Balkan Bump is the newest project from trumpet player, producer and ethnomusicologist Will Magid.

Balkan Bump debuted with the single “Aymo” alongside superstar collaborators Gramatik and Talib Kweli. Gramatik quickly championed the new project; unveiling Balkan Bump's live show on his Re:Coil Tour and releasing Balkan Bump’s debut EP on his Lowtemp label imprint in 2018. Balkan Bump then blossomed to international audiences, performing at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lightning In A Bottle and Electric Forest, and releasing collaborations with CloZee, Beats Antique, The Gift Of Gab, The Geek x Vrv, Fakear, and more.

Musically, Balkan Bump is a fusion of live instruments, world influences and lush electronic production. His releases flaunt experience as an instrumentalist and arranger, fusing energetic Balkan brass with heavy electronic production and hip-hop influences.

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1265335387&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/balkanbump" title="Balkan Bump" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Balkan Bump</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/balkanbump/sets/osmanity-remixes-1" title="Osmanity Remixes" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Osmanity Remixes</a></div>

<h3>Beat Kitty</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/991353862&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/thebeatkitty" title="Beat Kitty" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Beat Kitty</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/thebeatkitty/sets/stay-hungry-6" title="Stay Hungry" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Stay Hungry</a></div>

<h3> Māh Ze Tār</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/47wQWCnN4xM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Attendees must be 21 or Older

General

Day of Show

Lifetime

<strong>Exhibit Access: Enter the exhibit 1 hour before show doors</strong><br/>
Upgrade Your Experience! See Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return exhibit and get into the event venue early. When purchasing an event ticket, you may add on <b>Exhibit Access</b> which allows you to visit the exhibit for 1 hour before event doors. <b>NOTE:</b> Event tickets do not include exhibit access. Add-on exhibit access is during our normal operating hours when we are open to the general public.


Early Entry

AddOns

Balkan Bump

Heartbreak City - Population: You
Heartbreak City is a wonderful place to cry and a better place to dance. 

<h3>Red Light Cameras</h3>
Red Light Cameras are a show-stopping rock band out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lead by powerhouse vocalist, Amanda Machon, this band packs a punch and always has the dance floor moving as fans belt out the lyrics, singing along with one of the best front people you will ever see. The songs are super catchy, the hooks infectious ,and the beats will absolutely have you bouncing. It's all the pop you need with some serious garage rock edge to blow you away. 

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V5BGCZc-05k" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3>The Batrays</h3>
Raucous and unapologetic with a Bikini Kill Drive, an Oh Sees slick, and enough reverb that Dick Dale himself might hang ten. A Salty de facto vanguard of punk-to-come that might make you ask yourself: "Should I join the Goonies?"

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1391624119&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-batrays" title="The Batrays" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">The Batrays</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-batrays/sets/the-batrays-ep" title="The Batrays EP" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">The Batrays EP</a></div>

<strong>Exhibit Access: Enter the exhibit 1 hour before show doors</strong><br/>
Upgrade Your Experience! See Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return exhibit and get into the event venue early. When purchasing an event ticket, you may add on <strong>Exhibit Access</strong> which allows you to visit the exhibit for 1 hour before event doors. <strong>NOTE:</strong> Event tickets do not include exhibit access. Add-on exhibit access is during our normal operating hours when we are open to the general public.


Heartbreak City - Featuring Red Light Cameras & The Batrays

It’s the shortest, weirdest month of the year, and although it tends to get extra candy coated n' rosey, let this show be a big ol' reminder to shower yourself with chocolates and kinks like the Queen you are.  😛 Come join us for another Bedtime Stories Lonely Hearts edition where you’re ALL our Valentines. We’re here for your broken hearts, your angsty texts, your one night stands and your love at first sights. bring your mother, your lova lova, your poly pod, or forget all that and relish in your own delectable self, and just know that we really really wanna spend the night with you.

With:
Exodus Ensemble
Peacock 
The Yung Bruja
Jake Snider 
Tatja Lucia & the Highway Busker 
Solangerie "The Silky Songstress"
Toni Tabasco 

A Neo Burlesque Variety Show

Seating for show is limited/First come first serve

<strong>Exhibit Access: Enter the exhibit 1 hour before show doors</strong><br/>
Upgrade Your Experience! See Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return exhibit and get into the event venue early. When purchasing an event ticket, you may add on <b>Exhibit Access</b> which allows you to visit the exhibit for 1 hour before event doors. <b>NOTE:</b> Event tickets do not include exhibit access. Add-on exhibit access is during our normal operating hours when we are open to the general public.

Bedtime Stories: Lonely Hearts

Yheti has written and released over 150 tracks across the internet datasphere. A fusion of a thousand inspirations Yheti's live performances are self described as… "an ever morphing detailed sound sculpture that plays with the ears of those open to the more experimental, surreal, low end heavy side of electronic music. With the intention of creating a champion dance environment through innovative bass lines, interesting rhythms, and soul driven melodies."

Over the past 10yrs Yheti has performed at many major festivals, headlined many venues across North America, toured with many champions of sound and gained the support of a few  low-key famous people. 2030 will be a huge year for Yheti, so look far into the future or very deep into the present, put your ear close up to reality, and you may hear the faint rumble of subwoofers in the distance. This is an exploration of sound, technology, psychology and how it all interacts with the complex human condition we all experience. Rooted in love for art and moving forward with gusto.

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1280645839&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/yheti" title="Yheti" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Yheti</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/yheti/sets/noetic-sunrise" title="Noetic Sunrise" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Noetic Sunrise</a></div>

<h3>Ternion Sound</h3>

The trio known as Ternion Sound was born out of Infrasound Music Festival. Since the group’s first live appearance in 2016, they’ve been able to captivate the international dubstep community with releases on Duploc, Artikal, Chestplate, Deep Dark & Dangerous, Next Level, 1985, Manuka Records, and Gourmet Beats. Their music has been supported by scene heavyweights such as Digital Mystikz, Mala, Truth, Caspa, Youngsta, Joker, D Double E, Distance, J:Kenzo, Bukez Finezt, Joe Nice, and many more. During 2019 the group went on its first international tour playing at Outlook Festival plus 8 shows in the UK, Netherlands, France, and Austria combined. After the pandemic in 2021 alone the trio has performed a total of 60+ events throughout the United States within the span of 10 months. They’ve released with Duploc, Manuka records, sold out of multiple self-designed merchandise runs and further engrained their aesthetic awareness in fan’s eyes. With many shows and releases to come, the group has their sights set on seeking out what will be the sounds of 2022.

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1504319425&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/ternionsound" title="Ternion Sound" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Ternion Sound</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ternionsound/sets/ternion-sound-clutch-ep-ddd098" title="Ternion Sound - Clutch EP (DDD098)" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Ternion Sound - Clutch EP (DDD098)</a></div>

<h3>Toadface</h3>

Championing his signature swampy sound since 2015, amphibious producer Toadface has made quite the splash in the dance music realm. The brainchild of Ohio native Todd Holler, the project quickly attracted the ears of listeners as a result of Holler’s unique approach to production - one that effortlessly fuses elements of trap and dubstep together to create a sound that was unheard of to fans of bass music at the time.  A lifelong gamer, Holler drew inspiration from the imaginative landscapes of the virtual worlds he so often immersed himself in and harnessed those ideas in his creative output. Aside from gaming, Holler cites his older brother and fellow producer Yheti as his biggest inspiration and directly points to their tight knit relationship as a big reason his career has scaled to the point it’s reached today.

Dropping out of college in 2015 to pursue a career in music full time, Holler successfully seized the opportunity and never looked back.  Since his humble beginnings touring tiny rooms alongside his brother, Toadface quickly carved out a niche of his own that fans have flocked to and continues to inspire his contemporaries.  After a successful first tour supporting the likes of respected producers Yheti, DMVU and Of The Trees in 2017,  Holler never let his foot off the gas pedal.  On the back of an extremely successful ‘Bugs For Breakfast’ LP release on Liquid Stranger’s label Wakaan, Holler embarked on his first solo-headline tour in the Fall of 2019.  It didn’t take long until Holler’s once underground sound was captivating some of the largest audiences in dance music and soon made him a regular of the North American festival circuit, landing him performances at Shambhala, EDC Las Vegas, Imagine, Lost Lands, Big Dub, Infrasound and more.  Garnering support from dance veterans, Liquid Stranger, Mersiv, Of The Trees, DMVU, Eazybaked, and Yheti, it is undeniable that Holler’s sound served as the blueprint for many of his friends and colleagues.

As a struggling music industry regained its footing in the post pandemic landscape, Holler remains optimistic and energized about what lies ahead for the project.  This upcoming November, Holler is set to embark on the Blue Collar Bass Tour supporting his labelmate TVBOO on 16 tour dates.  To supplement his live appearances, fans can expect a new EP release forthcoming on the familiar Wakaan label - a culmination of new sonic exploration worked tirelessly on throughout the pandemic. Regardless of what else lies ahead for the future of the Toadface project, Holler says he’ll continue to work hard to release music that fulfills his original mission: to allow his listeners to have fun.  When he finds himself in a creative stalemate, Holler often returns to the core idea harnessed in one of his most popular tracks ‘Serotonin Machinegun’ - a feeling he hopes to continuously recreate for his listeners with every new release. 

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1472123950&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/toadface" title="Toadface" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Toadface</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/toadface/sets/tides" title="Tides" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Tides</a></div>

<h3>HoneyBee</h3>
Exploring and articulating the realms of audio and visual expression together, HoneyBee works with various musical genres while she creates surreal imagery to accompany her audio works and performances.
 
After releasing her first official single, “Identity Glitch” in 2019 and her debut EP ‘homegirl’ in 2021, she followed up with the third installment of her Hi-Sucrose mixtape series in March of 2022. Currently wrapping up her next release, she plans to present her second EP in 2023.
 
Building her portfolio with each release, she continues to establish herself as a versatile artist amongst the underground. 

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/602932236&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/imjustahoneybee" title="HoneyBee" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">HoneyBee</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/imjustahoneybee/identity-glitch" title="Identity Glitch" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Identity Glitch</a></div>

Knew Sound Tour

Presale

Yheti

Less whining. More wine-ing. The Adulti-Verse is an opportunity for adults 21 and over to enjoy a not-so-hyper-space without kids inside Meow Wolf Santa Fe. Enter the Adulti-Verse from 6pm-10pm and browse our mind-bending exhibit at your own not-so-hyper pace.


 🗓️ Mark your calendars 🗓️ The Adulti-Verse takes place monthly.

Just because we’re all adults here doesn’t mean we don’t have rules:
☝️  Only grown-ly: Travelers must be 21 and older. IDs will be checked at the door.
☝️  We DO allow guests to bring beverages into the exhibit during this time, however guests must behave responsibly.
☝️  All other normal exhibit rules apply.


21+ evenings at Meow Wolf Santa Fe

Noticket

Adulti-Verse

Since Cory Wythe started the Marvel Years project over a decade ago, he’s conquered the world of electronic soul. He’s performed at Red Rocks and other legendary venues numerous times in support of huge artists including Pretty Lights, STS9 and ZHU while also landing slots at major festivals like Camp Bisco, Hulaween, and Electric Forest. But for Wythe there is a musical apparatus that enthralls and defines him far more than anything electronic. An instrument that has been a source of respite, joy, excitement, and insight since he was only 10 years old: the guitar. In this coming phase of his career, Wythe will provide a true and honest reflection of who he is as an artist, as his fingers tap, bend, and strum out the raw talent he’s demonstrated for years. These are the years of self-assurance. Of unwavering confidence. Of white hot, six-string shredding. These are the Marvel Years, and it’s going to get loud.
 
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C9DmzsK-wjU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3> Phyphr<h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1299536998&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/phyphr" title="Phyphr" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Phyphr</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/phyphr/sets/into-infinity-ep" title="Into Infinity" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Into Infinity</a></div>

Attendees must be 18 or Older

Marvel Years

A cross-pollination of numerous influences, including cabaret, spaghetti Westerns, norteño, punk, and the immigrant dance music of Eastern Europe, Colorado-based quartet DeVotchKa, formed in Denver by multi-instrumentalists Nick Urata (vocals, guitar, trumpet),  

Tom Hagerman (violin, accordion), Jeanie Schroder (sousaphone, bass) and percussionist Shawn King, emerged as unlikely indie heroes in the mid-2000s infusing modern indie music with a global flavor.
 
They found widespread success in 2006 with their Grammy-nominated soundtrack to the hit indie film Little Miss Sunshine. Signing with revered indie, Anti-, the band delivered A Mad and Faithful Telling in early 2008, reaching the number nine slot on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. A lengthy world tour followed, including stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Bumbershoot. After doing more soundtrack work, this time for the 2009 comedy I Love You Phillip Morris, the group returned to the studio for 2011’s moody and triumphant 100 Lovers. Embarking on another world tour, they collaborated with the Colorado Symphony on the 2012 concert album Live with the Colorado Symphony. Over the next several years, Urata became increasingly involved in his own film composition career, scoring movies like Crazy Stupid Love, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Paddington, and the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Meanwhile, the band regrouped for a lengthy recording session, eventually returning in 2018 with their sixth album, This Night Falls Forever, this time via Concord Records.

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/flJwnaknAqE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3>Brian Lopez</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0ndSiVnCE4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<center><i>This concert is a part of the inaugural Art + Sol Santa Fe Winter Arts Festival<i></center>

DeVotchKa

Meow Wolf Santa Fe’s House of Eternal Return is turning the titular house into a cozy new home for live music. This intimate setting will feature many of your favorite local and touring artists with no openers, no headliners, and freedom to explore the house between sets.

February features:
<h3>Lyra Muse</h3> 
Violinist, pianist and singer-songwriter Lyra Muse brings us everything from melodious ethereality to upbeat darkness. Sending her sounds through curated analog pedals and infused with the power of intention, the result brings an otherworldly listening experience for deep-diving minds.

