VALORA
DJ MAJOR TAYLOR
LO-PAN
There is a hidden world where ancient evil weaves a modern mystery. A world filled with the darkest magic’s where all movement is caused by tensions between positive and negative furies. A world in which the furies, when out of balance, turn into demon and live forever. A creature of fast dark destructive power. Repulsive and evil existing only to plague the living as they do with LO-PAN, who is cursed. Cursed with rock and roll genius. Born out of a combination of dirty rock and roll, stale beer and an unhealthy obsession with “Big Trouble In Little China,” Columbus’s Lo-Pan have been tearing up the club circuit since 2005. Lo-Pan burst onto the local scene with their locally released self-titled album back in 2006. The local buzz gave way to more national attention as bands told bands and Lo-Pan began gracing venues big and small with names like Red Giant, Devil To Pay, Torche, Saviours, Year Long Disaster, Red Fang, Valkyrie, & the Atomic Bitchwax (just to name a few). Fast forward five years and there’s hardly a band worth playing with that they haven’t shared a stage with. Enter the sophomore release, “Sasquanaut.” Initial pressings on local indie Nice Life Records sold out quickly and as before the best praise is when one band on the road tells another “Hey, man you’ve got to check this out.” Which brought them, album masters in hand to us here at Small Stone. “Sasquanaut” had all the makings of a classic, thunderous low ends, pummeling drums, riffs to die for and a voice that soars but for all the genius that shone through it was still rough around the edges (don’t get us wrong we love rough around the edges). So we checked them in to a proper studio and left them in the capable hands of Benny Grotto for a little remixing, a little re-mastering and just ever so much re-recording. Enter Sasquanaut, mark 2: “Sasquanaut (Remixed & Re-mastered).” Heavier, more dynamic, louder and just that tiny bit more polished, this is the album that bands and fans new they could make. Mere words just can’t do justice to the effect that a little more time and the proper equipment have had on these eight raging tracks. Maybe a quote from the bands namesake might sum it up. “When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Jack?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.”
SILVER MACHINE
LOST DOG
MOBLEY
“Cry Havoc!” is a thrilling introduction to a new sonic and narrative world created by Mobley. At once intimate and epic, these songs find him exploring themes of power, alienation, and dissent with an artful clarity that demands repeat listening.
With his trademark cinematic sweep, the Austin, TX-based songsmith (and record producer/filmmaker/writer) has delivered a new EP that carries forward the concepts that have animated his work to-date. But where 2021’s Young & Dying in the Occident Supreme refracted these ideas through surreal spaghetti-western soundscapes and guitar-driven psych rock, “Cry Havoc!” introduces a retro-futuristic world of seductively sinister melodies, distorted synths, jagged cuts, and propulsive rhythms.
What remains unchanged is Mobley’s penchant for pop songwriting—ear-worm melodies and hooks for days. He has a mad scientist’s need to experiment with the form’s limits: for half of the tracks Mobley wrote and recorded whole songs which he then dismantled and sampled to create a fresh, new sound. The result is a record that feels strange and familiar, dangerous and danceable. It evokes the dread curiosity of 70s sci-fi paperbacks—among the inspirations for the EP. “Cry Havoc!” is itself a speculative fiction concept record that takes place in an alternate-past New York and the catastrophic far future. It follows an antihero whose failed heist attempt lands him in a secret time prison.
ARMAEDY
MUCH THE SAME
Reunited in 2015 after an eight-year hiatus, Chicago’s Much The Same continues carrying the torch of aggressive, melodic skate punk. Originally formed in 1999, the band quickly gained popularity in the Chicago punk scene, and eventually broke into national and international awareness with their ‘Quitters Never Win’ album in 2003 (A-F Records) and ‘Survive’ in 2006 (Nitro Records). Though the band broke up in 2007, word of mouth continued to grow their fan base throughout the world.
Much The Same now celebrates its 20-year anniversary and guitarist Dan O’Gorman’s recent victory over cancer by releasing their long-awaited third full-length album, Everything is Fine.
UNIT91
WARM OUROBOROS
LOCRIAN
TOXIC LAB RATS
STRIP DISTRICT
JACK OBLIVIAN AND THE TENNESSEE TEARJERKERS
When you come to the Jack Oblivian party, you are going to expect some pawn shops, bad intentions and low-down sleaze and on Rat City (in stores September 13th), he delivers. From the feral existentialism of songs like “Rat City” and “Mass Confusion” to the unhinged love songs with underlying sweetness like “Girl on the Beach” to vignette-heavy songs like “Girl with the Bruises”, Jack disembowels American roots music and the resulting deconstructed songs are tied together with an undeniable groove that only a drummer could muster. Among the originals are some well-picked covers, including a buzzing psyche version of “Moses and Me” by Tommy James and the Shondells, the Howlin’ Wolf-esque “Old Folks Boogie”, re-imagined as a Mississippi trash-blues worthy of T-Model Ford in his prime and “Lover Please!”, a hit for Clyde McPhatter that showcases the incredible guitar slinging of labelmate and collaborator John Paul Keith. Jack Oblivian produced Rat City and played a myriad of instruments on the sessions, at times playing everything.
