PREMIERES

When you think of New Orleans, the city’s foremost flambeaux-lit traditions of Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, voodoo, Po’ boys, beads, gumbo, and second line undoubtedly come to mind. You can also count Big Sam’s Funky Nation amongst those NOLA treasures. Known for a boisterous blend of funk, jazz, rock, and hip-hop, nothing short of seismic […]

Brooklyn’s A Big Yes and a small no will release its second-LP, Mise En Abyme on April 20 via Royal Potato Family. Mise En Abyme is available for pre-order HERE. After surviving a kidnapping in Columbia in 1997, seven muggings (one of which required facial reconstruction surgery) and a protracted WAR with heroin (“battle sounds […]

Portland, Oregon-based country quintet Countryside Ride have put their hearts and honky-tonk sound into their sophomore album, I Hope He Breaks Your Heart (Deer Lodge Records), a fourteen track collection of tunes – originals and covers – that find the band doing what they do best: playing good, ole’ fashioned country, honky-tonk, hillbilly, and western […]

Chicago songwriter Heather Styka has been making a name for herself and winning over new fans beyond the Windy City with her unique combination of folk and pop sensibilities and lyrics that tackle relatable themes of inclusion, belonging and civic responsibility. These themes come together in her new album, North, which releases on May 18. […]

Patricia Vonne, the multi-talented musician, actress, award winning filmmaker and two-time SXSW best female vocalist winner, is back with her seventh album Top of the Mountain, out May 25, 2018 on her label Bandolera Records. The album is hot on the heels of her recent win at the Madrid International Film Festival for “Best Animation […]

Paul Beaubrun grew up immersed in music; his family formed Boukman Eksperyans, a mizik rasin band from Port-au-Prince. The band name is derived from Dutty Boukman, who is credited as the starting point for the Haitian Revolution in 1791, and from the English word ‘Experience’, which is a direct reference to Jimi Hendrix. The family […]

Kalamazoo quartet The Go Rounds have been a dominant force in the Michigan music landscape for the last 5 years, releasing a handful of LPs and EPs, and playing countless Great Lakes music festivals. Some of the major acts The Go Rounds have supported include Greensky Bluegrass, Hard Working Americans, Vulpeck, Billy Strings, Keller Williams, […]

Portland-based folk rock band The Builders and the Butchers have recently announced their forthcoming album, The Spark, which is due out May 19th. The band’s fifth LP will be released on Badman Recordings Co. – their third release with the label. With comparisons to The Decemberists coming from Pitchfork and The Washington Post, among others, […]

At first listen, Calan Mai’s “We’ve Got Love” feels like a carefree piece of folk-pop—all bright melody and major-chord strumming, soaring vocals delivered with warmth and ease. But on closer observation, the track’s intricate lyricism and detailed storytelling reveal a more heavy-hearted sensibility. “Each verse is about a different family member and everything they were […]

Wood & Wire are most definitely one of the most exciting young bluegrass acts currently in the scene with their unique fusing of traditional and progressive bluegrass alongside the Texas songwriter tradition. The Austin-based Americana roots juggernauts Wood & Wire can easily rattle off a list of songwriters that inspire them, from Willie Nelson to […]

The Red Black & Blue EP (Vol 1) (out April 13th) is JC Brooks’ follow-up to 2017’s The Neon Jungle and explores political themes surrounding being black in America in 2018. The music takes influence from the politically-charged soul artists of the 70s, specifically Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Gil Scott Heron. The EP was recorded over a one-year […]

Formed in Denver in 2002 by the eccentric and prolific Erin Roberts, Porlolo is both a highly collaborative effort and a true labor of love. Roberts, a self-defined sister, swimmer and stunt artist, is a powerful songwriting force with her own style of grungy, sometimes twangy, often pure pop hits. Over her last 15 years […]

Albuquerque-based A Hawk and A Hacksaw began in 2000 in the small town of Saumur, France. Initially a solo vehicle for Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes, the main impetus of the project was to focus on the gray areas in borders of music and geography. The first album was released in 2002 by Cloud […]

It’s been more than twenty years since Ohio band Red Wanting Blue first began their long, strange odyssey, and while much has changed for lead singer and tenor guitarist Scott Terry and the rest of the band over those two remarkable decades, the hunger remains. Like the North Star, it’s fixed in the firmament, a […]

Buried deep underneath blankets of wooly southern rock, gritty songwriting and soaring odes to lost love, The Mallett Brothers are entrenched in the dense forests, majestic mountains and icy beaches of their Maine homeland. Their rock ‘n roll resides inside of a weathered and lived-in, rootsy Americana built by brothers Luke and Will Mallett and band. […]

London-born musician Holly Golightly got her professional start as a member of Kent, England’s Thee Headcoatees, a garage rock combo formed as an opening act for Billy Childish and his band, Thee Headcoats. After the group’s run of albums and singles ended, Golightly continued a solo career that had already kicked off with her 1995 […]

Passion motivates. It drives people to persevere. And passion makes great music. Case in point: the upcoming EP, Way Down Deep from Chicago funk, soul, and R&B group Bumpus. The new EP will drop on April 6th and will be celebrated with a hometown release show at Martyrs’. The Bumpus name has spawned a musical family, […]

There’s a playfulness to the best old country songwriting, a kind of delight in turning a phrase, in surprising a listener. It’s a trick that Colorado Americana songwriter Jackson Emmer learned early on playing noisy bars in Aspen. Inspired equally by Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt, Emmer weaves the kind of bittersweet, barroom ballads […]

On Fables, the forthcoming release from Ashland, Oregon favorites Slow Corpse, languid soul and gauzy dream pop float effortlessly over a bed of nuanced post-rock melodic complexity. Taut, arrestingly propulsive R&B-tinged melodic hooks ebb and flow against an ever-present undercurrent of woozy psychedelica. Born out of the creative union of artists from very different musical […]

Part of the “new school” of reggae, Los Angeles band Tomorrows Bad Seeds have been crafting a chilled out sound since forming in 2001. Their Southern California influences play a distinct role in their sound with a heady mix of reggae, rock and pop. From Hood B-Boy Street to Surf/Skate Beach Culture, these boys emerged […]