This performance has been rescheduled to Friday, July 21st. All previously purchased tickets for the March 11th show will be honored for the new date.
the year is 2057. teenage slang has unknowingly devolved to an old forgotten eldritch language. suddenly teens have begun casting black magic spells while conversing with their pals. the sky goes black and a portal appears. thousands of black magic elves crawl out and wipe out all of earths population leaving only one man alive. that man is JAWNY fka Johnny Utah.
This performance has been rescheduled to Friday, July 21st. All previously purchased tickets for the March 11th show will be honored for the new date.
the year is 2057. teenage slang has unknowingly devolved to an old forgotten eldritch language. suddenly teens have begun casting black magic spells while conversing with their pals. the sky goes black and a portal appears. thousands of black magic elves crawl out and wipe out all of earths population leaving only one man alive. that man is JAWNY fka Johnny Utah.
Freakout/Release is the continuation of what, at this point, seems like an impossible run for Hot Chip. The British electronic pop legends’ eighth album is another dizzying peak in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, Freakout/Release also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead.
Since their 2012 debut No Passion All Technique, the Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. Protomartyr—vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, drummer Alex Leonard, and bassist Scott Davidson—have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique.
The group’s sixth album, recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, is called Formal Growth In The Desert. And though frontman Joe Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things – as recounted in the single “Elimination Dances” – the title is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the southwest. Detroit, too, is like a desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.” The desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal.
The “growth” came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life until 2021, when a surge of break-ins signaled that it was time to move out. As with all touring artists, the pandemic years also brought on other inner quandaries about the purpose and feasibility of a musician’s life.
Lime Cordiale’s infectious performances and genuine interactions with their fans has made them one of Australia’s buzziest bands. It’s a fact that was reflected in July when they scored their first #1 album on the ARIA Charts with “14 Steps to a Better You”.
In a watershed moment last year, Lime Cordiale chalked up an incredible 8x ARIA Award nominations, making them the most nominated act of 2020 and landing them their debut ARIA Award for Best Breakthrough Artist. Soon afterward, in January’s triple j Hottest 100 countdown, the band scored 5x tracks in the top 26,”On Our Own” claiming 11th position.
Half Moon Run’s three multi-instrumentalist-slash-vocalists are Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, and Dylan Phillips. The trio’s origin story involves a 2009 Craigslist ad and a dingy jam space in Montreal’s Mile End, where they spent their formative years creating the restless, six-armed entity that composes and performs their intricate, kaleidoscopic songs—as well as writing their platinum debut album, Dark Eyes (Indica, 2012). Their sophomore effort, Sun Leads Me On, dropped in 2015 with Glassnote in the US and Communion in the UK. It was followed by A Blemish in the Great Light (2019), Seasons Of Change (2020) and Inwards and Onwards (2021)— two of which won a Junos for Adult Alternative Album of the Year. Half Moon Run’s newest single, “You Can Let Go,” is out worldwide with BMG on March 3, 2023
The sound of the future as imagined in the 1980s. The nostalgic theme song to your favourite childhood cartoon that may have never existed. The hopefulness of someone from the future describing the utopia of tomorrow. Like a paradox of time travel, TWRP is all of these things and yet none of them.
This optimistic fascination with the future, grounded in the nostalgia of the past, is what has shaped TWRP. They are the product of many eclectic styles and eras, crafted into something simultaneously playful, heartfelt, and tongue-in-cheek, all delivered with self-aware bombast and an uncommon musical precision. Old funk, modern electronic, and classic rock converge in their science fiction universe, as if Earth, Wind & Fire, Justice, and Casiopeia provided the soundtrack to a 80s cult classic film directed by John Carpenter.
Tinariwen is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. Considered a pioneer of desert blues, the group’s guitar-driven style combines traditional Tuareg and African music with Western rock music.
