Upcoming Concerts

North Carolina native Emily Scott Robinson has traveled a quarter million miles and counting, paying her dues along the dusty highways of America’s wild country in the RV she calls home. Along the way, she’s captured the stories of the people she met and expertly crafted them into the songs featured on her gorgeous debut studio release, “Traveling Mercies.” Named one of Rolling Stone’s “10 New Country and Americana Artists to Watch in 2019,” Robinson received critical acclaim from Billboard, No Depression, and American Songwriter for the stories captured on her new album and performed on the main stage of the 2019 Telluride Bluegrass Festival as winner of the Telluride Troubadour Contest.

The diner where the waitress knows everyone by name. The World War Two veteran reflecting on the end of his life. The windswept trailer park where people prefer to keep their curtains closed. As she meditates on human frailty and the power of resilience, Robinson is at times vulnerable, at others, defiant and absolutely free. Rolling Stone called “Traveling Mercies” a collection of “country-folk songs about America in all its pain and glory with the literate, Southern gothic sensibility of Flannery O’Connor.” Robinson is on the rise with her new record— a tour de force from an elegant chronicler of her own existence and those of her fellow humans.

Dame Fortune is the deliciously eclectic sixth album from veteran producer and crate digger extraordinaire RJD2, out March 25th on RJ's Electrical Connections. It's a wondrous beast, recorded over the past year while living in Philadelphia, before returning to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Streaked with Philly's rep for deeply felt soul music while maintaining a playful sense of adventurousness, Dame Fortune features guest vocalists Son Little (aka Aaron Livingston) and frequent collaborator Phonte, while also presenting the bombastic hip-hop sound that marked RJD2's breakthrough album, Deadringer, and even an orchestral composition for the societal unrest experienced in this day and age (called "PF Day One."..the PF standing for "Post Ferguson").

"Living in Philly provided a context for a lot of soul music that I had liked," RJD2 says on the city's influence on Dame Fortune's sound. "I didn't have any cultural context for this music that I liked -- it was just music that I had stumbled across as a beat making nerd. Philly was a place where there were enough people who had the same musical vocabulary that I did, which made the music more than something I had just discovered on my own."

The debut single, "Peace of What," features Jordan Brown and draws inspiration from 1990s rap legends Main Source's 1991 single "Peace Is Not the Word to Play." "When I hear people talk of peace in America, the discrepancy between our words and our actions can get fatiguing," he says on the inspiration behind the song. "I was trying to reflect the experience of people I know, which often feels like 'We're not ACTUALLY trying to do anything about this problem in our country.'"

Thought-provoking and undeniably entertaining all at once, this latest exhibition of musical virtuosity is a crystal-clear reflection of RJD2's cinematic aspirations, reminding listeners that it's always rewarding to expect the unexpected.

Pop/Soul singer and American Idol runner-up Clark Beckham has announced a 23-city U.S. tour in conjunction with the upcoming release of his new album, Light Year. The tour launches Feb. 11th in Dallas and will extend into spring with tour stops including Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and New York.
The announcement comes two years after Beckham’s international tour and highly successful release of his EP Year One. For Light Year Beckham has crafted a full-length album of original songs, including collaborations like the recently released single “I Hurt Too Much,” a stunner reminiscent of the soul ballads of the ‘70s.
“I’m such a fan of other musicians and songwriters, I love taking an idea to a great writer and watching their wheels turn,” said Beckham. “Then we’re off, going to places we’d have never found on our own.” As much as he enjoys the collaborative process, writing solo will always be important to Beckham. Added the Nashville native, “There are some songs that happen when you’re alone.”
The Light Year title seemed a natural successor to Year One and a nod to seminal events that have propelled Clark’s career. When his soulful, bluesy voice caught the attention of iconic producer Quincy Jones, who would become a mentor to Beckham, even the iconic Jones took a moment to gush about Clark’s talents. “I think God leaves His hand on a select few just a bit longer than the rest,” Jones said, “and there’s no doubt (Clark) is one of them. He is an absolutely unforgettable talent.”
Said Beckham, “When I look back at my season on Idol, my time with Quincy, and my first international tour, I’ve experienced cosmic creative growth through it all. Light Year isn’t only about the past,” he explained, “it’s also about boldly charging ahead, declaring that what’s in front of me will be greater than what’s behind me.”
Beckham has made several television appearances, including ABC’s Live with Kelly and Michael and Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family. He has been nominated for a Teen Choice Award, performed with the Nashville Symphony, and opened for Capitol Records recording artists Jon Bellion and Allen Stone.
In 2016 a national survey by E-Score ranked Beckham as one of American Idol’s Top Ten Most Talented contestants since its debut in 2002.

