New Jazz Underground, an American trio, have been described as “an innovative and ultra creative collective striving to establish themselves as a defining voice for the genre of Jazz and beyond”. Their music signals a merging of traditional sensibilities in Jazz such as the blues, swing, and improvisation with the modern influence of hip-hop, pop, and afro-latino music. Listeners were introduced to the trio’s undeniably fresh sound through viral videos of the band performing in their living room. Hundreds of thousands viewed videos such as: “they can hate but we still swingin’”, “f**k/s**t/c**t/jazz”, “sad boy jazz”, as well as many others featuring the band's exuberant chemistry, effortless musicality, and raw ambition in sound.
Abdias Armenteros (Saxophonist/Composer, 25), Sebastian Rios (Bassist/Composer, 27), TJ Reddick (Drummer, 25) have each been lauded as some of Jazz's most promising young artists in their own right. After meeting while students at The Juilliard School, the trio began playing in the parks of NYC during lock-down in 2020. They shortly began posting to their Youtube channel that has since grown to over 100k+ subscribers. Releases such as “MF Doom Suite”, “Harlem to Havana”, and “cook/swing/work/relax” fully demonstrate the trio's reverence towards Jazz's icons, yet still contend in a vision to establish their own voice in the expression of new sounds that transcend genre lines.
New Jazz Underground is the 2023 DCJazzPrix™ Winner. Rios is a 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Winner. Both Reddick (BM’ 20) and Armenteros (MM’ 22) are Juillard School Graduates. Armenteros is the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Reddick and Rios have played as sidemen for the likes of Jon Batiste, Sullivan Fortner, Emmet Cohen, and ELEW, among many more. Rios is a long-time student of the legendary bassist, Ron Carter. The group most recently was featured on NPR Music for their song “Oney Ones One”
The trio not only performs, but boast their composition and production skills across a variety of mediums. Rios was a featured composer for the 2019 “New Dances”, the first ever collaboration between the Jazz and Dance divisions at The Juilliard School. He was also commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center to write a Suite to be performed by the trio at the 2023 Caramoor Jazz Fest. Rios’ compositions for the collective bring forth each member’s sound in a way that transcends the sum of their individual efforts. These gestures of collective musical identity are made real through the vehicle of composition tailored to each member’s unbridled talent, inspiring skill set, and transformative emotion.
Creating a new standard for Jazz presentation through their online videos, New Jazz Underground have blazed a path for young Jazz musicians in the modern music landscape. Their videos attract millions of music fans through their seemingly “clickbait” presentation. However, when audiences click they are met with an authentic musical expression steeped in both modernism and tradition that provides a soulful perspective into a deeper world of music. Listeners who wouldn’t normally enjoy Jazz are brought into the music creatively through young artists who are dedicating their lives to its legacy and promise of new creative paths.
NJU has a keen interest in helping students, not much younger than themselves, to develop a deeper understanding of Jazz music and the elements surrounding the creative process. Armenteros, Rios, and Reddick each have their own student studios as well as years of experience teaching students from middle school through college in topics such as Jazz history, theory, and application. Rios developed the program, “Creative Video in Modern Music” to teach intermediate to advanced Jazz students to produce their own music, and have a better understanding of the modern media landscape.
Dynamic and powerful performers, New Jazz Underground possess far-reaching talents that are re-energizing the contemporary music world from the inside out. They dedicate themselves to the music continually and serve as a burgeoning benchmark for the future of Jazz to come.
Two Shows: 7:00 PM and 8:30
Phil Manzanera is one of the UK’s best-known musicians and record producers, having shot to prominence in the early ‘70’s as the lead guitarist with the seminal band, Roxy Music. He is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading guitarists and record producers, combining his live playing with writing and producing new music. He was awarded the OBE in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours list: ‘musician and producer. For services to music.’
In the Autumn of 2022 Roxy Music celebrated its 50th anniversary with a 10 date critically acclaimed tour of the US, followed by three dates in the UK: the triumphant ‘victory’ lap with original members, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Paul Thompson and Phil, culminated in a sell-out concert at London’s O2 Arena. In 2023 Phil and Andy Mackay released their avant-rock album, AMPM, featuring Paul Thompson, followed by three London gigs in 2024. In September 2025 AMPM SOHO LIVE will be released.
In March 2024 Phil self-published ‘Revolución to Roxy’ his compelling memoir and during this year is giving a series of book talks, from Hay Festival, Cartagena to the Cat Club in Pontefract. November 2024 saw the release on Universal Records of ’50 Years of Music’ an 11 CD box-set with a 100 page book.
During the global pandemic Phil reconnected with his old friend, New Zealand legend,Tim Finn, and together they wrote and produced two stunning albums, 2021’s ‘Caught by the Heart’ and 2022’s ‘The Ghost of Santiago.’
Manzanera, born to a British father and Colombian mother, has always taken a global approach to his music making, collaborating with musicians from South and Latin America, South Africa, Cuba and continental Europe. In 2018 he was part of South Africa’s The Liberation Project and toured with them in Italy in the Summer of 2019. In 2018, at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Manzanera teamed up with Roxy bandmate, Andy Mackay in a Roxymphony concert: orchestral arrangements of Roxy songs.
Over the last four years he has co-produced Pink Floyd’s ‘The Endless River’, which was a global hit, achieving No 1 in over 20 countries, he released, ‘The Sound of Blue’, his own autobiographical album, co-produced David Gilmour’s 2015 album, ‘Rattle That Lock’, which again topped the charts in 12 countries: he toured with Gilmour in the UK, Europe and South America. In 2015 he was Maestro Concertatore of La Notte della Taranta, Italy’s largest free festival. He also took part in ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ a tribute concert to his friend, Jack Bruce.
Phil’s musical influence stretches far and wide, but even he was taken by surprise when his guitar riff from 1978’s K-Scope was sampled by Jay Z and Kanye West and became the Grammy winning smash hit ‘No Church in the Wild’ the first track on their multi-million selling album, ‘Watch The Throne’.
Manzanera is now in his fifth decade as a professional musician. He joined Roxy Music in 1972, aged 21, as lead guitarist – the line-up at this time was Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Paul Thompson and Andy Mackay. Roxy’s rise was meteoric, with the band being hailed as the stylistic influence of the early 1970’s. During the next 12 years, until 1983 when the band members went on a ‘long break’, Roxy Music released a series of international best selling albums, achieving ten UK top ten albums and touring extensively throughout the world. The 18 year hiatus ended in 2001 with a critically acclaimed, sellout 52-date world tour. In the summer of 2003 Roxy played 10 dates in the US followed by 13 European gigs in 2004, including performing at Live 8 in Berlin. Summer 2010 saw Roxy Music thrilling fans at Festivals in the UK, Europe and Japan, which was followed by a Winter UK tour, and dates in Australia and New Zealand. In 2019 Roxy Music was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performing live at the ceremony.
