Son of Cloud (nee Jonathan Seale) has released his self-titled debut album today, April 12th 2019. After years spent as a successful producer, working with artists such as Feist, Lucius, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird and more, and time spent fronting the Brooklyn-based band, Flearoy, Seale is ready to make his mark as a solo artist.
Seale unveiled the Son of Cloud project in a live setting just this past March, at a special concert at a Quaker Meeting House in Brooklyn, NY. The show was an immersive multimedia event, featuring an interactive light sculpture designed by Seale and artist Adam November. Perhaps most impressively, Seale co-created a mobile app that allowed the audience to participate in the music. At key moments, concert goers were prompted to contribute to the sonic landscape of the performance, heard sound effects from around the room and were even led in a sing along via messages on their screens.
Born in the flatlands of Texas and raised in the jungles of South America, Seale was dubbed "Son of Cloud" as a child by the Yukpa indigenous tribe of Venezuela. Ten years in the making, his debut LP, self-titled under that moniker, explores questions related to his own family tribes - both the ones inherited and the ones created by choice. He explains, “When I started making records professionally at age 20, I decided that I wanted to focus on supporting the writing of other artists because I felt that I hadn't lived enough life to make a meaningful contribution to the world as a songwriter. The songs that meant the most to me growing up were the ones that contained a kind of raw humanity powerful enough to communicate to the listener that they are not alone. I decided I didn't want to release a record until I felt I would be able to give that feeling to someone else. These songs have been my journal entries for the past ten years, marking family milestones of birth and death, marriage and separation. Now I’m sending them out into the world to find new homes in the hearts and ears of other people who need songs in the way that I do.”
In 2007, Seale co-founded Mason Jar Music and Nomadique, two collectives committed to fostering a community of artists in the city as well as producing work that is soulful and genuine. Following their collaboration with Grammy-winning artist, Feist, in 2012, Mason Jar Music was named the world's 6th most innovative music company by Fast Company Magazine and was highlighted by NPR, Paste Magazine, The Village Voice and many more. Nomadique's multimedia work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, SXSW and National Geographic Magazine.
Never one to stop creating, Son of Cloud is already working on new material, and will be bringing the interactive show to additional markets soon.
Son of Cloud Track Listing
1. How To Love You Today
2. Sam And The Trees
3. Who Could Ask For More
4. For Tom (Interlude)
5. Requiem For Dana Lynn
6. I Am Not An Island
7. Parade
8. Restoration Song (Hold On)
9. New Seeds (Interlude)
10. I Love You More
Whitacre, the self-described “Mountain Rock” band hailing from Denver, CO., will release the new single, “Peach,” tomorrow, November 15th, 2019. The band explains that the song is “A simple love song, about the promise of holding on no matter what.” Frontman Paul Whitacre elaborates, “All of us in the band feel like we've ‘outkicked our coverage’ with the girls we're dating/married to. Almost immediately upon getting married, I noticed this voice in my head saying that my wife would be better off with someone else. That's a really easy lie for me to believe. ‘Peach’ is a promise to my wife and a reminder to myself that no matter how bad the days get, we're sticking to the promise we made.”
Fusing elements of Americana, folk and rock with punk tinges, Whitacre has become one of Denver’s fastest rising bands, selling out shows with Mt. Joy, Wild Child, and Birdtalker, playing legendary venues such as Red Rocks and The Bluebird Theater, and amassing half a million streams on Spotify. With the release of their debut album, Seasons, on the horizon and a national tour planned in support, the trio comprised of Paul Whitacre (lead vocals, guitar), Chase Perry (banjo), and Mark Cunningham (drums) are poised to break out nation-wide.
Recorded at Third & James in Denver, Seasons, marks the first time the band recorded in a big space and they found creative freedom to experiment with new ideas, marking an evolution from their last EP, 2018’s Within The Mountains’ Shadows. A metaphor for the different phases of life, the album helped the band process the concept of there being something to use and learn from in each season and experience. The message of the album goes along with the band’s mission: “We have a burning desire to tell a story that isn’t often told in the music industry today. One of redemption and restoration. We want to reassure the broken-hearted that there is hope, we want to show the invisible that we see them and that they matter. We believe that doesn’t only happen in lyrics but in a melody as well. We believe in the power of music and that it is used to soften and heal hearts.”
The Big Takeover, have premiered the new single, “Where Did I Go Wrong?.” Fronted by the charismatic Jamaican-born singer/songwriter Nee Nee Rushie, The Big Takeover blend Jamaican pop traditions with the spirit of Motown and uptown sophistication of 21st-century retro soul. This latest track is the second single from the band’s upcoming fifth studio album, Spilling Water, and showcases their talented brass section and a catchy rhythmic flow to create the perfect backdrop to Rushie’s earnest vocals. “‘Where Did I Go Wrong?’ is a personal experience about being rejected by someone that you know wants to be with you,” Rushie says. “It explores the complication of feeling someone pushing you away, but reaching out to you at the same time.”
The Big Takeover kicked off their summer with the release of Spilling Water’s first single, “Shy,” which Atwood Magazine praised as “a retro earworm” and was produced by David Baron (Megan Trainer, The Lumineers, and Jade Bird). The band then went out on a massive summer tour that included stops at several festivals such as Mountain Jam, Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, and Musikfest. The Big Takeover’s undeniable live presence also earned them featured sessions on Paste Music and Daytrotter and Audiotree. The Big Takeover’s rich sound, along with their rigorous touring schedule and prolific studio work, has been paying off. They have shared the stage with major acts such as The Wailers, Sister Sparrow, Jefferson Starship, Pete Seeger, The Slackers, Toots & The Maytals, and many more. In 2018, the band released a cover of Sophia George’s 1985 dancehall hit, “Girlie Girlie,” which was recorded as part of a UK compilation album featuring 40 covers of classic Trojan Records hits from artists around the world. It was produced by Manuel Quintana (Rachael Yamagata, Robbie Dupree) and Rob Kissner with mixing from Grammy Award-winning engineer Danny Blume.
To celebrate the end of 2019, the band will also be releasing the Sugarshack EP on December 13, which features the live recording of their 2018 performance at the Sugarshack Acoustic Live Music Series. The EP includes an acoustic version of the new single “Where Did I Go Wrong?” The Big Takeover will release Spilling Water in 2020.
Greensky Bluegrass, renowned for bringing rock ‘n’ roll showmanship to high-energy bluegrass, has announced a string of tour dates in early winter 2020.
Comprised of Anders Beck (dobro), Michael Arlen Bont (banjo), Dave Bruzza (guitar), Mike Devol (upright bass), and Paul Hoffman (mandolin), Greensky Bluegrass is known for pushing the limits of traditional bluegrass. Beck explains, “We’re a rock-and-roll band that plays bluegrass instruments. Bluegrass is such a finite thing. Because you have a banjo and a mandolin, you’re supposed to do it a certain way. But we’ve always been ourselves.” For the past 18 years, the band has played up to 175 shows per year and sold out venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the Ryman Auditorium, as well as performed at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and Outside Lands.
2019 saw the release of their ninth album, All For Money, which debuted in the top 10 of Billboard’s bluegrass chart and earned praise from Rolling Stone, Garden & Gun, and more. In September, they released the live performance video, Greensky Bluegrass: Live at Red Rocks: 9/22/2018, which is now available on all streaming platforms. They spent the year on the road in support of All For Money and show no signs of slowing down in 2020. In addition to their relentless touring, the band will host the third annual Camp Greensky Music Festival in Wellston, MI., from June 4 - 6.
Tickets for the Greensky Bluegrass Winter Tour 2020 are on sale now.
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS WINTER TOUR 2020 DATES
Jan. 15 - The Pageant - St. Louis, MO
Jan. 16 - Old Forester’s Paristown Hall - Louisville, KY
Whitacre, the self-described “mountain rock” band hailing from Denver, CO., have released their first full-length album, Seasons. Listen here: smarturl.it/Whitacre-Seasons.
Recorded at Third & James in the band’s hometown of Denver, produced by Joe Richmond (Tennis, Churchill) and mixed by Yuuki Matthews (The Shins), Seasons marks the first time Whitacre recorded in a big space and they found creative freedom to experiment with new ideas, marking an evolution from their last EP, 2018’s Within The Mountains’ Shadows. They never intended to record a full album, frontman Paul Whitacre says. “We went in with two complete songs and came out with a 10 song LP. It’s almost like there was a story that HAD to be told, and it wasn’t up to us to decide when that happened.” A metaphor for the different phases of life, Seasons helped the band process the concept of there being something to use and learn from each season and experience. The message of the album goes along with the band’s mission: “We have a burning desire to tell a story that isn’t often told in the music industry today. One of redemption and restoration. We want to reassure the broken-hearted that there is hope, we want to show the invisible that we see them and that they matter. We believe that doesn’t only happen in lyrics but in a melody as well. We believe in the power of music and that it is used to soften and heal hearts.”
