a sonic collage of ideas and field recordings from their travels across India, Australia, Morocco, America and beyond. Lead single ‘Feel Good’, a collaboration with Texan trio Khruangbin, was a runaway success, while the album itself was released to widespread acclaim. It led dance music bible Mixmag to crown Maribou State one of their artists of the year. The duo have always stayed true to their club roots: they started DJing together in the mid-2000s and pay homage to the lineage of UK dance music throughout their productions, such as the much-loved single ‘Turnmills’, named for the legendary former London club. They followed it with 2019’s Kingdoms In Colour Remixed, featuring reworkings from the likes of HAAi, Maceo Plex and DJ Tennis and, in 2020, an instalment of Fabric’s esteemed Fabric Presents series. The compilation evidenced their wide-reaching music tastes and linked soul, disco and bumpier house grooves with UK jazz and even neo-classical. Maribou State’s live show has simultaneously evolved to the next level, where they have become must-see headliners. Their band has come to its fullest realisation on their new and third album, Hallucinating Love. It’s a beacon of hopefulness after a turbulent past few years both personally and professionally, where Chris has been coming to terms with a major brain condition, bringing the duo closer together than ever before. The hotly-anticipated release brings together a host of impressive talents, including vocalists Holly Walker and Andreya Triana, and incredibly talented producer Jack Sibley, for a celebration of community, togetherness and triumphing against the odds. Hallucinating Love is preceded by two exceptional singles, and soothing balms for tempestuous times. ‘Blackoak’ typifies Maribou State’s earthy blend of folk, epic strings, elastic funk bass and earworm vocal hooks, plus ‘Otherside’ which features long-term collaborator and vocalist Holly Walker. It’s a complex tapestry of sound, but one that always brings heart and soul to the forefront.

Maribou State

Although the name Napalm Death has existed since 1981, as the band’s first line-up plundered the post- and anarcho-punk scenes for inspiration, it was 1987’s seminal Scum album that would ensure their place in the grand pantheon of heaviness. A visceral dismantling of conventions, it effectively kick-started the entire Grindcore scene, gaining Napalm Death something approaching household name status for their insane speeds, animalistic screams and uncompromising political stance. From that moment, the band became synonymous with both proudly-held ethical principles and the relentless pursuit of new ways to terrorise people with riffs and noise. By the early ‘90s, Napalm Death had coalesced around a steady line-up of vocalist Barney Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, drummer Danny Herrera and guitarists Mitch Harris and Jesse Pintado. Renowned for both unrelenting tour schedules and a steady stream of consistently well-received albums, they have powered forward ever since, weathering transient trends, media indifference and industry skulduggery along the way. Despite the sad passing of Pintado in 2006, the 21st century has seen Napalm Death continue to refine and redefine their still epoch-wrecking sound, with instant classic albums like Smear Campaign (2006) and Utilitarian (2012) adding further flesh to the bones of this ongoing legend. While many veteran bands are content to repeat themselves or to wallow in nostalgia, these noise-hungry stalwarts seem to have gained fresh impetus and momentum in recent times, as showcased on 2015’s Apex Predator – Easy Meat, and its universally acclaimed and truly mind-bending Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism (2020). The creation of the latter masterpiece clearly ranks as one of the most fertile periods in Napalm Death history, as the band are now to unleash a brand new 30-minute mini-album, Resentment is Always Seismic - a final throw of Throes. Boasting some of the band’s most experimental material yet, alongside the expected bursts of bone-shattering extremity, the new release continues Napalm Death’s devotion to a defiantly underground punk rock ethos. “It was all recorded during the sessions for the last album, but as you know, we always record a shitload of stuff!” says Barney Greenway. “We purposely said, right, we’re going to put a mini-album out for a change! Being from the school of hoary old punk rockers, we like to do these stripped down releases. We recorded enough that we still had a lot of bonus tracks for the original album release, and we had all this extra stuff left over!” Continuing the fearless exploration of their legendary sound’s outer limits, Resentment is Always Seismic… is full of jaw-dropping moments where heaviness and insanity collide. From the crushing, ultra-distorted grooves of opener Narcissus and the sluggish, Swans-saluting oppression of Resentment Always Simmers, to the visceral rage attack of By Proxy and blistering covers of Bad Brains’ Don’t Need It and industrial noise rock icons SLAB!’s pummelling People Pie, Napalm Death’s music has never sounded more vital or unique. Nowhere is that more evident than on the new mini-album’s closing title track, wherein bassist Shane Embury morphs into his Dark Sky Burial alter-ego for a synapse-torching remix for the ages. “These songs are pretty much an extension of the last album, but there’s a lot of crazy stuff on there and we really went for it,” Barney concludes. “With the title track, Shane punted the idea of doing a remix, and I thought yeah, why not? We’ve always shared a love of things like Coil, and all that dark, soundscape stuff, so I was quite happy for him to do that. Him and Russ [Russell, producer] built the track, with all kinds of inanimate objects being thrown around in very unsavoury ways! [Laughs] It turned out really fucking good.”

Napalm Death & Melvins

Legendary musician Bob Mould announces his “Distortion and Blue Hearts!” tour starting September 16, 2021, in Boston at Paradise. The tour is in two parts. For the first three weeks, Bob will be joined by Jason Narducy on bass and drummer Jon Wurster. Beginning October 15 in Bloomington, IL, Mould will perform “Solo Distortion” electric shows (full run of dates and locations below).

Bob Mould

People have been arguing about punk rock since the big bang that created that high decibel universe. The Damned were at the heart of that revolution and have returned like resurrected vampires to take back the(ir) punk rock crown. Few bands have managed to maintain their manic muse, few bands have been key catalysts to a musical genre, few bands have managed to improve like fine old wines and few have managed to do it with such fantastic chaos, captivating style and shape shifting music as The Damned. Their mix of theatrics and raw power combine to create their vaudeville immaculate and gothic horror shivers, dark music hall anthems and a perfect punk rock. In the rules of rock ’n’ roll most bands fade away but then the Damned were never playing by the rules. One of the originals who sparked the punk rock riot doesn’t mean they had to stay there. Their trip has been long and thrillingly strange and ‘Darkadelic’ is a late period triumph that entwines their core obsessions of garage/psyche/punk rock old black and white Universal horror film soundtracks and even moments of sweet jazz which they sieve with a brooding and enthralling melody. This is a tasteful aural experience with exquisite guitar playing delivered with a breath taking virtuosity but never loses its inventive punk rock edge. It feels they have been waiting for decades to deal this hand that sees them surpass their early 80s classics such as Machine Gun Etiquette, Black Album and Strawberries whilst nodding at what was loved on all those classic albums. From their 1976 formation to the new album this has been a wild creative trip. Playing by their own rules, The Damned were the first punk band to release a single in Nov 1976, the first punk band to release an album and six months later they were the first punk band to release a second album, they were the first punk band to tour America and then the first punk band to split up. They did this all by the autumn of 1977 before most people had cut their hair and even woken up to punk rock. The Damned were then the first punk band to reform and came back with all guns blazing with their third album, 1979’s Machine Gun Etiquette, and then lurch through the years with their powder keg music, sartorial style, innovative takes on psyche and goth and even a brush with pop stardom in their grandiose pop goth phase of the late eighties. For a form of music that was meant to be of the moment and flash in the pan, punk has become a much loved historical epoch and it’s perfect that one of the form’s key originators and one of the most prestigious bands coming out of the 70s scene are the only true survivors and are still, somehow, at the top of their dark game. Few classic bands still have the inspiration left to make albums and few make albums as good as the aptly named Darkadelic. 2018’s Evil Spirits finally established the band in the top ten of the album charts giving the band the confidence to make an even more guitar driven album that celebrates their garage psych influences that have always been a part of all their best work. Taking advantage of the enforced down time of the pandemic they have been in creative overdrive in the past year either working remotely or in Thomas Mitchener’s studio just outside Watford. The Damned may have been the punk pioneers but their muse has always been multi dimensional. From their first rehearsal onwards the band were beyond the cliche. They were the only “classic” punk rock band to combine gothic sounds and horror aesthetic with punk music, shaping a strong identity of their own. They had a baritone crooning vocalist instead of a shouter. They also had great songs and an intense manic energy plus a wild abandon of ideas. The new album brings all these threads together into a perfect whole. Their unlikely strange brew of psychedelia, garage rock, punk rock with a gothic twist has never sounded so well realised. It’s this seamless combination of all the dark and fascinating forms of music that is the key to the band, a combination that reflects the oddly diverse core members of the group. You could not get a more unlikely combination of characters into one room if you tried. After four decades the two leading members of the original line up are as chalk and cheese as ever. The vampiric stylish sex god singer David Vanian is still dealing that 24 carat gold croon that pioneered Goth and gives the band a unique dark flavour. The singer is ageless as the mad, bad and dangerous to know Byronic vampire and is still immersed in the attendant B movie culture that he is so imbued with. His partner in crime is the manic songwriter and guitarist/bass player Captain Sensible whose wild stage personae, hilariously perfect monicker and off the cuff quips sometimes masks his brilliant guitar playing and timeless knack for melody and a creative sensitivity that is peaking on the album. It’s this fantastically phantasmagoric bizarre core to the band that is key to their genius. They are the sartorial and stylistic creative tension that is the representation of the band’s music. Like all the great bands, the Damned were always a combustible creative arms race from the start. They were formed by the foresight and genius of Brian James who was famously described by The Clash’s Mick Jones as having the vision for punk a year before anyone else. Brian also had a fist full of anthems to back his perception up with. Their classic November 1976 New Rose debut single was released a month before the Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’ putting a spiky cat amongst the pop pigeons. The Damned should have been huge. They had the tunes, the style, the moment and the momentum. They hit the road with Trex, threw up all over the music press and were a thrilling surge of lunatic energy but they were hamstrung by being on an indie label and fell apart as other punk bands were catapulted into the mainstream by the majors. Their influence from that period though hangs over the worldwide punk scene. The 1977 debut album with its short sharp shocks of songs was a template for many teenage youth working out what punk was and then its insane speed and wild energy was key to American hardcore and beyond. The album’s darker moments and shivering aesthetic were riders on the storm harbingers to goth and death rock. As the years rolled by The Damned have been acknowledged as one of the fundamentals of alternative rock history and one of the most influential groups of all time. They have been acclaimed by a diverse selection of bands that includes Guns N´Roses, who covered New Rose on Spaghetti Incident, The Foo Fighters, Depeche Mode, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Green Day, The Offspring… That would have been enough for any band but the Damned have remained restless and have survived and thrived. Evil Spirits showed there was still plenty of creativity in the tank and Darkaledic takes this up several notches. Where once they were almost feared for their wreckless and wild abandon the Damned now are respected for their talent and influence and Darkadelic is the perfect document of this sea change.