<h3>Lady Uranium</h3>
Lady Uranium is the Chicanx altar-ego of Mauro Woody. Performing as Lady U since 2012, Woody has combined her experimental synth-electro pop with performance art by exploring identity, culture, and psychogeography of the desert. Lady Uranium has opened up for Perfume Genius, Har Mar Superstar, SRSQ, and U.S. Girls, respectfully. In addition to Lady Uranium, Woody has frequently collaborated with many wonderful bands in Albuquerque from performance art, dream pop, lo-fi rock and roll, girl group doo wop, electronic new wave, just to name a few. Her E.P.s Vulpes Vulpes and Vulpes Microtis are available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Soundcloud. She is currently working on first full-length album, Dustland I and II.

An intimate show in Selig family living room

Couch of Eternal Reverb featuring Lyra Muse & Lady Uranium

Born in Atlanta, GA, Mateo Arias (¿T éo?) is the son of Colombian parents and was brought up bilingual in Spanish and English. Mateo discovered his love for the arts at an early age and would go on to produce and star in various independent and studio films. In addition to being in front of the camera as a young actor, he simultaneously explored his love of music and soon discovered his voice would lead his creative path in a musical direction, producing original content as young as 10 years old. Mateo's admiration for his culture and international background deeply influences his music and explains his transcendent career around the world. ¿Téo? has developed a genre that draws elements of Bossa-Nova, Hip Hop, and Alternative complemented by his very distinct and hypnotizing voice; a genre that he and his fans refer to as "Neo-American." Since the release of his debut single "Uno Dos" (2017), featuring longtime friend and collaborator Jaden Smith, ¿Téo? has garnered millions of listeners and has captured audiences during his concert tours, most recently supporting Justin Bieber on his 40+ date Justice Tour. The tour followed his critically acclaimed and independently released sophomore album, Sol, which quickly gained popularity with songs like “Buzzed (feat. Willow Smith)” and “Rrrico”. ¿Téo?’s below the radar approach and elements of mystique have created a movement that continues to grow and follow him.

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bcH9C_08A0k" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3>Maesu</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/artist/2kk1THOr0gsQaAqOj02tbl?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="352" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe></div>

Sol & Luna Tour

Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 10/27. Use October newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

¿Téo?

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pdqGdoQ7ljk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3>MOUSE POWELL<h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hYv6puwhCKY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3>ZAC IVIE</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z0qHSF6i-Z4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

<h3> DUMB LUCK</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M-N_IjP7oGY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Out Cold Tour - Presented by Too Zany

Attendees 16 or under must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

• One general admission ticket
• Pre Show Meet & Greet
• Exclusive Signed Tour Poster (18x24)
• Photo
• Beanie 

Grieves

• One general admission ticket
• VIP early entry into the venue
• Exclusive preshow meet & greet with SonReal
• Personal photograph with SonReal
• Private and intimate pre-show acoustic performance by SonReal
• Official meet & greet laminate (signed by SonReal)
• Limited availability 

SonReal

<h3>Mark Farina</h3>
Mark Farina has solidified himself in the world of Dance Music as a trailblazing DJ, Producer, tastemaker and bona fide House Music icon. After 3 decades crisscrossing the globe, he shows no signs of slowing down remaining innovative, humble, and firmly rooted in the underground. 

“I look at my job as a ‘modern day traveling minstrel’ bringing new music to as many places as I can and exposing audiences to obscure records that otherwise might go hidden.”

As an early House Music pioneer in the late 80’s, Farina’s history includes an impressive long standing residency at Smart Bar Chicago and a job at the legendary Gramaphone Records. In the 90s, Mark pushed musical boundaries and blended hip hop with downtempo grooves to create an entirely new genre, “Mushroom Jazz”. Eventually, Mark made San Francisco his home as his legendary DJ sets sparked a constant demand in clubs and festivals across the US. The Bay Area proved to be a perfect match for Mark’s musical vision and he released a string of major mix compilations including his Mushroom Jazz series. With a tireless passion for playing extended sets, B2B shows with fellow House Music icons, or playing both of his signature styles on 2 stages on the same night, Farina continues to entertain his incredible fans all over the globe with over 100 shows per year

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<h3> Ott </h3>
Ott has been messing about with sound boxes every day for as long as he can remember. Having spent the ‘90s flitting between his day-job as a freelance studio engineer and long weekends under the stars at psychedelic trance parties, the obvious next step, as the millennium turned, was to create music of his own from the jumble of sounds which filled his head. 

After teaming up with Twisted Records, 2002 saw the release of the acclaimed ‘Hallucinogen In Dub’ album, followed in short order by his first solo effort, ‘Blumenkraft’ in 2003. 2008 saw the release of ‘Skylon’ and in 2011 the album ‘Mir’ was born. 

A pattern has formed: every four years or so an album coalesces from the chaos, heads out into the world and takes on a life of its own. 2015 was one of those years. 

Financed by a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, Ott built a new studio, filled it with vintage sound-creation toys and locked the door, vowing not to emerge until a new record was born. The original 6 month deadline came and went but, a year after he started, the thing is finished. 

August 11th, 2015 saw the release of Ott’s latest studio album – ‘Fairchild’!

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Mark Farina + Ott

For Thee Sacred Souls, the first time is often the charm. The band’s first club dates led to a record deal with the revered Daptone label; their first singles racked up more than ten million streams in a year and garnered attention from Billboard, Rolling Stone, and KCRW; and their first fans included the likes of Gary Clark Jr., The Black Pumas, Princess Nokia, and Timbaland. Now, the breakout San Diego trio is ready to deliver yet another landmark first with the release of their highly anticipated, self-titled debut.

“Every step of the way has just been so organic,” says drummer Alex Garcia. “Things just seem to happen naturally when the three of us get together.”

Indeed, there’s something inevitable about the sound of Thee Sacred Souls, as if these ageless songs of love and loss have somehow always existed, as if Garcia and his bandmates—bassist Sal Samano and singer Josh Lane—have been playing together for a lifetime already. Produced by Bosco Mann (aka Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth), the record is warm and textured, mixing the easygoing grace of sweet ’60s soul with the grit and groove of early ’70s R&B, and the performances are utterly intoxicating, with Lane’s weightless vocals anchored by the rhythm section’s deep pocket and infectious chemistry. Hints of Chicano, Philly, Chicago, Memphis, and even Panama soul turn up in their music, and while it’s tempting to toss around labels like “retro” and “vintage” with a deliberately analog collection like this, there’s also something distinctly modern about the band that defies easy categorization, a rawness and a sincerity that transcends time and place.

“I think we found the best of both worlds with this band,” says Lane. “We get to be innovative and honest and challenge ourselves as artists, but we also get to dig deep and pay homage to the foundational stuff that helped shape us.”

It was that shared love and respect for the foundations of soul that brought the band together in the first place. Launched in 2019, the group began with Garcia and Samano, who bonded over their similar experiences growing up in southern California and a mutual affinity for record collecting. While Samano didn’t pick up the bass until he’d already graduated from high school, Garcia had spent much of his teenage years obsessing over guitar and drums and teaching himself how to record on an old Tascam tape machine, and the pair’s mix of technical know-how and innate curiosity proved to be an ideal match. All they needed was a singer.

“I remember coming across Josh on Instagram,” says Garcia, “and I thought he could be a good fit even though he was doing something a little different. We invited him to come to a rehearsal with us, and he just came up with these great lyrics and melodies right on the spot. We knew he was the guy after one take.”

Joining a group like Thee Sacred Souls wasn’t an obvious move for Lane, though. A Sacramento native, he’d fallen in love with music through the church and studied classical voice in college, where he sang everything from French arias to Italian opera. When he moved to San Diego in 2017, he planned on becoming a solo artist, and his ambitions skewed more toward dreampop and chillwave than the old school soul sounds Garcia and Samano were cooking up.

“I grew up with a lot of the classic references like Al Green and Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield,” Lane recalls, “but I always just thought I’d sprinkle little bits of that into whatever I ended up doing. When I met these guys, though, they introduced me to deep soul and lowrider stuff like Thee Midniters, and that really opened things up.”

Performing live as a seven-piece (the core trio plus guitar, keys, and two backup vocalists), the band generated a local buzz almost immediately, which put them on Mann’s radar and led them into his Riverside, CA, studio. At the time, Mann was planning to launch a new Daptone imprint named Penrose Records, and Thee Sacred Souls were an obvious fit for the label’s inaugural release.

“They had a sound that caught my ear right away,” says Mann. “The combination of Sal and Alex’s taste and touch in the rhythm section with Josh’s masterful sense of voice and melody was just so fresh. I knew they could make an album that would blow some minds.”

The band more than delivers on that promise with Thee Sacred Souls, which opens with the mesmerizing lead single “Can I Call You Rose?” With lyrics penned on the spot by Lane during his first rehearsal with the group, the track is a silky slice of pure romance and an ideal entry point into the group’s timeless sound. Like much of the album, it’s a bittersweet meditation on matters of the heart and the primacy of love, one fueled by lush horns, velvety vocals, and an impossibly smooth rhythm section. The unhurried “Lady Love” tips its cap to the South Side of Chicago as it reckons with forgiveness and second chances, while the doo-wop tinged “It’s Overflowing” draws on both classic Chicano soul and Jamaican rocksteady music in its pledges of devotion, and the nakedly sensual “Future Lover” flips the band’s lineup on its head as it revels in the highs of infatuation.

“For a lot of songs, Alex writes the instrumental and demos them out at home,” says Samano, “but ‘Future Lover’ actually grew out of an after-practice jam session one day where we all switched instruments. I was on drums, Alex was on guitar, our guitarist was playing bass, and it all just clicked into place as soon as Josh started singing.”

The album’s vocals—both Lane’s beguiling leads and the collection’s airy female backups—serve as the glue that often binds these tracks together, imbuing the hypnotic arrangements with an undeniable sense of emotional urgency. The restless “Weak For Your Love” highlights Lane’s dazzling falsetto; the charming “Easier Said Than Done” complements his laidback delivery with a wordless counter melody; and the lilting “Trade Of Hearts”—a duet with vocalist Jensine Benitez—even brings Garcia and Samano in for call-and-response lines. But perhaps it’s the bittersweet “Sorrow For Tomorrow” that best showcases the breadth of Lane’s range as he shifts effortlessly between mellifluous vocal runs and semi-spoken passages all about loss and healing, growth and forgiveness, longing and regret.

“That song is basically permission to cry,” says Lane. “It’s a reminder that it’s okay to be open to pain and not to feel like your emotions are a burden or make you any less of a man.”

Ultimately, that’s what Thee Sacred Souls is all about: not just accepting our emotions, but embracing them as a beautiful and fundamental piece of the human experience. It can be difficult, no doubt about it, but as with everything else they do, Thee Sacred Souls make it look easy.

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<h3>Jalen Ngonda</h3>
Daptone Records is proud to present the debut 45 from the newest member of the Daptone family stable of stars, Jalen Ngonda! Presently residing in the UK, Jalen grew up just outside of Washington D.C.. At the tender age of 11 his father introduced him to the joys of soul music, most notably Motown's robust catalog, of which he soaked up like a thirsty sponge, guiding him on the path to become the remarkable artist that he is today. With this inaugural single Jalen delivers two sides of mid-tempo magic that will make you feel his Motown roots as opposed to wearing them on his sleeve.  'Just Like You Used To' drops with groove and vibe in equal measure, providing the perfect foundation for Jalen's vocals to soar. 'What a Difference She Made' digs deeper with the accompaniment of a lush string arrangement and wistful vocal, Jalen delivers every syllable with soulful excellence. A sure-shot single poised to propel Jalen to the front of the pack.

Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 12/1. Use December newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

Thee Sacred Souls

Have you ever wished that you could step inside the world of Beats Antique? That is what will happen when Beats Antique, Zoe Jakes and Meow Wolf come together for House Of Tarot: An experience of ethereal, dark and bizarre storytelling and ritual theater.. 

You will enter a world where there is no stage and you are in the show, discovering yourself through a series of riddles, trials and tribulations. Meander through the depths of Meow Wolf along with Zoe Jakes and the House Of Tarot cast to uncover your personal destiny.  For those who dare to complete the journey, you will be greeted with a debaucherous celebration of music, dance and performance featuring Zoe Jakes, the House Of Tarot cast, and a full stage performance by Beats Antique at the end of the night. Each room is another adventure as Beats Antique presents their most intimate performance ever.  Enter a singular experience with a smaller audience, and explore the unusual beauty of Meow Wolf while perhaps brushing shoulders with Beats Antique…or maybe that was just a trick of the light…

<h3>About House Of Tarot</h3>
9 years ago, while poring over a favorite deck of Tarot cards, Zoe Jakes was inspired to create a work of art as powerful as the cards themselves. Finally, after years of creative process, House of Tarot has been created, placing the captivating energy of the Tarot deck onto members of the belly dance community. House of Tarot is true performance art, a mutable dance theater performance imbued with ritual and the mysteries of Fate.

<h3>About Beats Antique</h3>
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. 

<h3>About Zoe Jakes</h3>
Zoe Jakes began her belly dance journey in 2000 and is known as a pioneer of the tribal fusion style. Zoe’s signature technique of dance incorporates pop and lock isolations, elements of classical indian dance, jazz foot work and modern lines, with abundances of folk belly dance inspiration.

Zoe is a founding member of the electronic and world fusion group Beats Antique, where she composes music and is the lead dancer. Since Beats Antique’s 2007 inception, Zoe has been renowned around the world for her unique form of belly dance.


An Immersive Experience with Zoe Jake's House of Tarot

<strong>Immersive Experience & Concert</strong>

7-8pm Entry

7-8pm

8-9pm Entry

8-9pm

9-10pm Entry

9-10pm

<strong>Concert Only</strong>

10pm Entry

10pm Concert Only

Beats Antique Night 1

Have you ever wished that you could step inside the world of Beats Antique? That is what will happen when Beats Antique, Zoe Jakes and Meow Wolf come together for House Of Tarot: An experience of ethereal, dark and bizarre storytelling and ritual theater.. 