Fusing elements of Americana, folk and rock, Whitacre has become one of Denver’s fastest rising bands, selling out shows with Mt. Joy, Wild Child and Birdtalker, playing legendary venues such as Red Rocks and The Bluebird Theater, and amassing half a million streams on Spotify. With the release of Seasons, the four-piece made up of Paul Whitacre on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Chase Perry on banjo, Mark Cunningham on drums and Joe Fishel on bass, are poised to break out nation-wide.
"I Like The Way You Talk About The Future", the newest hit from Sam Roberts Band, is an infectious, thick groove with trippy vibes and inspired lyrics. Watch the animated video here.
"I Like The Way You Talk About The Future" is a head-nodding, instantaneously catchy track, fitting for the times we're living in. About the single, Sam explains, "Essentially, in my mind, it comes back to the need for some light. A way forward. To shine some kind of bright light on the future, the path that we're walking and not giving in to despair."
This is the second new song from Sam Roberts Band, following "Ascension," released earlier this summer. The single has quickly been climbing the Canadian Alternative Rock Radio charts and already made its way into the top 20.
Earlier this month, the band played their first show of the year for a sold-out Ottawa Bluesfest Drive-in concert on August 1st and the band are set to perform at the OLG Play Stage in Toronto this September. Stay tuned for more details!
Sam Roberts Band continue to deliver on their legacy of hit singles to take over the airwaves. Known for their energetic live shows, this legendary band have earned spots performing everywhere from Letterman and Conan to Bonnaroo, ACL, Lollapalooza and Bumbershoot, and alongside such giants as the Rolling Stones and AC/DC.
It's been almost four years since the critically acclaimed and JUNO-nominated album TerraForm was released, and now, Sam Roberts Band return with their brand-new album, All of Us. Listen HERE.
Since 2002, Sam Roberts Band have dominated the airwaves, selling out shows, and sharing the stage with legendary bands like AC/DC and The Rolling Stones. Known for their energetic live shows, this legendary band have earned spots performing everywhere from Letterman and Conan to Bonnaroo, ACL, Lollapalooza and Bumbershoot. While it's been a few years since the last Sam Roberts Band full-length album, that doesn't mean Roberts hasn't been keeping busy. He, alongside Chris Murphy (Sloan), Menno Versteeg (Hollerado) and Dave Monks (Tokyo Police Club) joined forces to create Canadian indie supergroup Anyway Gang and released their self-titled debut album last year. The release earned a #1 spot on the Canadian Alternative Charts and the #1 Socan award for the track "Big Night" (written by Roberts). Early in the pandemic, Roberts and his kids, under the name "The Isolation Jubilation Sensation" created a performance of "We're All In This Together" online to celebrate front line workers.
All Of Us arrives in the middle of a global pandemic. The album’s opener, “Wolf Tracks” immediately dumps us in the Covidian wilderness, socially distanced from the pack, scattered and alone. Where does the path lead? To a version of the abyss that holds promise? With “War Chest,” we are presented with the image of a place in which to store all the good stuff that happens to us, however ephemeral: lazy afternoons, a lover's laughter, sunlight. But why a war chest? With whom (or what) are we to engage in battle? Perhaps we are at war with both memory, which is always a lie, and forgetting, which is always a submission. Coming to terms with this unsolvable riddle requires a single ingredient: “Without love, where would we be?” asks Roberts.
On “Ascension,” a genuine arena-rock stomper, we arrive at the idea of self-love, and an ode to the power of perseverance — “you’re never too old to try,” Roberts insists. These are nice words to hear when you’re lying in the gutter looking up at the delicate contrails of an inter-continental ballistic missile. The song, like so much of the album, punches at the phantoms of loss that surround us as time leaves us behind.
Indie-rock singer-songwriter and pianist Rob Kovacs debuts the new single, “Bitter Memory,” on January 15th, 2021. The song is the latest offering from Kovacs’ forthcoming solo debut album, Let Go, to be released on February 12th. With its ambitious compositional palette and hauntingly potent songcraft, the album affirms Kovacs as a fully focused and steadfast artist, evincing a commitment and creative persistence rarely seen in our ever more short attention span society.
Let Go tells the story of one relationship, in chronological order. “The songs are about love, longing, loss, desire, confusion, acceptance, pain, the struggle to let go – all that fun stuff,” Kovacs states. “Bitter Memory” concludes the album, and reflects the struggle to move on. It was written after Kovacs received an email from the ex-love that inspired the album. “Every so often she’d reach out and it’d bring me right me back. I felt weak and powerless and, in turn, angry. The reality though, which I didn’t want to admit, was I still longed for her. Seeing and reading her messages felt good. I still hadn’t let go.” Musically, the song has a different feel from the rest of the album, complete with being in a different key, indicating that things have changed over time. “There is no chorus,” Kovacs elaborates. “Just a repeating pattern of chords that last longer and get more intense with each repetition until reaching a boiling point and release and ending in the soft, resigned ending.”
Named “Best Pianist/Keyboardist” by the Cleveland Free Times, Kovacs has been widely hailed for his shape-shifting musical experimentalism, spanning history-making classical feats and audacious recreations of videogame soundtracks to crafting mesmerizing indie rock both as bandleader and now, at long last, solo artist. Kovacs has invested more than a decade in the creation of this solo debut, a brave and bittersweet song cycle written in the years following an intensely impactful romantic relationship and then recorded over an even longer span.
Kovacs grew up surrounded by music. Inspired by his older sister to learn piano, he wrote his first piece at only 10. Then and there, he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Kovacs held true to his dream, writing songs and fronting his first band while still in high school. Having spent his teens playing and performing, both as solo pianist and band member, Kovacs decided to study music theory at Baldwin-Wallace University, earning a scholarship after his first year. Kovacs also maintained a healthy interest in more popular strains of modern music, performing Radiohead covers alongside a guitarist friend in college coffee houses and cafes en route to co-founding the acclaimed indie piano rock trio, Return of Simple. In 2004, Kovacs made musical history as the first pianist to perform both parts of Steve Reich’s Piano Phase, simultaneously playing two pianos to accomplish the unprecedented feat.
Staying true to his initial dream of becoming a recording artist, Kovacs continued on with Return of Simple, releasing their acclaimed debut EP, Saffron, in 2006 before moving east to try their luck in New York City. Though the band met with some success, Kovacs decided to return to Cleveland where he could devote the necessary time and resources to recording his new songs, many of them reflecting on an impossible romantic entanglement that had left him questioning everything he once thought to be true about himself.
In addition to working on Let Go, he has found success as a film score composer and sound designer for video games, and under the moniker 88bit, he records and performs note-for-note piano arrangements of Nintendo soundtracks. He has also begun work on a long-gestating collection of other songs written over the past decade, as well as a fully instrumental VR game soundtrack that he proudly describes as a “kind of prog-rock synth odyssey.” Kovacs further hopes to be able to bring Let Go to the live stage sometime soon but in the meantime, he’s been adapting to the new normal by performing each and every Thursday via Twitch.
Brian Straw, a singer-songwriter who mixes elements of indie-folk, rock, and experimental music into his unique compositional style, has announced the release of his debut album, Baby Stars/Dead Languages. The news comes with the premiere of his first single, “Needle in the Creek,” with Glide Magazine.
An artistic mainstay in his hometown of Cleveland, OH, Straw started building his career in the early 2000s with tours of the US and Europe. However, alcoholism soon stalled his momentum, resulting in a hiatus from his own musical output for nearly 15 years. While taking a step back from performing and recording his own music, Straw built a recording studio in a warehouse on Cleveland’s west side, engineering records - as well as live shows - for others.
After having his last drink in 2017, Straw resumed his own performances and began to refine and record songs that he’d been working on for years, as well as ones that came out of his journey to sobriety. The title of the resulting record, Baby Stars/Dead Languages, is meant to symbolize the beginning and end of a cycle, both ruminating on the difficult time he spent at rock bottom - including losing his girlfriend as a result of his drinking - and celebrating finding his way back into the light.
“This album is what happens after sobriety. The songs unfold in real-time. Everything I was dealing with emotionally went in the music,” Straw explains. “I was hard on myself. I carried around a lot of shame and regret. I broke down a lot. I lost my girlfriend. The making of the record became my therapy.”
The first single, “Needle in the Creek,” dives deep into the struggles that Straw experienced during his addiction. “This song is about a very dark and mysterious friend who both fascinated and scared me. Our time spent together was brief and intense, beautiful and strange,” he says. “There was a beauty I found in her scars, and this is my attempt at explaining that beauty.” This song was written before she tragically died of a heroin overdose, and explores the feeling of being attracted to someone with dark tendencies. “You could say she served as my muse and my study.”
Baby Stars/Dead Languages introduces Straw’s deft compositional abilities and ambitious scope to a new audience while giving his long-time fans from his local scene the music they’ve been waiting for. Recorded in his own studio/gallery space, Survival Kit, it features several notable Cleveland-based musicians such as Bill Lestock, Nick Cross, Tony Cross, Mike Tolan, Rob Kovacs, Dan Price, and Emily Keener, many of whom will be joining Straw for a string of upcoming shows.
