Secret Stages 2016

A collective of stories and experiences presented in an enjoyable pattern and tempo. Most of which use western culture music as the song writing basis. :)

“Stewart’s new music is super catchy, exciting and energetic.” 

— PopMatters

Like the tides under the Gulf of Mexico moon, like a sea of bodies undulating under the strobing lights of some clandestine New York city disco, Will Stewart’s Faultline EP is in constant motion. It’s the sound of transition, persistent and occasionally chaotic, of inevitable change in the wake of charting bold new directions in life and music, past projects and pre-ordained centers of musical cool be damned.

Late last year, just as Stewart’s Nashville retro-soul outfit Willie and the Giant seemed poised for a breakthrough—having been named “New Band of the Week” by influential London newspaper The Guardian—the band broke up, unable to reconcile its creative differences. “Until recently, the idea of being in a band was always more appealing to me than being a solo artist—that feeling of camaraderie, of being brothers in arms,” Stewart says. “But these days, I feel more confident in my music and songwriting. I feel confident in being in complete creative control. It’s liberating.”

Striking out on his own also inspired Stewart to move from trendy Nashville back to his old hometown of Birmingham, Ala. “I don’t want to sound cynical,” he says, “but Nashville was just a sea of poseurs. The things I’d originally found charming about the city have been pilfered and castrated by every industry entity in town. All the coolness is being co-opted right out of it. I mean, there are still a lot great bands and people I love, but it’s honestly killing the vibe.”

As for Birmingham, Stewart feels much more connected to the scene down there, where he also plays with his friend Janet Simpson-Templin (of Wooden Wand) in dreamy indie-rock duo Timber. “Birmingham just feels like home,” Stewart says. “There’s so much amazing music going on under the radar, I’ve got a ton of friends here who are in bands—when I moved back, I fell right into the mix again.”

Before he departed Nashville, though, Stewart cut the three-song Faultline EP at Penny Sound with producer/engineer Mark Petaccia, drummer for powerhouse rock & roll trio The Wans, who’s also made a name for himself mixing and engineering records by artists such as Yo La Tengo, Dungen, Caitlin Rose, Jack White, Lambchop and Jason Isbell. 

The first song they laid down for Faultline was spooky, acid-drenched Brit-invasion vamp “A Week Ago.” “With that song, I’d been listening to a lot of 13th Floor Elevators and Captain Beefheart,” Stewart says, “and I’d just purchased a Rhythm Ace, this old ‘70s drum machine, to help me with writing. It only has four or five settings, so it’s really primitive as far as the beats it can make. I think JJ Cale used it on a bunch of stuff—just a four-on-the-floor beat.”

Stewart handles all the vocals and guitar on the EP, plus some bass, while Pettacia plays drums and organ on “A Week Ago,” and Stewart’s old Willie and the Giant rhythm section Mac Kramer and Grant Prettyman tackle drums and bass, respectively, on garagey jangle-rock throwback “Keyhole” and the EP’s pulsing indie-disco-pop title track.

“The songs were all over the place, stylistically,“ Stewart says. “The fact that the EP sounds so cohesive is a testament to Mark’s ability. With his production style and skill as an engineer, he was able to glue everything together and help me realize my vision.”

Faultline—the debut solo release from Will Stewart—is out April 15.

“…irresistible, haunting chorus, and a soothing, lilting vibe that brings to mind the great Tom Petty song, ‘It’s Good To Be King.’” 

— NPR

Bassh is a group with no rules. No limits. No agenda beyond making something loud, raw and rooted in synthesizers, distorted guitars, sweeping melodies, and the thrill that comes with creating art for the sheer fun of it. The thrill began during the winter months of 2014, when Jimmy Brown and CJ Hardee began teaming up with GRAMMY-nominated producer and Band of Horses member Bill Reynolds. The result was something totally unique: a sound that was aggressive, moody, melodic, atmospheric, and altogether weird. A human sound with electronic elements.

“Carlos Charme & Paco are two up-and-coming rappers from Birmingham, USA . They are the headliners of a close-knit group called ‘The Monastery’ which consists of good friends.” 

— Hip Hop Core, Netherlands

The Monastery is a hip hop collective founded in Birmingham, AL, in 2010, centered around the up -and-coming duo Paco (22) and Carlos Charm (21).

“We chose the name “The Monastery” because the monastery is a facility where monks live, meditate, and reach enlightenment. We felt that music, a universal language, was the channel we could strongest help those around us come together and attain a higher understanding of the world, of others, and of ourselves.

“Since the birth of the group, the rappers have shown growth and promise in their aspirations, each dropping two solo mixtapes.

Paco released “Tales of a High School Nothing,” during the fall season of 2011, and Carlos Charm, who was going by his real na me, Kieron, dropped “The New Testa ment” shortly after, at the beginning of 2012.

After changing his name to Carlos Charm, Kieron released “The Feast and the Famine” during the spring of 2014, but Paco would not release his second effort, “By Any Dreams,” until early 2015.

Then, on June 9, 2015, The Monastery released the collaborative effort, “The Genesis” with strong hits such as “Move (Whack N*ggas) and “Just Goin’ In” as crowd favorites.

In light of the Valentine’s Day holiday, Carlos Charm released his official EP “The 5 Stages of Heartbreak,” which chronicled the emotions he conveyed while dealing with his first breakup.

“IGP has already amassed a sizeable repertoire, including works by Christopher Rouse, John Cage, Paul Lansky, Steve Reich and David Lang. But this concert revealed the ensemble’s ability to grasp new music by home-grown talent. It shows flexibility and a searching curiosity that is rare in musicians so young.” 

— Michael Huebner

Iron Giant Percussion, or abbreviated in the most confusing manner possible, FeGP, is a contemporary ensemble based in Birmingham, consisting of Sam Herman, Brett Huffman, Seth Noble, and Justin Wallace. Established in 2011 to perform a collaborative piece with Sanspointe Dance Company, they have subsequently presented many ambitious concerts in Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theater, Syndicate Lounge, and The Spring Street Firehouse, among other venues – each featuring some of the most influential and challenging percussion music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Iron Giant’s energetic and engaging performances aim to bring an answer to the most common question regarding percussion music: “Is that actually a thing?” That answer is a resounding, unequivocal “Yes it is!”

“Sort of sounds like if Phineas convinced Ferb to make a vat of peyote soup in 2069.” 

— Stomp and Stammer

Wieuca first appeared in a sweltering Atlanta basement in 2012, and has since moved to Athens, GA and released several attempts to translate life’s general misgivings into the .WAV format.

“Torres learned early on that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. As a rapper and recording artist, he is a self-made man, self-distributing his own albums, booking his own tours, even handling his own album artwork.”

— Nicole Rupersburg (Creative Exchange)

Floco Torres, a Willingboro New Jersey native began writing raps for and with his friends shortly after an English teacher in high school told him his dreams of being a journalist may not be the best way to go. Playing instruments like violin & trumpet as a child, music wasn’t a far-fetched path but it wasn’t his first (or second) on the list. In 2008, Torres moved from Willingboro to Atlanta Georgia for a marketing internship with a major record label. On the drive down to Atlanta, that plan fell through and this landed him in Macon Georgia with family. Floco quickly got to work and landed an opening slot during Macon’s largest music festival; Bragg Jam. 

In 6 years, he has released a number of projects independently which led him to winning Best Local Hip-Hop artist 4 years in a row as well Best Local album three times. In 2011, Floco won the “Gateway Macon Music Competition” for his song “Cherry Street”, an upbeat tune about his experiences throughout the city. The song went on to win 6 local ADDY awards (Advertising/Design), 1 regional & one national Telly award. In 2015, Floco released two EP’s produced by DJ Shawty Slim (Grammy nominated musician B.O.B’s touring DJ) and after a positive buzz from both, Torres looks to reach a larger audience on the road in 2016.

“…very winning, psychedelic flavored… crafty pop music”

— Ann Powers, NPR

Brett Harris is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Durham, NC. In 2010 his debut LP Man of Few Words was featured by Paste Magazine’s “Best of What’s Next”, NPR’s “All Songs Considered: Second Stage”, and made several “Best of” lists, drawing comparisons to the work of Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Harry Nilsson, and Emitt Rhodes. Additionally, Brett has participated as a core band member in live performances of Big Star’s Third, playing throughout the US in addition to the UK, Spain, and Australia. He has also served as a touring member of Jangle Pop progenitors The dB’s. Brett has recently completed work on a number of projects, including 2015’s critically revered Mr. Sunshine EP and a new LP, Up in the Air, released in March of 2016.

“There is a quiet seething barely contained on the newest from Jaye Jayle that creates a sense of brooding tension that never lets up. What Jaye Jayle do so well is to play in that place where the storm is always about to crash down, where the moment is always imminent.” 

— Syd Bishop, LEO Weekly

“Anyone who is using more than two chords is just showing off.” 

Woodie Guthrie’s famous quote became a mantra for young musicians who rallied around folk’s austerity, and later inspired a new generation of artists who basked in punk’s primitivism. Guthrie’s songs may not be an influence on Louisville’s Jaye Jayle, but his call for simplicity as a deliberate choice versus a matter of mere ability resonated with the veterans of Kentucky’s dark indie scene. Naming themselves Jaye Jayle as a pen name or a pseudonym to veer away from a traditional band moniker, the group sought to eliminate unnecessary variables and deconstruct their compositions down to their most concentrated essence. Jaye Jayle owe less to our nation’s roots music and more to peripheral rock bands that have taken the “less is more” attitude to its furthest reaches. Imagine Spacemen 3 without the saturated wall of distortion, or Neu! without the upbeat motorik pulse, or Lungfish without the shamanistic howls. But these reference points seem either too bombastic or too lush. Perhaps a nexus of The Troggs’ ham-fisted drumming, Angels of Light’s ominous twang, and Suicide’s swaths of negative space hits closer to the mark, but even that doesn’t do the band justice. Jaye Jayle’s debut album House Cricks and Other Excuses To Get Out is an exercise in tension and restraint, a tightrope act between singer-songwriter traditions and art rock experimentation, and an intersection of Southern cultural permutations and otherworldly sounds.

“Hello Ocho has long since left that landmark in the rear view, hurtling through the cosmos like a psychedelic freighter with little regard for traditional song and genre forms.” 

— Big Hassle

Totally unrestrained creative expression is a standard that any artist would strive for. It just so happens that Atlanta quintet Hello Ocho has long since left that landmark in the rear view, hurtling through the cosmos like a psychedelic freighter with little regard for traditional song and genre forms.

The latest product of their efforts, the self-released sophomore album In Portuguese, is a sprawling, dramatic gem, a kaleidoscopic juggernaut of strange and brave proportions. Amidst the album’s warm, enveloping dissonance, subtle nods to pop, jazz, tropicalia, krautrock, and a profound cinematic Scope® find their way to the surface. Comparisons to Can, Deerhoof, Stereolab and even Connan Mockasin aren’t unwarranted, but Hello Ocho pledges allegiance to no one sound or style – they’ve made it their mission to absorb all they can from every corner of the sonic universe, if only to see what comes out the other end.

“How did you do that?” 

— The Conecuh Times

The Lost Controls formed in 2015 when the group’s members decided to play an impromptu first show with only a week to write songs. Deadlines can be a blessing. The band deftly careens through old school verse/chorus/verses with reverb drenched guitars and a penchant for big endings. Song subjects include road rage, enlightenment, wine fraud, and arson. Look for a debut full length in mid 2016.

