w/ Oliver Hazard
The 502s are a band of friends and family hailing from Florida. A sextet comprises cousins Ed and Jake Isola, who grew up across the street from one another (in house number 502!), and also features kindergarten friends Matt Tonner and Joe Capati, plus Sean Froehlich and Nick Melashenko who joined the gang when they all met at college together.
Cutting their teeth playing in various house bands, and even one member (Sean) at the Universal Studios theme park, The 502s have since gone on to become viral TikTok sensations with their smash hit “Just A Little While”. With an infectious spirit of adventure, the song exploded in popularity on the social media platform last December and became the lead track from their album ‘Could It Get Better Than This’.
After firing up their TikTok account one day, the band were inundated with thousands of videos from college and high school students posting compilation videos of their time at school — all scored by the ebullient chorus of “Just A Little While”. Soon the trend caught on with users of all ages, locations and backgrounds, with the song appearing in everything from motivational videos to makeup tutorials to posts about globetrotting excursions.
Gaining a massive influx of new fans as a result, the trend pushed The 502s streaming numbers through the roof, landing them on Billboard’s Hot Rock and Alternative charts, as well as the #3 spot on Spotify’s Top Viral 50.
Although the band have soared into the spotlight overnight, they’re anything but a flash in the pan. The boys are no strangers to TikTok acclaim, following a prior viral moment back in 2020 with their song “Magdalene”. Last year’s album is their second full-length to date, and the band have already played multiple tours across North America and Europe. Hitting the road again this Autumn with new material to their name, the ‘Just Another’ EP is out now.
w/ Ducks LTD
As sculpted shards of guitar—tumbling, tolling, squalling— shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener “Human,” it’s obvious that Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf’s first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina’s ’90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers’ hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. But this, the distilled shudder of “Human” (as in “It’s hard to be human / When only death can set you free”), is an entirely different noise. In fact, it’s a startling revelation.
A few distinctions between 2022 Archers and the Clinton-era crew—whose “South Carolina” could be heard blaring out of Jordan Catalano’s car radio on ABC teen-angst epic My SoCalled Life. First, guitarists Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band’s four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson’s signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. He still spits bile, but it’s less likely to concern scene politics, music trends, or shady record labels thwarting the dreams of a young rock band.
Bachmann puts it bluntly: “What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome. It’s not about responding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare. I didn’t care what it ended up sounding like.”
This is not your father’s Archers of Loaf, even if you’re a father now who was a fan then. (If that’s the case, congrats on surviving the Plague and getting to hear this fearlessly poignant record, you alt-geezer!) Otherwise, thank your youthful fucking lucky stars, kids! Enjoy Reason in Decline with fresh ears and do as the Archers have been doing: Stay humble, stay informed, express yourself creatively, and try not to lose your goddamned mind while the polar ice caps melt. Peace.
w/ Ducks LTD
As sculpted shards of guitar—tumbling, tolling, squalling— shower the jittery bounce of a piano on opener “Human,” it’s obvious that Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf’s first album in 24 years, will be more than a nostalgic, low-impact reboot. When they emerged from North Carolina’s ’90s indie-punk incubator, the Archers’ hurtling, sly, gloriously dissonant roar was a mythologized touchstone of slacker-era refusal. But this, the distilled shudder of “Human” (as in “It’s hard to be human / When only death can set you free”), is an entirely different noise. In fact, it’s a startling revelation.
A few distinctions between 2022 Archers and the Clinton-era crew—whose “South Carolina” could be heard blaring out of Jordan Catalano’s car radio on ABC teen-angst epic My SoCalled Life. First, guitarists Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson, once headstrong smartasses inciting a series of artful pileups on the band’s four studio albums and EP, are now a fluidly complementary, sonically advanced unit. Notably, Johnson’s signature trebly lines peal clearly above the din instead of struggling to be heard. Second, singer-songwriter Bachmann, after throat surgery, relearned how to sing (this time from his diaphragm); as a result, he no longer howls like the angriest head cold on the Eastern Seaboard. And now, his lyrics balance righteous wrath with a complex tangle of adult perspective. He still spits bile, but it’s less likely to concern scene politics, music trends, or shady record labels thwarting the dreams of a young rock band.
Bachmann puts it bluntly: “What I really think about going back to the Archers and doing a new record is that the three other members of this band are awesome. It’s not about responding to the past or whatever our bullshit legacy is. I just wanted to work with these guys because I knew the chemistry we had and that we still have. I knew that was rare. I didn’t care what it ended up sounding like.”
