Archive: 2024

MerleFest, presented by Window World, has announced the initial lineup ahead of the annual event, taking place April 24-27, 2025 on the campus of Wilkes Community College. This year’s leading acts include two North Carolina-based heavyweights: folk-rock trailblazers The Avett Brothers and Appalachian-rooted duo Watchhouse, as well as legendary singer/songwriter Bonnie Raitt and Canadian folk and bluegrass ensemble The Dead South. MerleFest 2025 will feature […]

English art-rock quintet Squid has announced their new album, Cowards, out February 7th via Warp Records and shared its lead single, “Crispy Skin.” Now on their third album, the band — Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson — branch out, exploring textures of folk, kosmische, psychedelia, jazz and electronic music. Cowards features nine distinct tales of human evil punched by vantablack comedy. On album opener […]

After performing The Black Parade album in its entirety at the most recent When We Were Young Festival, My Chemical Romance (Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero, and Mikey Way) will be celebrating The Black Parade this coming summer. The seminal album was named one of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The band will be performing the full album in only […]

Arbes is an alt-rock and dream pop group from Melbourne that understands the alchemy of texture. 2015 was the year that Arbes caused a commotion within the international bedroom/dream-pop scene with the release of their debut EP, Swimmer. The EP swiftly rose to Bandcamp’s dream-pop best-sellers page, sitting next to US heavyweights Beach House. The […]

Indianapolis alt-rock quartet Bonnie Lola seamlessly blends hard rock riffs, funk delivery, and new-wave instrumentation. Their songs range from sprawling, psychedelic journeys like “Blue Imagine” and “I’m Going Home” to punchy earworms like “The Worker.” There is nothing inherently conventional or familiar about Bonnie Lola’s “Shoulder Tattoo.” Still, the minute the subtle funk of the […]

Sunny War returns with Armageddon in a Summer Dress on February 21, 2025, via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff) and features guest appearances by Valerie June, John Doe of X, Steve Ignorant of Crass, Tré Burt, Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Kyshona Armstrong, John […]

Beth Gibbons, the enigmatic, emotionally compelling voice of trip-hop pioneers Portishead, will make her North American solo debut, and a new collaboration between Julien Baker & TORRES are just two of the exciting surprises topping the second wave of artist announces for Knoxville’s shapeshifting, multi-dimensional, and always unpredictable BIG EARS FESTIVAL, returning to Downtown Knoxville the weekend of March […]

Folks wear black for a whole host of reasons. Some people just think it looks cool, whilst others may be making a fashion statement, perhaps acknowledging humanity’s apparent insignificance set hopelessly adrift in a remarkably cold, dark, uncaring and incomprehensibly infinite universe. Or it could very well be less existential in nature, sure. Folks might […]

Josh Gilligan’s wise, full-hearted debut opens where most albums might end: with an epiphany. “It takes a lot to be anything at all,” he sings on the chorus of “Anything,” over a bed of sympathetic piano chords and a shuffling rhythm section. The sentiment sounds straightforward, but the Nashville singer-songwriter finds new implications every time […]