“On stage, this openness makes him magnetic. The smokers come in off the patio, the drinkers leave the bar stools they’ve posted up on all night. He often makes unflinching eye contact with attendees, and the girls swoon accordingly. He’s smooth, sure, but he’s not looking to break any hearts. Really, Lando’s just comfortable on stage. It’s a cliché, but he says it’s his home.”

— Heather Hoch, Tucson Weekly

The 24 year old, Chicago born & raised rap artist/songwriter, Lando Chill has been making waves & turning heads in the deep Southwest, calling Tucson, Arizona his current musical home base of operation. Even whilst growing up in a choir & theatre orientated background due to his mother, music wasn’t a prerogative until, by chance, he was cast in a University of Arizona Film School short in 2013 & tasked to lend his voice. From that point on, Lando has been on an enthralling journey through music, touring the country in 2015 & developing new records with his band.

“Asheville, N.C.’s Jon Stickley has been playing in bluegrass bands for years, and is known as a progressive and adventurous flatpicker, but his musical roots and influences range widely to include rap, grunge, punk and more. When he teamed up with fiddler Lyndsay Pruett and drummer Patrick Armitage — originally as a lighthearted side project — the end result is a wonderfully unique sound that defies easy categorization. “Point To Point,” from the Jon Stickley Trio’s new album Lost At Last, is an original composition that captures the group’s fiery virtuosity perfectly.”

— NPR Music’s Heavy Rotation, Linda Fahey, Folk Alley

ASHEVILLE — Jon Stickley Trio is making waves with the independent and fan-funded release of their 2nd album, Lost at Last, on October 6, 2015. The originality and sheer energy of this genre-bending ensemble serves as a welcome wake up call for those who experience it. With roots in gypsy jazz, bluegrass, and hip-hop in an “exhilarating all-acoustic swirl” (Acoustic Guitar Magazine), Jon Stickley Trio combines Jon Stickley’s rapid-fire flatpicking guitar with the sultry and wild, yet refined, melodies of Lyndsay Pruett on violin set over the deep groove of Patrick Armitage on drums. The three have fused their collective styles into a repertoire of exciting and innovative original music along with some captivating covers. Lost at Last was recorded in the band’s hometown of Asheville, NC at the iconic Echo Mountain Studios under the watchful eye of producer Dave King (The Bad Plus).

The New York Times’ Nate Chinen writes “… there’s hardy cohesion among the players — no less on the Gypsy standard ‘Valse de Wasso’ than on ‘Darth Radar’ a turbocharged original with a ska upbeat and a shredding melody. And when Mr. Stickley and friends turn to bluegrass, as on ‘The High Road,’ by Tim O’Brien, they sound both respectful and free.” Premier Guitar Magazine also took note of “Darth Radar,” with Jason Shadrick calling it, “a rapid-fire take that moves from a serious ska beat to burning surf-style runs that would make Dick Dale proud.” Jon hosted a lesson at Premier Guitar’s website on one of his favorite techniques which uses the guitar’s natural harmonics to create a melody.

Lost at Last garnered the attention of NPR’s World Cafe to invite them to be part of their “Sense of Place” series in which XPN Radio (out of Philadelphia) brought their crew, including longtime host David Dye, to The Grey Eagle in Asheville in February 2016 for a sold out evening of entertainment including Jon Stickley Trio.

NPR Music featured “Point to Point” off Lost at Last on their program Heavy Rotation with Folk Alley’s Linda Fahey writing, “Jon Stickley has been playing in bluegrass bands for years, and is known as a progressive and adventurous flatpicker, but his musical roots and influences range widely to include rap, grunge, punk and more… [It’s] a wonderfully unique sound that defies easy categorization.”

Over the course of this album the trio has produced two “official” music videos. “Point to Point” recently was awarded three prizes at the 2016 Music Video Asheville including Judges Choice, People’s Choice and Best Soundtrack. Folk Alley premiered the video for “Rice Dream,” writing “Jon Stickley’s guitar harmonics and Lyndsay Pruett’s violin harmonics twine seamlessly together, creating an almost otherworldly atmosphere and the end result is a bit unnerving in its intensity.”

Asheville-area NPR affiliate, WNCW, consistently sings praise of Jon Stickley Trio. The band placed #13 in WNCW’s Top 100 of 2015. Music Director and Morning Host Martin Anderson says, “Asheville has a force to be reckoned with in the tight three-piece perfection of the Jon Stickley Trio. It’s pretty incredible how closely the three play with their unique blend of Appalachian, jazz, maybe even prog-rock styles.” The Trio also placed in a couple of the WNCW Staff Top Ten Picks of 2015.

In December 2015, Jon Stickley Trio made an appearance on Nashville’s Music City Roots. “I made a point to get a long interview in with the Jon Stickley Trio before the show, because their debut album Lost At Last has had a big impact on me and my music geek friends. There’s a ton of thought and skill here, but the music also glides and grooves in ways that anyone can relate to,” says the show co-host and journalist Craig Havighurst. He goes on, “Stickley is a super-resourceful acoustic guitarist who uses the instrument in many surprising ways and whose timing is just flawless. Fiddler Lyndsay Pruett puts deep thought into her flowing solos, plus she adds little flourishes and sudden stops that elevate the music. Drummer Patrick Armitage studied for six years with Dave King, the astonishing drummer with The Bad Plus, and it shows in his phrasing and decisiveness.”

During their Music City Roots performance the Trio played three songs and received three standing ovations from packed audience. They also played a new song that will be on their forthcoming record coming out in the Fall of 2016 entitled “Echo Location.” 

Prior to that performance and bringing at all full circle, Jon Stickley Trio returned to the setting of where Lost at Last was recorded, Echo Mountain Recording Studios, and performed for almost two hours for a live webcast on IAMAVL.com’s “Echo Sessions.”

“It’s rare that a song strikes so perfect a balance between foreboding and sensual, but Thayer Sarrano gets it just right on “Shaky,” the title track from her new album. The tune is a study in contrasts, pitting hard edges against the soft allure of suggestion as Sarrano wraps her whispery drawl around a flat, forceful rhythm while vaporous tendrils of steel guitar float past.” 

— Paste Magazine

Thayer Sarrano is forging her own path into a southern- psych-dreamland, bottling up ghosts and bringing them to life through her ethereal desert rock hymns. The tones tremble and bend, layered in swirling atmospherics. The angelic voice will pull you in close to share devastatingly beautiful and heart-breaking secrets, while shadowy figures dance in the background. This is music that envelops the listener and may transport you to another world or time. A magical place that is melancholic and haunting, yet bursting with heavenly light.

With her latest release, Shaky, The Athens, GA multi-instrumentalist sounds, more than ever, like where she is from. She grew up in a monastery and then the swamp in southern, coastal Georgia. Classically trained as a child, awakened by Grunge in the 90s, with chanting forever in her subconscious, she had always written instrumental compositions and poetry. Songwriting came when she landed in the vibrant musical community of Athens, GA and began to collaborate with friends to form her own band, as well as establish herself as a studio/touring session player (Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, T. Hardy Morris, of Montreal, Dave Marr, David Barbe, many more). Debut album, King was released in 2009 dubbing her “The new Queen of Shoegaze” – Americana UK. The sparse and raw album was recorded live in her living room in one day. Her follow up LP, Lift Your Eyes to the Hills , (2012), enters more complex arrangements and features the single “The Bend,“ written for Groninger Museum, The Netherlands, leading to consistent European touring. The record was produced by Thayer and Hank Sullivant (Kuroma, MGMT), and was an independent release as a charitable campaign for Nuci’s Space’s teenage rock camp, “Camp Amped,” of which Thayer is passionately affiliated. “Featuring heavily spiritual themes, it could have collapsed under it’s own weight, but ‘Hill’s manages to maintain a startling lightness of being.“ -Flagpole Magazine. Now, with Shaky, we see Sarrano at her bravest and most vulnerable.

Written in an unstable period of much loss, Shaky is still a record of grace and perseverance. The honest, painted lyrics weave the mystical with personal experiences. But to Thayer, it’s all real. “I’ll feel like I have to just make this quilt out of these patches of visions I’ve collected and then suddenly the song is finished and I realize it’s all true…” We start to believe her that these seemingly abstract visions are really happening, and in this other world we see pictures we can relate to. Pictures of dissolving relationships in “Crease”, “your memory unties my cells/ it breaks the line from your heart to mine…” Of the elusive in title track, “I trace your echo I follow your lead/ you’re shaky shaky but you settle me.” Of the search for something greater in “Glimpses,” “there’s a world at the same time as this one/it’s bright it trembles it glistens,” and of the beautiful ether in “Lost Art,” “their hands are open, call to the wild/ layer landscapes, breaking the sky/ I remember them from when I was a child/ it’s the same little image from inside my eyes…“ 

Dovetailing the thick twang of the country with the airy, echoing, spacious feeling of an empty church, Sarrano has carved out a pocket in which her otherworldly music has room to breathe. Or perhaps the pocket was already there and Sarrano stumbled upon it, becoming a vector for something deep and soulful and strange. Regardless, once you’ve stepped into that pocket with her, you’re bound to want to return.

“As pairings go, you’d be hard pressed to find two Atlanta hip-hop artists better suited to collaborate than Yamin Semali and producer Illastrate.”

— immersiveatlanta.com

Friends for over 10 years, Illastrate and Yamin decided to join forces and create records that would showcase the best elements of what they enjoy in Hiphop rather than showcase themselves as separate artists. It is the love of the craft that forged and strengthened their relationship over the years, and now that same spirit has made Working ClassMusic Group’s brand much stronger as well.Having released an LP, EP and 7” record in less than one year’s time, the two have been giving the world their best, all while priming their audience for more talent from the WCMG camp. Both producers, Yamin Semali and Illastrate leave no stone unturned nor vinyl unplayed in the quest for the perfect beat, while Yamin adds his cuts, scratches and rhymes to Illastrate’s hypnotic, layered production.

“Null has one of the most interesting approaches to heavy music among bands in Birmingham. Slow, dark, minimal, haunting, pounding every chord into your head to maximum effect.” 

— We Have Signal

Formed in Birmingham nearly a decade ago by Kevin Wright and Carter Wilson, NULL is a fixture in Birmingham’s rich underground music community. With the addition of Plate Six members Brad Davis and David Hickox, NULL releases their first LP, Sleepwalking Days, via IFB/Social Cancer Records in May 2016. The album showcases the down tempo, melodic, yet densely heavy sound that has been the calling card of this current line up of the long running Birmingham band.

“The album pulls inspiration from Adam’s wide-array of eclectic influences found in his father’s record collection: The experimental tendencies of indie-rock pioneers’ Velvet Underground, the bubblegum smack of the Beach Boys, Beatles-esque harmonies and the crisp, power-pop guitar riffs of Memphis’ own Big Star.”

— USA Today College

If front man Tiger Adams sounds like a ball of stress, then he is rolling down a grassy hill, and the sun is shining. Hear the birds. Feel the dirt. It’s kind of nice, damp, between the fingers. China Gate’s debut album Hunca Munca, out now, sounds like beautiful rebirth, after winter. 

“I was going to the doctor once a week thinking I was dying of something new each time,” Tiger Adams says. “I wanted to write a song to help me surrender to those things in my life in a nondramatic and depressing way. The rest of the album is very much about the same themes and probably dives deeper.” (via USA Today)

China Gate is Tiger Adams (Guitar and Vocals) // Walt Phelan (Lead Guitar) // Conner Booth (Bass) // Harry Neblett (Keyboard) // Kyle Neblett (Drums)

“While Americana music is littered with melancholy tales of drinking, loss, and broken romance, Squires delivers raw, concise lyrics – ungarnished by flowery rhetoric that candidly spell out tragedy. In a lyrical style similar to Michael Rank, Squires relates sadness in a way that listeners can relate too.” 