This is not your father’s Archers of Loaf, even if you’re a father now who was a fan then. (If that’s the case, congrats on surviving the Plague and getting to hear this fearlessly poignant record, you alt-geezer!) Otherwise, thank your youthful fucking lucky stars, kids! Enjoy Reason in Decline with fresh ears and do as the Archers have been doing: Stay humble, stay informed, express yourself creatively, and try not to lose your goddamned mind while the polar ice caps melt. Peace.
w/ J. Graves & Nice Boat
Portland-based folk rock band, The Builders and the Butchers, announce their forthcoming album, The Spark, due out May 19th. The band’s fifth LP will be released on Badman Recordings Co, which will be their third release with the label.
Their last album was hailed by Consequence of Sound, who said, “The Builders and the Butchers make records the way the bards used to pass on stories. They’re poetic and captivating, and do to songwriting what Clint Eastwood does to movies,” and this new record follows the same, narrative-driven path.
With glowing album and show reviews coming from Pitchfork and The Wall Street Journal, among others, their brand of folk-rock is best served live. Audiences can look forward to lively performances, where fourth wall is broken and the audience is able to participate in call and response sing-a-longs. Sometimes the band will hand out instruments for fans to play, and they’ll even get down off stage to perform right on the floor.
The Builders and The Butchers formed in 2005. Ryan Sollee fronts the band, sings and plays guitar, joined by Willy Kunkle (bass, guitar, vocals, percussion), Justin Baier (drums, backup vocals, percussion) and Harvey Tumbleson (mandolin, banjo, guitar, vocals, percussion). The Portland-based band gained a strong following after years of playing anywhere and everywhere across the city. They quickly grew to become one of the most exciting live bands in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The band toured throughout the US and Europe from 2007-2012, playing music festivals, such as Sasquatch and Lollapalooza, and acting as support for Portugal. The Man, Heartless Bastards, Amanda Palmer and Murder By Death. To support their forthcoming release, The Spark, the band will be playing their first US and European tour in multiple years.
This new album features a wider array of sounds and shorter, hard hitting songs, while remaining a Builders’ record at heart. The process of creating The Spark was the longest of any Builders’ record to date. They spent the last five years writing the music and a year mixing. With several band members living out of state (Justin in Colorado, Willy in Malta, Harvey in Washington and Ryan and Ray in Portland), many parts were recorded remotely. Drums and much of the electric guitar were recorded at Revolver Studios and the rest was laid down piece-by-piece and mixed by Edgar McCrae at his home studio. Influences for the record range from Tom Waits to The White Stripes.
w/ JOHNO LEEROY
MATT HECKLER
MATT HECKLER is a solo multi-instrumentalist that barely fits into any ordinary musical category. He tends to keep to the darker side of Appalachian mountain music and early bluegrass but listen long enough and you’ll soon be transported to the mountains of Eastern Europe or a dimly lit bar in Ireland where they honor those who have passed with a gently swaying a cappella ballad.
After touring almost nonstop for years in support of bands like Devil Makes Three, Lost Dog Street Band, Flogging Molly, and others, HECKLER, like the rest of us, got sidelined by the ongoing global pandemic. With the newfound time off, he set to pushing creative boundaries in his home recording studio as far as his mind would allow. Each fiddle, banjo, and guitar track carefully put in place all the while retaining the grit and energy reflected in his live shows. Paired perfectly as the sequel to After The Flood, the Blood, Water, Coal album is a defining release in his career.
Blood, Water, Coal was performed and recorded by MATT HECKLER with upright bass and backing vocals provided by Jeff Loops (Lost Dog Street Band). While recording Blood, Water, Coal, MATT HECKLER released The Magnolia Sessions outdoor live set – the maiden release for the now popular series – which made it to #9 on the Bluegrass Billboard Charts. The Magnolia Sessions was still charting upon the release of Blood, Water, Coal, which debuted at #3, leaving HECKLER with two albums running on the Billboard Charts simultaneously.
HECKLER writes, “I started working on this album over a year ago in my home. Ran into a lot of snags and problems inherent in self-recording, but being alone, just a mic and my instruments, was the only way to capture the raw emotions this collection of songs holds for me. Some of these tunes were written over a decade ago, most of them in more recent years. Others took years to write. But now that it’s done, I can confidently say this album is the perfect sequel to After The Flood.”
