Sweet Pill

– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYSWEET PILLPhiladelphia’s Sweet Pill write eruptive emo songs that embrace the edges of pop and hardcore. The kind of band whose members are fully immersed in their local scene—through a handful of notable side projects and the show-promoting Philly staple 4333 Collective—the quintet’s sound takes wide-spectrum influence from its environment. The result is an amalgam of complex song structures and flourishes of technical acumen, wholly unconcerned with genre, yet evoking the specific styles of touchstones such as Paramore and Circa Survive.On their debut longplayer Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill’s unbound, raucous energy presents through ten autobiographical tracks that hinge on singer Zayna Youssef’s elastic, enrapturing voice—at times belting and controlled, at others textural and guttural. Supporting Youssef are guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney. Their blistering lead single “Blood” sees Youssef exploring a deteriorated friendship over Williams and McCall’s trudging riffs and tactful counterpoint, with Cullen and Kearney rumbling nimbly in the song’s foundations.Second single “High Hopes” counters with introspective, melodic punk that reshapes anxiety rather than succumb to it. But third single “Diamond Eyes” momentarily slows the pace, with McCall joining Youssef on vocals for a breakup lament laden with acoustic sentimentalism and an emotive flurry from guest flutist Jill Ryan. Such range is the central facet of Where the Heart Is, where Sweet Pill’s penchant for combining punkish tropes enlivened with the vibrance of math-rock and the aggression of post-hardcore sweetened with pop sensibility compound into something stylistically new yet still familiar.Sweet Pill is Zayna, Jayce, Chris, Sean & RyanKEROSENE HEIGHTSKerosene heights is an emo band from Asheville North Carolina and make loud exciting emo punk that carries the torch of earlier emo bands. The energy of a sweaty basement show comes through even in their recordings with distorted twinkly riffs, yelled vocals, and raw production. Their debut LP comes out this summer on No Sleep Records.

PATIO: Griefcat + Brittany Ann Tranbaugh

– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IN FIRST COME FIRST SERVEGRIEFCATGriefcat is an all-women musical comedy duo hailed as “local favorites” by Washington City Paper in their hometown of DC. Often referred to as “Tenacious Double D’s” due to their musicality and hilarious lyrics, their sequin studded shows have been referred to by attendees as “the most fun [we’ve] had since Lizzo.” They recently finished recording their 2nd studio album, “late stage capitalism,” with singles expected in Spring of 2023. A live clip of one of their upcoming singles, “Revolution (Poop at Work), ” recently garnered over 1M views on Instagram and counting. BRITTANY ANN TRANBAUGHBrittany Ann Tranbaugh is a singer songwriter hailing from Philadelphia. Her queer country song “Kiss You” won Song of the Year in the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and she regularly tours with Carsie Blanton. In October, she recorded a 5 song EP in LA with Grammy-nominated producer Tyler Chester, and will be releasing a single every 6 weeks beginning in March.

PATIO: 5j Barrow

– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVE5J BARROWInspiration seeped through the windows of apartment 5J on Barrow Street looking out over the Hudson River in NYC’s Greenwich Village, where singer-songwriters and Broadway performers, Eryn Murman and Jason Hite, soaked up the energy and passion of musicians, painters, poets and writers who created the Village vibe. Together, they paid tribute to those creative spirits and named their band 5j Barrow, writing music and lyrics with a unique folk/rock sound, touring as a duo, and often picking up Drew Jones on bass and Gerard Canonico on drums. The band has inspired audiences with soulful music, evocative imagery, and lyrics that touch the heart, from the historic Apollo Theater to the open air of Washington Square Park, from the streets of New Orleans to the Rocky Mountains, from California wine country to New England forests. Woody Platt of the Steep Canyon Rangers says his interest was piqued when he came across their live show at the Asheville Regional Airport of all places. “I checked out 5J Barrow and was totally impressed; killer vocals, cools songs and overall great energy, vibe.” The duo of Eryn Murman and Jason Hite who originally formed the band in 2011, forged an even stronger bond when they married in 2017. Since then, they’ve toured the country and discovered new inspiration in the mountains of Asheville, NC, a supportive artistic community that resembles the old Village vibe that sparked 5j’s values in independent artistry, community and collaboration. They still travel and tour, a favorite of Sofar Sounds in dozens of cities, and play diverse music venues, house concerts, and festivals all over North America. 5j Barrow was named “Best Band in NY” after winning The Greene Space WNYC/WQXR’s Battle of the Boroughs 2014. 5j Barrow released their debut album ‘From the Dim, Sweet Light’ in 2014, and their EP trilogy of The Journey Volumes 1, 2, and 3 were released from 2017-2019.