What It Is

The chorus to the title track on the new Hayes Carll album, What It Is, is a manifesto.

What it was is gone forever / What it could be God only knows.
What it is is right here in front of me / and I’m not letting go.

He’s embracing the moment. Leaving the past where it belongs, accepting there’s no way to know what’s ahead, and challenging himself to be present in both love and life. It’s heady stuff. It also rocks.

With a career full of critical acclaim and popular success, Carll could’ve played it safe on this, his sixth record, but he didn’t. The result is a musically ambitious and lyrically deep statement of an artist in his creative prime.

Hayes Carll’s list of accomplishments is long. His third album, 2008’s Trouble In Mind, earned him an Americana Music Association Award for Song of the Year (for “She Left Me for Jesus”). The follow-up, KMAG YOYO was the most played album on the Americana Chart in 2011 and spawned covers by artists as varied as Hard Working Americans and Lee Ann Womack, whose version of “Chances Are” garnered Carll a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. 2016’s Lovers and Leavers swept the Austin Music Awards, and was his fourth record in a row to reach #1 on the Americana Airplay chart. Kelly Willis and Kenny Chesney have chosen to record his songs and his television appearances include The Tonight Show, Austin City Limits, and Later w/Jools Holland. Carll is the rare artist who can rock a packed dancehall one night and hold a listening room at rapt attention the next.

“Repeating myself creatively would ultimately leave me empty. Covering new ground, exploring, and taking chances gives me juice and keeps me interested.”

He knew he wanted to find the next level. On What It Is, he clearly has.

It wasn’t necessarily easy to get there. Carll’s last release, 2016’s Lovers and Leavers was an artistic and commercial risk — a bold move which eschewed the tempo and humor of much of his previous work. The record revealed a more serious singer-songwriter dealing with more serious subjects — divorce, new love in the middle of life, parenting, the worth of work. What It Is finds him now on the other side, revived and happy, but resolute — no longer under the impression that any of it comes for free.

“I want to dig in so this life doesn’t just pass me by. The more engaged I am the more meaning it all has. I want that to be reflected in the work.”

And meaning there is. Carll sings “but I try because I want to,” on the album’s opening track, “None’Ya.” He’s not looking back lamenting love lost, rather, finding joy and purpose in the one he’s got and hanging on to the woman who sometimes leaves him delightedly scratching his head. “If I May Be So Bold,” finds him standing on similar ground — lyrically taking on the challenge of participating fully in life rather than discontentedly letting life happen.

Bold enough to not surrender bold enough to give a damn
Bold enough to keep on going or to stay right where I am
There’s a whole world out there waiting full of stories to be told
I’ll heed the call and tell’em all if I may be so bold

There’s no wishy washy here and he’s not on the sidelines. In fact, he’s neck-deep in life. On the rambunctious, fiddle-punctuated, “Times Like These,” he laments political division in America while delivering a rapid-fire plea to “do my labor, love my girl, and help my neighbor, while keeping all my joie de vivre.” Carll’s signature cleverness and aptitude for so-personal-you-might-miss-it political commentary is as strong as ever. The stark, “Fragile Men,” co-written with singer-songwriter Lolo, uses humor and dripping sarcasm to examine his gender’s resistance to change in less than three minutes of string-laden, almost Jacques Brel invoking drama. It’s new musical territory for Carll, and the result is powerful. His voice is strong and resonant on these songs, and it’s thrilling to hear him use it with a new authority. He is alternately commanding and tender, yet always soulful.

