SLEEZ KANGS
The Iron Roses
The Iron Roses – The Iron Roses are a passionate, unique, and beautiful group of people making music that we hope will change the world. Fueled by the injustices of our current times – their songs are the kind of protest anthems that only a group of seasoned musicians could make. Still angry, still driven, and still screaming – this is a band that will never give up the fight.It takes serious talent to write and sing songs that sound angry while the music lifts your spirits. So much of political punk is abrasive and unpleasant. No hooks. No melodies. But other times the words sound incongruent with emotionless and insipid music. The Iron Roses manage something rare and commanding with music that lifts the heart coupled powerfully with lyrics that express fury and resentment of the current world. Punk as a genre has been so commodified and diluted over the last decades that it seems to be ever increasingly hard to find bands that resonate this way. Yes, we can discuss their pedigree, most notably their frontperson Nathan Gray (of Boysetsfire), and their relentless touring and political activism. But none of those things matter if the songs don’t connect with the listener. And this collection of songs are going to do just that. From the opening notes of the first song the cards are on the table. The objective is clear – The Iron Roses are putting to words and music all the thoughts you’ve had these last few dark years. With the worldwide political climate leaning further and further from the left. With rights for many being limited and destroyed. With no end in sight. We need bands like The Iron Roses giving us a soundtrack to fight. Songs to pour our anger and frustration into when we sing along – just as they did when they wrote and recorded them.https://www.instagram.com/theironroses/Rodeo Boys – punk / garage / grunge from Lansing, MIhttps://www.rodeoboysofficial.com/
Squid Pisser
SQUID PISSER eviscerates the ego and and all things serene with their own vibrant form of vicious and mucky hardcore. Slamming down dolphin corpses at breakneck speeds, the duo, which is comprised of Tommy Meehan on guitar (Deaf Club, Cancer Christ, Sweatband Records, Cartoon Network) and Seth Carolina (Starcrawler), have constructed a fresh and mucousy new alien craft powered by tightly controlled noise-guitar, savage primal drum work, and gooped up vocal deliveries that might sound like a gaggle of frogs thrown into a garbage disposal (although the Squid boys wouldn’t recommend doing this). Conceptualized and formed in 2022, the band decided to fully utilize planet Earth’s viral slumber in order to gestate, write, and record 2 full length albums worth of material. Throughout the year, SQUID PISSER played a handful of shows in California and Nevada as a 2 piece as they continued the quest for further personnel and collaborators. Tommy Meehan’s tightly controlled noise-onslaught of rainbow vomit (spat out of a guitar amp via manic pedalboard wizardry and sophisticated finger work) paired with the utterly brutal and savage drumming of Seth Carolina, merge to create a collection of tracks that have been forged in a totally fucked and sonically chaotic storm of pus and goo.
Punk Rock BBQ
El Ten Eleven
We like to believe our lives can be shaped into stories—clean arcs, legible meaning—but life refuses the outline. Instead, it moves bluntly and without apology, indifferent to our sense of order. Events pile up without resolution, momentum divorced from direction, motion confused for progress. Sometimes the only refuge left is the nowhere of our own minds. El Ten Eleven’s Nowhere Faster, the duo’s 16th release, was forged within that unease. Across eight tracks, it considers not just nothingness but velocity—the strange urgency that propels us forward even when the destination remains unclear. We are committed to acceleration, convinced speed itself might save us. The 33-minute album slows just long enough to pose the harder questions: what are we running from, and what do we think we can outrun? That tension appears even in the album’s artwork, once again created with longtime collaborator Rob Fleming. It depicts a classic liminal space: familiar, anonymous, quietly unsettling. A stained glass-colored building and a streetlamp blur at the edges, suggesting motion that feels less like escape than enclosure—the kind that traps rather than transports. Nowhere Faster emerged from Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty’s longest break from touring and recording in their 23 years together, though “break” is something of a misnomer. Dunn’s famously restless creative pace never slowed. Instead, he began writing for not one but two drummers, handing Fogarty one of the most demanding challenges of his career. The record also marks a first for the band, weaving real strings and piano throughout, deepening the palette of what is already one of their most layered works. The album’s titles and sounds draw from moments scattered across the band’s 23-year history. Opener “Uncanny Valley Girl” marks the return of long-retired effects like the delay pedal, stacking basslines into a dense, enveloping wall. It’s a clear-eyed take on AI-era paranoia, anchored by Fogarty’s steady rhythm—snare taut, cymbals gently alive—giving the sci-fi unease something solid to lean on. “Bjork’s Alarm Clock,” meanwhile, takes its title from an insult hurled at the band by a guitarist of a punk band on their first tour; you can almost hear Dunn and Fogarty’s quiet laughter beneath the buoyant bass and bow-scratched strings. Still, Nowhere Faster is not a retreat into nostalgia. El Ten Eleven remains invested in risk and reinvention. The record continues to center Fogarty’s propulsive drumming and Dunn’s bass-driven experimentation: the first four tracks (“side A”) feature electric bass, while the latter half (“side B”) shifts to acoustic bass processed through pedals, subtly altering the album’s emotional weight. “Last Night In The Kitchen” reaches for the slick, sleazy bombast of classic Bond themes, opening new corridors for Dunn’s ever-expanding musical ambitions. Ultimately, Nowhere Faster is an album about reckoning—about time, endurance, and the uncertainty of how long a band, or a life, can last. We are all fumbling toward finitude. The question is not whether we’ll arrive, but what we want to hear on the way there. What will we dance to as the ground begins to shift beneath us? If nothing else, it may sound something like Nowhere Faster.
