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Teenage Bottlerocket
They’ve toured the world countless times. They kept the leather jacket-and-Converse look alive through an increasingly neon landscape. They’ve written songs about KISS, Top Gun and Minecraft. Hell, they’ve even been on CNN a few times! Please welcome back to the spotlight Wyoming’s own…Teenage Bottlerocket! With more than 100 original songs already in their catalog, how does the band stay motivated when they’re eight records deep? “We’re always in competition with ourselves,” Carlisle explains. “The real competition is between me and Kody. It’s like, ‘You wrote a song that destroys everything else on this record. Let me try to do that to you real quick. How’s that feel?” And then he comes back and one ups me.“It’s all about the songs,” he continues. “The songs carry this record all the way. That’s not to say there are bad songs on our other records—we have a hard time releasing a shitty song. But these songs are especially great. You know ALL’s best-of record where Allroy is dissecting a musical note? I felt we kind of tapped into that record in a great way, not in a ‘Oh no, they’re experimental now!’ way. This is a Teenage Bottlerocket record through and through, but there’s a lot of hidden elements.” Carlisle’s pride about their latest album, Sick Sesh!, is obvious, but he’s not the only one who loves the album. “Fat Mike called me and said, ‘Hey, this is your best record,” Carlisle recalls. “I said, ‘Cool,thanks for noticing.’” Given that the band is already two decades old, however, is there any chance of the band slowing down? Carlisle shoots that idea down right away.“I want to have the best next 10 years,” the singer says. “We’ve grinded the grind. Now we get to actually enjoy being a band, and not think too much about different ways to try and ‘make it.’ We’re riding this wave we built ourselves. I wanna surf it for another 10 years.”Well there you have it: The three things in life you can always count on are death, taxes and Teenage Bottlerocket.
The Farewell Season
The Farewell Season plays music made for a long drive down a back highway. The band slides effortlessly from Americana, to folk, to indie and back again. What started as friends passing time across the internet during the pandemic turned into a band that splits time between Omaha and the Twin Cities these days. Formed by frontman Nate Gasaway (The Big Deep) and drummer Taylor Stein (Ten O’Clock Scholars), the lineup is rounded out by Paul Gedbaw on guitar and Justin Crow on bass; both veterans of the Nebraska music scene.
Rosegarden Funeral Party
Rosegarden Funeral Party has been making their mark on the international post-punk/goth scene since the release of their inaugural EP, the Chopping Block, in 2018. Since then, the band has released another EP, At the Stake (2020), and three full length albums, Martyr (2019), In the Wake of Fire (2021), and From the Ashes (2024). The band has garnered critical acclaim from Post-Punk.com, LA Weekly, SF Sonic, Dallas Observer, and more. Rosegarden Funeral Party has extensively toured the US, both as a headliner and a supporting act, completing over 13 tours. They made their UK/European debut in 2023 touring countries Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Scotland, England, and Germany, where they headlined Beautiful Noise Festival, and supported Skeletal Family and Corpus Delicti at Wave Gottik Treffen in Leipzig. Rosegarden Funeral Party blends traditional gothic sonic stylizing with modern pop sensibility that supports emotionally evocative and relatable lyrics about heartbreak and healing. The band heavily focuses on spreading a message of kindness and loving oneself and others. Rosegarden Funeral Party’s music and message have earned them a devoted fanbase that continues to grow.
Bennie & The Gents: Bennie Does Bowie IX
Testing, testing, ground control to Major Tom. It is that time again ladies and gentlemen when Bennie & The Gents spend an entire evening paying tribute the only and only David Bowie. This show has grown to be legendary and is an epic evening of music and showmanship. Do not miss out on this special one night only event.
