Yot Club + Vundabar
VUNDABAR – Fast Track INCLUDES: First Entry Into Venue First Access To Merch Commemorative Laminate Keychain Tote Bag YOT CLUB – Fast Track INCLUDES: First Entry Into Venue First Access To Merch Commemorative Laminate Sticker Sheet Tote Bag
Dylan LeBlanc & David Ramirez
Dylan LeBlanc is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who often finds himself flirting with the edge — or “dancing on a razor,” as he calls it — as it is all he has ever known. A verdict vagabond since he was a little boy tossed between Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, LeBlanc thrives on the precipice, never staying in one place for too long. It is that nomadic spirit that drew him not only to a life as a touring musician, but also to the beast that titles his newest record: ‘Coyote.’ LeBlanc says he has always related to the insatiable, scavenging nature of the wily coyote. Much like the animal, LeBlanc is a wanderer who knows when to trust his instincts, musically and otherwise. It is a spiritual kinship that runs deep, but he credits one particularly hair-raising face-to-face instance with solidifying his bond with the animal. LeBlanc was in Austin, Texas, climbing the face of a 100-foot cliff, gambling with Mother Nature’s good graces as he pulled himself up by tree branches. Once he reached the top, all that laid ahead of him was a lush treeline. There was a breath of stillness, then the sound of a thunderous rustling that drew closer and closer to him. In a blink, LeBlanc watched as a frenzied raccoon came speeding out of the treeline, trailed by an animal that stopped and stared at him with striking intensity: a coyote. “We’re looking at each other dead in the eyes…and I’m saying — out loud — ‘If it’s you or me, I am going to kick you off the side of this cliff. I’m not going down.’ It was intense, this human-animal moment,” LeBlanc recalls. “I’ve never forgotten that… he was just trying to survive and so was I.” ‘Coyote’ is LeBlanc’s first self-produced release, boasting a cherry-picked lineup of what he calls “killer session players,” such as drummer Fred Eltringham (Ringo Starr, Sheryl Crow), pianist Jim “Moose” Brown (Bob Seger), and bass player Seth Kaufman (Lana Del Rey). Though ‘Coyote’ covers familiar ground for LeBlanc of living on the edge of danger and its many consequences, the record is both autobiographical and a concept album built around the character of Coyote, a man on the run. __ David Ramirez took a little time to get back to himself, and now he’s dead set on making music for himself—for the sake of the music… and nothing else. “I love all the records I’ve made in the past. But in making them, there was always the thought in the back of my mind of where and what it could get me. I made both creative and business decisions with a goal in mind… a goal that often never came. This time it was all about just the joy of making it, about having fun with it.” The Austin, TX-based singer-songwriter—whose decades-long career has seen six fulllength studio albums, three EPs, countless collaborations, and an illustrious supergroup project in Glorietta—spent a season of rest away from his focus on writing songs. In the wake of the end of a long relationship, he wanted to prioritize processing his grief as a human, not as an artist bleeding on the page. “The last thing I wanted was to write a heartbreak record. So I stopped writing altogether, and I just waited until I saw my heart start coming back to life. I wanted the next thing to be hopeful and sweet and beautiful—a testament to music and my love for it.” David’s new record All the Not So Gentle Reminders, which comes out March 21, 2025 via Blue Corn Music is exactly what he was waiting for. The 12-song album is an expansive succession of dreamlike songs that tell his stories, yes—but more than anything lean into the possibilities of the trip that music can take us on.
The Rocket Summer
Celebrating 20 years of “Hello, good friend.” The Rocket Summer will perform the seminal sophomore album as well as an additional set of songs from each album to date. Dubbed “a master of creating anthems” by Paste Magazine and named by Alternative Press as “100 artists you need to know”, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, Bryce Avary, better known as The Rocket Summer has been a musical force since exploding onto the scene as a teenager in the early 2000s. With several albums in his growing discography debuting in top Billboard Alternative charts, Avary recently returned with the ever evolved electrified full-length album, shadowkasters, then followed with the stripped down acoustic rooted single, Don’t Be Yourself, which were both named by Rolling Stone as “Songs You Need To Know”. Having performed at Glastonbury, Austin City Limits and Summer Sonic, embarking on sold out headline tours around the world while sharing stages with artists such as Paramore, Goo Goo Dolls, Onerepublic, Switchfoot, Third Eye Blind, All Time Low and more, fans have flocked to Avary’s optimistic and exuberant song craft, polymath instrumental live show, and the fan community it inspires – an atmosphere which can be heard captured on the live album, His Instruments and Your Voices. “We’re not talking simple acoustic solo stuff here. The music Bryce makes as The Rocket Summer is lush, explosively catchy and artful power pop that hints at a new Brian Wilson or Prince in the making. Keep an eye out on this one. – Austin City Limits .com”
Nada Surf