Carll returned to trusted producer Brad Jones (producer of 2008’s Trouble in Mind and 2011’s KMAG YOYO) and Alex the Great Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, to record What It Is, and recruited singer-songwriter, author, and fiancee Allison Moorer as co-producer. The production is adventurous while keeping the focus on the singer and his songs and providing a path for him to go where he wants to go. Where that is, is forward.

That’s evident in the songwriting. Carll continues to hone his singular voice, but is also a flexible co-writer. Matraca Berg, Charlie Mars, Adam Landry, and Moorer have co-writing credits here, but it was Moorer’s inspiration that provided the largest impact.

“On the songwriting front she’s just a pro. She helps me cut through the noise and she does it with wit and style.”

Carll’s own wit and style has never been more evident. Whether it’s with the put-you-in-picture detail of, “Beautiful Thing,” the not quite sheepish enough, dude-esque defense of dishonesty in, “Things You Don’t Wanna Know,” or the strong as a tree trunk declaration of love on, “I Will Stay,” he displays an increasing command of his poetic lexicon.

Writers most often wrestle with experience and expectations, either romanticizing the past or telling us how good it’s going to be when they get where they’re going. What It Is is a record that is rooted solidly in the present, revealing an artist in the emotional and intellectual here and now.

What It Is

The chorus to the title track on the new Hayes Carll album, What It Is, is a manifesto.

What it was is gone forever / What it could be God only knows.
What it is is right here in front of me / and I’m not letting go.

He’s embracing the moment. Leaving the past where it belongs, accepting there’s no way to know what’s ahead, and challenging himself to be present in both love and life. It’s heady stuff. It also rocks.

With a career full of critical acclaim and popular success, Carll could’ve played it safe on this, his sixth record, but he didn’t. The result is a musically ambitious and lyrically deep statement of an artist in his creative prime.

Hayes Carll’s list of accomplishments is long. His third album, 2008’s Trouble In Mind, earned him an Americana Music Association Award for Song of the Year (for “She Left Me for Jesus”). The follow-up, KMAG YOYO was the most played album on the Americana Chart in 2011 and spawned covers by artists as varied as Hard Working Americans and Lee Ann Womack, whose version of “Chances Are” garnered Carll a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. 2016’s Lovers and Leavers swept the Austin Music Awards, and was his fourth record in a row to reach #1 on the Americana Airplay chart. Kelly Willis and Kenny Chesney have chosen to record his songs and his television appearances include The Tonight Show, Austin City Limits, and Later w/Jools Holland. Carll is the rare artist who can rock a packed dancehall one night and hold a listening room at rapt attention the next.

“Repeating myself creatively would ultimately leave me empty. Covering new ground, exploring, and taking chances gives me juice and keeps me interested.”

He knew he wanted to find the next level. On What It Is, he clearly has.

It wasn’t necessarily easy to get there. Carll’s last release, 2016’s Lovers and Leavers was an artistic and commercial risk — a bold move which eschewed the tempo and humor of much of his previous work. The record revealed a more serious singer-songwriter dealing with more serious subjects — divorce, new love in the middle of life, parenting, the worth of work. What It Is finds him now on the other side, revived and happy, but resolute — no longer under the impression that any of it comes for free.

“I want to dig in so this life doesn’t just pass me by. The more engaged I am the more meaning it all has. I want that to be reflected in the work.”

And meaning there is. Carll sings “but I try because I want to,” on the album’s opening track, “None’Ya.” He’s not looking back lamenting love lost, rather, finding joy and purpose in the one he’s got and hanging on to the woman who sometimes leaves him delightedly scratching his head. “If I May Be So Bold,” finds him standing on similar ground — lyrically taking on the challenge of participating fully in life rather than discontentedly letting life happen.

Bold enough to not surrender bold enough to give a damn
Bold enough to keep on going or to stay right where I am
There’s a whole world out there waiting full of stories to be told
I’ll heed the call and tell’em all if I may be so bold

There’s no wishy washy here and he’s not on the sidelines. In fact, he’s neck-deep in life. On the rambunctious, fiddle-punctuated, “Times Like These,” he laments political division in America while delivering a rapid-fire plea to “do my labor, love my girl, and help my neighbor, while keeping all my joie de vivre.” Carll’s signature cleverness and aptitude for so-personal-you-might-miss-it political commentary is as strong as ever. The stark, “Fragile Men,” co-written with singer-songwriter Lolo, uses humor and dripping sarcasm to examine his gender’s resistance to change in less than three minutes of string-laden, almost Jacques Brel invoking drama. It’s new musical territory for Carll, and the result is powerful. His voice is strong and resonant on these songs, and it’s thrilling to hear him use it with a new authority. He is alternately commanding and tender, yet always soulful.

Carll returned to trusted producer Brad Jones (producer of 2008’s Trouble in Mind and 2011’s KMAG YOYO) and Alex the Great Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, to record What It Is, and recruited singer-songwriter, author, and fiancee Allison Moorer as co-producer. The production is adventurous while keeping the focus on the singer and his songs and providing a path for him to go where he wants to go. Where that is, is forward.

That’s evident in the songwriting. Carll continues to hone his singular voice, but is also a flexible co-writer. Matraca Berg, Charlie Mars, Adam Landry, and Moorer have co-writing credits here, but it was Moorer’s inspiration that provided the largest impact.

“On the songwriting front she’s just a pro. She helps me cut through the noise and she does it with wit and style.”

Carll’s own wit and style has never been more evident. Whether it’s with the put-you-in-picture detail of, “Beautiful Thing,” the not quite sheepish enough, dude-esque defense of dishonesty in, “Things You Don’t Wanna Know,” or the strong as a tree trunk declaration of love on, “I Will Stay,” he displays an increasing command of his poetic lexicon.

Writers most often wrestle with experience and expectations, either romanticizing the past or telling us how good it’s going to be when they get where they’re going. What It Is is a record that is rooted solidly in the present, revealing an artist in the emotional and intellectual here and now.

Call it two turntables and a bass trombone: Pittsburgh’s Beauty Slap bridges ivory-tower music school pedagogy and new-school laptop tweaking techniques to create some seriously funky vibes…a bold big-band brass sound, which is then mixed and manipulated by Ableton wizard Jake Berntsen into sweltering EDM.

Join Club Cafe for an evening of live and local music featuring Standard Broadcast, LoFi Delphi and Erika June & the Tunes.

Lauded by The New York Times as “an alluringly flexible singer, fluent in classic country, blues and Southern rock, with a voice that moves easily from tender to tough,” Ashley McBryde’s GRAMMY-nominated Girl Going Nowhere (released March 30, 2018 on Atlantic Records/Warner Nashville) earned the Arkansas native critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Variety and more with The Washington Post raving, "McBryde's blue-collar storytelling and straightforward singing set her apart." The seminal title track on the Jay Joyce-produced LP continues to propel McBryde’s career to great heights with recognition this year by the Academy of Country Music as New Female Artist of the Year, CMT’s Breakthrough Video of the Year and CMA New Artist of the Year. McBryde has appeared as a special guest this year on George Strait’s Strait to Vegas shows at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and as support to Miranda Lambert on her Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour this fall. For tour dates and more information, visit AshleyMcBryde.com or follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AshleyMcBryde, Instagram @ashleymcbryde and Twitter at @AshleyMcBryde.

Joe is a stand-up from Pittsburgh, who started doing comedy in Chicago and now lives in Los Angeles. In 2017, he was chosen to be one of Comedy Central's "Up Next" Comics to Watch and his Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents half-hour special will air November 8, 2019. Joe has performed on the nationally-syndicated public radio show Live Wire and has written for The Onion News Network, ClickHole, and MAD Magazine. On November 14, 2018, he released 31 videos in one day, a feat that garnered praise from Vulture and The A.V. Club. A select number of these sketches were compiled into a pilot called Kwaczala, which won “Best Late Night Series” at Seriesfest 2019 and was declared Funniest Show at Seriesfest by Paste Magazine. Years before, his independently-produced pilot Cowards won "Best Comedy Pilot" at the New York Television Festival and his subsequent web series for IFC Does Dave Know We're
Here? was chosen as one of Paste Magazine’s Best Internet Comedy Videos
of 2015. Much to his embarrassment, Joe knows everything about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has a podcast about it called Who Cares About The Rock Hall?

This morning, Bear Hands confirm their 31-date tour of the United States. The band toured extensively in 2019 with twenty one pilots, Foals, and X Ambassadors. ¬¬IRONTOM are confirmed as support on all dates.

Bear Hands, comprised of vocalist Dylan Rau, bassist Val Loper, and drummer TJ Orscher, recently released their fourth studio album Fake Tunes, a deep dive into a twisted modern era, paranoid yet hopeful, celebrity obsessed and introspective, and an unmistakable sign of troubled times. Written and recorded in the plastic warmth of Los Angeles, Fake Tunes marks an evolution for the band, whilst drawing upon newly formed collaborative relationships with producer Christopher Chu of POP ETC and outsider artist Ursula Rose. Their most auspicious release to date, Fake Tunes is available for purchase on all formats.

From the “metronomic electro-pop” (New York Times) of album opener "Blue Lips (feat. Ursula Rose)," a song about listening to someone's problems over and over until it drains you completely, to the dreamy lilt of "Clean Up California," a song about finding salvation (or not) across state lines, Fake Tunes traces the anxiety of life and love in America today. The album’s 11 tracks veer from the meaty, rhythmic indie anthems the band cut its teeth on to digitally-infused numbers that swerve across stylistic lanes. The result is a fitting statement of what a band can be—and the expectations it can defy. “It feels like this record is grateful,” Loper says. “We feel lucky to be here, to have the chance to keep making music together. It feels lighter. The songs are shorter, they’re pretty poppy, and they’re to the point. And that’s where our music is most impactful.”

Bear Hands was formed in Connecticut and soon after moved to NYC to test their chemistry on stage. The band would go on to release its acclaimed debut LP, Burning Bush Supper Club, in 2010, riding steady hype to 2014’s showstopper Distraction. Radio soon caught on, earning the band major chart success with singles “Giants” and “Agora,” alongside a late night TV debut on Conan. The group quickly earned a reputation as a visceral live act, touring with the likes of Passion Pit, Killer Mike, and Cage the Elephant, and landing on festival bills from Coachella to Reading & Leeds. This year, the band has toured alongside Foals, Walk the Moon, and twenty one pilots.

Pittsburgh's Very Own is a quarterly series at Mr. Smalls Theatre curated with our city's top talent.

Join Club Cafe for a special show featuring local acts Neverweres, Gutter Rich and Hepcat Dilemma.

Kevin and Christina make out in a car at the airport, flipping off the police officer that tells them to keep moving. Kevin and Christina discuss taking ecstasy as couple’s therapy. Kevin and Christina break down and then reconnect. The new love we heard about on the last of Montreal record, White is Relic/Irrealis Mood , is settling. If that was the falling-in-love record, then this is the staying-in-love record. That was the easy part; this is the interesting part, the challenging part, the next chapter of Kevin Barnes’ autobiographical album streak, UR FUN.

The public diary that started with of Montreal’s classic album Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? has continued into a growing string of increasingly personal works. On UR FUN , Barnes is more candid than ever, presenting ten concise electro-pop songs that expose the depths of his current life, his private thoughts—both optimistic and brooding—and his passionate relationship with songwriter Christina Schnieder of Locate S,1. This ramped-up vulnerability has inspired Barnes to strip his stage persona of costumes and drag, just appearing as himself on recent tours for the first time in many years.

After several albums recorded with collaborators and various band members, Barnes opted to record this one completely alone. In his home studio in Athens, Georgia, Barnes isolated himself in creative hibernation, working obsessive 12-plus hour days arranging manic synth and drum machine maps on a computer screen with bouncy, melodic basslines, glam guitars and layered vocal harmonies. Inspired by albums like Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual and Janet Jackson’s Control , Barnes set out to make UR
FUN into the kind of album where every song could be a single, complete with huge hooky choruses and nostalgic dance grooves. The result is an unstoppably fun album that could also pass for a carefully sequenced greatest-hits collection if taken out of context.

UR FUN contains a fundamental contradiction that will be familiar to of Montreal fans. The songs have a youthful, contemporary dance-pop feel, but contain dense, multidimensional, adult lyrics. The album’s opener and first single, “Peace To All Freaks” is a “protest song against totalitarianism, familial terrorism and wastefulness in all its forms” (says Barnes) that expresses love to the outcasts and the gentle people in this world, leaving us with this reminder: “Hush, hush/ Don’t let’s be cynical/ don’t let’s be bitter/ If you feel like you can’t do it for yourself then do it for us”. On “Polyaneurism”, Barnes playfully meditates on the ups and downs of polyamory and unconventional relationships: “Playing musical lovers is starting to feel kind of kitsch/ if you want monogamy are you just like some basic bitch?” According to Barnes, the song “Get God’s Attention by Being an Atheist” is about “the pleasures of childlike destruction and reckless joy
seeking.”

Literary and cultural references on UR FUN run thick. In the same manner that Barnes’ lyrics turned thousands of listeners onto the obscene French novel The Story of the Eye in the past, UR FUN packs nods as diverse and obscure as the films of Itallian horror filmmaker Mario Bava, queer novel Horse Crazy by Gary Indiana, Panamanian pop star El General, 80’s sci-fi movie Liquid Sky , Big Star’s cover of “Femme Fatale,” French death metal group Death Throne, and the beautiful Brazilian love song “Cucurucucu Paloma” by Caetano Veloso, to name just a few.

UR FUN ’s final moments bring the self-examination of the record full circle with some darker numbers that lament a lost friendship and slips of mental clarity. If the album’s bleak ending leaves you feeling hopeless, flip the record over again and remind yourself “Hush, hush, don’t let’s be negative.” This is all for fun after all.

Steve Aoki - Neon Future IV: The Color of Noise Tour with special guests Timmy Trumpet, Riot Ten, Godlands, & introducing Global Dan

Fea is the continued ferocity of Girl In A Coma’s Phanie Diaz and Jenn Alva, joined by lead vocalist Letty Martinez and guitarist Sofi. Their melodic brand of Riot Grrrl Chicana Punk immediately caught the attention of Joan Jett who signed them to her label Blackheart, and Iggy Pop who sang their praises to Rolling Stone which has since been echoed by many! Producers on their debut LP (self-titled) include Lori Barbero (Babes In Toyland), Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!), and Alice Bag (The Bags), all of whom perfectly compliment the band’s fierce exploration of societal, cultural and gender-related issues. Mixing humor with agency, English with Spanish, Fea empowers listeners and inspires dissidence. Resistance has never sounded so infectious!

Soulful vanguard Allen Stone‘s forthcoming record Building Balance will be released November 8th, taking his soul-stirring R&B and funk to the next artistic level. Allen continues to draw inspiration from ’70s funk and soul with current flexes, sitting amid D’Angelo in its sultrier moments, and Stevie Wonder at its most melodic. Also partially inspired by becoming a husband and father, the album features the most personal, lushly produced and gorgeously performed songs of Allen’s career.

Building Balance was largely written in a cabin in the woods of Washington state and partially recorded at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville with three producers: the acclaimed British artist/producer Jaime Lidell, Grammy-winning producer Nasri, and Jeremy Most (Emily King). The album is a textured amalgam of R&B and soul, a result of several personal co-writing sessions, collaborations with Emily King, Mike Posner & Theo Katzman / Joey Dosik of Vulfpeck, and lyrics by Allen. Equal parts sentimental (“Brown Eyed Lover”, “Consider Me”) and replete with nostalgic funk (“Back to the Swing”, “Sweaters”), Allen’s third album shows an artist who has grown into his own and learned to balance and appreciate all parts of his life: the vices of the past and the gifts of the present, career and family, the brilliant highs and discouraging lows.

“The balance through the turmoil of strife and struggle is the best balance you can build because you’re growing, you’re strengthening, you’re utilizing muscles,” he says of the album. “If it was a cake walk then you’re not gonna fortify those tendons or that willpower."

He’s also released new single “Sunny Days” accompanied by a music video. The song is an R&B ode to euphoric love that features slick rap verses alongside Allen’s smooth delivery in his stunningly transformative upper range. Of “Sunny Days”, Allen says the track “is a feel good, throwback song about being confident in the love you have for another. Like a refreshing breeze on a hot summer day the melody cools and comforts. There is no feeling more beautiful than trusting in love.”

Through her folkloric mystique, otherworldly psychedelia, and a dash of enigmatic punk, Ahomale by Combo Chimbita catapults the sacred knowledge of our forebears into the future. Their second studio album and Anti- Records debut sees the visionary quartet drawing from ancestral mythologies and musical enlightenment to unearth the awareness of Ahomale, the album’s cosmic muse. Comprised of Carolina Oliveros’ mesmeric contralto, illuminating storytelling and fierce guacharaca rhythms, Prince of Queens’ hypnotic synth stabs and grooving bass lines, Niño Lento’s imaginative guitar licks, and Dilemastronauta’s powerful drumming, the lure and lore of Combo Chimbita comes into existence.

The legend begins with their first EP, 2016’s El Corredor del Jaguar, and followed up with the occult psychedelia of Abya Yala. In 2019’s Ahomale, the New York-by-way-of-Colombia troupe fuse the perennial rhythms of the Afro-Latinx diaspora with a modern-day consciousness, while tracing the prophetic traditions of our ancestry. “The more we’ve played music together, the more we began to discover things within ourselves that we were previously unaware of, almost like an energy. And that’s being communicated through our music,” explains Prince of Queens in the making of Ahomale.

Inspired by a Yoruba term, Ahomale, meaning adorer of ancestors, Oliveros reveals her quest to connect with ancestral cosmology, which the Combo pays homage to. “Ahomale resurges from the visions that we’ve been having via our music and life, and the lyrics reflect a manifestation passed on through our ancestors and the gods,” she explains. “I wanted the album to convey the search for spiritual awareness, which ultimately serves as a revelation.” In a similar spirit, Niño Lento conveys: “The protagonist of this album whose name is Ahomale possesses the ability to communicate ancestral wisdom through the music.”

With the help of producer Daniel Schlett (The War on Drugs, Modest Mouse), the group’s rootsy experimental alchemy and metal strangeness take centerfold. Oliveros howls, yowls and chirps with gut-wrenching emotion, like on the languid mirage of “El Camino,” or plaintive frenzy of the title track. Whether rock raw and soulful or bewitching like a shaman in a spiritual ceremony, her voice is always a multifaceted wonder. “Brillo Más Que El Oro (La Bala Apuntándome)” boasts alluring vintage synths that seem to time travel through the lush tropics of yore; then, the mood intensifies when its bridge brilliantly crosses into a spellbinding chant sung in unison: “Y si digo que / Que ahora ya lo se” (“And if I say that I now know”). “Testigo” is pure melodic witchcraft in action that strips away wordly façades into something bare and beautiful: “Desde principio a fin, yo siempre di mi verdad” (“from beginning to end, I always gave my truth), the singer vulnerably croons against a whirling guitar and galloping percussions.

