Live music – Page 12 – 7th Level Music

A Place to Bury Strangers unleash “Disgust” from their upcoming album, “Synthesizer,” due October 04, 2024.

New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers release the new single/video, “You Got Me,” from their forthcoming seventh album, Synthesizer, out October 4th via Dedstrange. Following lead single “Disgust,” which “sounds as pleasurable and danceable as it does revolting and mangled,” (Paste), “You Got Me” continues to follow suit. The earworm is representative of a photograph from a perfect summer of love, lust, breaking out from the pack, and getting lost in the night. In the middle of the track, a field recording from one of those kinds of days on the beach can be heard as a 747 barrels through the sky overhead. Play it loud, and play it now.

Watch the Video For “You Got Me”

Synthesizer is the title of the album, but it is also a physical entity, a synthesizer made specifically for A Place to Bury Strangers’ seventh album (a synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl). In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. Synthesizer is a record that celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.

The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of 2022’s See Through You. The band re-formed with a new lineup, Ackermann still at the helm, now featuring friends John and Sandra Fedowitz. This new iteration of the band was inspiring for Ackermann, “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says, “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.” Indeed, the sense of connectivity is everywhere on the record. Synthesizer very much feels like a record of reinvention, of taking a carefully honed aesthetic and sound and cracking it wide open, gutting it, reimagining it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also build a new instrument, thus again the synth in question. The resulting record is one that is romantic, colorful, loud as hell, and one of A Place to Bury Strangers’ most live sounding records to date.

Pre-order Synthesizer

Watch the “Disgust” Video

A Place To Bury Strangers Tour Dates:
Sat. Sep. 7 – Xi’an, CN @ Loop Festival
Sat. Sep. 21 – Groningen, NL @ – Vicefest
Mon. Sep. 23 – London, UK @ The Shacklewell Arms
Tue. Sep. 24 – Wed. Sep. 25 – London, UK @ No90 Live Hackney Wick
Thu. Sep. 26 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute %
Fri. Sep. 27 – Dublin, IE @ The Grand Social %
Sat. Sep. 28 – Belfast, IE @ Oh Yeah %
Sun. Sep. 29 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo %
Mon. Sep. 30 – Bedford UK @ Esquire %
Thu. Oct. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Berlin Metropol [Record Release Show] %
Fri. Oct. 4 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen %
Sat. Oct. 5 – Oslo, NO @ Goldie %
Sun. Oct. 6 – Gothenburg, SE @ Fangelset %
Mon. Oct. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan %
Wed. Oct 9 – Wroclaw, PL @ Lacznik %
Thu. Oct. 10 – Warsaw, PL @ Hybrydy %
Fri. Oct. 11 – Poznan, PL @ 2progi %
Sat. Oct. 12 – Bmo, CZ @ Kabinet Muz %
Sun. Oct 13 – Jena, DE KuBa Jena %
Fri. Oct. 25 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat &
Sat. Oct. 26 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings &
Sun. Oct. 27 – Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle &
Mon. Oct. 28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl &
Wed. Oct. 30 – Houston, TX @ White Oak &
Thu. Oct. 31 – Austin, TX @ Levitation &
Sat. Nov. 2 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar #
Sun. Nov. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom #
Mon. Nov. 4 – San Francisco, CA @ GAMH Psyched Fest #
Thu. Nov. 7 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
Fr. Nov. 8 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival ^
Sat. Nov. 9 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl

% w/ Stella Rose
& w/ YHWH Nailgun
# w/ Pop Music Fever Dream
^ w/ The Black Angels, Martin Rev, The Black Lips & Shabazz Palaces

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

GLARE release new single – “Mourning Haze.”

GLARE is an alternative rock/shoegaze five-piece from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Since their inception in 2017, the band has wasted no time making a name for themselves with the release of heaps of singles and an abundance of touring and high-profile festival appearances.

Now, GLARE have teamed up with Deathwish Inc. + Sunday Drive to release a new song, “Mourning Haze.” Guitarist Toni Ordaz comments, “‘Mourning Haze’ had been with us for awhile, written around the time we were doing ‘Void in Blue’ and developing what would later become ‘Heavenly’. Immediately, we knew it sounded way different from what we did before and decided early on that it was going to be a part of what would become the album. The lyrics didn’t come much later until the recording sessions, but I think they are very much a reflection of what we were all going through at the time.” Toni continues, “‘Mourning Haze’ is about grief, and how dreams play a role in processing it.”

Listen / share / playlist “Mourning Haze” on DSP’s.