As a writer, producer and solo artist, Phil Manzanera has worked with many of the luminaries of modern music, such as Steve Winwood, David Gilmour, John Cale, Godley and Creme, Nico (Velvet Underground) and John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia). He has co-written material with many artists, including Brian Eno, Tim Finn, Robert Wyatt and David Gilmour. Manzanera co-wrote Pink Floyd’s single ‘One Slip’from their 1988 ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ album.In the world of Rock en Español Manzanera has also produced seminal albums for Draco Rosa ,Enrique Bunbury, Héroes del Silencio Aterciopelados, Paralamas do Sucesso and Fito Paez.
Phil Manzanera has his state of the art Gallery Studios in West London. Artists that have recorded there include Robert Wyatt, Roxy Music, Brian Eno, Hot Chip, David Gilmour, Annie Lennox, Paul Weller, Kevin Ayers, and Chrissie Hynde.
The frontman of psychedelic/electronic indie pop outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow, enigmatic Pennsylvania-based artist Tobacco casts summery spells with analog synths and tape machines. As a solo artist, Tobacco employs many of the same styles and strategies that fuel his work with the band, but with a darker, more fractured edge. Integrating elements of hip-hop, electro, and experimental rock, and generally featuring vocoder-masking singing, his tracks are gritty and tape-damaged, yet filled with pop hooks. Following four BMSR full-lengths throughout the 2000s, Tobacco made his solo debut with 2008's Fucked Up Friends. While still active with BMSR, he continued issuing solo albums, including 2014's grimy Ultima II Massage and 2020's surprisingly more polished Hot Wet & Sassy. Additionally, he collaborated with Zackey Force Funk as Demon Queen and Aesop Rock as Malibu Ken.
Mux Mool aka Brian Lindgren is an American electronic musician known for his eclectic style of instrumental beats and dance music with releases on Ghostly International and Young Heavy Souls and has been featured prominently on Adult Swim bumps since 2008. He is also half of Opal Drums along with collaborator and turntablist Jon1st, a project that debuted in 2025.
Nowandformerly is the sonic alias of Kevin Figueroa — a bedroom experimentalist, self-taught visual alchemist, and rhythm-obsessed shapeshifter born in California’s Central Valley and raised between the dust of Michoacán and the concrete pulse of San Francisco.
Rooted in DIY ethics and noise-drenched honesty, Nowandformerly is a one-man force: drums, guitars, synths, voice — all warped through his own lens. His music bleeds genres, fusing post-rock atmosphere, ambient textures, and drum-heavy experimental rhythms into immersive soundscapes that hit hard and haunt quietly. Every track is self-recorded, self-produced, and paired with visual elements Kevin builds himself — a raw, audiovisual world built from scratch.
Hudson Freeman is a Brooklyn-based Lofi-folk artist, inspired and forged by the DIY Midwest. The 27-year-old Freeman continues to record and perform songs equal-parts resonant, reflective, and poignant. He has quickly emerged as one of indie's most enthralling new voices. His recent full-length, is a Folk Artist, helped solidify his presence as the kind of songwriter unafraid to tackle life's most draining contradictions: modern identity, digital disconnection, and faith.
Born to Evangelical missionaries, Hudson started writing songs upon a radical break at the age of thirteen when his family suddenly moved from the suburbs of Dallas to The Kingdom of Eswatini. The profound influence of indie big-hitters like Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver as well as college years spent in Springfield, Missouri made a do-it-yourself Midwesterner out of Hudson. Now, his new song "If You Know Me" has recently started drawing in attention from the masses, catapulting Freeman into a wider spotlight than ever. It's a moody blend of bedroom pop, folk, slowcore, and post-emo, stitched together by a singular guitar riff and mantra-style lyrics, confirming Hudson's undeniable knack for melody.
Living Hour
On Internal Drone Infinity, Winnipeg’s Living Hour transforms the passage of time into something both urgent and sacred. Anchored by Sam Sarty’s vivid lyricism, shaped by years as a projectionist conjuring stories in a dark theater, the band explores the quiet magic hidden in everyday life. Their fourth album drifts between dreamy noise rock, folky slowcore, and fuzzy indie-pop, coining a genre all their own:“yearn-core.”With wistful vocals, textural distortion, and poetic detail, Living Hour capture the ache of memory, the mess of feeling, and the beauty in what remains.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are an American indie pop band from New York City. The band was formed by Kip Berman (vocals, guitar), Peggy Wang (keyboards, vocals), Alex Naidus (bass), and Kurt Feldman (drums) in 2007. The band reunited in 2025 to celebrate 15 years of their debut, self-titled album which was included on "The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums" list by Pitchfork.
Christopher Owens – the celebrated singer-songwriter and former frontman of beloved indie rock band Girls – announces I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair, his first new album in seven years and his return to True Panther Records, out October 18, 2024.
Conjuring up female leads like Stevie Nicks and Madonna, Sedona sang before she could talk. Her voice spellbinds, with popcentric melodies and soft rock nostalgics, echoing the timeless female rockers who came before her. On the heels of her debut record, she advises listeners to proceed with passion...
Bay area based non-binary artist Asha Wells brings the self assuredness of a classically-trained voice, to the unfettered freedom of the self-taught instrumentalist. Their arrangements are unlimited and yet laboriously braided. forming a cathartic amalgam of art folk and chamber pop with a new age sonic twist.
Marie Davidson has always gone against the grain. The French-Canadian producer’s first four albums established her as a transgressive force in dance music, with her 2014 debut Perte d'identité (Loss of identity) laying the foundations of organic electronics and introspective storytelling that she would continue to build upon. Each release probed her “dualistic” relationship to nightlife while becoming increasingly saturated in its abundance of sounds, from Detroit techno to Italo disco, finally reaching a fever pitch on 2018’s Polaris Music Prize-nominated Working Class Woman. Putting the pitfalls of club culture and her own fractured identity under a withering satirical lens, Working Class Woman doesn’t wrestle with the existential as much as fling it around the dancefloor.
Kaifeng-born, now London-based Yu Su is a musician, DJ, sound artist and occasional chef. As one of the most prominent Chinese artists with a highly unique voice working across the globe in the last 5 years, her output covers all the ground you’d expect and more. Her multiple critically acclaimed records on UK’s Technicolor (Ninja Tune), Netherlands’s Music from Memory and China’s own Bie Records has seen her nominated for Canada’s Polaris Prize. She has co-produced music with John Carroll Kirby, Duval Timothy and is known for remix works for Parquet Courts, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, and many more. As a DJ, she is unpredictable, idiosyncratic; just “casually having the dance floor transfixed” have put her on the spotlights at clubs and festivals internationally like Dekmantel, Glastonbury, Boiler Room, iii Points, Nuits Sonores, Rainbow Disco Club, Phonox and so on. She has also recently been featured on the cover of Mixmag magazine, marking the first Chinese cover star. She has composed for feature films and fashion brands like Sacai, Jimmy Choo and London/Shanghai based SAMUEL GUÌ YANG.