[POSTPONED] PATIO: Drunken Prayer

– ALL AGES- LIMITED PATIO SEATING IS FIRST COME FIRST SERVEDRUNKEN PRAYERDrunken Prayer transcends the bounds of Americana music. Morgan Geer, the wizard behind the curtain, writes songs that could emerge from a highly blissed-out biker bar or a swampy ashram.For the last year Morgan Geer has been working from his home studio with Paul Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Palace), building on drum tracks initially recorded in New Mexico at Empty House Studios, home of doom metal bands like OM and Sleep. The end result evokes an ominous acid Western feedback-and-driftwood aesthetic.The latest Drunken Prayer releases have been 2019’s acclaimed LP Cordelia Elsewhere mixed by Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, REM) and the ambitious 17 minute long death-raga, Electric Daddyland from 2021.Over the past two years, before the pandemic, Drunken Prayer played hundreds of shows across 18 countries and across the US at venues such as the Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon and San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. Geer’s music has been featured on AMC, NPR, WFMU and SiriusXM.On the side Geer is the lead guitar player for alt-country goths Freakwater and writes for different artists including the Brooklyn rock and soul phenom Bette Smith. Morgan has also been touring internationally, opening for and often joining the eccentric Handsome Family.Today Morgan splits time between Portland, OR and Asheville, NC.

PATIO: Drunken Prayer

Michigan Rattlers

– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYMICHIGAN RATTLERS Michigan Rattlers are a folk-rock band composed of Graham Young (guitar), Adam Reed (bass), Christian Wilder (piano), and Tony Audia (drums). Meeting as childhood friends, they began writing music and performing together in their hometown of Petoskey, Michigan. Their self-titled Michigan Rattlers EP attracted reviews from No Depression, Bluegrass Situation, B3 Science, and Rolling Stone, who named the band one of their “Ten New Country Artists You Need To Know” in 2016. They’ve continued to evolve beyond the “country” label ever since. In 2018, following a summer tour that included stops at Bonnaroo, Firefly and Electric Forest; the band released their debut full length album, ‘Evergreen’. “This is a band with solid songwriting chops and instrumental skills,” says No Depression. “‘Evergreen’ shows this four-piece from Petoskey, Michigan making a stand, making their way.” Growing into a more expansive sound, the band’s second full length album, ‘That Kind of Life’, was released in 2021 to positive reviews. With live shows being at the core of the band’s identity, the Rattlers continue to tour relentlessly, bringing their honest songwriting and high energy rock n roll to stages across the U.S and Canada. OLD SAPPoet from Chicago, rambled out to Montana, cut a banjo from a tamarack, strings across the country, foot like a freight train, voice rushing down over lush Appalachia, sings a thrush tune through the rush hour and into your long-forgotten prairie dreams.Folk. Folk Rock. Americana.