— Chris Dishman, No Depression

New Bern, North Carolina native and haunting folk troubadour Jeremy Squires engages listeners with his uniquely dark and beautifully vulnerable songs. On February 19, 2016 Shaker Steps Records (Lexington, KY) releases Jeremy’s 3rd full length album Shadows. The album represents a continued brutally honest meditation on confusion, heartache, and loss. Candid melancholy masterpieces like “Carry You,” “Hourglass,” and “Your Love” leave listeners speechless. Enjoy Shadows with a side of quiet contemplation.

Grey Watson has lived in Seoul, Korea, for nearly five years after growing up in Birmingham, Alabama. Initially playing solo shows under the name, ‘grey of the 80’s,’ he quickly became a part of the underground music scene and formed the band, The Killer Drones. By the time the Killer Drones quit last summer, work on his fist solo album, ‘Ruins,’ was underway. The album is now available at all your favorite music distribution outlets.

He sometimes plays with the Visions and the Visions are all featured on ‘Ruins.’ The members are all expatriates in Seoul from various parts of the North America, including: Hawaii, New York State and Newfoundland. Nice spread.

Available for band or solo bookings including but not limited to: county fairs, amusement park showcases, rodeos and buffet restaurant grand openings.

“Combines the sarcasm of Vampire Weekend with the more accessibly baroque style of the mid-career Beatles, and occasionally leaning towards the atmospheric a-la-Real Estate. It’s instantly catchy and carefully produced.” 

— 9:30 Club

Sleepwalkers’ debut album Greenwood Shade gained the Richmond, VA-based band high profile fans including singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, who tweeted “this record is like the lost friend I was looking for but didn’t know,” and their upbeat, infectious melodies and raw instrumentals led to incredible organic growth fueled mainly by word of mouth. As they gear up for a label release of the initially self-released Greenwood Shade, Sleepwalkers have hit the road hard, channeling their unparalleled live energy into shows across the country.

At the core, Sleepwalkers are a band of brothers from Richmond, Virginia. As with any pair of brothers, there’s always a mythology.

In other bands with other names, Michael and Austin York wrote and performed songs years ahead of their chronological age. The band broke up and the brothers locked themselves in a studio every night for god knows how long. In 2014, they reemerged with Greenwood Shade: a perfect-sounding album that makes you feel like Todd Rundgren should have toured with Whitney Houston.

Like Romulus and Remus, they were raised by wolves. Like Orville and Wilbur Wright, they’re self-taught. Like Ray and Dave Davies, they write incredibly expansive pop songs that comfortably straddle a half-dozen genres.

Sleepwalkers are very Fleetwood in every sense of the word: the songs are airtight and delicately arranged like Tusk and they glide past you with the velour and confidence of a four thousand-pound Cadillac. All of it feels painstakingly luxe and timeless, but not all sentimental. It’s also fun as hell.

17 year old rapper, producer, playwright and collage artist born in St. Louis, MO and raised in St. Petersburg, FL. Started rapping, after his short lived ballet career.When he went into high school he began rapping and making beats again (Aug 2011). This is when the Nü Age Syndicate was officially formed by Watson and longtime friend, Kanisono.

Watson released his first rap demo tape “Carnie” on his 15th birthday (March 16th, 2012) from which the single “Hobo” spawns. He also releases his first in a series of instrumental tapes, the Guru series in August of that year.

Fast forward to Halloween and he releases his 2ndrap project spanning 21 tracks, “Phantom” (October 31st, 2012). His close friend Tulsi Maya, an artist under the guise of Prettywhores, directed and edited the video to the title track from the project, “Phantom”, which was released the next year (January 11th, 2013); also his most notorious to date. Videos “Kudo” (December 2nd, 2012) and “Shapeshifter” (March 12th, 2013) were also released. The release of the 2nd volume of the “Guru” series follows shortly after (July 11th, 2013). Quiet for a couple of months, he teams up with independent label Hot Record Société, manned by frequent collaborator Art Vandelay, and releases and instrumental project Space Nobility (December 15, 2013) and continues to do cover art for releases through HRS.

In 2014, he released his 3rdrap project “Tin Wooki” (March 9th, 2014), which spans 28 tracks and is broken down into 5 different acts. He also released two instrumental EPs entitled “my girlfriend made me drop this” (July 8, 2014) and “Guru Volume 3” (August 18th, 2014) along with stray tracks like “Andromida” and “Fantastic”.

“Ancient Warfare have hit upon a singular lonesome-highway energy, the kind that you can study but cannot fake.” 

— PITCHFORK MAGAZINE (album rating 7.3) 

Based in Lexington, KY, Ancient Warfare are currently promoting their Summer 2015 Alias Records release, The Pale Horse, recorded with Duane Lundy ( Jim James, Ben Sollee, Vandaveer). Since 2011, they have developed a fierce reputation for hard work and dynamic performance, sharing stages with artists such as Raveonettes, Heartless Bastards, The War on Drugs, Chelsea Wolfe and Lucius. Ancient Warfare’s live show ebbs and flows from hushed harmony vocals to austere, tube-driven waves of sound.

Throughout the band’s debut record, The Pale Horse, singer/guitarist Echo Wilcox voices a vast landscape: last trials and bones, visions and paths to golden fields. Her lyrics are shared secrets, fevered dreams – all anchored by multi-instrumentalist Emily Hagihara (Jim James, Cheyenne Mize, Chico Fellini ), Derek Rhineheimer (Oh My Me) on bass and vox, Seth Murphy (Bear Medicine) on cello, french horn and accordion, and Drew English ( Cheyenne Mize, Natives, Gowns) on lead guitar, keys, vox. Wilcox and her band-mates are able to develop the distinctly cinematic, genre-bending sound of their debut album. 

“The apocalypse seems the most appropriate subject,” said Wilcox. “Not in an epic sense, but in a sense that it is all-encompassing.” Indeed, The Pale Horse lures the listener into a golden dreamscape only to darkly demand resolution to the inescapable, universal plagues of love and death. This apocalyptic thread running throughout reminds us that everything good and true can end; The wild beauty of a crashing wave will inevitably become the succumbing regress of the tide. Such polarizing themes are pervasive throughout the record. Wilcox’s yearning vocals fluctuate in kind, emitted sometimes as a howl as on “Dreamcatcher”, sometimes as a macabre rollick as on “Gunsmoke.” The resulting sound is of a gothic renaissance breed, evoking images of tribal eccentricity and dramatic decay…

“Skylar delivers an album of dramatic, honest, and often playful alt-country songs … the whole album is a spectacular introduction to a worthy, captivating new voice in Americana.”

— Consequence of Sound

“This is what I remember: two twin beds covered in my grandmother’s quilts, four windows opening out to the ghosts in the dark green Virginia forest, and a wooden crate of my parents’ vinyl one room away from my father’s decaying, prized, ancient Steinway upright.”

Skylar Gudasz offered up this childhood memory recently to D.C. blog The Vinyl District, by way of introducing herself to its readers. It’s a splendidly intimate window into the enchanting work of a singer, lyricist and composer whose balance of musical talent and artistic vision comes along only once in a very blue moon.

A native of Ashland, Va., Gudasz started playing flute at age 5. Her brother taught her to play guitar in elementary school, and she began learning piano on her own a few years later. “I was too impatient with authority to listen long enough to learn how to properly play an instrument, so I worked my own way through them.” Such individualism helped shape her distinctiveness as a songwriter from the outset.

Gudasz studied theater and creative writing at the University of North Carolina, then stuck around in Chapel Hill and Durham post-college after connecting with some of the area’s most promising young musicians. Early work with the likes of producer Jeff Crawford (Old Ceremony) and bassist Casey Toll (Mount Moriah) resulted in the 2011 EP “Two Headed Monster” and a follow-up of B-sides. Together, they served notice of a major new voice in the N.C. Triangle’s music community.

It didn’t take long for renowned Chapel Hill producer Chris Stamey to be drawn to Gudasz’s flame. Shortly after his ambitious Big Star Third collective began playing tribute concerts to the legendary Southern pop band at special events around the country and overseas, he brought Gudasz aboard, introducing her to a cast that included Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow.

From Barcelona to Sydney to London, audiences flocked to hear marquee cameos from the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Cat Power and Ray Davies, but they often came away wowed by Gudasz’s turns in the spotlight. “Although she was unknown to the Big Star Third’s audiences, she’d sing a song such as ‘Thirteen’ or ‘Dream Lover,’ and her wonderful voice and unique phrasing quickly captured their attention,” Stamey remembers.

Back home in North Carolina, Gudasz began recording new material that would become “Oleander.” From bare-bones demos of songs written mostly on piano, she and Stamey gradually added strings, horns, winds, guitars and percussion to many tracks, tailoring the arrangements to the material while taking great care to leave the emotional core intact.

Sometimes the impact is immediate, as on the sardonically humorous “I’m So Happy,” which sets Gudasz’s naturally sweet vocals against stinging, bitter electric guitar textures. Elsewhere, the songs sneak up on you: The tender “I Want to Be With You in the Darkness” leans on minimal piano-and- vocal passages that ebb and flow between full-band crescendos. On “Kick Out the Chair,” grand orchestral swirls in the bridge give way to hushed drama in the final verse: “Every word you wrestled to the page I keep as company in quiet hours listening to the boards creak,” Gudasz sings.

If her previous EPs were early indicators of a young artist with a singular style and personality, “Oleander” is a full flowering of that potential, informed by the invaluable experiences she’s had since then. "Playing with Big Star’s Third gave me so many opportunities, gave me confidence," she says. “It made me think bigger.”

A key figure in that leap forward was Stamey, who describes Gudasz as “a triple threat — a skilled singer, composer, and poet — with a background in both classical and pop music.” In the studio, he sought to capture her performances as directly as possible: “She took a deep breath, then played and sang her heart out.”

The result is “a very honest portrayal” of the artist, Stamey says. “This record doesn’t shout at you, like those radio divas; it reveals itself best in the wee small hours of the morning. If you make a space for it, it will reach out to you.”

“Memphis’ dynamic duo—John Paul Keith, who sounds like Roy Orbison, and Amy Lavere, who sounds like she’s going to steal your wallet.” 

— American Songwriter

In 2013, John Paul Keith & Amy LaVere formed Motel Mirrors – a duet project born out of a mutual desire for new artistic challenges and what might’ve just been a long overdue collaboration between two artists whose styles so clearly complemented one another. JP and Amy put out a 10” EP, Motel Mirrors. It was incredibly well received (named one of the “10 Essential Albums of 2013” by No Depression and selected as one of the best Memphis albums of the year by The Commercial Appeal) and they had a blast touring together to support it. Now they’ve added noted Austin, Texas guitarist Will Sexton to the mix and they’re cooking up a new album. With the three songwriters and three singers, the dynamic and the possibilities have changed – what was a duet is now a full band.

Nest Egg has already made a name for themselves with their amazing fog-heavy, zoned and honed live show. Warping minds and winning fans with their heady, atmospheric take on progressive, ethereal vibed-out rock music. Psychedelic when the mood turns mellow, but driving when they hit the gas and float the cosmic flux. Really, when you get right down to it, Nest Egg are bringing on a sound that few have had the ability to channel and refine with this level of mastery.

On Respectable, Nest Egg put their talent upfront, weaving in and out of time and space, with a heavy control of their dynamic. While they wear their influences on their sleeves, that of Popul Vuh, Amon Duul, early Pink Floyd (“Set The GPS To The Heart Of The Sun”, anyone??), Neu, and the like; they’re passionate about presenting an extremely modern take on the endless motorik jam.

This is music for finding your way through the galaxy, with the intent of never coming back. Fervent energy flows through the instruments to divine output. For all of its movement, repetition, and delay, this is a sound that never loses focus, it never slides back, and it stays in the forefront for the duration demonstrating an immense level of talent at controlling the vibe.

“No Suh Foster may be considered another socially aware and political conscious rapper/artist blah blah blah. But if you listen closely you will realize he can only be heard as a modern day prophet, who is preaching pass the choir. All I can say is Amen. Hallelujah. And pass the album, please.”

— Amanda Lucas, The Hood Hippie

Mobile, Alabama has birthed a gem with No Suh Foster, a lyrical talent often unheard in the southern region, No Suh depicts vivid stories and observations with a spoken word-esque flow and production that blends the golden age hip hop sound with both current and abstract influences.No Suh’s sound can be attributed to a somewhat unique background. “I was born in New York, raised in Mobile” he says “That may not seem to be a big deal to some, but the fact that I could never say I was ‘ born and raised’ in any particular place kind of eliminated the idea of regionalism in my train of thought, musically or otherwise”.He released his first two projects: “Above The Influence”and “Grassroots” in 2011. While both gained him some hometown notoriety in Alabama, it would be Grassroots ode to golden age hip-hop that really got people talking. It was also around this time that Foster won the second “Who Got Bars” competition in Alabama.After a brief hiatus from music, he dropped another project entitled “X The Street From The Church”. The album: produced mostly by in house production team, Robot House, is a multilayered observation of the role of the Church in the Black community. It has been featured on DJBooth.net, as well as nominated by Atlanta Hip-Hop Site, Str8outDaDen for indie album of the year. He has since toured and shared stages with old school legends (Blackalicious, Big Rube Of Dungeon Family) as well as underground heroes (Nesby Phips, Pell, Big KRIT).

“A sobering, full-bodied bout of immoveable guitar-pop, I Don’t Mean To Dwell is the most spirited of rides; the kind of collection that grabs you in a vice-like grip and simply shakes your bones until you feel the power of its convictions.”

— GoldFlakePaint

Combining anecdotal musings and concise arrangements, Dear Blanca retrofits post-punk grit with wide ranging rhythmic feel. Led by Dylan Dickerson’s introspective warble and multi-voiced guitar lines, drummer Marc Coty and bassist Cam Powell sync to bridge obtuse folk ambling with taut grooves. The trio’s resilient musical energy lends a sense of cautious optimism, acting as an emotional life preserver that guides the listener through somber undertones.

Dear Blanca’s first two full-length releases, 2013’s Talker and 2014’s Pobrecito, were engineered and produced by Charlotte, N.C. based musician Bo White. In May 2015, the band recorded a five-song EP, entitled I Don’t Mean to Dwell, with Durham, N.C. producer Scott Solter (Mountain Goats, St. Vincent, Spoon), released March 4, 2016.

“It is clear that writing acoustic melodies and harmonies coupled with amazing lyrical content is something of a gift that Kirkpatrick has, and these ten tracks on this album are his chef-d’oeuvre.” 

— Ben Rosner, Paste Magazine

Sean Kirkpatrick talks a lot about identity. For Kirkpatrick, who spent the better part of a decade as a guitarist in Colour Revolt before the group disbanded in 2012, that identity was squarely one thing. But along the way—as he became a husband, then a father—these roles began to expand and intersect. Now with Greater Pyrenees, he’s out to write a new future for himself, one that’s excitedly undefined and begging for exploration.

Recorded from August to November 2014, the songs on Greater Pyrenees (Procrastinate! Music Traitors) certainly mark a shift from the sound Kirkpatrick contributed to in Colour Revolt. An army of acoustic guitars gives things a bit more subtlety here, but the set is nonetheless undercut with Kirkpatrick’s urgent passion, from the haunting harmonies of “Categorize” to the driving, hooky “Homemade Blood.”

These are solely Kirkpatrick’s songs, written with his voice and his interests in mind—songs from a three-year period that are innately tied to his new identity as a more experienced and wiser songwriter.

“For a while, it felt like everything was blurred,” Kirkpatrick says. “Going back and writing these songs, it was almost like finding myself again.”

“Stewart’s new music is super catchy, exciting and energetic.” 

— PopMatters

Like the tides under the Gulf of Mexico moon, like a sea of bodies undulating under the strobing lights of some clandestine New York city disco, Will Stewart’s Faultline EP is in constant motion. It’s the sound of transition, persistent and occasionally chaotic, of inevitable change in the wake of charting bold new directions in life and music, past projects and pre-ordained centers of musical cool be damned.

Late last year, just as Stewart’s Nashville retro-soul outfit Willie and the Giant seemed poised for a breakthrough—having been named “New Band of the Week” by influential London newspaper The Guardian—the band broke up, unable to reconcile its creative differences. “Until recently, the idea of being in a band was always more appealing to me than being a solo artist—that feeling of camaraderie, of being brothers in arms,” Stewart says. “But these days, I feel more confident in my music and songwriting. I feel confident in being in complete creative control. It’s liberating.”

Striking out on his own also inspired Stewart to move from trendy Nashville back to his old hometown of Birmingham, Ala. “I don’t want to sound cynical,” he says, “but Nashville was just a sea of poseurs. The things I’d originally found charming about the city have been pilfered and castrated by every industry entity in town. All the coolness is being co-opted right out of it. I mean, there are still a lot great bands and people I love, but it’s honestly killing the vibe.”

As for Birmingham, Stewart feels much more connected to the scene down there, where he also plays with his friend Janet Simpson-Templin (of Wooden Wand) in dreamy indie-rock duo Timber. “Birmingham just feels like home,” Stewart says. “There’s so much amazing music going on under the radar, I’ve got a ton of friends here who are in bands—when I moved back, I fell right into the mix again.”

Before he departed Nashville, though, Stewart cut the three-song Faultline EP at Penny Sound with producer/engineer Mark Petaccia, drummer for powerhouse rock & roll trio The Wans, who’s also made a name for himself mixing and engineering records by artists such as Yo La Tengo, Dungen, Caitlin Rose, Jack White, Lambchop and Jason Isbell. 

The first song they laid down for Faultline was spooky, acid-drenched Brit-invasion vamp “A Week Ago.” “With that song, I’d been listening to a lot of 13th Floor Elevators and Captain Beefheart,” Stewart says, “and I’d just purchased a Rhythm Ace, this old ‘70s drum machine, to help me with writing. It only has four or five settings, so it’s really primitive as far as the beats it can make. I think JJ Cale used it on a bunch of stuff—just a four-on-the-floor beat.”

Stewart handles all the vocals and guitar on the EP, plus some bass, while Pettacia plays drums and organ on “A Week Ago,” and Stewart’s old Willie and the Giant rhythm section Mac Kramer and Grant Prettyman tackle drums and bass, respectively, on garagey jangle-rock throwback “Keyhole” and the EP’s pulsing indie-disco-pop title track.

“The songs were all over the place, stylistically,“ Stewart says. “The fact that the EP sounds so cohesive is a testament to Mark’s ability. With his production style and skill as an engineer, he was able to glue everything together and help me realize my vision.”

Faultline—the debut solo release from Will Stewart—is out April 15.

“A wash of distortion, a motorik beat, an impassive and nearly drowned-out vocal: These are the essential building blocks for Wray, a three-piece band pursuing its own extrapolation of shoegaze, surf-punk and lo-fi garage-rock.” 

— New York Times

Wray is one of those rare bands that effortlessly blend smart sonic pluralities into a seamless whole without losing any of their DIY grit. Based out of Birmingham, Alabama, the trio– comprised of lead singer/bass player David Brown, guitarist David Swatzell, and drummer Blake Wimberly– have a shared history that reaches back over a decade in the Birmingham music scene. Expectations for this compelling act continue to grow with the groundswell of support and patronage they’ve received since they first made their debut in 2013 They toured throughout 2014 and 2015 with Man Or Astro-man?, J Hernandez and Native Lights. Having received accolades from everyone from The New York Times to MOJO– alongside appearances on MTVu and Daytrotter– their penchant for adventurous music-making will pay big dividends in the years to come.

Following 2014’s self-titled debut on Communicating Vessels, Wray has spent the better part of the past year developing the ideas and sonic palette that would become their sophomore LP Hypatia. Through experimentation and a robust full-length band, Wray has finally come into its own as a distinct entity.

Co-produced by the band with Lynn Bridges (Jack Oblivian, Devendra Banhart, Dan Sartain) and mixed by Daniel Farris (Man or Astroman?, St. Vincent, Azure Ray), Hypatia takes its own path from swift energy to quiet contemplation while exploring a space of subtle contrasts and originality.

From standout tracks like the surging rhythmic workout of “May 23rd,” to the back-and-forth college rock/guitar crescendo overdrive of “Shiva,” the group’s triangulated presence is in full force, offering a glimpse into the forward-thinking minds of one of Birmingham’s best and brightest bands. Combined with decidedly uptempo numbers like the rollicking “Giant” and their inverted take on Faust’s krautrock classic “Jennifer”– Hypatia has set the bar exceedingly high for progressive music coming out of the Deep South.

Hypatia will be available on vinyl (with digital download), cd, and digital formats– complete with brilliantly conceived album art by New Zealand-born/New York-based Tamaryn, and Shaun Durkan, from San Francisco’s Weekend — in early 2016 with supporting tours, including a showcase at SXSW.

“Asheville, N.C.’s Jon Stickley has been playing in bluegrass bands for years, and is known as a progressive and adventurous flatpicker, but his musical roots and influences range widely to include rap, grunge, punk and more. When he teamed up with fiddler Lyndsay Pruett and drummer Patrick Armitage — originally as a lighthearted side project — the end result is a wonderfully unique sound that defies easy categorization. “Point To Point,” from the Jon Stickley Trio’s new album Lost At Last, is an original composition that captures the group’s fiery virtuosity perfectly.”

— NPR Music’s Heavy Rotation, Linda Fahey, Folk Alley

ASHEVILLE — Jon Stickley Trio is making waves with the independent and fan-funded release of their 2nd album, Lost at Last, on October 6, 2015. The originality and sheer energy of this genre-bending ensemble serves as a welcome wake up call for those who experience it. With roots in gypsy jazz, bluegrass, and hip-hop in an “exhilarating all-acoustic swirl” (Acoustic Guitar Magazine), Jon Stickley Trio combines Jon Stickley’s rapid-fire flatpicking guitar with the sultry and wild, yet refined, melodies of Lyndsay Pruett on violin set over the deep groove of Patrick Armitage on drums. The three have fused their collective styles into a repertoire of exciting and innovative original music along with some captivating covers. Lost at Last was recorded in the band’s hometown of Asheville, NC at the iconic Echo Mountain Studios under the watchful eye of producer Dave King (The Bad Plus).

The New York Times’ Nate Chinen writes “… there’s hardy cohesion among the players — no less on the Gypsy standard ‘Valse de Wasso’ than on ‘Darth Radar’ a turbocharged original with a ska upbeat and a shredding melody. And when Mr. Stickley and friends turn to bluegrass, as on ‘The High Road,’ by Tim O’Brien, they sound both respectful and free.” Premier Guitar Magazine also took note of “Darth Radar,” with Jason Shadrick calling it, “a rapid-fire take that moves from a serious ska beat to burning surf-style runs that would make Dick Dale proud.” Jon hosted a lesson at Premier Guitar’s website on one of his favorite techniques which uses the guitar’s natural harmonics to create a melody.