Conceptual artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova is the founding member of Pussy Riot, a global feminist protest art movement. Today, hundreds of people identify as a part of Pussy Riot community. In August 2022, they released their debut mixtape MATRIARCHY NOW on Neon Gold Records (MARINA, Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens etc.) The mixtape features collaborations with Tove Lo (who executive produced the project), Salem Ilese “Princess Charming,” Kito, Hudson Mohawke, Slayyyter, ILOVEMAKONNEN, Big Freedia, REI AMI, Phoebe Ryan and more. The release came just before the 10-year “anniversary” of their August 17, 2012 verdict of being convicted with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and spending 2 years in jail for protesting Putin.
P-Lo has become known as a rising star on the left side of the country known for his catchy raps, energetic production, and smile full of gold teeth. Hailing from the Bay Area, his start came from founding the HBK Gang which revitalized the Bay Area’s once stagnant music scene. As he was crafting his own music, his production for other artists took off with commercial hits for artists such as Yo Gotti, Wiz Khalifa, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, Kehlani, Sage the Gemini, YG, & more. His full length project More Than Anything laid a foundation for P-Lo as he stepped out from behind the scenes with his breakout record “Put Me On Somethin’” featuring E-40. As his fanbase grows and more people get acquainted with the Filipino-American MC, his sound has expanded too with songs that range from melodic records to thunderous anthems.
Starting over isn’t always easy, yet resisting change is almost always fruitless. Nanna Hilmarsdóttir knew this intuitively when she began to write the songs for her first solo album, How to Start a Garden. In these ethereal yet grounded songs, she sings of being lost and hopeful, remaining calm through apocalypses large and small, with orchestration that feels as organic as a forest while also sculpted and modern.
Few debuts arrive, however, with experience as extensive as Nanna’s. After a childhood in a tiny town in rural Iceland, she spent most of her twenties in recording studios and global tours with her band, Of Monsters and Men, which arrived in 2011 to almost immediate ubiquity as their first album, My Head Is An Animal, topped charts worldwide. Their live prowess landed them headlining festival spots around the world. With three impressive and globally successful albums under their belt, Nanna found herself writing an album she felt needed to be delivered in her very own way. Like most of us, the years since 2020 have necessitated changes both mundane and enormous; like few of us, Nanna, as at home on a festival stage as in a rural cabin, is fluent in polarity.
In a career spanning 15 years, Morgan has released five studio albums and a live recording from his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Additionally, he has toured relentlessly averaging over 125 shows annually. Rolling Stone has described him as a “Waylon Jennings acolyte.. modern day outlaw [with a] hard hitting blue-collar brand of music” while NPR Music hailed, “Staying close to the sound and subject matter of classic outlaw artists like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe, Morgan is poised to lead this hand-worn brand of country to the next generation.” His most recent LP, Sonic Ranch (2015), was released to critical acclaim and praised by Detroit Free Press as, “a bold well-crafted album that doesn’t forsake the gritty undercurrent running through Morgan’s stuff.”
Bear Rinehart unveiled Wilder Woods in 2019, releasing a neo-soul record that focused on new beginnings: the advent of fatherhood, the launch of his solo career, and the updated branding of a longtime bandleader who’d decided to expand his reach. With FEVER / SKY, he widens Wilder Woods’ cinematic sound while celebrating the parts of himself that made him most proud. It’s a personal, poignant record whose songs focus not upon the horizon ahead, but upon the road itself, stacked high with heartland hooks, western wooziness, southern soul, and festival-worthy anthems.
“I’ve been in a band for 20 years, and a band is a democracy where you make decisions together,” explains Rinehart, who also fronts the Grammy-nominated, chart-topping band NEEDTOBREATHE. “Wilder Woods is a different outlet. I’m giving myself the freedom to do what I want to do and say what I want to say. This isn’t the kind of journey where I’m worried about the places I’m headed or the places I’ve left; it’s a journey where I’m just happy to be in the car, driving forward.” Created alongside producer Cason Cooley, guitarist Tyler Burkum, and a small group of collaborators, FEVER / SKY brims with the insights of a family man and road warrior who’s spent two decades on tour, balancing his art with his commitments at home.
