Come watch the Super Bowl with us tomorrow.

Birdy is a Chicago-based acoustic quartet featuring outstanding vocals and harmony, creative musical arrangements, impressive covers, and fine originals. With an eclectic repertoire that draws from both traditional and contemporary influences, Birdy has quickly established itself on the Chicago music scene and beyond, and is a regular performer throughout the Chicagoland area.

Appearing at the Athenaeum Theatre.

- NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEOS, INCLUDING VIA CELL PHONES.

Produced in association with Lincoln Hall - Schubas Tavern

Comprised of ten original songs, Stolen Silver’s self-titled debut is a journey of experiences amassed from ten years spent rooming, writing, touring, and living life fully. Co-produced by long-time collaborator and friend John Ovnik, the album was recorded in Chicago at Deaf Dog Music and draws inspiration from an array of their musical faves including Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Seals and Crofts, and Fleetwood Mac. “We put absolutely no limits or constraints on the sounds. We really wanted to exploit the inherent mood that each song, and sound, dictated on its own” says Myers. The result is a mix of captivatingly potent tunes that exemplify their knack for incisive personal narratives and emotional deliveries. Levi and Dan’s unique ability to harmonize vocally takes center stage, but they play almost all the instruments as well.

Appearing at the Athenaeum Theatre.

- NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEOS, INCLUDING VIA CELL PHONES.

Produced in association with Lincoln Hall - Schubas Tavern

With only the aid of word of mouth, hard work and perseverance, Red Wanting Blue has established an exceedingly loyal following in and around the Midwest where the band regularly fills clubs normally reserved for bigger names. Scott Terry’s passionate and poetic songs, anchored by his powerful baritone, are the kind of tunes that could only have been written by a man who has lived this kind of life on the road. It’s these songs and Terry’s moving delivery of them that knocks ‘em dead, but leaves ‘em talking. Most importantly, it keeps ‘em coming back for more. Picking up where its autobiographical previous release These Magnificent Miles left off, From The Vanishing Point is the answer to those whose heads have been turning to ask, “Who is this band?” The album sheds some of Red Wanting Blue’s small-town sensibilities as it evolves into the world-class rock n’ roll outfit that audiences have believed in for years and marks an official move to the national stage for a band that will always remember where it's from.

Doldrums began in 2010 by posting videos and designing websites by fictional bands under a variety of different band pseudonyms, 'Doldrums' being one of them, the name taken from a favorite children's book, Norton Juster 's 'The Phantom Tollbooth". He gained notoriety in his native Toronto through performances at Everlasting Super Joy, his studio and DIY venue co-run with members of DD/MM/YYYY, as well as involvement in flash parties in abandoned spaces. 2010 saw the release of a number of 7"s including a split with DD/MM/YYYY and a VHS mixtape of his own music videos. In 2011, after hearing his interpretation of their song "Chase the Tear", Portishead announced they would release his song as the b-side to their single. At the same time, new tracks fell into the hands of cult London indie label No Pain In Pop, and were quickly confirmed for release as Empire Sound, his debut EP.

Jenny Owen Youngs, singer/songwriter and natural history enthusiast, returns with her third studio album, AN UNWAVERING BAND OF LIGHT. Produced by longtime collaborator Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, Jukebox the Ghost), the record finds Jenny knee-deep in crunchy rock guitars, whispery string quartets, and a mixed bag of bizarre-o percussion... in other words, precisely where she wants to be. Jenny grew up in the forests of northern New Jersey and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. After self-releasing her first album Batten the Hatches in 2005, Youngs went on to release two albums and three EPs through the Canadian indie label Nettwerk Records. She has toured extensively through the US, UK, and mainland Europe, both as headliner and support to artists such as Regina Spektor, Motion City Soundtrack, Aimee Mann, Kevin Devine, and Amanda Palmer. Her songs have been heard on Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Privileged, Life Unexpected, Switched at Birth, and in Victoria's Secret stores the world over. Her spirit animals are Johnny Cash, Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Jack White.

Memphis-based rock trio Ingram Hill would probably love to have it look as if their latest album, "Look Your Best," was as easy-breezy to create as the lyrics suggest, but lead singer/guitarist Justin Moore says it was made with a great deal of hard work, determination, and grit. "I think it felt like we were in a place in our career where we really were going through a stressful time," says Moore of the period after parting ways with their former major label home, Hollywood Records. "We were trying to get our stuff together, and we spent a lot of time and effort trying to make this as great as possible. It's not like we haven't done that with all of our records, but this one felt like there was a lot more weight on it, on the process of making it. We gave it everything we had. It seemed like an appropriate title. We were putting on our best for our audience, for our fans."

Ingram Hill has toured extensively with bands such as Hootie and the Blowfish, Johnny Lang, Maroon 5, Guster, Better Than Ezra, and Hanson. Says Bogard of their live vibe: "It's a feel-good, good time show. The goal is a good, old-fashioned, rock n' roll show." While they count bands as diverse as Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Aerosmith as personal influences, the band's sound is much more current. Rock Ridge Music signed the band to a label and management deal earlier in 2010, with plans to release "Look Your Best" in September 2010.

"I feel like we hit our stride with this record," Bogard says. And Moore concurs. "I think we're really proud of this record and the effort we put into it. We feel good about it. We really do look our best."

Susan Salidor is an award-winning children's music composer, performer and teacher. Her five recordings for children and their families enjoy a national audience of young and old alike and have garnered a long list of prestigious awards.

Little Voices in My Head (1995) was Susan's first release of mostly original songs and was honored with an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award. The Chicago Tribune called Little Voices "a gem of a recording."

Susan Salidor: By Heart (1996), Susan's second release, was honored with a Parents' Choice Gold Award for Excellence and received unanimous praise in the Chicago Tribune, Nashville Parent, Parents Magazine, ALA Booklist, and Family Fun Magazine, which called By Heart "an album to savor.

Color Me Singing, Susan's third kids' recording, was released in December 1998 and was chosen as a selection in Book-of-the-Month Club's Sound Review Catalog, which reaches an estimated 1.6 million people monthly. Color Me Singing received a 1999 Parents' Choice Gold Award, an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Audio Award 2000, as well as a 'Listen Up' Award from Publishers Weekly.

Performing over three hundred shows in the last few years, Dan Darrah has established himself as a remarkably unique singer-songwriter, with a soulful distinct voice that captures even the least receptive audiences. Dan has developed a devoted fan base exponentially expanding in Chicago, the Midwest, the United States, and beyond.

In the last year and a half, Dan has shared the stage with the Bo Deans, Sister Hazel, Jesse Harris, Jeffery Gaines, The Samples, Marty Lloyd of The Freddie Jones Band and the 10,000 Maniacs.

Ticket includes pre-party, bus rides, two hours of skating (skates included), and a commemorative silk screened poster.

Chicago's premiere night of 70s AM Gold 80s FM Rock and Contemporary-Smooth Gems hits the road for a very special Valentine's Day weekend adventure.

Join your hosts, The Stay Smooth DJs Bald E and STV SLV, at Schubas for some complimentary Hendricks Gin cocktails before boarding some beer laden busses for The Fleetwood Roller Rink, where you can glide along to a "live Stay Smooth radio broadcast" or get a taste of the '00s next door at the Europe Dance Club. 

Busses will drop you back at Schubas before last call.

8:00 PM - Schubas' Upstairs Pre-Party (DJ Set by DJ MR) - Hosted bar courtesy of Hendrick's Gin

9:30 PM - Beer hosted buses depart Schubas for a PRIVATE TWO HOUR SESSION at Fleetwood Roller Rink located next to Europe Dance Club in beautiful Summit, IL.

12:30 AM - Buses depart for Schubas

Smooth attitude requested and smooth attire suggested: rainbows, unicorns, ice cream cones, puffy stickers, satin jackets, captain’s hats, jean shorts, short shorts, bikini tops, ski sweaters, tropical shirts, polo shirts, jumpers, knee high socks, bell bottoms, wristband/headbands, friendship bracelets, sunglasses, tennis visors, beards, staches, feathered hair, chest hair, high heels, moon boots and a Trapper Keeper™ for all your memories.

Selections you might hear on the floor: Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald (featuring Kenny Loggins), Kenny Loggins (featuring Michael McDonald), Loggins & Messina, Rick Springfield, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis & The News, Jefferson Starship, Starship, Doobie Brothers, Mayer Hawthorne, Boz Scaggs, Greg Kihn Band, Toto, Loverboy, Feist, Electric Light Orchestra, America, Alan Parsons Project, Ariel Pink, Jefferson Starship, .38 Special, Christopher Cross, Phil Collins, Olivia Newtown-John, Fleetwood Mac, Player, The Cars, Seals & Crofts, Ace, Robbie Dupree, Destroyer, Gerry Rafferty, Ambrosia, Phoenix, Chicago, Air Supply, Steve Perry, Al Stewart and the car radio in the summer of '85.

Catch A Wave... by Stay Smooth

We are very sorry to announce that Freesol has canceled their performance for this evening.

Down With Webster(also known as DWW) is a six piece hip-hop band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada made up of Patrick Gillett (Pat) on Vocals and Guitar, Martin Seja (Bucky Buck) and Cameron Hunter (Cam) on Vocals, Tyler Armes on Bass and Keyboards, Andrew Martino (Marty) on Drums, and Dave Ferris (Diggy) as DJ. During live shows the band sometimes uses a three piece horn section.