Listen / share “Mourning Haze” on YouTube.

GLARE will release their new LP sometime in spring 2025 via Deathwish Inc. / Sunday Drive. In the meantime, catch the band on tour this fall with Turnover, Panchiko, and more on select dates. Also see GLARE at Desert Daze and Levitation Fests:

GLARE, live:

Sep 5 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger # [7inch release show]
Sep 6 McAllen, TX – El Cine # [7inch release show]
Sep 27 Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar ^
Sep 29 Salt Lake City, UT – Church & State ^
Sep 30 Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall $
Oct 02 Ft. Collins, CO – The Coast $
Oct 03 Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep $
Oct 04 Omaha, NE – Slowdown $
Oct 05 Columbia, MO – Blue Note $
Oct 06 Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue $
Oct 07 Huntington, WV – The Loud $
Oct 08 Louisville, KY – Mag Bar ^
Oct 09 Little Rock, AR – Stickyz ^
Oct 10 Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head ^
Oct 10-13 Lake Perris, CA – Desert Daze
Oct 14 San Diego, CA – Voodoo Room ^
Oct 15 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress ^
Nov 03 Austin, TX – Levitation, Far Out Lounge %
Nov 15 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live! ~
Nov 17 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Nov 19 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live ~
Nov 20 Orlando, FL @ The Beacham ~
Nov 21 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade, Heaven ~
Nov 23 Houston, TX – House of Blues ~
Nov 24 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum ~

# w/ Trauma Ray, Maldosa
^ w/ Glixen
$ w/ Turnover, Glixen
% w/ Slowdive, Drop Nineteens
~ w/ Panchiko

Keep your mind open.

[The subscription box is glaring at you…wondering why you haven’t subscribed.]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side!]

Chastity announce self-titled album due September 13, 2024 and new single – “Jaw Locked.”

Chastity is for the skids, the headbangers, the freaks. Chastity is for everyone who has suffered and survived the lethal combination of suburban overculture and mental distress. Chastity is especially for everyone who didn’t survive—the ones who didn’t get out. Brandon Williams did, luckily, and his work with Chastity has been to collect people like him, who got out by the skin of their teeth.

Chastity’s first three full-length records—2018’s Death Lust, 2019’s Home Made Satan, and 2022’s Suffer Summer—formed a trilogy that defined a 4 year arc of the band’s contribution to outsider music. Each record was informed by Williams’ life, but each was also conceptual and interpretive, refracting his experiences through a level of remove. On Chastity’s upcoming, self-titled fourth record, there is no such distance: Williams decided to write a fully non-fiction work. Incoming September 13, 2024 on Deathwish Inc. (US), Dine Alone (Canada), and Big Scary Monsters (UK/E) Chastity is a 13-track record about the things that have always run through the band’s records—struggle, death, despair, redemption, darkness, and light—but this time, the songs ascend to new depths of intensity and desperation, new heights of resolution and power. “It’s really about the first nosedive that I did as a young person,” says Williams. “It’s a record about struggle, about the missing years. It’s also a thank you to some people in my life.”

Today, Chastity album opener “Jaw Locked” premieres. Williams continues, “For a few years we’ve closed our live show with the same song, but we’ve never really had a song that opens our live show totally right. I am so excited that we’ve found that in this song ‘Jaw Locked’, and that we can open the self-titled album with this song as well.”

Listen / share / playlist “Jaw Locked” on DSP’s.

Listen / share “Jaw Locked” on YouTube.

Chastity hurtles through melodic hardcore, shoegaze, and emo, all magnificently and enormously rendered thanks to slick work from John Paul Peters (Propagandhi, Comeback Kid), who engineered and mixed the record. Recorded at Peters’ Private Ear Recording in Winnipeg in March 2024, Chastity’s guitars have never sounded so immediate and towering, sometimes exploding into a sputtering, ripped-speaker chaos. And there are perhaps the most ferocious bass and drums sounds of the year on Chastity, splitting the difference between gnarly-as-fuck generator-show tones and vividly textured, hi-fi chest-beaters.

The new record arrives on the heels of a whirlwind six years for Chastity. Williams founded the project in Whitby Ontario and from the start, it’s been a project of absolution via community connection. There weren’t any venues for independent punk music in the suburban town, so Williams and his friends started throwing punk shows in a barn on Whitby’s rural outskirts. People took notice: Before long, Ontario punk stalwarts like PUP and Metz were making the pilgrimage to the barn to headline gigs, and profits from the shows went to a regional youth mental health services. Chastity spent the next years touring North America including shows with Sunny Day Real Estate, Alexisonfire, and Deafheaven, culminating in their spring 2024 headline run, with a set that synced to an original feature film projected behind the stage.