BAILEN

– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYBAILEN Tired Hearts, the new album from rising indie-pop power trio, BAILEN, delivers a dazzling set of songs that navigates the space between the heart’s expectation and the head’s sober reality. New York based siblings, Daniel, David, and Julia’s second full-length album for Fantasy beats with empathy, vulnerability, and resolve. At times intricate and playful, measured and elaborate, the 12 original songs on Tired Hearts wrestle with an uncertain future where ethics and morality—both communal and personal—seem to be constantly shifting. Locating one’s compass amidst the chaos—a world-wide pandemic, toxic social media culture, economic insecurity and political turbulence—is at the LP’s core. Producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Snail Mail) who, along with the band, co-produced Tired Hearts, helped to expand BAILEN’s ambition beyond what they initially envisioned. “We’d played the last record live a hundred times before recording it, so we tracked a lot of it live,” Daniel explains. “With Brad, we took a collagist’s approach. It freed us up to explore and be sonically adventurous.” Cook encouraged the trio to experiment with how they sing. “We deliberately used the more vulnerable parts of our voices,” Julia says. “After not being in the studio for years, we were in vulnerable places, and this record reflects the frustration and tenderness of that time.” “We pushed ourselves lyrically, it’s the most exposed, intimate music we’ve written as a result,” David affirms. Indeed, BAILEN’s radiant harmonies, spare, synth-driven tracks, and futuristic, ear-catching arrangements usher in Tired Heart’s exhilarating avant-pop evolution. “Shadows,” affectingly captures “the moment you see someone and realize you can spend the rest of your life with them.” “Nothing Left to Give” echoes of HAIM’s sparkling pop, while “These Bones,” contains a hint of Phoebe Bridgers’ hushed intimacy. On Tired Hearts, their exquisite and thought-provoking new album, BAILEN learns how to dream in the face of life’s uncertainty and in the process, moves forward aware, resilient, and hopeful. “This album is a breakthrough for us,” Daniel says. “It’s been a rocky road, but we’re really grateful that it’s led us here.”ELIZABETH MOEN From her life to the studio, Elizabeth Moen carries with her a certain kind of street-smart wisdom: She knows when you’re on your bullshit and she is also highly sensitive to when her own actions fall short. This perceptive quality is a gift and a burden. The burden is that she is too smart, too tuned into reality to lie to herself and put on a facade that makes it easier to pass for ok. The gift is that instead of giving in, Moen channels life’s turmoil into a constant process of growth–as a songwriter, an arranger, and powerful lyricist.

The Band of Heathens

– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYTHE BAND OF HEATHENS With their eighth studio album, Simple Things, The Band of Heathens came home—geographically, as they returned to their longtime base of Austin for the recording; sonically, in an embrace of the rootsy, guitar-based rock with which they made their name; and thematically, with lyrics that speak to appreciating friends and family and our limited time on this planet. It’s a confident, assured statement of a group finding its place in the world amid uncertain and troubled times. “It was a return to embracing our influences, our natural instincts, the way we sound when we get on stage,” says guitarist-vocalist Gordy Quist. “Many times in the past, we’d take a song and stretch to make it into something else sonically, because that’s exciting and fun to do in the studio. This time around, we tried to use some restraint and embraced our first instincts, trusting the songs were strong enough. With the subject matter, there’s a sentiment of focusing on what’s important as we go through this journey together—don’t waste time, because this is all we’ve got.” “Gordy and I each have a natural sound when we sing, but there’s something even more special and unique when our voices blend together” says guitarist-vocalist Ed Jurdi. “So it was just about harnessing and embracing that. Good, mid-tempo rock and roll—that’s our breadbasket, and there’s not a lot of that music being made right now.” Though the members of The Band of Heathens now live scattered across the country, coming back to Austin (where they first formed in the early 2000s when Quist and Jurdi were among four songwriters playing regular weekly sets at the late, lamented club Momo’s) was crucial to the making of Simple Things. “The city has grown and undergone many changes over the years, but the intangibles that make Austin a unique place are still alive and well,” says Jurdi. “I feel like the band wouldn’t have come together anywhere else. As Austin has evolved, the band has evolved too, and now coming back feels like a very full circle moment.” They worked in a studio called the Finishing School, which was founded by the band’s close friend and sometime producer George Reiff; Quist took over the studio after Reiff passed away in 2017, and upgraded with gear including three of Freddie Mercury’s actual vocal mics, which have previously been used on recordings by David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, and AC/DC. “It’s our own communal space and we’re very comfortable there,” says Quist. In some ways, the new album is a logical extension of Remote Transmissions, the livestream series that Band of Heathens started soon after the pandemic shut down the world in 2020 (and which was documented in last year’s Remote Transmissions, Vol. 1 album). Unable to tour, the group convened every week for a year, playing covers of songs new and old, responding to a disorienting time by reconnecting with music they love.THEM COULEE BOYS Soren Staff and Beau Janke—co-founders of folk/rock/Americana outfit Them Coulee Boys—met as camp counselors in northern Wisconsin in 2011. Their weekend workshopping of Avett Brothers tunes led to original songs and adding Soren’s brother Jens on mandolin. As the years grew, the band turned into a more rollicking outfit, adding Neil Krause on electric bass and Stas Hable on drums.