While a rotating cast of instrumentalists finds loose assembly under the Pinback name, the partnership of Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow is at the heart of the some of the most complex, postmodern indie pop happening on the West Coast. In the first few days of 1998, Smith (of San Diego-based Three Mile Pilot) and Crow (of Thingy and Heavy Vegetable) formed a part-time recording project under the name Pinback. The simple plan grew more involved while Three Mile Pilot took an indefinite hiatus and Crow put a number of his musical projects on hold. Recording on Smith’s home computer, the duo enlisted Three Mile Pilot drummer Tom Zinsor, and by the following August, Pinback had finished recording 14 songs of delicate, canonic pop that was tentatively slated for release on San Diego’s Vinyl Communications. However, when interest in the band skyrocketed after a Tim/Kerr label showcase at the North by Northwest Music Festival, the record got tied up in a bidding war that caused a slew of contractual problems and held the record in limbo for almost a full year.
Freakout/Release is the continuation of what, at this point, seems like an impossible run for Hot Chip. The British electronic pop legends’ eighth album is another dizzying peak in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. And while they continue to operate at peak form, Freakout/Release also feels like a new chapter for the group—a collection of flesh-and-blood songs that finds the band reaching into the darkness to emerge as a true creative unit, their gazes fixed positively on the future ahead.
To declare one thematic narrative from Lucha, Y La Bamba’s seventh album, would be to chisel away a story within a story within a story into the illusion of something singular.
“Lucha is a symbol of how hard it is for me to tackle healing, live life, and be present,” Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos, lead vocalist and producer of Y La Bamba, says of the title behind the album which translates from Spanish to English as ‘fight’ and is also a nickname for Luz, which means light. The album explores multiplicity—love, queerness, Mexican American and Chicanx identity, family, intimacy, yearning, loneliness—and chronicles a period of struggle and growth for Mendoza Ramos as a person and artist.
Characterized by complex song structures and guitarist Yvette Young’s unique finger-tapping style, instrumental band Covet quickly earned a devoted following with their exploratory math rock sounds. Coming from a background in piano and violin, Young first developed her two-handed guitar-tapping style as a solo artist, but in 2014 she added a rhythm section and formed Covet. Young’s virtuosic playing and the band’s searching, organic-sounding instrumentals developed as their fan base grew, becoming more involved over the course of several EPs and reaching full realization with their 2020 debut full-length album, Technicolor.
Covet was formed in 2014 by California guitarist/composer/multi-instrumentalist Yvette Young. Young grew up playing piano and violin and eventually applied elements of technique for both instruments to guitar, coming up with a two-handed tapping style that incorporated different approaches from classical music and math rock. While living in Los Angeles in 2009, Young began uploading videos of herself playing online, slowly gaining attention and fans for her virtuosic playing. In early 2014, she released an EP called Acoustics under her own name, but started the band upon moving back to her home of San Jose in the fall of that year. Covet’s original lineup included Young on guitar, bassist David Adamiak, and drummer Ben Wallace-Ailsworth. Unlike Young’s gentle acoustic material (which sometimes included vocals), Covet’s instrumental sound was derived from post-rock composition and math rock intricacy. The group played around San Jose for about a year, with Wallace-Ailsworth leaving the band, replaced by Keith Grimshaw.
The trio released their first EP, Currents, in December 2015. Touring and various promotional video sessions ensued, including a stop by Audiotree for a live session. Grimshaw left the band and drummer Forrest Rice took his place for the recording of a six-song album called Effloresce, which saw release in July 2018. The following year, Covet issued the three-song EP Acoustics, which featured a new song, “Predawn,” and acoustic renditions of two Effloresce tracks. “Predawn” would appear again in a more electrified reading featuring special guest Phillip Jamieson on Covet’s first proper full-length, Technicolor. The album was released in June 2020 and featured ten songs, the longest and most involved collection of the band’s music to be released up until that point.
