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Acid Mothers Temple is a Japanese psychedelic rock band, the core of which formed in 1995. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians, but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with only a few core members and frequent guest vocalists.
The band has released albums frequently on a number of international record labels as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label, which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective.
Kawabata initially formed Acid Mothers Temple (originally "Acid Mother's Temple") with the intention of creating "extreme trip music" by editing and dubbing previous recordings, being influenced by progressive rock, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and krautrock.
Darker times make for bolder and, sometimes, brighter art.
The Ballroom Thieves - Calin "Callie" Peters (vocals, cello), Martin Earley (guitar, vocals), and Devin Mauch (percussion, vocals) - mine immense melodies and hypnotic hooks from personal stories on their 2018 EP, Paper Crown (Nettwerk Records). Under the cover of vintage jazz-style, the five songs reflect feelings of rootlessness from four nomadic years, bouts of depression, and the ever-looming specter of political unrest hanging over the country.
Nevertheless, a noticeable glimmer of light always peeks through.
Ben Sparaco and The New Effect is a genre-defying trio based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Led by young guitarist/singer/songwriter Ben Sparaco, the band features Adam Discipio and Anthony Quirk on bass and drums respectively. Between the three you an hear influences from modern indie rock, classic jam bands, Blue Note era jazz, and everything in between. Ben Sparaco and The New Effect formed in 2017 when Florida-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist began playing with drummer Anthony Quirk and bassist Adam Discipio. Now based in the flourishing musical oasis of Nashville, TN, Ben and the band have maintained a massive touring schedule, cutting their teeth playing coast to coast in clubs and festivals.
Sparaco spent his teen years making a name for himself in the jam scene of the southeast, playing with members of the Allman Brothers Band, Dead and Company, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and more before he had even turned 21. This included a touring stint in late Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks' band. After recording his 2016 release "Bring the Jubilee EP" with a Florida-based group of musicians, he moved to Nashville. There, he amassed a group of some of Nashville's finest to record his debut solo record "Wooden" with producer Ross Holmes (Mumford and Sons, Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes), which also featured a guest appearance from Luther Dickinson.
After finalizing The New Effect's powerful lineup with Berklee College of Music graduates Quirk and Discipio, Sparaco's songwriting started drifting from his southern rock roots, showing indie rock, new wave, and pop influences, evident on the EP "Greetings, from Ben Sparaco and The New Effect." Following this with the single "Scared of The Dark" in the fall of 2018, Sparaco and his band have earned glowing press reviews, further establishing themselves as up and comers to watch in the indie rock world.
Bad Bad Hats is an indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band consists of Kerry Alexander, Chris Hoge, and Connor Davison. Named for a trouble-making character from the Madeline children's books, Bad Bad Hats is defined by a balance of sweet and sour. Their music honors classic pop songwriting, with nods to nineties rock simplicity and pop-punk frivolity. Through it all, Alexander's unflinchingly sincere lyrics cut to the emotional heart of things.
Alexander and Hoge met while attending Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2012, they formed Bad Bad Hats with friend and bassist Noah Boswell, and began performing around the Twin Cities. That same year, they were signed by Minneapolis label Afternoon Records. Their 2015 debut album "Psychic Reader" caught the attention of outlets including The New Yorker, NPR, Pitchfork, and Paste.
Coming from Surf City USA, Pacific Dub resides in Huntington Beach which is nestled nicely in southern California's Orange County. Other bands such as Korn, The Offspring, Avenged Sevenfold, and The Dirty Heads all have members that call this surfer's paradise home.
Combining catchy choruses, heavy rock n' roll guitar melodies, and smooth hip-hop and reggae rhythms are all significant characteristics that add to Pacific Dub's coastal vibe, and genuine objective of creating innovative alternative-rock-reggae while sharing a message of love and peace.
From the entire Pacific Dub family, we thank you for your continued support, and look forward to releasing new music and seeing you at a show soon. - Pacific Dub
Fronted by 21 year old triple threat vocalist, songwriter and guitar player, Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones boasts a resume that can be hard to match for most multi-decade musicians. With over 2,500 shows under their belt, three completed albums and festival appearances at Peach Music Festival, Firefly Music Festival and Kaaboo Del Mar, Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones are on their way to becoming Rock & Roll's next marquee act.
Formed in 2006, by a then eight year old Wicklund, the band has come along way from playing Janis Joplin and Neil Young covers. Between then and now,Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones have been billed alongside legacy acts such as Jefferson Starship, Kansas and The Marshall Tucker Band. Fast forward to now, one year after the 2018 release of their 10 track self titled album, Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones has amassed over 2.5mm streams on their most recent project and have been billed alongside current and legendary chart topping mainstays such as X Ambassadors, Cage the Elephant, Tom Petty, Alanis Morissette and Muse.
Although Hannah's roaring guitar riffs on her custom Tom Anderson guitar and orange amp set the tone for The Steppin Stones performances, it's her vocal range and well-beyond-her-years songwriting that have led to the success of their latest release, helping to propel them to a regular mainstay festival act. Hannah's musical vision stays close to her classic rock roots, but in no way is a classic rock tribute. Their music is a refreshing focus on raw and organic emotions in a time of digitally driven recordings and performances.
2019 is poised to be a momentous year for the blossoming power trio on the road and in the studio. Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones are supporting the Stone Temple Pilots, joining Peter Frampton and Joe Bonamassa on a Mediterranean cruise and bringing the heat at Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, GA to kick off their summer headline tour across theUnited States. Throughout the year, Hannah will be working on intimate, authentic and stripped down tracks about embracing and learning from the darker sides of life in addition to a new full band record. Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones will leave their fans feeling inspired and connected in a way they haven't felt in a long time.
LP arrives on limited edition opaque white vinyl!
Lowdown Ways marks a quantum creative leap for DADDY LONG LEGS, the scrappy New York trio known for their stripped-down roots sound and in-your-face intensity that's garnered them fans in their hometown and overseas, where they've toured with such kindred spirits as The Damned, Blackfoot Gypsies, Hurray for the Riff Raff and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They've been recognized by Rolling Stone, who aptly compared them to "Chicago blues fired at the moon, played by the demented children of the Pretty Things."
The versatility and fluency that DADDY LONG LEGS demonstrates on Lowdown Ways contrasts the raw approach that the band established on their previous three albums according to Brian Hurd, the charismatic, harmonica-blowing frontman known as DADDY LONG LEGS, and leader of the blues-bashing trio of which he shares a name. "We'd done the raw lo-fi thing for a long time, so we wanted to step out with something that was a little more produced, but still had the rawness of our earlier stuff," Hurd says.
This expansive, new territory that the band covers on Lowdown Ways is thanks to producer Sutton (and JD McPherson bassist) Jimmy Sutton, with whom the band recorded the album at Chicago's Hi-Style Studios, applies his technical know-how to broaden the sound of such instantly memorable tunes as "Pink Lemonade" (co-written by McPherson), "Ding Dong Dang" and "Bad Neighborhood," which resonate with the down-and-dirty roots that have always been DADDY LONG LEGS' inspiration. Meanwhile, the band ventures successfully into unfamiliar territory with the pub-rock-style "Winners Circle," the bittersweet acoustic ballad "Back Door Fool" and the dramatic album-closer "Wrong Side of the River."