The Damned

George Clanton doesn’t just produce gleaming electronic pop, he produces nostalgia too. The Los Angeles artist’s process involves tweaking synthesizer presets, but beyond searching for the right melodies and textures, he’s hoping to come upon a sound that strikes a spiritual chord. “I’m looking for something that triggers a memory or an emotion,” he says. His lyrics are direct transmissions from his soul: raw, often off-the-cuff, evocative. When you pair those words with the gauzy textures Clanton’s become known for, his music feels like a dreamy filter you can put over your own memories. Every moment feels a little more colorful, a little more comforting.

George Clanton

For every ticket sold, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory will donate $1 to A New Way of Life Reentry Project for their work to advance multi-dimensional solutions to the effects of incarceration.

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

Elderbrook has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting the Child Mind Institute's work advancing the science of the developing brain and supporting children when and where they need it most; and YoungMinds and their work making sure all young people get the mental health support they need. www.plus1.org

Elderbrook

Darold D. Brown Ferguson Jr., known by his stage name, A$AP FERG is an American artist from Harlem, New York most known for his rapping and songwriting abilities. Ferg was born on October 20, 1988, in Harlem, NY to Trinidadian parents. His father, Darold Ferguson, owned a Harlem boutique and printed shirts and designed logos for record labels; including designing the Bad Boy records logo. Before starting his music career, A$AP Ferg was heavily into Art and Design. Inspired by his father, who died of kidney failure, he ended up studying fashion and fine arts at the High School of Art & Design. While in school, Ferg began launching his ”Devoni Clothing", through which he designed and distributed high-end belts, which had been worn by Chris Brown and Swizz Beats before his rap fame.

FERG

Made up of three different but complementary voices, country band Restless Road is “one of the most intriguing and exciting acts of the year” (Wide Open Country). Praised by People, Taste of Country, Billboard, and more, the trio’s powerhouse harmonies and soul-baring lyrics have accumulated over 227 million cumulative career streams and amassed a following of over 4 million on their social media platforms. As NBC’s Today

Restless Road

Since their 2019 induction, Magnolia Park have explored a spectrum of sounds and influences throughout 2 full length albums, a mixtape, 4 EP’s and a slew of singles. Their latest record, Halloween Mixtape II saw them expand on the hardened edge underlying their trademark catchy hooks and memorable melodies, with songs like “Animal”, an industrial-meets-nu-metal blast, or “Do Or Die”, the energizing genre-bending track that helped pushed their sound into heavier territories. Whether the band are singing about the dangers of addiction over an infectious melody, lamenting the demise of a relationship, or illuminating the way depression can creep into difficult situations, it’s in a way that’s universally relatable and understood. Just one of many reasons why idobi has referred to them as “A group that oozes the talent and skill of a mainstay act.” Initially building momentum independently through their creative use of social media, Magnolia Park has connected with a core audience that now reaches over 1 Million followers and over 77 Million views on Tik-Tok. After breaking through with their debut album Baku’s Revenge in 2022, Ones To Watch made the case that “proved that they are more than a Tik-Tok band”; a confident statement paralleled by an extreme spike in listeners. Since the release of their second full length, Halloween Mixtape II last October, on Spotify alone they have grown to 1 Million monthly listeners with a total of 185 Million catalog streams to date. After sharing stages with bands like Mayday Parade, Sum 41, A Day To Remember and Blink 182, playing festivals like When We Were Young and Reading & Leeds, and headlining a tour with support from TX2 and poptropicaslutz!, Magnolia Park are back on the road again this summer! Co-headlining the idobi Radio Summer School Tour alongside Stand Atlantic, The Home Team and Scene Queen, the tour kicked off on July 10 in Cleveland, OH and wraps up on August 17 in Anaheim, CA.

Magnolia Park

Since going viral with their LA Public Library performance of their song “Racist, Sexist, Boy” the world has watched The Linda Lindas scream about injustice, sing about growing up and exhibit the kind of altruism that is so meaningful to the punk scene. While their evolution as writers, performers and studio geeks is clear on No Obligation, their ethos remain steadfast. The band has released three great album cuts so far, the anxiety filled ”Too Many Things,” the scorcher “Revolution / Resolution,” and the album’s addictive lead single “All In My Head”. With all four musicians each contributing to the writing and lead-singing, the songs are as varied and dynamic as the girls themselves, however the listener always senses the underpinning of both their shared world-view and their bond. No Obligation, the second full-length album (released on October 11 via Epitaph Records) from The Linda Lindas further advances their unironic, joyful, and exciting trajectory of mashing up L.A. punk with post punk, garage rock, power pop, new wave and rock en español. Written and recorded by the band during spring breaks, winter breaks, and long weekends (Lucia de la Garza and bassist Eloise Wong are still in high school, drummer Mila de la Garza just finished middle school, and Bela Salazar is patiently waiting for them to get done with it already), the new album has been in the works for the last two years whenever they weren’t at school or touring. The Linda Lindas most recently shared “No Obligation” - the ferocious title track. “I don’t got no obligation,” roars Eloise Wong in the album’s opening song - “just brush off all expectation.” From the first moment of their sophomore release, it is clear that The Linda Lindas are here to defy expectations and challenge the norms.

The Linda Lindas

What’s It Like Over There?, the brilliant third album by Circa Waves, is the record that nearly never was. Frontman Kieran Shudall was struggling for inspiration when he stumbled upon a notebook filled with scribblings in the band’s lock-up, discovering page after page of lyrical ideas and short story sketches that he’d written in a half-drunk, half-sleep deprived state whilst the band were touring across America on the previous autumn. It gave Shudall the shot in the arm he needed to get his band’s third album underway. The fuse was lit, and the disconnect of time and distance that Shudall felt as he scanned through the notebook, reading his own work whilst feeling like it was written by another person, would become the idea out of which What’s It Like Over There? would grow. It’s a record that fuses the visceral thrill of rock music with a slick pop sound, its themes of modern ennui, emotional fragility and all the inside-outs and upside-downs of relationships making it a record that could only have been made now.