The band’s debut EP Time to Win Vol. 1 was released on October 6, 2009, and the single “Rich Girl$” debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at #47 for the week of October 24, 2009, and peaked at #21 on January 9, 2010. The follow-up single “Your Man” was released to Canadian radio stations in January 2010. Since then it has peaked at #12 on the Canadian Hot 100, outperforming their debut single on the chart. In August 2010, the band released “Whoa is Me” as their last single on the “Time to Win, Vol. 1” EP.

From mid-October 2010 through late November, Down with Webster toured with 3oh!3 on the “Streets of Gold” tour. They gained a large American following during this. After the tour, the boys arrived back to Toronto to finish recording their follow-up album, “Time to Win, Vol. 2” before their own headlining tour, “Wintour 2011”.

Playing a unique blend of folk, pop, bluegrass and country styles, the Greenleaf Band is fast building a fan base in Chicago. Since forming in early 2010, the band, made up of Paul Larson, Arielle Luckmann and Amberlee Sheehan, has played at such local venues as Uncommon Ground, Goose Island, Sylvie’s, Gallery Caberet and the Grafton. The Greenleaf Band plays original music, with an occasional cover tune.

With Larson and Sheehan trading off on guitar and mandolin, and Luckmann playing fiddle, the band offers distinctive three-part harmonies and music that is fun, engaging and energetic.

Chicago’s A Lull is nearly impossible to describe without qualifiers. Equal parts mystical and primal, the music crafted by these five multi-instrumentalists gathers the recognizable traits of a half dozen indie micro-genres, tosses out all but the stem cells, then adds the calculated, percussive verve of a half dozen rhythm sections on top of beautifully crafted songwriting to result in a sound that is as unique as it is memorable. A Lull blurs the lines between the synthesized and organic. The evocative lyrics and vocals of Nigel Evan Dennis are engulfed with music elements that live on the barriers between guitars, electronics, and effects, then (with each member of the band having at one point banged on a drum) covered with endless layers of percussion. Recording the music themselves, the band is not confined to traditional studio techniques or time constraints, and the obsessive attention to detail shows. Employing anything available to create beats, melodies, textures and layers of sound, A Lull’s sonic landscape is experimental in the ways that it takes form, yet at the same time inherently musical.

Comprised of ten original songs, Stolen Silver’s self-titled debut is a journey of experiences amassed from ten years spent rooming, writing, touring, and living life fully. Co-produced by long-time collaborator and friend John Ovnik, the album was recorded in Chicago at Deaf Dog Music and draws inspiration from an array of their musical faves including Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Seals and Crofts, and Fleetwood Mac. “We put absolutely no limits or constraints on the sounds. We really wanted to exploit the inherent mood that each song, and sound, dictated on its own” says Myers. The result is a mix of captivatingly potent tunes that exemplify their knack for incisive personal narratives and emotional deliveries. Levi and Dan’s unique ability to harmonize vocally takes center stage, but they play almost all the instruments as well.

Download the song "Puts Me to Work" by Cate Le Bon here.

A highly successful 2010 was spent touring her debut LP Me Oh My described by Word magazine “As cymbals clash and keyboards whirl, imagine P J Harvey’s rawness tangling with Super Furry Animals’ prog and a vocalist who forgoes folk soft asides for delicious black humor”. Cate then ended the year contemplating and conjuring up her sophomore release.

Cate entered the studio with the nucleus of a record existing in her head, lyrical ideas swam in ether as did fully formed arrangements, but it wasn’t until she began recording that these disparate ideas were drawn together and her circus tent of a record rose from the gravel ground.

Drawing on her experiences from that heady 12 months, Cate created a collection of pop nuggets that sounded like they'd fallen off the back of a broken carousel, imbued with the playfulness of Faust, Syd Barrett and the tropical melodies of Os Mutantes and stitched together with a foreboding silken lyrical thread.

Existential word play abounds and fuzz fused guitar lines tear through like an angry bee in a CAN as Cate muses on matters of the heart and the magnetic pull of the ocean.

Cate Le Bon "Fold The Cloth" official video from The Control Group on Vimeo.

Michaelson’s grassroots sensibility has worked like gangbusters: Her music, often about love and relationships, has wafted out of your television in handfuls of Grey’s Anatomy episodes (not to mention countless other series since such as American Idol, Parenthood, and So You Think You Can Dance), in an affecting Google Chrome ad, and on VH1 as an artist You Outta Know. The New York Times marveled that she was “singing her way from obscurity to fame.” Billboard trumpeted her as the face of the new music business. NPR declared, “Ingrid Michaelson is everywhere.” As an independent artist she has sold over 750,000 albums and 3 million singles.

Human Again is a triumph in aural range. The music veers from orchestral (Kahne’s specialty) to percussive, while her accompanying voice swells from contralto to soprano, expanding on her melodic roots. And it’s an ambitious move for Michaelson, one that’s even surprised her parents. “My father said, ‘Where are all the ditties?’” she recalls, laughing. “I said, ‘Well, I think I’m past the ditties, Dad.’ I’m done with that part of my life. I’m ready to think a little bolder.”

Such artistic ambition has always percolated in the blood of this singer-songwriter—who’s also co-written and starred in a semi-autobiographical, comedic pilot that she and improv-actress Rebekka Johnson are shopping around to TV networks. (The show is still untitled.)

Michaelson’s music can be found sound-tracking the romantic-surgical debauchery Grey’s Anatomy with songs such as the cascading “Breakable” and the melancholic lullaby “Keep Breathing.” A music supervisor for Old Navy just happened to catch the episode featuring the latter and snapped up the cooing, calypso-inflected “The Way I Am” for one of the company’s commercials. (The song ultimately went platinum.) Radio play followed, just in time for the release of her 2007 full-length debut, Girls and Boys (out on Cabin 24 Records, her own imprint). This all happened in about a year.

The band was formed in 2006, when future Guv’nahs bassist Justin Hoskins committed his then non-existent group to perform at a benefit concert. Hoskins immediately began enlisting roommates, friends and friends-of-friends for what quickly became a very real band. Over the past five years, the Dirty Guv’nahs have proved they are a serious concern. The band has gone from being one of the most beloved and exciting groups in East Tennessee to winning fans all over the United States. The release of the band’s self-titled debut (recorded with Drive-By Truckers producer David Barbe) was celebrated with a packed performance at Knoxville’s legendary Bijou Theatre and was followed a few months later by a two-night sold-out run at the venue. The band’s second release, "Youth Is In Our Blood" (produced by Justin Guip at Levon Helm’s studios in Woodstock, N.Y.) has found its way onto radio play lists around the country.

In my world, the first step to a renewed America and our deliverance from an unspeakable disrespect of the American workforce would be the opening of THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE FACTORY. They would come from miles around to see the Willie Wonka of the New Deal....There's hope again!!! If you can make it here, why don't you make it here...

We started demos for this record back in 2001 on September 10th. The next day the world was upside down and traitors were everywhere, underneath every coffee cup. Joe McCarthy was back and I just didn't feel like I was ready to tell the story of the blue-collared optimist...

"She said, 'Son, you're dreamin'

Well, ma, if I'm dreamin'

Just don't you wake me"

This record weaves in and out of the "Midwestern Blues" to the Flannery O'Connor South of "This Town" to the industrial grind of "Detroit City" to the optimistic anthem (and Dictators cover!!) "I Stand Tall" to the genuine pining for home in "I See Georgia."

I want you settled in, riled up, loaded for bear and somewhere out there on the road in search of the great American dream....

Martin Zellar has fashioned a music career firmly grounded in the quality craftsmanship of his songwriting. The magic of his songs is a combination of lyrical sincerity, inspired yet simple arrangements, and unmistakable raspy vocals. His lyrics turn the spotlight on what is remarkable in the ordinary, as noted by Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times: “Writers, from Dylan to Springsteen, often tell us far more about the human condition by concentrating on life’s everyday moments. That’s the strength of Martin Zellar.” With his solo career and independent record label flourishing, Martin Zellar continues to charm fans with his songwriting, live performances with his band The Hardways, and solo acoustic shows. His two most recent releases (2003) are “Live from the Mercury Lounge”, a live recording of a show early in Martin’s solo career, and “…they even use the hooves”, a compilation of new and previously released studio recordings from throughout his distinguished career.

The Pickin' Bubs are a Chicago acoustic trio whose sound is rooted in traditional music, from country blues, to gospel, to old time and folk ballads and carried on in the originals penned by them and the songwriters they enjoy. They focus on vocal and instrumental arrangements on the guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo.

With his solo debut, due for song-by-song release throughout 2012, Derek Fawcett presents a bold musical vision that goes well beyond both his own talents and art-making itself. The Winter Clothes draws musically both from his membership in celebrated Chicago acoustic pop quartet Down The Line, and a host of other influences including John Mayer, Tom Petty and Bon Iver. Also inspired by Chicago’s vibrant arts scene, Fawcett is pairing each song with a work by a Chicago visual artist: Unique collaborations that Fawcett hopes will bring Chicago’s musical and visual art scenes closer together. Further, having long wanted to make improving the social condition a part of his mission as an artist, Fawcett is also pairing each song with a different Chicago charity. Fans can choose to contribute to the charity associated with the song by paying an extra dollar. With this partnership, he hopes to bring greater awareness to Chicago’s many important social needs, the organizations that try to serve them every day, and the unique ability that artists have to promote and foster positive change in their communities.