Now, Chastity will tour alongside Fucked Up in support of Chastity and will close out the year with a highly anticipated set at The Fest in Gainesville, FL. Pre-order / pre-save Chastity here ahead of its September 13 release date and look for more news soon.

Chastity, on tour:
September 12 Oshawa, ON @ The Biltmore Theatre ^
September 13 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques ^
September 14 Ottawa, ON @ The 27 Club ^
September 17 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre ^
September 18 Saskatoon, SK @ Capitol Music Club ^
September 19 Edmonton, AB @ The Buckingham ^
September 20 Calgary, AB @ Modern Love ^
September 21 Kelowna, BC @ Reverly ^
September 23 Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^
September 24 Nanaimo, BC @ The Queen’s ^
September 25 Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl ^
October 25 Gainesville, FL @ The Fest [Heartwood Soundstage]

^ w/ Fucked Up

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Stephanie at Another Side!]

Chicago’s new Warm Love Cool Dreams music festival to premiere September 28-29th at the Salt Shed.

Today, Empty Bottle Presents announces WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS, a newmulti-genre festival taking place September 28th and 29th at The Salt Shed. Featuring the triumphant return of The Jesus Lizard (their first Chicago show in over 6 years), as well as Kelela, Floating Points, Sister Nancy, Shabaka, Sextile, King Woman, and more, WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS is a two day, thoughtfully curated festival with no overlapping sets, each day feeling like a progression through a mixtape. Inspired by a line from Nelson Algren’s novel The Man With The Golden Arm, the criteria for the curation was to have each day of the festival occupy a side of a spectrum, from the fervid and energetic WARM LOVE to the calm and misty COOL DREAMS.

Each day’s programming will move through a carefully crafted sonic spectrum, defining WARM LOVE and COOL DREAMS as their own micro-genres. Artists falling into the WARM LOVE category speak to the more experimental, fiery, and untamed, the likes of which you’d hear from Jesus Lizard, Sextile, and King Woman. Meanwhile, COOL DREAMS leans into the more inviting or chill tones, the likes of which you’d hear from Kelela, Floating Points, and Sister Nancy.

WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS continues Empty Bottle Presents’ legacy of deeply adventurous and thematic programming, building off their Beyond The Gate shows at Bohemian National Cemetery, immersive Plantasia events at Garfield Park Conservatory, and annual Music Frozen Dancing winter block party outside of Empty Bottle.

“The simplicity and beauty of the ideas of warm love and cool dreams was something that occupied my mind for many years,” explains WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS curator Brent Heyl. “ We wanted to build a festival framework that creates an opportunity to showcase the artists we love in a way that is concise, unique, and also rips. Playing into these two concepts feels like the way to do just that.”

Tickets are on sale now, with general admission tickets for the weekend set at $90 and premium tickets at $200. Single day tickets will be $49 and $115, respectively. All tickets will be available at www.emptybottle.com. The full daily lineups can be found below, with more auxiliary programming to be announced soon.

WARM LOVE LINEUP (Saturday, September 28th)
The Jesus Lizard
Sextile
Provoker
King Woman
Bendik Giske
Aitis Band
Stress Positions

COOL DREAMS LINEUP (Sunday, September 29th)
Kelela
Floating Points
Sister Nancy
Shabaka
454
John Glacier
SML

Keep your mind open.

[It would be cool if you subscribed.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have a “Hog Calling Contest” on their newest single.

Earlier this month, the ever restless King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard announced their 26th album, Flight b741, out August 9th via their own p(doom) records. Today the group share their new single, “Hog Calling Contest,” and announce a mini-documentary about the making of the album,“Oink Oink Flight b741: The Making of…”

Directed by Guy Tyzack, the mini-documentary captures the band’s creative process on 16mm film, which restricted Tyzack to shooting about five minutes of film per day, waiting for the right moment while sitting discreetly in the corner. “We were tasked with capturing the band make an album from scratch in two weeks, they purposefully didn’t prepare much for the recordings so it was very difficult for me to plan what to film,” Tyzack says. “I just knew they’d be in one room and three of them might drop out at any moment because they were expecting babies. The room looked brown and boring so I painted it like the sky to match the theme of the album in one 17hr stretch with three friends and a slab of mids.”