Circa Waves and Friday Pilots Club Tour

Phil Elverum, b. 1978 I grew up five miles into the woods outside the island town of Anacortes, Washington during the 80's and 90's in a post-hippie echo that normalized saying "hello" out loud to the nearby mountains, waters and animals. As a teenager, entering the world of music and creation through the door that punk tore open, I finally found my people in Olympia. I lived there for 5 years and released records as the Microphones with the K label. Now I make Mount Eerie records, since 2003, and release them myself on a fake record label, stubbornly still DIY to the bone. I have a devotion to this life of creativity and subversion that has never wavered. These songs and works dig down into the bedrock of this place and try to bring forth a fresh exhale, a big picture glimpse, small beneath the sky, clear water trickling.

Mount Eerie

After two studio albums and nearly seven years as a band, Free Throw is making a significant change to their identity. The group — who has sung openly of personal struggles related to substance abuse and body image — is holding nothing back on What’s Past is Prologue, their third full length record, due out March 29, 2019 on Triple Crown Records.

Past releases may have provided small glimpses into Free Throw’s history as a band and personal lives outside of music, but What’s Past is Prologue is the group at their most forthcoming. The 12 tracks contained on the album detail the continuing mental health struggles of lead singer Cory Castro, and serve as a complete story of what happens when you decide that everything in your life needs to change.

Free Throw

A wise wizard once said: “when in doubt, always follow your nose.” The last album from Penny and Sparrow, Olly Olly, was a work of revelation and liberation. A search for and an embrace of the self. I imagine they were left with a headscratcher of a question: well, shit. Where do you go from there? Fortunately, they listened to the wizard and followed their noses backwards to find their way forward. Aiming to strip away pretense and invite experimentation, they commandeered a garden shed from a friend and retrofitted it to make a twenty-track album that is vast, weird, and wholly unexpected. If Lefty is anything, it is the journal of Penny and Sparrow’s inner child. Dog-eared, lock busted open. On its pages the sketches of dreams, nightmares, erotica, and literary fan fiction graffiti the margins of poetry, elegies, and love letters in the wild colors of saxophone blue, electronic pink, and blood harmony red. Beautifully varied and richly rendered, it is an album that wanders from theme to theme, style to style, exultation to tragedy. Yet it is never lost. If anything, it is at play. United by its intimate vocals and aching harmonies, its acoustic laments trickle into ethereal pop only to surge into whimsical ballads and crest into grand hooligan anthems that sway gently down to familiar shores where melancholic ballads tell of love lost, found, forgotten, and remembered. Andy and Kyle have written some albums in blood. Others they’ve whispered to the sea. This one they danced in the sky with smiles on their faces. Lefty feels like not just a celebration of their journey beyond the bounds of their traditional genre, but as if they have rediscovered the joy in music by honoring the sounds that inspired two boys growing up in Texas to one day make the damn stuff themselves. - Pierce Brown, author and friend

Penny and Sparrow

Tamino has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to Anera and their work providing humanitarian assistance and sustainable development to advance the well-being of refugees and other vulnerable communities in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

Tamino

These days, every artist’s album needs to have a story. The music can’t speak for itself.  But after 22 records, why can’t Ani DiFranco’s work speak for itself? Yes, her forthcoming album is shaped by stories — ones about reproductive freedom, the double-edged sword of the pandemic, identity and ever-evolving belief systems that have shaped each of its 11 songs. There are songs that were written in 2011 and in 2022; some for musicals, others for children’s books. The album isn’t linear, but it is inherently teeming with DiFranco’s spirit.  It was paramount to the folk-feminist hero that listeners not be saddled with preconceived notions while diving into her 23rd album Unprecedented Sh!t. “I believe there is a rhyme and a reason as to why these songs have come together in this way now and I want people to experience this album as a journey, a piece of art, without being influenced by a cacophony of surrounding narratives.” While many of DiFranco’s albums were made more insularly, she’s opened herself up to collaboration in recent years. For 21 of DiFranco’s 22 albums, she opted to self-produce. With Unprecedented Sh!t, she wanted to try working with a producer and tapped BJ Burton, who produced one of her favorite albums, Bon Iver’s 22, A Million. With Burton’s help, largely from afar, they created soundscapes often using only DiFranco’s voice and guitar as the raw materials and manipulating them with effects and filters. “I really wanted to lean into the power of machines in a way that I never have before, so BJ and I communicating through many layers of them in order to collaborate, seemed apropos. This record was made almost entirely by me and BJ alone, bouncing things back and forth.” The title Unprecedented Sh!t is not only representative of how much of a sonic departure the 11-track album is from Ani’s other work, but also a political and social commentary on the current state of the world. “We find ourselves in unprecedented times in many ways, faced with unprecedented challenges. So, our responses to them and our discourse around them, need to rise to that level.” The lead single of Unprecedented Sh!t, “Baby Roe” — an anxious folk number that explodes into an industrial-tinged crescendo — embodies that ethos. Inspired by Joshua Prager’s literary masterpiece The Family Roe: An American Story which digs into the history of how abortion became a strategic tool for the right to gain power, “Baby Roe” widens the lens with which abortion rights are viewed to include an existential awareness of non-duality. Of the song, DiFranco says, “In Prager’s book we meet all the characters involved in Roe V. Wade, including the adult child of Norma McCorvey (aka Jane Roe), born and adopted-off in the course of her mother’s quest for the right to a legal abortion. Baby Roe, unaware of her role in history until she was an adult, remains, nonetheless, in support of a woman’s right to choose. As I would be. Life is much longer than the ego would have us believe. It transcends the body, any individual body, and is infinite in fact. Consciousness need not be born into any specific body at any specific time to be manifesting to its fullest. This is one of the ego’s many illusions.” The crushing weight of patriarchal systems on the female psyche and the complicity of women in their own oppression are focal points of the psych-folk number “You Forgot to Speak.” “Between first sleep and second sleep / I stare into the dark / and I can feel there are two of me / so I put um both on the ark,” Di Franco sings with a dreamy lilt. “New Bible” is a rallying cry for a new world order centered around DiFranco’s gravelly vocals: “I think we should have a new bible / that just says: mother earth /and I think men should stand down when women give birth.” On “Virus,” a symphony of sensual jazz, hand-drumming and Nine Inch Nails-style guitar drops, which samples her 1995 classic “32 Flavors,” DiFranco navigates the paradoxical nature of the pandemic, which brought both healing and suffering. “I was given permission to stay home with my family, so it was an incredible gift on that level. It was also a gift to the planet, for our species to shut up and sit down for a minute. Of course, it was also an incredible struggle for humans, full of pain and suffering.” “Spinning Room” visits the related subject of an earth besieged by human pollution and exploitation and seems to come from the voice of nature and the voice of the individual at the same time. Within the world of the song, these voices are presented as one and the same, inseparable. Against a backdrop of finger-picked guitar, “More or Less Free” explores the dynamic of a friendship with someone who is serving life in prison and how they exist throughout the world. “I never thought that I was special / been that way since we were kids / there’s a million people that are like me / in this world, stuck doin bids.” Inspired by Ed Yong’s tome about perception An Immense World, DiFranco contemplates the lives her 1960s army boots have lived and explores the concept of subjective realities in “Boots of a Soldier.” “Wherever these boots have been, wherever they walked, now they're on my feet and they're walking my life. If only I could know the story these boots could tell! It boggles the mind, the radically different umwelts playing out around us at any given moment. This animal, this tree, this guitar I am holding, these boots. The multiplicity of perspectives and stories are unfathomable.” What is at the heart of the album is its final track, “The Knowing,” a tender, existential lullaby that inspired DiFranco’s eponymous 2023 children's book and explores and affirms the importance of selfhood while conveying how the concept can be limiting. In a lot of ways, DiFranco believes if there’s an overarching message to come from her record, it’s in this song; the idea that we can harness the power and value of identity without being limited to it. Identity is a tool perhaps, for understanding and affirming diversity, but beyond that, it is an illusion, and our true nature exists on a level wholly more primary than any of the stories we tell. DiFranco has been known as a feminist icon and pioneer of DIY for nearly 35 years. Since founding her record label Righteous Babe Records in 1990, she has released 22 albums, traversing folk, punk, hip-hop, soul and electronic genres and addressing a range of autobiographical, political and social issues. While her first four albums Ani DiFranco (1990), Not So Soft (1991), and Imperfectly (1992), Puddle Dive (1993), harnessed a more raw sound, Out Of Range (1994), Not A Pretty Girl (1995) and Dilate (1996) were more rooted in DiFranco’s folk ethos. She released eight more albums over the next 10 years, earning a Grammy Award for her 2003 album Evolve and numerous nominations. Her most recent albums include 2008’s Red Letter Year and 2017’s Binary. Most recently, fans have been thrilled by 2021’s Revolutionary Love and the 25th Anniversary Edition reissues of both her iconic 1997 live album Living In Clip and 1998’s Little Plastic Castle, via Righteous Babe Records in 2023.  DiFranco is also a poet, author and Broadway performer. She released a collection of poems and paintings titled Verses in 2007. Her memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream was a New York Times Top 10 best seller in 2019, and her children’s books The Knowing and Show Up and Vote are out now. DiFranco also recently completed a 5-month run on Broadway as ‘Persephone’ in the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, Hadestown.

