French Cassettes w/ Mellow Swells
French Cassettes music is filled with winding melodies that pop up unexpectedly but grab hold and don’t let go… and may leave you asking “who needs hands with hooks like these?” The harmony-driven power-pop quartet’s new LP, Rolodex, was conceived beneath a stairwell in the band’s adopted hometown of San Francisco, where frontman Scott Huerta spent months staying up until 4 am, obsessing over elaborate demos that would eventually become his band’s sophomore album. “I adopted the mentality, which was probably unhealthy, that every song I wrote needed to be my favorite song,” he remembers. “I lost my mind so many times in the middle of the night.” The album was self-recorded by lead guitarist Mackenzie Bunch in just about every corner of the Bay Area, and the songs that were eventually stitched together are hook-filled and rooted in pop. But they’re also layered and intricate recordings: complex vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies, Rob Mills’ inventive percussion, Thomas’ (Scott’s brother) honey-coated basslines, and every shade of clean and fuzzy guitars stacked up like an orchestra. These uncommonly majestic, esoteric pop forms serve as the perfect delivery service for Huerta’s playful and verbose lyrics, which are often presented as semi-autobiographical puzzles. Taken together, the eight tracks and 24 minutes that make up Rolodex are an epic statement of purpose in a decidedly taut package.*************************Mellow Swells is a band from the triangle area that soar blasts funk, rock, and intense improvisation to its listeners. Their influences range from traditional music all the way to modern funk/pop. Expect to get beef blasted by some low end bass, sweaty by some deep grooves, and slapped by soulful vocals and soaring riffs.
WEEKEND EXCURSION UNPLUGGED
A special acoustic evening with Weekend Excursion!
Old Heavy Hands Night 2
OLD HEAVY HANDS NIGHT 2!An acoustic evening with our friends, Old Heavy Hands with support from John Charles Dwyer!
The Stews with Harvey St. Co.
The StewsBlending genres such as hard rock, alternative, indie and more- The Stews are a rock band that cannot be confined to just one sound. Spawned out of impromptu basement jam sessions in the Fall of 2020, the band started as a group of friends who also happened to be musicians. This chemistry is what fuels their electric (often sweaty) live shows and allows them to write the music that they love to play. The Stews consist of Preston Hall, Blake Dobbs, Bennett Baugus, and Wyatt Griffith. HARVEY STREEY CO.Indie and alternative rock vibrations crafted with love and diligence out of Raleigh, NC.
Posture
Posture is a collaborative Jazz group based out of Winston-Salem, NC. Their debut album, “Posture” features a blend of Soul music with Jazz/Classical influences. The songs are written collaboratively by Chaisaray (Drums), (John Ray) Bass, Michael Anderson (Keys/Synth), and Tori Elliot Vocals/Lyrics.
NIGHTBLOOMS w/ Blue Cactus and Gentle Junior
NIGHTBLOOMSOne of the hardest parts about having a band is describing what you sound like. It’s often easier just to reference other bands people might actually know (Elliott Smith, Weyes Blood, George Harrison, Grizzly Bear, The War on Drugs, fwiw) than to come up with overused adjectives and round-about metaphors. I guess I could tell you that Nightblooms sounds a little like Lilac Shadows but filtered through acoustic guitars, pianos, and a lot less volume. That might help, but you also might be like, “I don’t know what Lilac Shadows is.” I could say we use lots of synthesizers or that lyrically our songs are anxious as hell but pretty fun musically. But like Saul Bellow (maybe?) once said, “I’m the bird — you’re the ornithologist.” So just listen and see what comes to mind. It’ll probably be more evocative than I can write here anyway. Whatever we sound like to you, I just hope you enjoy it.Blue CactusBlue Cactus, the North Carolina duo of Steph Stewart and Mario Arnez, make Dream Country: a blend of grit, glitz, groove, and twang that evokes a celestial soundscape of mid-century heartbreak. Following their critically acclaimed 2017 debut and a string of singles in 2020 their evolution is made plain on their sophomore LP, Stranger Again, released on Sleepy Cat Records. The album has received enthusiastic attention from tastemakers including No Depression, American Songwriter, FLOOD Magazine, Talkhouse and INDY Week among others.Stranger Again is a deep dive into Cosmic American music, with the band taking their sound into ambitious new planes, where country-rock meets psychedelia as the soaring vocals meet twangy slide-guitars and propulsive bass-lines. The otherworldliness of the music is a perfect contrast to their distinctly grounded, human storytelling lyrics that explore loss, longing, self-love, and reckoning with personal, political and human struggles.With a high lonesome twang, an Emmylou-like southern drawl, and blistering guitar techniques, Blue Cactus’ new record exercises the honky-tonk muscles to firmly bear the flag for a new generation of Country and Americana.They have graced festival stages and shared stages with the likes of The War and Treaty, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Lilly Hiatt, and Junior Brown among others–building a fanbase that cherishes their singular, but familiarly rewarding take on Country music.