With his signature blend of indie-folk, rock, and experimental music, Brian Straw has unveiled his new single and video, “Out of Doors.” The song is the second single from Brian’s upcoming album, Baby Stars/Dead Languages, releasing January 21, 2022.
“This album is what happens after sobriety,” Straw states. An artistic mainstay in his hometown of Cleveland, OH, Straw started building his career in the early 2000s with tours of the US and Europe. However, alcoholism soon stalled his momentum, resulting in a hiatus from his own musical output for nearly 15 years. After having his last drink in 2017, he resumed his own performances and began to refine and record songs that he’d been working on for years, as well as ones that came out of his journey to sobriety.
“The songs unfold in real-time. Everything I was dealing with emotionally went in the music,” he explains. “I was hard on myself. I carried around a lot of shame and regret. I broke down a lot. I lost my girlfriend. The making of the record became my therapy.”
“Out of Doors” reflects on that creative process. “It’s about getting dirt under your nails, struggling, searching, and eventually finding the inspiration to drive creative impulses.”
“I carried the song around in my pocket for a couple years until I formed the band that ultimately helped me fully realize it. It was apparent to me after the first rehearsal that I had something special. It clicked. With the
perfect combination of musicians the song just bloomed,” Straw recalls. “I wanted the chorus to feel like a huge wave of intensity and for the verses to sit back and slowly unfold. I feel like we captured that by paying close attention to dynamics and flow. The words were a ton of work. I wanted the lyrics to emote the way the performance does. the words build along with the music and that was intentional. It was important to me that the music and words sit at the same table.”
Working with director Ryan Girard, Straw cultivated the music video from a blank slate, with the story developing organically during shooting. “I intentionally didn't want to put a storyboard together so we wouldn't be locked into any formulaic approach,” Straw says. “It's an abstract window into my creative mind.”
After years of his fans wondering “When will Brian Straw finish his record?,” Baby Stars/Dead Languages is a victory lap, every bit as grand, detailed, and generous as expected. The album introduces Straw’s deft compositional abilities and ambitious scope to a new audience while giving his long-time fans from his local scene the music they’ve been waiting for. Recorded in his own studio/gallery space, Survival Kit, it features several notable Cleveland-based musicians such as Bill Lestock, Nick Cross, Tony Cross, Mike Tolan, Rob Kovacs, Dan Price, and Emily Keener, many of whom will be joining Straw for a string of upcoming shows. The title symbolizes the beginning and end of a cycle, both ruminating on the difficult time he spent at rock bottom and celebrating finding his way back into the light.
Fronted by powerhouse vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Lily Vakili, Vakili Band will release Walking Sideways on February 25, 2022. The New Jersey-based band’s musical touchstones include Patti Smith, Joan Jett, and Brandi Carlile – with a smattering of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” liberation, David Bowie’s chameleon-like “Changes” and the New York Dolls’ attitude thrown in for good measure.
The new video, “Father’s Son,” was filmed on Outpost in the Burb’s main stage in the First Congregational Church in Montclair, NJ, where the band resides, and embraces a spirit of rebellion. “My lyrics are a poem with references and nods to what it is to be an outsider, loner, non-conformist - an artist, a son, a woman, a person that doesn't accept easy categorization,” Vakili says. She hopes that the message of empowerment will reach people who understand what it’s like to be in a place of otherness. “That feeling is maddening, alienating, lonely… until you find your people and your place in the world.”
Since the band’s first album, 2018’s Oh Alright, Vakili has been using her music to reach out to women and others who feel disenfranchised. And in March - Women’s History Month - the band will embark on a string of celebratory shows, beginning with two female-owned venues. The first, on Friday, March 11, is a hometown show at Montclair Brewery, where they will be joined by Stacia Thiel. The band next heads to Philadelphia for a performance at The Fire, where The Royal Fatback and Poppy will also appear. More shows will be announced shortly.
Born in Honduras and raised in Thailand, Puerto Rico, and Iowa, Vakili worked in theatre and went on to carve out a successful career as a biotech lawyer while continuing to nurture all manner of dreams, including making music. She’s since released three albums - two as a solo artist, and one with the band. Walking Sideways shows the growth of Vakili as a songwriter, vocalist, and bandleader, and the group as a whole – including lead guitarist and occasional songwriting collaborator Ben St. Jack, harmonica player Joel Dorow and the rock-solid rhythm section featuring drummer Gordon Kuba and bassist Matt Jovanis. As for the title of the album - Vakili puts it succinctly “I’ve rarely taken the direct route in my life. I come at things via the scenic route, not always by choice, but I get there - ‘walking sideways’ as it were.”
As the band gears up for the release on February 25, 2022, they are enjoying the return to the stage. “Performing music live is a pursuit of ecstasy, connection, desire, and love... it’s real, heady stuff,” Vakili says.
For Vakili Band, Walking Sideways represents a major step forward. They make it real... NOW.
Ahead of a string of performances bookending the US, Cleveland-based troubadour Brian Straw releases “Silent Partner.” The single is a bonus track from Straw’s debut full-length album, Baby Stars/Dead Languages, which was released in January to praise by new listeners, long-time fans, and critics alike.
A song about missed chances and making up for lost time, Straw wrote “Silent Partner” when he quit drinking and struggled to find himself. “This is a song of transition and the journey to becoming who I am. Moving away from pain and learning to embrace the now is a theme,” he says. “The range of emotions I was juggling is on display. Heartache and hope intertwine.” It also pays homage to one of his favorite artists. “‘At 42 I'm remembering what to do / gauge my worth to Earle's Transcendental Blues’ is a nod to Steve Earle and my goals as a songwriter.”
silentpartner3000
Straw started building his career in the early 2000s with tours of the US and Europe. However, alcoholism soon stalled his momentum, resulting in a hiatus from his musical output. After having his last drink in 2017, he resumed performances and began to refine and record songs that he’d been working on for years and those that came out of his journey to recovery. “This album is what happens after sobriety. The songs unfold in real-time. Everything I was dealing with emotionally went in the music,” Straw explains. “I was hard on myself. I carried around a lot of shame and regret. I broke down a lot. I lost my girlfriend. The making of the record became my therapy.”
While on the road to recovery, Straw remained active in the local music community by operating his recording studio/gallery space, Survival Kit, engineering live gigs, and working in the vinyl record industry. He first learned the ropes of vinyl mastering while working with a disc cutter and held several different positions before becoming a quality manager at Gotta Groove Records. “Record pressing is an archaic art form. Every record is different,” he remarks. Each limited edition double-vinyl copy of Baby Stars/Dead Languages is personally inspected by Straw. This unique special touch exemplifies both his creative nature and high sonic standards.
Fifteen years in the making, Baby Stars/Dead Languages introduces Straw’s deft compositional abilities and ambitious scope to a new audience while giving his long-time fans from his local scene the music they’ve been waiting for. The title symbolizes the beginning and end of a cycle, both ruminating on the difficult time he spent at rock bottom and celebrating finding his way back into the light.
This spring, Straw will be performing select shows in NY, DC, and WA, with more to be announced.
Upcoming shows:
3.25 - The Footlight - New York, NY
3.26 - Lost Origins Gallery - Washington, DC
4.27 - Royal Room - Seattle, WA
4.29 - Honeymoon - Bellingham, WA
Lauren Monroe - singer, songwriter, and healing artist - has released a new single, “Sparrow,” from her forthcoming album, Messages from Aphrodite, due out on September 9, 2022. LISTEN HERE.
Like many of her songs, “Sparrow” reflects Monroe’s deep empathy for others, particularly those who are dealing with grief and who have lost loved ones. “In my life experience, people who have died are still there in spirit form. We can experience their presence if we open our awareness,” she explains. “Our loved ones that have left can support us and guide us, but most people doubt their presence and doubt their abilities to connect with them. The lyrics in this song remind us that our loved ones live within our moments of openness and that the natural world around us can serve as doorways to experience them.”
Music and healing have always been a focal point in Monroe’s life. Through performance, storytelling, and art, she creates an intimate experience for her audiences, showing them how music can impact healing and growth. Earlier this year, she was joined by her husband, the legendary drummer Rick Allen of Def Leppard, for a run of intimate East Coast club dates during which they also displayed their mixed-media art. The pieces were then auctioned online to benefit Raven Drum Foundation, an organization they founded with the mission to serve, educate and empower veterans dealing with PTSD and combat trauma, people in crisis and other at-risk individuals. And in 2021, she staged the first Big Love Benefit Concert, which featured performances by Billy Idol, Wynonna Judd, and the Allman Betts Band, among others. Proceeds from the event, which brought financial and mental health support to music-industry professionals affected by the pandemic, were donated to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Acclaimed producer Jim Scott - who was at the helm for 2021’s Under the Wolf Moon - reunited with Monroe for Messages from Aphrodite, which she co-produced. The songs are enlivened by Scott’s deft sonic sculpting of song-serving performances from musical luminaries such as guitarists Greg Leisz (k.d. lang, Matthew Sweet, Bill Frisell), Tyler Bryant (Larkin Poe, Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown), Brian Whelan (Dwight Yoakam), Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams, Nora Jones, Keith Richards, John Mayer) and David Garza (Fiona Apple, Watkins Family Hour); bassists Bob Glaub (Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon), Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Fiona Apple) and Mai Leisz (David Crosby), keyboardist John Ginty (Neal Casal, the Allman Betts Band); and backing vocalist Tammi Brown (Bobby McFerrin, Quincy Jones). In addition to Allen, the Heartbreakers’ Steve Ferrone and young dynamo Beth Goodfellow (Iron and Wine, Allison Russell) anchor the proceedings from behind their drumkits.