Lost at Last garnered the attention of NPR’s World Cafe to invite them to be part of their “Sense of Place” series in which XPN Radio (out of Philadelphia) brought their crew, including longtime host David Dye, to The Grey Eagle in Asheville in February 2016 for a sold out evening of entertainment including Jon Stickley Trio.

NPR Music featured “Point to Point” off Lost at Last on their program Heavy Rotation with Folk Alley’s Linda Fahey writing, “Jon Stickley has been playing in bluegrass bands for years, and is known as a progressive and adventurous flatpicker, but his musical roots and influences range widely to include rap, grunge, punk and more… [It’s] a wonderfully unique sound that defies easy categorization.”

Over the course of this album the trio has produced two “official” music videos. “Point to Point” recently was awarded three prizes at the 2016 Music Video Asheville including Judges Choice, People’s Choice and Best Soundtrack. Folk Alley premiered the video for “Rice Dream,” writing “Jon Stickley’s guitar harmonics and Lyndsay Pruett’s violin harmonics twine seamlessly together, creating an almost otherworldly atmosphere and the end result is a bit unnerving in its intensity.”

Asheville-area NPR affiliate, WNCW, consistently sings praise of Jon Stickley Trio. The band placed #13 in WNCW’s Top 100 of 2015. Music Director and Morning Host Martin Anderson says, “Asheville has a force to be reckoned with in the tight three-piece perfection of the Jon Stickley Trio. It’s pretty incredible how closely the three play with their unique blend of Appalachian, jazz, maybe even prog-rock styles.” The Trio also placed in a couple of the WNCW Staff Top Ten Picks of 2015.

In December 2015, Jon Stickley Trio made an appearance on Nashville’s Music City Roots. “I made a point to get a long interview in with the Jon Stickley Trio before the show, because their debut album Lost At Last has had a big impact on me and my music geek friends. There’s a ton of thought and skill here, but the music also glides and grooves in ways that anyone can relate to,” says the show co-host and journalist Craig Havighurst. He goes on, “Stickley is a super-resourceful acoustic guitarist who uses the instrument in many surprising ways and whose timing is just flawless. Fiddler Lyndsay Pruett puts deep thought into her flowing solos, plus she adds little flourishes and sudden stops that elevate the music. Drummer Patrick Armitage studied for six years with Dave King, the astonishing drummer with The Bad Plus, and it shows in his phrasing and decisiveness.”

During their Music City Roots performance the Trio played three songs and received three standing ovations from packed audience. They also played a new song that will be on their forthcoming record coming out in the Fall of 2016 entitled “Echo Location.” 

Prior to that performance and bringing at all full circle, Jon Stickley Trio returned to the setting of where Lost at Last was recorded, Echo Mountain Recording Studios, and performed for almost two hours for a live webcast on IAMAVL.com’s “Echo Sessions.”

Waking Idols is a four piece Indie Rock band from Birmingham, Alabama. A band that focuses on writing songs with a "hand crafted" quality that display an eclectic variety of creative influence. The members collaborate in an attempt to both uplift and emotionally impact their audience through their intense performances.

“Hailing from the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, Yani Mo released a great jazzy EP back in February with German producer MaMa G. The soulful and laid back project is a precursor for more to come from the bicontinental duo in the coming year.”

— The Find Mag

Melodic, smooth, sensual, and profound – just some of the words folks have used to describe Yani Mo. She’s a creative and collard green enthusiast from Lithonia, Georgia, with artistic influences ranging from Toni Morrison, Al Green, Lauryn Hill, and Dilla, to every artist she’s met since her spoken word days. The Lithonia native has commanded the growing subculture of Atlanta since her 2013 debut, EP “Compound/Words”, a jazz-hop fusion record. Mo is on the verge of releasing a series of projects including her second project “Space & Simplicity” with Decatur-based producer ProRow.

“[The Edwards’ music]…sounds like the product of a childhood spent listening to a cool aunt or uncle’s well-worn copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and The Gilded Palace Of Sin, with Exile On Main Street…” 

— Rick Cornell – No Depression

After more than a decade fronting Charlotte, NC’s critically acclaimed alt. country pioneers, Lou Ford, brothers Alan & Chad Edwards return with a new take on their signature “rural pop” sound. Ever-present are the sibling harmonies, guitar chops, and hook-heavy songwriting that No Depression said “…sounds like the product of a childhood spent listening to a cool aunt or uncle’s well-worn copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and The Gilded Palace Of Sin, with Exile On Main Street…” and led Creative Loafing to declare “…some of the catchiest, most heart-rending country rock around.” The Loudermilks carry on that tradition, but suggest a maturity and refinement in both songwriting and performance that can only come from years spent honing one’s craft. 

With the Loudermilks, too, comes a crack rhythm section composed of former Lou Ford drummer Shawn Lynch on bass, fellow Lou Ford veteran Jason Atkins on piano & organ, and former Jolene time-keeper Mike Kenerley on drums and percussion. Individually, these five musicians represent Charlotte, NC’s finest, with an impressive musical pedigree. Together these gentlemen represent the Edwards’ most cohesive unit to date, and a powerhouse combo capable of both subtlety and bombast with equal precision and ethos.

Named for iconic gospel & country duo Ira & Charlie Loudermilk, better known as the Louvin Brothers, the Loudermilks find a comfortable place in the unlikely juxtaposition of the Louvin’s southern gothic and sibling harmonies and the emotive & powerful Memphis-Soul-meets-‘60’s-Pop of underground rock legends Big Star. It’s a musical combination which feels intrinsic and honest, as if they could do nothing else. “Brothers Alan and Chad Edwards have always shared vocal and songwriting duties, and that familial, familiar element no doubt shades their music in an organic way, a sort of composting of shared experience and bloodline that is rather impossible to fake,” wrote Creative Loafing, “…songs feel lived in, rather than put on, the sadness and anger genuinely cathartic.” “[The brothers’] strength has always been avoiding country rock’s clichés while remaining true to its tenets and slipping in a punk-inspired defiance.” 

The Loudermilks carry on a musical legacy that started nearly twenty years ago, when, as Shuffle Magazine described it, “two brothers… and their tragic songs of life… form[ed] a “rural rock” band.” Yet the Edwards brothers’ music sounds as if it has always been. Once described as “recorded more in sepia, than in stereo,” the brothers, and their “top-shelf sibling harmonies, and rural rock songs so poignant your grandkids will be downloading them for deep catalog cachet [Creative Loafing],” deliver, once again, with the Loudermilks.

“Clatter & Howl” sounds both ragged and right: sour-mash vocals, orchestrated dirty-guitar, rustic and asphault grooves.’ 

— Matt Wake, AL.com

Seminole Strut started as a group of long-time friends loosely jamming in their spare time in late 2012. These six Huntsville, AL natives had been in various bands growing up, but had never played together as a group prior to the formation of the Seminole Strut. Influenced by a variety of different music styles, they meshed together to forge a unique sound with a modern touch on raw rock and soul music. Backgrounds varying from classic sounds, such as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, and Derek and the Dominos, to the stylings of new sounds like My Morning Jacket, The Snake The Cross The Crown, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Alabama Shakes, and various southern-souding soul and rock acts. 

After garnering more experience, they began writing and learning original music until they had enough material to start playing open mic nights around Huntsville. In May 2013, after playing their first full gig in Florence, AL in a now-defunct pool hall, Seminole Strut traveled to Nashville to record songs for their EP at Sound and Audio Engineering (SAE) Institute. Taking three songs away from those sessions, they recorded and produced three more songs on their own to complete their self-titled six song EP, available on bandcamp.com.

In June 2014 they began recording an album’s worth of music at King of the Jungle Productions in Birmingham, AL, for their first full length album, Clatter & Howl. These tracks contain a unique and raw sound that captures the band’s energetic live sound. Clatter & Howl is available on CD, as well as most online music markets, including iTunes, Spotify, and Band Camp. By consistently playing shows in North Alabama, they have made a name for themselves as a raw and entertaining live act filled with a big rhythm section powered by three electric guitars. Make no mistake, this band will show up and make you move your feet and nod your head.

“While meditative and surprisingly mellow, Cavern Of also exhibits the kind of urgency that comes with an artist’s primary statement, as if Cherry had found new meaning for Juan de Fuca.”

— Flagpole

Juan de Fuca is Jack Cherry, Declan Farissee, Clark Brown, Jack Webster, and Howard Stewart. Originally the nom-de-plume of Cherry’s solo efforts, Juan de Fuca transformed from a bedroom project to a full 5-piece in the Fall of 2015, shortly after the October release of Cherry’s solo EP Cavern Of. As the title suggests, the EP dealt with the cavernous spaces that manifest both physically and mentally when persevering through tragedy. The EP shifts through deliberate moments of shoegaze and dream-pop to more ambient meditative soundscapes and returning to sparse acoustic work all in an effort to create the isolation of these caverns. Since moving forward from that body of work, Cherry assembled a live band and began playing shows. Initially playing mostly off of the EP, the band’s live sound evolved quickly – gaining energy and shifting sonically. Since most of Cherry’s compositions on Cavern Of were written on a four-string nylon acoustic guitar, the band worked tirelessly to incorporate loud feedback guitars and interesting rhythms without losing the core of each song. Their sonic palette quickly evolved into a dynamic portrayal of frustration, tragedy, perseverance, and conquering. While one sound begins to gain speed, another comes and out-competes it. As the band continued to write together, they prepared to go in the studio and they are currently in the process of finishing their debut LP.

“Just like the legendary filmmaker he shares a last name with, Deante’s flow keeps listeners ears on edge as they try to figure out what direction he’s going to go in next. While first listens may remind you of J. Cole, more listens will show that Deante Hitchcock warming up to tell his own sideline stories.”

— Hip Hop Wired

Deante’ Hitchcock is 21 years old, but its clear that his musical prowess is well beyond his years. Born and raised in Atlanta, GA he was introduced to music at an early age by his Uncle and lucky for us he’s stuck with it ever since. 

His latest project “Wishful Thinking” has been spreading across the internet at an alarming rate. Boasting a mix of what some may call real lyricism with a hint of Southern bravado sprinkled on top he is a true product of Atlanta in the most Outkast-esque way possible.

“Birmingham, Alabama boasts a thriving music scene, one that seems to cough up oddball talent on a near weekly basis. Future Elevators sit somewhere between distorted blues, Krautrock and confessional songwriting”

— CLASH 

Michael Shackelford first wrote down the words “FUTURE” and “ELEVATORS” a few years ago on a rough instrumental demo. Recorded at his home studio outside of Birmingham, Alabama, the music never grew into a finished song, but that simple, surprisingly evocative phrase stuck with the multi-instrumentalist. “I liked the phrase so much that I thought I would name the band that,” Shackelford explains. “It’s about trying to rise above and be the best possible version of yourself, and for some reason I kept thinking about the glass elevator in Willy Wonka as a visual metaphor for this band I was putting together. We try to achieve this feeling of elevation.”