Ani DiFranco

In an era currently saddled neck-deep in genre-dictated complacency, it’s often hard for discriminating music fans to find bands imbued with a sense of originality. The gentlemen behind Bear Vs Shark (BVS) – one of Equal Vision’s most dizzyingly talented and diverse outfits – feel the exact same way. After all, these Michigan natives are, above everything, music fans themselves, which seems like something of an oddity when the majority of modern musical success is predominantly based upon purely financial and corporate themed goals. BVS, however, has much more refreshing intentions. According to amiable frontman Marc Paffi, “We want our records and shows to be as vibrant and exciting for us as they might be for our fans. We’re all fans of older music and take influence from a lot of the stuff we grew up listening to. I think that helps us have a unique slant on things, especially during a time when so much music seems to be mass-produced.” With originality as a template, BVS took its layered, grooving cabin-fever creations into producer Matt Ellard’s (Motorhead, Morphine, Converge) studio to put together Terrorhawk—the group’s most accomplished record to date. Building on the Fugazi meets Motown rhythms and grooves associated with the group’s debut LP (Right Now, You’re in the Best of Hands…), Terrorhawk contains fifteen tracks of a weathered and harrowing mixture of post-hardcore and rollicking rock fused tight with gut-wrenching soul, which further defines BVS as a group of individuals that is greater than the sum of its parts. While the sound on the new record will be fairly familiar to BVS’s ever-increasing devoted fan base, Terrorhawk is an amalgam of the group’s collective musical passions and obsessions–ranging from Black Sabbath to The Commodores. “We feel that Terrorhawk is a diverse musical experience and the whole album should be viewed as a single entity, as opposed to having a string of singles,” guitarist/bassist John Gaviglio insists. “We still have the high energy ethic that our first record had, but we’ve tried to change up the tempos a bit; we wanted to explore new sounds and moods in our musicianship. We never really try to go for a certain sound. I think the mood dictates the songs for us as opposed to us trying to dictate the mood.” But experimentation and inspiration aren’t the only things that make this five-piece so unique. Case in point: how many other bands would have the gumption to spend two weeks in a shanty located within the confines of the upper peninsula of Michigan to focus on the writing of a record? “We wrote 60 percent our new album (Terrorhawk) in a cabin with four-wheelers and crossbows,” Paffi fondly remembers. “This is honestly one of the most important components of the album because we really took this time alone with each other to put all of our influences in the songs. I think it’s an honest document that we really put our hearts into.” To complement the raw emotional honesty of BVS’s music and lyrics, the artwork of Paffi – as equally dedicated artist and painter as he is a musician – once again graces the layout throughout the entirety of the package of the new album. Although most modern groups tend to go for computer graphics and glossy photos, BVS prefers to utilize Paffi’s unique take on the world in an effort to further develop the overall one-of-a-kind nature of the band. “I’ve been a painter longer than I’ve been involved in music,” Paffi shares. “I’m always sketching pictures and paintings during the writing of our records, so we just compile all my pictures from that period and pick some to use for our artwork. It’s another outlet for me to explore.” Speaking of outlets, BVS just happens to have one of the most rigorous touring schedules known to man. The band is surely no stranger to the road with numerous trips up and down the interstates with a variety of diverse artists, not to mention wowing folks at select Warped dates, Krazy Fest, SkateSurf and SXSW. While BVS’s consistent touring ethic goes without saying, what really sets the group’s live show apart is its intense and cathartic let-it-all-out ability. Many fans, in fact, were made converts strictly because of the band’s kinetic live shows, where one is bound to see BVS spilling it all out every single night. In fact, Paffi has even been known to take his act right on down to the floor and in the audience’s face. “I guess this just reflects my background in growing up and seeing bands that really put something extra at shows,” Paffi states. “In a way, I’m surprised that people do sometimes seem shocked at our laying it all out there. It just seems natural to us.” But then again, what seems status quo for these musical mavericks is just another aspect that sets BVS apart from its contemporaries. While BVS may not play the typical sounds that the mainstream is currently pushing, one cannot deny the passion that sweats through the speakers either via the experience of a recording or bearing witness to one of the unit’s chaotic and intimate live sets. As Gaviglio concludes, “We want to have people like our band but we’re not trying to reach out to a certain demographic. We are just trying to be ourselves, while having as much fun as possible.”

Bear Vs Shark

Founded in Paris by three musicians with a passion for electronic music and vintage jazz, Caravan Palace has grown over the past 15 years from a local French sensation to an international powerhouse, all while staying true to their inventive sound and free-spirited approach. Blending upbeat rhythms with vintage jazz, swing, and vibrant live instrumentation, they’ve crafted a style that transcends trends and blurs musical boundaries, appealing to ballroom dancers, music lovers, gamers, and animation fans drawn in by their bold visuals and music videos. They’ve carved out their own lane, where everyone’s invited to join the party. Their music has become a hit on social platforms, but Caravan Palace’s rise has been steady and organic, fueled by fans who can’t get enough of their catchy songs. From their debut album to the RIAA Platinum-certified hit “Lone Digger,” their music has reached audiences worldwide, amassing billions of streams without ever seeking the spotlight. The band remains dedicated to creating music and performing it live, keeping their sound experimental yet accessible. In spring 2025, Caravan Palace will kick off an exciting North American tour, bringing their dynamic live performances to cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Known for their exhilarating shows packed with brass, strings, and irresistible beats, this tour promises to be a celebration of music and dance like no other.

Caravan Palace

Nettspend is an American rapper and songwriter from Richmond, Virginia. He is also an affiliate of the underground rap collectives Novagang[2] and 1c34. His music has been described as "post-post-rage" by The New York Times.
 He started making music in the fifth grade, growing up listening to Future, Michael Jackson, Lil Uzi Vert and Justin Bieber.   His song "Shine N Peace" was listed among The New York Times' best songs of 2023.

Nettspend

Intervals

The latest album from Neal Francis, Return To Zero, emerged from the kind of visionary fever dream that only the most masterful and inventive artists are capable of bringing to life. Amid a grueling tour schedule that found him playing nearly 400 shows from 2021 to 2024, the Chicago-based singer/songwriter/pianist immersed himself in creating a beautifully strange entangling of timeless rock & roll and ’70s-era dance music, merging supremely heavy guitar riffs with lush and pulsating grooves—all constructed sans digital programming, in keeping with his devotion to all things analog. Worlds away from the glitzy fantasia of archetypal disco, Return To Zero inhabits a far moodier atmosphere and ultimately makes for the most thrilling manifestation of Francis’ peerless musicality yet.

Neal Francis

While those in a Tokyo karaoke bar may not have realized it, they were witnesses to a life-altering experience for four-year-old Bishop Briggs. As she sang her first song in public, Bishop fell instantly in love with performing, and her auspicious debut served not only as an indelible touchpoint, but also the initial indicator of an unmistakable identity

Bishop Briggs

... is a band. But what is a band? A band, perhaps, can be thought of as a body, a corpus, in which physically discrete lifeforms comprise a chimera that shrieks with one voice. In this particular band, which is one of millions in the world today, four players selflessly merge, become musical, and emit rock ‘n’ roll that is familiar but new, warm but icy, melodic but Sphinx-like in its seductive and subtle riddles... essentially, The Hard Quartet has leveled, cultivated, and made lush an entirely new steppe in the ecosystem of guitar-bass-drums-voice agriculture.

The Hard Quartet

Stereophonics are one of the UK's most enduring and most loved bands with Kelly Jones continuing to cement his place amongst the great British songwriters. Stereophonics have developed a sound that is like few others. Their achievements are many. The band have now achieved 8x UK #1 albums, 12x UK top 10 albums, 11x UK top 10 singles including the UK #1 single 'Dakota,' sold over 10 million albums, 1.5 billion global streams and 5x BRIT award nominations with 1x BRIT award win. Their hits collection, 'Decade In The Sun,' sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK alone and certified 5x Platinum, while in 2022, on their last UK arena tour and Cardiff Stadium headline shows, they sold over 235,000 tickets

Stereophonics: Spring Tour 2025

Despite coming up in Australia, indie rock band, Last Dinosaurs would say they're an international enterprise – and they’ve got a track record to prove it. “Australians have a natural urge to explore,” remarks Lachlan Caskey, which might be why their energetic sound has resonated with fans all around the world. Together with his brother Sean Caskey and Michael Sloane, Last Dinosaurs make up the quintessential touring band, having played sold out headlining shows and festivals across UK, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Africa, and the Americas. The success of studio albums, Million Years, Wellness, and most recently, Yumeno Garden, have truly taken them around the world and back. In addition to headlining tours, the band has opened for international acts such as Foals, Matt & Kim, Los Valentinos and Foster the People, playing festivals including Splendour In the Grass, Laneway, Falls Festival, and Field Day to name a few. Despite coming so far already, Last Dinosaurs is only just getting started.

Last Dinosaurs

Morgan Wade

Through balancing even the most extreme dynamics, The Plot In You consistently overturn and upend expectations. On any given track, it might seem like they’re about to go one way, but the band will turn on a dime and shift course before the crowd can even catch a breath. This uncanny element of surprise has entrenched the gold-selling Ohio quartet—Landon Tewers [vocals], Josh Childress [guitar], Ethan Yoder [bass], and Michael Cooper [drums] — on the cutting edge of rock music. Whether it be threads of alternative, electronic, pop, or R&B, nothing is off limits, and everything is fair game for their creative process. That process has continued to morph. Following a series of fan-favorite releases, the band made major waves with DISPOSE [2018]. “FEEL NOTHING” surged on social media as a viral phenomenon, generating hundreds of millions of streams and picking up a gold certification in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The musicians only maintained this momentum with Swan Song in 2021. Hysteria rated it “9-out-of-10”. Simultaneously, they sold out shows coast-to-coast. During 2023, the band kickstarted another era with Vol. 1. “Divide” having generated 16 million Spotify streams and counting followed by “Left Behind”, exploding to the tune of 31 million Spotify streams with no signs of slowing down. Upon the arrival of “Forgotten”, Revolver praised it among the “6 Best New Songs Right Now.” The Plot In You's Vol. 2 EP is a powerful showcase of the band's evolution, blending raw emotion with polished musicality and stands as a testament to The Plot In You's growth and artistic maturity, captivating listeners with its intense yet introspective narratives with tracks “Closure”, “Don’t Look Away”, and “All That I Can Give” further solidifying their place as one of the genre's most compelling acts. Now with the impending arrival of their new EP, Vol. 3, the band is set to captivate fans once again. Featuring three compelling tracks, the lead single "Been Here Before" explores the emotional turbulence of relationships, weaving a narrative of enduring the highs and lows. "Spare Me" delves into the heavy burden of societal pressures and the palpable guilt that comes from feeling helpless in the face of overwhelming news. "Pretend" offers a raw look at the world's current state, channeling a sense of disillusionment and examining the disengagement of looking away from the tragedies that are happening daily. Vol. 3 promises to be a powerful addition to the band’s discography, reflecting their knack for tackling profound themes with sincerity and intensity

The Plot In You

“Richman is one of America’s most unique and dynamic songwriters…” - Nashville Scene “Richman didn’t need much else besides a beat to work his magic.” - New York Daily News “Buy tickets early. Buy tickets often. This is just good general life advice, but even more so when you’re talking about Jonathan Richman. Don’t get denied at the door, don’t leave things up to chance: You will regret it.” - Nashville Scene “Rhymes worthy of Ogden Nash.” - The New York Times “Richman has spent decades removing barriers between himself and his audience, cultivating an intimacy that is almost extinct in modern music.”- Nashville Scene “The music we're doing now works well in quiet places like theaters and performing art centers. We still don't use a program or a set list so we don't know what we'll do until we do it. Please do not expect old songs. Many singers my age do a retrospective; this show is not like that. It's mostly stuff made up in the last 3 and 4 years. Some of the songs presented might be in different languages; this is not to be esoteric or clever, it's because the different languages help me express different feelings sometimes. One last thing, my idea of a good show has nothing to do with applause. It's about if all the songs I sang that night were ones that I felt.” - Jonatha

Jonathan Richman

Palace are a band familiar with being tossed on the tides of life. Originally school friends in Dorset, singer Leo Wyndham, guitarist Rupert Turner and drummer Matt Hodges began playing together in 2012 (alongside early bassist Will Dorey) after fate had brought them all separately to London. Holing up in an artistic multi-band hub called The Arch in Tottenham, and inspired by an array of artists encompassing Nick Drake, Cocteau Twins, John Fahey, Neil Young, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, they conjured an enthralling maelstrom of sound and emotion – equal parts intricate alt- rock, dark blues, glacial melody, cosmic echo and exotic experiment - and became an almost instant streaming hit, garnering over a million plays for early EPs Lost In The Night and Chase The Light. Their debut album on Fiction records, So Long Forever (2016), trawled the wreckage of Wyndham’s shattered psyche following the death of a family member and the break-up of both his parents’ and his own relationships, and chimed with the times; the sumptuous “Live Well” reached 100 million streams alone. “It's been an amazing marker for our band,” Leo says. “It resonated with people in a very profound way.” 2019’s second album Life After took a more optimistic slant: embracing “the hopefulness within the idea of grief and life after, growing again” it drew Palace’s fanbase ever closer, particularly with seven-minute radio favourite “Heaven Up There”, a celestial ice storm of a song which held the whole record together and really landed with people thanks to its enveloping portrayal of loss and recovery. As Covid hit and the community at The Arch collapsed amid “a lot of politics and weird stuff”, Palace shifted HQ to a windowless space in Manor House and, after brushing up some demos for 2020’s well-received Someday, Somewhere EP, recorded their third album Shoals (2022) remotely over lockdown. Coloured with more electronic textures, Shoals saw Palace’s world darken again, confronting the fear, isolation, anxiety and self-analysis of the pandemic era and trying to map potential paths out of the woods. The record was fanfared with a series of singles (Gravity, Lover (Don’t Let Me Down), Fade and Where Sky Becomes Sea), and as Palace lay plans for their fourth album they decided to lean further into this more sporadic creative approach. “Re-recruiting the producer of their debut album, Adam Jaffery – now a friend of the band with whom they felt they had unfinished musical business – Palace booked regular recording sessions at Deptford’s Unwound Studios between October 2022 and September 2023. Ahead of each session they’d write five or six songs, with the aim of recording four, serving each song as they came and finding fresh excitement in the chemistry, trust, friendship and creative collaboration built into the process. “We were at a point where it was quite blank canvas,” says Leo, “we thought it'd be a nice approach to do it as we go along and see how it unfolds.” Thus, they hoped to capture a year in the life of Palace. Not realising how challenging and significant it would be. While writing the first batch of songs, Leo and his partner suffered a late miscarriage. The experience left the band’s chief song-writer bereft and adrift. “I felt a hollowness and emptiness for a long time when it happened,” he says. “There was just a thick layer of indescribable pain and confusion that we experienced for a long time, vibrating in the silences. It was like a bomb had gone off and the explosion had destroyed any sense of time and present journey. It became us for a long time.” Palace’s fourth album Ultrasound, then, naturally became an open diary of Leo’s year-long struggle from devastation to deliverance. “It was incredibly hard to comprehend what had happened, how to deal with it and how to move forward,” he says. “The album is the journey of that absolutely earth-shattering experience - starting with a loss, then a period of processing, and then finally acceptance, release and growth. And being in awe of women within that. Their dignity, strength and courage in how they can deal with these things that feel beyond a man.” Album opener “When Everything Was Lost”, chilling ozone rock with a hint of Bon Iver, captures what Leo calls “that initial bombshell feeling” when “suddenly everything’s on the floor…you’re all at sea for a long time, figuring out which way is up and which way is down.” “I dreamt it was different so much I was different,” he sings, hoping that “I’ll see you in another time” and bluntly concluding “everything is fucked”. “Son” is a more placid emotional swell, reflecting not only on Leo’s own loss but those of his friends too: “heaven will never be empty, strange the way the silence grows,” he muses. From there, Ultrasound picks its way through the wreckage, seeking light. The languid and lustrous pop-gaze trio of “Bleach”, “Nightmares & Ice Cream” and “Rabid Dog” explore the fractures that test a grief-stricken relationship and the difficulty of bearing witness to each other's pain. But while loss is an agonizingly solitary experience“ the hallucinogenic “Nightmares…” was based on a dream Leo had about seeing his partner in the afterlife: “It was a very beautiful abstract thing that we were together and there was this total acceptance of what had happened and it was euphoric,” he says. At the album’s core sit three songs of support and consolidation. “Make You Proud” is about wanting to be the best version of yourself out of love for another. . The soulful “Inside My Chest” concerns the realisation that there are quarters of the heart that are forever reserved for those we’ve lost and that it’s okay for a partner not to fill the space. And “Love Is A Precious Thing”, the album’s melodic centrepiece built on krautrock rhythms and vaporous high-wire guitar lines, paints love as something capricious - at times precious and fragile, at others “an oblivion” and “a vicious thing, blood in the biting wind” – but concludes “We could be anyone if you love me like I you”. “We had to rebuild ourselves independently,” Leo says. “And I think we’re stronger for it. The album’s final stretch marks a more reflective period. The pastoral, Gallic-tinged “Say The Words” acknowledges the societal pressures on women to raise families and their resilience in the struggles of motherhood. “A miscarriage in itself is a female experience and as a man, in a way, you're this onlooker, and that's what makes it so confusing,” Leo says. “I have this huge level of respect and understanding and awe for women for that strength.” “How Far We’ve Come” confronts aging, mortality and our shifting ambitions along the way. And while “All We’ve Ever Wanted” revisits the rawness of Leo’s anguish in its images of forest fires and quicksand, his desire for fatherhood still burning, the epic closing “Goodnight Farewell”, sonically corroded, beaten but standing proud, finds him finally attaining a sense of peace. “That’s about transitioning to a new phase,” he explains. “It’s saying goodbye to this life-changing year, saying goodbye to former versions of ourselves and what would have been a child as well. It's that transcendence of suddenly discovering that we can move forward into something that feels lighter and optimistic