Enter Blanco White’s bewitching world and you won’t want to leave. Sensual songs unfurl like spells, time seems to stand still. Close your eyes and you could be dreaming. Magic, you’d swear, was at work.
Blanco White is the guise of guitarist, singer and songwriter Josh Edwards, a Brit whose heart belongs in southern Spain and the Andean mountains. In the former, Josh fell for flamenco. In the latter, he learnt charango. Both are pivotal to Blanco White’s otherworldly tunes.
A trio of increasingly accomplished EPs released between 2016 and 2018 saw him become a streaming sensation, a staple of thousands of Spotify playlists, now with fans all over the world. With every release Blanco White has gone up a gear, from the haunting acoustic sound of 2016’s The Wind Rose EP to the meatier, more expansive tracks off his debut album ‘On the Other Side’ which was released in June 2020.
Following the release of his successful first album ‘On the Other Side’ in 2020, a UK headline tour in May 2022, and a Jose Gonzalez and Gregory Alan Isakov support across Europe, Blanco White is now back with stunning new EP ‘Time Can Prove You Wrong’ and an extensive headline tour across Europe and North America in autumn 2023.
At the age of nine, Clark played violin in an orchestra in St Albans – not that he was too keen at the time, he admits. Folk violin? Yes, he enjoyed that (although Clark’s teachers were somewhat scornful). But classical music? When there was Public Enemy, Prince or Metallica to listen to? It just felt, says Clark, kind of “inappropriate”.
And yet, a seed had been planted. One that would take a while to germinate. “I do remember thinking, ‘I’ll put this on hold for a bit and come back to it later’,” Clark recalls. In the three decades since, he has taken us on a series of intensive sonic odysseys, characterised by an unquenchable personal ambition to keep on climbing. From his 2001 debut, Clarence Park, onwards, there has been no template. You will encounter glowering techno and brittle, ghostly piano pieces; eerie, fluttering folktronics and found sounds – each time, something new, something unexpected.
For as much as Waterparks is a genre-busting collective of three friends who play music, hang out, and constantly flip the script, Waterparks really represents a bigger, dare we say, movement. The Houston trio— Awsten Knight [vocals, guitar], Otto Wood [drums], and Geoff Wigington [guitar]—have unassumingly brought vibrancy back to rock. (The only thing bolder than their melodies is whatever hair dye Awsten opted for this week!) Their strange magnetic pull has attracted a growing cohort of devoted fans who pack sold out shows, stream their songs like crazy, and have even elevated them to multiple Billboard charts as they’ve also headlined the Sad Summer Festival and accompanied My Chemical Romance on a sold out arena tour.
However, the next era begins with the band’s fifth full-length and debut album for Fueled By Ramen, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, and even more adventures…
“Waterparks is so much fucking bigger than Otto, Geoff, and me,” muses Awsten. “However, it wouldn’t be Waterparks without the fans at the shows. It wouldn’t be Waterparks without the presence online. It wouldn’t be Waterparks without this awesome community. There are so many people who are a big part of this. It has completely evolved from where it started, and it feels massive to me. I’m lucky enough to guide it.”
Waterparks might just be the biggest band of tomorrow. To understand why, you have to go back to the beginning. Their 2011 formation cemented the union of three distinct personalities. Raised somewhere in between the iPod generation and the first wave of social media, Awsten, Otto, and Geoff occupied a singular creative crossroads. A glance at Otto’s listening history would span the likes of Every Time I Die and Balance & Composure, while Geoff found inspiration in crossover juggernauts such as Linkin Park. Awsten’s tastes covered the gamut from Donald Glover and One Direction, to Ke$ha (and everything else in between).
Following their launch, the group bubbled up with a famed one-off Houston appearance on 2013’s Warped Tour—which they eventually shined on for its entirety during 2016. It’s fitting they popped off on the same stage that also supported category-defiant disruptors a la Eminem, Deftones, Katy Perry, and more early on. With eye-catching, often meme-able music videos and a sound somewhere between alternative, pop, electronic, and rock spiced up with a little hip-hop attitude and even R&B vocal acrobatics, Waterparks fittingly defied categorization themselves and ushered in a new era of “alternative,” living up to the definition of the word for the 2020’s, speaking to not only music but also total cultural immersion with fashion, unforgettable videos, and a boundary-breaking culture.