Pillowprince is an Oakland/LA-based grunge gaze band that makes rock from cracking folds of leather and glittering chain link, from nights of red-gelled stage lights and mornings after that are way too bright, from hair matted with joy and danger and most of all from bodies making places for themselves only they know.
Songwriter and guitarist Olivia Lee sings about queer joy, pain, love, and subversion, punctuating raw sincerity with vibrant brooding guitar riffs. Together with Silas Snyder on drums and Liza Stegall on bass, they create dense, propulsive shoegaze anthems.
dog eyes is the Bay Area indie folk duo of Hailey Firstman and Davis Leach who write emotional extremes with a gentle touch. Rather than first-person confessionals, their work focuses on the pure and sweet of the mundane and the ache and nag of the universal, told like memories, hazy and fragile. Their 2024 record holy friend drew attention acting like a magnifying glass for life’s tiniest moments, but their new EP blue bird rain cloud expands that aperture while keeping their delicate breakability intact.
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.
DeVotchKa “A Tribute to the Music of Little Miss Sunshine”
In a serendipitous moment on “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” the radio station KCRW in Santa Monica changed the trajectory of both indie cinema and one of Denver's most distinctive musical voices. When filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris heard DeVotchKa's evocative sound drifting through the airwaves, they knew they'd found the emotional heartbeat for their film “Little Miss Sunshine.”
That instinct proved prophetic. DeVotchKa's soundtrack and score for the 2006 film became inseparable from its story. The bittersweet orchestration to the Hoover family's cross-country journey, captured the themes of hope, resilience, and beautifully imperfect dreams. The band's signature sound gave the film its unmistakable soul, turning moments like young Olive's final dance into cultural touchstones.
The work earned DeVotchKa a Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album and the film won two Oscars. Introducing the world to the band's cinematic, lush orchestral sound, songs like "Til the End of Time" and "How It Ends" transcended the screen to become anthems.
Now, two decades later, DeVotchKa will be celebrating this landmark collaboration with a special 20th anniversary tour, “A Tribute to the Music of Little Miss Sunshine.” The performance honors not just the music that helped define a generation of independent film, but the unlikely journey that began with a radio station, a perfect song at the perfect moment, and a story about never giving up on what makes you different.
Join DeVotchKa as they revisit the soundtrack and score that launched them into the cultural conversation – a reminder that sometimes the most beautiful twists of fate create the most lasting art.
Graham Hunt has an intuitive ability to carve out his own space within the long, confusing history of American pop music. The Wisconsin-based songwriter has spent the past four years hard at work building a trilogy of records that synthesize timeless guitar pop chops with a layered approach to production and a sly lyrical eye. His music balances the surreal with the quotidian, the melodic with the rhythmic, the cryptic with the triumphant–often proving that slacker playfulness and Heartland earnestness are not mutually exclusive. Timeless World Forever, the final entry in this trilogy and Hunt’s first release for Run For Cover, provides closure on a formidable body of songs while opening the gates for a new stage in the artist’s long, prolific career.
JEFFREY LEWIS & THE VOLTAGE (Blang Records UK/Don Giovanni Records USA)Indie 4-piece band from NYC, lyrical genius urban garage rock/folk with multi-media illustrated/cartoon songs mixed in, worldwide fanbase (300 draw in NYC, 600 draw in London, 200 draw in LA, Paris, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland).
RIYL: Daniel Johnston, Yo La Tengo, Velvets/Lou, Modern Lovers, Kimya Dawson.
“Weird? Very… but also downright inspiring” (****) – Rolling Stone
“Jeffrey Lewis is an amazing musician, and if you don’t know his songs you probably have a hole in your heart that can only be filled by his words… I did!” – Regina Spektor
“Jeffrey is the best pure songwriter I know of… ‘Sad Screaming Old Man’… is one of my favorite songs ever written” – David Berman (Silver Jews)
The mind-spinning indie-rock/folk/art of Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage developed when songwriter and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis began recording homemade cassettes in New York City in 1998; his critically acclaimed, unusual and word-dense songs lead to Jeffrey signing to Rough Trade Records in 2001 (record label of The Smiths, The Strokes, Belle & Sebastian, etc.), and the project evolved into a live touring cult sensation around the world. Creating a brilliant style of scuzzy urban indie-rock-folk, like a 21st Century mash-up of Sonic Youth, Pete Seeger and R. Crumb, Jeffrey’s band has played countless gigs all over the world, including playing as the opening act for icons like the Mountain Goats, Daniel Johnston, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Dinosaur Jr, The Fall, Dr. Dog, Pulp, Roky Erickson, The Vaselines, and more.
His most recent official album is “The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis,” recorded by Roger (Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney) Moutenot, and released on Don Giovanni Records (USA) and Blang Records (UK/Eu) in March 2025 (garnering rave reviews).
Jeffrey continues to wring folksy spiel and garage bohemianism from his ramshackle guitar, whether with his full band or solo, while sometimes incorporating his often subversive visual artwork and cartoons into live appearances. His comic book series Fuff ended with issue 12, and his new comic book series Statics is awaiting the 2025 publication of issue 3. The feature length film “Roll Bus Roll: A Jeffrey Lewis Documentary” by filmmaker Ilya Popenko has begun being shown at various festivals and screenings around the world since late 2024. Some of Jeffrey’s audio/visual projects have been hosted by the History Channel website, such as “The Story of Sitting Bull,” a Jeffrey Lewis illustrated song which won a Webby Award in 2011 for “Best Writing on the Internet.” Jeffrey’s “The Story of Keith Haring” was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in 2021.
As of 2025 the 4-piece line-up of Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage includes Mallory Feuer on violin and keyboard, Valerie Marchesi on bass and Brent (Moldy Peaches) Cole on drums.
Glitterer, the Washington, D.C., post-hardcore band, has a new record, its fourth full-length album. It’s called erer and it’s on Purple Circle Records, a little label that singer/bassist Ned Russin co-owns. Performed by a revamped lineup — drummer Robin Zeijlon and guitarist Colin Gorman came on board last year, joining singer/bassist Ned Russin and keyboardist Nicole Dao — and recorded by the prolific producer/engineer Arthur Rizk, who has worked on every Glittererer release since 2019, erer is the most thematically urgent work the band has produced to date. It’s also the most immediately and sustainedly ear-pleasing.