JOHNO LEEROY
JOHNO LEEROY is a songwriter , story delivery artist whom crafts modern americana, country and soul music while paying homage to the traditional roots style of writing and recording.
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And yet it’s no accident that following Anna Mieke’s self-released, 2020 debut Idle Mind, many more miles beckon. Winning praise in her homeland from The Irish Times and Hot Press (including a nomination for RTÉ’s Folk Award ‘Best Emerging Act’), she has collaborated with Crash Ensemble, Adrian Crowley and Linda Buckley, and has performed on a number of prestigious stages and venues across Ireland and overseas. In May 2022, with her band, Anna Mieke undertook a week-long residency at the Irish Arts Centre in New York City, culminating in three shows, performed in collaboration with New York-based artists Charlotte Greve, Grey McMurray, Anna Roberts Gevalt. She recently toured across Europe, performing musical arrangements of poetry by James Joyce. Across her career, she has supported a myriad of revered acts such as Lisa Hannigan, Lankum, Rozi Leyden, and This is the Kit, among others.
Kennebec is the musical outlet of Eric Phillips, a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist living in Portland, Oregon. He draws from an
eclectic array of influences from downtempo, folk, chamber music, hip-hop, jazz and soundtracks to create his own unique blend of cinematic instrumental music.
His second album album ‘Without Star or Compass’ released October 2022 with guest features from Sudan Archives, Samuel T. Herring (of Future Islands,) Hemlock Ernst (Sam’s rap alter ego,) British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed and Kalaido.
Prior, Kennebec released a series of remixes of his first record with appearances from UK jazz phenom Alfa Mist and beatmakers Santpoort and Stan Forebee on Night Time Stories, sister artist label of acclaimed compilation series Late Night Tales, and home to Texan Trio Khruangbin, Leifur James and Ash Walker.
In addition to the Kennebec project, Eric has enjoyed composing the music for numerous feature films, documentaries and games, and he aspires to incorporate this sense of cinematic immersion into his own music and performances.
w/ Have A Rad Day
The point of an odyssey is to return home changed—still the same person, but deepened somehow, wiser and better, wearing your traveling scars proudly. Bass Drum of Death’s new album Say I Won’t is the end result of a journey that took singer and bandleader John Barrett from a small town in Mississippi and sent him across the world and back home again. The music still rips, with blown-out guitars and drums that sound like bombs going off, and the melodies are catchier than ever, hollered in Barrett’s trademark yelp. But the music hits differently now, more at peace with itself, propelled by a new swagger. Say I Won’t is the record of a veteran band finding its stride and leaning into it, stripping back the excess and finding the raw core of their sound.
Say I Won’t, the band’s fifth record, comes at a time of massive change for Barrett, having relocated from New York to his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi during the pandemic. The record is also a homecoming of a different sort, with the band rejoining the ranks of Fat Possum, also in Oxford, the label that released their first record GB City in 2011.
“Moving back to Oxford was a much-needed reset,” says Barrett. “When I started, I just wanted to play in a punk band and drink beers and travel around. I didn’t really think much past that. And I got really burned out. When I moved back home, I started writing songs again, just for fun. I realized I wanted this record to have more of a hometown feel. The switch back to Fat Possum was easy. It’s much better working with people I know and love and love everything they do.”
Say I Won’t is the first Bass Drum of Death album written, demoed, and recorded with the touring band instead of Barrett doing everything on his own. He found a freedom in working with collaborators that wasn’t available to him before, opening different aspects of the songwriting. It was a process of live recording, layering on different parts and overdubs, and then stripping it all back to the bones of the song, keeping the raw wild heart of the music intact.
“My first two records were made entirely by me alone with my gear, my laptop, and a Snowball USB mic,” says Barrett. “They were just made quickly, cheaply, as an excuse to tour. I wanted to take my time with this record. Make something good that I was proud of in itself.”
The band recorded the new record with Patrick Carney of the Black Keys at Audio Eagle Studios in Nashville. “It’s basically Pat’s house,” says Barrett. “It was like a playground. We set up and ripped through the songs live. The control room and the recording room are on two different floors, so we’d play a song and Pat would come running down the stairs, telling us little things to change.”
The result is a groove-oriented, 1970’s-indebted collection of rock songs, with tempos set for cruising and scuzzy guitars galore. There’s an energy and vitality to the music that feels in line with the best of the Bass Drum songs, but with an added boost that comes from new bandmates and a new perspective.