Fountains of Dane
George Clanton
George Clanton doesn’t just produce gleaming electronic pop, he produces nostalgia too. The Los Angeles artist’s process involves tweaking synthesizer presets, but beyond searching for the right melodies and textures, he’s hoping to come upon a sound that strikes a spiritual chord. “I’m looking for something that triggers a memory or an emotion,” he says. His lyrics are direct transmissions from his soul: raw, often off-the-cuff, evocative. When you pair those words with the gauzy textures Clanton’s become known for, his music feels like a dreamy filter you can put over your own memories. Every moment feels a little more colorful, a little more comforting. You can hear the impact of this approach in his upcoming third album—take fuzz-pop anthem “Fucking Up My Life.” The track is both raucous and soothing, and as Clanton’s distorted croons echo across swelling synths and crushing breakbeats, he offers a mantra: “It feels alright.” It’s a fitting return for an artist who’s spent the last decade cutting through the noise. In addition to making music, he runs the 100% Electronica record label with his fellow pop mutator and wife Negative Gemini. He also spearheads events, including weekly livestreams on Twitch. Being extremely online has allowed Clanton’s fans access to the depths of his personality, to connect with his work more deeply. “I think of myself as the ultimate DIY person,” he says. “Working the George Clanton way has made for a really unique career that hasn’t yet been fully recognized.” Growing up, Clanton knew he wanted to be an entertainer, but he didn’t know how. His hometown of Ridgeway, Virginia, had a NASCAR track but no concert venues or record stores. So MTV was his primary education: videos by artists like 311, The Prodigy, and the Bad Boy Records crew taught the art of showmanship. He downloaded a lot of music from Limewire. During one session, a mislabeled download of what he thought was Oasis turned out to be shoegaze band Brian Jonestown Massacre, opening him up to the vast world of underground music on the internet, which led him to help form the scene that would dream up vaporwave. Clanton’s new album finds him both musically and personally matured. It’s an elegant merging of all his past musical selves—of stirring rock, sweeping shoegaze, and niche electronics—augmented with more complex layers and physical instruments. It’s also a journey inwards as Clanton emphasizes personal reflection and self-improvement—themes he’s held close his whole career. “It’s definitely something that I need to get out,” he says of the music. “I want people to know that George Clanton is better than ever and something amazing is coming just around the corner.”
Cryogeyser
Tropidelic & Ballyhoo!
A musical lighthouse, shining a resilient light for everyone that has had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, Tropidelic has arrived on the national stage. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, a city rich in character and music history, this six-piece performance powerhouse carves their own path with an independent mentality. Front man Roads, explores feelings more than sounds, seeing where the emotional travel can take him, while valuing being comfortable and honest. There is a sense of seeing where the music can go on their 2024 new album. As an everyman-band making music to overcome life’s obstacles, the “goals” that Tropidelic made when starting the band have all been surpassed. Roads says of the band’s future, “I’m nose to the grindstone. It’s going great and I am going to keep going.” The past year has included a first pitch at a Cleveland Guardians game followed by a live performance for the entire stadium; an adopted highway in their hometown; producing two of their own festivals (Sunny Days and Everwild Music Festival); tens of millions of streams of Tropidelic’s music; appearances at major US festivals such as Beach Life and Tortuga; tours with The Dirty Heads, Lupe Fiasco, 311, and Michael Franti; and their first performance at Red Rocks Amphitheater. __ Through 25 years and eight independent albums, the last four on their own Right Coast Records, Ballyhoo! have earned the exclamation point which marks their name. Starting in the basement of their mom’s Aberdeen, MD, home, rocking out on guitar and drums respectively, practicing every day, brothers Howi and Donald Spangler formed the proto-punk band in the mold of Green Day and Nirvana, with an eye towards the emerging ska genre led by Goldfinger, Sublime, 311 and No Doubt. The group’s eighth and most recent studio album, the breezy, ska-fueled, hook-filled Message to the World, on their own Right Coast Records, finds the self-declared “beach-rockers,” having grown up in public, accepting the responsibilities of adulthood while still hanging on to their dreams of world domination. Stylistically, their music ranges from the hard-edged punk of 2018’s Detonate, which captured the feelings of anger and depression from dealing with personal loss and the exhaustion generated by over a decade on the road to the island reggae beats of the follow-up, Message to the World. “Whatever you want to achieve, just focus on that and work towards it,” explains Howi about the Ballyhoo! ethos. “Don’t worry about followers, views, or even money. Just keep making good stuff. One day it may be possible to finally quit that day job and live your dream full time.”Ballyhoo! is still doing just that, purveying good vibes, positivity and fun live shows meant to take you away from real life. __ For his entire life Joey Harkum has been strumming a guitar and after a decade of touring as the lead singer and songwriter of Baltimore-based band Pasadena, he released his debut solo album, Love and Labor, to critical acclaim in 2016. Along with a relentless touring schedule Joey has most recently been working on his 4th studio album The Art of Revenge which released March 1st 2024. Known for his deep and poignant lyrics telling stories of joy, love, loss and sadness, Joey brings the human experience to life through his relentless tour schedule that culminated in the release of Live at Buffalo Iron Works in 2018. 2020 brought new challenges but Joey responded with writing and recording new music and released his album Storyboard in March of 2021. Immediately following the release of Storyboard, he started work on his follow up album Salt and Tar which was released in spring 2022. Catch him on tour now or online at joeyharkummusic.com