Paradigmatically, the lead single, “Stainless Steel,” booms Albini-like with sturdy yet subtle drumming, massive stereo guitars, and all manner of counterpoints and complements emanating from the keyboard, in support of a melody — a classic Glitterer melody — that twists and turns, starts and stops, and goes exactly where the listener didn’t remotely realize it needed to go. And in Russin’s typically sapient lyrics we hear, without superfluity or mawkishness, the bewilderment, resignation, anger, guilt, and stubborn commitment to beauty and community that the album exists to express. It’s the dialectical inner monologue of a socially engaged, intellectually curious creative aspirant — a person not unlike yourself — who can’t help but notice that it’s all coming to nothing. “It’s everywhere I turn / I can’t escape / I wish I had ability innate / I wish I wasn’t incapacitated,” Russin sings. ““I’ll pretend that I’m stainless steel / I’ll forget that this all is real.” What more needs to be said?
These are not optimistic times, and this is not, at the textual level, an optimistic record. See for yourself:
From “Until”: “There is nothing you can’t have / Don’t be afraid to reach and grab / Take and take with no regret / See if you can find the end / There is always more / Until there’s not”
From “Not Forever”: “Arc of progress bend towards me … / Have I grown complacent / After all? … / Self absorbed and so important / Aren’t we all? / Everything and everybody / Individual”
And yet, insofar as the lyrics refuse to put any kind of gloss on the emotional truth of the current moment, the music on erer dedicates itself, with intricacy and care, to the listener. A band that wanted only to aggrandize its own precious feelings of alienation wouldn’t go to the trouble of writing choruses and solos as powerful and effective as these. Ever since Glitterer began, in 2017, when Ned Russin began inconspicuously recording and releasing songs out of his New York apartment — short, spooky synth/drum-machine-based existential ditties that made your toe tap and your skin crawl — the songs have reliably gotten brighter, crunchier, catchier, and less ambivalent about their own charms. In this regard, Glitterer’s erer is something of an apotheosis, a record that says, Yes, the world-at-large is miserable and dissolute, but music is eternal and beautiful, and can’t be taken away from us so long as we continue to play it. So that’s what we’re going to do. We have to.
LA based artist Giraffage (Charlie Yin), whose dreamy synth-pop productions have appointed him as one of electronic music’s most refreshing and innovative producers among the landscape, takes a sonic leap forward with his forthcoming record Too Real, out this October on Counter Records.
Yin grew up in San Jose, California to two Taiwanese immigrants and was raised in a traditional Asian upbringing. A self described “music nerd since day one,” his initial interest grew into something larger after his parents bought him a drumset in eighth grade. “I was always the one passing music suggestions to my friends”, he says, “and the more time I spent working on music the more I knew that’s all I really wanted to do.” His wide range of musical knowledge acted as a launching pad for his own productions, which he began making on a now defunct software program called Tabit. From there he began posting songs online and started gaining traction among online music communities. He quickly advanced to more sophisticated programs and after a handful of releases under the moniker ‘Robot Science’, he introduced Giraffage midway through his final year in college with his self-released synth-pop debut mixtape, Comfort. By the time he graduated in 2012, he was regularly playing shows across the globe.
Chrome Sparks, the musical project of Jeremy Malvin, is known for his lush synth work, intricate percussion, and dynamic beats. Blending indie electronica, house, and experimental elements, he first gained recognition with the viral hit “Marijuana” (2012) and went on to release a series of acclaimed EPs and a self-titled debut album on Counter Records (Ninja Tune).
In recent years, Jeremy has been immersed in production work, collaborating with artists such as Marshmello, Brent Faiyaz, Khalid, Foster the People, and contributing to the Selena Gomez/Benny Blanco project. Most recently, he helped produce Lily Allen’s new album, further showcasing his versatility behind the scenes.
J. Robbins plays Burning Airlines *
Guitarist/singer and indie rock stalwart J. Robbins formed the band Burning Airlines with drummer Peter Moffett, an old friend and fellow Government Issue alumnus, in late 1998, almost immediately after the breakup of Robbins’ longest-running and best known band Jawbox. Bill Barbot, who had been the other guitarist in Jawbox, was tapped by Robbins to play bass. This lineup made one record, Mission:Control!, for Dischord-adjacent indie label DeSoto Records, before Barbot decided to depart the rock life to start a web design company. Mike Harbin then joined on bass for the rest of the band’s tenure, and this lineup made the second Burning Airlines record, Identikit, and toured far more extensively, including trips to Europe and Japan, and US runs with Rival Schools, Braid, Promise Ring, and even the Buzzcocks, to name just a few, before disbanding in October 2001.
Join us for An Evening With, a special night of music, stories, and connection featuring The Joy Formidable alongside the solo projects of its founding members, Shy Western (Ritzy Bryan) and Rhydian Dafydd.
Shy Western brings an intimate, pulse-driven energy with nature at its core.
Rhydian Dafydd explores the shadow and the self through a visionarium of driving, folding rhythms, rich textures, and emotional depth.
With songs spanning 15 years, exclusive music club tracks, and the occasional surprise guest, An Evening With is a night built on beauty, connection, and offers fans a rare chance to experience these artists up close, in their most open and creative form.
Since his arrival on the scene in 2018, rum.gold has been illuminating the alt r&b world with his
angelic voice and distinct singing style. A skilled songwriter, lyricist, and vocalist, rum carefully
crafts each melody, word, and concept with intent. With two critically acclaimed EPs (yaRN
2018, aiMless 2019), and two full-length albums (Thicker Than Water 2021, U Street Anthology
2023) under his belt, the D.C. native prepares to release his next body of work in 2025.
Playboy Manbaby is Phoenix Arizona’s PREMIERE Playboy Manbaby tribute band. Playing the greatest Playboy Manbaby hits from yesterday and today! But don’t take our word for it, Debra from Fountain Hills says Playboy Manbaby is “pretty good.” We promise to beat the price of any other Playboy Manbaby tribute band on the market. Available for weddings, bar and bot mitzvahs, corporate mixers and funerals.
Hailing from the vibrant music scene of Houston, Texas, Vortxz is an Indie/Latino rock band on a mission to transport listeners to a world of hope, freedom, and self-expression. Founded by lead singer and songwriter Isaias “Rambo” Rodarte, the group’s eclectic sound blends new-wave indie, Rock en Español, and alternative rock, captivating audiences with its raw energy and emotive lyricism. Backed by the virtuosic guitar and keys of Noe Rodriguez and the driving rhythms of drummer Jonathan Lopez, Vortxz has carved out a unique niche in the local music scene, earning a loyal following for their electrifying live performances. With an unwavering commitment to creating music that helps people escape the trials of everyday life, this rising Houston-based trio is poised to leave an indelible mark on the indie rock landscape.
csndra is an indie pop artist from Orlando, Florida, currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Known for her dreamy vocals and bilingual song writing, she seamlessly blends English and Spanish lyrics to create a sound that is both intimate and introspective.
