Bad Bad Hats is an indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band consists of Kerry Alexander, Chris Hoge, and Connor Davison. Named for a trouble-making character from the Madeline children’s books, Bad Bad Hats is defined by a balance of sweet and sour. Their music honors classic pop songwriting, with nods to nineties rock simplicity and pop-punk frivolity. Through it all, Alexander’s unflinchingly sincere lyrics cut to the emotional heart of things.

Is every record you make a reaction to the one before it? A response to how the previous album was received by critics and fans? Does it fill a hole in the band’s sense of their catalogue, something that you know you can do musically but haven’t captured yet in the studio? I could lay out a coherent explanation about this record on those terms, and it would be valid. We certainly wanted to make a record that leaned more heavily on us as a duo. We loved being in the studio with Carl Broemel that first time to record “Big Sur”, feeling like the process was so collaborative and the atmosphere so warm. We felt the resulting song was authentic in a new way, less dressed up with studio tricks and more about how our voices and instruments blend and live together.

Ultimately, this record feels more like an expression of the mysterious alchemy of the songs, the studio, the producer, the musicians, and the time in our life. There was a lot swirling around behind us in the studio while we recorded Line of Light. Some of it was personal, like Suz coming to terms again with her bipolar diagnosis as it reared its head right before we went back to Nashville for the final 10-day session. She had to wean our 1-year-old son during the recording session because her medication will harm a nursing child. That was looming over us as we finished up the record.

Kentucky-fried queerdos GRLwood are back with their sophomore album, I Sold My Soul To The Devil When I Was12, out now on sonaBLAST! Records.Addressing the well established themes of punk rock such as politics and depression, along with new, much welcomed topics of queerness and sexuality, each song can be viewed as an internal monologue of a 12 year old, a pivotal age that throws a kid into the struggles and confusion of adolescence.

D’Amato first emerged to international acclaim with the 2014 release of ‘The Shipwreck From The Shore,’ his New West Records debut. Inspired in part by time spent studying with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon, the album garnered rave reviews on both sides of the pond, with NPR inviting D’Amato for a Tiny Desk Concert and lauding that “he writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter,” and Uncut proclaiming that his songwriting “echoes with early Bob Dylan.” D’Amato followed it up in 2016 with the Mike Mogis-produced ‘Cold Snap,’ which landed him his first national TV appearance along with an Artist You Need To Know nod from Rolling Stone, who hailed his “folk music raised on New Jersey grit.”

Known for his distinctly husky vocals, intellectual lyrics, and atmospheric folk-laden, punk-infused indie rock, Jagjaguar artist Trevor Sensor is an American singer/songwriter from Sterling, Illinois who has garnered comparisons to iconic artists such as Tom Waits and Bob Dylan.

As a student of philosophy and literature, the words of great minds such as Marcel Proust, Søren Kierkegaard, and beat generation authors William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac inform the vital elements of Sensor’s art.

His debut full-length, Andy Warhol’s Dream (the title refers to the artist’s prediction of everyone’s 15 minutes of fame and is also a reference to the celebrity culture of the 21st century), was released in 2017, and was produced by Jonathan Rado of indie rock duo Foxygen. The record also featured guest appearances from Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek of the Chicago indie outfit Whitney.

The Nadas are Iowa’s signature alt-rock-country band, selling more than 200,000 albums through their own label, Authentic Records. Singers/guitarists Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith, bassist Brian Duffey, and drummer Brandon Stone mix country, rock, alternative, and indie with flawless songwriting and catchy melodies for a crowd-pleasing experience.

The Nadas strip down to members Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith for this intimate evening with the duo in Des Moines, IA’s newest venue, xBk.

Doors 7:30PM
Show: 8:00PM

Advance Tickets: $20 // D.O.S. $25

Featuring:
DJ Viv, Entre Luche, Nova, Typ-O, That Honorroll Kid, Jordan Burgett, Tyler James & Kidd LJ

PLUS: DMI Breakers and Killing Floors in the house.