Music

Taking Back Sunday’s new album, “152,” may be a turning point for the long-running alternative rock band. In reshaping the energetic emo/indie rock sound that was established on the band’s popular 2002 debut album, “Tell All Your Friends,” the new album offers the kind of musical leap rarely seen from bands with as much history as Taking Back Sunday.

The musical growth didn’t happen by accident. After going through a series of personnel changes between 2003 and 2010, original members John Nolan (guitar) and Shaun Cooper (bass) returned to Taking Back Sunday. The first album from the reunited early lineup, a 2011 self-titled effort, stuck close to the emo-ish guitar rock of “Tell All Your Friends.” But then the band members began hinting at some new musical directions on 2014’s “Happiness Is” and 2019’s “Tidal Wave” — becoming less concerned with conforming to an expected sound and leaning more into just writing songs they found exciting.

And when Taking Back Sunday got sidelined from touring by the COVID pandemic, Cooper, Nolan, singer Adam Lazzara and drummer Mark O’Connell had time to take stock of what they want the band to be musically and fully commit to pushing forward creatively.

“We have had a lot of time to think through the pandemic. We were kind of home sitting on the couch and hoping that the world would somehow get back to normal,” Cooper said.  “You do a lot of soul searching and stuff and think about what you want the band to be and the general consensus (in the band) is we hadn’t hit our peak yet. And a lot of people say ‘Oh, that’s crazy, like you guys peaked in 2005.’ Well, if we believed that we wouldn’t still be here doing the thing. Us as artists, as songwriters, musicians, we all feel like we’ve evolved considerably and we want to examine that and put it into practice when we’re working on these songs.”

Of course, wanting to reinvent a band’s sound and actually finding ways to do so are two different things.

For Taking Back Sunday, a key moment in meeting the goal arrived when EDM star Steve Aoki contacted the band about collaborating on a song that became “Just Us Two.” At that point, the band had been writing songs for “152,” but hadn’t landed on a direction for the album or zeroed in on a producer for the project.

“Our good friend and legendary DJ Steve Aoki came to us, and he had been wanting to work with us on a song back in 2019,” Cooper said. “And we couldn’t get it done until, I guess it was 2021, maybe the beginning of 2022. We got in the room with him and he had this amazing engineer, Tushar Apte. We said we don’t know who this guy is, but he is an amazing artist and the speed at which he works and his creative ideas, his direction, how he can put everything together and how he understands what we provide as a band and as individuals that makes Taking Back Sunday, can we get this guy to produce our record?”

The band wondered if Apte, who had mainly worked in the pop arena, would want to work with a rock act like Taking Back Sunday. But it turned out he’d been wanting for some time to produce a rock album. So Apte signed on to produce “152.”

It quickly became clear that the band’s instincts about the partnership with Apte were spot on.

“It was just such an exciting time to see the synergy we had together. It’s all greater than the sum of its parts when we were in the room working with him and I feel like he really understood what we did,” Cooper said. “He really understood that we wanted to reimagine our sound, but we didn’t want to stray too far from what we are. And he really acknowledged that and did a great job of funneling our rock music through his pop sensibility, and there you have ‘152.’

The band’s intentions are apparent with the opening track on “152,” “Amphetamine Smiles.” Instead of blasting off behind big electric guitars — a typical opening salvo from earlier Taking Back Sunday albums — the song eases in behind acoustic guitars and sweet synthesizer lines before blossoming into a rich mid-tempo track. Taking Back Sunday’s melodic abilities also shine on “The One” (which has a bit of an epic U2 touch), “I’m The Only One Who Knows You” (which started out as a punky rocker before being transformed into a spacious ballad) and the potent mid-tempo track “New Music Friday.” Meanwhile, “Keep Going,” “S’old,” and “Lightbringer” bring the familiar rock energy, while still delivering melodic punch.

While “152” is still a rock album, the pop influences that are more pronounced than ever on the album weren’t foreign to Taking Back Sunday, either.

“We’re all pop music fans. We all really like Post Malone. We think he’s awesome. We all listen to Taylor Swift,” Cooper said. “I saw Harry Styles live with my family and he put on an amazing show. I love that record ‘Harry’s House.’ It’s incredible. I listen to the band Haim. I think they’re tremendous in how they kind of fuse pop and rock music and there’s just so many hooks. And I mean, we’re going back to revisiting a lot of 80’s stuff like Don Henley’s solo stuff is just tremendous, Phil Collins. Whitney Houston. So we’re like how can we incorporate this into our Long Island hardcore roots? It’s always kind of been the thing, we’ve been fans of that music. So I think we felt free to kind of explore that.”

In addition to bringing a pop sensibility to the proceedings and tightening up song arrangements, Apte was also instrumental in helping Taking Back Sunday infuse their guitar-centered sound with an array of different instrumental/sonic elements and textures that add considerable color throughout “152.”

“Sonically it’s a different kind of thing for us. There are so many different elements that you’ve never heard on the Taking Back Sunday record,” Cooper said. “It’s the four guys that have brought in all the Taking Back Sunday records. That kind of element is still there, that kind of songwriting, four guys in a room, with just kind of an elevated sound. But hopefully we’ve improved as musicians and songwriters, our musical choices that we make when we’re playing our guitars, bass, drums and vocals, everything has matured with us.”

Taking Back Sunday will spend much of the rest of the year on tour, and songs from “152” will be featured in the shows.

“We’re so proud of the record that we’re going to play a decent amount of it,” Cooper said. “Maybe we’re going to switch it up some nights and then put in some different songs from it and stuff, but I would say (we’ll play) maybe four or five (new) songs probably every night. The songs are relatively short, too. So if you don’t know them just yet, they’ll be over relatively quickly and we’re going to fire back with something that you may be a little bit more familiar with.”

Taking Back Sunday is performing at the Union Event Center on June 11th, find tickets here.

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“This is very nice,” said James Murphy, frontman of LCD Soundsystem, as he looked out at the massive sea of people in the last hour of the 2024 Kilby Block Party, in what must stand as the understatement of the festival. As a first-time Kilby-goer, it was far better than a “very nice” experience; it’s one that, without getting too sentimental right off the bat, I’ll forever cherish. Kilby is a marvelously well-run operation with the strongest and most unique lineup of any major festival this year. I’ll circle back later on why its formula works so well.

But first, the music, and I saw a lot of it Sunday, starting with Utah’s own Little Moon, whose members were riding the high of winning NPR’s 2023 Tiny Desk Contest. The band’s partially gender-nonconforming psych-folk aesthetic was unlike anything else at Kilby, and unlike most acts in modern music more broadly. Watching their whimsical set was like catching an itinerant minstrel show, or perhaps the live performance of a children’s storybook soundtrack. For comparisons, I’d have to reach back to the Elephant Six sound of the late ‘90s, or perhaps to freak-folk pioneer Vashti Bunyan. If these sound like obscure touchpoints, it speaks to how wonderfully different this group is, down to its choice of instruments, including harp to rain stick.

Nothing could prepare the uninitiated for the next act on my list, New York’s Model/Actriz. In what functioned as performance art as much as rock concert, all eyes were on frontman Cole Haden, who leaned into his band’s name by sporting a bonnet, miniskirt, black nail polish, fishnets and platform shoes, and applying lipstick from a beaded clutch. He treated the stairs leading down into the audience like a catwalk, all while performing vocals that ran the gamut from a Robert Smith quaver to a hardcore scream, and spent upwards of 30 percent of the show amidst the audience, which appropriately went bananas, while guitarist Jack Wetmore played jagged shards of Gang of Four-style guitar, and bassist Aaron Shapiro and drummer Ruben Radlauer laid an intense rhythm section. It was surely the most surreal scene that I saw throughout the weekend, and while I don’t usually go for gimmicky acts, this one really worked.

Solid entertainment continued in the form of Choir Boy, another Utah-born band that performs in the synthpop style of the pre-digital 1980s. Singer Adam Klopp has a distinctive, resonant voice perfect for echoing off of arena walls; these guys should definitely be opening for the OMDs and Depeche Modes of the world. “Shatter” was particularly strong, with its saxophone parts and simulated vibraphone adding rich color and texture.

After Choir Boy, I bounced around the grounds a bit, nursing a headache since the morning brought on by too much Kilby, too much sun and not enough water, while enjoying Petey’s crowd-pleasing literate rock and the acoustic folk-rock of Kevin Kaarl, something of a YouTube phenom from Chihuahua, Mexico. I don’t speak enough Spanish to understand the lyrics, but it made for a great acoustic backdrop for a late-afternoon siesta in what little shade was afforded in the blessed VIP section. The music was pleasant and usually rather languorous, until it rocked every now and then.

Thanks to the magic of Advil, I recuperated enough to enjoy Pond’s riveting set at the Desert Stage. Despite releasing some 10 albums, and despite sharing some personnel with Tame Impala, Pond hasn’t really broken out in the U.S. That should change with gigs like this one. Lead singer Nick Albrook is clearly weaned on the classics of stadium-rock theatrics–swinging the mic stand around with glee, clutching the mic cord in his teeth, somersaulting on the ground. Exuding sex appeal–he eventually complied with some audience members’ requests to remove his shirt–he conjured David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend at various times, with some lyrics straight from the glam rocker’s dictionary. (“All that glitters is free.”) The music grooved with the best of them, whether sludgy or bouncy, and was supplemented by the sounds of echoes, sirens and sci-fi effects.

Finally, it was time for Guided by Voices, one of my most anticipated bands of the festival, and one I hadn’t seen live since 2004. Twenty years on, Father Time has yet to catch up with the indefatigable, now 66-year-old Robert Pollard, who still hit all the commanding rock-frontman poses and high kicks for his faithful cult of supporters, of which I am a member in good standing. Announcing they were here to play “rock ‘n’ roll for the kids,” GBV tore through some 21 numbers in an hour. A typical Guided by Voices gig features upwards of 40 tunes, so this show was but a tasty aperitif, with newer compositions like “Jack of Legs” and “Boomerang” landing just as successfully as all-time classic sing-alongs such as “I Am a Scientist” and “A Salty Salute,” Pollard commanding the action like a mad conductor.

As a side note, my GBV gigs of yore usually featured Pollard and some of the band downing an entire cooler of beer during the set, and spraying its contents on the audience. There was none of that here, with the frontman nursing one beer. That’s clearly the right way to go if GBV wants to continue touring and releasing its standard two to three albums a year; I’ll drink to that.

After some much-needed vegan nosh, I spent a rather confused 30 minutes with Ginger Root, a California trio that specializes in, per its own verbiage, “aggressive elevator soul.” Many of the songs had backstories as long as War and Peace, some associated with anime videos and feature films shot by singer-songwriter Cameron Lew that projected behind the band. At other times, a videographer captured the performance for (I think) a live stream, shooting the action in extreme close-ups. Lew kept referring to the festival as the “Kirby convention,” and I couldn’t tell if he was joking. The whole thing felt self-consciously cheezy, self-consciously ‘80s, and very online, and I liked it well enough.

As for the big headliner of the evening, my apologies, reader: I didn’t stay for all of it. Blasphemy, I know, but this was a long weekend, and I slant on the, let’s just say, older side of the Kilby demographic, and I admit to not quite “getting” LCD Soundsystem. That being said, convulsing multitudes is their thing, and they certainly accomplished it, with audiences throughout nearly the entire festival grounds dancing to what amounted to a near-greatest hits set. (Daft Punk was not playing at their house at this show.)

I appreciated the comparably laid-back performance of James Murphy, who dressed more like a stylish doctor than a rock singer. Strobe-lit and disco-balled, his band played with clockwork efficiency in what has become its successful formula: playing songs that you don’t think could possibly become dancier, until they add another instrumental element or two that work the crowd into a veritable frenzy of movement. 
And then it was over, just like that, another Kilby on the books–my first and hopefully not my last. In terms of constructing a great festival, the lineup is always key, and Kilby has cracked the code. The producers’ secret, I feel, is to save money by not going after the bands at the tippy-top of the music festival hierarchy, your Green Days and your Foo Fighters and your Red Hot Chili Peppers, that usually–boringly and predictably–wind up headlining Festivals X, Y and Z. This must free up a lot of cash to book bands one or two tiers lower in name notoriety, but which, in this writer’s opinion, make far better music. I hope Kilby continues to stay defiantly indie and weird. See you next year?

Read more:

• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day One Review
• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day Two Review
• Kilby’s 2025 Lineup Drops

Photography by Natalie Simpson, @beehivephotovideo

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Find our day one and day two reviews of Kilby Block Party here.

“I don’t feel the heat—I’m like a friggin’ lizard who’s been hibernating all winter.” So said Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch between songs at day two of the 2024 Kilby Block Party on Saturday. As for the rest of us? It’s fair to say we felt the blistering temps, marking a big change from the often-overcast opening day, and requiring nearly hourly sunblock applications and multiple trips to the water stations, all for the love of the music.

Speaking of which, Saturday was a more uneven day than its near-universally excellent predecessor, proving that even the great curators and tastemakers at Kilby Court can fumble once or twice or, in one notable example, can choose an important and beloved band that simply didn’t bring the goods. More on that later.

My day started with the tail end of New Zealand’s Fazerdaze, in a rare appearance as part of their first American tour in six years, and I wish I’d made it for the entire set; they produce shimmery shoegaze at its best. I made it through all of Water From Your Eyes’ afternoon set, an accomplishment not without its struggles. The Brooklyn band opened with a taped noise assault, as if to weed out the faint of constitution before the first proper song. This was, indeed, a harbinger of most of the group’s bludgeoning set, complete with distorted and mostly incomprehensible vocals, which I’ve noticed is a trend these days, because vocal clarity is for squares, I guess? At its best the band conjures Sonic Youth at its most experimental, and can lull its listeners into a kind of hypnosis through sheer repetition. But a little goes a long away.

Next up on my docket was Wisconsin’s Slow Pulp, of whom I was only passingly familiar, and I left the set a fan. Their sound is rooted in scrappy ‘90s indie rock like Velocity Girl, Superdrag and early Built to Spill, all hallowed touchstones, played with two, and sometimes three guitars and led by a singer, in Emily Massey, who can really wail. This was their first festival show of presumably many to come.

Then came a couple of bewildering late afternoon and evening sets, the only extended stretch of Kilby where it seemed like things were going south. I had little patience for Yellow Days, which came across, in the admittedly scant time I gave it, as a swollen and affected ‘70s psych-rock throwback complete, with annoyingly reverbed vocals and an onstage dancer dressed as a TWA flight attendant with a cigarette. Charitably, perhaps I just didn’t get it.

As for Dinosaur Jr., the legendary indie-rock progenitors, hopes were high but quickly dashed through sloppy execution—even by Dinosaur Jr.’s shambolic standards—and audio problems resulting in weird fluctuations in volume, and the occasional disappearance of J. Mascis’ vocals. The shells of great songs were there, and Lou Barlow ferociously attacked his bass as if it owed him money, but this was a mess. In summary, I overheard a fan in a Dinosaur Jr. shirt offer this assessment: “They sound like shit.” He wasn’t wrong.

Any disappointments from the sagging middle of day two were forgotten by the time Belle & Sebastian delivered a jubilant set spanning most of the albums in their storied career of nearly 30 years. Bangers like “Nobody’s Empire” and “So in the Moment” sounded like they beamed in from some dancehall in Ibiza, while early staples like “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying” and “Expectations” let Stuart Murdoch’s witty writing take center stage atop more minimalist arrangements.

This was my fourth time seeing Belle & Sebastian, and so I’ve gotten to witness Murdoch’s evolution into the consummate entertainer he presented at Kilby, whether he was dancing on his piano or singing “Piazza, New York Catcher” from the audience, in the stretch of space between the GA and VIP areas. Belle & Sebastian may be a nonet, with much interesting instrumental color, from trumpet to recorder to cello to harmonica, but in some ways it’s the Stuart Murdoch show. Sporting a fedora, he resembled Leonard Cohen and brought a similar patrician panache to the proceedings, especially when calling fans onto the stage to dance through “The Boy With the Arab Strap” and “I Didn’t See it Coming” and then interacting with them onstage, almost like an old-fashioned lounge act. Belle & Sebastian is the best of a legacy band, one that honors its past while moving forward in new directions.

After catching a few songs from Santigold, who looked and sounded excellent (despite some self-consciousness on her part due to the acoustic dynamics of the Lake Stage) in a theatrical show complete with costumed, choreographed dancers, it was on to the dual headliners: Two of singer-songwriter Ben Gibbard’s enduring projects, Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service.

For more than a year, Gibbard and his bands have been playing their seminal 2003 releases Transatlanticism and Give Up in full, in honor of their 20^th anniversaries. Both releases have enjoyed a sprawling shelf life and garnered new generations of fans; I overheard one fan saying that they were the soundtrack of her middle school years, which aged me pretty quickly; for me, they came out when I was in college, and the CDs earned endless airplay in my (aging me again) Discman.

By this point, these concerts are note-perfect and down to a science, from the band’s flawless execution to Gibbard’s classic frontman charisma to the lighting array, often bathing the singer in cones of orange, the color mirroring the album’s iconic artwork. The LP’s spacious and slow-building title track was a highlight, with countless fans waving their smartphone flashlights in the air, as was “Passenger Seat,” as a drone flew overhead to capture the scene, perfectly timed to Gibbard’s lyrics about looking upwards at shooting stars or satellites. It was great to see how those synth spasms in “They Looked Like Giants” are created live, while drummer Jason McGerr was the band’s secret weapon, his beats providing a metronomic foundation for the group’s layered excursions.

As for the Postal Service, I’m sorry, reader, but I didn’t take any notes during the set, because how could I interrupt nirvana? From memory, the group, complete with the joyous presence of Jenny Lewis on guitar, vocals, and percussion, performed in all white, with similarly streamlined monotone lighting, again capturing the album’s visual aesthetic. As fine a performance as Death Cab For Cutie gave, Gibbard certainly ordered the tour correctly: The Postal Service was mesmerizing from the first second to last. I associate the LP as a work primarily of synthpop, but it was exciting to watch the variety of live music that flowed seamlessly in and out of Jimmy Tamborello’s electronic arrangements. I teared up easily during the duet “Nothing Better,” and like everybody else, I went bonkers went Gibbard sidled over to the drum kit to hammer away at a couple of tracks.

The Postal Service encored with a beautiful “remix” of “Such Great Heights,” performed in the stripped-down Iron & Wine style, with only Gibbard and Lewis onstage, then sent us home with an electrifying cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence.” Judging by the rapturous reception for the song, perhaps Kilby could consider some new-wave bands in the future?

See you on day three!

Read More:

• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day One Review
• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day Three Review
• Kilby’s 2025 Lineup Drops

Photography by Natalie Simpson @beehivephotovideo

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Read our day one 2024 Kilby Block Party review, and find all our previous coverage of last year’s festival here!

“This is the best view from a stage we’ve ever seen,” said Peach Pit singer Neil Smith during his band’s Friday afternoon set from the Lake Stage on day one of the 2024 Kilby Block Party. He was referring to the snow-capped Rockies just beyond the horizon, and for an out-of-towner like me, the majesty of the location rings just as true. I came from Florida to review Kilby, but Smith’s acknowledgment prompted me to actually gaze beyond the stages and festival grounds for the first time all day and recognize that, indeed, I was not in Boca Raton anymore.

Just as mountains are rare to a Floridian like me, so too are these bands, most of whom rarely see the rays of the Sunshine State. Hence my traveling 2,500 miles to see some of the most exciting names in indie rock’s past, present and future.

When I first entered the festival grounds, I was quickly struck by the atmosphere, which had whimsy to spare: colorful fuzzy animal sculptures emerging from the grass for photo ops, table tennis and cornhole set up throughout the grounds to encourage play, a rest area that resembled a geodesic dome. I also appreciated the compactness of the setup, with all four stages visible if you’re positioned in the middle of the layout.

My Kilby journey started with Gustaf, a New York quintet that seems to have teleported directly from its city’s downtown avant-punk scene circa 1981. With jagged guitar and bass lines that could cut through steel, Gustaf makes angular music you can dance to, and derives much of its gonzo intensity from vocalist Lydia Gammill, an androgynous frontwoman with an unorthodox charisma. Dressed in a business suit with a long tie and towering platform shoes, Gammill spoke or, perhaps, barked most of the lyrics, often slapping the side of her head for effect.

Gustaf’s music and approach couldn’t be more different from its immediate follower on the adjacent stage, Joanna Sternberg, who played an acoustic guitar set of their deceptively simple, heartbreakingly honest material. An outsider artist who conjures such brilliant singer-songwriters as Daniel Johnston and Randy Newman, Sternberg may just be the most likable—and un-jaded—person in music today. “So I’m gonna sing now,” they said, before launching into “I’ve Got Me.” They were visibly taken back when many of us starting singing along to every lyric. “This feels like a dream come true,” they said, of this recognition. I myself was so emotionally moved that I teared up by the second song, “People Are Toys To You,” and remained in a sublime place for the rest of the set. For those of us in the sizable crowd that were tuned into Sternberg’s wavelength, this was a concert neither the performer nor the audience will forget.

Yot Club was next on my list, delivering a tight, driving set of indie-rock bangers that improved as it went along, with convincing forays into psychedelic and stoner rock. Peach Pit followed soon thereafter, infusing their performance with rock-star showmanship from telegenic frontman Smith, who galloped across the stage, sometimes on one foot, and waved his glorious ‘90s grunge-rocker hair to and fro.

I don’t have a great deal to report on Alvvays’ set, other than the direct high praise it deserves: Dream pop of the highest order, it came across as perfectly executed as a studio recording—soaring synths and big guitars interacting in honeyed harmony. Courtney Barnett, for whom I left Alvvays a little early to catch, was the day’s biggest surprise. I expected to love the show, but I didn’t expect it to land as hard and viscerally as it did. Barnett absolutely shredded on guitar as part of a muscular trio of first-rate bass and drums, proving she’s as much an ace instrumentalist as she is a distinctive vocalist and a witty and gifted songwriter, the definition of a triple threat in music.

Serving as a palate cleanser between the high-energy sets of Courtney Barnett and Vampire Weekend, Joanna Newsom played her first concert in more than a year, and on paper, and perhaps in practice, her inclusion is an odd fit for Kilby. An obviously visionary but generically undefinable artist, she creates baroque, alien music from a galaxy in which rock ‘n’ roll never happened, playing sprawling story-songs on solo harp and piano. She should be touring century-old cathedrals more than outdoor indie-rock festivals, and the obnoxious chatter from some of my less respectful fellow-attendees did mar the experience a bit. Her music demands undivided attention; watching her fingers gracefully glide over the harp strings, combined with her angelic voice, it’s pretty clear she’s channeling the sounds of heaven. Clad in a frilly red dress and ruby slippers straight out of “The Wizard of Oz,” Newsom commented, rather funnily, on the “freezing” temperatures of this comfortably breezy evening. While I departed the set early to stake out a decent position for Vampire Weekend, her show was a singular Kilby highlight.

As night fell, Vampire Weekend took the stage to an absolutely massive audience and performed a jubilant 90-minute set culled pretty equally from their five studio albums. I’m a big proponent of their latest LP Only God Was Above Us, and was delighted to discover that the group’s increasingly expansive instrumental vocabulary, so apparent on that album, has also enhanced their earlier material in a live setting, with saxophone, fiddle and two drummers playing prominent roles throughout the set. I was enraptured with the slower, druggier version of “Sunflower,” complete with fiddle and sax solos. Their cover of SBTRKT’s “New Dorp, New York,” which included dueling saxes, settled into an experimental, elliptical groove that conjured Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock: If jazz-funk fusion is in this band’s future, I’m all for it!

Toward the end of the set, the band honored a fan’s request to play the opening bars of “Connect” on piano, and he did a great job; kudos to Ezra Koenig for indulging the young lad. I wasn’t crazy about the group’s other invited guest, Heather Gay of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” who played some cornhole onstage to try and win Vampire Weekend merch. Nothing against Gay, but this felt like a frivolous time suck during such a time-limited set.

Koenig mentioned that Vampire Weekend first played the tiny Kilby Court in 2007, prior to the release of their self-titled debut. Their riveting headlining set was a testament to both their growth and the evolution of Kilby itself, and was a perfect day-one send-off. See you out there for day two!

Read more Kilby Block Party Coverage:

• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day Two Review
• 2024 Kilby Block Party: Day Three Review
• Kilby’s 2025 Lineup Drops

Photography by Natalie Simpson, @beehivephotovideo

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Find all our reviews from last year’s Kilby Block Party here!

Music fans from across the city and beyond gathered on Friday, May 3, 2024 at The State Room to celebrate the record release of Daniel Young’s Leave It Out To Dry, and The Hollering Pines Here’s to Hoping, two masterful new works from Salt Lake City’s finest musicians. 

The Hollering Pines played their record from start to finish. They began with the first track, “Tender Heart,” and followed with “Olive Branch,” featuring Marie Bradshaw’s expressive vocals and dueling electric guitar licks by M. Horton Smith and Dylan Schorer. Julianne Brough lent her impassioned back up harmonies to the radio-ready “Bitter Sweet.” 

Daniel Young at The State Room. Image credit Stephen Speckman.

It’s been five years since we were treated to a fresh batch of Hollering Pines songs. “One Too Many,” by M. Horton Smith, is the lone song on the album not written by Bradshaw. Nevertheless, it fits perfectly into The Hollering Pines repertoire. The final track, “Before I Die” is a beautifully written tune played to perfection. The band, consisting of Bradshaw, Smith, Schorer, and Marcus Bently on bass and Jagoda on drums played a tight set, featuring their new nine-song LP. Then, they performed a sweet cover of Emmylou Harris’s “Where Will I Be,” before ending with two classics, “American Dream” and “Bad Feeling” from their 2019 Moments in Between album. The 12-song set ended much too soon. The band has amassed a robust catalog of great songs over the years and they could have played all night. 

Daniel Young assembled the Rambling Roses, an all-star line up featuring M. Horton Smith, Dylan Schorer, Marcus Bently, Ryan Tanner, Joshy Soul, and Ronnie Strauss, to help him bring his stellar new record to life on The State Room stage. A few guest artists joined him throughout his set too. He started us off with “Desert Air” and proceeded to play the record in its entirety. I particularly liked “Slow Mornings” with Julianne Brough on harmony vocals. “Help Us Get Along” came alive with the three-piece brass (Denney Fuller on trumpet, Patrick Buie on trombone, and Candido Abeyta on saxophone). M. Horton Smith’s guitar work on “Here Comes The Flood” infused the number with an epic psychedelic feel. In a special moment, Bradshaw joined Young on stage for “What About The Questions Now.” Young blended gospel and rockabilly on the spirited “Have You Ever Died.” He concluded his 10-song album set with the pensive “Wade In The River.”

The entire ensemble, a baker’s dozen, took the stage for an energetic encore. Bradshaw began singing “Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night” and the packed house went wild as she and Young traded off versus of “Atlantic City.” They merged the Springsteen version with The Band’s rendition to give it a fresh Rambling Roses bloom. They ended a magical night with Bradshaw and crew rolling the “Tumbling Dice.”

Special thanks to The State Room for hosting this event and showcasing the local talent who make up our robust Salt lake City music scene.  Both these new albums are superb. Check them out here and consider purchasing some vinyl for your collection.

https://danielyoung.bandcamp.com/album/leave-it-out-to-dry

https://theholleringpines.bandcamp.com/album/heres-to-hoping

• Who: Daniel Young and The Hollering Pines
• What: Double Record Release Show
• Where: The State Room
• When: Friday, May 3, 2024
• Info: https://www.danielyoungsongs.com/, http://www.theholleringpines.com/

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Dig out the camping gear—it’s time for a musical staycation. The 16th annual Ogden Music Festival is back at Fort Buenaventura on May 31-June 2, 2024 with a stellar all-star lineup. The three day concert is the signature event of the Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music (OFOAM) organization, a non-profit group who really knows how to put on a show. 

It’s not all string bands (though there will be world-class bluegrass acts). OFOAM balances the lineup with other genres of the American roots canon like soul, blues, R&B, Afro-Mexican rhythms, folk, mariachi, funk, and disco. The festival includes 27 musical acts over the three day event.

Find the full schedule here

Friday, May 31

Kicking off the festival is the Utah-based, goodtime band Pixie & The Partygrass Boys. Their unique “partygrass” music blends bluegrass, newgrass, pop, punk, and rock ‘n’ roll into a spirit-soaring sound that’s sure to get your feet moving and hips swaying.

Say She She is a soulful female-led disco-delic band from Brooklyn that will transport you back to Studio 54 with their hypnotic tri-vocal harmonies and infectious beats. 

Friday night’s headliner, Celisse, is a relative newcomer to the soul/gospel/blues music circuit. Her artistic ambitions took her to Broadway before she plugged in an electric guitar and channeled Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll. As a go-to guitarist for Brandi Carlile, Alicia Keys, and Joni Mitchell, Celisse’s musical career is just lifting-off. Her debut album is forthcoming and she’s already made her presence known. I can’t wait to hear her shred her guitar and belt out some soulful gospel blues. I’m stoked to catch her up-close before she hits the stratosphere.

In between the featured artists, “tweener” acts will play a short set to keep the music flowing during set-ups. 

Saturday, June 1

An insane schedule of great acts from noon till the wee hours are on tap. The Pickpockets, Wyatt Ellis, The Slocan Ramblers, and Twisted Pine rock the daylight (and don’t forget the tweeners who often leave you wanting more.) As the sun begins to dip over the horizon, that’s when a run of headliners come out, and on Saturday night there’s a trifecta of hugely successful acts.

Hayes Carll–The Grammy-nominated Texas storyteller sings whimsical, well-crafted songs with the swagger of rock ‘n’ roll, the saccharine sentiment of country, and introspection of folk. Carll occupies that middle lane between James McMurtry and Ray Wylie Hubbard. His fun, often irreverent songs will put a smile on your face and a dance in your step. His latest single with The Band of Heathens, released just in time for 4/20, is “Nobody Dies From Weed,” an upbeat honky-tonk celebration of mother nature’s gift.

Sarah Jarosz– The multi-instrumentalist and multi-Grammy winning Americana artist just released her seventh full-length album Polaroid Lovers. The record shifts the musical winds of Laurel Canyon toward Nashville to create a pop-adjacent masterpiece: diverse love stories told with a breezy country-pop sound. 

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway– Headlining the coveted Saturday night spot is the winner of the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold (she also won the award last year for Crooked Tree.) Tuttle & Golden Highway is the hottest ticket in Bluegrass today. For those who caught her magical performance at The Commonwealth Room in 2023, I’m sure you’re ready for more ( I know I am). For those who haven’t seen this troupe of virtuosi, this is a don’t-miss opportunity in a fabulous location.

Sunday, June 2

Let that late morning coffee kick in. The final festival day begins at noon with Utah’s own Mariachi Aguilas de la Esperanza, approximately 30 children from Esperanza School and 20 youth graduates start us off with Mariachi, Banda, Norteno, and Sierreno music.

The Birmingham, Alabama jamgrass band Mountain Grass Unit will get you kickin’ up some dirt before Hayes Carll returns for a bonus solo show! Don’t miss the electro-folk musical collective Las Cafeteras, the East LA troupe that blends Cumbia, punk, hip hop, and Afro-Mexican beats. Of course there are several great tweeners that’ll keep the rhythms flowing all day. The exclamation point on this year’s Ogden Music Festival comes from the local supergroup Josie O and the Big Six, a gathering of familiar faces from the Salt Lake City music scene who’ll hit us with a foot stomping honky-tonk finale.

Here’s a Spotify playlist to get you festival ready. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/20xOlebH3LkUvBfBIsZjxy?si=fsK4xK8aTVCCsRXStb4Frg&pi=u-U1ZEeOMzTCid

Tickets and camping info: https://ofoam.ticketspice.com/2024-ogden-music-festival

It’s just a short drive (or FrontRunner trip) from Salt Lake City, so whether you choose a three-day camping adventure or a couple of day excursions, you won’t want to miss the great vibes at Fort Buenaventura.

What: 16th Ogden Music Festival
Where: Fort Buenaventura (2450 A Ave Ogden)
When: May 31–June 2, 2024
Info and tickets: https://www.ofoam.org/

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Read our complete review of the 2024 Ogden Music Festival here.

A welcoming vibe and a crowded house greeted Katie Pruitt at The Urban Lounge on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The Salt Lake City audience was among the first to hear new material from the Nashville-based folk-rocker’s sophomore album, Mantras. 

Accompanied by a three-piece band, Pruitt opened with “Loving Her,” followed by the hot, rockin’ new singles, “White Lies, White Jesus, and You” and “Self-Sabotage.” In all, she played a powerful 15-song set from her two album catalog and captivated the crowd with her impressive vocal range. 

Some of my favorites included “Phases Of The Moon,” a great new Neil Young-esque song, and the catchy “All My Friends.” She thrilled us with “My Mind’s a Ship” and “Worst Case Scenario” before ending the set with “Expectations.” For her encore, she played “Normal” and saved the best for last with a searing rendition of her signature torch song “Out Of The Blue.” The song resonated in my head for the rest of the evening. 

Pruitt and her band sounded great all night (kudos to the venue’s sound engineer) and the Urban Lounge crowd listened intensely. 

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Jack Van Cleaf opened the evening with “Cowboy.” He brought along a bassist and electric guitar player to help him bring his musical poetry to life. His seven-song set included new material he just recorded in Texas including “Couch Potato,” where a banjo replaced the electric guitar. On “Easter Sunday” Pruitt joined him on stage for a duet. He ended his set with his heavily streamed Spotify hit “Rattlesnake.”

The night was more than just a concert. There was a celebratory vibe of love and acceptance in the room. As our state’s civic leaders assault our children with their culture war nonsense, it’s nice to experience a gathering of people who choose love over hate. I can’t think of a better way to embrace inclusion, compassion, and community than listening to Katie Pruitt’s beautiful music at The Urban Lounge. 

Who: Katie Pruitt w/ Jack Van Cleaf
What: Mantras Tour
Where: Urban Lounge
When: Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Info: theurbanloungeslc.com, www.katiepruitt.com, www.jackvancleaf.com

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