Moon Mirror, Nada Surf’s new record, has everything fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies? Check. Songs that are play-on-repeat heart punches? Check. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking while also being absolute belt-at-the-top-of-your-voice-with-the-windows-down masterpieces? Check. It’s all here. Nada Surf is Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, Ira Elliot, and Louie Lino. Moon Mirror, their first for New West Records, was produced by the band and Ian Laughton at Rockfield Studios in Wales. Moon Mirror is a thrilling and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience—as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. There’s love, yes, but also grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There is hard-won wisdom here, and hard-won belief in possibility—the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up. “Give Me The Sun” (“I’m looking for something/ I can’t say exactly what”), “Second Skin”(“I’m tired of living in this second skin/ I want to let everything in”), and “Moon Mirror”(“connect me to something”) grapple with being present and open, paying attention, and seeking connection in a world that feels alienating with its everything-all-at-once-ness. “In Front of Me Now” is a song against multi-tasking and sleepwalking through the one life we have. The song asks, “Why wasn’t I present? I could have been living,” and shows us a transformation in the chorus: “Today, I do what’s in front of me now.” I don’t know about you, but I need this reminder as much as ever. Nada Surf has been working together for decades, and they’re consistently excellent, but they always surprise me. That’s what great art does. For nearly 30 years, Nada Surf has been a part of the soundtrack of my life. Our lives. I fell hard for the band over Let Go in 2002, and following that, The Weight Is a Gift, in 2005. Those songs are lodged in my body, someplace they’ll never be extracted from. So are songs from The Proximity Effect, Lucky, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, and Never Not Together, which was my favorite record of 2020. Moon Mirror will take its place among the others, in heavy rotation. Four years ago, during lockdown, I was listening to Nada Surf one morning. My son, then seven years old, was quiet, and then he said, “They sing a lot about love.” What he said next has stuck with me: “It protects you.” Love protects you. If you need convincing, I think Moon Mirror will do just that. Lucky, lucky us to have had Nada Surf’s music with us for all of these years, and lucky, lucky us tohave these new songs now, right when we need them most. —Maggie Smith
Homeward Bound for the Heartland Benefit Concert
Homeward Bound in the Heartland Animal Rescue, Inc helps seniors and low-income residents keep their pets at home and out of the shelter system. Helping homeless/abused/neglected/abandoned animals. Learn more at www.hbith.org Pick up some handmade baked comfort classics from the Pie Fairy! With performances from: Steve Monroe (Acoustic) Dr Webb (Acoustic) Jeff Moore (Acoustic) The Dive Kings Save the Hero Virgin Mary Pistol Grip
Carver Jones & The American Dreamers
The Arcadian Wild
The Arcadian Wild is a four-piece indie folk/pop group from Nashville, TN. Ledby songwriters Isaac Horn and Lincoln Mick and Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild confidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending the traditional with the contemporary. Combining elements of progressive bluegrass, folk, and formal vocal music, The Arcadian Wild offer up songs of invitation; calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, to journey and wonder, to laugh and cry, to share joy and community and sing along. The band’s 2023 album Welcome marks the start of a captivating new chapter for the genre-bending trio, who returned to the studio with renewed purpose and insight after devoting the last few years to a series of critically acclaimed singles and EPs. Like much of the band’s catalog, the album blurs the lines between chamber folk and progressive bluegrass, drawing on everything from country and classical to pop and choral music with lush harmonies and dazzling fretwork, but this time around there’s a rawness to the writing, an embrace of candor and simplicity that cuts straight to the heart of things like never before. The result is perhaps the most arresting collection yet from a band known for its ability to stop listeners dead in their tracks, an exquisitely beautiful celebration of community, connection, and the power of belonging that feels tailor-made for these challenging times.
SPELLLING
Neva Dinova
Neva Dinova’s reinvigorating full-length Canary features a new lineup, fresh perspective and a sound more urgent than anything they’ve created in the past. Recast after 15 years of inactivity and newly energized by a tour offer from longtime Omaha friends Cursive, songwriter/guitarist/singer Jake Bellows started sending demos to drummer Roger L. Lewis and just-recruited bassist Megan Siebe. They began woodshedding new songs, and the latest incarnation of Neva Dinova was born. After an East Coast run, the band returned to Omaha to record Canary at Make Believe Studios. “I’m trying to cover a lot more space in the band now because there’s only one guitar, so I write a little differently in order to cover that space.” (An understatement considering the previous lineups of the band featured three guitarists.) The result is an album that is more focused while still allowing for the occasional Neil Young-inspired guitar solo or unexpected sonic flourish. The songs on Canary were honed on the road allowing for a largely live recording session that captures the visceral energy of the band. There’s a beauty in the imperfections: The subtle buzzing of the amp, the finger noise on the strings and Bellows’s voice rising above all of it in a way that’s distinctly Neva Dinova. Canary is a raw and unfiltered glimpse of Bellows’s psyche and an electrifying batch of songs — unpretentious, empathetic, weathered, and wizened. It also marks a second act for one of indie rock’s most underrated acts.
Elizabeth Moen