A video for “Sparrow,” is slated for release on July 13th. Monroe plans to hit the road this fall in support of Messages from Aphrodite, and dates will be announced soon via her website and social media.
The release of the final two Turkuaz albums – Paradiso and Apollyon, both slated for September 9, 2022 -- is “bittersweet” for co-founders Dave Brandwein and Taylor Shell, who are torn between two extremes – whether this marks a posthumous homage or a rebirth of the fabled group. In late 2021, while on the road with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, marking the 40-year anniversary of the Talking Heads’ classic Remain in Light album, Turkuaz suddenly splintered and went their separate ways. The new single, “Strange People (Strange Times),” out now, was written a few years ago, but suddenly seems more appropriate than ever.
“It’s hard to believe at this point that this song was originally written not only before things unfolded with the breakup of the band, but even before the pandemic ever started,” Brandwein states. “I guess it just goes to show what a long stretch of strange times it’s really been.”
Amidst a pandemic-induced shutdown, the dissolution of his marriage, and a stint in rehab, Brandwein moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Los Angeles, California, to pick up the pieces. He seized the opportunity to assess his past accomplishments with Turkuaz and the uncertain future that lay ahead, a chance to clean out his closet and start fresh.
“I was at a point in my life when I was ready for a change,” he says. “The autopilot wasn’t really working anymore, and something inside me was crying out, telling me that. I needed a reinvention.”
Keeping up with the dual aspects of the releases, Paradiso is more synth-driven, digital and modern, starting mostly with beats cooked up by Brandwein and co-producer Rob O’Block, with the rest of Turkuaz’s most recent line-up adding to that, an album that’s both influenced by and goes beyond Talking Heads’ blend of new wave and funk. Apollyon, on the other hand, is more organic, more classic funk-driven, the band playing together in a single room, harkening to such funk pioneers as Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly Stone and James Brown, using old-school sounds like spring reverb and tube amps.
“We’re trying to focus on the legacy we created over the past 10 years, rather than lamenting the break-up,” says Brandwein. “These two albums celebrate that nine-piece band, which was built fan by fan, show by show, festival by festival.”
“I’m so proud of these records, and am glad we get the chance to tie a bow on this 13-year body of work,” Shell continues, “Turkuaz has been my life since Dave and I started the band in our little apartment oh-so-many years ago, and as hard as the disbanding has been, it really does give me so much joy to know that we are putting it down the same way we picked it up… with the creation and release of my favorite recordings I’ve ever been a part of.”
Turkuaz logo
Highlights of the two albums include the appearance of Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew on Apollyon’s “Ophidiophobia,” literally a fear of snakes, with a reptilian Belew guitar solo providing the slither, as well as the only cover song ever recorded for a Turkuaz album in Paradiso’s “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song),” from David Lynch’s cult classic Eraserhead.
Recorded before any of the past two years’ madness, both Paradiso and Apollyon reflect Brandwein’s love of opposites, but also the overlapping of the two, capturing the space between the binary numbers.
“That duality in Turkuaz makes sense,” he explains. “My goal is for people to see the breadth of what I can do as a musician, to acknowledge where I come from, but I’m also excited about where I’m going. I feel good about this body of work representing what I’ve done so far.”
Brandwein and Shell plan to continue putting out music collaboratively as well as individually. Paradiso and Apollyon will be released on September 9, 2022. “Strange People (Strange Times)” and the B-side, “Feel No Pain,” both from Paradiso, are out now.
The past two years have been pretty strange for all of us, but particularly so for Dave Brandwein, co-founder of powerfunk band Turkuaz. After 10 steady years of touring as festival mainstays, the band suddenly splintered while on the road with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, marking the 40-year anniversary of the Talking Heads’ classic Remain in Light album. Amidst a pandemic-induced shutdown, the dissolution of his marriage, and a stint in rehab, Brandwein moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Los Angeles, California, to pick up the pieces. He seized the opportunity to assess his past accomplishments with Turkuaz and the uncertain future that lay ahead, a chance to clean out his closet and start fresh.
Setting up a new home studio in his California home, Brandwein has turned to writing and producing for other bands – as he previously did in recording set-ups he had in Boston, Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint – coming full circle with the completion of the final two Turkuaz albums, Paradiso and Apollyon (both releasing on September 9), and the first releases from two new projects, New Originals and Band For Sale.
New Originals is a collaborative project between Brandwein and producer Rob O’Block, who first co-produced a pair of songs on Turkuaz’s 2018 album, Life in the City, as well as the forthcoming Paradiso. The songs reflect their origin, recorded between New York and Los Angeles (where Brandwein’s studios were based), and Nashville (O’Block’s home), three of modern music’s epicenters.
The debut single from New Originals, “Wasteland” features drummer Daru Jones (Jack White, Pete Rock, Jamie Lidell), Jerry Harrison, and Adrian Belew, with Turkuaz vocalist/electronic artist Danke providing vocals. LISTEN TO “WASTELAND” HERE.
“It seemed time for a new energy that could reflect more of the edge and darkness in my lyrics, and in the state of the world,” explains Brandwein.
If New Originals demonstrates the possible next step for Brandwein, Band For Sale looks fondly at his past, reflecting early influences such as The Beatles, Paul Simon and Jackson Brown. The upcoming album, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon, spotlights songs and melodies he first hummed to himself at five years old, and others composed throughout his life.
Recorded on and off over the past decade, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon is indeed a revelatory and deeply personal record for Brandwein, who produced and mixed the entire album himself. Blending British Invasion charm with classic rock grit and folk intimacy, it’s a timeless, breezy collection, one that manages to feel both deliberate and spontaneous, polished and raw, modern and retro all at once. LISTEN TO “THE URGE” HERE.
Some of the guest musicians to appear on the album include former Lucius vocalist Andrew Burri, The Stepkids drummer Tim Walsh, Turkuaz colleague Taylor Shell, The London Souls’ bassist Kiyoshi Matsuyama, Train drummer Matt Musty and Grace Potter bandmember Kurtis Keber, as well as drummer Jonathan Smith and guitarist Michael Haziza.
“I’m just discovering who I am as an adult, sober, not in a relationship or part of a band, living on my own,” Brandwein says. “I’m in a period of rediscovery, which is admittedly terrifying... I am taking this as an opportunity to figure it out. Having all this music come out after this time is kind of like a purging of all these things that made me who I was before and figuring out what the next phase holds.”
The release of the final two Turkuaz albums, Paradiso and Apollyon, is bittersweet for co-founders Dave Brandwein and Taylor Shell. In late 2021, while on the road with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, marking the 40-year anniversary of the Talking Heads’ classic Remain in Light album, the acclaimed powerfunk group who’d spent the previous decade gracing iconic stages from Red Rocks to Bonnaroo, suddenly splintered. However, before the departure of several members, they’d nearly completed recording what would become Paradiso and Apollyon. Brandwein and Shell worked together for months to put the finishing touches on the albums.
“These two albums celebrate that nine-piece band, and give people songs that they largely haven’t heard and can’t currently see live,” Brandwein says. “We’re focusing on the legacy we created over the past 10 years, rather than lamenting the break-up.”
Perhaps appropriately, the albums reflect upon duality and opposites. “The very big picture concept is that Heaven and Hell are two human constructs. The only place that they really exist is right here on earth, and which one you inhabit depends largely on how you conduct yourself and what you choose to believe,” explains Brandwein. “Life isn’t as simple as black or white, this or that. It’s not binary. We’re all a little bit of both… Beautiful and tragic chaos.”
Paradiso is synth-driven, digital and modern, starting mostly with beats cooked up by Brandwein and co-producer Rob O’Block, which spurred an ongoing collaboration now known as New Originals. Apollyon, on the other hand, is more organic, classic funk-influenced, the band playing together in a single room, harkening to such funk pioneers as Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly Stone and James Brown, using old-school sounds like spring reverb and tube amps, and also includes guest appearances by Harrison and Belew.
“I’m so proud of these records, and am glad we get the chance to tie a bow on this 13-year body of work,” Shell continues, “Turkuaz has been my life since Dave and I started the band in our little apartment oh-so-many years ago, and as hard as the disbanding has been, it really does give me so much joy to know that we are putting it down the same way we picked it up… with the creation and release of my favorite recordings I’ve ever been a part of.”