You will enter a world where there is no stage and you are in the show, discovering yourself through a series of riddles, trials and tribulations. Meander through the depths of Meow Wolf along with Zoe Jakes and the House Of Tarot cast to uncover your personal destiny.  For those who dare to complete the journey, you will be greeted with a debaucherous celebration of music, dance and performance featuring Zoe Jakes, the House Of Tarot cast, and a full stage performance by Beats Antique at the end of the night. Each room is another adventure as Beats Antique presents their most intimate performance ever.  Enter a singular experience with a smaller audience, and explore the unusual beauty of Meow Wolf while perhaps brushing shoulders with Beats Antique…or maybe that was just a trick of the light…

<h3>About House Of Tarot</h3>
9 years ago, while poring over a favorite deck of Tarot cards, Zoe Jakes was inspired to create a work of art as powerful as the cards themselves. Finally, after years of creative process, House of Tarot has been created, placing the captivating energy of the Tarot deck onto members of the belly dance community. House of Tarot is true performance art, a mutable dance theater performance imbued with ritual and the mysteries of Fate.

<h3>About Beats Antique</h3>
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. 

<h3>About Zoe Jakes</h3>
Zoe Jakes began her belly dance journey in 2000 and is known as a pioneer of the tribal fusion style. Zoe’s signature technique of dance incorporates pop and lock isolations, elements of classical indian dance, jazz foot work and modern lines, with abundances of folk belly dance inspiration.

Zoe is a founding member of the electronic and world fusion group Beats Antique, where she composes music and is the lead dancer. Since Beats Antique’s 2007 inception, Zoe has been renowned around the world for her unique form of belly dance.

10-11pm Entry

10-11pm

11pm Entry

11pm Concert Only

Concert Only

Beats Antique Night 2

Beats Antique Night 3

Virginian, Keller Williams, released his first album in 1994, FREEK, and has since given each of his albums a single syllable title: BUZZ, SPUN, BREATHE, LOOP, LAUGH, HOME, DANCE, STAGE, GRASS, DREAM, TWELVE, LIVE, ODD, THIEF, KIDS, BASS, PICK, FUNK, VAPE, SYNC, RAW, SANS, ADD, SPEED and CELL.   Each title serves as a concise summation of the concept guiding each project. Keller’s albums reflect his pursuit to create music that sounds like nothing else. Un-beholden to conventionalism, he seamlessly crosses genre boundaries. The end product is music that encompasses rock, jazz, funk and bluegrass, and always keeps the audience on their feet. Keller built his reputation initially on his engaging live performances, no two of which are ever alike. For most of his career he has performed solo. His stage shows are rooted around Keller singing his compositions and choice cover songs, while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, bass, guitar synthesizer and drum samples; a technique called live phrase sampling or “looping”.  The end result often leans toward a hybrid of alternative folk and groovy electronica, a genre Keller jokingly calls “acoustic dance music” or ADM.” Keller's constant evolution has led to numerous band projects as well; Keller & The Keels, Grateful Grass, KWahtro, Keller and the Travelin’ McCourys, Grateful Gospel and More Than A Little to name a few. Keller can be found playing clubs and festivals around the U.S. with these projects throughout the year. 

<strong>Exhibit Access: Enter the exhibit 1 hour before show doors</strong><br/>
Upgrade your Experience! See Meow Wolfs House of Eternal Return exhibit and get into the venue early. When purchasing a concert ticket, you may add on <strong>Exhibit Access</strong> which allows you to visit the exhibit 1 hour before concert doors. Note: Concert tickets do not include exhibit access.

Keller Williams

The Beths return with “A Real Thing,” their first new song since the release of 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers. “A Real Thing” comes as The Beths begin their long-awaited North American headline tour, which has been rescheduled twice due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Last year, the band released Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, a live concert recording that showcased the infectious energy The Beths bring to every performance, and what audiences have been so dearly missing.

“‘A Real Thing’ is a kind of anxiety dream. It’s a bit muddled, a bit frantic, a bit sinister,” says lead singer Liz Stokes. “It’s what came out of my guitar in late 2020, post NZ election (and U.S. election). I was limply reaching for optimism about the future, but was really just marinating in dread.” Ultimately playing more apocalyptic scenarios of climate change in her head, Stokes’ lyrics include specific references to how New Zealand has dealt with sea level rise in the past: “In NZ people sometimes use tyres and cement to build retaining walls by the water, to try to stop the land being eroded away as the sea encroaches. It doesn’t really work.” It’s a poignant image for a band that has had to navigate the constant changes in our present moment.

The deep bond between Stokes, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck, has allowed them to overcome challenging circumstances and that’s present in the upbeat urgency of “A Real Thing.” It’s palpable from the very start and paired with the band’s signature bright, raucous guitar hooks and cooing harmonies; the song races and soars, much like an increasing heart rate. The Beths’ infectious and insightful songwriting on “A Real Thing” is an exciting marker of more excellent work to come, and the perfect way to mark the beginning of tour.

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<h3>Sidney Gish</h3>
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Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 11/3. Use November newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

The Beths

Drug Church + Prince Daddy & The Hyena

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<h3>Zeke Beats</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1489300108&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/zekebeats" title="ZEKE BEATS" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">ZEKE BEATS</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/zekebeats/sets/vigil-ep-wakaan" title="Vigil EP [Wakaan]" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Vigil EP [Wakaan]</a></div>

High Exposure Tour

Minnesota

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

Pinback made their Touch & Go debut in fall 2004 with Summer in Abaddon, which saw the band members continue slowly to push themselves a bit further with complex song structures while maintaining their indie pop sensibilities. Two years later, the band issued Nautical Antiques, a collection of rarities and B-sides spanning from 1998 to 2001. Their second album for Touch & Go, Autumn of the Seraphs, followed in 2007. Though it would be five years before Pinback followed up, their 2012 album, Information Retrieved, found them easily settling into their melodic groove.

<h3>Disheveled Cuss</h3>
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Pinback

Putting his faith in the natural world around him, Deeper Tales, sees Above & Beyond’s Paavo Siljamäki reconnect with the dance floor, and himself, for his debut solo album under his P.O.S alias.

“I know what it's like to feel this pressure of where you’ve ended up in life. Are you satisfied? Are you happy? I really know what that pressure, and confusion, feel like. But we evolve as people all the time; throughout our lives, we should go through reinventing ourselves. I would also say that most artists feel like there comes a point where they re-question everything.

“I had a burnout, basically. I just couldn't see what I wanted to do. And after my burnout, I was like: what is dance music to me? I don't really know even if I like it. I've heard – I’ve written – too many build-ups! So I thought: that's me done.

“But after a while, I realised: Maybe I just needed to stop trying to do something and let nature help me to find myself again.”

So says Paavo Siljamäki at the top of ’23 as he prepares to launch solo project P.O.S. and debut album Deeper Tales: a deep dance project that’s separate from, but complementary to, his day-job. In fact, a handful of the tracks were premiered during Above & Beyond’s set at #ABGT500 Weekender in Los Angeles in October.

It is, too, world music in the truest sense – round-the-world music, in fact, dreamt up by the musician as he’s pursued a new life: at sea.

The writer/producer/DJ is one third of ground-breaking, record-breaking British dance institution Above & Beyond, founders of London based label Anjunabeats. The “mothership”, as the Finnish musician describes it, encompasses the OG band itself, a suite of labels, management and publishing, event management and production, and a roster of artists operating across multiple iterations of electronic music.

But for all the achievements of A&B – from two GRAMMY nominations for their studio albums, to their own curated festivals, to landmark shows at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl – Paavo found himself hitting his early forties and hitting a wall.

Certainly, Covid didn’t help. Not only was Paavo the first in their circle to catch coronavirus, in March 2020, resulting in a five-week isolation in London followed by a five-month retreat in Finland – this has been followed by four other bouts of the disease.

In no particular order: his personal life was coming undone. He was wrestling with his sexuality and the shades therein. There were creative and artistic frustrations. There were dark thoughts that were plunging him to rock bottom.

“That’s why the Deeper Tales album art is a rock that's broken,” he explains. “I had a total mental breakdown and wasn't happy with work. It was a full-on midlife crisis.I felt like I had this pressure, and it would burst. But what's ultimately come out is a happier man. Better music. Better art. And that’s why, growing out of that broken rock, are colourful flowers.”

To achieve that breakthrough, change was needed. Partly that was about re-immersing himself in the club culture that had first caught his imagination as a 15-year-old rave kid, and which was one of the reasons for him originally leaving Finland to study in London.

“I’m a clubber,” he states, grinning, “it’s part of my core identity.”

But more drastic action was also needed. Recuperating at home in Finland in the second half of 2020, Paavo rediscovered a childhood passion: sailing.

“When you realise that we're not around forever, it frees you to think: fuck, if I was dreaming of doing something, what am i waiting for? Why not just do it,” he expands. “That's part of this whole thing that has led to Deeper Tales. It's important for me to be creative. Having gone through this experience, I wondered: what do I need to be happy?”

Building himself a nomad studio that can travel with him to the boat, hotel room, wherever he goes, Paavo began following his dream, letting those flowers of creativity bloom. “It’s a real go-everywhere boat, and a really amazing home for me and my girlfriend. And with the studio that works even here, I can make music anywhere.”

“It's literally me bringing this nature into inspiration for music. One of the things that I realised with weather, being a sailor, is how it's ever-changing and really powerful. So I called the track ‘Thunder and Sunshine’ because I wanted it to have the same dynamic feeling like I get from nature.”

Creation, curation, collaboration: it all speaks to the wide-open horizons that Paavo has created for himself in his personal and professional lives.

“There's no feeling of freedom like being at sea,” he says. “When I'm sailing, I synchronise with the sunrise and sunset – we almost always get up at sunrise. So this is like being really aligned with nature. I found that, after my burnout, and Covid, I really found myself in nature. There's something about being closer with nature that is really healing – and very inspiring.”

At sea, at peace, at one with himself: P.O.S. and Deeper Tales are the sound of Paavo Olavi Siljamäki, at last, riding his own wave.

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Deeper Tales Tour

P.O.S

In a sea of carbon-copy producers, The Funk Hunters have cultivated their signature sound by creating forward-thinking electronic music that is influenced by old school funk, soul and hip-hop.

As longtime friends, collaborators, and multi-dimensional artists, Nick Middleton and Duncan Smith’s chemistry is perfectly aligned. Middleton steers the band’s studio efforts, having produced, co-written, and mixed their debut album, TYPECAST. And Smith anchors the project’s live show with an indefatigable charisma that compliments Middleton’s thoughtful production. Together they combine their powers as DJs, resulting in a brilliant technical display of creative collaboration between 4 turntables.

Their vision has resonated with both listeners and industry tastemakers alike, with their music amassing over 20 million track streams across their catalog of original productions, remixes and collaborations. Winners of the Electronic/Dance Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, The Funk Hunters also reached #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Chart last year, with an official remix of U2's "Love Is Bigger." Their catalog also includes other official remixes for Big Gigantic, Gramatik, Selena Gomez, and Imagine Dragons.

In addition to studio work, The Funk Hunters enjoy a vibrant global touring career with major festival plays at Coachella, Life Is Beautiful, Lightning in a Bottle, Electric Forest, Osheaga, Outside Lands, Burning Man, and Shambhala. They consistently play to the biggest dance floors in the world - frequent collaborator Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 fame has called them "the selectah's of the century."

<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1392890227&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/thefunkhunters" title="The Funk Hunters" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">The Funk Hunters</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/thefunkhunters/2022-shambhala-mix" title="2022 SHAMBHALA MIX" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">2022 SHAMBHALA MIX</a></div>

The Funk Hunters

Underneath a unique blend of modern production with echoes of distant guitar and evocative vocals, Jessie Murph tells the kinds of stories we all relate to, but we might be too uncomfortable to disclose to the world at large. Thankfully, she’s not shy in her songs. The 18-year-old Alabama singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist gushes emotion through the cracks of her dominant, yet lilting croon, staring down heartbreak, anxiety, and darkness without filter or any fucks given. This open-hearted honesty has endeared her to a following of nearly 10 million across platforms and asserted her as a critically acclaimed force. The stress of a fractured family, bullying in school, outdated expectations for women, and latent backwoods misogyny pushed Jessie to cling tightly to music and never let go. She listened to everyone from Adele and Lady A to 6lack and Lil Baby, learning piano, ukulele, and guitar and writing songs of her own. After a taste of viral popularity on YouTube, she launched her TikTok during 2020. Beyond popular covers, she gained traction and connected with audiences by way of originals such as “Upgrade,” “Look Who’s Cryin Now,” and “Sobriety.” However, “Always Been You” affirmed her as a powerful presence. It gathered north of 115 million global streams, while Stereogum pegged it as one of “2022’s Potential Pop Hits.” Between praise from OnesToWatch, Flaunt Magazine, Hits, and more, she tallied over 100 million streams with “Pray,” “I Would’ve,” “While You’re At It,” and “How Could You.” However, she opens up once again on her 2023 debut mixtape, Drowning [Columbia Records], and more to come.