Drawing inspiration from her Puerto Rican roots, csndra blends elements of pop and alternative influences into her dreamy, velvet-toned productions. Her breakout single, “Cuida,” established her as a rising voice in the Latin indie pop scene, showcasing her ability to explore genres with authenticity and emotional depth.
Started in Oakland, California in 2010, Diesel Dudes are a rambunctious and sweaty duo that melds European EBM influences with the intensity of hardcore punk, wrapped up in a sinewy bow of absurdist performance art. Described by living legend John Waters as “big, strong and totally wrong” and by a bemused Swedish promoter as “the drunkest band I’ve ever seen”- they’ve consistently whipped audiences around the world into participation and perspiration in their infamous group push-up rituals in the pit for over a decade. Through hundreds of performances all over the world they’ve peddled their brutal songs about muscles, vehicles and the failures of father and must be witnessed in the flesh (however porcine) to be believed.
Mega Ran is a Grammy-Nominated former middle school teacher turned rapper, songwriter, producer, podcast host and author who makes crowd-powered interactive and fun hip-hop inspired by games, family and pop culture.
A pioneer of the “nerdcore” music subgenre, he’s rocked audiences all over the world, placing music in million-selling video games (Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), TV programming (WWE, AEW) and films (Clerks III) while remaining independent.
Lauded as one of Pitchfork’s 21 Breakout Artists to Watch, Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter Cleo Reed debuts at SFJAZZ as part of the 2026 NoisePop Festival with music from their 2025 album Cuntry — an assured mix of R&B and folk music that Pitchfork calls "a proud and emphatically Black update on the American folk tradition.” Born Ella Moore, Reed is a gifted New York-reared polymath who took the professional name “Cleo” in tribute to their great-grandmother.
Two Shows: 7:00 PM and 8:30
Noted for throaty, yearning vocals that accompany his swimmy indie soul-pop, Yellow Days is the performance alias of British musician George van den Broek. After some early releases during his teenage years, he began to gain traction with 2017’s full-length Is Everything Okay in Your World? Switching locales to Los Angeles, his follow-up, A Day in a Yellow Beat, appeared in 2020. Two years later, the pandemic-inspired EP trilogy Slow Dance & Romance, Apple Pie, and Inner Peace was steeped in psychedelic soul.
Niis—pronounced “Nice”—synthesizes the sounds of punk, hardcore, lo-fi garage, and early grunge to craft a raw, undefinable noise all their own. Hailing from Los Angeles, this four-piece channels the spirit of rebellion through blistering riffs and Mimi’s visceral screams, delivering biting commentary on capitalism, misogyny, and the constructs that seek to confine us. With influences like Rudimentary Peni, Crass, and Hole, Niis fuses rage and reflection into songs that confront and provoke, like “Fuck You Boy,” an unflinching anthem about navigating a male-dominated music scene, or the searing "Tyrant," which demands liberation from oppressive systems.
Enjoy an intimate night with Shannon Shaw, the powerhouse vocalist and songwriter behind Shannon & The Clams. Known for her magnetic stage presence and a sound that fuses soul, doo-wop, and California garage rock, Shannon brings her a blend of grit and vulnerability to this special Noise Pop Festival showcase. This exclusive performance offers a chance to get up close with a distinctive Bay Area see artists up close surrounded by stories, sound, and community.
Hosted by KQED Live in partnership with Noise Pop Festival, the evening celebrates the local roots and bold voices that continue to shape the Bay Area’s music scene. Join us as Shannon Shaw takes us behind the songs, her creative journey, and what keeps her tied to the Bay.
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Shannon Shaw, the captivating vocalist, bassist, and founder of Shannon & the Clams, valiantly strikes out on her own, gracing us with her first solo album, Shannon In Nashville. In a nod to Dusty Springfield’s 1969 classic Dusty in Memphis, Shaw made her own pilgrimage down South to collaborate with The Black Key’s Dan Auerbach and a congregation of revered old-school session musicians which have played on notable records by Elvis, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Sturgill Simpson, and Nikki Lane, to name just a few.
Punctuating wistful, daydreamy indie rock with surfy guitar hooks, Boyscott approaches their songs from a hazy, lighthearted perspective as gentle as ocean breezes. The project first took shape in college dorm rooms and grew into a loose collective. Boyscott finished recording their whimsically drawn 2015 debut Goose Bumps before ever playing live, and continued developing their upbeat, nautical sound on 2024's Spellbound.
Winston Surfshirt began as the solo project of their eponymous frontman, singer, producer and rapper. Over time, he brought together close friends and local artists to form the globally beloved project that we know today. His soulful RNB & Hiphop sound likened to that of Jungle, Parcels and Jamiroquai - extensive touring has led to Sir Elton John himself claiming Winston Surfshirt as his favourite Australian band, sold-out shows across the UK and Europe, highlighted by iconic performances at Falls Festival, SpiltMilk, Field Day and Splendour in the Grass, with the latter immortalised on triple j’s Live At The Wireless. Across 250 million streams, three dreamy albums and collaborations with the likes of Cosmo’s Midnight, Benny Sings and Talib Kweli, the multi-Platinum and 4x Gold certified artist is celebrating nearly a decade of music-making, inviting fans along for the journey as he elevates and expands his sonic landscape.
Wabie, also known as Wabie the musician, is an LA-based artist influenced by iconic bands and artists such as The Beatles, Wilco, Miniature Tigers, and Todd Rundgren. Working from his studio in Los Angeles, Wabie produces, writes, and creates all his own art. His skills extend beyond music to include coding, home improvement, and pottery! Wabie's presence in the LA music scene continues to grow as he works on new projects and explores different creative endeavors.
The last few years have found SUMMER SALT straddling the line between past and present tense. In 2024, the Austin, TX-formed breeze-pop group celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their debut EP, Driving To Hawaii, with a special remaster and nationwide tour – alongside a brand-new release, Electrolytes, that further solidified them as one of the most consistently blissful, eclectic forces in the indie world.
Now, on their fourth LP, RESIDE, the group (founded by childhood friends vocalist/guitarist Matthew Terry and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Eugene Chung in 2012 and rounded out by Winston Triolo and Anthony Barnett) continue the push and pull between where they’ve been and where they’re going, honoring the sun-soaked charm that won them their devoted fanbase while exploring new creative terrain.