Wanting to continue to give back to supporters who’ve given them so much for so long, Brandwein and Shell partnered with YellowHeart (the leading environmentally-friendly NFT marketplace for ticketing and music), to create a digital fan community. By claiming a “community token,” people gain access to early and exclusive content.
“Especially not being on the road now, we wanted a new way to continually offer things to fans - from audio rarities, live shows, re-releases, to merch, memorabilia - the possibilities are really pretty endless,” Brandwein explains. “We’re aware that some people are still very confused by the idea of NFT’s/Web3 - but along with YellowHeart we’ve found a way to keep it simple, environmentally friendly and affordable.”
Brandwein came to view the challenges of the past few years as an opportunity to start fresh. Amidst a pandemic-induced shutdown, the dissolution of his marriage, and a stint in rehab, he moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Los Angeles, California, where Shell also resides.
“I was at a point in my life when I was ready for a change,” he says. “The autopilot wasn’t really working anymore, and something inside me was crying out, telling me that. I needed a reinvention.”
In addition to the aforementioned New Originals, who are currently completing their debut album, Brandwein is releasing solo music under the moniker Band For Sale. Shell, meanwhile, has joined the band Ghost Light. They also plan to collaborate together again in the future.
Lauren Monroe’s new album, Messages from Aphrodite, explores multiple facets of love and amplifies messages of healing. The New York-born, California-based polymath conducts parallel careers as a gifted singer-songwriter and a renowned mental-health advocate; she approaches these intertwined roles with equal passion, her nuanced understanding of human behavior informing her music, which she sees as “a heart-based experience” that is “not just about listening—it’s about feeling and connecting.”
Music and healing have always been focal points in Monroe’s life. Through performance, storytelling, and art, she creates an intimate experience for her audiences, showing them how music can impact healing and growth. In 2021, Monroe staged the first Big Love Benefit Concert, which featured performances by Billy Idol, Wynonna Judd, and the Allman Betts Band, among others. Proceeds from the event, which brought financial and mental health support to music-industry professionals affected by the pandemic, were donated to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Then, in early 2022, she was joined by her husband and frequent collaborator, Rick Allen, the legendary drummer of Def Leppard, for a run of intimate East Coast club dates. At every show, they welcomed dozens of Veterans and auctioned off some of their mixed-media art pieces to benefit Raven Drum Foundation, an organization they founded more than 20 years ago with the mission to serve, educate and empower Veterans dealing with PTSD and combat trauma, people in crisis and other at-risk individuals.
Acclaimed producer Jim Scott - who was at the helm for 2021’s Under the Wolf Moon - reunited with Monroe for Messages from Aphrodite, which she co-produced. “Lauren is a special artist,” he asserts. “She’s tuned in to the spiritual workings of the heart and the mystical nature of the universe. She’s an empath, a healer, a teacher, visual artist, producer and songwriter; I also think she’s a time-traveler. Her songs guide, direct, and uplift and are sonically beautiful.”
The songs are enlivened by Scott’s deft sonic sculpting of song-serving performances from musical luminaries such as guitarists Greg Leisz (k.d. lang, Matthew Sweet, Bill Frisell), Tyler Bryant (Larkin Poe, Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown), Brian Whelan (Dwight Yoakam), Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams, Nora Jones, Keith Richards, John Mayer) and David Garza (Fiona Apple, Watkins Family Hour); bassists Bob Glaub (Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon), Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Fiona Apple) and Mai Leisz (David Crosby), keyboardist John Ginty (Neal Casal, the Allman Betts Band); and backing vocalist Tammi Brown (Bobby McFerrin, Quincy Jones). In addition to Allen, the Heartbreakers’ Steve Ferrone and young dynamo Beth Goodfellow (Iron and Wine, Allison Russell) anchor the proceedings from behind their drumkits.
Monroe will be touring through the fall in support of Messages from Aphrodite. As at previous shows, art will be on display, and donors will be able to sponsor Veterans to attend for free. Tickets for Veterans can be purchased at supportavet.givesmart.com and will be distributed through various Veteran service organizations in each city.
In addition, building on the success of Raven Drum’s inaugural 12 Drummers Drumming auction, held in 2021, the foundation has invited a group of drummers and other friends, select donors, Veterans, and first responders to join Allen and Monroe for a very special live event in Newport Coast, CA on September 26th. The drum circle will be a celebration of the healing benefits of music. Through a partnership with Musicians On Call, the program will be filmed, and highlights will be included in Musicians On Call's Veterans Day virtual concert that will be provided to VA hospitals across the country. The full event recording will be offered exclusively to the VA from November 12 - December 12, culminating in a live zoom Q&A call for the VA community with Allen, Monroe, and special guests. Following that, the program will be available across multiple channels and partner sites.
9/10 - Portland, OR - The Old Church Concert Hall (TOC Moon Series)
9/19 - Mill Valley, CA - Sweetwater Music Hall
9/22 - LaJolla, CA - Gala performance benefiting GenerateHope at Birch Aquarium
9/25 - Venice, CA - The Venice West
10/2 - Monterey, CA - Heart for Change Benefit Concert at Monterey County Fairgrounds
10/5 - Boulder, CO - Chautauqua Community House
10/6 - Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole
11/9 - New York, NY - City Winery NYC (The Loft)
11/13 - Boston, MA - City Winery Boston (Haymarket Lounge)
Additional shows TBA
To those that know Dave Brandwein as the frontman of Turkuaz, the indie-Americana/folk-rock music of Band For Sale might seem like a radical change. But to the multi-instrumentalist and producer, the upcoming album, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon, represents a return to his musical roots.
“This album is who I’ve always been deep down,” Brandwein explains. “I grew up on The Beatles, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, and the other classic sounds of the 60’s and 70’s… The truth is that Turkuaz was the departure.”
The new single, “Lookin’ High, Lookin’ Low” encapsulates the overarching themes of the album, distilling them down to one song about searching, hoping, trying (and trying again), but still feeling like you come up short. “This is one of those songs that kind of just wrote itself, and I looked down at the paper to see what it had to say,” he muses. “It speaks to my own experience and feels pretty universal too.” LISTEN HERE.
The last ten years have seen a flurry of change for Brandwein. He got married and got divorced. He got sober, drunk, and sober again. He oversaw the growth of Turkuaz, the nine-piece funk band he’d fronted since college, into an internationally touring powerhouse sharing the stage and collaborating with legends like The Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew. Finally, in the fall of 2021, he saw Turkuaz disband, halting upcoming tour dates and bringing the band’s future into question. It was at that point when he moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Los Angeles, California, seizing the opportunity to assess his past accomplishments and the uncertain future that lay ahead, a chance to clean out his closet and start fresh.
Setting up a new home studio in LA, Brandwein turned to writing and producing for other bands – as he previously did in recording set-ups he had in Boston, Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Greenpoint – coming full circle with the completion of the final two Turkuaz albums, Paradiso and Apollyon, and the first releases from two new projects: New Originals (a collaboration with producer Rob O’Block) and Band For Sale.
Recorded on and off over the past decade, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon is indeed a revelatory and deeply personal record for Brandwein, who produced and mixed the entire album himself. Blending British Invasion charm with classic rock grit and folk intimacy, it’s a timeless, breezy collection, one that manages to feel both deliberate and spontaneous, polished and raw, modern and retro all at once.
Brandwein wrote and re-wrote much of the album several times over the years, and the benefit of hindsight proves to be a blessing here, both for the material and the performances, which are bolstered by appearances from former Lucius vocalist Andrew Burri, Train drummer Matt Musty, Grace Potter bassist Kurtis Keber, Stepkids drummer Tim Walsh, and original London Souls bassist Kiyoshi Matsuyama, among other special guests. The result is a captivating, charismatic debut that collapses ten years into forty minutes; a mature, heartfelt ode to growth, discovery, and finding peace in your present circumstances, whatever they may be.
“I’m just discovering who I am as an adult, sober, not in a relationship or part of a band, living on my own,” Brandwein says. “I’m in a period of rediscovery, which is admittedly terrifying... I am taking this as an opportunity to figure it out. Having all this music come out after this time is kind of like a purging of all these things that made me who I was before and figuring out what the next phase holds.”
Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon will be released on November 18th, 2022.
The achievements of rock ‘n’ roll heavyweights The Trews are many and mighty, highlighted by multiple radio hits drawn from seven critically acclaimed studio albums plus several EPs, a pair of live records, and a retrospective. Among the most prolific, electrifying, and innovative Canadian bands on the planet, The Trews — singer/guitarist Colin MacDonald, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, bassist Jack Syperek, drummer Chris Gormley, and keyboardist Jeff Heisholt — have shared stages with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Weezer, Bruce Springsteen to Rich Robinson, the latter collaboration culminating in three blazing tracks on the band’s latest, Wanderer, cut in Nashville with the onetime Black Crowes guitarist. Amid the global pandemic, which halted both the Nashville sessions and tour plans for 2018’s epic Civilianaires album, The Trews completed Wanderer at home in Canada with producers Derek Hoffman and Eric Ratz, emerging with their fiercest and most accomplished set of songs to date, and a heck of backstory to boot.