Andrew Duhon + Abe Partridge

– ALL AGES- SEATED SHOW- LIMITED NUMBER OF PREMIUM SEATING TICKETS AVAILABLEANDREW DUHON It was Leo Tolstoy who said “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town,” and in the case of Andrew Duhon and his latest album Emerald Blue, both instances are true. Duhon temporarily left New Orleans, his longtime home and musical muse in 2019, finding himself inspired by the landscape of the Pacific Northwest and notably, its colors—a hue he describes as ‘emerald blue’ for which the album is named, the same shade looking back at him in his partner’s eyes. Had he overlooked the specific shade of her eyes while living below sea level? Or did the change of location open his mind more acutely? The record does just that: examine the familiar in the context of the unfamiliar. Emerald Blue is a probing appreciation of the dailiness of life; a note-taking exercise in living. ABE PARTRIDGE Abe Partridge is a heralded musician, singer/songwriter, visual artist and podcaster based in Mobile, Alabama. His 2018 debut, Cotton Fields and Blood For Days, earned him rave reviews, with Tony Paris saying in Bitter Southerner, “He plays guitar the same way he writes lyrics, bashing the strings with abandon until they’re just about to come loose, then beautifully picking the notes until every last word falls into place. More to the point, Partridge writes to make you sit up and think. He wants to jar your reality. Sometimes, his lyrics are sly and subtle. Sometimes they come at you with a roar and thunder, as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were approaching, and the heavens were opening up to herald a warning.” Since the release of his debut, Partridge has toured relentlessly, including several tours of the Netherlands and the U.K. developing a reputation for moving, passionate, and sometimes comedic, performances at prestigious songwriter festivals including 30A Songwriters Festival and Americana Music Fest, and is a regular at Bluebird Café in Nashville and Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta. He has performed on the syndicated radio programs Mountain Stage and Woodsongs Olde Time Radio Hour and shared the stage with Morgan Wade, Paul Thorn, Steve Poltz, Dan Bern, Jerry Joseph and more. In September of 2022, Partridge released the “Alabama Astronaut” podcast, where he explores songs previously undocumented at churches in Appalachia as well as the culture around the handling of serpents. It was in the Top Ten documentary podcasts on Apple Podcasts within days of the release and now has over 30K downloads and a 4.9 star rating. Partridge will also release his 3rd full-length recording, Love In The Dark, on Baldwin County Public Records on April 14, 2023.

Little Stranger’s Cool Kids Tour

– ALL AGES- STANDING ROOM ONLYLITTLE STRANGERBorn and raised in Philly, crash landed in Charleston, Kevin and John Shields are breaking into previously uncharted waters with their quirky indie hip-hop group, Little Stranger. Between John’s melodic singer-songwriter magnetism, Kevin’s in-your-face delivery, and an overall undeniable groove, this duo is sure to get any audience up and moving. Stylistically reminiscent of Gorillaz and Odelay-era Beck, Little Stranger delivers a fresh take on melodic hip-hop. Every track brings the uniqueness and strangeness that their name implies.For the past few years, the duo has perfected their live performance by playing over 100 shows per year prior to the coronavirus shutdown. The group also puts a big focus on creating arresting visual experiences through their music videos, their own eccentric television program (LSTV), and in-house graphics. Between their out-of-the-box creative endeavors and an ever-increasing arsenal of new tunes, Little Stranger is poised to make 2023 another slam dunk.JARVPIP THE PANSYPip the Pansy (Erin Burchfield) (fka Wrenn, 25) was born in Syracuse, New York, moving to Woodstock, Georgia when she was 10. She played flute in High School but quit the orchestra, veering to visual arts. She then quit visual arts to do theatre. She quit theatre to sing in the chorus. She attended Art School at the University of Georgia to study photography. After graduating she decided that music was her path and hasn’t looked back since.DAMN SKIPPY Alex Veazey aka Damn Skippy is a hip hop artist based out of Charleston SC. As a member of the Holy City Hip Hop Committee he spends most of his time holding it down like Gravity.

Genre: Concerts