Palace

Evoking the ocean and guided by the spirit of travel, The Hip Abduction pilot a sonic expedition past genre barriers. The band is the moniker for singer/songwriter David New who writes and produces music in between travel excursions and touring. Live shows morph into a versatile musical ensemble consisting of Matt Poynter (drums), Chris Powers (bass), Justino Walker (guitar, vocals, ngoni), and Cody Moore (keys, sax); each of whom have a mutual appreciation for African (Afrobeat/Soukous/Malian Blues), Reggae, and American (jam/electronic/indie) music. Since 2012, the band has played almost every noteworthy music festival in the country, has landed major TV/Movie syncs and Sirius Xm radio spins, have 750k mo listeners on Spotify, have provided direct cross country tour support for artists like Dirty Heads, Galactic, Slightly Stoopid, The Revivalists, and who’s highly energized live show have landed the 5-piece a sizable fanbase across the US and Canada

The Hip Abduction

As she watched friends skim stones on Brighton Beach, Paris Paloma felt energy shift. Like heat returning to numb fingertips, life felt like it was taking shape again after a long period of personal trauma. With a diaphanous sheath of lyrics in mind, she went to Bergen, Norway to work on new music. On the three days of the year that it didn’t rain in Europe’s wettest city, among the silvery lakes and mountain peaks, life grew ever brighter. “the warmth” was formed. “I ate up all the light, it shone through my teeth, I tasted sunbeams emanating from me… it can’t hurt me… now the warmth is returning,” she sings in unfurling harmonies, spectral with full-bodied pop, a determined percussive march building like a personal artillery. This emotional arc would be core to Paris Paloma’s debut album, cacophony. The Derbyshire-born musician gave the world “labour” in 2023. It was the first song she’d ever fully recorded in a proper studio – early releases like “narcissus” in 2020, 2021 EP cemeteries and socials, and 2023’s “notre dame” were produced in her own bedroom or others’. But early clips she posted with stolen lyrics of “labour” to TikTok had already garnered a curious audience. Its journal-like lyricism and incisive strain of compelling, dark folk-pop skewered the knots of women’s emotional labour, and it immediately became a rallying cry worldwide upon official release. The track broke over 100 million streams on Spotify, cracked the Official UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Chart, and soundtracked tens of thousands of TikToks. It spurred on sold-out shows around the UK, and Paris, armed with a compact slew of songs, travelled to the US and Australia for the festival circuit. “I matured because of ‘labour’,” Paris explains. “As a young artist you’re both protected and limited – you’re putting songs that are so intimate into a void. It’s made me more considerate about how vulnerable these songs are going to be.” Such vulnerability can be difficult to confront, and all the more to articulate as art, “but I feel very held by my listeners,” Paris says. This symbiotic care between artist and listener is innate within Paris’s devoted fanbase. She’s cultivated a community both online and off: on TikTok, her 400K followers send her videos (of thoughts, song snippets, and tour moments) into six- figure views. Fan-made art and videos analysing her lyrics span social media. She’s also crowdsourced the voices of hundreds of fans for a new version of “labour” to be released. These are roots laid deep, as Paris gains wider recognition from NME to Billboard, as YouTube’s Trending Artist on the Rise and a Breakthrough Artist to Watch 2024 by Amazon. A graduate of fine art from Goldsmiths University (her first tattoo was a tribute to female surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun), Paris’s creative mediums have influenced each other since she first started writing songs at age 14. Her early releases’ visual identities are crafted from her own fantasy drawings. Now, cacophony is inspired by the creation that comes out of chaos – in 15 tracks, we’re shown Paris as an evocative lyricist who constellates human experiences of grief, love, patriarchy, and trauma with Greek mythology, fantasy, and the literary gothic. The album name is inspired by Stephen Fry’s Mythos, ruminating on the creation myth. “From this chaotic cosmic yawn, creation sprang forth,” Paris explains, “so this is a collection that makes sense of the overwhelming space of my mind where my anxiety, my OCD, and trauma processing lives.” Songwriting is a catharsis and coping mechanism, which she uses to articulate her struggles in real time. The sprawling metaphor of chaos to creation knits the album’s universe together. “As I began to combine songs, I could see my struggles, the fantasy, the ‘hero’s journey’.” Paris found tracks incidentally informing each other, and so the album has been curated rather than conceptualised to find a natural rhythm akin to Greek theatre staging – or “a quest”, as Paris puts it. “I love linear storytelling, following the protagonist inflected by a journey. Looking back, I can track my own wellbeing, my growth.” Album opener “my mind (now)” and closer “yeti” are opposites: “We start with the turmoil, open up the chaos, scramble back to redemption and healing.” She describes her songwriting as undisciplined, but always begins with lyrics – a starting couplet or image to elucidate. Melody follows. “My mind has not been silent since you,” she sings vaporously on “my mind (now)”. A haunting fugue draws you in: “What did I do wrong”, across skittering percussion and a glut of trumpets, lanced by crunching guitars and a piercing feral scream. She flexes her songwriting dichotomy, weaving the personal with haunting symbolism – a striking image of strawberry picking while someone else readies their cruelty. “boys, bugs, and men” draws on men’s sadistic behaviours, using natural world imagery to unspool the banalities of a patriarchy that hurts both genders. “I love the feral, feminine aspects of my music,” says Paris. “Being unapologetically vulnerable feels wild – it's breaking down boundaries, a return to something primal.” “bones on the beach” is a “turning point”. “I wrote it at a time when I was coming out of survival mode,” she explains. “It starts from exhaustion and wanting the world to stop asking things of you. And as it progresses, there’s a realisation – you will find peace in life when you start living and taking care of yourself.” Three album tracks – “escape pod”, “last woman on earth”, “bones on the beach” – are her ‘apocalypse trio’. “When it felt like my world was ending,” she says. “last woman on earth” is an emotive, upward contour, about coping with and confronting the ways her voice has been taken away. She leans on dark metaphors to find light. “Women’s wishes for what happens after they die have been consistently dishonoured: from Anne Boleyn to Marilyn Monroe. It's the ultimate show of disrespect,” she says. “It becomes an uplifting point – it shows my growing belief in my own agency.” “triassic love song” is an aching ode to external love returning to her life, imagery inspired by an archaeological discovery of two fossils of different animal species intertwined. “It’s a tender narrative marker. Love was becoming a healing force, but I was conscious of an end being nigh.” She matches this with expansive productions – dramatic instrumentation, folk sensibilities, pop at its most cavernous. It makes sense for someone who first picked up a guitar at age 13, enamoured by Ed Sheeran, Bon Iver, and the eclectic sounds of her upbringing from the Motown and jazz her mother played. “my mind (now)” was especially fun to build. Paris recalls: “I didn’t want any structure that could be a ‘life raft’. It has to almost overwhelm you, then pull back. You're a tiny raft in the ocean, you're surely going to go under – but you don't.” After building a song out on vocals and guitar, her notes app and songbook, she makes a playlist to convey the sonic palette. “as good a reason” was inspired by Alt-J and early Hozier; “labour” from Glass Animals and Katarina Gimon’s compositions. “I don't know what genre I am. I don’t give it much thought. The second I do, I'll start limiting myself.” The album spans the breadth of Paris’s vocal range. “my mind (now)” is the first time she’s screamed on record. On “his land” – a melancholic offering about isolation, inspired by the reduction of British public lands – she reaches her lowest tone. In the “last woman on earth” bridge, she belts her highest. “It was really hard to get up there. My songs, age 20, were mumbly and soft. In part it was a tone thing, and in part confidence. Now I write songs and push myself to grow toward it, as opposed to making everything sound the same.” Worldbuilding is cinched by visual aesthetic – Paris gravitates towards the eerie feminine fashion of Bora Aksu and Simone Rocha, and is styled for stage by Leith Clark. If each song could have a music video, she would. The striking visual for “my mind (now)”, directed by Matt Grass, is darkly fantastical. “I want everyone to see my musical world as I do,” she says. Live performance is vital to her artistry, and Paris has sold out four headline London shows. At every gig, her lyrics are sung directly back at her. “One of the reasons you write is to feel heard,” she says. “It's an audience that wants to know more.” The intimacy of the music remains steadfast as stages get bigger. This summer, she’s keeping up opening for Maisie Peters and will embark on festival season, as well as a UK and European tour. cacophony is “a stage backdrop”, against which all future music will be positioned. “I’ve chronically released singles and been quite nomadic. I’m excited to set the scene for my world.” She’s already working on the threads of her next album, a Paris Paloma tapestry in motion.