Comprised of ten original songs, Stolen Silver’s self-titled debut is a journey of experiences amassed from ten years spent rooming, writing, touring, and living life fully. Co-produced by long-time collaborator and friend John Ovnik, the album was recorded in Chicago at Deaf Dog Music and draws inspiration from an array of their musical faves including Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Seals and Crofts, and Fleetwood Mac. “We put absolutely no limits or constraints on the sounds. We really wanted to exploit the inherent mood that each song, and sound, dictated on its own” says Myers. The result is a mix of captivatingly potent tunes that exemplify their knack for incisive personal narratives and emotional deliveries. Levi and Dan’s unique ability to harmonize vocally takes center stage, but they play almost all the instruments as well.

Dreamers of the Ghetto are a family band from Bloomington, IN, consisting of brothers Luke and Jonathan Jones, Luke’s wife, Lauren, and Marty Sprowles. After teasing blogs with enigmatic, homemade video clips for the past year, Indiana’s most promising and perhaps most eccentric group finally unleashes their debut album, the stunning Enemy/Lover.

Dreamers of the Ghetto marries the sentiment of classic 80s film soundtracks to minimalist, romantic dream-rock, creating a unique environment that becomes almost instantly addicting. The triumphant, reach-for-the-stars attitude of veterans like U2 and Depeche Mode is paired with the gospel splendor of Spiritualized and ominous austerity of The xx, all carried by what Shaking Through calls “the most amazing singer we’ve seen since Sharon Van Etten.” DOTG have mined a sound that is both timeless and nostalgic, and they’ve done so with an earnest fearlessness and refreshing lack of irony. They are true, pure, and unbelievably powerful.

Click Here For VIP Tickets(Includes ticket, t shirt and physical copy of the bell hooks mix tape)

BBU is the Chicago-based, four-man crew made up of MCs Epic, Illekt, Jasson Perez and DJ Esquire, whose sound place the listener in the middle of a Chi-town juke party. Following the release of their self-released first mixtape, Fear of A Clear Channel Planet, BBU performed across the country with names like Mos Def, MF DOOM, and J. Cole, been on the Lollapalooza and South by Southwest (SXSW) stages, and featured in the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, URB, The Chicago Tribune and TimeOut Chicago. The Chicago Reader named BBU as one of the “Best New Musical Groups,” and Pitchfork hailed their anthem, “Chi Don’t Dance” as one of the “Best New Tracks” of 2009. In early 2011, BBU teamed up with friends Das Racist and The Hood Internet for a collaboration titled “Please, No Pictures,” which debuted on Prefix Magazine and became one of the hottest singles of the summer.

Now the guys are set to release their second mixtape, bell hooks, in February 2012. Presented by Mad Decent and Mishka and mixed by DJ Benzi, bell hooks provides a refreshing take on hip-hop from a group whose alternative inspirations have them tossing out sounds along the lines of M.I.A. and dead prez, with a hint of Bad Brains. As the crew puts down the final touches on bell hooks, which includes features by Das Racist, Mic Terror and more, the men of BBU remain on the artist-activist grind. They are all helping to grow a culture connected to a People’s Movement by working as community and union organizers, health care providers, legal counsel and educators. They are creating a soundtrack for the people, by the people.

Longtime disciple of the rich and strange music that sings behind the American veil, Jeffrey Foucault has spent the last decade mining the darker seams of country and blues, producing a string of spare and elemental albums of rare power while garnering accolades across the United States and overseas for a tersely elegant brand of songwriting set apart by its haunting imagery and weather-beaten cool. He lives in Western Massachusetts.

The new album HORSE LATITUDES is slated for a May 2011 release on Signature Sounds records, featuring Eric Heywood (Pretenders, Ray Lamontagne) on pedal steel and electric guitars, Jennifer Condos (Ray Lamontagne, Sam Phillips) on electric bass, Billy Conway (Morphine, Twinemen) on drums, and Van Dyke Parks (Ry Cooder, Lowell George, Brian Wilson) on keys. It will be Jeffrey’s first collection of original material in five years.

Days Into Years is Elliott BROOD's third full-length recording, the follow-up to 2008's Polaris Prize short-listed Mountain Meadows. Like its predecessors, including the 2004 debut EP Tin Type and 2006's Juno-nominated Ambassador, it mines real history to connect songs that are deeply personal in a cinematic, narrative way. Unfolding like a series of movie scenes, it looks to the future by starting with the past. Opening track "Lindsay" invites you into process of revisiting one's life while cleaning out an old family home. "If I Get Old" daydreams of making it through difficult times, be they in the trenches or a sickbed, and finding a nice place in the country to live out one's final moments. Days Into Years presents these reflections as a celebration of life, particularly on the perfect summer single "Northern Air," a love letter both to the rural Ontario landscape and the memory of a departed friend whose spirit now resides there.

Since forming in 2002, Elliot BROOD has become a Canadian music institution. (The 2004 campus radio hit "Oh, Alberta!" remains a national treasure.) But after touring with acts like Wilco, Blue Rodeo, Corb Lund and the Sadies, playing festivals across North America, Europe and Australia and scoring the 2010 film Grown-Up Movie Star (for which they earned a Gemini nomination for Best Original Song), the band now also has a global presence. With Days Into Years they will bring their music, and of one of the greatest Canadian stories, to the world.

Swing by Schubas parking lot to toss frozen turkeys at unsuspecting bowling pins!

Signup starts at 12pm bowling starts at 1pm

$3 Schlitz special

Winning team gets complete Schlitz bowling kit including Schlitz bag, ball, and authentic team bowling shirt.

Limited space available.

““Welcome to the art-punk renaissance”, declared Rolling Stone magazine last year, triumphantly heralding Crocodiles’ debut album. It was all just deserves for a San Diego duo who’d spent years kicking against the mundanity of their sprawling military town. Sharing both Brandon’s love for girl groups and punk, and his feeling of small-town-alienation, was guitarist Charles Rowell. Meeting at an anti-fascist rally when they were teenagers, the two have been in countless bands together since.

Last year the pair released their acclaimed debut album as Crocodiles. Alongside Rolling Stones support, ‘Summer Of Hate’ also garnered them endless blog buzz and tours across the US and Europe. This album has a manifesto it’s escapism and adventure – both sonically and metaphorically. Back with a full five-piece live band – including drummer Alianna Kalaba, bassist Marco Gonzalez and keyboardist Robin Eisenberg – and a summer of open roads ahead of them, it seems unlikely that Crocodiles will ever have to do anything more mundane than soundcheck again.

The Wren & The Whistler (Jason McInnes & Judy Higgins, of Chicago, IL), features the unusual pairing of fiddle and harmonica to illuminate original and traditional folk tunes from North America and around the world.

Click Here to listen to Jessie Baylin's interview on NPR's All Things Considered

When you hear Jessie Baylin sing for the first time, it takes a matter of moments to realize that she’s intimately familiar with pop’s history – but not at all interested in repeating it. Her songs—and her plangent voice—carry a classic pop tone that evoke memories of the Brill Building and Laurel Canyon in the ‘70s while retaining a decidedly modern, empowered worldview.

“I drew a lot from people like Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick, the Brill Building writers,” says the New Jersey-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter. “But I didn’t want to make a retro, throwback kind of album. Nostalgia is fine, I have a definite fondness for that, but I didn’t want people to listen and think I was trying to recapture something from the past.”That’s exactly the vibe one gets when immersed in Baylin’s third album Little Spark, a recording that emerged after negotiating her way out of a major label deal that was threatening to mar the clarity of her singular artistic vision. Rather than go with the flow, she went with her gut.

Baylin’s ability to listen is palpable, in her mellifluous phrasing, the gentle twang that’s crept into her voice in recent years. But even more tangible is her ability to feel—and make her listeners feel. Listen to a song like “Joy Is Suspicious,” a starkly vulnerable self-assessment about learning to love against some pretty strong odds, and try to remain unmoved.

Comprised of ten original songs, Stolen Silver’s self-titled debut is a journey of experiences amassed from ten years spent rooming, writing, touring, and living life fully. Co-produced by long-time collaborator and friend John Ovnik, the album was recorded in Chicago at Deaf Dog Music and draws inspiration from an array of their musical faves including Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Seals and Crofts, and Fleetwood Mac. “We put absolutely no limits or constraints on the sounds. We really wanted to exploit the inherent mood that each song, and sound, dictated on its own” says Myers. The result is a mix of captivatingly potent tunes that exemplify their knack for incisive personal narratives and emotional deliveries. Levi and Dan’s unique ability to harmonize vocally takes center stage, but they play almost all the instruments as well.

Memoryhouse didn’t actually set out to be a band. It took form as a collaborative project meant to serve as an artistic outlet for composer Evan Abeele and photographer Denise Nouvion. Evan, a dedicated student of classical music and a pop-music encyclopedist, intended Memoryhouse to be a multimedia art project, pairing his instrumental compositions with Denise’s photographs and short films.