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Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 11/17. Use November newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

Jessie Murph

Morgan Wade didn’t write to be a sensation, for critical acclaim or massive concert tours. She wrote to speak her truth, to save her own life – and perhaps throw a rope to others struggling with the weight of a world moving too fast, loves where you fall too hard and nights that, good or bad, seem to go on forever. A Blue Ridge Mountain girl willing to put her whole truth out there as an artist without flinching – and as a performer who gives it all away onstage – Wade has a voice The FADER lauds is “like a jagged blade, sharp enough to draw blood but lustrous under the light” while The New York Times declares “she sounds like she’s singing from the depths of history.” The old soul writer understands chaos, compulsion and letting go in a way most people will never experience; with her songs, she brings listeners inside the rollercoaster ride of euphoria, emptiness and exile with a soft touch and deep truth. With her unabashed debut album Reckless, she landed on various Best Album and Songs of 2021 rankings from TIME, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Stereogum, The FADER, Tennessean, Boston Globe, and more. Produced by Jason Isbell + the 400 Unit guitarist Sadler Vaden and Paul Ebersold, the trio worked to create a song cycle that pulled the lean rock of Tom Petty through a modern take on country -- and achieved a No. 1 on SiriusXM The Highway’s Top 30 Countdown with debut single “Wilder Days.” Having reached radio’s Top 30 with the acoustic guitar-driven track, Reckless (Deluxe Edition), available now, expands the conversation with six additional tracks, including a scalding, heart beating read on Elvis’ Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and desperate “The Night” – Wade’s first release. 

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<h3>Kaitlin Butts</h3>
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• One general admission ticket  
• VIP early entry into the venue  
• Intimate pre-show performance by Morgan Wade  
• Q&A session with Morgan  
• Group photo with Morgan Wade  
• Collectible tour poster, autographed by Morgan  
• Commemorative pre-show VIP laminate  
• Merchandise shopping opportunity before doors open to public  
• Limited availability  

Morgan Wade Pre-Show Experience

Morgan Wade

Transcendent and sometimes wistful, the folk-pop of Weyes Blood (a.k.a. LA-based Natalie Mering) explores everything that drives us, divides us, and destroys us. This sounds like heavy stuff, but Mering is an effortless guide. Though burdened by doubt, sheis also buoyed by hope —her music unfurling with stunning nuance and ease. 

"Bob Seger meets Enya" is how she once described her work. When you consider Weyes Blood's otherworldly expansiveness and hook-laden melodies, you realize that she isn't exaggerating. 

Weyes Blood's breakout album on Sub Pop, Titanic Rising(named one of 2019's best by Pitchfork, NPR, The Guardian), was an observation of doom to come. Its follow up, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, finds her in the thick of it, searching for an escape hatch, away from algorithms and ideological chaos. After five albums and years of touring, Mering has a lot on her mind.

Mering grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs, before prodigiously picking up guitar at age 8. That —mingled with herlove of jazz, filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and scholar Joseph Campbell —has shaped her music, which tells stories of both ancient and modern myths. Why, you ask? Because, she says, "Shared myths are part of our psychology and survival."

<h3> Vagabon</h3>
Vagabon is the moniker of New York-by-way-of-Cameroon singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Lætitia Tamko.

Her first record, 2017's Infinite Worlds, was an indie breakthrough that put her on the map, prompting her to tour the world and quit her job in electrical/computer engineering to pursue music full-time. 

Since then, Tamko has been in a state of creative expansion. Following-up in 2019 with her self-produced, self-titled effort, she's explored a vibrant array of influences, from a love of rap and hip-hop, to R&B and folk storytelling.

Grounded by her expressive voice and knack for unique melodies, she's carved a sound not easily defined but uniquely her own, drawing widespread acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR and more.

Vagabon is currently readying her third record, watch this space for new music coming soon.

Weyes Blood

"I've been in the game a long time, but I've always considered myself a student," says G. Love. "Finishing this album with Keb Mo' felt like graduation."

Recorded in Nashville with a slew of special guests including Robert Randolph, Marcus King, and Roosevelt Collier, 'The Juice' is indeed diploma-worthy. Co-produced and co-written with GRAMMY-winning icon Keb Mo,' it's an electrifying collection, one that tips its cap to more than a century of blues greats even as it offers its own distinctly modern pop spin on the genre, mixing programmed beats and hip-hop grooves with blistering guitar and sacred steel. G. Love's lyrics are both personal and political here, artfully balancing his appreciation for the simple joys in life with his obligation to speak out for justice and equality, and his performances are suitably riotous and rousing to match, with infectious call-and-response hooks and funky sing-along choruses at every turn. Easy as it is to succumb to cynicism these days, the songs on 'The Juice' refuse, insisting instead on hope and determination in the face of doubt and despair.

"I've always tried to make music that's a force for positivity," G. Love explains. "It was important to me that this album be something that could empower the folks who are out there fighting the good fight every day. I wanted to make a rallying cry for empathy and unity."

Born Garrett Dutton in Philadelphia, PA, G. Love grew up equally enthralled with folk, blues, and rap, devouring everything from Lead Belly and Run D.M.C. to John Hammond and the Beastie Boys. After migrating to Boston, he and his band, Special Sauce, broke out in 1994 with their Gold-selling self-titled debut, which earned widespread critical acclaim for its bold vision and adventurous production. Over the next twenty-five years, G. Love would go on to release seven more similarly lauded studio studios albums with Special Sauce (plus four solo albums on his own), solidifying his place in music history as a genre-bending pioneer with a sound The New York Times described as "a new and urgent hybrid" and NPR called a "musical melting pot." G. Love's magnetic stage presence, meanwhile, made him a fixture on festival lineups from Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza, and his relentless appetite for tour and collaboration landed him on the road and in the studio with artists as diverse as Lucinda Williams, Dave Matthews, The Avett Brothers, Jack Johnson, and DJ Logic.

While G. Love has covered considerable sonic ground during his prolific career, he's always found himself drawn back to the blues, and to one bluesman in particular.

"Keb Mo' and I got signed to the same label at the same time back when I first started out, and we toured together early on in my career," G. Love remembers. "He used to introduce me onstage as 'a true American original,' and I could tell that he got a kick out of what I did. We didn't see each other for a while after that, but a few years ago we reconnected and did a co-headline tour, which was really special for me."

Two decades after they'd first hit the road together, the unlikely duo picked up right where they left off, and after a couple late-night jam sessions, G. Love pitched Keb Mo' on producing his next album. The pair decided to test the waters with a writing session first, teaming up with GRAMMY-winner Gary Nicholson (famed for his work with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Willie Nelson, and Ringo Starr among others) for a week in Nashville, where they penned a handful of tunes based on phrases G. Love had saved in his phone or rough demos he'd recorded at home on Cape Cod. Those tracks quickly became fan favorites on the road, and G. Love knew he was on to something special.

"I got wrapped up in touring and in my Jamtown project with Donovan Frankenreiter and Cicso Adler after that first session, and even though I really enjoyed working with Keb Mo' and Gary, it was a year-and-a-half before I was able to get back down to Nashville to finish writing the album with them."

When it came time to record, Keb Mo' was meticulous, working closely with G. Love in the studio on nearly every aspect of his performances. While G. Love was used to creating raw, loose albums by the seat of his pants, Keb Mo' worked in a much more deliberate, methodical fashion, building songs up like a hip-hop producer. He'd create a beat on his keyboard, lay down a bass line, and then coach G. Love through the tracks sometimes line-by-line.

"He was always impressing on me where to place the emphasis and how to phrase my lyrics and guitar playing in relation to the beat," G. Love explains. "He'd tell me to sing like I had a shovel in my hands and I was digging on the one."

The resulting mix of G. Love's idiosyncratic style and Keb Mo's old-school influence proves intoxicating on 'The Juice,' which opens with the shuffling, anthemic title track. "We got the juice / We got the love / We got the dreams / We had enough," G. Love sings, setting the stage for an album all about recognizing your power to impact the world around you in ways both big and small. The infectious "Birmingham," for instance, is an ode to perseverance when , while the funky "Go Crazy" cuts loose in the face of our maddening 24-hour news cycle, and the relentless "Shake Your Hair" rattles off a head-spinning list of modern ills before declaring "donate, don't wait, spread love don't hate."

"I've never been the kind of guy who thinks he's going to change the world with his guitar," reflects G. Love. "But maybe I can write the kind of songs that give strength and encouragement to the people who are out there doing the work to make this planet a better place. Those are the people I want to lift up with my music."

When G. Love sings about making the world a better place, he's not just singing about politics, though, and 'The Juice' serves as a beautiful exploration of the ways we can brighten our own little worlds and the worlds of those we care about on a daily basis. The gritty "SoulBQue" is a celebration of community and friendship, while the rootsy "She's The Rock" pays tribute to all the little ways lovers can lift each other up, and the breezy "Diggin' Roots" spins cultivating a garden into a metaphor for the importance of tending to your home and family and neighbors.

"I was going through a tough time in my life when I met my fiancé, but my whole world seemed to turn around after that," says G. Love. "I started meditating, we had a son, and we moved out to the Cape. That's when I stopped writing breakup songs and started writing love songs and family songs and friendship songs."

Life is good for G. Love these days, and he's not taking a moment of it for granted. In fact, in just the past few years alone he's launched his own beer collaboration with Oregon's Good Life Brewery (The Juice IPA), started his own festival in Massachusetts (The Cape Cod Roots & Blues Festival), and founded his own record label, Philadelphonic, which he aims to use as an outlet for curating both music and visual art (the cover of 'The Juice' features a brand new work G. Love commissioned from renowned painter Greg Haberny).

"I'm more inspired right now than I've ever been before," G. Love reflects. "I feel more thoughtful, seasoned, marinated, confident. I'm making the records I've always wanted to make."

Cue "Pomp and Circumstance."


Presented by AMP Concerts

AMP Presale

<strong>G. Love’s Pre-Show Pop Off includes: </strong>
• a general admission ticket with early entry
• access to a pre-show performance and Q&A with G. Love
• group photo on stage with G. Love 
• and a limited edition poster autographed by G. Love

G. Love & Special Sauce

There are times in our life when we feel magic in the air. When new love arrives, or we find ourselves lost in a moment of creation with others who share our vision. A sense that: this is who I want to be. This is what I want to share. 

It’s a fleeting feeling and one that Kyle Thomas, the singer-songwriter who records and performs as King Tuff, found himself longing for in the spring of 2020. 

But knowing he couldn’t simply recreate this time in his life at will, Thomas—who hails from Brattleboro, Vermont—set out to write a love letter to those cherished moments of inspiration and to the small town that formed him. The one where he first nurtured his songwriting impulses, bouncing ideas off other like-minded artists. The kind of place where the changing of the seasons always delivered a sense of perspective and fresh artistic inspiration. Where he felt a deeper connection with nature and sense of community that had once been so close at hand. 

“I wanted to make an album to remind myself that life is magical,” he reflects. 

And so, Thomas seized upon his memories, creating what he calls “an album about love and nature and youth.” 

The result is Smalltown Stardust, a spiritual, tender and ultimately joyous record that might come as a shock to those with only a passing knowledge of the artist’s back catalog. On Smalltown Stardust, Thomas takes us on his journey to a place where past and present collide, where he can be a dreamer in love with all that he sees. Images of his youth abound: from Route 91 which runs through his hometown (in “Smalltown Stardust”); to Redtooth, a spectre who used to roam the streets (“Bandits Of Blue Sky”); to old friends, old haunts and old dreams (“Always Find Me”); to Vermont’s Rock River, which gave its name to a song of a torch still burning for past love: “Those days are gone and we can’t rewind/ Cuz people grow and places change/ But my love for you will never fade away.” 

But at the core of Smalltown Stardust is Thomas’s desire to commune with nature on a spiritual level. Images of the natural world, from blizzards to green mountains to cloudy days, fill the songs and create a setting unmistakably far away from Los Angeles. “I consider nature to be my religion,” he explains, and Smalltown Stardust is nothing if not a spiritual exploration. Thomas’s identification as a sort of eternal spiritual seeker is underscored in one of the album’s sweetest moments, “A Meditation,” which features a home audio recording of Thomas as an eight year old, trying his hand at leading a meditation. It’s a journey that he continues to this day, as he intones on “Portrait of God”: “Walking in the woods, wading in the river” and “breathing in the mountain air” before heading back to a place where he finds himself “Oil painting in my garage/ Let my colors flow/ I’m working on my portrait of God.” 

While so much of Smalltown Stardust invokes idealized traces and places of Thomas’s past, the album’s recording process made his communal vision a reality. Thomas’s Los Angeles home in 2020 formed a micro-scene of sorts, with housemates Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Sasami Ashworth recording their own heralded albums (2021’s Fun House and 2022’s Squeeze, respectively) at the same time. A shared spirit dominated an era spent largely on the premises, with Thomas serving as engineer and contributor to both records, and Ashworth working as co-producer on Smalltown Stardust. Thomas describes the time with a fitting metaphor: “I’ve always thrived around other people making things. You want to bloom with each other.” Ashworth’s contributions are vital to the album: she co-wrote a majority of the record and contributed vocals, arrangements, and instrumentation to each song. As Thomas notes, “I tried to follow her vision a lot. It helps to open your world to collaborators. You always get something completely different than you would have expected.”

With the gorgeous orchestral tones of “Love Letter to Plants,” it’s immediately clear that Thomas is declaring a wider vision of what his music can be. Gone are many of the squalling guitars of previous King Tuff records, replaced with thoughtful, tender touches of cello and violin on “Love Letter to Plants,” “Pebbles In A Stream” and “The Bandits Of Blue Sky”; a plaintive saxophone on “Always Find Me”; and orchestral vocal harmonies with Ashworth that lift the songs to a celestial plane. (Though the rollicking, joyous leads on “Portrait of God” show Thomas hasn’t lost his touch on guitar.) On “How I Love,” Thomas makes clear that all of this is by design: “So lost in nothing but noise for so many years, I forgot to love.”

In the end, Smalltown Stardust is not merely a nostalgia trip. In making the record, Thomas not only conjured a special time in his life, he found new inspiration, surrounded by a small circle of collaborators and a sense of love and wonder for nature. If the first King Tuff record was content to merely state Thomas was no longer dead, Smalltown Stardust is a paean to what that life means. A statement of belief and a hymnal to the magic still to behold all around us. “I’m a different person now than I was 20 years ago when I first started it. But oddly, when I first started the band, it was more like this,” he says. Which is to say, things have come full circle. Or as Thomas intones on “The Wheel”:  
“Ooh we were just kids then… 
Caught up in the turning of the wheel….
And it’s coming ‘round again.”