Paris Paloma

Shannon, an actor/musician known best for his film/series/stage work, and Narducy (Bob Mould Band, Superchunk, Sunny Day Real Estate, Verböten, Split Single) have been collaborating for the last eleven years, playing entire albums by some of their favorite artists such as Neil Young, The Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, The Smiths, and T. Rex at various Chicago clubs. In July 2023, they performed Murmur at Chicago’s Metro to a full house, with a guest appearance from R.E.M.’s own Mike Mills. Initially planned as a one-off performance to honor both the album and venue’s 40th anniversary, the show’s success inspired Shannon and Narducy to take the project on the road. “I had never done a tour before. Jason nudged me after the Murmur set in Chicago at Metro. Now it’s all I want to do,” Shannon says. “I’m happy this one is twice as long. The last one was too short. This music is beyond comprehension and I cherish every chance I get to deliver it, even second generation. R.E.M. means the world to me. And this band led by Jason is stone cold ridiculous. Even if I never walked onstage, you would get a hell of a show.” Narducy adds: “After Michael and I took the band on the road playing Murmur, we discussed possibly trying something again in 2025. It will be the 40th anniversary of Fables Of The Reconstruction so we will open with that album, in sequence. Then we will dig deep into the R.E.M. catalog to round out the performance. Each show will have unique setlists. We love celebrating the music of this great band.

Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and friends

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE have been making thrilling and beguiling “collage rock” for the better part of a decade. Across four albums, they’ve stretched the boundaries of genre with songs that often abruptly contort from inviting hooks to menacing bursts of noise and sample-based chaos. With their new EP i’m so lucky, the Philadelphia trio of Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin, and Rivka Ravede close the chapter of 2021’s ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH with four tracks that count among the most confident, dynamic, and streamlined music of their careers so far. This is the band at its most lucid and emotionally transparent. Work on i’m so lucky started during a transitional period in the band members’ lives. In the summer of 2022, Schwartz and Rivka ended their romantic relationship after being together for over 10 years. “For the first three or four months after it ended, it was pretty rough,” says Schwartz. “I don’t know if anybody was sure we would continue doing the band. But then we sorted it out slowly and we just all wanted to get back to work.” As Schwartz was processing the breakup, he and Wichlin took time to finish building their own recording studio inside a Philly vinyl pressing plant. While their last LP had been written and recorded entirely remotely, this new space allowed the band to be in the same room together and flesh out the songs in person this January: an experience that proved to be both productive and cathartic. The unpredictable and abrasive lead single “Tapeworm” originally came from a skeleton of an old demo that the band reworked in the studio. The track bursts at the seams with screeching guitars and Schwartz’s bloodcurdling yells. “We just wanted to make an overtly heavy track,” says Schwartz. Working and recording in real-time allowed the band not to overthink things in the studio. “We just did it rather than have conversations that would have taken probably weeks in the past to decide what to do,” says Schwartz. “Now that we can record in the same room, we can just do it, discuss it and then figure it out right there. It was a lot easier than sending emails back and forth.” While SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE splits up writing and vocal duties between their three members, both Schwartz and Ravede penned lyrics that primarily dealt with the dissolution of their romantic partnership. “This past year, the lyrics that I was writing, and I think that Zack was writing too, were about our breakup,” says Ravede. The moody closer “natural devotion 2,” which serves as a sequel to one of their songs from 2016. Underneath the yearning and heartbreak in the track, is a bit of sweetness and understanding, especially when they harmonize, “In the stillness, I’ll remember how you held me when we were together.” i’m so lucky is the start of a new era for SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE: it’s a marker of their own growth and a hint of what’s yet to come. “This EP feels like a really good transition between ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH and the newer material that we’ve been working on,” says Wichlin. Between the propulsive and frenetic opener “human debenture” and the dread-inducing “really happening,” which is primarily sung by Wichlin, the entire four-song release feels like it captures all sides of the band. These tracks feel alive and unfussy: a document of a band in control and pushing themselves even further. “We’ve been trying to make some of the newer stuff less maximalist and just focus on what we can accomplish live,” says Schwartz. “It’s not that these songs are simpler: They’re just different and have more space, more room to breathe.”

Spirit Of The Beehive

Counterparts are a Canadian melodic hardcore band formed in 2007 in Hamilton, Ontario which currently consists of vocalist Brendan Murphy, guitarists Alex Re and Jesse Doreen, bassist Tyler Williams and drummer Kyle Brownlee.

Counterparts

Flowdan

Alcest was founded in the year 2000 by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Neige (aka. Stéphane Paut) and later joined by drummer Winterhalter (Jean Deflandre) in 2009. Labeled as post metal/shoegaze or “blackgaze”, Alcest were the pioneers within this genre, crafting a unique sound based on musical opposites from their very first EP “Le Secret” (2005), and thru their full length releases “Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde” (2007), “Écailles De Lune” (2010) and “Les Voyages De L'Ame” (2012). In 2014 their fourth album “Shelter” was released, marking the band's departure from the more metal sound, in favor of dream-pop aesthetics, surprising and somewhat challenging their fan base. In retrospective, the album opened new doors for Alcest, bringing them an audience from different horizons and a positive sense of unpredictability as musicians.