Where Evan and Denise took their own music was a quick distance from where they began, recording, refining, and conceptualizing their aural-visual collage in the bedroom of a suburban family home. Individually and together, they experimented with themes, lyrics and multiple layers of instrumentation, with Nouvion’s soft, ethereal voice anchoring the frozen textures of Abeele’s compositions with frank sentimentality—a uniqure approach towards humanizing the electro-pop compositions they were creating.

The new album is titled The Slideshow Effect. The title speaks to what hasn’t changed for Memoryhouse: their continuing interest in the synthesis of the aural and the visual. It refers to the photographic/cinematic technique of zooming and panning to animate still images, often used in documentary film making to give movement to archival photographs. The Slideshow Effect will be released on Sub Pop Records on February 28, 2012.

For years, Kyle Andrews has struggled with a dirty secret. He was, in the eyes of so many, a "singer-songwriter", his past pockmarked with words like "sweet," "catchy," and perhaps most often of all, "bedroom." However, according to Kyle, his latest full-length release Robot Learn Love only sounds like a bedroom pop album if your bedroom happens to be on an escape shuttle hurtling towards an exploding star.

Robot Learn Love is probably the closest Kyle Andrews has come to a concept album. Throughout, he explores themes of modern life -- love, heartbreak, hurt, and longing-- experienced through the filter of technology. The album itself is a product of its theme: from the album art, inspired by a cellphone snapshot sent from the other side of the world, to the instant message abbreviations in song titles.

Genre seems to shift between dance, pop-rock and indie electro-pop more effortlessly than Andrews' previous albums, and even when fully synthesized, feels more "live" and fierce than ever. Full band in tow, the live show exudes an energetic, rock 'n roll vibe that is twice as loud as anything he has managed to capture in the studio until now. If Kyle Andrews is the robot who has learned to love, he has also learned to rock.

"We all met while living in Hamilton a ways back, and while we’ve been playing music together for five years, we’ve been playing softball together for six. Since we released Jackson Square, we’ve moved from residing primarily in Hamilton to residing primarily in our van. That explains why it’s so messy. While touring the aforementioned Jackson Square, we have had the opportunity to play a smattering of shows, tours and festivals with lots of bands we love and never thought we would get to play with – Metric, Pearl Jam, Girl Talk, Tokyo Police Club, Them Crooked Vultures, Wintersleep, and the Starland Vocal Band. Because some of these shows took us places we don’t normally go, we also had the opportunity to eat places we’ve never been before. Places like Pizza Uno, In-and-Out Burger (Tim’s favourite), Noodle Box (Max’s favourite), and a really good Cajun restaurant called Hot Belly Mama’s."

"We all love playing live, so we toured Jackson Square for a really long time. So long in fact, that we’ve already played most of the songs on the new record live at some point. You still have to promise us you’ll act surprised when you hear them. This winter, after a couple months of pre-production and tour decompression, we all headed up to the Bathouse Studios in Kingston and bore down. Dan put on his producer hat, Tim put on his engineer hat, and Mike put on his chef’s hat (because you still gotta eat). We spent two fortnights tracking the songs and in the process we got to play with gated snare drums, a Juno-D synthesizer, and a nifty little effects processor called the Eventide. We also had our friend Kathleen Edwards drop in and sing on one of the songs. Since then, we have been working with Jack Joseph Puig on mixing the record and settling on a name (when you have five parents, the naming process take a little bit longer). We’re all really excited for you to hear it."

Since their 2004 formation, Baby Teeth have proven that bedroom pop and huge hooks belong together. The band has been compared to a host of legendary pop eccentrics: Todd Rundgren, Andy Pratt, Elvis Costello. And yet, it’s Baby Teeth’s unique appropriation of classic-rock icons that sets them apart from other indie-pop acts. “We’ve never played with a band that sounded so much like Queen,” remarked the Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger after an early show. Even while sharing the stage with such indie-rock luminaries as the Fiery Furnaces, Silver Jews, Pit er Pat and Man Man, Baby Teeth have remained true to a singular vision: the intimacy of one lonely heart, shot through an arena-sized cannon. This spring, Baby Teeth releases its third disc, The Simp (Lujo). While the new album’s lavish arrangements nod to the pop of the 60s and 70s, the lyrics are direct and emotionally bare. Fittingly, songwriter Abraham Levitan is recording under his own name for the first time, abandoning the pseudonym, Pearly Sweets, that he’d used since his teens. (He’d taken the moniker initially because he thought it sounded “more New Orleans” than his given name, and he was probably right.) The album opens with the title track, a tale of a depressive, introverted teenager trying in vain to connect through music: “Claustrophobe living in my room / I prayed that life would consume / My song / And push me along.” In vintage Baby Teeth fashion, the downer lyrics lean against a relentlessly pounding, sing-along groove. The album’s centerpiece is the pocket epic “Looking for a Road”, a wry take on the futility of listening to others’ advice: “They say be energetic baby be yourself / But what they really mean is fuck the pain away like everyone else / Selling what you got but it never sells.” “That song is so excellent,” remarked Silver Jews’ David Berman, “I can’t believe it was written by a contemporary American.” In recording The Simp, Baby Teeth worked with an outside producer for the first time. They chose avant-garde musician Blue Hawaii, a member of Bablicon, Need New Body, and Icy Demons. The collaboration was charmed. For every big pop chorus, there’s a left-of-center twist: the hard blues swagger of “Diaghalev Was Right” veers into a meticulously crafted clarinet-and-violin passage, while the throb of “Intolerable” erupts into a free-jazz-meltdown coda reminiscent of Fun House. The Simp is an album of remarkable refinement, uniting the pop songcraft of The Baby Teeth Album (2005) with the eccentric home-recording ethos of the band’s 2006 EP For the Heathers. A pairing of highway-wide hooks and intimate lyrics, it takes just a few spins to carry you away. .. .. "Baby Teeth is another exception to the current rule in the Chicago music scene. The innovative songs on “The Simp” (Lujo) are a pleasure to behold and introduce listeners to one of the most captivating bands on the scene. Without a clunker to be found, this is the kind of album debut bands must lie awake at night dreaming of creating. Irresistible dance tunes such as “Swim Team,” “The Birds Are Crying” and “Intolerable,” prove that Baby Teeth has their priorities straight, while “Taste The Wine,” with its Fleetwood Mac reference, shows they have bite." - Chicago Free Press

Six Shooter Records' Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet tie the musical knot with the debut of their new band, Whitehorse, marrying their talent and chemistry on stage as a smoldering duo. Gutsy and resolute in their pursuits of sound and substance, Luke and Melissa's fusion of the personal and professional brings to mind the road-tested romance of Johnny and June.

Individually, Luke and Melissa have been recognized with awards and nominations from the Juno Awards, the Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Hamilton Music Awards, the independent Music Awards and the Polaris Prize. Together, Luke and Melissa create music that cascades forth, rushing like currents fluid and electric. More than the sum of considerable talents, Whitehorse showcases the rarity of true give and take in partnership, uniting falcon with songbird to dramatic effort.

In the days when winter was for sledding, summer was for swimming, bedtime was for stories and sleeping was for dreaming, that's where you'll find The Listeners / These Train Tracks. For Breathe Owl Breathe, a release like this is nothing out of the ordinary - and at the same time it's anything but. The perfect combination of printmaking, song, and storytelling all wrapped up in a beautiful package.

After years of writing one-off children's stories, Micah Middaugh has created a limited edition canvas-covered book that reads from outside covers inward, ending at the center. And in the middle, slipped between a hand cranked copper block printed sleeve, are two new Breathe Owl Breathe songs pressed onto black 70 gram 7" vinyl. A project that took close to 3 years to complete, and all within the confines of his home studio (Cavern Lantern Wonder Welding) in the Jordan River Valley of Northern Michigan. Every single cover, page, sleeve, and block was made in Michigan,

The overall goal was to create something that looked timeless, felt satisfying to the touch, and appealed to any and all ages. Micah believes that it matters how a thing is made - if it pleases the hands, eyes, and ears. These sensibilities, alongside letter press printing techniques, inform every detail of The Listeners / These Train Tracks. Hold it, open it, and listen to what's inside.

Dedicated to friends, wherever they happen.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Own Stunts from Magic Central on Vimeo.

Offering a new twist on traditional folk, country blues and all things Americana, with some originals weaved in, Half Baked Goods combines fine picking with sweet harmonies, making memorable sounds to linger on. Together, Jay Voss, Randy Burgess, and Lizabeth MacDonald delight in live music making, bringing listeners to a new sensory experience.

It was nearly 10 years ago that the four members of The Brew, then high school students, first created music together.It wasn't long before collaborations became songs, jams became rehearsals, and dreams were realized as the group began producing their own shows in local venues; First for friends, and then for the people that the word had spread to.

The first of the three albums, "A Garden in the Snow," represents the band in its purest form. The selfproduced, impressionistic, indie-rock album explores the possibilities of song craft without restrictions.

"Light From Below," the heaviest component of the project, expresses The Brew's unconditional commitment to live music and improvisational rock. Concise and sprawling arrangements pay tribute to the pop form, but still with The Brew's attention to honest music.

Together, these 3 albums create the Triptych experience. Enter this gallery of a decade of influence and inspiration created by The Brew.

