Gay Cum Daddies
Emily Raff
Graham Hunt & Prize Horse
Graham Hunt can’t stop making records. Since 2019, the Madison, WI-based songwriter has been amassing a dense catalog of singular music at a pace rivaled only by the quality of the output itself. Now already on his sixth album, American Pyramid, Hunt pushed himself out of his comfort zones, eschewing the homespun, computer-oriented explorations of his previous work and instead entering Minnesota’s legendary Pachyderm Studio with an eight-piece band to try and capture a different side of his boundless creativity. The result is an album that stretches out musically and lyrically, with Hunt using his surrealist spin to dissect both the traditions of American indie rock as well as the unnerving detachment of the American experience itself. American Pyramid arrives barely a year after Hunt’s 2025 album, Timeless World Forever, the final release in a trilogy of records and a capstone on a significant part of his life. “I knew I was going to be moving from this house where the home studio is, so I gave myself the limitation of making those three albums that specific way, and then I knew I’d do something different,” he explains. “Part of me felt like I could live in that house and make an infinite amount of records there with the same process forever, but for a long time I’d also had this vision for tracking an album live with a band in a studio–I knew that’s how I wanted to make the next record even before I wrote any songs for it.” Hunt’s innate creative restlessness has always served him well but it wasn’t enough to simply record the songs with a group rather than alone: he even self-imposed limitations on the writing process itself, choosing to avoid demoing on the computer or even fleshing out the songs beyond simple iphone voice memos. “I wanted to keep it to just chords and melody and then figure out the rest with a group of people in a live room studio setting, I just hadn’t done it like that in a very long time.” And this would be no ordinary live band, instead a group of eight fellow multi-instrumentalists, each an impressive creative in their own right, all assembled to help Hunt see his vision through. “I was thinking about all the people who have played in my band in all its different iterations over the years, and I just wanted to try and get as many of them involved as possible,” he explains. “We only did two rehearsals before we went into the studio and everyone ended up swapping instruments and changing roles throughout recording. That sort of helped to recreate some of the feeling of what I do when I’m making music with the computer, but executed with a full band.” — Minneapolis’ Prize Horse make “a fuzzy, dreamy form of alt-rock that manages to be heavy and spaced-out at the same time” (Stereogum). The trio’s debut album, Under Sound, embarks their musical evolution which takes flight with ethereal, fuzz-laden tones departing from the grittier layers of their previous 2021 Welder EP.
Bayway
Exhorder
Formed in 1986, Exhorder’s journey has proven exciting, yet tumultuous. Fraught with euphoric peaks and crippling valleys throughout its existence, the band debuted that summer with the do-it-yourself demo recording, “Get Rude”. Swiftly building a strong local following in the New Orleans punk rock scene, Exhorder entered a legitimate 24 track studio in 1987 and crafted their controversial classic demo, “Slaughter In The Vatican”. However, as fate would have it, the band broke up for the first time in early 1988 due to internal struggles. A reformation ensued later that year, and Exhorder set out once again to pursue its vision. The band soon signed with Mean Machine Records, but the label dissolved before the band’s debut could be completed. Following a series of lineup shifts, a second full-length entitled “The Law”, and multiple hiatuses, the band finally relaunched itself in 2017. In the years that followed the relaunch of the band, Exhorder has toured extensively in both the United States and Europe. The reputation the band has carried as a force onstage continues to grow. With a new release in association with Nuclear Blast completed and was released in 2024, Exhorder are plotting another busy year performing worldwide.https://www.exhorder.com/ No/Más – hardcore / crust / grindcore from DC Phantom (Phantom G.D.L) is a young band from Guadalajara, Mexico, that has quickly established itself as one of the most solid and promising acts in Latin American metal. Their sound, rooted in relentless speed/thrash metal and a dark aesthetic, has allowed them to connect with international audiences and gain increasing recognition within the global scene. Intoxicated -Thrash/death metal from FL
HALOCENE
Zepparella
Zepparella is the Led Zeppelin Powerhouse. Vocalist Anna Kristina, Guitarist Gretchen Menn, Bassist Holly West, and Drummer Clementine have brought their passion for the sacred music of the greatest band in the world all over the world. Zepparella shows replicate the nuance and detail of Zeppelin’s catalog while honoring the powerful improvisational journeys for which Zeppelin shows were renowned.
Southpaw
Mike Baggetta & Eli Winter
Each show features solo sets from each artist, with special guests, throughout The South & Midwest this November. Join us for an intimate night of new songs and new sounds. _____ About Mike Baggetta: “Mike Baggetta is a player of immense subtlety across all dimensions, working with an impressive palette of tones … distilling Robert Fripp’s loopscapes with hints of John Fahey.” -The Wire, UK “…A terrific player, capable of weirdly elegant fretwork, shivery Tom Verlaine-esque tones, freeform freakouts and crunchy fuzz, shifting from one zone to another with a naturalness and ease.” -Aquarium Drunkard About Eli Winter: “Here, the Chicago-based wunderkind—an accomplished writer with storytelling bonafides beyond the guitar—merges the mythos of his native Texas with jazzy, explosive bombast, like a cowboy on DMT.” — Pitchfork “Eli Winter’s second turn as bandleader unfolds like a sky bleeding exhaust fumes, alternating pedal steel waltzes and jazz-burnt fuzz bombs. The record starts with an ecstatic riff on a Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell tune and doesn’t really let off the gas.” — NPR
The Haunt