On the inspiration for “Hog Calling Contest,” the band explains: “While recording Flight b741, we occasionally had these ultra inspired tune-up/warm-up jams. Of course, we were never actually recording during these moments though. Lost to time. Except one time; This time. We learnt to record these moments; ‘Daily Blues’ came together this way too. But ‘Hog Calling Contest’ retains a unique unhinged-ness that only comes when you’re fooling around with your mates and you don’t think you’re being recorded. Happy in mud!”

LISTEN TO “HOG CALLING CONTEST”

WATCH “OINK OINK FLIGHT b741: THE MAKING OF…” MINI-DOC

As the band’s first release on their own newly minted p(doom) records imprint, Flight b741 showcases a remarkable change-of-pace, swapping the big picture ambition for the intimacy of six good friends enjoying each other’s company and collaborating on perhaps the warmest, most bonhomie-laden set the group have yet committed to wax.

With a recent run of expansive and conceptual albums behind them, which have spanned from a thrash-metal epic dealing with the current climate crisis to a Moroder-esque pre-digital synth album of proto-Kraftwerk bangers, Flight b741 sees King Gizzard ditch all the high-falutin’ scheming in favor of irresistible country-fried rock’n’roll and the kind of effortless songwriting that comes as second language when you’ve been playing music together 24/7 for almost a decade-and-a-half. The concept this time is ‘no concept’.

All hopped-up on early Steve Miller Band and the infinite wonderfulness of The Band, King Gizzard laid down the riffs, the grooves, the choogle. Once it was time for the vocals, however, they took a brand new tack – passing the mic, leading to what has become the most collaborative record in the group’s expansive discography.

King Gizzard will be undertaking a massive U.S. tour this coming fall, which includes 3 hour marathon sets in New York, Chicago, Austin, and Quincy, WA, 3 headlining sets at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and a performance at The Forum in Los Angeles. Tickets to all dates are available here.

PRE-ORDER FLIGHT b741

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “LE RISQUE” HERE

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD TOUR DATES
Thu. Aug. 15- Washington, DC @ The Anthem % [SOLD OUT]
Fri. Aug. 16- Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium * %
Sat. Aug. 17 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium * % [SOLD OUT]
Mon. Aug. 19 – Boston, MA @ The Stage at Suffolk Downs %
Tue. Aug. 20 – Portland, ME @ Thompson’s Point % [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Aug. 21 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage &
Fri. Aug. 23 – Detroit, MI @ Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre ^ &
Sat. Aug. 24 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion & [SOLD OUT]
Sun. Aug. 25 – Newport, KY @ MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor &
Tue. Aug. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Dell Music Center & [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Aug. 28 – Richmond, VA @ Brown’s Island &
Fri. Aug. 30 – Asheville, NC @ ExploreAsheville.com Arena & [SOLD OUT]
Sat. Aug. 31 – Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater &
Sun. Sept. 1 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island * & [SOLD OUT]
Tue. Sept. 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory &
Wed. Sept. 4 – Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre &
Thu. Sept. 5 – St. Louis, MO @ The Factory & [SOLD OUT]
Fri. Sept. 6 – Omaha, NE @ The Astro Amphitheater &
Sun. Sept. 8 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre & [SOLD OUT]
Mon. Sept. 9 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre [EARLY SHOW] &
Mon. Sept. 9 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre [LATE SHOW] &
Wed. Sept. 11 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Amphitheater & [SOLD OUT]
Thu. Sept. 12 – Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Coliseum &
Sat. Sept. 14 – Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre * %
Fri. Nov. 1 – Inglewood, CA @ The Forum @
Sat. Nov. 2 – San Diego, CA @ The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park ^ @
Sun. Nov. 3 – Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre @ [SOLD OUT]
Mon. Nov. 4 – Stanford, CA @ Frost Amphitheater at Stanford @
Fri. Nov. 8 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood @
Sat. Nov. 9 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre #
Sun. Nov. 10 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment #
Tue. Nov. 12 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion #
Wed. Nov. 13 – Fayetteville, AR @ JJ’s Live # [SOLD OUT]
Fri. Nov. 15 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater *#
Sat. Nov. 16 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall #
Sun. Nov. 17 – New Orleans, LA @ Mardi Gras World #
Tue. Nov. 19 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre Atlanta # [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Nov. 20 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre #
Thu. Nov. 21 – Miami, FL @ Factory Town #
Sun. May 18 – Tue. May 20, 2025 – Lisbon, PT @ Coliseu do Recreios
Fri. May 23 – Sun. May 25, 2025 – Barcelona, ES @ Poble Espanyol
Thu. May 29 – Sat. May 31, 2025 – Vilnius, LT @ Lukiškės Prison 2.0
Wed. June 4 – Fri. June 6, 2025 – Athens, GR @ Lycabettus Theatre City of Athens
Sun. June 8 – Tue. June 10, 2025 – Plovdiv, BG @ Ancient Theatre

* 3-HOUR MARATHON SET
^ ACOUSTIC SET
% w/ GEESE, DJ Crenshaw
& w/ GEESE
@ w/ KING STINGRAY, DJ Crenshaw
# w/ KING STINGRAY

Keep your mind open.