Ultimately, Ahomale is a catharsis of divine feminine force helmed by their powerhouse vocalist, laden with the teachings from a bygone era, in tune with the spiritual realm. “Our spirit and energy have passed through multiple generations,” says Prince of Queens. “We might not be open or allowed to explore it because of Western society’s conditions. But the idea is that we are receiving messages from the past, and from our ancestors that each one of us carry.” In nearly 40 minutes of eye-opening thrills and chills, the listener experiences the pedagogy of Ahomale, journeying through her epiphanies and enlightenment. “Ahomale is a warrior, not the sword and shield type, but a woman who is ready to listen to her heart, follow her intuition and connect with her ancestors,” Oliveros avows.—Isabela Raygoza

Superstar is an underdog story, and one not far off from Caroline Rose’s real life. After a years-long struggle to release what would ultimately become 2018’s LONER, deemed “a singular artistic statement from it’s unforgettable album art all the way down” (Pitchfork), Rose found herself in the midst of a new widespread audience, one both delightfully intrigued and perplexed about how and where to place her. That, combined with a developed set of studio skills and a challenge to “make something from nothing,” marked the beginning of Superstar. Gone are the polished Hollywood hunks and starlets of olde. Here is a shamelessly odd hero, or rather anti-hero, on a quest to become a someone.

Inspired by cult classics such as The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, Mulholland Drive and the mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, Superstar plays out like a film with a beginning, middle, and an open ending. In album opener “Nothing’s Impossible,” the protagonist receives a mistaken phone call from the glamorous Chateau Marmont hotel. Taking the call as a sign toward a star-studded future, they (gender neutral pronoun) leave behind everything in pursuit of a newly established destiny.

What ensues is a cinematic paradox that in one moment finds them strutting down a neon strip in full Saturday Night Fever hip-swing donned in their finest threads, and the next sipping a dirty martini at the rundown apartment complex pool, dwelling on life’s unfortunate turns. It’s a narrative Rose pulled directly from the somewhat shameless desires of her own growing ambition, as well as the public breakdowns of several notable celebrities. “To me, the satire is in what we’ll do and put up with in order to be successful. I wanted to make a story out of those parts of myself that are for the most part undesirable, then inject them with steroids.”

Rose worked on the album in order of the story’s timeline, ensuring each track represented a chapter of the narrative in her head. Songs bursting with self-aggrandizement often reveal moments of vulnerability. “Feel The Way I Want” leads us with boisterous confidence through heartache by refusing to let pain get the best of us. Disguised as a Prince-infused bop, “Do You Think We’ll Last Forever?” expresses the uncertainty and anxiety that come with seeing a new partner, ending in a full blown freakout of bottled up nervous energy. The S&M-fueled love song “Freak Like Me” and the darkly comedic “Command Z” ultimately expose a fragile person coming to terms with their own humanity. Rose sings, “I looked around at all the people there / as I thought everyone we know will know will someday be dead / God, I just don’t want it to end / Undo, I’m gonna do it again”.

Rose began formulating the songs and ideas for a sequel-esque follow-up to LONER in between the band’s near-incessant touring schedule, from playing sold out headline shows across the country and beyond, to becoming fan favorites at some of the world’s biggest festivals. “Two years ago I started touring with nothing, not knowing if I’d even have a career. Then all of a sudden we were playing to hundreds of people in a town I’d never heard of. The whole thing was fascinating. It got me thinking, just how much can you build from nothing?” As a result, Superstar was written, recorded and produced by Rose in her 10’x12’ home studio, as well as on a portable rig she’d set up in green rooms while on tour.

Superstar is a bigger, badder, glitter-filled cinematic pop record for weirdos. “I realized at some point that I’m not going to fit into any one box, and maybe that’s a good thing. This new record is me embracing feeling like an outsider making my own path,” Rose says. One part satire, one part self-reflection, Rose’s anti-hero personifies much of what we as casual on-lookers are wont to poke fun at, dismiss or denigrate, yet deep down likely aspire to be. Someone who, whether warranted or not, refuses to let anyone dictate their own life’s narrative.