The Kickback is comprised of brothers Billy and Danny Yost, guitarist Tyler Zee, and bassist Eamonn Donnelly. Following the brothers’ emigration from rural South Dakota to Chicago in late 2009, the group received acclaim from Rolling Stone’s Hype Monitor, Sound Opinion’s Jim Derogatis, numerous blogs including You Ain’t No Picasso, and the Chicago Sun Times for their 2010 and 2011 EP releases, Great Self Love and Mea Culpa Mea Culpa, respectively.

The group is currently writing and recording what will mark their first full-length release. A task that will be tracked and mixed by the Yost brothers, the record has been pledged to be a rawer yet more musically ambitious effort than the group’s two EPs. Influences for the project include the recent addition of Donnelly on bass and vocals, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the dissolution of the Yost brothers parents' marriage, an intense and occasionally all-consuming fear of death, and the sunny and smiling sounds of mid-to-late 1960s Top 40 radio, including Zee's insatiable appetite for all-things-Roy Orbison. The new year saw the introduction of the band's own weekly podcast, Diary of a Disas-tour, as well as a healthy bout of nation-wide touring. 2011 also marked the band's first appearance at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, a headlining slot on the premier Midwest festival, Saturday in the Park, and an increasingly difficult time getting off work without getting fired.

Click Here to Download the song Four Days Straight by Scattered Trees

For Scattered Trees, Sympathy is a labor of love that almost didn't happen. The band grew up together in the outskirts of Chicago, playing music together in various groups over the years. They became a family in more ways than one, with some of the members sharing last names -albeit for different reasons. Scattered Trees became a staple of Chicago clubs, but as time passed, the band's members were drawn to various parts of the country. Scattered Trees as a band looked all but over. And then, tragedy struck. Lead singer Nate Eiesland's father passed away, and while mourning, Nate picked up his guitar again and started penning a record dedicated to his memory. Those songs became Sympathy.

The album is a focused, deeply personal collection of songs that finds Scattered Trees experimenting with lush multi-part harmonies, constructing dynamic builds, and exploring the intricacies of love and loss. Opening with "Bury the Floors," Nate sings "It's the house that I built you to fall / We started to walk then we stood up to crawl / So bury the floors and burn down the walls / to find ourselves by morning." Driving rock epics like "Four Days Straight" rub shoulders with melancholic elegies like "Where You Came From." The album's title track starts with a stripped-down plaintive mandolin, ultimately fading into a slow-burning orchestral groove. Melting into "Five Minutes," Scattered Trees continues the build until the track bursts forth. The band rounds out the record with the mournful acoustic closer "On Your Side," a fitting tribute for a deeply heartfelt and therapeutic album.

Santah formed while students at the University of Illinois, with their feet planted firmly in the dirty ground and their heads in the clouds. Luckily, before they grew up for good, Stanton McConnell (guitar/vocals), Ste- ven Plock (drums), Otto Stuparitz (bass), and Tommy Trafton (keyboards) took their blend of summery pop and atmospheric folk-rock to the late Jay Bennett’s Pieholden Studios, where the band found a home amidst the studio’s legacy of psychedelic Americana. The resulting White Noise Bed is a rambunctious re-imagining of ‘70s pop rock -- often sunny and sometimes shady. After finishing the record last May, Vivian McConnell (guitar/vocals/Stan’s sister) joined the group, and the quintet set out to tour the country. They have per- formed at festivals such as CMJ, SXSW, 35 Conferette, and the Pygmalion Music Festival; and have shared the stage with the likes of Surfer Blood, Cults, Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s, Company of Thieves, Young the Giant, Pomegranates, David Vandervelde, and Wave Machines. Santah is currently recording new material and anticipating the release of White Noise Bed, out this summer on No Sleep Records.

Howler is the brain child of Jordan Gatesmith. The 19 year old picked up the guitar only 5 years ago, and learned quickly. After being the guitarist for several regionally successful projects, Jordan felt like it was time for his voice to be heard, and wanted to write and sing his own songs. He has always had a natural affinity towards early 60’s American rock and pop songs, as well as 80’s punk, he makes these influences his own, and to good effect, the bands’ first EP has been picked up for release by Rough Trade.

Jordan claims to be terribly A.D.D. and needs to be working all the time. Fortunately for music fans he is not medicated for it, so he is constantly creating. After starting a new band each week for about 2 months straight Howler became the clear standout, and he now offers up the This One’s Different E.P. Jordan decribes Howler as “an 80’s punk band cleaned up just enough so you could stick a corsage on it and take it to prom.” His vocals sound like a slightly twee Lux Inter ior , while his guitar skills remind one of Lou Reed on Transformer. Howler’s overall sound can be described as a cross between the Cr amps and the Replacements, with a dash of VU.

Jordan has since been joined by Max Petrek on keyboard, Brent Mayes on drums, Ian Nygaard on guitar and most recently France Camp on the bass.

A third generation Arizonan, songwriter Roger Clyne regularly bares his soul in rock 'n' roll originals that are often tinted with Southwest influences: a verse in Spanish here or a line about a desert landscape there. However, ¡Americano! takes Clyne's experiences a step further and combines his popular lyrical style with an energetic rage of an album, reaffirming years of blood, sweat and tours.

Clyne is as passionate and pure about his music as he is about his dedication to his wife and three children. In both worlds, he's matured and become more sure and committed to his purpose. The band's web site tracks hundreds of postings by fans that laud Clyne as one of the greatest, albeit under-recognized, songwriters of his generation. The proverbial roller coaster continues to run, but with the momentum of praise from the media and fans, Clyne may soon have to get accustomed to a lot more attention.

Socrates said that a life unexamined was not worth living, but sometimes life is going so well that you could forgive one for just going with the flow. But life will catch up with you in time, as it did for Rich Robinson. Before he was 25, he had fame as the guitar player for the Black Crowes, fortune, a beautiful wife and home; seemingly, he had it all. But in the blink of an eye, much of it was gone. How he managed to make it through with graciousness and his sense of self-intact is examined on his new solo album, Through A Crooked Sun.

The Black Crowes are still a vibrant, relevant entity, an experience he shares with his longtime bandmates, including his brother Chris. To refresh their individual energies, the band has gone on more frequent hiatuses, which has allowed Rich to explore musical ideas that might not fit the band dynamic, and also continue to hone his skills as a terrific visual artist (www.richrobinsonart.com). “The most exciting thing for me in doing my own album is that a lot of the things that I want to express lyrically, which are very personal, may not have space to be expressed in the band format,” says Rich.

Through A Crooked Sun finds the musical gifts that have propelled a major career fully intact, but joined this time by a more sentient, holistic outlook: that of a father, a son, a husband, a spiritual being, a musician, fully integrated and more comfortable than ever in his body, mind and soul.

Native New Yorker, London resident, former Kindergarten Gym Teacher and one-time Parisian Street Sweeper, Julian Velard is a true original. The kind of character in a Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarintino film you’d like to grab a drink with. A real-life, musical version of Philip Marlowe (more Elliot Gould than Bogart) fusing the effortless cool of Robert Downey Jr. with the self-depreciating humor of Woody Allen, serving up slices of old-school Pop perfection with a raised eyebrow.

Born in the heart of Martin Scorsese’s Big Apple to a Queen-sized legs model/4-time Jeopardy champion mother and a French ex-patriot/ATM designer Father, Velard attended Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts, immortalized in the movie Fame. His first job was delivering videos to the likes of Cyndi Lauper and The Coen Brothers. It was during those after-school afternoons Velard devoured the albums that would form his musical landscape for years to come – Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces, Billy Joel’s The Stranger, and Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection.

Velard spent his young adulthood paying his dues, living in an efficiency apartment literally in the shadow of Manhattan, in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He supported himself with some very odd jobs (including the afore mentioned “Hungover with Hula-hoops” episode) and touring the U.S., playing shows anywhere and everywhere, from rock clubs to cabarets to bar-mitzvahs and back again, honing his quirky brand of Pop all the while. After releasing three records independently, in 2007 Velard was plucked from relative obscurity off of Myspace, the source of well deserved UK Major Label attention. He signed a record deal and promptly moved to England.

Since then, Velard has straddled both sides of the Atlantic, writing songs for himself and others, and playing shows alongside Jamie Cullum, Goldfrapp, Shelby Lynne, Amy McDonald, Kate Nash, Jose Gonzalez, Marc Broussard, Tom Baxter, Horatio Sanz, Ben Kweller, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and others, and is currently working towards the release of his label debut.

Part indie-rock preacher, part wonder-kind, Aucoin's We’re All Dying To Live (Sonic Records), is a musical scrapbook compiling over 500 musicians, friends and fans from across Canada. Produced by Rich Aucoin and Joel Waddell, mixed by David Wrench (Caribou) and mastered by Nilesh Patel (Daft Punk, Justice), We’re All Dying To Live is a testament to the metamorphic magic of music.

Unlike his debut Personal Publication (2007), an EP that synchs to Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, We’re All Dying To Live is a very public affair. From St. John’s, NL to Dawson City, YK, Rich invited everyone and anyone who wanted to be on the record. From multiple choirs to some of Canada's finest musicians, we were all dying to sing.