Alcest

During the past decade as the frontwoman for groundbreaking electro-pop trio CHVRCHES, Lauren Mayberry has been asked about “being a girl in a band” more times than she could count. But that kind of othering and isolation is something she has always been used to as part of her creative world. Mayberry still remembers what it felt like to sit alone in her teenage bedroom, headphones on, listening to artists like Tori Amos and Fiona Apple as if it was some kind of private spiritual practice. “It was a lot of confessional female singer-songwriters, music that I knew people I was in bands with had no interest in” she says, “and I thought of them like, ‘These are my friends who live in my headphones.’ Something that was just for me.” Growing up in Scotland, Mayberry began playing piano and drums in her early teens. By 15, she had started playing in bands, learning how to get her ideas across in environments where her gender often felt an obstacle, or a kind of invisibility cloak. Although there was plenty of music she and her male bandmates could agree on, she knew from experience that it would be an uphill battle getting them into Tori or Fiona or PJ Harvey or Kathleen Hanna. But in 2023, with the approach of the 10th anniversary of CHVRCHES' groundbreaking debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, Mayberry felt reflective in a way she hadn’t anticipated. Looking back at all of the incredible moments of personal evolution and musical growth during her years with the band, she realized that she had hit a creative wall that she wanted to move through. Much like the artists who only lived in her headphones as a teenager, there was a part of her own artistry she had locked away. She says, “There’s things I’ve never been comfortable performing or sharing with a band of men. As much as my time with the band has always had this feminist narrative underpinning it, a lot of my role felt like it was more about me trying to fit in than leading the conversation, and I wondered what it would look like for me to create under different circumstances.” With Vicious Creature, her debut solo album, Mayberry was seeking freedom from rules and expectations and preconceptions. The album title comes from a lyric: “Nostalgia is such a vicious creature, another way to say that you fear the future” (from “A Work Of Fiction’). “Obsession with the past has always been a difficult thing for me,” she explains. “I hold onto things like a dog, to be honest, and I stay loyal to people long past the point that it’s logical or healthy. Nostalgia makes me romanticize people and places that weren’t really good for me, or obsessively dwell on things that have happened. It makes it hard for me to move on sometimes. And I think that is what so much of starting this solo journey was always about for me: trying to find a way to get unstuck and to move on, in my life and in my creativity. Mayberry started writing her solo material in the past two years. Her goal, when starting work on Vicious Creature, was to push herself harder than ever before to excavate a new level of musical truth from the depths of her creative soul, and to create a record that accessed joy and theatricality in a way she hadn’t been able to in her previous projects. As she got into the mindset of finally making something truly her own, Mayberry’s mood board for the album culled a wide array of inspiration. She reconnected with the influence of ‘90s British girl groups like All Saints and Sugababes, as well as artists she fell for during her university days, such as Annie Lennox, Jenny Lewis and Sleater-Kinney. “Those are artists I love, who are very formative to how I think about music and approach music,” Mayberry says, adding that musicals like Cabaret and Chicago were also something she thought about – things that dig into the dark, physical and subversive sides of femininity. “Especially when it came to the visuals for the album, I knew I wanted them to be a part of the storytelling in a way I haven’t been able to do previously. I wanted to have an ownership over my physical self and how I was involved in the visual part of the storytelling, so I felt like I was in the driving seat of the aesthetic rather than fitting into a landscape that wasn’t really for me.” She began the music by teaming up with a few key collaborators who helped give shape to the first few singles. Mayberry partnered with Tobias Jesso, Jr. and Matthew Koma for the beautiful, unadorned piano ballad “Are You Awake?” – a song about the loneliness that can come along with a life on the road – and followed with the defiant, leftfield pop masterpiece “Shame,” co-written with Koma and Caroline Pennell. Reminiscent of Love. Angel. Music. Baby.-era Gwen Stefani, “Shame” is one of several songs on the album where Mayberry has been able to write about sexuality, gender and empowerment from a profoundly personal perspective for the first time, exploring themes and styles that hadn’t felt quite right for CHVRCHES. On “Crocodile Tears” and “Mantra”, written with Koma and Ethan Gruska, Mayberry wanted to adopt “a sort of character where I could really let go of the idea that I need to ‘nice’, because I think that holds so many women back in their lives. If I didn’t have to be seen as ‘nice’, I would feel comfortable telling certain people to fuck off when they treat me like shit – on this record, in these songs, I get to do that.” Although Mayberry entered the process looking for this more escapist, character-driven approach, circumstances in her personal life led her to some more introspective territory – something she found later in the album process, when she struck creative gold with her friend, producer Dan McDougall. “Some people you write with can just create a sense of calm and ease and comfort,” Mayberry says of McDougall, who co-wrote the Brit Pop-infused “Something in the Air,” the helter skelter pop-rock “Punch Drunk,” the album’s only acoustic guitar moment “Anywhere But Dancing,” and “Oh, Mother” – the latter arguably Mayberry’s most personal lyrics to date, informed by family illness. “Dan is not only a sensitive, thoughtful person, he’s also very funny, interesting and a light-hearted guy,” she continues. “That balance is really helpful for me. If I want to say a sarcastic, self-deprecating thing, he’ll go along with it and we’ll make jokes back and forth. But when we talk about heavy things, he’ll go there with me, too. I don’t know if I’d have been able to write something so personal with someone who didn’t know me as well. Dan is such a great Swiss Army knife of a creator, and it's very fun to crack a lyric like the ones on “Oh, Mother” in the presence of another lyrics bitch.” For “Sunday Best,” (a song Mayberry says is about “looking for light and hope when struggling with grief”), Mayberry reunited with Greg Kurstin, who produced much of CHVRCHES 2018 album Love Is Dead and whose earlier credits include Mayberry favorites by Lily Allen and Kylie Minogue and All Saints, among others.Mayberry says it was also a thrill to work with someone with such deep connections to some of the music that had influenced her sound. “Greg really understood the references I was talking about,” Mayberry notes. “I love how the song ended up feeling vast and cinematic and cinematic, but still scuzzy and strange,” she says. “That’s my favorite kind of pop music: it focuses on feelings but also imperfections.” In discovering who she is as a solo artist, Mayberry has accessed a new world of inspiration, and a deep well of creativity she’s had within her all along. “So much of this process has been an exercise in empowering myself to listen to my own intuition – something I really trained myself out of,” she says. “That's ultimately why you started making things, is because you felt a feeling, and you wanted to articulate that somehow. I think it was important for me to relearn that kind of independence, and recognise what I bring to any table I choose to sit at.”

Lauren Mayberry

"Earlier in the night...Creepoid took the stage. They played as if they were reviving the grunge-filled chaos of Sonic Youth... circa '93, but with the finesse of mid-period Creation Records shoegaze acts like Swervedriver or Slowdive. The sound was full of fury, but the dual vocals of guitarist Sean Miller and bassist Anna Troxell soared like an airy wave that enveloped the listener in a blanket of sweet nothings." - THE DALLAS OBSERVER

"Nightmare or dream, you come out the other side intact. I think that's Creepoid's masterstroke - They're able to transcend their own darkness to find an incredibly revelatory light." - EXPLODING IN SOUN

Creepoid

Knowing God plays a central role as both a catalyst and medium in Hulvey’s personal and creative growth. The 24-year-old Brunswick, GA native’s music delves into themes of thankfulness, maturity and comfort that reflect the peace of mind he currently inhabits. In the five years since signing with Reach Records, Hulvey has released his debut, self-titled album, Christopher, to widespread acclaim and toured nationally – welcoming a season of newfound success filled with transformative moments. His reverence for God is inextricably linked to his upbringing in Southeast Georgia, where Hulvey was steeped in an all-encompassing church life. After being saved at age 4, his spiritual journey started to take form. From then on out, Hulvey made a conscious effort to seek God in all of his experiences and direct every fiber of his being to developing a deeper understanding of his Creator. In doing so, he naturally surrounded himself with people who have similar values, which led to a fortuitous run-in with a gentleman by the name of Doug. This alignment marked a pivotal turning point in Hulvey’s life when a bible verse resonated with him unlike any other, John 17:3 – “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Hulvey went on to attend college before deciding to drop out and pursue a career in music full-time. And so far it has worked out for him. To date, he’s released a plethora of compelling singles, five EP’s and his aforementioned debut album, which made waves across the music industry and debuted at #8 on Billboard’s Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart, and #19 on the Top Rap Albums chart. 2023 was no different, evidenced by the runaway success of his immensely popular singles such as “Used By You,” “Love Like That,” “Fly Away,” and “Altar.” The latter was remixed by Grammy Award-winning R&B-pop star Ciara, and the original version peaked at #25 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs, with seven total weeks on the chart. Hulvey’s impressive versatility and ability to draw connections across the ever-growing musical landscape is a testament to the reach of faith-based rap. With more music and major moves on the horizon, he’s squarely positioned to bring people closer to God with his now-signature blend of nuance, effort, intentionality.

Hulvey

Cincinnati singer-songwriter Michael Marcagi’s ascent is a homegrown success story. With a career built largely through grass roots social media support, the folk-rock singer has demonstrated that listeners are hungry for earnest storytelling rooted in age-old American musical traditions. His debut Warner Records EP, American Romance, expands on that promise, highlighting the timeless sound and engaging sense of emotional truth that has made Marcagi’s music so immediately compelling. Marcagi never undermines his listeners or takes them for granted. “Audiences are usually smarter than the musicians they are listening to,” he says. For him, there’s plenty of evidence that modern listeners of all generations understand and connect with specificity and sophistication in songwriting. This is part of why he aspires to remain as open and approachable as possible—in both his music and his public persona. If what has happened in his career during the past year is any indication, he may be on to something.“I want people to feel like they know me,” Marcagi says. “I’ve never really connected to that mysterious rock band thing—four blurry faces in a field where you don’t know who the guys are. I don’t want to hide.”

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