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<h3> Tchotchke</h3>
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King Tuff

The Orchestrator is your new favorite, saxophone wielding, guitar slinging, vibe curating, multi-instrumentalist. Blending elements of live instrumentation, house music and jazz, The Orchestrator is helping to define a new hybrid genre of music described as "TrapHouseJazz". Captivating, magical, and enthralling, are just a few words to describe the unique energy and vibe that The Orchestrator brings with every performance.

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<h3>With K-Woozy | Cheeks | Soul2Soul |  XKota | Uli One | Andrew Warren</h3>

The Orchestrator

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<h3>Taylor Acorn</h3>
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<h3>Worry Club</h3>
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Grayscale

For INZO, there’s a thrill in possibility. The Denver-based electronic artist is less concerned with labels and more with creating immaculate vibes and moving melodies. “If I could make any and every genre,” he says, “I would.” He lives up to that mission through luminescent synth lines that flutter through his tracks like fireflies, chest-caving bass, and wistful, nostalgic vocal samples. Through it all, no matter what sounds and styles he chooses, he has a constant goal: He wants you to feel something. “If you're crying, if you're having a fun time, if you're having an epiphany at that moment,” INZO says, “sad, happy, whatever—I just want my music to be an experience.”

Having last released music in 2020, INZO is currently working on bringing his new and varied experiences to life. In addition to a collaborative EP with fellow dance experimenter LSDream, he’s preparing his solo EP, Earth Magic. Created during lockdown, its tracks are more cinematic and calmer, with lo-fi beats, piano breakdowns, and transcendent synth beams—a byproduct of his renewed focus on health and wellness. Making music itself has become therapeutic for INZO, so it's fitting that his new work reflects that cozy headspace. As much as he enjoys playing live, he especially loves the quieter, more intimate moments of listening back to a track he’s made for the first time and realizing it’s exactly what he’d envisioned. “I like to make music for other people to enjoy,” he says, “but at the end of the day it's an expression of me.”

Growing up in Chicago, INZO, born Mike Inzano, seemed destined for music. When he was 4 years old, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons where he studied classical greats like Beethoven; at 6, he chose to learn drums inspired by rock groups like Red Hot Chili Peppers. In high school, Inzano found increasing success as part of a metal band. When a potentially career-making opportunity to play Warped Tour fell through, he took it as a sign to move on, go to college, and pursue a medical career. But freshman year, he found rave culture, which pulled him back in. Instead of attending classes, Inzano camped out in the campus music studio and taught himself production, eventually leaving school behind to pursue it full-time.

For the next two years, INZO tried on different styles, hopping from soaring progressive house (“High Above”) and raucous electro house (“Brocaine Camaro”) to a pop-rock-electronic hybrid (“Young Heart”). In 2017, he released the single “Visionaries,” a hazy track with crashing waves of bass and warm, cascading synth drops. Somewhere in its mellow ambiance and ethereal arrangements, something clicked. “That was the first time I was sure of my musical identity,” he recalls. “Who I wanted to be, the music I wanted to make, the sound I wanted to capture.”

Following that instinct served INZO well. His next single, 2018’s introspective “Overthinker,” was his most successful to date, recently surpassing 52 million Spotify streams. The bass-heavy track builds on atmosphere, sampling a speech by philosopher Alan Watts that cuts through the dreamy melodies and euphoric synth blooms with sobering musings. Then, inspired to shake up his sound, INZO flexed his range on his 2019 debut EP, Multiverse, delivering stuttering funk on “Let It Slide,” laser-charged heaviness on “Y,” and blindingly bright melodies on the title track.

As INZO prepares new music, he’s still keen on keeping people guessing. The tracks he’s making now are more vivid, softer, and prettier, but he hints at troves of unreleased tracks approaching heavier and more experimental territory—and even more surprise collaborations. What will he put out next? With INZO, anything is possible as long as it’s an experience.

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<h3>Align</h3>
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1536654160&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/align_music" title="ALIGN" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">ALIGN</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/align_music/sets/endless-summer-singles" title="Endless Summer - Singles" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Endless Summer - Singles</a></div>

<h3>Align</h3>
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Inzo

Preston Charles, aka SubDocta, exploded onto the scene in 2017 with his wildly successful single “2009 Was Tight”, catching support from a ton of heavy hitters in bass music. SubDocta is known for producing his own brand of dubstep and hybrid that he has dubbed “West Coast Wobble”, paying tribute to his upbringing in Reno, Nevada.
 
Since 2017, SubDocta has been featured on a number of high profile tours for some of the biggest names in dubstep, including Ganja White Night, Excision, Riot Ten, Dirt Monkey, Boogie T and Opiuo to name a few. He has also headlined and sold out shows across the country, while performing at some of the top North America festivals, including EDC Las Vegas, Bass Canyon, Electric Forest, Ever After, Dancefestopia, Lost Lands, and Wakaan Fest amongst others. 
 
Becoming a fan favorite in dubstep, while continuously being supported by his peers, SubDocta has released two full EP’s on SubCarbon Records, and he inked a deal with Liquid Stranger’s “Wakaan Records” in 2021 for multiple EPs and his debut album slated for March of 2022. SubDocta also recently announced his debut headline tour “Strictly Business Tour” to kick off in January with support from SFAM, Abelation and Zingara. With over 40 cities on the upcoming tour, and new music releasing every month, SubDocta will be going into 2022 with all arrows pointing up. This will, undoubtedly, be his biggest year to date. 
<div class="responsive-iframe-wrapper"><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1535041261&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/subdocta" title="SubDocta" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">SubDocta</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/subdocta/sets/subdocta-x-virus-syndicate-get" title="SubDocta x Virus Syndicate - Get It All Night" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">SubDocta x Virus Syndicate - Get It All Night</a></div>

<h3>Black Carl!</h3>
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SubDocta

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<h3> SAIAH</h3>
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Easy Life

OFF!’s first new album in eight years translates the work of an alien race attempting to rebuild the remains of your destroyed record collection.  Free LSD hits reset like The Beatles conjuring Revolver, The Walker Brothers Nite Flights refusal to be a reunion record, or that album by Baby Huey where every influence merges so effortlessly that it is simply one sound unified.  Like the first 3 records, the raging two-minute bonfires that make up Free LSD were written by the core of the band, Keith Morris & Dimitri Coats. 
  
The album introduces new members, drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Herbie Hancock) and bassist Autry Fulbright II (...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead), who push the idea of punk into another dimension.  Coats blankets a number of these tracks with layers of electronics and Morris sounds timeless.
  
OFF! have never sounded better.  BETTER.  Sure, there are some Black Flag/Circle Jerks Morris ghosts in here, Burning Brides riffs, Thundercat calisthenics, and Trail of Dead burns, but that is just the skin of the thing.  “War Above Los Angeles” is the cornerstone of the record, carrying all of the scars of where the band was before, along with otherworldly interplay by a group with phasers now set for stun.  That is not to say the no nonsense 90 second furnace blasts aren’t in full effect on tracks like “Kill To Be Heard,” but as one of the architects of punk rock, singer Keith Morris says, "After making music for as long as I have, it was time to use a palette that includes lime green, turquoise, and magenta instead of the typical colors and shades that were involved in all of the other break neck and car chase scenarios.  Miles Davis with Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters as opposed to Milo Goes to College."

The band is working on a film to accompany the record.  Coats explains, “Since thinking of the album as a soundtrack to a weird sci-fi movie gave us permission to experiment, and the film explains, in a fantastical way, the creation of the album, they both go hand in hand as an overall art project.”  Free LSD is a build of subterranean howl that lifts off into the cosmos of Sun Ra and labelmates, The Stooges. OFF! is supercharged for takeoff in what has now been confirmed as humanity’s new year zero.  

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Off!

For nearly a decade, Oregon-bred indie-pop trio Joseph have performed a certain emotional alchemy with their music, channeling their deepest inner tensions into songs that spark a life-changing shift in perspective. In the making of their third studio album The Sun, Natalie Closner and her sisters, twins Meegan Closner and Allison Closner focused their soul-searching songwriting on the quietly damaging forces that keep us from living fully in our truth (e.g., gaslighting, cultural conditioning, unconscious yet painfully limiting self-beliefs). Rooted in a newly emboldened sound that lets their breathtaking three-part harmonies shine more brightly than ever, the result is a body of work that radically expands our sense of possibility, ultimately illuminating a path toward greater peace and self-reliance even in the most chaotic of times.

The follow-up to Good Luck, Kid—a 2019 release that reached #4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart—The Sun builds from its predecessor’s cinematic pop and imbues a thrilling new energy into each elegantly sculpted track. In bringing the album to life, Joseph worked with acclaimed producers like Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, First Aid Kit, Laura Veirs), Christian “Leggy” Langdon (Meg Myers, Amos Lee, BANKS), Jessica Dobson (Deep Sea Diver), and Joey Burns (Calexico), alongside songwriting collaborators including, Tayla Parx and Wynne Bennett, known for their work with artists such as Janelle Monae, Twin Shadow, Haim, Khalid, Normani and Ariana Grande. Collectively shaping an irresistibly vibrant sound encompassing everything from the moody grandeur of the album-opening “Waves Crash” to the pure anthemic glory of tracks like “Kicking Up The Light.” With the band taking a decidedly more hands-on role in the production process, The Sun continually achieves the exquisite feat of spinning incredibly complex concepts into sing-along-ready pop songs, providing a captivating backdrop for Joseph’s fearlessly personal storytelling.

One of the first songs recorded for The Sun, the album’s shimmering title track served as something of a sonic breakthrough for Joseph. “We’d already played that song live so many times and sung it in a particular way that was more dramatic and had a kind of gravitas to it, but Leggy took it in a more buoyant and summery direction,” Natalie explains. Inspired by Meegan’s experience in working through the lessons of a past relationship, “The Sun” now centers on a lush arrangement of galvanizing rhythms, radiant piano tones, and gorgeously euphoric harmonies—all of which lend a profoundly triumphant spirit to the song’s statement of self-celebration (“I thought I was the light switch you turned on/But I was the Sun”). As Natalie acknowledges, that shift toward a more joyful and resplendent presentation perfectly mirrors The Sun’s underlying narrative. “The whole album is a sort of thinking through of the story that you tell about yourself, to yourself,” she says. “It’s about looking at whatever is diminishing you or making you believe in these limitations you’ve put on yourself, and then finally asking, ‘What if I’m more than that?’”

“All of our therapists were a huge influence on this album,” Meegan noted. The Sun endlessly reveals Joseph’s commitment to the clear-eyed self-reflection that’s guided the band since their earliest days. Raised in a musical household (their father was a jazz singer and drummer, their mother was a theater teacher), the three sisters officially formed Joseph in 2014 and got their start playing house shows, quickly landing a deal with ATO Records. After making their widely lauded debut with 2015’s I’m Alone, No You’re Not, which featured their hit song, “White Flag,” the band went on to attract the attention of artists such as Billie Eilish, and tour with the likes of James Bay, Amos Lee and most recently The Shins, in addition to taking the stage at major festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Glastonbury, and more. While Good Luck, Kid marked a bold departure from the dreamlike folk of their first full-length, Joseph felt called to push their musical boundaries even further on The Sun—an endeavor that repeatedly required them to assume a new level of courage and agency in the creative process. “We grew a lot in learning how to say ‘no’ and speak up for ourselves,” Allison points out. “The idea of saying ‘no’ in order to allow for a better ‘yes’ later on—that was a lesson that we had to learn,” Natalie adds. “It could be uncomfortable at times, but making sure that we stayed our course was really powerful for us.”

Over the course of The Sun’s 10 soul-stirring tracks, each member of Joseph adds new texture and detail to the album’s emotional arc by sharing her own distinct viewpoint on the journey toward self-realization. On the sweetly emphatic lead single “Nervous System,” for instance, Allison opens up about learning to undo the thought patterns that contributed to her longtime struggle with anxiety. “I know it’s not everybody’s experience, but I’ve found a lot of power in understanding my own ability to self-soothe, instead of turning to other people or some kind of distraction to try to feel okay,” she says. Meanwhile, on the wistful yet wildly effervescent “Fireworks,” the band speaks to the self-doubt and frustration that sometimes accompany refusing to compromise your romantic ideals.

For Joseph, the act of fiercely protecting their artistic vision closely aligns with the abundance of insights threaded throughout The Sun. “As Closners and as women—or maybe even just as humans—it can be very hard to tell someone that something isn’t working for you,” says Allison. “But this album was a unique experience, because we learned to step up and stand our ground and speak our truth when we needed to.” And with the release of The Sun, Joseph hope that listeners might undergo a similar transformation in their sense of strength and self-assurance. “I want people to feel empowered,” says Meegan. ”I want them to recognize the power with themselves, and to know that they’re good—that they’re more than they think they are.”

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The Sun Tour

Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 1/26. Use January newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

• One general admission ticket
• Early entry to the venue
• Meet & greet / photo opportunity with Joseph
• Access to an intimate pre-show soundcheck performance and Q&A with Joseph
• Tour poster signed by Joseph
• Specially designed Joseph clear tote bag
• Commemorative VIP laminate
• Merchandise shopping opportunity before general doors
• Limited availability

Joseph

Kerala Dust’s new album ‘Violet Drive’ is a record deeply affected and influenced by its surroundings. The band, formed in London in 2016, are now based between Berlin and Zurich, and the three Brits – Edmund Kenny on vocals and electronics, keys player Harvey Grant and guitarist Lawrence Howarth – have created a deeply European album torn between the past and future. 