Birdy is a Chicago-based acoustic quartet featuring outstanding vocals and harmony, creative musical arrangements, impressive covers, and fine originals. With an eclectic repertoire that draws from both traditional and contemporary influences, Birdy has quickly established itself on the Chicago music scene and beyond, and is a regular performer throughout the Chicagoland area.

Six years spent on the emcee battle circuit wasn’t enough to get Astronautalis to shake his indie rock roots. The grind of defending his freestyle chops across the nation from high school lunchrooms in Florida, to bus stops in Dallas, and on to secret skate spots in Brooklyn, leading ultimately to the world famous Scribble Jam stage in Cincinnati just gave Astronautalis the mastery over the English language necessary to tell the tales trapped inside his brain all along. For when the battle ended, and the mics were cut off, Astronautalis (born Andy Bothwell) would tuck his trophy under his arm, pull his headphones back on, and head home as the walkman filled his ears with everything from Neutral Milk Hotel and The Halo Benders to Tom Waits and The Band. It has been almost 6 years since Astronautalis has entered an emcee battle, but by no means has this wordsmith been in hibernation. With three full length albums under his belt, over 1,250 shows on his vocal chords, and almost 350,000 miles of touring on his Honda, he has been busy crafting his calculated balance between hip hop, folk, and American indie rock, both in the studio and out on the road.

Coming from a long line of soldiers, spies, rapscallions, and railroad men, the life of a drifter came naturally to Bothwell; and it was there, out on the road, that Astronautalis honed his craft. Shaping the spoken swagger and acerbic aggressions of his old life as a battle rapper into a silver-tongued sweet talk that is as much a sermon as it is a seduction. Taking the stage with nothing more than a mic, a laptop, and his requisite handkerchief, Astronautalis has sweat out stories for crowds across North America and Europe, slinging snake-oil in support of artists as diverse as Atmosphere, Daniel Johnston, 2 Live Crew, Bill Callahan, Why?, Gym Class Heroes, P.O.S and more.

Astronautalis finally took a reprieve from the road last year to record his third and most refined album to date, “Pomegranate”. A treasury of tracks that is equal parts folk, hip-hop, and historical fiction; composed under the guidance of Grammy nominated producer and engineer John Congleton (Explosions in the Sky, The Thermals, Modest Mouse) and backed up by the most unlikely band musicians to ever collaborate on a hip-hop record (featuring P.O.S and members of The Polyphonic Spree, Midlake, and The Paperchase). “Pomegranate”, plays out like a collection of short stories, each song as varied in style and sound as they are in subject and character. One moment Astronautalis plays a sweet talking con-man seducing you out of house and home on the dark piano driven, “The Wondersmith and his Sons”; next he is a crossing the Delaware with George Washington himself in “The Trouble Hunters”, an epic fight song that somehow seems to channel the story telling spirits of Bruce Springsteen and Against Me! over funk drums and Miami bass. Each song spins a unique tale of love in the face of obligation and obstacle, told through the eyes of white-collar criminals, haggard opium runners, beleaguered farmers, and noble alpine mountaineers. With such a scope of subjects spanning over the colorful cadre of characters, it seems as if Astronautalis must have lived a thousand lives in his 27 years.

This is where it all comes together, where Astronautalis hits his stride, and those years of battling blend seamless with that endless highway, the pugilist becomes the poet, the storyteller becomes showman, and somehow, strangely, the idea of indie-folk-historical-fiction-hip-hop starts to actually make sense.

The Kickback is comprised of brothers Billy and Danny Yost, guitarist Tyler Zee, and bassist Eamonn Donnelly. Following the brothers’ emigration from rural South Dakota to Chicago in late 2009, the group received acclaim from Rolling Stone’s Hype Monitor, Sound Opinion’s Jim Derogatis, numerous blogs including You Ain’t No Picasso, and the Chicago Sun Times for their 2010 and 2011 EP releases, Great Self Love and Mea Culpa Mea Culpa, respectively.

The group is currently writing and recording what will mark their first full-length release. A task that will be tracked and mixed by the Yost brothers, the record has been pledged to be a rawer yet more musically ambitious effort than the group’s two EPs. Influences for the project include the recent addition of Donnelly on bass and vocals, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the dissolution of the Yost brothers parents' marriage, an intense and occasionally all-consuming fear of death, and the sunny and smiling sounds of mid-to-late 1960s Top 40 radio, including Zee's insatiable appetite for all-things-Roy Orbison. The new year saw the introduction of the band's own weekly podcast, Diary of a Disas-tour, as well as a healthy bout of nation-wide touring. 2011 also marked the band's first appearance at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, a headlining slot on the premier Midwest festival, Saturday in the Park, and an increasingly difficult time getting off work without getting fired.

Bitch's musical journey has taken her from classical-violin training in the suburbs to experimental flicks in NYC. After leaving the outskirts of Detroit for the artier charms of Chicago—Bitch's unconventional and outspoken approach to performance caught the attention of a number of indie luminaries. She took fiddling lessons with Andrew Bird, serendipitously stumbled upon future co-conspirator, Animal at acting school, moved to New York to make their own 'theater' (Bitch and Animal) and recorded and toured with Ani DiFranco (who released Bitch and Animal's records on Righteous Babe). This association yielded an international following, introducing the world to Bitch’s left-of-center and controversial brand of performance.

Bitch's out-of-the-ordinary message resonated with a generation of gender non-conformists, attracting the likes of New York theater legend John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), who tapped her star power for his Cannes Fest favorite, Shortbus. The runaway success of that film introduced Bitch to a wider audience. She went on to release her first solo album on the legendary Kill Rock Stars label, entitled Make This/Break This, a record that charted rockier terrain and earned her critical success. The tour that followed helped establish her reputation as an energetic, powerhouse performer, whose live shows mixed strong vocal prowess with a penchant for idiosyncratic musical instruments. (Bitch plays electric violin, ukulele and bass.)

Bitch's latest record, Blasted! (release date spring 2010), is an outgrowth of that newfound creative spirit, a real labor of love and her strongest solo album to date. The melodies are catchy and haunting and the lyrics unflinchingly honest. Bitch plays electric violin like a rock guitar, and adds layers of unique instrumentation to create a sonic symphony. Blasted! is fully self-produced and will be released with money raised by Bitch's loyal fan base. With Blasted!, Bitch continues to push the envelope with her wild-spirited avant-garde “theatrical punk” sound and has produced her most listenable and enjoyable album to date.

Grammy-nominated artist Matthew Santos has established himself as one of the rare and striking talents quickly emerging from the Chicago music scene. With an ethereal voice that has been the praise of artists such as Eddie Vedder, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna, Santos has secured his place in current music with his distinguished style and elusive musical gift.

Santos was nominated for “Best Rock Entertainer” for Chicago’s 2009 Music Awards and his band is featured as one of the “top ten bands to watch” in Chicago by The Chicago Sun-Times. His full band features Aviva Jaye (vocals, keyboard), Robert Tucker (drums), Graham Burris (bass), Chris Gelbuda (lead guitar) and Matt Nelson (keyboard).

Los Angeles based band Orgone is many souls with a cosmic connection, a natural creative force and musicians who have played together for years. They are self schooled and continue to shape their musical voice as a solid unit of guys who hang, spin records and jam out their shared inspirations. With a rooted sense of funk, soul, afrobeat, deep rhythms and an intimate understanding of dj culture as well as each others’ individual talents, Orgone seamlessly slides through multiple styles and dynamic performances. The group continuously injects whatever they play with a heavy brand of raw funk power.

Orgone continues to tour, impressing audiences and winning new fans at festivals & clubs nationally and overseas. 2009 saw the release of their second fully independent CD “bacano”, a collection of all original cold-blooded funk gems representing what’s always been going down in Orgone’s funky, sweaty home-grown recording spot. It’s a recorded history of the band and its musical family throwing down: check the lethal neck-busting bass intro of founding member Tim Glum on “You Already Doin It”, the Detroit thump of bassist Dale Jennings on the deep hypnotic funk soundscape of “Vibromeyer”, the dance floor soul of singer Gino Garafalo on the undeniably hip-shaking “Come Around” and the sub-atomic gut punch of Orgone bassist Ethan Phillips on the heavy psychedelic groove of “Hott Karl”.

Orgone live and recorded is 100% organic heart and soul an aesthetic and an attitude born out of half a lifetime of playing together.

Stuart Davis is all about the hyphens: Writer-Director-Actor-Comedian-Songwriter. Naturally, Stu's debut television series Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll allows him to play in myriad ways. His day job has always been rock 'n roll. Having performed thousands of shows and released 14 albums, Davis is a pillar of the showbiz carnival. But in the past few years he's been branching out into other forms of fun. Combining original songs, comedy sketches, and monologues, Stu's tv show is a mosaic of mediums that suits his multi-faceted passion.

Filmed before a live audience in Boulder, Colorado, Sex, God, Rock 'n Roll is a blend of edgy comedy and original music. Davis has made a genre-busting career of delving difficult subjects, and makes no exceptions here. With his trademark synergy of sacred and profane punchlines, Stu takes the audience through a circus of sexuality, spirituality, and showbiz. In Stu's Universe horny is holy, funny is profound, and Love has no opposite. Davis twists mind, body, & spirit into a hot menage 'e trois. It's no wonder he's long been known as the Twisted Mystic. As Stu sings in his hit Deity Freak: Party like a pop-star, make a lotta love, detonate the Deity, keep it feelin' freaky...