They reached unprecedented heights with 2021’s Greatest Hits. Don’t let that title fool you—it didn’t collect their best-performing songs at a discounted price, but it did showcase their best material to date. As such, it cracked the Billboard Top 200 and landed in the Top 10 of the Top Alternative Albums Chart and Top Rock Albums Chart. In the wake of its release, they impressively eclipsed half-a-billion streams thus far. In addition to coverage from Rolling Stone, MTV, Kerrang!, and Alternative Press, they graced the covers of V Magazine and Upset Magazine (who also awarded the record a “five-out-of-five star” perfect score). Perhaps, NME summed it up best though, “Instead of celebrating the past, ‘Greatest Hits’ is opening the door to what comes next.” Along the way, they sold out various headline tours. 2022 saw the band sign to Fueled By Ramen and turn the page on a new chapter in 2023 with INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
“Whereas I saw Greatest Hits as a dark indoor album, I see this body of work as a light outdoor album,” he reveals. “There’s a bright vibe with very high energy to it. So much of what we do is about how it’s going to be experienced by the community. We did a lot of programming on the last record. I wanted to get more tactile and touch shit now,” he laughs. “I needed to hold a guitar and have the strings vibrating on my fingers.”
That brings us to the first single “FUNERAL GREY.” Powered by four different guitars (including a toy guitar for the main riff), the track swings like a wrecking ball from a buoyant verse into a distortion-lifted hyper-hypnotic hook, “She wore a sweater in summer weather. She wore a sweater. It was FUNERAL GREY!”
“This is—and I fucking hate the term—more love-driven,” he confesses. “It’s a reintroduction, and it’s more about other people than just me. When I wrote the song, I was walking around [collaborator] Julian [Bunetta]’s neighborhood. I was laughing, because it looked so haunted—like something out of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. I thought, ‘If this was an Instagram filter, it would be ‘Funeral Grey’.’ It’s got a dark title, but I love how bright it sounds. To me, that’s Waterparks.”
On its heels, they served up the introspective, infectious, and irresistible single “SELF-SABOTAGE.” Like listening to an internal dialogue, airy verses culminate with a self-effacing query, “What the fuck is wrong with me?” Meanwhile, snappy guitars and fuzzy electronics underline the manically catchy hook highlighted by Awsten’s wild sky-high register. It’s yet another illustration of the boys’ uncanny knack for the unpredictable. Speaking of “FUCK ABOUT IT” [feat. blackbear] only further showcased their progression with its sticky hooks and artful vibe curation as it initially reeled in over 10 million streams (and counting).
Following “ST*RFUCKER,” INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY really kicks into high gear with “REAL SUPER DARK.” Its heavy catharsis manifests through jarring electronics, guttural screams, and an unexpectedly catchy chant. Meanwhile, “BRAINWASHED” depicts the ups and downs of infatuation against a soundtrack of handclaps and a sunny guitar riff that wouldn’t be out of place in your favorite turn-of-the-century summer comedy. Awsten groans, “My day’s fucked until you wanna text back,” before trying to break the spell, “Now, I’m having the same thoughts, can’t stop thinking you’ve got me brainwashed…why do I think you’re so cool?” The ride comes to a close with “A NIGHT ON EARTH.” A rush of hyperpop-style production barely relents long enough for the singer to proclaim, “Now Jesus hates my guts. It’s getting personal,” before one last blast of apocalyptically catchy melody.
There’s something for everyone here. As always, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY is meant for the people comprising this greater movement—like everything Waterparks do.
“When you listen to us, I just want you to feel good,” Awsten leaves off. “It’s bouncy shit. Even if it’s aggressive, it’s enthusiastic. There’s a lot of energy behind this. I try to make music that tingles people’s fucking brains, which is what my favorite music does for me.”
