Caroline Smith earned her place in the Midwest music community with her characteristic alto timbre, quivering with the presence of Billie Holiday, Leslie Feist, and Joanna Newsom. Joining forces as The Good Night Sleeps are drummer Arlen Peiffer (Cloud Cult), bassist Jesse Schuster, and multi-instrumentalist David Earl.
These United States surrender themselves to unbridled rock and roll exuberance: ringing guitars, thundering drums, desperate yearning bordering on hope. By turns larger-than-life and disarmingly intimate, this is folk in the truest sense. These United States play it the way folk was meant to be played: hard, fast, big, slow, long, loud, loose, at last unburdened. They play like they mean it. Like there’s never been a better time to be alive.
Whether he's singing an ode to "queer tattoos," telling his potential paramour all the things he won't be doing for her (he ain'tfightin' no Lion), or lamenting his new vegan lifestyle ("Tofurkey? Tof**k yourself- I want some meat"), Stephen Lynch will always consider himself "a musician trapped in the body of a comedian."
Trace Bundy must be seen, not just heard. His music is poetry in motion, using harmonics, looping, multiple capos, and his unique banter and stage presence to deliver an unforgettable live concert experience. Listening to his intricate arrangements is one thing, but seeing the fan-dubbed "Acoustic Ninja" play live confounds even the most accomplished music lovers as to how one person can do all that with just two hands and ten fingers.
Reflecting on well over 20 years of record-making and touring extensively around the US and world, Wilcox says, “Music still stretches out before me like the head-lights of a car into the night. It’s way beyond where I am, but it shows where I’m going. I used to think that my goal was to catch up, but now I’m grateful that the music is always going to be way out in front to inspire me.”
No taboo is safe from the Whitest Kids' no holds barred brand of comedic skit and song. On their self titled debut The Whitest Kids U' Know touch on everything from date rape ("We Gon' Make Luv") to the more conventional and only slightly less offensive penis joke ("Beautiful Penis"), not to mention the opening track (“Welcome”) which will stop even those with the loosest social constraints dead in their tracks.