“We always want to make sure we're bridging the gap between celebrating what we’ve done and veering into the places that interest us now,” Chung says. “It feels like there’s always more to explore with our music.”
An ingenious blend of electronics and improvisation, SML make “strikingly original and wildly evocative art-fusion" (SPIN). With a lineup known for work with Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, and Meshell Ndegeocello, their 2024 debut made Pitchfork’s list of Most Anticipated Albums of Summer, and they bring their singular approach and masterful interplay to this appearance on the heels of their 2025 San Francisco Jazz Festival performance.
This quintet—featuring bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann—embodies the spirit of creative risk-taking and collaboration that defined their former home base, the now-shuttered ETA (Enfield Tennis Academy) club in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Two Shows: 7:00 PM and 8:30
BIG SIS is a sibling duo from Liverpool. Their music combines cheeky lyricism with infectious dance beats. Many of their tracks illicit a nostalgia for first wave euro pop, though our their live performances have been touted as refreshing and leading edge.
Carpool Tunnel is a San Francisco–based indie rock band made up of Ben Koppenjan (vocals, guitar), Kalani Faith (bass, vocals), and Michael Reed “Junior” (drums, background vocals). Known for their tight musicianship and emotionally honest songwriting, the band brings a dynamic blend of driving rhythms, melodic hooks, and raw, lived-in storytelling. Their chemistry—rooted in years of playing, writing, and growing together—gives Carpool Tunnel a sound that feels both unmistakably modern and grounded in the spirit of Bay Area indie rock.
Tom Kenny & the Hi-Seas is a high energy 12 piece band “RocknSoul” party band.
Performing songs from artist such as Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke,The Shangri-Las, The Righteous Brothers, Gary US Bonds, the band has gained a reputation for raucous live performances in venues from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Tijuana, Mexico.
ESPRIT began in 2012 as an anonymous outlet for George Clanton to explore sample-based music. Quickly embraced by the emerging internet genre known as vaporwave, ESPRIT’s early EPs—Girls Only (2012) and Summer Night (2013)—have since become foundational works, regarded as essential listening among genre devotees.
Bold and outspoken Chicago rapper CupcakKe has achieved viral success and critical acclaim with her brazen, unapologetically explicit songs and videos that channeled the likes of , , and . Her work explores sexuality in graphic detail, and while many of her songs are humorous and playful, she has more serious, introspective material that deals with sexual abuse ("Pedophile"), racial issues ("Picking Cotton"), and LGBTQ empowerment ("Crayons"). She debuted in 2016 with a pair of raunchy EPs and a full-length, Audacious, following with the critically acclaimed Queen Elizabitch (2017) and Ephorize (2018).
Elizabeth Eden Harris was born in Chicago in 1997. At the age of 14, she began writing religious-themed poetry, performing in local churches. She started turning her poems into raps and uploading them to YouTube, receiving thousands of views. In late 2015, inspired by 's hit "My Neck, My Back," she decided to write sexually explicit material. The videos "Vagina" and "Deepthroat" appeared and quickly spread on the Internet like wildfire. Both songs appeared on her debut mixtape, Cum Cake, in February 2016. S.T.D (Shelters to Deltas), named for Harris' years spent in homeless shelters, followed in June, and the studio album Audacious arrived in October. The releases received praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, MTV News, and numerous hip-hop websites.
Harris guested on 's song "Lipgloss," which appeared on her March 2017 mixtape, Number 1 Angel. CupcakKe's second studio album, Queen Elizabitch, appeared soon after, and the rapper toured North America twice during the year, in addition to releasing two subsequent singles, "Exit" and "Cartoons." Both songs appeared on her third studio album, Ephorize, which dropped near the beginning of 2018. The set peaked at number two on the Heatseekers chart, while landing in the Top 20 of the Billboard Independent Albums chart. Months later, she issued her fourth full-length, Eden, featuring the singles "Quiz" and "Blackjack." CupcakKe closed her decade with a flood of singles in 2019, including the size-obsessed viral hit, "Squidward Nose." The following year, she reached a career high with the single "Discounts," which topped streaming charts and rose into the Top Ten of the Billboard Digital Songs chart. ~ Paul Simpson, Rov
The Fiery Furnaces is the long-running collaboration between siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger. Renowned for their dense, allusive lyrics, formally inventive compositions, and unpredictable live shows, the band occupies a singular space in the landscape of experimental pop. They will reconvene for a limited series of duo performances to revisit their 2004 album, Blueberry Boat–a cult touchstone of adventurous songwriting and raw, idiosyncratic energy. This reunion is less a nostalgic reprise than a continuation of the band’s interrogation of song form, memory, and narrative—rendered now with renewed clarity and conceptual precision.
Since his 2016 debut album Primitives, Bayonne has channeled his vast imagination into an elegant yet wildly experimental form of electronic pop, equal parts meditative and mesmerizing. In the making of his latest body of work, the Austin-based artist/producer/multi-instrumentalist otherwise known as Roger Sellers found himself in even greater need of an outlet for his kinetic creative impulses, thanks to an intense convergence of events in his personal life: his father’s diagnosis with and eventual death from cancer, the end of a significant relationship, and an overwhelming struggle with depression and anxiety. Deeply informed by a deliberate transformation of his musical process, Bayonne’s third full-length Temporary Time ultimately makes for his most expansive work to date—an album of both painfully raw introspection and otherworldly beauty.
The partnership of Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow is at the heart of some of the most complex, postmodern indie pop happening on the West Coast. In the first few days of 1998, Smith (of San Diego-based Three Mile Pilot) and Crow (of Thingy and Heavy Vegetable) formed a part-time recording project under the name Pinback.
Presented by Popscene and Noise Pop Festival 2026
Jamie Fine
Ottawa-born singer/songwriter Jamie Fine uses her music to inspire audiences to explore emotions we all feel but often struggle to express—ranging from anger and isolation to joy and connection. Her unique ability to convey intense emotion is her superpower. For Jamie, music is deeply personal: “I write music for me—it’s cathartic. It helps me process my experiences.” Releasing music, she admits, feels vulnerable: “The safest place in the world is in my head. Sharing my music is like opening that space to others, aiming to create a safe place for them to explore their own emotions.” Jamie values unfiltered, honest conversations with family, friends, and her audience: “Real connections feed my soul like writing and performing.” Time with loved ones keeps her grounded. A four-time Juno nominee, Jamie’s music has over 100 million global streams. Her hit single If Anything’s Left reached Platinum status in Canada and Double-Platinum in South Africa. With nearly 1.5 million followers worldwide, fans are drawn to her energetic personality, quirky humor, and openness. As her audience grows, Jamie’s goal remains to create inclusive, emotional spaces through her music.