The Pickin' Bubs are a Chicago acoustic trio whose sound is rooted in traditional music, from country blues, to gospel, to old time and folk ballads and carried on in the originals penned by them and the songwriters they enjoy. They focus on vocal and instrumental arrangements on the guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo.

Gypsy Swinging Serenading Firebreathing Circus Freaks!?

For the past three years, this Caravan of Thieves has roamed the North American continent recruiting a family of avid thrill seekers at their high-energy shows. Driving gypsy jazz rhythms, acoustic guitars, upright bass and violin lay the foundation for mesmerizing vocal harmonies and fantastic stories. It’s theatrical and humorous. It’s musical and intense. It entertains, dazzles and defies classification while welcoming the spectator to join the band throughout the performance in momentary fits of claps, snaps and sing-alongs. If Django Reinhardt, the cast of Stomp and the Beatles all had a party at Tim Burton’s house, Caravan of Thieves would be the band they hired.

The Kickback is comprised of brothers Billy and Danny Yost, guitarist Tyler Zee, and bassist Eamonn Donnelly. Following the brothers’ emigration from rural South Dakota to Chicago in late 2009, the group received acclaim from Rolling Stone’s Hype Monitor, Sound Opinion’s Jim Derogatis, numerous blogs including You Ain’t No Picasso, and the Chicago Sun Times for their 2010 and 2011 EP releases, Great Self Love and Mea Culpa Mea Culpa, respectively.

The group is currently writing and recording what will mark their first full-length release. A task that will be tracked and mixed by the Yost brothers, the record has been pledged to be a rawer yet more musically ambitious effort than the group’s two EPs. Influences for the project include the recent addition of Donnelly on bass and vocals, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the dissolution of the Yost brothers parents' marriage, an intense and occasionally all-consuming fear of death, and the sunny and smiling sounds of mid-to-late 1960s Top 40 radio, including Zee's insatiable appetite for all-things-Roy Orbison. The new year saw the introduction of the band's own weekly podcast, Diary of a Disas-tour, as well as a healthy bout of nation-wide touring. 2011 also marked the band's first appearance at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, a headlining slot on the premier Midwest festival, Saturday in the Park, and an increasingly difficult time getting off work without getting fired.

The trail discovered by 2008’s Bury The Square, blazed by 2009’s Gather, Form & Fly, and tended by 2010’s Heretofore has run into a wide and rushing river. The band we know as Megafaun, born alongside Bon Iver in the ashes that rose from DeYarmond Edison (Brad Cook, Joe Westerlund, and Phil Cook’s former band with Justin Vernon), has woven years of writing, touring, and living into a new sonic language. Critically-praised and publicly-loved for their ability to speak in the many tongues of American musical history — all while blending it with their own energetic and personal form of Rock — Megafaun has staked a claim. But the lay of that land they call theirs — the hills, valleys, and caves beneath — is just revealing itself in the sunrise. This is the band we know, but in a new light. This is Megafaun.

“It represents a fluidness, a trust, and serves as a gesture to a type of music that we all grew up listening to,” writes Brad Cook about the new album’s opening track “Real Slow”. Like Megafaun walking on stage in a dark and crowded venue, igniting the crowd with a smile and a strum of the guitar, “Real Slow” opens the door and invites you in. You’ll hear a lot of stories tonight — from “These Words” and its journey of creation from Bali to South Carolina to California, to “Hope You Know” and its roots in Megafaun’s youth in Wisconsin, where they grew up together and where they returned to record Megafaun last November. “This is by far the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt about a song we’ve released,” writes Phil Cook about “Hope You Know,” hinting at the record’s audible honesty. Like the greatest albums of our time, Megafaun is a true reflection of its creators — but there’s room in that mirror for the rest of us.

Brooklyn-based trio A Great Big Pile of Leaves originated in 2007 when guitarist/singer Peter Weiland and drummer Tyler Soucy took time from their prior projects to start writing material together. The first six songs came together as the self-released EP The Fiery Works, which the duo put out as a free download on the band’s official website. As word spread online, the band’s fanbase grew - along with Weiland and Soucy's excitement to get back to recording. Taking advantage of the positive word-of-mouth, A Great Big Pile of Leaves released another self-produced EP - The Fiery Works II - again as a free online download. Within the next year, both digital releases accumulated over 12,000 downloads and the group prepared for a live setting with the addition of bassist Tucker Yaro. After playing several shows and writing a batch of new songs over the next few months, the newfound trio geared up to record the full-length album Have You Seen My Perfrontal Cortex?. Each member took on engineering, production, mixing and mastering duties during the recording process; the record became a full collaboration of each member’s respective influences and knowledge. "We don't like to set up any boundaries when writing; we don't consciously come into it with any walls up" says Soucy. "The three of us have a rather eclectic background of musical influences and we like to explore that and have a good time. The only thing we knew coming into this record, is that we were in control and that we wanted to make the best record we could; something we would enjoy from beginning to end with no sense of filler." Since the release of Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex? in summer 2010, the group has seen a rapidly growing fanbase as well as praise on influential sites like absolutepunk.net - where the record was reviewed with a 93% approval rating. The momentum continues in the rest of 2010 with a vinyl release of the album and a large-scale fall tour to showcase A Great Big Pile of Leaves’ powerful live set to a wider audience. “The positive reactions to our music have been pretty overwhelming so far, especially in a day and age when the Internet seems to be filled with a lot of negativity on message boards,” explains Soucy, “we haven't really gotten much of that yet.” A Great Big Pile of Leaves will be hitting the road this fall on their first national tour - opening for Motion City Soundtrack, Say Anything, and Saves the Day. “This fall tour is exactly what our band needs to be doing and at the perfect time so we're extremely grateful for the opportunity,” Soucy continues. “I spent most of high school listening to these three bands, so it's going to be pretty surreal to walk off stage every night and watch the rest of the line-up,” he adds, “it's going to be a great time.”

Rachael Yamagata has reunited with Happenstance producer, John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz, Liz Phair) and is putting the finishing touches on her new studio album, the follow up to her heralded 2 CD Set Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart. Yamagata will self release the album this Fall.

Yamagata recruited her "dream team" consisting of Victor Indrizzo (Sheryl Crow) on drums, guitarists Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), Michael Chaves (John Mayer), and Kevin Salem, (Dump Truck, Yo La Tengo), cellist Oli Kraus (Sia, Duffy) and Tom Freund on the upright bass.

Praised by critics for her intimately confessional songwriting and arrangements, Rachael released her last album, Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart on Warner Bros. Records in October of 2008. Entertainment Weekly called her delivery "Gorgeous" and Rolling Stone said her "soulful, cigarette-scratched voice and melancholy lyrics recall Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey." She toured extensively in support of the album playing to crowds throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Songs from the album appeared in various television programs and films including Greys Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters and more. She also made an appearance in the season finale of 30 Rock in 2009.

Yamagata emerged in 2005 when songs from Happenstance and her self-titled debut EP, turned up in such films and television shows as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, In Her Shoes, Prime, How I Met Your Mother, Nip/Tuck, One Tree Hill, and The O.C., on which she made a guest performance. The single "Worn Me Down" was a Top 5 Hit at AAA Radio. She also appeared on albums by Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Jason Mraz, Bright Eyes, and Mandy Moore. Her tours have included runs with Adams, LaMontagne, Moore, Liz Phair, Gomez, and Sara Bareilles, as well as playing shows with Pete Townsend, Aimee Mann, David Gray, Damien Rice, and Air.

Rachael Yamagata has reunited with Happenstance producer, John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz, Liz Phair) and is putting the finishing touches on her new studio album, the follow up to her heralded 2 CD Set Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart. Yamagata will self release the album this Fall.

Yamagata recruited her "dream team" consisting of Victor Indrizzo (Sheryl Crow) on drums, guitarists Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), Michael Chaves (John Mayer), and Kevin Salem, (Dump Truck, Yo La Tengo), cellist Oli Kraus (Sia, Duffy) and Tom Freund on the upright bass.

Praised by critics for her intimately confessional songwriting and arrangements, Rachael released her last album, Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart on Warner Bros. Records in October of 2008. Entertainment Weekly called her delivery "Gorgeous" and Rolling Stone said her "soulful, cigarette-scratched voice and melancholy lyrics recall Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey." She toured extensively in support of the album playing to crowds throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Songs from the album appeared in various television programs and films including Greys Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters and more. She also made an appearance in the season finale of 30 Rock in 2009.

Yamagata emerged in 2005 when songs from Happenstance and her self-titled debut EP, turned up in such films and television shows as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, In Her Shoes, Prime, How I Met Your Mother, Nip/Tuck, One Tree Hill, and The O.C., on which she made a guest performance. The single "Worn Me Down" was a Top 5 Hit at AAA Radio. She also appeared on albums by Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Jason Mraz, Bright Eyes, and Mandy Moore. Her tours have included runs with Adams, LaMontagne, Moore, Liz Phair, Gomez, and Sara Bareilles, as well as playing shows with Pete Townsend, Aimee Mann, David Gray, Damien Rice, and Air.