Formed out of a growing love of electronic music mixed with a history in indie bands, Edmund started the band at a time when making electronic music on a laptop “seemed like the most sensible thing to do”. He adds: “I got really into club music and used to go to Fabric and Corsica Studios loads. I got deep into the endless repetition of all of that music, and the way that, as it repeats incessantly, things unfold on you and it almost becomes a weird sort of mantra, leaving you in a clear headspace.” These hypnotic elements are a defining force behind Kerala Dust, whose music incorporates blues and americana mixed thrillingly with untraditional electronic beats. Through playing clubs worldwide for three years after forming, they honed a somewhat improvised and always fluid live show that broke their songs away from the shackles of their recorded forms and set the stage for a band determined to break moulds and keep rewriting their own script.

While releasing debut album ‘Light, West’ towards the end of 2020, the band were diving into their new base of Berlin and letting its deep, complicated history and landscapes influence their next move. During lockdown, Edmund became friends with film director Greg Blakey and spent his days roaming deserted streets and old abandoned buildings (with help from a website dedicated to identifying them, and the difficulty of which to access each one). “There’s a richness and strangeness to the history of Berlin, and how many people have occupied this space in the last 80 years,” he says. “I grew up with British history, but there’s a very different sensibility here. In Britain, we’re told that the battles and the wins of the empire are a victorious thing, even though it crumbled and a lot of it is quite a shameful history. There is a deep sense of pride for these things, whereas Germans at school get imbued with an intense, deep shame for them.

“These remnants are just standing there,” he adds. “Remnants of the wall in the middle of the city, old motorways built by the Nazis, all of these things that are left to rot because they are quite shameful. They all carry some weight of history that wasn't even too long ago, and going around and looking at those really, really informed the sound or the record.”

In a break from past ways of working, the songs on ‘Violet Drive’ were built from the drums up, and this truly stunning, off-kilter percussion defines the album; in keeping with the record’s inspirations, they often sound like a war cry. Recorded in two weeks in a studio in the Alps just outside of Zurich by Till Ostendarp, the thudding backbeat laid down provide the framework upon which the album’s lyrics and instrumentation – flashes of blues-y guitars and woozy synths, Edmund’s deliciously deep, syrupy voice – bounce off and flesh the songs out. “I'd been previously writing in quite an Americana way,” he explains, “and this record is way more central European in terms of its influences,” with German legends Can a constant touchpoint.

The universe the album inhabits is also slowly being furthered with its accompanying music videos, which have been shot around Berlin and beyond, and feel interconnected with European history. Take the visualiser for ‘Pulse VI’, which was shot on an abandoned motorway bridge that became part of the wall between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Future videos have also been shot on an abandoned airfield that used to be a Soviet barracks and an old transformer factory in East Berlin respectively. “We've gone with a sense of a richer European history, and those divides between East and West,” Edmund reflects on the inspiration behind the album.

For Europeans, Edmund says, London has “dipped off the radar a bit,” with the greater sense of interconnectedness on the continent now more apparent in a post-Brexit world, especially for Brits living abroad. He says: “Last year we went to Prague and then Budapest and then Warsaw on a European tour. We felt this sense of actual, real interconnectedness between these cities, and this overarching European identity and sense of shared culture.” As a result, ‘Violet Drive’ became “a very, very European record”.

The sense of interrogating perceived wisdom around British and European history is at the heart of the fantastic, monumental ‘Violet Drive’, and Edmund looked to PJ Harvey’s 2011 masterpiece ‘Let England Shake’ for inspiration in how it tackles these knotty issues. “It’s melancholy, but also has a decisiveness about how to view history as well,” he says of the landmark album. “There's an insecurity there.”

For him, and through the entirety of ‘Violet Drive’, nostalgia becomes the cure for this insecurity. “You can grab the unease of looking back in some way, while also looking towards the future,” the singer says. On standout track ‘Future Visions’, the straight and grounded drums anchor the song, while swinging bass swirls among it and serves as a peek into the future, with the drums and 1960s Mellotron nodding to the past. It’s a duality that defines the album and forms the thrilling beating heart of Kerala Dust.

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Violet Drive Tour

Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 1/19. Use January newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

Kerala Dust

You remember how it was, don't you, back in the Spring of 2020? Knowing so little about what any of us should do, so many of us crawled inside our quarters to find new obsessions or indulge the familiar ones, unencumbered by anything else we could do. At home in the woods on the eastern edge of Asheville, N.C., Avey Tare took the latter path, sequestering himself in his small home studio to sort the songs he'd written and recorded with friends in the instantly distant before times -- Animal Collective's Time Skiffs, of course, their astonishing document of communal creativity a quarter-century into the enterprise. He often worked there for 12 hours a day, tweaking mixes alone, save the birds and bears and his girlfriend, Madelyn. By Fall, though, it was done, so what next? How else should Avey now occupy himself in his cozy little room? The answer became 7s, his fourth solo album (and first in four years), an enchanting romp through the playground of his head. He wasn't, however, going to do it alone.

During the first week of January 2021, Avey began making regular drives to his friend Adam McDaniel's Drop of Sun Studios to give guts and flesh and color to the skeletal demos he'd made at home. They turned first to "Hey Bog," a tune Avey had been tinkering with since he wrote it to have new material for a rare live performance years earlier. The inquisitive electronic meditation -- all tiny percussive pops and surrealist textures at first -- slowly morphs into a gem about surrendering cynicism and accepting the world a bit more readily, the call buttressed by trunk-rattling bass and spectral guitar. It feels like a lifetime map for new possibilities, encapsulated in nine absorbing minutes. The plot for 7s, then, was set: trusting, intuitive, exploratory collaboration among friends, after a Winter without it. These songs are like overstuffed jelly jars, cracking so that the sweetness oozes out into unexpected shapes. Still, the sweetness -- that is, Avey's compulsory hooks -- remains at the center, the joy inside these Rorschach blots.

If Animal Collective has forever been defined by its charming inscrutability, Avey surrenders to a new intimacy and candor with 7s. Take "The Musical," a bouncing ball of rubbery synths and wah-wah guitars that contemplates what draws someone to sound and how turning that calling into a profession can alter the source. "I can hear the mountains singing," he counters with an audible smile wiped across his face, painting a postcard of his home amid one of the United States' folk hubs, "and I do believe they could do that forever." Obligations aside, this is a self-renewing love, he realizes, the source as captivating as it was the first time. "Have you ever felt a thing and known that's how you felt about it all along?" he ends this guileless love song for everything.

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Meow Wolf Presale Valid starting 1/12. Use January newsletter code for pre-sale tickets, or signup <a href="https://meow.wf/sf-event-updates" target="_blank">here</a> to receive the code. 

Avey Tare

After more than a decade of non-stop touring, acclaimed Austin songwriting duo, Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins, quietly stopped touring as Wild Child — their accidental indie band conceived in the back seat of someone else's tour van.

Wilson joined the singer-songwriter super group, Glorietta, and debuted her genre-bending, Motown-influenced solo project, Sir Woman — Austin Music Awards' Best New Act of 2020 that
NPR critic Gini Moscorro called an effortless move into "a brave new R&B-infused, gospel-flecked world where her golden pipes ease you back into a fluffy pillow of serenity and bliss."

And Beggins unveiled his musical alter-ego, Coco Zani, with the release of his first solo album, "As Simple As A Dream" featuring the single, "Paradise," which The Wild Honey Pie called "the perfect soundtrack for waltzing around your room."

Headed in different sonic directions, Wilson and Beggins didn't know if they would ever make another Wild Child record.

Then, well, what felt like the "end of the world" brought them back together.

Pandemic lockdowns closed stages and drained bank accounts. In Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World, local bands took their shows to the internet. Wild Child was no different. 

Wilson and Beggins got together to practice for a series of online performances for devout fans. 

And within in 30 minutes, they wrote the first single for what would accidentally become Wild Child's fifth album, End of the World.

The song, Photographs, is a bittersweet, ukulele-backed duet that Wilson calls "something familiar for Wild Child fans who have stuck with us over the years."

"It felt like our very first record, when the two of us wrote a bunch of songs while on tour for someone else. There wasn't any aim to do anything with those songs at the beginning. For the first time since then, that's how we started writing these songs. We didn't know if we would make another record. It just came together," Beggins said.

And it couldn't have happened at a more terrible time. Take Day 3 of the 2021 Texas Big Freeze, for instance. Thirteen displaced Austin pals had taken refuge at Wilson's house. 

There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing and no end in sight.

At the moment Wilson couldn't possibly take it anymore, singer/songwriter John Calvin Abney played a 90s-alternative riff on an acoustic guitar.

"I just started signing about things that were freaking me out. Wearing a mask for a year. Global warming. There's no heat, no water. It was like a dirge to begin with. But by the end we were all screaming and laughing that, yes, this might be the end of the world, but we're all together right now, making music in my living room by candlelight. It's all OK."

The next morning, during a lull in the storm, the Wild Child caravan — complete with drummer and guitarist Tom Meyers, guitarist Cody Ackors and bassist and piano player Taylor Craft (Sir Woman) — braved icy rodes to recording engineer Matt Pence's The Echo Lab studios outside Denton, Texas. 

John Calvin Abney, who critics say exudes a "vulnerability reminiscent of Elliott Smith", tagged along as first songwriter to collaborate with Beggins and Wilson on a Wild Child album.

His contributions were an unplanned blessing amid so much impending doom.

"John was dating one of Kelsey's roommates when we met. The first time we played together, we just fell in love with each other," Beggins said of Abney. "When you have a musical partnership, like Kelsey and I have had for a decade, it's strange to change the formula of writing. But we found someone we both trust and like working with."

Wild Child arrived at The Echo Lab with studio time running short. They didn't even stop to shower before recording an unwashed, rendition of "End of the World" flush with in-the-moment angst.

"There's no ukulele. I'm singing differently than I ever have before. You can hear my voice crack, and all the energy behind everyone playing," Wilson said. "That set the tone. There were no boundaries. We we're back to how it was on Day One. We were making this music because we really needed to make it for ourselves."

Wild Child's fifth album, "End of the World," was mixed by Matt Pence (Jason Isbell, Elle King) and includes guitarist Charlie Wiles (Paul Cauthen, John Moreland, Orville Peck).

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<h3>Próxima Parada</h3>
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End Of The World Tour

Wild Child

Before setting to work on his third album, Ruston Kelly moved out of his Nashville home and into an old Victorian bungalow in the small Tennessee town of Portland, then spent months on end in deliberate solitude. As he busied himself with remodeling his house and tearing through a stack of John Steinbeck novels, the South Carolina-born singer/songwriter began processing a number of life-altering changes he’d endured over the past year, including a very public divorce as well as major upheaval in his immediate family. “I felt a real need to understand myself a little better, and to rediscover the true foundation of who I am,” says Kelly, who candidly detailed his struggle with drug addiction on his 2018 full-length debut Dying Star. Pushing forward with the intensely self-aware truth-telling he’s always brought to his music, Kelly soon immersed himself in the making of The Weakness: a blisteringly honest but profoundly hopeful album that ultimately reveals our vast potential to create strength and beauty from the most painful of experiences. 

“With every record I make, I learn so much about myself and who I am as a human and what type of man I want to be,” says Kelly. “In a way it’s a form of self-help, or like I’m building a fort against a lesser version of myself. Then the goal from there is to just keep on growing.” 

The follow-up to Shape & Destroy—a 2020 release that earned acclaim from outlets like NPR, who also hailed Dying Star as “a brutal thing of beauty”—The Weakness finds Kelly straying from the more self-contained approach of his previous output and working with producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Nate Mercereau (Sharon Van Etten, Leon Bridges, Maggie Rogers). “The way I’d always worked in the past is that the song comes first, and the production helps to lift its meaning and intent,” Kelly explains. “But this time there was a much greater focus on creating a sonic atmosphere that speaks just as loudly and feels just as emotional as the lyrics and voice.” Recorded at Mercereau’s Studio Tujunga in Los Angeles, The Weakness came to life in a series of close-knit sessions with Kelly mainly handling acoustic and electric guitar and Mercereau playing over a dozen instruments (including Mellotron, flute, French horn, autoharp, fretless bass, violin, harmonium, mandolin, and more). “I knew from the beginning that I wanted a large sound for this record—I remember telling Nate at one point that I wanted it to sound like a storm brewing in a big empty field,” says Kelly, who names Daniel Lanois’s work with Bob Dylan as a touchstone for The Weakness. A bold departure from the elegant simplicity of his first two albums, the result is a kaleidoscopic sonic backdrop beautifully suited to The Weakness’ immense scope of feeling.

Opening The Weakness on a potent burst of energy, the album’s title track emerged from a moment of cathartic self-reflection typical of Kelly’s writing process. “I started working on that song and the refrain just kept coming to me: ‘We don’t give in to the weakness,’” he recalls. “The overall narrative of the record is that there’s a variety of weaknesses that I need to deal with, and a variety of strengths that I need to bolster. I truly do believe that acknowledging your weaknesses and digging deeper to understand yourself goes hand-in-hand with becoming a greater human being.” Driven by Kelly’s raw yet graceful vocal work, “The Weakness” unfolds with a gloriously brooding intensity that perfectly echoes its spirit of gritty perseverance. “I’ve always wanted to do a big rock song that feels like it would completely destroy an arena, and I’m really proud that we were able to assimilate that into all the different sounds we were exploring on this record,” Kelly notes.

The first track that Kelly completed for The Weakness, “Mending Song” helped to spark the free-flowing creativity that ultimately fueled all his songwriting for the album. Although he penned most of the LP at home in Portland, “Mending Song” took shape during a solo trip to Joshua Tree. “I rented this little cabin out on 22 acres, just me and the coyotes, and ended up checking out a shop nearby and buying a baritone ukulele,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘This is so stupid—I’m trying to be that guy, going out to some cabin and writing my opus. Why don’t I just have some fun?’” Once he’d loosened up, Kelly came up with a jangly ukulele riff and opening lyric that soon gave way to the autobiographical storytelling of “Mending Song” (from the first verse: “Something grew up twisted in me/Ripping all the seams/But I was mended by the love of my momma/To fight the devils down in me”). Threaded with sweetly ethereal tones sculpted through Mercereau’s use of guitar-based synth, “Mending Song” was built from a voice-note demo recorded in Kelly’s L.A. hotel room, amplifying its unfettered emotion to sublime effect. “You can hear the dryer running in the background, but there’s something really special about the feel of that recording,” says Kelly.