It’s an apt phrase for one of Birmingham’s most original musical acts. Like Roald Dahl’s fictional creation, Shackelford—the group’s founder, mainstay, and guiding creative force—is something of a pop confectioner who thinks up impossible sounds and makes them a reality. His self-titled debut as Future Elevators expertly mixes whimsy and gravity, the fantastical with the everyday. Even as he grounds his lyrics in real-world issues, Shackelford fills his songs with new and improbable combinations of familiar sounds: the jagged pastoral folk of “Alabama Song,” the Rube Goldberg blues riffs of “Machine Maker,” the retro-futuristic r&b of “Modern World,” the warm drone of the ten-minute instrumental closer “Aphrodite.” 

This diverse and adventurous musicality is coded in Shackelford’s DNA. His entire family plays music, either professionally or recreationally. His grandfather ran a music school in Birmingham, his uncle plays guitar for the Temptations, and his mother performed on a local variety television show in the 1970s and ‘80s. Surrounded by music his entire life, Shackelford didn’t start making noise himself until he was nine years old. During a freak blizzard, the clan was snowed in with no power. He remembers his aunt and uncle entertaining the family by singing and playing guitar. “I went into the kitchen to get some pots and pans and started banging on them. They told me I had a good beat.”

Shackelford turned out to be a quick learner. By the time he was ten years old, he was playing drums in his grandfather’s country & western band, touring VFWs around the state. The kid was barely visible behind the drumkit, but he still made his presence known. “People complained that I played too loud!” He took classes at his grandfather’s school, then started giving lessons to other kids. “That was a really good experience for me—to be conducting classes at that age. It definitely helped later when I had to do that with bands.”

As a teenager, Shackelford started writing his own songs in his bedroom and experimenting with sonic textures on a four-track recorder. Soon he joined a band. Then another. And another. He spent the 2000s playing in the power-pop quartet the Rewinds (named Artist of the Week by Spin) and the dream-rock act the Grenadines. He toured and recorded with Birmingham-born singer-songwriter Maria Taylor (of Azure Ray) as well as local faves Through the Sparks and Dead Fingers. Those experiences were formative, schooling him in a range of musical genres while putting him at the center of the city’s lively music scene. 

Between production gigs and touring jobs, Shackelford spent a year piecing his debut album together at the local studios owned and operated by Communicating Vessels (a label that is revitalizing Birmingham’s music scene and releasing Future Elevators). Recording with him was Lynn Bridges, who has worked with Devendra Banhart and fellow Alabamans the Dexateens, and the album was mixed by Darrell Thorp, best known for Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief and Beck’s Grammy-winning Morning Phase. 

Shackelford played all the instruments himself, which was less about maintaining control and more about getting ideas down as quickly as possible. “Sometimes I feel like there’s a radio station playing in my head, and if I can tune in to it, I can hear all these arrangements. If I don’t act on the idea when it comes to me, I can lose it forever.” 

Translating those phantom radio waves into real music lends Future Elevators a sense of urgency and spontaneity, yet for all its ambitious arrangements, the music operates on a distinctly human scale. The impression of a real person comes through on these songs: the undying wonder of an enthusiastic musician, the fears and joys of a new father, the worries of a normal guy living in a world that seems beyond his control. 

Nowhere is that more evident than on “Alabama Song,” the emotional centerpiece of the album. A musical diptych, the song opens with a breezy folk melody, like a long-lost Neil Young classic. Halfway through, it morphs fluidly into a melancholy fanfare complete with setting-sun guitars and Beach Boy harmonies. “Think I’ll dig my toes in to the ground and close my eyes,” he sings. “I know that nothing’s wrong right now.”

As Shackelford explains, “That first part sounded like a song on its own, but I had this other piece of music that seemed like it fit perfectly. I wanted to deviate from a traditional arrangement, but I didn’t want to do it just for the sake of shifting gears.” 

Instead, “Alabama Song” is all the more poignant for taking such a risk. “I was thinking about being a dad now and having a baby girl. I have to remind myself to like in the moment and enjoy where I am, to take a minute to realize that everything is okay for this moment. That’s why I named it ‘Alabama Song.’ It felt like home to me.”

BUNCH is the new rock outfit led by Alabama native songwriter Heath Underwood (formerly of El Cantador). This new collection of songs, featured on the upcoming 2016 full-length album: Forever My Sparring Partner, speak to the restless and dissolute, the misunderstood and the forsaken, the lonesome and introspective – it comes from the best we can give and when folks are at their worst. The tone and the sound owe a major debt to artists and recordings of the 70’s, and it has the gall to steal a wink at personal guitar/songwriting hero types like Stephen Malkmus, Nick Drake, J Mascis, and Nels Cline.

FMSP was recorded and mixed by Paul Kimsal between October-November 2015 in Nashville, TN, but don’t let any preconceived geographical stereotype dictate what that means. Pedal steel guitar and violin strings weave their way in and out on several of the albums tracks, but this is not a country record; especially, by definition of today’s demoralizing polished standards. Throughout its conception, new friendships were struck and improvised performances were captured in the wee hours. And, of course, there were the moments where everything sounded lacking or hopelessly ineffective as a whole. But, when you set out to make a record you punch thru the banal and the mundane, and what lies just on the other side is almost always a better piece of work. 

Take these songs with you and drive to anywhere with the windows down. Fall asleep to this soundtrack under the spell of intimacy that only headphones can bring. Bring them with you on the morning commute. Wherever you go and wherever they take you is subjective of course. Tastes and genre aside, a good song is only great if you let it.

“Of course, these band members themselves are no slouches, as they remind us throughout, offering up cheeky classic rock tributes (“Fleetwood Gas” gives more than one melodic nod to its namesake band; “Other Side of the Gates” is a convincing study in King Crimson-esque prog-psych) and short bursts of power-pop goodness. At its best, though, like on manic nugget “To Be One Ask One,” the band transcends its influences with infectious delight.”

— Flagpole Magazine

Depressive session musicians from Athens, GA play psyched-out, prog-tinged mid-tempo 70s rock in the vain of Crazy Horse, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, and Can.

“Purebred, blue-ribbon, chamber-pop wunderkinds”

— Third Man Records

Sun Seeker started out as Stripes when all the members were still cherubic high-school doughboys. They were inspired by the likes of Wilco, Real Estate, The Band, and local Nashville rock and roll to ditch their adolescent softness and evolve into a bigger machine complete with ornate riffage and backbone-solid rhythm. Lyrically, lead singer, Alex Benick muses on lost relationships, death, and losing faith in God at Wave Country. Musically, the band symphonically structures individualistic instrumentation around the impeccable kick drum of Ben Parks, which beats more in time than the human heart. Sun Seeker will make you fall in love, then break up with you, then have break-up sex with you, then have a long conversation with you over coffee after which all will be laid to rest and your friendship will be strong as ever, after which you will both call each other on birthdays and get together when in you are both in town, having grown in different directions perhaps, but still just as amorous and appreciative.

“He constructs shelters made of bruised synth lines only to claw at the exteriors with dissonant beats.” 

— The Equal Ground

Ben Ricketts is a psychedelic pop/experimental musician from Oxford, MS. An active performer for seven years, Ricketts has released 9 home-recorded albums and several other projects. He has played extensively through the Southeast, both in weekend runs and through longer tours. Mixing layers of vocals, synthesizers, and various instruments, Ricketts has always sought to make each show a joyous occasion.

Born out of the inability to stay still, Men’s Renewal is an exercise in motion, momentum and, of course, repetition. From the ground up, open-ended, ambient leaning but techno driven pieces are built with a gaining intensity through subtle percussive shifts and cascading sound walls ranging from ominous to auspicious, all inevitably plateauing at a height that is TBD.

Motion. Momentum. Repeat.

“‘American Fiction’ is the kind of album that makes me thrilled to do my job – I had to share it with our listeners immediately. There is nothing more exciting than the spark of a new musical discovery, and Ona’s record isn’t just a spark, it’s a whole gosh darn flame.”

— Sirius/XM’s Franny Thomas

Ona, West Virginia is a small sliver of unincorporated ridges, creeks, and floodplains. It sprawls across Route 60 on its southern border and stretches up like a thick thumb almost reaching the Ohio River. It’s home to one stop light, an Exxon, and a consolidated high school. Driving out its roads, you snake through shadowy hollows past rural suburbia. People’s homes are tucked here and there where the folds of the land permit. A community of private property. Mortgaged acres. You’ll see some trailers. You’ll see some estates. You’ll see a dog with one eye. You’ll see the Beulah Ann Baptist Church. 

Ona makes songs that take place in these spaces. Bradley Jenkins and Zack Owens write about passions slamming into roadblocks. They write about longing, resentment, searching, and waiting. They are backed by a tight rock and roll band comprised of Zach Johnston, Max Nolte, and Brad Goodall. The five of them create music that pulses and buzzes and echoes and rolls. It feels like standing with sweat in your eyes in grass up to your knees. It feels like getting your tennis shoes wet walking along the banks of the river. It feels like catching a buzz off a bottle your buddy stole from his brother and skipping track practice. It feels like taking a long walk into the trees when you can still hear them arguing inside the house. 

Nobody in Ona is a millionaire. Everybody in Ona has to work in the morning.

“Slugging it out in the St. Louis underground, Little Big Bangs are the Midwest’s best kept secret: a scrappy four-piece with fat hooks and plenty o’ fuzz…This is music straight from the disaffected youth of America — no frills, no bullshit.” 

— Consequence of Sound

Little Big Bangs formed in 2011 as a 3 piece. Lucy Dougherty, Eric Boschen, and Ryan Macias traded off guitar, bass, drum, and vocal duties between songs. Adding drummer Drew Gowran in 2011 the group recorded a demo (Easter Egg Demo) and started playing around STL as much as possible. Their first self titled full length was released in 2013 (record and CD) and the band began touring regionally. After a handful of singles (cassette only) the band recorded their newest record Star Power, which was released in 2015. Colin Immenschuh took over drumming duties for the band shortly after the release and they have continued to tour the mid-west. Little Big Bangs is planning on recording a new EP in the fall.

“This is what it’s all about – a great band of good musicians who know how to write funny songs, sad songs, clever songs, songs that rock and roll. There is no gimmick here: Amigo is the real thing.” 

— Paul Zollo, American Songwriter

Based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, amiable country-rockers Amigo specialize in a winning blend of propulsive, Jonathan Richman/Doug Sahm-inspired rockabilly/roots rock and soulful, heartache-inducing folk-rock in the vein of Gram Parsons and the Band. A honky tonk dance band with a punk rock heart, the trio formed in 2012 around the talents of guitarist/vocalist Slade Baird, drummer Adam Phillips, and bass player Thomas Alverson. In 2014 the group set out on their first national tour in support of their Scott Solter- (Superchunk, the Mountain Goats) produced debut long-player, Might Could.

— James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide

“St. Louis’s Rockwell Knuckles raps like a superhero telling his nemesis his evil plan will never work, like he is 100 feet tall and he is here to project your city.”

— Noisey

Known for giddy, left-field lyricism with a heroic baritone, Rockwell Knuckles continues to carve a lane all his own. Riverfront Times critic Christian Schaeffer states: “Rockwell Knuckles stands tall as St. Louis’ most capable and adventurous hip-hop artist.” Influences range from Brotha Lynch Hung, Beatles, Prince and UGK to name a few. His latest project hosted by “It’s All Happening” comes on the heels of Mike Brown/Ferguson, which almost lead to a hiatus because of the chaotic atmosphere of the city. Rockwell was fortunate enough to be featured Apple Beats1 Radio WRTJ (Run the Jewels/DJ Trackstar) frequently with songs “Holy Ground”“Play Catch”“It’s All Happening”. 