I WANNA PLAY TOUR
Jan 24 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
Jan 25 - New York, NY - City Winery, The Loft
Jan 27 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
Jan 28 - Clayton, NY - Opera House
Jan 29 - Philadelphia, PA - MilkBoy
Jan 31 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues - Cambridge Room - Cleveland
Feb 1 - Pittsburgh, PA - Crafthouse
Feb 3 - Detroit, MI - The Shelter
Feb 5 - Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen
Raven Drum Foundation partnered with more than a dozen drummers to present a unique twist on a classic holiday song for the second year in a row. Founders Rick Allen and his wife Lauren Monroe reached out to some of their music-industry peers and friends to help raise vital funds for injured service members dealing with PTSD, trauma, and suicidal ideation. Their “12 Drummers Drumming” online auction will commence at noon PT on Veterans Day, November 11th and will run until 12/12/22. Winning bidders will have the opportunity to join Rick, Lauren and some special guests on a zoom call on December 15th, following the auction.
Lauren Monroe and Rick Allen are also be performing a series of east coast dates honoring free tickets provided by Raven Drum Foundation for Veterans, along with a very special performance for residents of the New Hampshire Veterans Home (11/14). Upcoming dates can be found at laurenmonroe.com/tour.
Also debuting on 11/11 will be Raven Drum’s 30-minute drum circle special, 12 Drummers Drumming - Finding the Rhythm to Heal, which will be provided to VA Hospitals throughout the country through a partnership with Musicians On Call. The special will be available to the general public on 12drummersdrumming.org.
All proceeds benefit Raven Drum Foundation’s mission to serve, educate, and empower Veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors with a focused effort to prevent suicide through innovative wellness-support programs. Raven Drum contributes to global healing and community through advocacy, storytelling, and the promotion of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
Some of the unique items available for auction include:
Autographed Guitars signed by the bands Godsmack and Styx
Set of limited edition art prints by Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres
A 30-minute Zoom, artistic drumhead and sticks from Zac Hanson
Autographed drums, drumheads, and sticks from multiple Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
Autographed drum and drumhead by SNL Alum Fred Armisen
Notable Musicians Who Contributed to the 2022 Campaign Include:
RICK ALLEN - Def Leppard
ALVIN TAYLOR - Little Richard, George Harrison, Elton John, Billy Preston
STEWART COPELAND - The Police
SHANNON LARKIN - Godsmack, Candlebox, Ugly Kid Joe
ZAC HANSON - Hanson
MATT STARR - Ace Frehley, Mr. Big
FRED ARMISEN - Saturday Night Live
TODD SUCHERMAN - Styx, Spinal Tap
LAUREN MONROE - Lauren Monroe
TOMMY LEE - Motley Crue
DENNY SEIWELL - Paul McCartney and Wings
DUANE TRUCKS - Widespread Panic, Hard Working Americans
MATT SORUM - Kings of Chaos, Guns N' Roses, The Cult, Velvet Revolver
JOHN LUM - The Allman Betts Band
PETER CRISS - Kiss
LIBERTY DEVITTO - Billy Joel
TICO TORRES - Bon Jovi
WALLY INGRAM - Sheryl Crow, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, Jackson Browne
ABOUT RAVEN DRUM FOUNDATION
Raven Drum Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2001 by Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard, and Lauren Monroe, musician, and healing arts educator. Raven Drum's mission is to serve, educate, and empower veterans dealing with PTSD and TBI, people in crisis, and other at-risk populations. The foundation engages drumming as a tool for healing, allowing participants to use rhythm, mindfulness, and energy-medicine techniques as an avenue for connection and healing, and supports complementary and alternative-medicine programs for trauma recovery. For more information, please visit ravendrumfoundation.org.
To those that know Dave Brandwein as the frontman of Turkuaz, the indie-Americana/folk-rock music of Band For Sale might seem like a radical change. But to the multi-instrumentalist and producer, the upcoming album, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon, slated for release on December 9, 2022, represents a return to his musical roots.
“This album is who I’ve always been deep down,” Brandwein explains. “I grew up on The Beatles, Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, and the other classic sounds of the 60’s and 70’s… The truth is that Turkuaz was the departure.”
The last ten years have seen a flurry of change for Brandwein. He got married and got divorced. He got sober, drunk, and sober again. He oversaw the growth of Turkuaz, the nine-piece funk band he’d fronted since college, into an internationally touring powerhouse sharing the stage and collaborating with legends like The Talking Heads’ Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew (King Crimson, David Bowie, NIN). Finally, in the fall of 2021, he saw Turkuaz disband, halting upcoming tour dates and bringing the band’s future into question. It was at that point when he moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Los Angeles, California, seizing the opportunity to assess his past accomplishments and the uncertain future that lay ahead, a chance to clean out his closet and start fresh.
Recorded on and off over the past decade, Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon is indeed a revelatory and deeply personal record for Brandwein, who produced and mixed the entire album himself. Blending British Invasion charm with classic rock grit and folk intimacy, it’s a timeless collection, one that manages to feel both deliberate and spontaneous, polished and raw, modern and retro all at once.
“Is There Anybody?” was written after the end of a college romance, a time full of angst, confusion, and loneliness. “Facing the possibility of being on my own again, I had to wonder, ‘Is there anybody? Another person out there that I would find to understand me and feel for me?’ Soon after, I was actually in another relationship which would eventually be my marriage,” Brandwein says. “Oddly, as the record reached completion all these years later, I found myself in the same position once again. It’s strange, and I suppose, could be seen as tragic, but it’s really more bittersweet. It’s as hopeful as it is sad.” LISTEN HERE.
Since setting up a new home studio in LA, Brandwein turned to writing and producing for other bands – as he previously did in recording set-ups he had in Boston, Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Greenpoint – coming full circle with the completion of the final two Turkuaz albums, Paradiso and Apollyon, and the first releases from two new projects: New Originals (a collaboration with producer Rob O’Block) and Band For Sale (solo project).
Brandwein wrote and re-wrote much of Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon several times over the years, and the benefit of hindsight proves to be a blessing here, both for the material and the performances, which are bolstered by appearances from former Lucius vocalist Andrew Burri, Train drummer Matt Musty, Grace Potter bassist Kurtis Keber, Stepkids drummer Tim Walsh, and original London Souls bassist Kiyoshi Matsuyama, among other special guests. The result is a captivating, charismatic debut that collapses ten years into forty minutes; a mature, heartfelt ode to growth, discovery, and finding peace in your present circumstances, whatever they may be.
“I’m just discovering who I am as an adult, sober, not in a relationship or part of a band, living on my own,” Brandwein says. “I’m in a period of rediscovery, which is admittedly terrifying... I am taking this as an opportunity to figure it out. Having all this music come out after this time is kind of like a purging of all these things that made me who I was before and figuring out what the next phase holds.”
Sleeping Sun, Waking Moon will be released on December 9, 2022. It is now available to PRE-SAVE on all streaming platforms.
Launched on Veterans Day and running through December 12th, Raven Drum Foundation’s second annual 12 Drummers Drumming auction brings together a list of rock’s most influential and legendary figures to raise vital funds for people dealing with PTSD, trauma, and suicidal ideation.
Just added items include:
-Taylor Swift autographed guitar
-Alvin Taylor's sticks used to record George Harrison's 33 & 1/3 album
-Def Leppard - Hysteria Funko Pop! Figures (Limited Edition) signed by Rick Allen
Also available:
-Drum signed by Stewart Copeland
-Electric guitar signed by Styx
-Original painting on drumhead and 30-minute Zoom with Zac Hanson
Founded by Hall of Famer Rick Allen of Def Leppard and his wife, singer-songwriter and healer Lauren Monroe, Raven Drum Foundation’s mission is to serve, educate, and empower Veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors with a focused effort to prevent suicide through innovative wellness-support programs. Raven Drum contributes to global healing and community through advocacy, storytelling, and the promotion of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Monore and Allen will be appearing at the Forbes Healthcare Summit in Miami Florida on December 8th, 2022 to continue to spread the word about the power of music and energy healing.
As part of their effort to make healing accessible to all, Raven Drum Foundation just released a short film, 12 Drummers Drumming - Finding the Rhythm to Heal. Allen and Monroe were joined by a select group of world-class drummers, Veterans, first responders, and supporters at the Amazing Grace Estate, to experience the magic of a drum circle. Produced and directed by Jonathan Chia, an army combat Veteran himself, the production team included 10 additional Veterans. Drummers who joined the circle - and share their stories in the film - include Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult, Kings of Chaos), Duane Trucks (Widespread Panic), John Lum (The Allman Betts Band), Billy Amendola (Mantus), Denny Seiwell (Paul McCartney and Wings), Josh Roossin (The Jacks), Shannon Larkin (Godsmack), Matt Starr (Ace Frehley, Mr. Big), Wally Ingram (Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir), Todd Sucherman (STYX), Franklin Vanderbilt (Lenny Kravitz), and Alvin Taylor (Little Richard, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Elton John), many of which also donated items for the 12 Drummers Drumming auction. Additional notable guests in attendance included the hosts Glenn and Mindy Stearns (star of Undercover Billionaire and KTLA / Entertainment Tonight, respectively), Kelly Cardenas (podcaster and beauty industry legend), Wing Lam (founder of Wahoo's Fish Taco), Larry Broughton (award-winning entrepreneur and CEO, bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and former Special Forces Operator), Frank Larkin (COO of Troops First Foundation and chair of its Warrior Call initiative).