The critically acclaimed West Coast-based experimental hip-hop trio, "clipping" is fronted by Tony and Grammy winning actor, rapper and writer, Daveed Diggs along with producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. They initially rose to prominence with their debut album MIDCITY and follow up, CLPPNG. In 2016 they released their opus, SPLENDOR & MISERY, a science fiction concept album that garnered international critical acclaim, including a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation. This was only the second time ever a music album was nominated for a Hugo Award, putting them up against the likes of GAME OF THRONES and BLACK MIRROR. Their follow up, THE DEEP, garnered similar attention including another Hugo Award nomination as well as influencing a Simon & Schuster published novel of the same name. Most recently the band diverted from their sci-fi storytelling and released a set of horror-based concept albums, THERE EXISTED AN ADDITION TO BLOOD and VISIONS OF BODIES BEING BURNED. Line of Best Fit's Jack Bray hailed it as "sonically intriguing" and "another successful experiment for the group and one of the eeriest examples of modern hip- hop to date."
Tortoise is widely considered one of the most influential music groups of the last 40 years, with a wide-reaching impact on the contemporary music scene. Pitchfork says: “Imagine a graphic showing all the bands the five members of Tortoise were in before they came together and then all the bands they went on to play with after. At the top of the funnel you have groups ranging from dreamy psych-rock to earthy post-punk crunch, including Eleventh Dream Day, Bastro, Slint, and the Poster Children; on the 'post-Tortoise' end are groups focusing on electro-jazz and twangy instrumental rock like Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, and Brokeback. In this graphic, Tortoise is the choke point, the one project that has elements of all these sounds but is never defined by nor committed to any of them. Instead, Tortoise floats free, a planchette moving over a Ouija board guided by 10 sets of fingers, where everyone watches the arrow float in one direction but no one is quite sure how it gets there or who is doing the pushing.”
Open Mike Eagle found comedy in contemporary American horrors on albums like 2014’s Dark Comedy and catharsis in exposing his past on 2020’s Anime, Trauma, and Divorce. Now, the incisive, hilarious, and idiosyncratic purveyor of art rap praised by The New York Times, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker manipulates time like Dr. Strange on his new album, Component System with the Auto Reverse.
Playing 2 Nights with Tortoise at Great American Music Hall on Feb 27-28.
Orcutt Shelley Miller is an avant-rock trio comprised of three highly celebrated figures of experimental music: Bill Orcutt (Harry Pussy), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) and Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets On Fire).
The brainchild of composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Liam McCormick, orchestral indie band The Family Crest was started as a recording project with co-founder John Seeterlin (bass) as a final release before bowing out of the industry. Instead of leaving music, they were inspired by their peers to set out to reinvent how a band could be created, starting The Family Crest with an audacious and bold vision of cultivating a musical community. “We always liked making music with people - getting a bunch of people together and singing. So we put ads everywhere,” says McCormick. “We posted on Craigslist, distributed flyers, and emailed old friends from school.” The outcome was greater than the original duo imagined, with over 80 people credited on the first recording the band produced and over 500 musicians credited throughout their catalog.
You can’t know Beats Antique until you’ve been a part of its journey, and experienced the act as an entity with a life of its own. A stage show that demands more music; music that needs costumes, ships and masks and shadow dances; an audience that comes for art, and takes away stories to feed their imagination.
Commitment to the full performance art form is how Beats Antique fuses musical worlds, pulling on global sounds for experiments on the fringes of cinematic cabaret, informed by electronic mash-ups and inspirations who have joined them on the journey such as Les Claypool, Alam Khan, The Glitch Mob, Too Many Zooz and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Dubbed the African Dracula, Hugo de la Lune is an Ethiopian American vocalist and composer whose work merges soul, psychedelia, and indie R&B into a sound that feels both ancient and otherworldly. His music carries the pulse of ritual and the tension of transformation, moving through themes of desire, divinity, and rebirth with haunting precision. Each performance evokes a cinematic intensity that is as vulnerable as it is commanding.
Two Shows: 7:00 PM and 8:30
Sarah Tudzin is in high demand these days. Not only is she a lauded engineer and producer who has helmed recent records by boygenius, Weyes Blood, and Speedy Ortiz, but her own band, Illuminati Hotties, has also emerged as one of the sharpest and most sensitive acts on the pop-punk side of indie rock this century—“tenderpunk,” she has often called it. On Illuminati Hotties’ radiant and bittersweet third LP, Power, Tudzin pairs that sense of modern professional busyness with scenes inspired by the extreme highs and lows of her personal life in recent years. To wit, the day before Tudzin released 2020’s surprise Free I.H, her mother died. But weeks before that, Tudzin had met the person who has since become her longtime partner, the one with whom she can share all these troubles. It’s not hard to imagine, then, all that propels Power.
Presented by Popscene and Noise Pop Festival 2026
Clover County grew up under the sweet orange blossoms and the spiky palms of sunny Central Florida. She began songwriting at the age of 13, teaching herself to play from her dad’s collection of 1980’s songbooks. She drew inspiration from documentaries and interviews with influential women in music, such as Stevie Nicks, Carol King, Taylor Swift, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dolly Parton.
The name “Clover County”, is a tribute to all the places she's called home. After moving from Orlando to Denver, Atlanta to Birmingham, to Athens, Clover grew tired of seeking a sense of home and relying on the next city to be the “lucky one” where things would fall into place.
CFCF is the moniker of Mike Silver, an indie electronic producer from Montreal, Canada, who established himself as an inventive remixer before making his commercial production debut in 2008. A self-taught musician, Silver's style has evolved and matured throughout the years, ranging from his earliest hip-hop production experiments to chiptunes, progressing to the Balearic disco of debut full-length Continent (2009) and ambient/new age explorations like 2015's The Colours of Life. Throughout much of his work during the 2010s, Silver has exhibited a sincere appreciation for "uncool" genres such as soft rock and smooth jazz. He is also co-credited with developing the concept of "night bus," an Internet-spawned movement that encompasses feelings rather than specific genres of music. CFCF was nominated for Best Remixed Recording at the 2015 Grammy Awards, for his remix of 's "Berlin by Overnight." His subsequent work has explored his formative influences, with 2019's Liquid Colours re-creating the commercial side of atmospheric drum'n'bass and 2021's Memoryland evoking several styles of electronica and alternative rock.