“Yet as huge as Rocky’s It’s All Happening is, it’s also full of calming soul and generally chill backyard barbecue vibes, particularly on songs like “Just Livin,” featuring frequent collaborator Tef Poe, and the funky interlude of “Orange Glow.” From Breaking Bad-referencing shit-talking to smooth, soul-sampling nostalgia, It’s All Happening is a rich, varied project well worth your time.” – Noisey Music by VICE Dec., 2014.

“Eerie… Dreamlike” 

— American Songwriter 

lylas is a Nashville based psychedelic song ensemble revolving around the compositions of singer Kyle Hamlett. For over 10 years, lylas has been weaving it’s weird web of finger plucked musings, beat driven drone poems, and ghostly textures into a strangely entrancing musical fabric.

“Fifties girl group crooning and echo chamber drums, ’60s wall of sound, ’70s California canyon sway, ’80s laser-sharp production, ’90s alt-country twang, Aughts vocal callbacks from Neko Case to Jenny Lewis to Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast. … Cherry-picks from 50 years of influences.” 

— NPR’s All Songs Considered

In the wake of coverage at NPR’s All Songs Considered, The Village Voice, Paste, CMJ, PopMatters and many other tastemaking outlets, Sydney Eloise & the Palms have finally released their critically acclaimed debut LP, Faces (available now on LP & CD from The Cottage Recording Co., and on cassette from Bear Kids Recordings). The new group also just received a glowing 4-star review from Creative Loafing, and has been compared by the music press to a stunning list of iconic artists and indie-press darlings including Jenny Lewis, Natalie Prass, George Harrison, Neko Case, Best Coast, Phil Spector and Fleetwood Mac.

Sydney Eloise & The Palms embarked on their first tour this October with a bon-voyage hometown album-release show at Mass Collective in Atlanta, followed by a sprint up the East Coast, including a stopover at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York.

From the opening “Be My Baby”-style drumbeat and retro-modern psychedelic swirls of lead track “Always Sailing,” Faces is searching and bittersweet, a classic-pop meditation from the visionary twentysomething next door. A vivid sonic slide-show carousel of a record, its mix of words and music paint tiny, episodic masterpieces in technicolor.

Sydney Eloise is at once catalyst, vessel and torchbearer. With her close friends and collaborators—co-producers Damon Moon and Chandler Galloway—she spent an entire year building and rebuilding Faces in the studio until it felt just right, the end result a delicate ship in a bottle of Fernet-Branca, a charming contemporary pastiche that draws tastefully from every decade of recorded music since the 1950s, right up ’til the present day. Inside the record’s lush layers of daydreamy sound, you’ll find a musical education—’50s “Earth Angel” balladry, Phil Spector-style Walls of Sound, heady ’60s psych pop, ’70s Laurel Canyon country dusted with post-Beatles George Harrison sonics, unmistakable Fleetwood Mac-isms and crystalline ABBA-style pop, subtle ’80s production flourishes, glistening ’90s-alt country and ’00s indie pop a la Neko Case and Rilo Kiley. Layers upon layers, worlds within worlds—visions of boot-clad go-go girls shimmying in perfect beehive mini-skirt bliss in a snow globe inside of a snow globe inside of a snow globe.

Working with more or less unlimited access to Moon’s recording studio, The Cottage, Sydney Eloise had time on her side with this new record. She’d bring in the skeleton of a song, and then together with Moon and Galloway, would see how much they could not just flesh it out, but dress it up and accessorize it. “There wasn’t a real timeline so we never felt rushed,” Sydney Eloise says. “We didn’t have the pressure to just live with the first decision we made—there was time to experiment.”

“Faces is rooted in classic pop traditions, but we took it beyond that whenever possible,” Galloway says. “Each sound was a color in the palette—sparse acoustic guitar, recording with the tape at half speed then speeding it up, looping an old optical soundtrack disc in the background, arranging a subtle nine-part vocal arrangement on the fly. Working at The Cottage gave us the freedom to try these things. There’s no way this record would have turned out the same if we did it anywhere else.”

A cozy stone-walled carriage house at the end of a long driveway on an otherwise sleepy street in Sydney Eloise’s hometown of Atlanta, The Cottage was essential to the making of Faces. A far cry from the sterile environs of a typical recording studio, it boasts a laid-back vibe, with a rope swing in the yard and a thick patch of forest out back that hides an abandoned rock quarry—a great place to clear your head between takes.

When the sessions for Faces began, there were no grand plans to make an album, just a few friends from the vibrant Atlanta scene getting together to play some music. But when, on a lark, Sydney Eloise, Moon and Galloway laid down “Always Sailing,” things began to click in a way none of them had experienced before. “After we finished that first song, we knew we had something special,” Moon says. “We felt like we owed it to ourselves to put in the time and effort to see what it might become.”

Over the course of a year, they recorded the core instrumentation of the tracks, occasionally bringing in simpatico local musicians to sweeten the sound—folks like Paul Stevens (Grand Vapids), Jenna Shea Mobley (Book Club) and Matt Jarrard (Royal Thunder, Spirits and the Melchizedek Children).

Thematically, this very personal record’s dozen songs deal heavily with the changing perspectives, personal growth and self-discovery that come during one’s 20s. “The songs on Faces were written over a period of four years,” Sydney Eloise explains. “Some were old and some were written two weeks before the album was mastered. There’s a lot of growing up in them. And because of the wide time span, sometimes I’m singing about the same event or subject I address in another song but with a completely different perspective because it was a different time in my life.”

A prime example is “Sorry, Not Sorry,” about a past relationship with someone who takes you for granted. It’s a song that breathes so much life, feeling, depth and sincerity into an otherwise vapid modern hashtag colloquialism. “For me, ‘Sorry, Not Sorry,’ is about seeing what you’re worth, letting go of the past and taking the power back. Like a lot of songs on this record, writing it made me stronger.”

For Sydney Eloise, who’s been playing music since she was 16, Faces represents tremendous personal and artistic growth. “I feel like I’m just tapping into myself as a musician, just now honing my sound and my voice,” she says. “This is the first project I’ve worked on where I was pushed to the limit, and I could see my full potential blossoming. I’ve been waiting for this moment—this record truly represents who I am, where I am, and how much work I put in leading up to it. I feel like I’m meant to be here, now, with these people, my best friends, doing exactly this.”

“Listening to [Entitled] is both depressing and invigorating. It’ll push you toward melancholic introspection until you find yourself mindlessly rocking out.”

— VICE

Chris Rehm and Sean Hart, the New Orleans via Houston duo, have been crafting avant-pop tunes under the binomen of Caddywhompus since 2008. Over the years, the band has released 4 albums, extensively toured the United States and has performed internationally in Europe, Brazil and Canada. In the last 6 months, Caddywhompus has opened for Thee Oh Sees, Parquet Courts and Dungen as well as finalized the production of their newest LP. In mid-late 2016, the band will be back on the road, beginning with an East Coast tour up to Brooklyn’s Northside Festival in June and a second European tour in September.

“To call [Love] Moor a starry-eyed singer with big dreams does not suffice; Moor is going to make it.”

— Ariel Worthy, Birmingham Times

EricaAndrew ( Born October 11, 1990), better known by her stage name Love Moor, is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, grew up in Miami , Fl , andlater relocated to Birmingham, Al. Love Moor released her debut extended play (EP), titled Blu Polka Dots, on July14, 2015. Love Moor, through great vibes and beautiful energy became the first lady of Loner Dreamer Lover Rebel (LDLR) in 2014. Love Moor is a neo soul singer whose music can be described as Alternative R&B, with elements of soul, hip hop, minimalist R&B, a little flow, and some island flavor. Love’s lyrics can be described as “revealing”, that revolve around themes of sexuality, nostalgia, abandonment, and self love.

“Understated gorgeousness … a droning take on indie rock in the lineage of Galaxie 500, Low, and fellow Georgians Deerhunter … all somnambulant beauty and shimmering, scraping white noise.” 

— Stereogum

Forming in early 2014, Grand Vapids spent the course of a year recording its debut album Guarantees with producer and engineer Drew Vandenberg (of Montreal, Deerhunter, Kishi Bashi) at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. On the album the sonic palette is wide. With guitars that are laboriously crafted, a driving rhythm section, and synths that are densely layered and structured. The songs are at once intimate and expansive, exploring a fevered state of fear and wonder. The album was mastered by Joe Lambert (Wye Oak, Sharon Van Etten, Wild Nothing) in NYC.

While Grand Vapids’ music could easily satiate the space between Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, there is a depth of feeling to these songs that moves beyond nostalgia and pushes the listener toward a state of mind where memory and wonderment intersect. It is a delicate and dense balance on a debut record that finds the band carving out its own musical identity.

Grand Vapids is McKendrick Bearden, Austin Harris, Paul Stevens, and Chris Goggans.

Their debut album Guarantees was released on January 20th, 2015.

“[The Edwards’ music]…sounds like the product of a childhood spent listening to a cool aunt or uncle’s well-worn copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and The Gilded Palace Of Sin, with Exile On Main Street…” 

— Rick Cornell – No Depression

After more than a decade fronting Charlotte, NC’s critically acclaimed alt. country pioneers, Lou Ford, brothers Alan & Chad Edwards return with a new take on their signature “rural pop” sound. Ever-present are the sibling harmonies, guitar chops, and hook-heavy songwriting that No Depression said “…sounds like the product of a childhood spent listening to a cool aunt or uncle’s well-worn copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and The Gilded Palace Of Sin, with Exile On Main Street…” and led Creative Loafing to declare “…some of the catchiest, most heart-rending country rock around.” The Loudermilks carry on that tradition, but suggest a maturity and refinement in both songwriting and performance that can only come from years spent honing one’s craft. 

With the Loudermilks, too, comes a crack rhythm section composed of former Lou Ford drummer Shawn Lynch on bass, fellow Lou Ford veteran Jason Atkins on piano & organ, and former Jolene time-keeper Mike Kenerley on drums and percussion. Individually, these five musicians represent Charlotte, NC’s finest, with an impressive musical pedigree. Together these gentlemen represent the Edwards’ most cohesive unit to date, and a powerhouse combo capable of both subtlety and bombast with equal precision and ethos.

Named for iconic gospel & country duo Ira & Charlie Loudermilk, better known as the Louvin Brothers, the Loudermilks find a comfortable place in the unlikely juxtaposition of the Louvin’s southern gothic and sibling harmonies and the emotive & powerful Memphis-Soul-meets-‘60’s-Pop of underground rock legends Big Star. It’s a musical combination which feels intrinsic and honest, as if they could do nothing else. “Brothers Alan and Chad Edwards have always shared vocal and songwriting duties, and that familial, familiar element no doubt shades their music in an organic way, a sort of composting of shared experience and bloodline that is rather impossible to fake,” wrote Creative Loafing, “…songs feel lived in, rather than put on, the sadness and anger genuinely cathartic.” “[The brothers’] strength has always been avoiding country rock’s clichés while remaining true to its tenets and slipping in a punk-inspired defiance.” 

The Loudermilks carry on a musical legacy that started nearly twenty years ago, when, as Shuffle Magazine described it, “two brothers… and their tragic songs of life… form[ed] a “rural rock” band.” Yet the Edwards brothers’ music sounds as if it has always been. Once described as “recorded more in sepia, than in stereo,” the brothers, and their “top-shelf sibling harmonies, and rural rock songs so poignant your grandkids will be downloading them for deep catalog cachet [Creative Loafing],” deliver, once again, with the Loudermilks.

“ear-grabbing pop melodies under a thick, wet layer of sonic muck.” 