TAM TAM THE SANDWICH MAN AND THE MAGICAL SUGAR COOKIES
Emerging from the depths of sublimation arose a fine spectre known as Tam-tam the Sandwichman. This essence, this entity, has birthed a new hour of creativity in the world. Tam-tam is no one person, it is bigger than one person, it is universal. All members of this band are tam-tam the sandwichman, for we are his magical sugar cookies with which the message is spread. We play music, but we are not musicians…. we are gifted. Remember that there is always room for one more in Tam-tam the Sandwichman.
JOHN PAUL KEITH & THE ONE FOUR FIVES
John Paul Keith is a blistering guitarist and singer, and the kind of songwriter who makes great melodies and incredible lyrics sound effortless. His new album The Man That Time Forgot will be released on June 21st on Big Legal Mess via Fat Possum Records. Produced by Fat Possum’s Bruce Watson, it captures the spirit and energy of the live shows put on by Keith and his band the One Four Fives, but explores a wider range of themes and influences – echoes of Tex-Mex, garage rock, countrypolitan, mid-60’s soul/pop, fiery rockabilly, and even Mose Allison’s brand of jazz-blues. It’s around about the third listen the realization comes: These songs are incredible. From the Sir Douglas-like opener, “Never Could Say No”, to the wry, closing-time waltz, “The Last Last Call”, this is the work of an amazing songwriter.
BLACK JET RADIO
30MM
DOCO
The family tree of Josh and Trevor Booth is filled with artists of all breeds. Most recently, their father was a member of Backyard Tea, which found some regional success in the ’60s and’70s. The lineage, however, began with a great, great, great uncle by the name of John Wilkes Booth who was an acclaimed actor in his time. Oh, and he also killed Abraham Lincoln. His resume, however, also boasted oil exploration alongside stage performance and political assassination, which brings us back to present day and its influence on his descendents. Dramatic Oil Company, or DO Co., was an ill-fated prospecting venture that the elder Booth dabbled in and the name lives on with the brothers’ Raleigh-via-Winston-Salem’s Doco.
THE FANCY BOYS
FOR A MINOR REFLECTION
SEXY FIGHTS
MAGICKS DJ SET
XENIA RUBINOS
THE LETTER GIRL
Girls like that marry doctors. Girls like us just drink together for the rest of our lives.
THE BONEYARD BRAWLERS
The Boneyard Brawlers is Paul (stand up drums/vox), Boneyard Brian (upright bass fiddle), and Blondie (guitar)
PLAIN OLE DELICIOUS
Are you Delicious?
Taste the sounds that nourish within. The Delicious is anything BUT plain and maybe a little mature, but not ole! Actually quite NEW. There is not a band like it in the area nor in the world. They are witty, they are daring, they are romantic……they are Delicious. Available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, eMusic, Rhapsody, iLike, Tesco, and playing frequently in the Chicagoland area get a chance to see them LIVE!!
GRAND ATLANTIC
From Australia
THE TREESHAKERS
The Treeshakers’ sound is rooted in Chicago’s school of Power Pop, in the tradition of Pezband, Cheap Trick, Shoes, and Material Issue. From there, the group branches out and refines their sound, combining it with hard-driven dual-guitars to create what only can be described as Massive Power Pop.
DYLAN DOG
Dylan Dog’s early beginings started with a chance meeting in 2006 of CD Devlin (Lead guitar) and Bill Z (Vokills) through mutual friends. CD a Boston native was studying at Berklee music college where he was mastering his skills on guitar and song writing. Bill at the time was perfecting his dynamic vocal skills by singing in various genres and performing with local metal bands. Bonding over their love of music and horror movies the two quickly became friends.
By 2009, both becoming very frustrated with their current projects and craving something new and fresh, the two began talks of starting a project like no other. They began exchanging music and lyric files online. The result of trading files recorded on Bill’s 8 track and CD’s garage band files were primitive but promising. Seeing the potential in the tracks Bill and CD began serious talks about recording an EP. Dylan Dog was born.
TREVOR MCSPADDEN
Born in Amarillo, Texas, Trevor McSpadden grew up in the country music tradition, his earliest years set to a backdrop of George Jones and Tammy Wynette on the radio and the Nashville Network on the television set. A move to San Marcos at a young age exposed Trevor to the dancehall music of Central Texas. Night after night, Trevor was captivated by the power of a good band moving couples across the hardwood. Enamored with the music, he set out to learn the basics on his grandfather’s Gibson knock-off. Friends soon became bandmates, and Trevor began to cut his teeth as a serious musician, songwriter, and bandleader, touring the roadhouses and nightclubs of the Texas Hill Country.
Trevor thought his move to Chicago in 2005 would mean an end to his honky tonkin’ days, but he was surprised to find the corner bars in the big city not unlike the beer joints in Texas. After rounding up a few dedicated country pickers, it wasn’t long before he started his first Chicago country band, The True Historians. Quickly embraced by the music community, Trevor signed on as vocalist with the Hoyle Brothers in 2008, bringing his own style of country western, rhythm, and roots to a long-standing and beloved Chicago institution.
Trevor’s years in Chicago have seen him thrive as a singer-songwriter and emerge as a mainstay of local country & western music. With scores of original songs and a cast of superb musicians, Trevor has set out to bring audiences across the country an evening of compelling entertainment tuned to beautiful music. It is the need to play and share the music — its rhythm, its soul, its deep-rooted historical resonance — that calls Trevor to the stage. It is the beauty of an open dance floor filling with couples that keeps him there, night after night.
THE SCREAMIN’ END
Recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Krazy Eddie and The Screamin’ End came back to their sweet home Chicago to bring YOU that Juke Joint sound! From the roots of rock, to rockabilly and jumpin blues, you’ll tap your feet and clap your hands – then jump up to dance! From the House of Blues Hotel in Chicago to the Blues in Schools, all events public and private, welcome Krazy Eddie and The Screamin’ End. Book us for a show and/or come to a show and see what you’ve been missing.
IVIVRA MOTIVE
Ivivra Motive began in late 2003 when Jarred Mason( vocals, guitar) moved from the Lake of the Ozarks Missouri to live with his brothers in Chicago. Soon after Jarred and his brother Ryan Mason(lead guitar) began writing songs together. They eventually wrote and recorded 4 albums( 1 live), and an E.P.
In August 2009, Jarred met Steve Taylor(bass, keys) through Steve’s girlfriend. It is here that Ivivra Motive was beginning to take it’s current shape. As the songwriting process continued, Kevin Clark was added as a percussionist. They soon played their first show together, and very quickly added James Lippert on drums.
In early 2010, Ivivra Motive recorded the E.P. Blue Fire. Soon after Kevin Clark left the band due to personal interests. The sound of the band then changed to a more aggressive sound, adding elements of hard rock and blues into their overall picture. They eventually played nearly 20 shows in 2010.
Now, James, Ryan, Steve, and Jarred take the shape of Ivivra Motive, and are currently writing new songs, and gearing up for shows booked in 2011.
MEGA RAN
THE MIGHTY REGIS
This band of misfits have been bringing their brand of floor-stomping Celtic punk rock to clubs all over California and beyond for the past 4 years. While their sound is rooted in traditional Irish folk, the 7 members of The Mighty Regis inject a variety of influences into their music. Most often likened to The Pogues, who lead singer Franky refers to as “The Old Guard”, TMR also draws inspiration from such bands as The Clash, NOFX, Bad Religion, Johnny Cash, The Bouncing Souls, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Misfits and The Police. It’s members having made ends meet in Hollywood via all manner of artistic endeavors, the entertainment value of their live show pairs perfectly with their tight musicianship.
DJ GENGHIS WON
BAG OF BALLS
THE ANSWER TEAM
ANDY MARCHEL AND THE COCAINE RAINBOW
RONNIE AND THE PUZZLE
TJ KONG AND THE ATOMIC BOMB
“TJ Kong (singer/guitarist Dan Bruskewicz) and the rest of the Philly trio seem to play a contemporary-ancient brand of Americana similar to The Band or, at its crankiest extreme, Captain Beefheart. Spend time with crabby epics like “Everyone We Know” or the curtly clever “Helena Handbasket” and you find that TJK&TAB hardly sound American at all. More like avant-garde blues with a dirty Mersey Beat that’d shame the Animals.”
THOSE POOR BASTARDS
The band description is as follows: “Those Poor Bastards play miserable and primitive old-time gothic country music. Lonesome Wyatt (guitar, vocals) and The Minister (banjo, bass, etc.) are both legally certified holiness preachers.
If you’re looking for slick, over-produced, commercial songs, you’d better cover your delicate little ears. Those Poor Bastards play it raw and they play it mean. Be a pal and support independent anti-corporate country music.”
“Those Poor Bastards are the best Gothic Country I have heard yet to this day. The depressing gloomy vocals coming out of this drifter named Lonesome Wyatt has hints of Marilyn Manson to Nick Cave, Throwrag and maybe even a hint of a demented Adam Ant with a shot of a Pilled Up Johnny Cash… And the Minister is backing up Lonesome Wyatt with a style that is a cross between erie strung out folk music with a creepy blend of The Nightmare Before Christmas!!!!!!!!!”
— Hank III
RACHEL BROOKE
She’s quite the paradox: a seasoned songwriter who perfectly embodies the music of the American South but lives in the wilds of Michigan. An artist who grew up performing with parents in the family bluegrass band but spent her teen years raging away in an all-girl punk band. An introvert off stage, whose wall-shaking voice has earned her a place at cutting- edge roots music festivals like Muddy Roots, SXSW, AmerianaFest, Mountain Top, and the Rochester International Jazz Festival. An icon of underground country, whose newest critically acclaimed album has been featured in major media outlets like CMT, Parade Magazine, Glide, and Cowboys and Indians, and garnered the attention from Nashville big-wigs. But when you sing this well and play like hell, who do you have to answer to anyways?
DEAD N GONE
FRIEND
THE ULTRASOUNDS
YOUR UNCLES BIG JUNGLE
VOL 4
DIDGY SLACKER
DARK SPECTRUM
BROTHER ALI
I’ve lived and loved the culture of Hip Hop since I was in grade school, 1985. I use to study and memorize the greats like Melle Mell, Slick Rick and Whoodini. When KRS-One, Rakim and Public Enemy came out in the late 80’s it blew my mind. I started writing and recording my own songs in Jr. High. By High School I was battling in cyphers everywhere I went and rockin’ school dances.
I met the Rhymesayers crew in the late 90’s and learned the next level of DIY music. Ant and I started working together in ’02. We made Shadows On The Sun and I started touring in support of Atmosphere (my label-mates and big brothers).
We toured constantly for the next few years with comrades like Brand Nubian, Immortal Technique and Rakim. The Champion EP dropped in 04 and we kept it moving.
Our last major release was The Undisputed Truth in Spring of ’07. I had a great couple of years because of that record. My crew and I did our first headlining tours in the US, Canada and Australia. I was featured in The Source Magazine’s “Hip Hop Quotable” and Rolling Stone’s “Artist To Watch” columns. I played on TV a few times including Late Night with Conan O’Brien (Mint Condition backed me up for that one). I did a US tour with Rakim and Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan. I was also blessed to tour Europe and Australia several more times with Atmosphere.
This past March we released the final chapter in the Undisputed Truth movement. “The Truth Is Here EP/DVD is a collection of music that ANT and I made during the few precious breaks we had from our tour schedule. The DVD is my sold-out homecoming show from The Undisputed Truth Tour.
Ant and I just released our latest full-length album “Us”. Whereas my last projects have been strictly autobiographical, this album opens the lens to showcase the amazing and sometimes tragic lives of my friends and loved-ones who have shaped me as a man. I hope that by illustrating these stories that are so dear to my heart, I might shed some light on how similar we all really are. Society makes us think we’re in different worlds because of our race, religion, class, sex etc. I tried to make something that shows how alike we really are.
CHASE THIS CITY
THE BEGGARS
Meet the Good Boys of Rock! They’re knocking loudly on your door but they look so cordial. You’ll wanna let them in even though you know they’ll bring the house down. The Beggars can do rowdy, they can do outrageous and they do all the reckless valiant theatrics of everything you thought you loved most about Rock n’ Roll – but the Beggars edge is in their endearment – the swagger of the greats without the sleaze of the stereotype – a pure energy burst from a wholesome (yes, wholesome) love for the legends (and the legacies) of rock.
They cruise with a heavy chugging 70’s fuzz style that loopde-loops up like a rocket of spacier psychedelia, only to parachute down into the eye of the party’s storm, cool as cucumbers with a soulful swagger of jazzy bass and danceable beats, spurred ever forth by crowd-crazy incitements from a quintessential frontman. The Beggars, good boys that they are, understand that rock is equal parts demolition derby as it is vaudeville theatre, let’s have a good time.
They formed in 2003, just north of Detroit, MI, founded by drummer Joe Senac and guitarist Jonny Wilkins, based on a commitment to rock-solid showmanship. Singer (and ProWrestling School drop-out) Steven Tuthill joined in 05, inspired by Wilkins’ and Senac’s spirited show, inspired by seminal soul/blues-influenced rock n roll.
Wilkins and Tuthill kept the band going as various players of comparably blistering talents and styles came, partied, rocked and rolled on their way, off to join bands like The Electric Six, The Sights. Drummer Jim Faulkner continues to hold the beat down while Pookie Grech provides the soulful, psyche-blues bass grooves under Chris Krez’ flavorful guitar firestorms. Wilkins’ wields his wailing ax masterfully under the highflying antics of Tuthill, belting the Beggars’ anthems with breathless enthusiasm.
KEITHEN TERRELL BANKS STORY
MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY
“MMM are inheritors of postpunk who don’t pander to its legacy, they extend it”-WebInFront.net