Bay Area artist and songwriter Trinity Ace strings together themes of family, religion, violence, redemption, and forgiveness under a seven-piece orchestral ensemble. She brings her evocative lyrics and earworm melodies to her band of close friends and collaborators—Reid Devereaux, Declan Lewis, Tammer Bagdasarian, Korey Loberg, Ben Stolz, and Patrick Madden—whose respective projects, including Double Helix Peace Treaty and Poor Image emerged from a tight creative ecosystem in San Francisco's Richmond District. Her new singles, Martyr and Talisman are sprawling and ambitious tracks that settle into stunning, indie-folk-rock amalgamations that combine the blunt yet poetic storytelling and wry sincerity of Silver Jews and Leonard Cohen's biblical, slow-burn imagery. Unmistakably idiosyncratic yet strangely familiar, Trinity Ace and her band conjure a transfigured vision of Americana that reckons with the mythologies haunting our national imagination.
Poor Image is a 7 piece americana tinged slowcore band based in the Bay Area. The project came to fruition when members Reid Devereaux, Nick Ferguson, Keenan Lewis, Declan Lewis, Patrick Madden, Tammer Bagdasarian and Nick Ross, who spent their formative years between Silicon Valley, San Francisco, and San Jose, decided to join forces. Poor Image’s recent debut self titled album out on American Death Records is about coming of age strife and trying to “make it” in the age of supersaturation.
Melina Duterte is a master of voice: Hers are dream pop songs that hint at a universe of her own creation. Recording as Jay Som since 2015, Duterte’s world of shy, swirling intimacies always contains a disarming ease, a sky-bent sparkle and a grounding indie-rock humility. In an era of burnout, the title track of her 2017 breakout, Everybody Works, remains a balm and an anthem.
Duterte’s life became a whirlwind in the wake of Everybody Works. In November of 2017, seeking a new environment, Duterte left her home of the Bay Area for Los Angeles. Reckoning with the relative instability of musicianhood, Duterte turned inward, tuning ever deeper into her own emotions and desires as a way of staying centered through huge changes.
Veotis Latchison is an innovative songwriter, producer, and vocalist from Oakland, California. His artistic expression is deeply influenced by a mix of hip hop, R&B, soul, and jazz, drawing inspiration from artists like James Brown, D’Angelo, Donny Hathaway, Big Yuki, and Robert Glasper. widely known as a strong spirited Vocalist Veotis plays extensively throughout the bay and beyond. His original music is best described as “Epic story tellings of a young man trying for better”. Incorporating colorful and expansive melodies with poetry comparable to Nat king Cole, Cy Colman and Biggie Smalls.
Veotis released his debut album titled “Minutiae” in 2023. Keeping the momentum, he followed with his latest 2025 release, “Feelings to Run From”, featuring some of the Bay Area's finest young talent.
Two shows! 6:00 PM / 7:30 PM
Esther Rose was on a long solo drive when she started writing the opening title track of Want, her stunning fifth album. At first, the words seemed almost like a joke, something to keep herself amused as the miles passed. “I want a puppy, but I don't want a mess. I want to know where I’m going without GPS,” she sang from behind the wheel. Soon, the idea snowballed into a list of desires that spanned existential, spiritual, and mundane; romantic to platonic to familial; at once wildly ambitious yet piercingly relatable; all set to a catchy melody that blends her pop instincts with country storytelling and the raw immediacy of a basement punk show. In other words, she was on her way to another classic Esther Rose song.
Five-piece emo-fusion band hailing from the California Valley, known for their high-octane performances, creating an atmosphere that is overwhelming with emotion.
Drive All Night is a new extended play from Thomas Dollbaum, six songs serving as a brief reintroduction to a singular and stirring voice on the southern landscape. Dollbaum’s debut Wellswood was released in 2022, drawing comparisons of Justin Vernon and Damien Jurardo (Popmatters) to Richard Buckner and Arthur Russell (AllMusic) for his “compelling lyricism drawing as much from the dark caricatures of Harry Crews and Denis Johnson as Springsteen’s realism” (Beats Per Minute). Shortly after its release, Dollbaum drove along the gulf from his adopted hometown of New Orleans back to his family in Tampa. There, he learned an old friend had passed unexpectedly. “We hadn’t been close in years, and finding out about his death sent me on a sort of journey through memories we had together,” reflects Dollbaum, “places we grew up in and how sometimes you don’t understand how or why relationships change over time.”
Clarion is a three-piece that places their own spin on shoegaze, rock, and post punk. Mixing powerful dance beats with loud amplifiers to make live shows energetic, this trio will leave you wanting more after every performance.
Killgurls is a Sacramento-based band formed in 2024. The group explores a multitude of sounds consisting of moody noise paired with pretty melodies. Their debut single “Cradle” showcases their aggressive energy and unapologetic punk roots. The band draws inspiration from a wide range of influences, allowing their creativity to evolve authentically while remaining unconfined by boxes, gender norms, or societal expectations. The lineup includes Aidan Jacques (Guitar/Vocals), Vanna Rose (Bass/Vocals), and Sal Stinson (Drums).
In songwriting, inspiration can come from just about anywhere. People, places, and events are all too common examples. But for an artist like Meric Long, one half of famed Bay Area duo The Dodos, and in-house recording engineer for Tiny Telephone Studios (American Football, Moses Sumney) – it’s sound, perhaps unsurprisingly, that serves as his most elusive and rewarding muse.
When Long first stepped out on his own in 2017, under the FAN moniker, it was the cyclical hum of a broken bathroom fan that sent him down an obsessive synth hole in an attempt to recreate its oscillating siren. As time has a way of repeating itself, his latest wave of inspiration came crashing in, sweetly and literally, from his young daughter's toy drum kit.
Caleb Nichols is a genre-blurring artist whose work bridges the worlds of music and poetry, crafting songs and verses that pulse with emotion, queer identity, and a deep connection to the natural world. Hailing from California, Nichols has carved out a space in the indie music scene with his shimmering, poetic lyricism and evocative storytelling, earning comparisons to icons like Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens.
Nichols first gained recognition as a musician in the early 2000s, playing bass in indie rock band Grand Lake and lending his talents to projects like Port O’Brien and Release the Sunbird. His solo work, however, has cemented his reputation as a singular voice in indie folk and power pop. His 2022 album Ramon, released via Kill Rock Stars, is a lush, Beatlesque concept record that explores queerness, longing, and self-discovery, drawing critical acclaim for its intricate melodies and literary depth. His 2023 Follow-up, the Rogue Wave-produced Let's Look Back, found Nichols exploring new sonic territory, pushing past earlier influences and demonstrating Nichols' versatility as a songwriter and singer.
Beyond music, Nichols is a published poet and writer, weaving themes of memory, desire, and identity into his literary work. His poetry has appeared in various literary journals, and his chapbook One For Sorrow, Two For Joy (Broken Sleep, 2024), showcases his gift for vivid imagery and lyrical precision. His ability to translate the emotional resonance of songcraft into poetry—and vice versa—sets him apart as a multidisciplinary artist who refuses to be confined by medium.