— Gabe Vodicka, Flagpole Magazine

The long, low rumble of “Disappointment” is as good a place to start as any. The lead track from The Powder Room’s debut album, “Curtains” functions as both calling card and warning sign. There’s nothing lighthearted about them. There’s also nothing extraneous. Each piece is necessary. 

And the truth is there’s not very many pieces. The three-piece of Gene Woolfolk (guitar/vocals), Bubba McDonald (bass guitar) and Patrick Ferguson (drums) provide everything needed. The past three years have fostered the initial growth spurt for The Powder Room and it’s completion of its debut signals the group’s next era. Recorded with the estimable Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) in the band’s hometown of Athens, GA the record is a gut punch of noisy sludge that declares its malaise and disgust immediately. Just dig the song titles: “Alcoholics and Meth Addicts”, “Frayed”, “Dead Pet”, et al.

The Powder Room wasn’t built for speed and most of its repertoire occupies the mid-tempo, bass heavy area just above doom but well below the goof troop cliché that grunge eventually became. Even so, the band can twist a melody at just the right moment (“Waltz Liquor”) and offer a propulsive, addictive repetition when they really feel like it (“Earthworm”).

They were described in the summer of 2014 as a “Powerhouse trio made up of three rock veterans capable of ripping the throat out of every talking head giving lip service to 1990’s nostalgia. The real deal birthed through the triple liquid stew of hardcore punk, hard rock riffage and shoegaze menace; stewed in a brine of nihilism and strained through the grind of the day to day.”

“Listening to Tim Lee 3 is like taking a scenic car trip down Rt. 66 , and experiencing the great American dream, open highways and your loved one by your side. The roots of rock are quite evident, think X, Dave Allen, guitars are crisp, harmonies that will make you forget where you are. Cool song, album is excellent, solid all the way through not a lost song in the bunch, follow these links and keep track of Tim Lee 3, good stuff.” 

— 50thirdand3rd.com

Tim Lee 3 was founded by guitarist/singer/songwriter Tim Lee (who’s history dates back to the ‘80s with his band the Windbreakers and as a touring member of Let’s Active, the Swimming Pool Qs, and Marty Jones’ band) and his wife, bassist/singer/songwriter Susan Bauer Lee. The group also features Chris Bratta on drums. Since its inception in 2006, TL3 has released four full-length studio albums (including the 2010 double-CD release, Raucous Americanus), two limited-edition live recordings, and an EP of previously unreleased and live material, in addition to various contributions to compilation records and substantial touring. The 2015 release of their new record, 33.1/3 (03.06.15), coincided with the 33.1/3 wedding anniversary of the Lees.

“Birmingham, Alabama boasts a thriving music scene, one that seems to cough up oddball talent on a near weekly basis. Future Elevators sit somewhere between distorted blues, Krautrock and confessional songwriting”

— CLASH 

Michael Shackelford first wrote down the words “FUTURE” and “ELEVATORS” a few years ago on a rough instrumental demo. Recorded at his home studio outside of Birmingham, Alabama, the music never grew into a finished song, but that simple, surprisingly evocative phrase stuck with the multi-instrumentalist. “I liked the phrase so much that I thought I would name the band that,” Shackelford explains. “It’s about trying to rise above and be the best possible version of yourself, and for some reason I kept thinking about the glass elevator in Willy Wonka as a visual metaphor for this band I was putting together. We try to achieve this feeling of elevation.”

It’s an apt phrase for one of Birmingham’s most original musical acts. Like Roald Dahl’s fictional creation, Shackelford—the group’s founder, mainstay, and guiding creative force—is something of a pop confectioner who thinks up impossible sounds and makes them a reality. His self-titled debut as Future Elevators expertly mixes whimsy and gravity, the fantastical with the everyday. Even as he grounds his lyrics in real-world issues, Shackelford fills his songs with new and improbable combinations of familiar sounds: the jagged pastoral folk of “Alabama Song,” the Rube Goldberg blues riffs of “Machine Maker,” the retro-futuristic r&b of “Modern World,” the warm drone of the ten-minute instrumental closer “Aphrodite.” 

This diverse and adventurous musicality is coded in Shackelford’s DNA. His entire family plays music, either professionally or recreationally. His grandfather ran a music school in Birmingham, his uncle plays guitar for the Temptations, and his mother performed on a local variety television show in the 1970s and ‘80s. Surrounded by music his entire life, Shackelford didn’t start making noise himself until he was nine years old. During a freak blizzard, the clan was snowed in with no power. He remembers his aunt and uncle entertaining the family by singing and playing guitar. “I went into the kitchen to get some pots and pans and started banging on them. They told me I had a good beat.”

Shackelford turned out to be a quick learner. By the time he was ten years old, he was playing drums in his grandfather’s country & western band, touring VFWs around the state. The kid was barely visible behind the drumkit, but he still made his presence known. “People complained that I played too loud!” He took classes at his grandfather’s school, then started giving lessons to other kids. “That was a really good experience for me—to be conducting classes at that age. It definitely helped later when I had to do that with bands.”

As a teenager, Shackelford started writing his own songs in his bedroom and experimenting with sonic textures on a four-track recorder. Soon he joined a band. Then another. And another. He spent the 2000s playing in the power-pop quartet the Rewinds (named Artist of the Week by Spin) and the dream-rock act the Grenadines. He toured and recorded with Birmingham-born singer-songwriter Maria Taylor (of Azure Ray) as well as local faves Through the Sparks and Dead Fingers. Those experiences were formative, schooling him in a range of musical genres while putting him at the center of the city’s lively music scene. 

Between production gigs and touring jobs, Shackelford spent a year piecing his debut album together at the local studios owned and operated by Communicating Vessels (a label that is revitalizing Birmingham’s music scene and releasing Future Elevators). Recording with him was Lynn Bridges, who has worked with Devendra Banhart and fellow Alabamans the Dexateens, and the album was mixed by Darrell Thorp, best known for Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief and Beck’s Grammy-winning Morning Phase. 

Shackelford played all the instruments himself, which was less about maintaining control and more about getting ideas down as quickly as possible. “Sometimes I feel like there’s a radio station playing in my head, and if I can tune in to it, I can hear all these arrangements. If I don’t act on the idea when it comes to me, I can lose it forever.” 

Translating those phantom radio waves into real music lends Future Elevators a sense of urgency and spontaneity, yet for all its ambitious arrangements, the music operates on a distinctly human scale. The impression of a real person comes through on these songs: the undying wonder of an enthusiastic musician, the fears and joys of a new father, the worries of a normal guy living in a world that seems beyond his control. 

Nowhere is that more evident than on “Alabama Song,” the emotional centerpiece of the album. A musical diptych, the song opens with a breezy folk melody, like a long-lost Neil Young classic. Halfway through, it morphs fluidly into a melancholy fanfare complete with setting-sun guitars and Beach Boy harmonies. “Think I’ll dig my toes in to the ground and close my eyes,” he sings. “I know that nothing’s wrong right now.”

As Shackelford explains, “That first part sounded like a song on its own, but I had this other piece of music that seemed like it fit perfectly. I wanted to deviate from a traditional arrangement, but I didn’t want to do it just for the sake of shifting gears.” 

Instead, “Alabama Song” is all the more poignant for taking such a risk. “I was thinking about being a dad now and having a baby girl. I have to remind myself to like in the moment and enjoy where I am, to take a minute to realize that everything is okay for this moment. That’s why I named it ‘Alabama Song.’ It felt like home to me.”

“Although each member of Little Tybee could stand as a musical force of nature on their own, as a unit, the group stands to create some of the most promising and truly original music of our generation.” 

— VICE

Little Tybee is a progressive psych-folk band based out of Atlanta, GA. Formed in 2009, the group has bridged existing genres into their own brand of calculated, creative, and technical music, which refuses to sacrifice musicality and accessibility. The release of their third full-length album, For Distant Viewing (Paper Garden Records), and the band’s touring in both the US and abroad, not only cemented their penchant for clean orchestration but also provided the meaningful relationships and experiences essential for fueling future creativity. As a complement to the technical precision of their live performances, Little Tybee maintains an active online presence with a reputation for self-producing high-quality video content.

The group is comprised of six members, most of which have been playing together in various groups for more than ten years. The bulk of the compositions in the band’s ever-growing catalog start out as seedlings in the mind of lead singer/acoustic guitarist Brock Scott and are then fleshed out with the eccentric eight-string guitar wizardry that could only come from Josh Martin, the classical flare of Nirvana Kelly’s violin and viola, the deep pocket grooves of Ryan Donald’s electric bass, the percussive explosion of Pat Brooks’ gospel-tinged beats and are all rounded out by Chris Case’s silky-smooth, yet driving keyboard arrangements.

Little Tybee faces 2016 with the summer release of their fourth studio album.

“Ever entertaining and genre bending, Vulture Whale is a cornucopia of styles and permutations, draped in the critically acclaimed shroud of indie rock and its rags. ” 

— Scott Zupardo 

Out of the indie punk bomb shelters of Birmingham, AL beheld the inevitable union of local heroes The Ohms and Verbena. Purveyors of hero status records that just about every Southeastern kid worth his snot in rocknroll would give a nod to as an influence in one way or another. Originally coined as Wes McDonald and The Fizz, the quartet featured Verbena’s drummer and later guitarist, Lester Nuby III, the formidable backline of Keelan Parrish on the low end with Jake Waitzman keeping time behind the drum kit, with front man Wes McDonald aka Terry Ohms of The Ohms holding court lyrically and playing rhythm and lead guitar. They were simply too well-versed to not be tagged as a cohesive unit, a dream of a vulture eating a whale by Nuby birthed a new creative vehicle and a band was formed.

Vulture Whale’s 2007 freshmen self-titled effort, released on Nuby’s Ol’ Elegante stamp, was a nearly perfect southern indie rock record — tapping the same vein as remarkable debut records by McDonald’s Ohms and Nuby’s Verbena in 2000 and 1997, respectively. McDonald’s vocal stylings straddle the gap between The Jam’s Paul Weller and Philadelphia’s G.Love, a slight nod to Mick Jagger, and a shit ton of Wes McDonald. Nuby and McDonald trade guitar work and form an impervious front with Parrish and Waitzman, each upholding their end like a jack stud supporting a header in a stick framed house. 

Each member bringing their own paint to the proverbial canvas, the ship calmly steered by McDonald and his musical genius come bar stool comedian take on songwriting –equally drenched in Parliament Funkadelic , Marc Bolan and T.Rex, as the Ramones. That’s been the “plam” from day one, take it everywhere and nowhere at the same time. They’re better than steroids were for baseball and OJ was for Ford Broncos, beautifully exotic yet weaving the basket between perfect indie pop and obtuse punk funk. Ever entertaining and genre bending, Vulture Whale is a cornucopia of styles and permutations, draped in the critically acclaimed shroud of indie rock and its rags. 

2016 sees the band’s 5th release, Aluminium, and first on the newly revamped Cornelius Chapel Records imprint headed up by Dexateens frontman Elliott McPherson. Aluminium is locked and loaded with brain clinging heady rock numbers, dramatic buildups and genuine American rocknroll of the southern persuasion with ample crunch and face melting riffs piled up with false euro bravado. Crafty rocknroll proving yet again why Birmingham is forever a spot on the indie rock map, as deep in talent as it is cultural history. Aluminium’s release finds it just in time for that early Alabama spring and yet another to add to their near sixpack of critically definitive indie rock offerings. Maybe we can get another one out of them before the year is through. –Scott Zuppardo