Ryan Davis + The Roadhouse Band
After more than 15 years of releasing music on labels like Feeding Tube, Load Records, Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Petty Bunco, All Gone and others (including, if not primarily, his very own Sophomore Lounge imprint) as/alongside such outfits as State Champion, Tropical Trash, Equipment Pointed Ankh, Roadhouse, et al., Dancing on the Edge – a seven-song, 53-minute basement folk opus, self-released at the end of 2023 and recently reissued by Tough Love in the UK/EU – is the first collection of material produced under Kentuckiana-based visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Ryan Davis’ birth name. The tunes on the album range from bare-boned, achingly crooned avant-folk tales to jovial, collaborative excursions into long-form experimental country-tinged rock modes. Continuing in the tradition of the TVZs, Terry Allens, Souled Americans and DC Bermans before him, this 2XLP reimagines the exceedingly dated archetypes of modern day indie troubadour music and the inherent trappings therein. Davis’ solo debut is a dense collection of Americana-Noir that navigates a familiar yet alternate reality, one of enchanted mundanity and uniquely Mid-Southern introspection. Simultaneously antisocial and outwardly inviting, free of cynicism yet slightly stepped in paranoia, Dancing on the Edge is as delicately choreographed and emotionally connective as it is, at times, absurd. The Roadhouse band, as it’s been assembled to meet increasing demands for live performances this summer and fall, features members of Kentucky-based experimental unit Equipment Pointed Ankh, Nashville songwriting voltron Styrofoam Winos and Athens’ bummer country/power-poppers Little Gold in a certain-to-dazzle assembly of both labelmates and friends.
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS THE BIG SHOW TOUR. Only 2025 area appearance! Ages 16+ An “Evening with” performance. 8 piece band.3 horns. 2 sets. 0 openers. Starts early. Gets loud.They Might Be Giants are in top form and back on the road with their ever-evolving show. Featuring songs from the earliest days of their Dial-A-Song service, through their platinum album Flood, all the way to their Grammy-nominated album BOOK; each night is its own distinct celebration of the band’s singular songbook. Backed by their notorious live band now including a three-piece horn section, expect a spontaneous, sprawling, enthralling musical event unlike any other.
She’s Green
Likened to a soft summer rain, she’s green is a Minneapolis-based dream-inducer composed of vocalist Zofia Smith, guitarists Liam Armstrong and Raines Lucas, bassist Teddy Nordvold, and drummer Kevin Seebeck. The band has played many shows throughout the Midwest and East Coast, sharing bills with acts such as Hotline TNT, Glixen, Friko, and more. The Star Tribune recommends bringing “earplugs and maybe a tissue for their set.” They initially received recognition through their first two released singles, “river” and “smile again”, both recorded and mixed at home. A raw emotional intensity shines through their honest and explorative songwriting process. After the release of their debut EP Wisteria, they were named one of First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2023. In April of 2024, they got the most votes from industry professionals for MPR station The Current’s first annual Scouting Report Poll of the top rising artists in Minnesota.
OK GO
Talking to Damian Kulash will take you deep into the mind of a seasoned artist—cerebral, well-theorized, brimming with ideas and opinions. But at his core, the multi-hyphenate OK Go frontman is fueled by something simpler: He wants to play. He’s forever trying to nurture that child-like sense of awe in himself and his band. “What good is doing any of this — any kind of art — if you’re not surprising yourself?” he asks. “Without that electric shock of discovery, there’s nothing at all.” OK Go (Kulash, bassist Timothy Nordwind, multi-instrumentalist Andy Ross, and drummer Dan Konopka) have been professional collaborators for nearly 30 years, during which time they’ve put a wild variety of notches on their belts. Yes, they’ve racked up billions of streams, topped radio charts, directed dozens of award-winning videos, and collected three VMAs and a GRAMMY. But they’ve also collaborated with DNA scientists and Muppets, testified before congress, published in academic journals, launched a K-12 educational non-profit, and earned a mountain of accolades that are much more unusual for a rock band: twenty-one Cannes Lions, twelve CLIOS, The Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and a spot in the permanent collection of MoMA. Now, a new generation of online creators who grew up on their seminal videos regularly reference OK Go as forebears of a new brand of creativity. But to hear Kulash tell it, the band measures success not by awards, but by the thrill of creative discovery and the freedom to pursue it, and as the band prepares to release its ambitious fifth studio album, And the Adjacent Possible, he says they’re more energized than ever, and full of gratitude. “Spending our lives chasing ideas simply because they’re inspiring or beautiful, full stop, is something we all dream of when we’re young. A few people are lucky enough to get a shot at it, but it almost always gives way to other agendas, more practical concerns. To be midlife and spending our days in pursuit of wonder or spectacle or catharsis simply for their own sake… it’s such a privilege, such a gift.” And the Adjacent Possible testifies to just how curious — and adventurous — OK Go have been of late. Even for a band known for pushing boundaries, this album is wildly eclectic—postmodern and genre-dissolving. Given the legacy of their videos, famed for their inventive use of treadmills and dogs; slow motion and zero-gravity, Rube Goldberg machines, optical illusions, and musical stunt driving, the band couldn’t very well return without an eye-popping video in hand, and in January they delivered: The stunning moving mosaic for “A Stone Only Rolls Downhill” features 64 videos playing across 64 phones. Directed by Kulash and Chris Buongiorno (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), it required more than a thousand takes, and over two hours and twenty minutes of single-take clips are condensed into the final frame. Kulash seems somewhere between inspired and bemused by what lies ahead. When asked what he thinks the next five years look like for the band, he replies, “A five-year plan is a very reasonable idea. But the only place I ever want to be in five years is somewhere I couldn’t possibly predict today.”