Another breakthrough for Kelly, “Let Only Love Remain” marks the first song written about the dissolution of his marriage. “For me the pain of divorce was similar to quitting drugs but somehow way more intense,” he says. “Even though drug use is tragic and takes many lives and dulls many spirits, I somehow always had the hope that I would heal from that. But with this experience, there was no rhyme or reason—I couldn’t make sense of it, and for a long time I felt physically incapable of writing about it.” A quietly luminous track laced with heavenly French horn, “Let Only Love Remain” arrives as a heavy-hearted meditation on love’s immutability (“And we can take all the days/Filled with pain that we wasted/And roll ’em into one/But it still wouldn’t measure/Up to what’s forever/A love that cannot be undone”). “In the end my divorce taught me more than it wounded me,” says Kelly. “I didn’t want to make a divorce record, but it was important to me to say what I needed to say while also making sure to protect her heart.” 

In its endless excavation of his troubles and demons, The Weakness also offers up songs like “Breakdown,” an incandescent piece of alt-pop graced with crystalline beats and Kelly’s achingly delicate vocal work. “I wrote that at a time when there was a lot going on with my family and I was trying to be there for them, but I felt stretched so thin,” he says. “The song came from me admitting I’m not superhuman, and somehow just saying that out loud made me feel more capable of handling the pressure.” On “St. Jupiter,” with its shimmering textures and swooning slide guitar, Kelly brings a bit of poetry to his expression of longing and regret. “In the second verse there’s a reference to a day when we were at the garden shop and it was so hot and I was just over it, and there was an argument,” he says. “That part in the song is about looking back and recognizing, ‘Maybe I should’ve just shut my mouth and let you buy those pots you wanted.’” And on the wildly anthemic “Michael Keaton,” Kelly spins another real-life incident into the album’s most fantastically offbeat moment (from the chorus: “It’s 3:35 in the morning/And I thought CBD would not get me high/But here I am thinking/What if Michael Keaton killed himself in Multiplicity?/Would that be genocide?”). “That really did happen, but the song’s mostly about experimenting with what it means to be me,” says Kelly. “At the time I was trying to date again and eventually realized that I needed to step back from that, and just let myself live in that space of thinking weird stony thoughts at 3 a.m.”

By the time The Weakness closes out with the hymnlike resolution of “Cold Black Mile,” Kelly has made his way to a radiant sense of conviction and courage (“And I might die a 1000 times/But I know I can survive/I’ll just keep on pushing down/The cold black mile”). A voracious reader, he points to a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King in contemplating the album’s underlying message: “His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” “To me that sums up everything about this record: the idea that you can either fall under the pain or you can stand on top of it, and then end up becoming a stronger person,” Kelly says. “I hope this music helps people to become the hero of their own lives by understanding their own weaknesses a little better,” he adds. “And I hope it helps them to see that tragedy, however it manifests for you, doesn’t ever have to be the period at the end of the sentence.” 

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<h3>Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners</h3>
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners are a folk-rock group based in Bozeman, MTconsisting of longtime friends Mitch Cutts, Nic Haughn, and Jakob Ervin. Thetrio started RMCM as high schoolers back in 2017, and since then they’veused RMCM as a platform to independently release music and create art.

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The Weakness Tour

• One general admission ticket  
• VIP early entry into the venue  
• Intimate "stories behind the songs" soundcheck performance by Ruston Kelly  
• Exclusive Q&A with Ruston  
• Collectible tour poster, autographed by Ruston Kelly  
• Commemorative pre-show VIP laminate  
• Merchandise shopping opportunity before doors open to public  
• Limited availability      

Ruston Kelly

New York indie pop project Yoke Lore is the solo musical venture of Adrian Galvin, previously of Yellerkin and Walk the Moon. Yoke Lore layers the harmonies of Panda Bear, the soulful beats of M83, and the modern pop of Blackbird Blackbird to tell “the stories of how we are bound.” Galvin’s songs combine echoing waves of banjo, vocals, and percussion to create arresting pop music with tactile candor and conviction. Galvin grew up in an artistic family, his mother a director and his father an actor and sculptor. He was immersed in painting, photography, and ballet from an early age, eventually finding his first musical passion in the drums. While pursuing music, his artistry in other disciplines has not faltered, even lending his own designs to all of his music’s cover art, as well as choreographing & dancing for some of his music videos. In between putting out four acclaimed EPs — Far Shore (2016), Goodpain (2017), Absolutes (2018), and Meditations (2019) — Galvin tours non-stop, playing shows and festivals spanning North America and Europe. After releasing a handful of singles and collaborations with NVDES, Jax Anderson, & Great Good Fine Ok, Yoke Lore put out his original song “Seeds,” which can be heard in the end credits roll in critically-acclaimed indie film Pink Skies Ahead. His music has amassed 450M+ streams and he has earned an RIAA Gold certification for his hit song “Beige”. Yoke Lore is looking forward to continue touring and releasing more music throughout 2023.

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Yoke Lore

The purest approach produces the most authentic outcome.

Amtrac favors a tactile assembly of alternative electronic music reliant on handcrafted nuance akin to that of a band. The Kentucky-born and Los Angeles-based artist, DJ, producer, remixer, multi- instrumentalist, and founder of Openers carefully fuses textures and styles into an unabridged, unfiltered, and undeniable sonic trip on his aptly titled second full-length, Oddyssey [Openers/RCA Records]. As such, he imparts a piece of himself on every moment -- from the production and composition to the vocals and performance.

"The goal is for the music to feel pure," he affirms. "It's not like I'm cutting corners. I put a lot of time into creating a deliberate body of work. It's definitely for me first, and it tells a story."

The story represents the culmination of a near nine-year journey since the release of his acclaimed 2011 debut, Came Along. The album elevated the Morehead, KY native -- born Caleb Cornett -- to the cutting edge of electronic music. In its wake, he amassed an acclaimed catalog of originals and remixes. Lending his touch to tunes by Two Door Cinema Club, Elderbrook, Sigur Rós, and Chromatics, Pitchfork described his remixing as "epic-sounding."

Among the originals, 2014's "Those Days" notably boasted vocals from Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Following the 2016 solo EP Lost In Motion, he reached a new plateau on the 1987 EP during 2017. Both "Never Lost" and "Piano Boy" put up over 6 million Spotify streams each as his total stream tally neared the 100 million mark.

Along the way, he earned praise from Billboard, Mixmag, Revolt, Complex, i-D Magazine, and more in addition to gracing the stages of major festivals such as Ultra Music Festival, EDC Las Vegas, Osheaga Festival, and Holy Ship!, to name a few. Not to mention, he headlined shows on four continents. Launching Openers in 2017, he provided a home to tracks by Durante, Rick Trainor, Luces, and many others.

Amidst this whirlwind, he continued to write music, working towards what would become Oddyssey. This time around, he nodded to a wider swath of influences. Inspired by filmmaker and composer John Carpenter of Halloween and Escape From New York fame, he further utilized outboard gear and incorporated synthesizer soundscapes as he built the framework of the record. He also sang on a total of four tracks.

"I'm very inspired by movie scores and soundtracks," he goes on. "Oddyssey has got elements of the first album, but it's very synth-oriented. The bond of sound and visuals really inspired me. There are more vocals than ever before as well. Everything is part of the narrative."

He teased the album by way of "Madness to Mayhem," which Billboard dubbed, "a song that seems to bridge the gap between his Came Along days and the moody blues of his present." Meanwhile, the first single "Between The Lines" illuminates an evolution. Above resounding piano, Amtrac's upbeat and uplifting production builds towards a hummable hook awash in a rush of fluttering neon synths and a driving beat. He croons, "I said every single lesson is stuck on loop, read between the lines."

"There's a lot of trial-and-error tinkering to find the magic moment," he says. "That launches the path of a song. It's what happened on 'Between The Lines.' I wanted to do something faster and more high energy, and I went for it. As far as the lyrics go, most of them pertain to my relationships. That's the case here, for sure."

Elsewhere on the record, Amtrac's vocals also drive the indie rock-influenced "Stratego" and pensive "Accountable," while Lali Puna delivers a dreamy cameo on "No Place" and Alex Metric contributes a heartfelt vocal turn to the synth swells of "So Afraid."

Renowned for his performances, the live show will reflect the same spirit, integrating visuals as he plays synthesizers live and takes the microphone. "I want to do different things every show," he adds. "It's meant to be unique."

In the end, Amtrac's authenticity shines in everything he does.

"This is just me making music," he leaves off. "There's no agenda. It's not influenced by anything beyond what I love. I'd love for people to get the genuine aspect and enjoy it."

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Amtrac

After a successful catfishing on a musician networking website, Sarah McTaggart began to collaborate with producer and bassist Mike Panek across the world, and over the internet writing the beginnings of what would eventually become Transviolet. 
She made the move from the Cayman Islands, to Toronto, landing eventually in San Diego where they met for the first time and sparks flew, or at the very least no one was serial killed. Jon Garcia was brought in on drums, and later Judah McCarthy on guitar and keys after moving to LA and signing their first publishing deal.

For two years the band locked themselves in studios across the purgatory that is the San Fernando Valley (which would later be the title of their 2018 release), writing song after song, until piquing the interest of LA Reid and their first major label partner EPIC records. 

From the very beginning, Transviolet has made a point to approach music differently. Like when they released their first single Girls Your Age, the band sent out 2,000 plain manilla envelopes to kids across the country containing a cassette tape that only said “play me”, not realizing that was pretty near to the exact plot of the horror movie SAW. Blogs and press outlets took notice, but no one cared nearly as much as the mothers across the country when they took to facebook to demand answers, and threaten the band with legal action. It was hilarious.
24 hours later and ‪Katy Perry‬ Tweeted out the song, a week later ‪Harry Styles‬. A flood of attention came to the band and they were thrown into the deep end that is the music industry. Writing with collaborators DreamLab (‪Selena Gomez‬, ‪Miley Cyrus‬, ‪Nicki Minaj‬…) Sam Hollander ( ‪Panic At the disco‬, ‪Fitz and the tantrums‬) ‪Andrew Dawson‬ (‪Kanye West‬, ‪Tyler the Creator‬) and Nate Motte of 3OH!3, among many others, Transviolet put out two more EPs, seeing critical acclaim from countless press outlets.

Now in 2019 with multiple support (Twenty one pilots, LANY, ‪Dua Lipa‬, ‪Joywave‬) and headling tours (US, UK) under their collective belt, and tens of millions of streams -  Transviolet is gearing up to release their first Independent full album. Feeling as they’re writing the best material of their career thus far, the band couldn’t be more ready to show the world, just who it is, they are. 

Self written, self mixed, self released, the band is taking the reins and show no signs of slowing down.

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<H3>Jagwar Twin</h3>
By all accounts, Roy English, the creative spirit behind Jagwar Twin, had been chewed up and spat out by the industry, with the singer-songwriter dropped from multiple major labels in his career. Often hidden in the background, despite a clear longing to lead from centrestage, the artist knows what it’s like to sleep on friends’ sofas after late nights playing small bars as if they were Madison Square Garden.

“From my childhood to being an adult, there has been this recurring theme of feeling misunderstood” the artist sighs. “People would make fun of my voice, which to be fair was really bad at the time. I never fit in with ‘the boys’ ... or the girls really, and my music never fit into an industry box. But even when I was literally a starving musician, something inside compelled me to keep going.”

Underrated 2019 album, Subject To Flooding, aligned with a period of project-defining production work and song collaborations with the likes of Matthew Pauling, S1, Travis Barker, and Jeff Bhasker. But if Subject to Flooding represented an artist working to figure out who they were before the pandemic storm, then new album 33 grew out of planted seeds in the flood rich soil; the underdog is coming for his crown.

“My hope is that the stories on 33 will show the listener to the listener,” is English’ fundamental ambitious aim with the new project. “It’s about showing possibilities beyond the grid we’re currently living in and, I guess, how a 33-year-old failed influencer finally found their voice in this digital-first world. I want to make music that makes me want to dance, too.”

33 is a bold statement filled with intention that more than lives up to its creator’s lofty ambition, with 10 addictive songs that stomp forward with attitude like Queen at Wembley Stadium in 1990. Each song is a mini movie that powerfully tells an emotional story of coming of age in the social media era, as English’s towering vocals channel the galvanizing showmanship of a Bad-era MJ and Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust days.

Lead single “Happy Face” earned English a coveted spot on the YouTube’ ‘Trending Artists to Watch’ list at the start of 2022. This song is a defiant, ricocheting ball of energy, as the artist sardonically harmonizes about the fake smiles we’re forced to wear in the digital sphere. It’s like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four with disco lights, and surpassed the total streams and reach of previous major label single ‘Loser’ at four times the speed, despite its humble $0 marketing budget. “Tick Tock, Tick Tock, ticking like a time bomb!” he chants, almost sarcastically. This powder-keg of stadium rock also touches on the emotional baggage we create while smiling to curate our digital selves.

A hyperactive melodica rages over a break beat as English howls about the “death of my generation”. For the award-winning smile-triggered digital experience of “Happy Face”, users were forced to hold a smile while watching a series of dystopian images on their screens. With this being the only place to hear the song, fans that lost a smile would cause the screen to melt, but smiling for the duration would unlock a limited edition merch capsule.

 He insists the independent single, which recently crossed 21 million streams on Spotify (and growing) and also graced YouTube’s top 100 songs list, ultimately acts as a hopeful rallying call. “I want to show there’s a way out of this collective fog and into something better,” says Roy. “But that is something everyone has to find for themselves.”