The California Honeydrops don’t just play music—they throw parties. Led by dynamic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lech Wierzynski, the band draws on diverse musical influences including roots, Bay Area R&B, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second line to bring vibrant energy to their shows. Assembling their five core members plus two to three more world-class musicians each show, the Honeydrops deliver an eclectic performance and innovative recording style, evident in the seven studio albums, three live albums, and two cover albums the band has released since forming in 2008. Their highly anticipated forthcoming LP, Soft Spot, is set to release in the fall of 2022, coinciding with a nation
The California Honeydrops don’t just play music—they throw parties. Led by dynamic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lech Wierzynski, the band draws on diverse musical influences including roots, Bay Area R&B, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second line to bring vibrant energy to their shows. Assembling their five core members plus two to three more world-class musicians each show, the Honeydrops deliver an eclectic performance and innovative recording style, evident in the seven studio albums, three live albums, and two cover albums the band has released since forming in 2008. Their highly anticipated forthcoming LP, Soft Spot, is set to release in the fall of 2022, coinciding with a nation
Scary Pockets are a rotating roster of world-class musicians who release live funk reimaginations of familiar songs every week.
Since their first recording session in 2017, Scary Pockets have released 300+ videos that have been watched over 234 million times for over 540 million minutes on YouTube where their channel has 1M+ subscribers. Their songs have been streamed 117 million times on Spotify by 640,000 monthly listeners.
Scary Pockets’ 200+ collaborators (so far) include all-stars like David Ryan Harris, Larry Goldings, John Scofield, Joey Waronker, John Mayer, Darren King, Sean Hurley, James Gadson, Darren Criss, Antwaun Stanley, Judith Hill, Bruno Major, Reeve Carney, Derek Hough, Bill Wurtz, Joey Dosik, Lee Sklar, Joe Bonamassa, Theo Katzman, Rachael Price, Lizzy McAlpine, and Joshua Radin, to name a few.
The 2023 Scary Pockets touring lineup consists of Pockets fan favorites Mario Jose (vocals), Therese Curatolo (vocals), Nick Campbell (bass), Swatkins (talkbox, keys), Rob Humphreys (drums), Ryan Lerman (guitar), and Ariel Posen (guitar). The show will feature an opening set by legendary singer/songwriter David Ryan Harris.
Theo Katzman brings his staunchly synergistic sober psychedelic seeker-sensitive soul service to a HERE near you, at a NOW near then.
The album is called “Be The Wheel”
Big Heart. High Voice. Strong Song.
Heralded as one of Polynesia’s #1 commercial recording artists, Maoli has been credited with over 21 #1 Regional Island Reggae Hits. Since their debut in 2007 the group has been steadily on the rise, having performed in at least 42 of the 50 states, as well as New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Guam, and Saipan Territories. Maoli’s music has matured into a sound and style constantly evolving to reflect and meet the eclectic taste of the group themselves and their loving fans. Maoli has developed their own unique sound by fusing the elements of Country, R&B, Soul, Acoustic, Rock & Roll, and Reggae. This “Country Reggae” has been labeled as heartfelt, uplifting, feel-good music with an impressive reach, enabling the group to sell out the largest venues in the state of Hawai’i.
When the bass drops and the confetti blows up: MEUTE breaks the code. The Techno Marching Band combines hypnotic driving techno and expressive brass band music, freeing electronic music from the DJ desk and overhauling the image of marching bands. They started as an experiment and evolved to a world-acclaimed phenomenon in a minimum of time. Just drums and brass, no computers involved, this is all they need to revolutionize techno music and bring it back to its roots at the same time. The eleven musicians in their iconic red jackets have managed to spread their love for hand-made electronic music all over the planet. The videos of their impromptu street gigs regularly attract millions of views.