Formed upon a chance encounter while busking in the subways of New York City, Bandits on the Run have become modern troubadours, the flower children of the digital age. Their new single, “You Have Changed,” releasing on February 2, 2023, marks a new phase of Banditry; this is the first release that they have self-produced, and offers a taste of what’s to come on the follow-up record to 2021’s acclaimed EP, Now Is The Time. PRE-SAVE / STREAM HERE.
“‘You Have Changed’ is about being torn apart, begrudging acceptance, and lingering love. It’s about the uncontrollable wellspring of grief that comes swooping in when life smacks you in the face, and you’re just not ready for it,” the band reveals. Written at a moment of uncertainty, when their futures seemed tenuous, they say that the creation of the song was a mediation on accepting reality. “It felt like the world was caving in under us and all of a sudden everything we loved and held onto had changed.” It’s evident that those feelings resonate with listeners. “When we perform this song, people tend to open their hearts to us and share their stories of change and loss. For some people, ‘You Have Changed’ is about a loved one that’s passed, or a lover that’s left, or a storm that’s finally clearing up. We love that it takes on a new meaning with every person who hears it, and is about whatever is changing in their life at the moment.”
Comprised of Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn, the Brooklyn-based indie-pop-Americana trio is anchored by three-part harmonies and eclectic instrumentation, including accordion, cello, melodica, and a suitcase-kick-drum. Since their first release, 2017’s, The Criminal Record, they’ve received accolades from NPR Music’s All Songs Considered, American Songwriter, NPR Weekend Edition, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. Their most recent EP, Now Is The Time, was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers), and surrounding that release, the band produced a short musical film, Band At The End Of The World, commissioned by NYC-based Prospect Theater Company. They’ve gone on to compose music for the Netflix children’s animated series, Storybots, score the newest Peter Hedges movie, The Same Storm, and tour the globe with appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Milwaukee Summerfest, Americanafest, and the Singapore Grand Prix. In addition, they stay in touch with their theatrical roots: Strayhorn is a freelance casting director currently working with The Telsey Office, Shepherd is a Broadway veteran who graced the stage in the world premiere of the musical August Rush, and Enscoe starred opposite Hailee Steinfeld in the AppleTV+ show, Dickinson, and on stage in Swept Away (by The Avett Brothers).
Their next release will be their most collaborative yet: a self-produced EP featuring various and sundry bandit friends that explores the tensions of a world that has been broken open but is putting itself back together.
Coinciding with the release of “You Have Changed,” Bandits on the Run kick off a Midwestern tour with several performances at Folk Alliance. A video for the single is coming soon.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Tickets and more details at banditsontherun.nyc/live-shows
2/2 - 2/4: Folk Alliance at Marriot Crown Center (Kansas City, MO)
2/3: Tiny Concert at Effing Candle Co. (Kansas City, MO)
2/6: Bishop Hill Community Commons (Bishop Hill, IL)
2/8: Rhythms & Brews @ Gibson Music Community Center (Appleton, WI)
2/9: Epiphany Center For The Arts (Chicago, IL)
2/10: Rose Bowl (Urbana, IL)
2/11: Bradley University (Peoria, IL)
Lauren Monroe - singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and healing arts practitioner and educator - pays homage to her rock roots with a new rendition of the classic, “Love Is Alive,” by Gary Wright. Co-produced with Jim Scott, the single features performances by Rick Allen (Def Leppard), Beth Goodfellow, John Ginty, Dylan Rose and more acclaimed musicians. LISTEN HERE.
“My musical heart comes from a love of 70's music, especially pop and rock music of the day. The moment I sang this song I felt like it was mine because I believe every word I'm singing, just like the songs I've written myself,” Monroe says, noting that performing the song unleashes powerful energy from within her. “The lyrics alone are a statement of power and when singing it with the band, it shifts me into a really grounded and resonant state,” she continues. “Love is a living energy and we all know when it's alive inside of us and can recognize it in other people. I hope that people can feel more alive and be inspired by my interpretation of this song so we can reset our vibes and align ourselves with love this year.”
In that spirit of spreading healing and love through music, Monroe, Allen (her husband and co-founder of Raven Drum Foundation), and Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult) will bring together a community of their drumming peers, supporters, donors, and music lovers for a very special event to honor and support Veterans, First Responders and trauma survivors at the exclusive GoodNoise Studio in Palm Springs, CA, on April 1st, 2023. An Afternoon of Storytelling, Drumming & Music will begin with a healing drum circle and conclude with a live in-studio performance by Monroe, Allen and guests. VIP Donors at varying levels will have access to meet & greet opportunities, photo ops, exclusive signed merchandise, and entries into special drawings. For more information on supporting / attending the event, REGISTER HERE.
Founded in 2001, Raven Drum's mission is to serve, educate, and empower Veterans dealing with PTSD and TBI, people in crisis, and other at-risk populations. The foundation engages music as a tool for healing, allowing participants to use rhythm, mindfulness, and energy-medicine techniques as an avenue for connection and healing, and supports complementary and alternative-medicine programs for trauma recovery. For the past two years, Raven Drum has organized the 12 Drummers Drumming online auction, raising over $100,000, with items donated by artists such as Taylor Swift, Stewart Copeland, Alvin Taylor and more.
In 2022, Raven Drum invited a group of drummers, Veterans, first responders and supporters to the Amazing Grace estate to experience the magic of a drum circle and the healing benefits of music and community. The event was filmed and released as a short film, 12 Drummers Drumming: Finding the Rhythm to Heal. WATCH HERE.
Also last year, Monroe released the album, Messages from Aphrodite, to critical acclaim from outlets such as American Songwriter, The Boot, CMT, and more, and performed several special concerts with her band, including Allen. She started 2023 with the January 6th release of a special Storyteller Edition of that album, featuring behind-the-song narrative tracks. She is currently back in the studio working on new original material, and will be announcing tour dates in the near future. A video for “Love is Alive” will also be released soon.
The music of Colony House—an indie rock band made up of brothers Will and Caleb Chapman, as well as Scott Mills and Parke Cottrell—is playfully self-described as “landlocked surf rock.” Their music is built on pillars of honesty, accessibility and family, and much of The Cannonballers is too: within 11 tracks, the band delves into where they come from and how a place, and its memories, have made them.
The Cannonballers marks the band’s fourth full-length release: their three previous studio collections take listeners on a journey through stories of loss, grief, and heartbreak while welcoming them into the hope that comes on the other side. Colony House’s 2014 debut, When I Was Younger, included the single “Silhouettes,” which became the #1 most played track on Sirius XM’s Alt Nation for four months straight. Only The Lonely, whose title and demeanor pay tribute to the vintage sounds of Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys, followed in 2017. The surf-rock hit, “You Know It,” went viral on Tik Tok, and has amassed 100 million streams across all platforms to date, after being featured as the soundtrack to Samsung Mobile’s nationwide ad campaign. Leave What’s Lost Behind was released in January of 2020; the band managed to play half of their 40 city headline tour before being forced to pause alongside the rest of the world. Like many touring artists, they found different ways to continue to create, producing and directing a full-length feature film, “Everybody’s Looking For Some Light,” which was an official selection at the Nashville and Knoxville Film Festivals. The movie debuted at a two-day drive-in event produced by the band at Greystone Quarry in Franklin, TN. Over 2,000 people (in over 600 cars) showed up to watch the film and see Colony House perform.
Colony House has performed their songs for worldwide audiences with two appearances on both Late Night with Seth Meyers and CONAN, as well as The Today Show, VH1’s “Morning Buzz,” and MTV Live. They have also been part of several festival lineups including Shaky Knees, Austin City Limits, Firefly, WonderBus, and Lollapalooza. In June of 2023, Colony House will add Bonnaroo to that list, after a national tour that kicked off with a sold-out show at their hometown’s Ryman Auditorium.
The Cannonballers is an apt addition to the band’s catalog, staying true to what Colony House does best, and expanding on what their fans have gravitated to for the past decade: hope and light in the midst of it all. No frills, no gimmicks. Just heart-level rock and roll music.
The Cannonballers is now available wherever you listen to music. In support of the album, Colony House is on tour now. Dates HERE.