On the flamboyant “I Like To Party”, English muses about how all we want to do right now is “Zoomy Zoom Zoom” and “stay in and pretend” due to our collective pandemic anxieties. While the kaleidoscopic funk of “Pay Attention”, which echoes the euphoric bassline of Patrice Rushen’s 1982 classic “Forget Me Nots”, is English’s commentary on the currency of attention (“Everybody gotta pay me. You gotta pay Attention”). Both of these songs sound like Billboard Top 100 hits, and their sentiment mirrors the singer’s own journey from an industry outcast to leading a sea of change in popular music.

The rising artist hopes this upcoming record can spark an internal awakening (“Light the flame on the top of your head” he urges on “Down To You”), leading listeners to see themselves more clearly within today’s always-on digital culture. “Michael Jackson, Bowie, Madonna, and Freddie Mercury created revolutions in the middle of sweaty dance floors, where people were having the time of their lives,” he says. “I know it’s ambitious, but that’s what I’m aiming for too.” English worked with grammy-nominated producer Matthew Pauling (Twenty One Pilots, 5 Seconds of Summer) to bring the music to life, which he recognises as: ”Incredibly rare chemistry. We both push each other [in the studio] in ways that create something bigger than either of us as individuals. He does things that I would never think to do.”

Jagwar Twin also wants to redefine independence, showing a different path to success without major label backing. “I believe we're coming into an era where new ideas, feelings, and authenticity will be valued again,” he enthuses. “An unknown, undiscovered artist, with no backing, money, or traditional promo can "make it" if they create something compelling. NFTs and blockchain unlock a whole new paradigm for artists to tell stories where fans are incentivized to help build and grow a community,” English says. “But I also want people to question the utopia of independence and Web3 and learn from the mistakes of Web 2.0. We can’t move into the future naively.”

To understand Jagwar Twin, I guess you have to look backwards. English says he was bullied at school, and he embraced ballet while the other boys were more occupied with sports and video games. He says he grew up serenaded by the lucid new romance storytelling of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, who the singer’s mom played around the house. This is why his music is always underpinned by three-dimensional storytelling. “Music provided an escape and a pathway to discovering who I was. I love telling stories with my voice. When I tell a story I believe in it's like there's a fire in me that comes out through my voice.”

As this ambitious new album progresses, English’ confidence seems to blossom, with anthemic highlight “Your Soul Is A Star” containing the cathartic line: “Your soul is a star, it’s alive, I can see it. Do you know who you are?” The unwinding journey of “Another Way To Heaven” also appears to mark Jagwar Twin’s evolution, as he sings “But who was I to know? I wanted to see myself and where I could go.” The campaign around 33 will be brought to life through a set of digital experiences that fully immerse fans in this story, using NFTs as keys to discover, collaborate, and share in Roy's journey to unlock what it means to be an artist in an influencer-driven online culture.

Mixed by Jeff Ellis (Frank Ocean, Doja Cat), English hopes the stories on 33 will serve as a catalyst. “With 33, I want to show that popular music can push boundaries and unite,” he concludes, “while giving space for a new generation to look inside and reimagine their own world.” Jagwar Twin’s new dawn has only just begun ... catch up if you can.

Transviolet

Multi-talented artist and fully improvisational rapper Harry Mack is best known for his unique, jaw-dropping visual freestyle rapping. He first came to fame when his Venice Beach Freestyle went viral, which propelled him to opportunities alongside the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Ellen DeGeneres, Complex Music, and RedBull Music. His self-produced GUERRILLA BARS Series and Omegle Bars Series are a freestyle experience that converts skeptics to believers right before your eyes. His content has amassed millions of views and spreads smiles to all who watch.

Harry Mack

<h3>Fenne Lily</h3>
<i>“I never asked you to change and you’re treating me like I did
the more I’m thinking about it, maybe I should’ve started” </i>
 
Fenne Lily opens her third album with a confrontation. At odds with the UK-born, New York-based artist’s dulcet delivery, this acerbic assessment of an intimate situation sets the tone for her new album perfectly. From the first line to the last, <i>Big Picture</i> finds Fenne seeking clarity in the uncertain; comfort in the uncomfortable.
 
A gorgeous and gripping portrait of Fenne’s last two years, Big Picture was rarely easy for its author to produce but its contents offer a brilliant catharsis. Started haltingly after a period of writer's block, the songs that would make up her latest work were pieced together over the course of the pandemic, in an effort to self-soothe. “Writing this album was my attempt at bringing some kind of order to the disaster that was 2020,” Fenne states. “By documenting the most vulnerable parts of that time, I felt like I reclaimed some kind of autonomy.” 
 
Though its creation took place amid personal and global turmoil, the ruminative yet candid <i>Big Picture</i> is Fenne’s most cohesive, resolute work to date, both lyrically and sonically. “This isn’t a sad album — it’s about as uplifting as my way of doing things will allow,” she says. “These songs explore worry and doubt and letting go, but those themes are framed brightly. There’s a sadness to the temporary nature of things, but that can be soothing, too.” Like whispered assurances that seemingly unanswerable questions will someday resolve themselves, each track provides an insight into Fenne’s ever-changing view of love and, ultimately, its redefinition — love as a process, not something to be lost and found. 
 
Notably, these 10 songs are Fenne’s first and only to have been written over the course of a relationship; 2018’s <i>On Hold</i> and 2020’s <i>BREACH</i> both confront the pain of retrospection, saying goodbye to a love that’s gone. Big Picture does the exact opposite — rooted firmly in the present, it traces the narrative of two people trying their hardest not to implode, together. With confidence and quiet strength, the album delineates the phases of love and becomes a map of comfort vs claustrophobia. 
 
This sentiment is mirrored by the album’s cover art; constructed on a miniature scale by the artist Thomas Doyle, the scene shows the collapse of a home confined within a bell jar and features several inch-high models of Fenne in various places throughout. This physical representation of a self-contained disaster encapsulates the feeling of walls closing in around you, while simultaneously acting as a reminder that we are small in the grand scheme of things which, for Fenne, is a relief: “We only really know the one world we find ourselves in at any given time” Fenne expands. “It’s only when that world changes or collapses that we realize there are other narratives available — that we’ve known only one of many possible ways to exist.” 
 
After writing <i>Big Picture</i> in the solitude of her Bristol flat, Fenne consciously aimed to make the recording process her most collaborative thus far. Together with her touring band, the group set about playing each song through “every possible way” before teaming up with Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Snail Mail) at his Durham studio. Co-producing alongside Brad, Fenne’s core intention was to make something that sonically reflected the kind of compact space the songs were written in; something warm, honest and comforting. With the bulk of the album tracked live in just a few days (with the exception of its penultimate track “Red Deer Day,” produced by Fenne and Christian Lee Hutson) and the final product mixed by Melina Duterte of Jay Som, Big Picture was transformed from a solitary venture into a unifying collaboration, something that “celebrates the quiet, sweet parts of the last couple of years while recognizing the weight of it all.”

This collision of repose and harsh reality is laid bare in the album’s first single “Lights Light Up,” an insightful account of love at its temporary best. Written partially as a conversation, it tracks the tender details of a burgeoning relationship while at the same time recognizing the transitory nature of any shared thing; the bittersweet truth that you can only walk hand in hand with someone as long as you’re going in the same direction. With delicately interwoven guitar lines, propulsive rhythm and a chorus that offers the feeling of a voicemail left by someone from your past, it feels at once deeply personal and universal.
 
<i>“and you said so do you ever wanna leave here / and I said well that depends on the day 
and you said oh do you even wanna be here / and I said well that depends on the way”</i>
 
Elsewhere, “Dawncolored Horse” provides an uplifting meditation on the freedom that comes with closeness. Taking its title from a poem by Richard Brautigan, Fenne comments that she interprets the poem (and the song it inspired) to be a reflection of the idea that another person can become almost a sentient space in which to exist: “(Brautigan) talks about the woman he loves as being a ‘breathing castle’. I truly don’t know what that means but for me he’s distilled a feeling of absolute closeness. When you know someone so well it feels like you’re almost living inside them. That can be claustrophobic,” she adds, “but before it’s too much, it’s incredible.”
 
In one of the album’s more delicate moments, the achingly introspective “In My Own Time” paints a scene of insulated intimacy tinged with a fear that life is passing by all too quickly. With lines like “sometimes I feel like I’m just killing time here / or maybe it’s killing me,” Fenne moves through the myriad frames of mind associated with a fading or changing identity. As tender harmonies accompany lush guitar lines, she reflects on a period of being “simultaneously sheltered from and crushed by a fear of the future,” examining her conflicted feelings about a smaller, slower life. Every song on Big Picture feels like an ode to two people helping each other survive, but none more than this.   
 
“This album is an observation of the way I think about love, the self-examination that comes with closeness and the responsibilities involved in being a big part of someone else’s small(er) world,” summarizes Fenne. “It was written in a place of relative emotional stability – stability that felt unstable because of its newness, but also because of the global context. 2020 was the year of letting go, but we’d all already let go of so much and nothing felt like mine anymore. Writing always did, though, so that’s what I chose to do.” 

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<h3>Christian Lee Hutson </h3>
Christian Lee Hutson starts his new album Quitters with a laugh. In this follow up to his ANTI records debut, Beginners, Hutson moves away from the focus on growing up to the dread and complications of growing older. The laugh that announces Quitters is the kind you’ll find at the end of John Huston films, one of resignation and release, and somehow a cosmic laugh that says “California,” a place where lonely people gather together like birds.

Across Quitters’ 13 tracks, Hutson crafts this portrait of the place he’s from. In these short story-like songs, Hutson presents characters who carry this golden light and sinister geography inside them. It’s a place where everything in the end gets blown away and paved over with something new, where even the ocean and fires are always whispering, “One day we’ll take it all back.” This is a Los Angeles in constant transition, where childhood is lost, where home is gone and can never be visited again. Yet Hutson’s world is also one of happy accidents, where doors are left open on purpose, hoping that someone new will walk through. In the end, what’s left are these songs created by some future spirit, written to comfort the person we are now.

Produced by Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, Quitters is also a departure from the digital recording of his debut. Hutson stated, “When we made Beginners the aim was to make simple digital recordings of how I would play the songs in the room. With this record, Phoebe and Conor had an idea that it would be fun to make it to tape. Phoebe is my best friend and making Beginners with her was so comfortable and easy. So I wanted to work with her again.” “I took a long time with Beginners,” Hutson added. “I had those songs for 10 years, but these songs came out a lot faster.” Because the songs from Quitters were written in a shorter time, “there was a little bit of insecurity with the lyrics. Having Conor there served the purpose of someone who I really respect as a lyricist and could soothe my anxiety.”

With Quitters, Hutson pulled from a wide range of influences for his second record: the tight rhymes of John Prine, Bob Mehr’s book about the Replacements Trouble Boys, and Scott McClanahan’s auto-fiction The Sarah Book. It’s a recording that also feels like a sonic expansion from Hutson’s debut.

“We made Quitters all at once. We hadn’t seen each other for sixth months and this was the first time being in the room together again. It was a real familial feeling, working with the same people, playing with the same people where everyone gets so good at knowing one another’s tricks and are complimenting one another’s weird mistakes. My favorite records are when the guitar gets fucked up and then that becomes the recorded version. And it’s those accidents that make them special.”

The song “Rubberneckers” announces Huston’s two great themes: memory and pain. Written along with his friend and artist Alex Lahey, “Rubberneckers” was the last song written for the album. Huston said, “After I made the record, I was thinking about marriage, about codependency and lying to yourself. You like to think this is my life and these are the parameters. You can’t even see you’re on this path until you wind up in the darkest wood, but you keep walking because the road is comfortable.” The song charts a relationship’s demise, through a proposal, a rupture, and then ultimately a breakup. Hutson pointed out,” It’s about the way that when your life is falling apart, friends fixate on the falling apart rather than just providing support.” The song also contains some of the album’s many perfect rhymes: Self-esteem vending machine/a doctor’s office magazine.

Yet, the song “Cherry” returns Hutson to some of the high school themes from his first album. Hutson states, “I wrote that when we were mixing Beginners and is the first song that I wrote for this record.”

The song charts the ridiculous “cringey” lies we tell in our adolescence. Hutson also pulled from memories of older friends from high school. Hutson said, “I wanted to describe that part of growing up in Los Angeles, having a cool older friend who will drive you speeding and have you jump out on the roof of the car. These people who do these flawed things and tell this type of lie.” However, Hutson’s gift is describing these characters and the world they inhabit without moralizing about it. He is less interested in the “why,” but in the simple mystery of describing these remembered moments from a place.

Likewise, the song “Age Difference” allows Hutson to expand on the Los Angeles character song tradition of Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. The track concerns a character who is finding that they are on the dark side of my thirties. Hutson said, “There’s a specific type of an older man that I have encountered a lot in LA. The aging rocker who hasn’t had a long relationship and they are the McConaughey-like character who is dating a much younger girl, and they have just stopped progressing.” Yet Hutson refuses to pass judgment in a world filled with judgment. Hutson is interested in describing the world the way it is, not the way we want it to be.

So if every great record is a world, then this is Christian Lee Hutson’s world. It’s a California filled with the fuzzy haze of a dream, and the half-remembered moments of a forgotten life. Songs that say, “That was so long ago, but I still remember you.” A world where the past is never past, and the old people we once were still live inside the new people we are. It’s a record brave enough to say, “In the good old days, when times were bad.” But beyond the songs, it is this voice. The voice of someone who was alive in 2021 and recorded a group of songs with his friends for us to hear. And one day these people who shared these sounds will look back and say, “We were all there for a moment? And we were young once, weren’t we?” For there is a consolation prize. A breath on the window/A message that no one can see. While the whole world seemed to be ending, we still listened to one another. We tried to hear. And so we joined this sad laughter. Together.

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Fenne Lily / Christian Lee Hutson

Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return is a unique art experience featuring an astonishing new form of non-linear storytelling that unfolds through exploration, discovery and 21st century interactivity.