David Huckfelt
KISS THE FLOOR
Dedications
Simon Joyner & the Ghosts
Simon Joyner is a renowned American singer-songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska who has released albums on independent labels since the early 1990s. His earliest records were influential signposts of the Lo-Fi movement which also produced contemporaries like Smog, Lou Barlow, Will Oldham and the Mountain Goats. He is now widely regarded as one of the great songwriters of our time. Gillian Welch calls him her favorite poet and Kevin Morby and Conor Oberst both claim him as a major influence. Despite often being described as a songwriter’s songwriter, Joyner has soared under the radar for over thirty years. His storytelling has been compared to Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, Lou Reed, and Bob Dylan. Over the course of 19 albums his career is hard to pin down as he’s followed a mercurial path, never content to make the same record twice. See him at The Reverb playing the songs from his new album, “Tough Love,” with a band of Omaha musical royalty including David Nance, Jim Schroeder, Sean Pratt, Mike Friedman, and Megan Siebe. —— David Nance is a musician based in Omaha, Nebraska. Nance grew up in Grand Island, Nebraska, played in the marching band and discoveredpunk and garage rock before moving to Omaha and joining the mid-2000 garage punk scene happening there with the band the Forbidden Tigers. Several years spent in Los Angeles with his wife Anna led to a period of songwriting and home recording before they decided to move back to Omaha where he began finding his musical identity and started recording his songs with like-minded friends. What developed was a heavy burned-out rock vibe that still somehow fits in the punk universe. Nance also played with Omaha legend Simon Joyner and has continued to record and self-release tapes and cdrs throughout the past decade. Nance is also known for his lightning punk cover recordings of classic albums such as Lou Reed’s Berlin, Beatles for Sale and Devo’s Duty Now For the Future. For this series, Nance will choose a favorite album, learn the songs and record over the course of a week and release it on CDR or cassette on his own Western Records. Nance plans on continuing this project and would like to release 100 of these eccentric home spun and destroyed love letters to the greats. Another partnership includes a collaboration with the musician Rosali that has resulted in two excellent albums and subsequent tours with the David Nance Group as her backing band. They had been touring with her band the Long Hots in 2019 and started playing together with mutual affinity. Rosali’s upcoming album was recorded with musical compatriots James Schroeder recording and Kevin Donahue and Nanceplaying, as well. Not content to mine one musical formula, Nance and company continue to explore new sounds and spaces. From the blistered punk blasts of More Than Enough to the introspective stance on Staunch Honey, Nance and his friends find inspiration from the friends and fellow musicians that have accompanied them on their journey. A fruitful one indeed.
Nevertel
THE OTHERS EXPERIENCE VIP PACKAGE includes: One standing GA ticket with early entry to the floor Exclusive production Q&A with the band Professional photo opportunity with Nevertel A VIP exclusive Nevertel merchandise pack One exclusive propaganda poster autographed by Nevertel One commemorative laminate and lanyard Tour merchandise shopping opportunity before doors VIP check-in and priority lane into the venue before doors THE TRAVELER EXPERIENCE VIP PACKAGE includes: One standing GA ticket with early entry to the floor Professional photo opportunity with Nevertel A VIP exclusive Nevertel merchandise pack One exclusive propaganda poster autographed by Nevertel One commemorative laminate and lanyard VIP check-in and priority lane into the venue before doors Leading with an emphasis on quality in everything they do, Nevertel – Jeremy Michael (vocalist), Raul Lopez (rapper/guitarist/producer) and Alec Davis (guitarist) – have honed a distinctly modern genre-blending sound that fuses elements of hip-hop, nu-metal and alternative rock. Touting influences from established acts such as Linkin Park and Bring Me The Horizon, the group draws in listeners with riveting melodic choruses, hip-hop infused verses and bombastic EDM-style breakdowns. Even before they were Nevertel, they were just a bunch of childhood pals bonded by their shared love of music. “We’ve all been best friends since high school and have been in and out of bands together,” Jeremy explains. However, as often happens with school-aged friendships, they eventually drifted apart – until music intervened yet again. “It wasn’t until years later, after seeing Linkin Park at the 2014 Carnivores Tour, Raul called me and Alec about starting another band.” Though the trio is long past their high school days, they still bond over the interests they shared as kids. “What brought us together was our love for music and video games. We would play video games to stay close and keep in contact about the band. Music and gaming have been instrumental to our growth and bond as brothers.” Now, after two albums, two EPs, and a slew of singles out in the world, Nevertel has racked up over 60 million global streams to date (and over 900K a week) while fostering an online community of over 600K social media followers. A testament of their dedication to their craft and commitment to their fans, the band has performed at festivals like Welcome To Rockville, seen radio support from SiriusXM and earned recognition across all major DSPs, with a placement on Spotify’s All New Metal, Kickass Metal, and Hard Rock playlists. “Our mission is pretty simple: to make music that saves and inspires people to make great changes in their lives.” While they pour their hearts into their work, at the core of it all, they do it for the tight-knit group of childhood best friends they once were. “If we could inspire that same 13-year-old kid we once were to follow their dreams and chase their passions then I’d say our mission is being accomplished.”