Laura Doherty acoustically rocks your kid’s world with breezy folk-pop tunes from her new CD, Shining Like a Star, which celebrates the many ways children express themselves and celebrate their uniqueness. Songs such as "I'm a Tree" and "Vegetable Party" share the wonders of nature, along with dance tunes such as "Hula Hoop", and "Rocket Ship". Other songs include hits from Laura's award-winning CD, Kids in the City, which pays tribute to her kind of town - Chicago! Laura is a long-time teaching artist in the Old Town School of Folk Music Wiggleworms program.

Sleepy Lou is a fiddle and banjo duo made up by Maria McCullough and Jonas Friddle. Maria hails from sunny California and Jonas from the mountains of North Carolina. The two met in Chicago, Illinois where they both teach at the Old Town School of Folk Music. When they aren't teaching, Maria and Jonas join up to play traditional dance tunes and songs from the U.S. and around the world. Despite the sleepy name, the music is lively and the times are good.

Singer-songwriter Rosie Thomas embarks on a U.S. tour beginning March 15 in support of her upcoming album With Love. Due February 14 on Sing-A-Long Records, With Love is Rosie Thomas' first full-length record in four years. Hailed by The New York Times as a "sweet-voiced singer," Thomas makes her return to the studio with a band featuring David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Blake Wescott (The Posies, Damien Jurado), brother Brian Thomas and members of Sufjan Stevens' band along with vocals by Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and Jen Wood (The Postal Service).

With Love focuses on the central theme of love and its transformative powers. The album reflects Thomas' own experience, finding love and being aided by it as she fought a two-year battle with a thyroid disorder resulting in severe anxiety. "I woke up one morning, and the sun shined in the window, and I didn't mind," Rosie says of her recovery; "the birds chirped and I thought they were singing for me. The world felt like it was back on my side again or vice versa, and I finally fit in again."

Thomas began work on the record during this period of tremendous change during which she also got married and relocated to New York City from Seattle. Writing in Los Angeles, Nashville and her grandpa's farm in Kansas, she traveled to Texas to work with Sam Beam in pre-production, Thomas returned to Seattle to assemble her band and record with producers Bazan and Wescott. While in the studio Bazan gave Thomas a homework assignment to list every singer and song that she loved, including the guilty pleasures. This list began to influence the sound of the record, drawing from a broad spectrum of artists ranging from soul and r&b singers including Stevie Wonder and the Jackson Five to Rosie's more obvious influences including Joni Mitchell, Linda Rondstadt and the Innocence Mission. Rosie's list even included Whitney Houston's "Dance With Somebody" and her all-time favorite, Bette Midler. "The process was refreshing," Thomas says of her and Bazan's approach to recording. "David challenged me to show more of my personality this time around, and just like Sam he pushed me to 'belt it out!' There's a more playful part of me captured on this record...all around it's just more fun."

Thomas has recorded four full-length albums as well as 2008's A Very Rosie Christmas. She has collaborated with Sufjan Stevens and Damien Jurado as well as performed stand-up comedy as her alter-ego, Sheila Saputo. She appeared in the 2009 film Calvin Marshall and was the subject of the 2009 documentary All the Way from Michigan Not Mars.

The Kickback is comprised of brothers Billy and Danny Yost, guitarist Tyler Zee, and bassist Eamonn Donnelly. Following the brothers’ emigration from rural South Dakota to Chicago in late 2009, the group received acclaim from Rolling Stone’s Hype Monitor, Sound Opinion’s Jim Derogatis, numerous blogs including You Ain’t No Picasso, and the Chicago Sun Times for their 2010 and 2011 EP releases, Great Self Love and Mea Culpa Mea Culpa, respectively.

The group is currently writing and recording what will mark their first full-length release. A task that will be tracked and mixed by the Yost brothers, the record has been pledged to be a rawer yet more musically ambitious effort than the group’s two EPs. Influences for the project include the recent addition of Donnelly on bass and vocals, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, the dissolution of the Yost brothers parents' marriage, an intense and occasionally all-consuming fear of death, and the sunny and smiling sounds of mid-to-late 1960s Top 40 radio, including Zee's insatiable appetite for all-things-Roy Orbison. The new year saw the introduction of the band's own weekly podcast, Diary of a Disas-tour, as well as a healthy bout of nation-wide touring. 2011 also marked the band's first appearance at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX, a headlining slot on the premier Midwest festival, Saturday in the Park, and an increasingly difficult time getting off work without getting fired.

Heroes can be hard to find, but whoever we decide to put on a pedestal, well find the pedestal has three legs and one of them is a bit wobbly. Thats it! Exactly! Thats how we should start the biog. Okay Mr McCulloch, youre the boss. Nobodys perfect, at least thats what were trying to say in that opening sentence. Even the very great will make mistakes along the way. It takes a big man to fess up to that, and only a stupid one would deny it. For more than 20 years, Echo & The Bunnymen have been striving for greatness, occasionally tripping over their long coats, but more often than not providing the listening public with moments of glistening pop brilliance. Now comes a new chapter, with the arrival of a solo record from frontman Ian McCulloch, his first without cohort Will Sergeant for more than a decade. As Mac himself says, there may be no Will, but theres a lot of willpower. When the Bunnymen returned from the wilderness in 1997 with the hit album Evergreen, it was regarded by many in the know as the greatest comeback of all time. But no mere flash-in-the-pan was this; the Bunnymen had the audacity to stick around afterwards, delivering two more studio releases and the emotionally charged Live In Liverpool collection. With the band on hiatus, McCulloch has returned to the studio and come up with a set of songs which, while not straying too far from the Bunnymen ethos, seem to have a more personal stamp on them. Im much more confident now than I was when I last did any solo stuff, suggests Mac. Its the first record Ive made solo-wise where Im happy with the reasons why Im doing it and with the way its turned out. From the upbeat, eternal optimism of the opening Love In Veins, through anthemic jangle of Seasons, to the dirty strut of High Wires, its the sound of a man who knows his time and place - and its now, its here. Special mention should go to Sliding, possessing as it does a deceptive little hook that worms its way into your soul long after the song is over, the heartfelt Baby Hold On, which somehow manages to merge the worlds of Smokey Robinson and Lou Reed, the unsettling, shuffling semi-ballad that wouldnt have sounded out of place on the Bunnymens Ocean Rain, and the lachrymose ode to Liverpool childhood that is Playgrounds And City Parks.

Heroes can be hard to find, but whoever we decide to put on a pedestal, well find the pedestal has three legs and one of them is a bit wobbly. Thats it! Exactly! Thats how we should start the biog. Okay Mr McCulloch, youre the boss. Nobodys perfect, at least thats what were trying to say in that opening sentence. Even the very great will make mistakes along the way. It takes a big man to fess up to that, and only a stupid one would deny it. For more than 20 years, Echo & The Bunnymen have been striving for greatness, occasionally tripping over their long coats, but more often than not providing the listening public with moments of glistening pop brilliance. Now comes a new chapter, with the arrival of a solo record from frontman Ian McCulloch, his first without cohort Will Sergeant for more than a decade. As Mac himself says, there may be no Will, but theres a lot of willpower. When the Bunnymen returned from the wilderness in 1997 with the hit album Evergreen, it was regarded by many in the know as the greatest comeback of all time. But no mere flash-in-the-pan was this; the Bunnymen had the audacity to stick around afterwards, delivering two more studio releases and the emotionally charged Live In Liverpool collection. With the band on hiatus, McCulloch has returned to the studio and come up with a set of songs which, while not straying too far from the Bunnymen ethos, seem to have a more personal stamp on them. Im much more confident now than I was when I last did any solo stuff, suggests Mac. Its the first record Ive made solo-wise where Im happy with the reasons why Im doing it and with the way its turned out. From the upbeat, eternal optimism of the opening Love In Veins, through anthemic jangle of Seasons, to the dirty strut of High Wires, its the sound of a man who knows his time and place - and its now, its here. Special mention should go to Sliding, possessing as it does a deceptive little hook that worms its way into your soul long after the song is over, the heartfelt Baby Hold On, which somehow manages to merge the worlds of Smokey Robinson and Lou Reed, the unsettling, shuffling semi-ballad that wouldnt have sounded out of place on the Bunnymens Ocean Rain, and the lachrymose ode to Liverpool childhood that is Playgrounds And City Parks.

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors find themselves in the midst of a creative revival of popular music in Nashville, where artists like Kings of Leon, Jack White, Mat Kearney, and a legion of other national acts have re-invented the reputation of Nashville as a hotbed of music beyond the realm of Country. Holcomb and his band have found their own unique niche in this scene, with their 2008 LP, Passenger Seat, and their 2009 EP, Live Forever, both debuting at #2 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts. They’ve also had multiple TV placements on shows like NBC’s Parenthood, Oprah, Army Wives, The Cleaner, and others, proving that Holcomb’s career has stretched far beyond the TN state limits where he was born and raised.

When audiences hear Holcomb’s songs, there is an emotional attachment and reaction, proven by the epic “Live Forever” which was recently used during an episode of NBC’s Parenthood and sparked a downloading frenzy online. “We want to write songs that have moments of honesty, transcendence, and humanity; so our audience lets the songs into their lives,” Holcomb states, “All of my favorite songs and records that I have spent my life listening to, have helped me to understand the paradoxes of joy and suffering that we all experience. We just want to add to that conversation, and if we can do that, I will consider it a success.”