Violenteer
The Faint
GOON
We always think we have a plan. We will walk into a situation with a purpose and an idea, only to find that life has other things in store for us. Goon frontman and creative mastermind, Kenny Becker, had a record’s worth of new songs ready to record, studio time booked, and a vision for how it would all play out. But weeks into the recording, life hit him like a lightning bolt in the form of the sudden dissolution of his marriage and his subsequent psychic spiral. Blindsided by heartbreak, the music Becker had written for the record began to take on new meaning. What had come from joy was now something closer to agony. In the friction of that moment, Becker pushed his band—and his songwriting—into stranger territory. Facing down the pain and disappointment of life, the band created a masterpiece with their new album, Dream 3. Goon began in 2015 as singer and multi-instrumentalist, Kenny Becker’s, solo project, releasing a compilation of his best home recordings, the 2016 EP Dusk of Punk. With a full band in tow, Goon released the band’s first full-length, 2019’s Heaven is Humming on Partisan Records. Becker recruited a new band—Andy Polito on drums, Dillon Peralta on guitar, and Tamara Simons on bass—and recorded the self-released Paint By Numbers 1. A second LP, Hour of Green Evening, soon followed, as well as another EP, Red Ladder, in 2022. To support Hour of Green Evening, Goon hit the road hard, touring and playing shows with Built to Spill, Jadu Heart, Slow Pulp, Teethe, Squirrel Flower, and many others. In the midst of all this, the band signed with Philadelphia label Born Losers and began recording their next LP with Claire Morison at Wild Horizon Sound in Los Angeles. Dream 3 melds the intimate, lo-fi stylings of Goon with the live-band sound of Hour of Green Evening; a veteran band exploring every aspect of their sound, pushing themselves into new musical and emotional realms. The result is an often darker, more introspective album, built on personal loss and the chaotic crumbling of the outside world, without losing Goon’s signature sense of strangeness and wonder. Weaving lyrics about personal and ecological collapse with references to baseball, aliens, and Tony Soprano, the record expands Goon’s sound while holding close to the core identity of the band. Dream 3 offers an exquisitely crafted sonic world, one full of heartbreak and pain, but also brimming with color and life, the hope of better days to come. Dream 3 is a startling progression for Goon, a record filled with pain and heartbreak, yes, but healing as well. For all the imagery of death and decay, it’s also suffused with light—“lace light,” “half light,” “light through an orb weaver,” “morning light,” “microwave light, “flashlight,” “sunlight.” It’s the light that makes things happen, causes plants to grow, sets the world alive. And it’s in the light we find ourselves changing, in our fiercest struggles and in our quiet moments, always on the verge of becoming something new again. Dream 3, with its pain and troubled beginning, is a testament to the slow work of the light cutting through even the darkest places.
Wake Sessions
Wake Sessions is from Omaha, NE. Mixing electronic and rock sounds together. A sound that fans of all genres can enjoy.
Rosali
North Carolina-based artist Rosali makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might first appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a subtly sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. A child of two musicians, Rosali grew up as part of a large family that sang together and taught themselves various instruments, finding the earliest forms of her musical voice harmonizing and making up songs with her sisters. As an adult, Rosali merged this musical upbringing with an active involvement in Philly’s experimental and D.I.Y. community. Her 2016 solo debut Out of Love was released on Siltbreeze, a long-running label that champions abstract noise and challenging listening. While Rosali’s earliest work was far nearer to folk-informed rock than harsh sonics, it held an intensity of its own in its strange angles and unexpected vulnerability. Second album Trouble Anyway expanded on the debut with clearer production and more involved arrangements. A host of friends from Philly’s freak scene contributed to the album, including appearances from ambient harpist/pianist Mary Lattimore, Purling Hiss/Birds of Maya shredder Mike Polizze, glistening lap-steel from Mike Sobel, understated percussion from War On Drugs drummer Charlie Hall, and several others. Trouble Anyway brought Rosali a new level of exposure, with a flood of positive critical press and tours supporting acts like The Weather Station and J Mascis. Along with her solo work, Rosali’s output has materialized as a broad spectrum of disparate collaborations, including the hypnotic garage trio Long Hots, slow-burning psych scrawl in duo Monocot with Cloud Nothings drummer Jayson Gerycz, and Wandering Shade, a three guitar improv act with Headroom’s Kryssi Battalene and Thrill Jockey artist Sarah Louise. Aspects of the more free-floating side of Rosali’s oeuvre inform her songwriting process, with songs often emerging from the ether of lengthy improvisation sessions, new ideas congealing through a boundless exploration of possibilities. Brought to life with help from Omaha’s David Nance Group as the backing band, 2021’s song-centered No Medium was a sharply realized example of Rosali’s distinctive synthesis of metered songwriting and unfettered searching. Around the same time, she offered a completely separate side of her craft with cassette release Chokeweed, a collection of auburn-hued solo guitar improvisations. She followed that in 2023 with the acclaimed improvisational guitar album Variable Happiness released under the moniker Edsel Axle. In whatever form it takes, Rosali’s softly glowing music is malleable and deceptively fluid, able to appear patient and refined or at the edge of unraveling depending on how closely you chose to look. Bite Down, Rosali’s new album made in collaboration with Omaha’s finest David Nance, James Schroeder, and Kevin Donahue, and Destroyer collaborator, Ted Bois released March 22, 2024 on Merge Records.
Glitterfox