[Fly over to the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Slowdive announces fall U.S. tour.

Slowdive announce a fall North American tour in support of everything is alive, their “hypnotically gorgeous” (Vulture) album released last year via Dead Oceans. Following an appearance at Austin’s Levitation Festival, they’ll return to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, plus visit cities throughout the Southeast where the band hasn’t played in many years. On their last US runs, Slowdive routinely sold out shows, filling rooms with longtime listeners and younger fans alike. As the Chicago Tribune praised, “experimental and shimmery, [everything is alive] packs a lush and enigmatic punch. Don’t take their latest releases and live shows for granted.” Tickets for all shows will be on sale this Friday at 10am local time and a full list of dates can be found below.

Slowdive Tour Dates
(New Dates in Bold)
Sat. Nov. 2 – Mexico City, MX @ Hipnosis Festival
Sun. Nov. 3 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out Lounge (Levitation Festival)
Wed. Nov. 6 – Queretaro, MX @ Cerveceria Hercules
Fri. Nov. 8 – Guadalajara, MX @ C4 Concert House
Sun. Nov. 10 – St. Augustine, FL @ St Augustine Amphitheatre
Mon. Nov. 11 – Charleston, SC @ The Refinery
Tue. Nov. 12 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
Thu. Nov. 14 – Richmond, VA @ The National
Fri. Nov. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
Sun. Nov. 17 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem
Mon. Nov. 18 -Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
Thu. Nov 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
Fri. Nov. 22 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! Indoor Stage
Sat. Nov. 23 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre

Purchase everything is alive
Watch “alife” video
Watch “kisses” Video
Watch “skin in the game” Visualizer
Watch “the slab” Video

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Desert Daze releases 2024 lineup.

As usual, Desert Daze has a killer lineup this year.

Jack White, Fleet Foxes, and The Mars Volta are sure to have packed crowds, but don’t miss Sleep, Thundercat, The Kills, All Them Witches, Temples, Frankie and The Witch Fingers, or Psymon Spine.

There are plenty of great bands on this list, and plenty of cool things to do when you’re not rocking out in the desert. Yoga classes! Messages from David Lynch! Art installations!

Passes are on sale now, and the first pricing tier is already sold out. Don’t wait.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

Live: Jon Spencer and The Sueves – Stockroom East – South Bend, IN – July 11, 2024

I was stunned to discover that blues-punk garage rock and roller Jon Spencer was playing a gig a mere forty-minute drive from my house at South Bend, Indiana’s Stockroom East. It’s a small venue made for intimate shows, and I’d hadn’t been there before July 11, 2024.

My first thought upon entering was, “Spencer’s going to flatten this place.” I hadn’t seen Mr. Spencer perform in many years, last catching him with his fellow members of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Bloomington, Indiana on their Plastic Fang tour in 2002. They blew the walls off the place then, and I wondered if most of the audience in attendance knew what they were about to hear and feel.

First up were Chicago post-punks The Sueves, who put on a fun set of power trio crushers. A good number of their friends and family members made the drive from Chicago to see them, and the energy among them was great.

A pleasant surprise with Spencer’s set is that his current rhythm section consists of The Bobby Lees‘ Kendall Wind on drums and Macky Bowman on bass. In case you missed it, The Bobby Lees’ Bellevue album was among my top ten albums of 2022.

Sure enough, the trio of Spencer, Bowman, and Wind came out and proceeded to sonically punch everyone in the face from the first note.

Spencer and crew played a wild set, barely taking time for anyone (let alone them) to catch a breath. The set spanned tracks from the JSBX, Pussy Galore, The Hitmakers, and more. They started with “Skunk” from Now I Got Worry and it was off to the races.

“Bellbottoms” was a big hit with the crowd, and so was every damn song they played, really. The crowd was at first stunned by the magnitude of sound they put out and soon absorbing it as fast as Spencer and his bandmates could dish it.