Roscoe is a road dog. The 14-year-old Boston Terrier has been there for the whole ride of Mapache, Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci’s band, which has grown from being the casual project of two longtime buds to one of the most formidable cosmic-folk acts around. “Roscoe’s been through a lot of shit,” says Blasucci, the dog’s formal owner. “He’s been all around the country, come on tour a little bit.” With some bemused pride, Finch points out that, for a few years, he and Blasucci bunked together in a room in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles that was just big enough to fit two twin beds. “It was the two of us and the dog,” he laughs.
Mysterious, eccentric, good-hearted, and downright talented are all words that have been used to describe actor and musician Creed Bratton. Creed may be best known for starring as a fictional version of himself on nine seasons of the award winning, critically acclaimed NBC series “The Office.” In addition to his long list of acting credits, Creed is also an established musician with a career in music that spans nearly five decades. This year, Creed is slated to release his 9th full-length album “Slightly Altered” featuring 10 brand new tracks produced by Dave Way (Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple) and Dillon O’Brian.
When they first appeared in the early 2000s, Ladytron combined the fundamentals of classic synth pop — crystalline melodies enveloped in icy textures and rippling arpeggios — with touches of indie pop, shoegaze, disco, and industrial music, and conjured distinctly different moods on each album, spanning the hook-laden simplicity of 2001’s 604 to the darker feel of 2005’s landmark Witching Hour to 2011’s meditative Gravity the Seducer. They bridged the gap between synth pop’s original ’80s heyday and its renaissance in the 2010s. Following their critically acclaimed debut 604, their Los Angeles recorded follow up, Light & Magic, a darker, more streamlined set of songs including the single Seventeen was released in 2002. It reached number seven on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
“Sometimes you’ve got to express yourself because if you don’t you’ll explode,” says songwriter/producer Caroline Rose of their latest album, The Art of Forgetting. “…and I felt like I was going to explode.”
After a series of heartbreaking events, Rose had no desire to make a statement, let alone make a new album. It was a time of contemplation and transformation, a time to slow down. What transpired was what the artist considers a gradual union of reconnection and growth. Memory runs like a current throughout The Art of Forgetting. Prompted by a difficult breakup, Rose began a deep-dive inward, unknowingly digging up long-buried experiences from their childhood.
It’s a pivotal release for Rose teeming with raw, intense emotion and confessional honesty we’ve only caught glimpses of in Rose’s previous work. Layers of vocal arrangements from Balkan-influenced yawps to Gregorian autotune choirs, acoustic instrumentation chopped and mangled like a glitching memory, and dreamlike synths push and pull to create a hugely dynamic soundscape.
Hailing from Dublin, Inhaler are a four piece band who met while they were still at school. They quickly realised their love of dirty bass lines, pounding rhythms and infectious melodies infused with psychedelic soundscapes far outweighed their interest for Pythagoras’s theorem, e=mc², The Merchant Of Venice or Ulysses. Their future would be defined by the mystery, magic and unknown pleasures contained within the grooves of their parents vinyl collections rather than the pages of any torn and tattered textbook. With Robert Keating on Bass, Ryan McMahon on Drums, Josh Jenkinson on Lead and Elijah Hewson on Vocals and Rhythm.
If you need to know anything about Australian-American pop trailblazer Betty Who, it’s that she is a survivor. Born Jessica Newham in Sydney, Australia, the classically trained singer, dancer, and multiinstrumentalist has experienced practically every dimension of pop cultural visibility: going viral on the bombastic strength of 2014 single “Somebody Loves You,” soundtracking Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot with “All Things,” forming deep ties with foundations like GLAAD and the Trevor Project, and becoming an LGBTQ+ icon due to her infectious, always-inclusive artistry.
Swedish audiovisual artist ionnalee (Jonna Lee) has served us a decade of audiovisual work, solo and with her collective ‘iamamiwhoami’. In 2022 she returns with a new audiovisual album by iamamiwhoami entitled ‘Be Here Soon’ (out on To whom it may concern. June 3). Hear the 10 track album unfold and follow its videoseries in 10 episodes on ionnalee.com starting March 31 2022.