The Cannonballers
tracklisting
1. Landlocked Surf Rock
2. Would Ya Could Ya
3. Cannonballers
4. Trying to Survive
5. One of Those Days
6. Everything
7. Don’t I Know You
8. Man on the Run
9. Don’t Give up on Me
10. Do You Ever Feel
11. I’m Not Dying
For the third year in a row, Raven Drum Foundation (RDF) brings together an all-star group of musicians to raise funds for Veterans, first responders, and others dealing with trauma. In addition to RDF co-founder Rick Allen (legendary drummer of Def Leppard), celebrities who have contributed items include Taylor Swift, Nikki Sixx & Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), Todd Sucherman and Styx, Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, The Cult, Velvet Revolver), Fred Armisen, and many more. Through a partnership with Musicians on Call, a Dave Matthews guitar featuring his one-of-kind hand-drawn artwork will be offered to help fund an ongoing partnership with Raven Drum to bring live music to bedsides in VA hospitals around the country.
Founded in 2001 by Allen and his wife, singer-songwriter and healing arts practitioner Lauren Monroe, Raven Drum Foundation serves, educates, and empowers trauma survivors and communities in crisis, with a focus on Veterans and First Responders. By integrating advocacy, storytelling, music, and arts programs and events, the organization brings the tools and experiences of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to support and inspire mental health, resiliency, and unity.
“I recently had the chance to attend a Raven Drum Foundation event and was really impacted by the healing effect the drum circle and joining together in a shared rhythm with a community of people had on me. I’m happy to support Raven Drum’s mission by donating one of my signature bass guitars, along with a few other items, including a scarf worn on stage with Mötley Crüe, some signed books, and my custom picks.” - Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe)
circle 4
Now in its third year, the annual 12 Drummers Drumming auction has raised over $120,000 thus far as RDF has increased their fundraising and awareness-building through various events and efforts. Last year, Raven Drum invited a group of drummers, Veterans, first responders, and supporters to the Amazing Grace estate to experience the magic of a drum circle and the healing benefits of music and community. The event was filmed and released as a short film, 12 Drummers Drumming: Finding the Rhythm to Heal. WATCH HERE.
Following that impressive event, Matt Sorum welcomed RDF to his GoodNoise Studio in Palm Springs, CA. Once again, Allen, Monroe, and Sorum brought together a community of their drumming peers, supporters, donors, and music lovers for a very special event to honor and support Veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors. Watch highlights from that event HERE.
In early 2023, Raven Drum Foundation launched a partnership with Chateau Diana Winery, putting out a special line of wines inspired by Monroe’s songs and featuring artwork by the couple, with a portion of the proceeds going to RDF.
Most recently, the non-profit hosted its most comprehensive gathering to date, the multi-day Mountain Rhythm Reset in Jackson Hole, WY. With interactive programming featuring fireside chats and discussions as well as healing drum circles, the weekend was designed to bring together a select group of legendary musicians, innovative change-makers, leading business & health visionaries, and decorated military Veterans to inspire personal growth & community impact.
Already off to a great start, and with new items being added regularly, 2023’s auction will conclude on Veterans Day (11/11/2023) at 12 PM Pacific Time. To bid, please visit drummers.givesmart.com.
Award-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist Sarah King makes her long-awaited full-length solo debut with When It All Goes Down, exploring life’s seismic shifts via her own singular strain of Gothic Americana. Produced, engineered, and arranged by David Baron (The Lumineers, Noah Kahan, Meghan Trainor), the album sees King weaving classic rock ‘n’ roll, Southern soul, true country, and primal folk-blues into something inspiring and cathartic, deeply personal yet wholly universal. Fired by King’s spellbinding, seen-it-all vocals and rock solid rhythm guitar, songs like “The Longest Night” and the empowering, anthemic title track are haunting, oft-times harrowing, tales of impossible guilt and inconsolable grief, of raising hell (and the repercussions that follow), of how to stand face to face with the Devil himself yet somehow emerge bigger, better, and badder than before. LISTEN HERE.
Currently residing in the Green Mountains of Vermont, in a tiny log cabin without cell reception, Sarah King has walked many a hard road to reach When It All Goes Down. New England born and raised, King spent her early twenties down South, playing in a GA-based rock ‘n’ roll band and generally “growing up, a.k.a. becoming an adult.” She eventually moved back north but found herself at a crossroads, slightly burnt out but driven by an evolving passion for front porch folk and traditional blues, hard times music as real and true now as it was nearly a century ago.
“All of a sudden, my life began to imitate art,” King says. “My dog died and my first husband died and my mom died. Just like that. That’s a lot. But our society doesn’t really teach us anything about grief and how to manage it. So I was like, Well, I am just going to pretend that I’m not grieving. I’m just not going to talk about it. And I’m not going to play music or write music because that would mean I have to get in my feelings.”
Thankfully, King eventually sought help through group therapy and grief counseling, personal work that allowed her to process the pain and trauma brewing inside.
“I was able to sit with my feelings instead of running away from them,” King says. “Music became a safe space for me to deal with all of those feelings. It was okay for me to write songs that were darker and more introspective. I started to dig deeper into even more painful topics, things that maybe had not necessarily happened to me, but things I knew about and saw in the world.”
New songs began to fill her notebooks, songs of sorrow and vulnerability, equally informed by the dark romanticism of her beloved favorite authors Edgar Allan Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as well as the mysterious, evocative, power of early blues, foundational music in which one not only confronts demons, both self-inflicted and unforeseen, but survives them. Her songwriting quickly grew in strength and candor, ultimately attracting the attention of Simone Felice and David Baron, who invited her to record with them at Baron’s Sun Mountain Studio in Boiceville, NY. King made her striking debut with 2021’s The Hour EP, earning her recognition as “Songwriter of the Year” from the New England Music Awards. Like any blues musician worth her salt, she honed her songs – and increasing prowess as a guitarist – on stage as often as possible, including club performances, festival appearances, and shows alongside Blues Traveler, The Steel Woods, and Anders Osborne, to name only a few.
King returned to Sun Mountain Studio for summer sessions in 2022 and 2023, joined in studio by in-demand drummer Jeff Lipstein (Mercury Rev, David Johansen, Jane Siberry) along with remote accompaniment from bassist Johnny Stanton (The Steel Woods), and Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist Josh Cournoyer. Baron – who played keyboards in addition to his other duties – expertly adds texture and filigree without overburdening King’s elemental ballads and finely etched character studies. His intuitive and organic production instead focuses in on the emotional timbre and the sheer physicality of songs like “You Were Wrong About Me” and the slow-burning “Stronger Than You’ll Ever Know” (featuring pedal steel guitar by Nova Scotia-born, Nashville-based musician Asa Brosius). Shot through with subtle swing and heavy horsepower, a current of white-knuckle tension roils just beneath the surface, with King deftly navigating the hidden spaces between darkness and the light.
“We live in the gray areas,” says King. “It’s okay for me to be both light and dark at the same time, I can be heavy and at the same time, optimistic. My music can be very dark but I am still a warm, loving person. I can be who I really am and embrace both sides. I don’t have to choose.”
Indeed, King steers both brooding ballads and rousing rockers through a briar patch of challenging subject matter, chronicling in painstaking detail a lifetime of bad decisions and what might have beens, many of which were fueled in part by her own complex relationship with ol’ demon alcohol. Though the outlaw symphony of “Blame It On The Booze” and stark piano-driven “Whiskey Thinking” convey a lifetime of late nights in barrooms and saloons, King has taken a healthier path in recent months.
Sarah King credit Blu Sanders3
“Last winter, I started to get really serious about my overall health and fitness after some medical issues,” says King. “I went from two drinks a day down to maybe two drinks a week. Now it’s probably more like two drinks a month. It’s good. So even though bourbon and I may not be BFFs right now, we were for many years, and I can very easily get back to those feelings of where I was when I wrote those songs. And I know that when I was in those feelings, that’s when I needed those songs.”
King opted to compliment her original songs with a pair of very personal covers, including a blistering rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do,” the first song King taught herself by ear when first learning to play guitar.
“I chose to keep the original pronouns as a nod to my own queerness,” King says. “I am married to a man, but I’ve dated some wonderful women, and we’ve all had situations where we loved someone who didn’t love us back the way we wanted.”
Having danced on the edge of the abyss throughout the album, King finally goes all the way to the netherworld with her deep, swampy take on “Devil’s Try,” written by her friend Scott Hawkins during his time as an active duty Special Forces soldier.
“Scotty and my first husband served together,” King says, “and I’d always loved that song when he played it with his metal band years ago. I asked if I could ‘Sarah King it up’ and he enthusiastically gave his permission. While it’s an acknowledgment of the hard times we all face, it stands up to those hard times with strength, so it’s both a nod to some of my personal history and the perfect closer for this album.”
A captivating and engaging live performer, King is keen to bring her cathartic blues to life on stage both as a solo artist and bandleader. Rich with rare integrity, earnest emotion, and a restless energy born of extraordinary experience, When It All Goes Down captures an acutely authentic artist exploring her spirit and songcraft in an effort to reach a place that’s both true and transcendent not only in herself, but in all those who also call upon the power of music in their time of need.
“My stories are folk stories,” says Sarah King. “Of the people, for the people, by the people (I’m a person). These are songs for folks who’ve lived through some shit and want some music that doesn’t shy away from that.”