There was no encore. They didn’t need one. They left us all sweaty and wanting more.

Many thanks to Mr. Spencer for signing my copy of Meat and Bone after the show!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Levitation Music Festival announces its 2024 lineup.

LEVITATION returns this Halloween weekend, taking over Austin, Texas music venues with an eclectic and expanded menu of music and art October 31 – November 3, 2024!

4 Day Passes and Single Show Tickets are available now, here.

For over a decade, LEVITATION has delivered lineups that span psych, dream pop, punk, indie, metal, darkwave and electronic music. It’s a beloved record collection manifested into a 4 day weekend, with lineups that span continents and generations: a heady amalgamation of vintage gear, immersive light shows and visuals, buzzing amps, moody synths, and good times in Austin, Texas.

This year’s festival brings a full platter of psychedelia, shoegaze, punk, metal, and electronica – a collection of underground legends, music vanguards and pillars of modern music and indie music culture.

The multi-venue format encourages fans to choose their own adventure through the weekend – you can buy single show tickets for over 30 different shows, or go all in with a 4 Day Pass and indulge in the entire 4 day Halloween weekend.

Many of the shows are mini-festivals in their own right. Slowdive, Drop Nineteens, Airiel, Ringo Deathstarr and Glare close out the weekend, topping off a 4 day shoegazer’s dream across 4 venues, including lineup highlights Panchiko, Swirlies, Julie, and Wisp. Punk legends the Jesus Lizard top off a stacked bill with Gang Of Four, Dry Cleaning, Special Interest, Pissed Jeans, Fat Dog and more – all on one ticket on Friday at The Far Out Lounge. Jazz Is Dead brings a 3 night residency with French greats Cortex and Adrian Younge. Psych punk titans OSEES make a 4 night stand at Hotel Vegas, an Austin tradition that’s seen them play nearly as many Levitation events as festival founders The Black Angels – who top off a Halloween night show brimming with international talent: Niger’s Mdou Moctar, and Brazil’s Boogarins. Local heavies The Sword ride high at Stubb’s on Sunday, with highly influential proto-metal outfit Pentagram, local rippers Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, and The Well. Saturday night brings Texas thrash giants Fugitive with hardcore heroes Integrity, plus more across a two stage lineup. Indie dream team Soccer Mommy and The Drums pair up to crush Stubb’s on Friday night, while Tycho, Washed Out, Hania Rani, Wu Lu, Arushi Jain and more bring bliss across a two stage lineup at The Far Out Lounge on Saturday night. LEVITATION 2024 adds a new downtown venue, Kingdom, which will host late-night sets from the likes of genre-defining and expanding DJs and producers such as The Dare, Axel Boman, and Patrick Holland with more to be announced.

More highlights include French heavy space-rock masters Slift who headline Mohawk, London’s Nilüfer Yanya, and Japan’s Boris bringing their album ‘Amplifier Worship’ on a two stage lineup with A Place To Bury Strangers. Australia’s Mildlife team up with UK chill auteur Arc De Soleil. The UK makes a strong showing with EMB pioneers Nitzer Ebb, Manchester stalwarts The Chameleons performing their 1986 classic ‘Strange Times’, and first wave post-punks The March Violets, all performing headline sets at Elysium.

To keep up with updates and for additional information, keep up with LEVITATION on Instagram here.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Bailey at Another Side!]

Riot Fest announces 2024 lineup.

Chicago’s Riot Fest has announced it’s full lineup for 2024. The festival is being held at SeatGeek Stadium this time around, much to the annoyance of the Chicago Red Stars NWSL team, and I’m curious how many stages they’ll have in and around the stadium.

The lineup is better than Lollapalooza or Pitchfork Music Festival this year, but that’s not a new thing. The Slayer reunion was rumored to be defunct, but is now apparently back on the schedule. Beck will be a must-see, as he hasn’t toured in a few years. Public Enemy will also be a good set, and seeing all of the Marley Brothers on the same stage would be wild.

It’s nice to see a big punk rock lineup at this year’s festival, including a final NOFX tour, Circle Jerks, Descendents, and Buzzcocks. Don’t miss The Hives, as they’re one of the best live bands of the last twenty years. Clutch are always good, and Cypress Hill is enjoying a big resurgence right now as people are discovering their classic records.

Go see Dead Milkmen and The Dickies if you want some fun. Go see Pixel Grip if you want sexy synthwave, and The Mysterines if you want good garage rock.

Find the shady spots while you’re there. There aren’t many around SeatGeek Stadium, so grab one whenever you can.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]