Cat’s Cradle

As the Brontë sister wrote, “The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine.” Shovels & Rope, the musical duo of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, embody that bond. Married for a decade, their covenant extends to blood and beyond: as parents, bandmates, and creative collaborators who can now add the pursuits of festival curators, film subjects, and children’s book authors to that mighty list. Having released four studio albums and two collaborative projects (Busted Jukebox, Vol. 1 & 2) since 2008, Trent and Hearst have built their reputation on skill, sweat, and, yes, blood. Now, with the tough and elegant new record By Blood, as well as their High Water Festival in their hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, “Shovels & Rope: The Movie”, and the picture book “C’mon Utah!”, Shovels & Rope are primed for their biggest year yet. Accomplished musicians in their own right prior to dedicating themselves full time to Shovels & Rope in 2011, Trent and Hearst have made a career together by seizing opportunities and never resting on their laurels or being complacent in doing something just because. Carving out a niche in the music world with strong, roots/indie/folk/rock-inspired efforts like 2012’s O’ Be Joyful, 2014’s Swimmin’ Time, and 2016’s inward-looking Little Seeds, as well as their powerful live show, far-reaching tours, and myriad TV and festival appearances, Shovels & Rope have earned the right to follow their own muse. And so, in an effort to satisfy their numerous creative interests and adapt to a changing industry, Trent and Hearst have firmly planted their flag in realms beyond recording and releasing albums. The third annual High Water Festival curated by the band will be held over a weekend in April and will bring 10,000 fans to a park in North Charleston to witness a lineup of artists comparable to some of the best in the country-including Leon Bridges, The Head & The Heart, Lord Huron, Jenny Lewis, Mitski, and Shovels & Rope themselves. High Water benefits select organizations and water conservation charities in Charleston and aims to avoid the feeling of corporate inundation and discomfort that plagues many big-name music events. Trent and Hearst work with production companies and agencies to book acts, then serve as on-site hosts in addition to performing throughout the weekend. “Shovels & Rope: The Movie” is a performance film that has been expanded into feature-length with an external narrative weaving through and connecting the live performances. Directed by their frequent visual collaborator, Curtis Millard, the ‘live show’ portion of the filming took place over two nights at The Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, during the tour for Little Seeds. The rest of the film was shot in various locations in and around the Southeast. The result can be described as a David Lynch meets John Hughes (a fun, silly, and tongue-in-cheek film for fans to enjoy that also represents the band at the peak of their live power.) ‘By Blood’ Pre-Show Experience with Shovels & Rope One general admission ticket -or- premium reserved seat located in the first 10 rows Early entry into the venue Meet Shovels & Rope. Say hello and snap a photo with Michael and Cary before the show Pre-show performance and Q&A by Shovels & Rope Limited-edition tour poster signed by Shovels & Rope Official ‘By Blood’ laminate Merchandise shopping opportunity before general doors Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

A sleeping giant of the electronic music world, Douglas Appling — more commonly known as Emancipator — has quietly established himself as a mainstay in the electronic music scene since the release of his debut album, Soon It Will Be Cold Enough in 2006. Classically-trained as a violinist from an early age, Appling’s organic approach to electronic music production draws inspiration from a wide range of international cultures and musical genres, culminating in a refreshingly authentic brand of electronic music that has infiltrated global consciousness. 2015 was a busy year having released Live In Athens in June, and Dusk to Dawn Remixes — a remix album featuring massively-popular contributions from the likes of ODESZA, Little People, Eliot Lipp, and more — in July, 2015 and now his first full length album in three years, Seven Seas. Seven Seas is the product of over two years of work, collaborations, experiences, and live performances all culminating in a cohesive collection of songs that solidifies that Emancipator is only getting better with age. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | SoundCloud

As one of the most important, politically charged and thought-provoking bands in music today, Sleaford Mods have been running crass but clever commentary on The People’s discontent, combining the revolutionary fury of punk and hip-hop with the bleakness of austerity-era Britain, their five critically acclaimed albums a pre-Boris crystal ball of impending doom. On paper it shouldn’t work. Andrew Fearn’s clever minimalistic beats, post-punk bass, intentionally cheap sounding keyboard riffs and wafts of guitar underpin lyricist Jason Williamson as he rants against stagnation, injustice and pop culture with outrage and scathing humour, capturing the spirit of their time with a blunt eloquence. On stage there is no pretence. An antithesis to the approach of many electronic artists, Andrew simply presses play on his laptop and steps back to bob his head, drink his beer and watch as the spectacle of Jason moving from angry to hypnotic unfolds. Stumbling into the music scene in 2013, their breakthrough album Austerity Dogs caught the moment. Described by The Quietus as ‘a brutally brilliant slice of working-class culture… soaked in the impossible realities of the everyday’, their surprise success spearheaded a punk renaissance, paving the way for a generation of new artists to follow. More success followed with 2014’s critically acclaimed Divide & Exit and interspersed with Prodigy and Leftfield collaborations, subsequent albums, 2015’s Key Markets and 2017’s English Tapas charted top 20 in the Official UK Album Charts. 2019’s Eton Alive finally saw the band gain a top 10 hit, offering a more sombre soundscape and underscoring the reality of Sleaford Mods’ subject matter. The result is exhilarating, cathartic and brutally brilliant proving time and time again that Sleaford Mods are as vital politically as they are artistically. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube

Without desire, most of the world’s problems would be solved and it would be a miserable place to live. For the last 30 years, Greg Dulli has been the poet laureate of the bizarre whims and cruel tangents of desire. A foremost authority on the sell-your-soul rewards of carnal lust, the high voltage epiphanies of chemical enhancement, and the serotonin lows left in their wake. The front man of the Afghan Whigs has long been on a first-name basis with his demons, most of whom eventually relented and let him pour them a shot. But then there are the known unknowns at the heart of our nature, the intractable difficulties of love and death, and the recurring human desire for survival and rebirth. Therein lies Random Desire, the first solo album under Dulli’s own name, following canonized stints at the helm of The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers. The title is a play on “random selection,” which refers to a process that researchers use to pick participants for a study. When using this method, every single member of a population has an “equal chance of being chosen as a subject.” Recontextualized, it allows us to realize the randomness of existence, the odd alchemy of emotions, chemistry, and circumstance that baffle us to no end. The reasons why artists write songs and why listeners need them. And even if the answers are evasive, that’s no excuse to quit searching. Random Desire started in the aftermath of the last Whigs record, 2017’s In Spades, which Pitchfork named one of the best rock records of the year, hailing it as a “heavy, menacing work of indie rock majesty…thrilling and unsettling.” Drummer Patrick Keeler was about to take a short sabbatical to record and tour with his other band, The Raconteurs. Dulli’s longtime collaborator, bassist John Curley went back to school, and there was the tragic death of the band’s guitarist, Dave Rosser. In response, Dulli returned to his teenage bedroom roots, finding musical inspiration via the model of one-man-band visionaries Prince and Todd Rundgren. The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Hamilton Ohio native wrote nearly every part of the record from piano lines to drums to bass riffs. As always, the music came first and the lyrics were completed later. Recording and writing way stations included his home in Silver Lake, the village of Crestline high up in mountains above San Bernardino, and New Orleans. But the bulk was finished amidst the arid beauty and stark isolation of Joshua Tree at the studio of engineer Christopher Thorn. Dulli handled most instrumentation, but an all-star cast of characters appear across the track-listing including The Whigs’ guitarist Jon Skibic and multi-instrumentalist Rick G. Nelson, Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers), Mark McGuire (Emeralds), pedal steel wizard, upright bassist, and physician Dr. Stephen Patt, and drummer Jon Theodore (Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta). Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Apple Music

Psych-punk psychic warrior, ear worm-farmer, and possessor of many stamped passport pages John Dwyer does not let up. His group Oh Sees (aka Thee Oh Sees, OCS, The Oh Sees, etc) have transmogrified to fit many a moment – from hushed druggy folk to groovy demonic pop chants to science fictional krautrock expanse and beyond – to suit his omnivorous whims. Links: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp

This is a seated show. Blood and Bones One of Austin’s most celebrated musicians, Bob Schneider, released his 2018 album, “Blood and Bones” – his 7th studio album since his 2001 solo debut Lonelyland – via his Shockorama Records imprint. “Blood and Bones” captures Schneider at a unique, and distinct place. “Most of the songs are about this phase of my life,” he admits. “I’m re-married, I have a 2-year-old baby daughter who was born over two months premature because my wife had life threatening preeclampsia. So dealing with that traumatic event while getting older and looking at death in a realistic, matter of fact way, experiencing the most joy I’ve ever experienced along with feelings of utter despondency in a way that would have been impossible to experience earlier in my life, all comes out in the songs. My relationship with my wife is the longest committed relationship I’ve ever been in, so there was a lot of unchartered territory there to write about.” The songs on “Blood and Bones” reflect this. Recorded quickly with producer Dwight Baker, who has worked with Schneider on 6 of his previous releases, the album highlights the chemistry that Schneider and his backing band of Austin’s very best musicians have developed while relentlessly playing live, most notably at the monthly residency Schneider has held at Austin’s Saxon Pub for the last 19 years. “I didn’t want to overthink the songs,” Schneider says. “I really respect Dwight’s ability to make great calls when it comes to what works and isn’t working when we are recording the songs. I felt pretty good about the quality of the songwriting, so I figured that would come through in the end if we just went in and played them the way I do live.” While the performance and production are stellar, the songwriting finds Schneider in a particularly reflective mode. Sure, there are live favorites like “Make Drugs Get Money” and “Texaco” that will get even the most reserved crowds dancing. But more often the album finds Schneider reflecting on marriage, parenthood, and mortality. “I wish I could make you see how wonderful everything is most of the time, but I’m only blood and bones,” he sings on the title track, a meditation on the beauty and the limits of marriage. Later, on “Easy,” he tells his daughter “it’s always been a scary thing to do, to let my heart fall down into the endless blue, but it’s easy with you.” Through it all, there is a clear sense of mortality, of just how fleeting all of this is. “The hours and days stack up in the mirror,” he sings on “Hours and Days”. “We’re just snowmen waiting for the summer” he sings on “Snowmen”, before adding “we can’t bring them back, can’t bring nothing back.” One thing Schneider has excelled at in his career is bringing audiences back. Though he has received little national press or major label support, he has managed to become one of the biggest acts in Austin, if not in Texas. His fans, who often discover him from being brought to his shows by their friends, are fiercely loyal. Many have attended dozens or even hundreds of shows. Thanks to these fans, Schneider has won more Austin Music Awards than any other musician, including Best Album, Best Songwriter, Best Musician, and Best Male Vocals, rounding in at 59 total awards to date. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The band´s name comes from the television show “Human Values” by Venezuelan historian Arturo Uslar Pietri, which remained in the air for two decades, where he always dedicated the show to his “Invisible Friends” refering to the audience. His record debut came in 1995 with the release of “A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band”. Little by little, the band consolidated its local fame by staying on tour until 1996. It is in this year that David Byrne, while shopping at a record store in New York, accidentally finds one of the copies left by Los Amigos on consignment and immediately begins the process of conversations that led to signing them for his record label “Luaka Bop”. After months of conversations, pre-production and production, in 1998 they released their first album for the label of the former Talking Heads, “The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera”, produced by Andrés Levín, which had hits like “Ponerte en Cuatro”, “Sexy” and “Disco Anal”. Two years later the band moves to the city of San Francisco for 2 months to record their next album and it is at this time that the band is considering the possibility of moving permanently to the United States to continue their career. At the end of 2000 they put on sale their third album “Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey Into Space” produced by Phillip Steir which is nominated for a Grammy Award and a Latin Grammy. Of this disc they leave subjects like “Cuchi Cuchi” and “The Neighbor”. After almost a year of planning, the band decided to move to New York City on January 23, 2001. During their first year in the city, Los Amigos began a friendly and working relationship with the legends of the dance world “Masters At Work” which leads them to enter the studio in early 2002 to record what would be their fourth album. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Aterciopelados, the pioneer Latin-American folk-rock group, returns after 8 years with their first long and live project entitled “Reluciente, Rechinante y Aterciopelado.” This CD+DVD is a compilation of the most representative songs of their repertoire that celebrates over two decades of their existence as a band. It features the participation of big names, such as Macaco, León Larregui (vocals for the Mexican group Zoé), Goyo (Chocquibtown) and Catalina García (Monsieur Periné). The group’s members, Andrea Echeverri and Héctor Buitrago, founded Aterciopelados in 1992 and achieved great success, both locally and internationally, thanks to a sound that was absolutely unique and innovative, free of prejudices, mixing rock with the roots of Colombian folklore and even with salsa and bossa nova. Aterciopelados have grown and evolved with each production, making history in Latin America and the rest of the world. They have released seven studio and one compilation album, selling over ten million copies of their records. Their album Río has been mentioned by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 10 best Latin rock albums of all times. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Natalie Mering, known professionally as Weyes Blood, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Mering was raised in a musical family and began writing songs under the moniker Wise Blood at age 15, later changing the spelling to Weyes Blood. She spent some formative years in the underground noise music scene, playing in bands Jackie-O Motherfucker and Nautical Almanac. Mering released her debut album, The Outside Room, in 2011 on Not Not Fun Records, followed up by 2014’s The Innocents on Mexican Summer. Her breakthrough occurred in 2016 with the release of Front Row Seat to Earth. With this record, she gained recognition for her distinctive style of melodic, orchestral, and melancholic songwriting melded with apocalyptic themes. This is further refined on 2019’s strikingly beautiful and critically-acclaimed Titanic Rising (Sub Pop). The record received high placements on year-end and decade-end lists from publications such as Pitchfork, Uproxx, Paste, Uncut, Dazed, The Guardian, and NPR. Live performance highlights include sold-out tours in the US and Europe, as well as opening for Kacey Musgraves in the fall and signing with Lana Del Rey at the Hollywood Bowl. Mering’s voice sounds at once classic and new — her music could exist as comfortably in the ’70s as it does in our current age of anxiety and tension, making her a unique cultural commentator on society’s current condition. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube