Kurt Vile and The Violators with Emily Robb
2024 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 18 and over event. Back to Moon Beach (Verve Records) is an EP by no one’s definition but Kurt Vile’s. Clocking in at just shy of an hour, this would be a long full-length record by most any other artist’s yardstick, but for Kurt, the collection is an expression of just how deep his well of non-album material runs. Culled from various sessions over the last four years, and representing a wide swath of the inspirational musical community Kurt surrounds himself with, the core 4 songs of the record (tracks 1, 2, 3 and 6) were born in the fall of 2019 at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, California alongside close musical partners Rob Laakso, Stella Mozgawa, Chris Cohen and with coproduction on tracks 1, 3 and 6 by Cate Le Bon. Later fleshed out with bandmate and producer / engineer Adam Langelotti, additional musical parts were played by “Farmer” Dave Scher and Mikel Patrick Avery. Many other moments (including hella overdubs on the Stinson Beach material) are from intense sessions on planet Philly at Kurt’s studio: OKV Central. It’s been a heavy few years and plenty of excuses to get lost in outer space behind the microphones. Mant Sounds – KV’s go-to recording studio in Los Angeles – was a third and crucial launchpad to ram these sessions home… a familiar spaceship run by Rob Schnapf and often flown by Matt Schuessler as engineer. EP opener “Another Good Year For The Roses” is a richly psychedelic piano-driven earworm with swirling lap steel and catchy blues-pop guitars, and a deeply meditative yet characteristically hooky bend. Written a full year before the pandemic – and recorded in October 2019 just shy of it – “Touched Somethin (Caught a Virus)” was originally intended for Vile’s 2022 full length (watch my moves), but was ultimately left off of that record out of concern that it would be interpreted too literally, given the state of the world that unfolded shortly after its recording. Somberly, the Stinson Beach material in the collection are some of the final unreleased recordings with Kurt’s longtime creative partner Rob Laakso, prior to his passing in early 2023. The EP is rounded out with a few fan favorites — his covers of Wilco’s “Passenger Side” and Bob Dylan’s Christmas song “Must Be Santa,” (featuring vocals by Kurt’s daughters Awilda and Delphine Vile) which Kurt is excited to bring to a wider platform (“just in time for the holidays!”) after its Spotify-only release last year. The final track brings-it-all-back-home with a punched-up, radio-ready version of (watch my moves) standout “Cool Water” – originally recorded with the Violators in January 2020 by Rob Schnapf at Mant sounds and remixed by Rob Schnapf again in May 2023 for this release – and for the radio!
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis wsg Andrew Rathbun Tri
This is a 18 and over event with standing room only Joe Lally was onstage, playing at full throttle, when he realized that his band had found a true kindred spirit. It was the fall of 2021 and the Messthetics — the instrumental trio of Lally on bass, his former Fugazi bandmate Brendan Canty on drums and guitarist Anthony Pirog — were at Brooklyn venue the Bell House, digging into their uptempo riff workout “Serpent Tongue.” Joining them for the piece was a special guest, acclaimed jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, making only his second cameo with the group after a drop-in at another New York show back in 2019. That first meeting had been a success, but this time, Lewis’ presence sparked something new.The Messthetics spent a few months in the fall of 2022 assembling and arranging material as a trio before meeting with Lewis for just one day of rehearsal prior to the recording in December. Even with minimal prep time, the material evolved considerably. Lewis added a lush, spiraling melody to the chorus section of “The Time Is the Place,” originally called “Meters Groove” in honor of the song’s Canty-written central riff, a crisp seven-beat strut. And Lewis was the key element that unlocked Lally’s “Railroad Tracks Home,” joining the bassist on the second pass through the theme and turning the subtle, swinging mood piece from something, in Lally’s words, “dirge-y and dark” to “a light-bringing thing.”Judging by the enthusiastic response the Messthetics and their esteemed guest have received during more recent live meetings, listeners are similarly eager to hear what happens when brilliant players like these stretch themselves through collaboration.
Celeste Allison Wsg. Lipstick Jodi and Public Universal Friend
This is a 18+ event with standing room only Celeste Allison is a self-made, queer independent artist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her breakthrough song UGLY has over 170k streams and counting on Spotify alone. With sweet but surprising powerhouse vocals paired with sassy and simple lyrics, listeners are left captivated and wanting more.
Waxahatchee w/ Tré Burt
2024 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 18 and over event. One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically acclaimed albums, she’s never felt more confident in herself as an artist. While her sound has evolved from lo-fi folk to lush alt-tinged country, her voice has always remained the same. Honest and close, poetic with Southern lilting. Much like Carson McCullers’s Mick Kelly, determined in her desires and convictions, ready to tell whoever will listen. And after years of being sober and stable in Kansas City–after years of sacrificing herself to her work and the road–Crutchfield has arrived at her most potent songwriting yet. On her new album, Tigers Blood, Crutchfield emerges as a powerhouse–an ethnologist of the self–forever dedicated to revisiting her wins and losses. But now she’s arriving at revelations and she ain’t holding them back. Crutchfield says that she wrote most of the songs on ‘Tigers Blood’ during a “hot hand spell,” while on tour in the end of 2022. And when it came time to record, Crutchfield returned to her trusted producer Brad Cook, who brought her sound to a groundbreaking turning point on 2020’s Saint Cloud. They hunkered down at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas–a border town known for cotton and pecans–and searched for another turn, waited for a sign. Initially, MJ Lenderman, Southern indie-rock wunderkind (much like Crutchfield when she started out) came to play electric guitar and sing on “Right Back To It.” But as soon as they tracked it, Cook told Lenderman he had to stay for the rest of the album. And he did.
Belle & Sebastian w/ Haley Heynderickx
2024 Bell’s Beer Garden Summer Concert SeriesThis is a 18 and over event. With a legacy spanning three decades, Belle and Sebastian have truly earned their place in music history. The unique, unpredictable, and fiercely loved band have a plethora of accolades and plaudits to their name including winning the “Best Newcomers” BRIT in 1999, selling out the Hollywood Bowl, and contributing to the soundtrack for an array of films (Juno, The Power of Nightmares). Their most recent output, a trio of EPs titled How To Solve Our Human Problems, Parts 1-3 was a return to an earlier format, allowing the music to emerge organically on EP sessions. 2019 holds new music in the form of a soundtrack to Simon Bird’s upcoming film, Days of The Bagnold Summer, due for release later this year. Still regarded as “One of the most thoughtful and compelling bands out there” (The Times) Belle and Sebastian are soon to head to The Mediterranean to launch their 4 day festival at sea, The Boaty Weekender. This event emerges twenty years on from their pioneering holiday-camp-held festival The Bowlie Weekender. Catch them bringing joy to a stage near you soon.
Sheer Mag w/ Mighty Big Rig
This is a 18 and over event.Standing Room Only Underlying every great record, every career-defining work of art, is a certain ineffable, increasingly rarified quality: unity of vision. Great songs need not announce their greatness: their marriage of idea with action, soul with sound, appears as something which is naturally effortless, unforced—they are what they are because they have no choice but to be. On Playing Favorites, Sheer Mag’s third full length and first with Third Man Records, this precise, matured clarity of vision is put on full display. Over the course of the past decade, Sheer Mag have labored to carve out a discernibly singular position within the canon of contemporary rock: toggling with ease between the refined flourishes of a “connoisseur’s band” and the ecstatic colloquialism of populist songwriting—yet displaying no strict loyalty to either camp—their sound, while oft-referenced, is unmistakably and immediately recognizable as theirs alone. With Playing Favorites, Sheer Mag have capitalized on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit—a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls—emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems. This is the record the Philadelphian rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make. Playing Favorites expands with a sense of undeniable vitality, buoyed by rock and roll’s singular capacity to channel a relentless compassion for human life. While at times marked by an intensified sense of melancholy, this newest offering takes stock of the confusing flow of daily life without moralizing, refusing to fall into antagonistic cynicism. Sheer Mag leans into the chaotic thrall of city living, of a life subdivided by Playing Favorites is undoubtedly a record by the same Sheer Mag that audiences of all stripes have spent the last decade falling in love with. In fact, for all of its sonic departures and evolutions, this record is perhaps the most “Sheer Mag” release yet. Not so much a return to form, but rather a realization of those greatest promises that the band has up until now only hinted at. With Playing Favorites, Sheer Mag cater to their tastes and their tastes alone: so long as they continue to do so, the future of rock and roll, that great human tradition, is in the best of hands.
Lilly Hiatt w/ Molly Martin
This is a 18+ event with standing room only Lately is a record I wrote to share some of where I’ve been with you. Whenever songs happen for me, they are like photographs of time. Last year was tough. That’s an understatement for certain. Tears were shed, lives were lost, and lonely was a way of life. I have always felt lonely, but never gone to the depths of solitude that I had in 2020. The irony of that is, I was not alone at all in that space. Everyone had lost something, and we all were trying to rebuild our lives as we knew them. As a means of keeping sane, I started to write songs. Some of them sucked. I kept doing it though, because I had nothing else to fill my cup. “The Last Tear” came and I thought, I’d like to share this. That opened the door for more. “Been” happened not too long after, reminiscing about this and that, and so on. The inspiration was occurring from simple moments, such as gathering with my family after months of not doing so. Or walking around looking at my neighbors on their porches and waving a hello. I also was finally catching up with myself, and understanding I was reeling from some of my missteps. Forgiveness can occur through written words for me, so it was quite soothing to have my guitars and a melody. Depression was a big part of fall and winter. I forgot how down I could feel. But I also felt hope in that light that came from a memory of a past adventure or a stranger’s smile while walking down the street. Little things lifted my spirits. I missed my friends. I missed my family. I was devastated by the grief our country was facing, as well as the world. I felt unified in knowing that I was not on my own in that mentality. Many were questioning a lot of what was happening and though ideologies and understandings were fractured and opposing, most people I know craved to be together again. I realized that my heart was full of everything I loved and that would carry me forward for the time being. Eventually we would all get back to one another. Now that we are beginning to, I will be thrilled to share and play these songs for you. Much Love,Lilly Hiatt
The Insiders
This is a 21 and over event.Standing Room Only Close your eyes and you won’t know the difference. Open them and you still might befooled. The Insiders present the premier Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers experience.With 6 veteran musicians and decades of combined stage and touring experience, TheInsiders are genuinely running down the dream.It all starts with frontman Max Lockwood. “I grew up listening to Tom Petty. My momwould play the Greatest Hits record while she worked out. I’d sit at the top of the stairsand listen to those songs—it was my most requested CD as a young kid.” In high school,Lockwood’s band Big Dudee Roo started covering Petty songs at their frequent showsin West Michigan. “Tom Petty was part of the great American landscape to me—alegend by the time I was musically conscious. We got a great crowd reaction with Pettytunes, and people frequently commented that I sounded a lot like him.”Nothing has changed with time. After the passing of Tom Petty in October of 2017,Lockwood organized the band by pulling together some of his favorite musicians for abenefit concert. After a sold-out show that raised thousands for a local domesticviolence shelter The Insiders decided they wouldn’t back down. “We try to honor whatMr. Petty and the Heartbreakers have done for rock and roll each night. We’re fans ofthe music first and foremost. These songs are woven into the fabric of the Americanidentity.” They’ve found no shortage of demand, selling out shows everywhere they go.Local Spins’ John Sinkevics had this to say: “The Insiders set the bar at a new level forTom Petty tributes.”The Insiders are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and currently tour the Midwest andbeyond. They are available for public and private functions.
The Insiders
This is a 21 and over event.Standing Room Only Close your eyes and you won’t know the difference. Open them and you still might befooled. The Insiders present the premier Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers experience.With 6 veteran musicians and decades of combined stage and touring experience, TheInsiders are genuinely running down the dream.It all starts with frontman Max Lockwood. “I grew up listening to Tom Petty. My momwould play the Greatest Hits record while she worked out. I’d sit at the top of the stairsand listen to those songs—it was my most requested CD as a young kid.” In high school,Lockwood’s band Big Dudee Roo started covering Petty songs at their frequent showsin West Michigan. “Tom Petty was part of the great American landscape to me—alegend by the time I was musically conscious. We got a great crowd reaction with Pettytunes, and people frequently commented that I sounded a lot like him.”Nothing has changed with time. After the passing of Tom Petty in October of 2017,Lockwood organized the band by pulling together some of his favorite musicians for abenefit concert. After a sold-out show that raised thousands for a local domesticviolence shelter The Insiders decided they wouldn’t back down. “We try to honor whatMr. Petty and the Heartbreakers have done for rock and roll each night. We’re fans ofthe music first and foremost. These songs are woven into the fabric of the Americanidentity.” They’ve found no shortage of demand, selling out shows everywhere they go.Local Spins’ John Sinkevics had this to say: “The Insiders set the bar at a new level forTom Petty tributes.”The Insiders are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and currently tour the Midwest andbeyond. They are available for public and private functions.
The Bygones (Joshua Lee Turner & Allison Young) w/ Hala – SOLD OUT
This is a 18 and over seated show The Bygones are an indie folk duo consisting of Allison Young and Joshua Lee Turner. Their sound ties together unexpected genres, from traditional jazz to 70’s singer-songwriter, classic country to bossa nova. Josh’s classical guitar background and ear for vocal harmony provide the underpinning for Allison’s powerful songwriting and nostalgic voice, in duo arrangements which are intricate yet accessible, classic yet fresh. Josh and Allison first worked together in 2018, recording a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” which now has over 4 million YouTube views. They soon realized that their musical styles were a natural fit for one another, and in 2022 they recorded their first EP, May 9-12, which they toured to sold out audiences across the UK later that year. Josh and Allison made their US debut as The Bygones in 2023, selling out shows in New York City and Nashville. This show will be part of a national tour in support of their first full-length album of original music, coming out Spring 2024.
