sun22may7:00 PMTomberlin w/ Jana Horn7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
Saddle Creek xBk Presents: Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn Sunday, May 22, 2022 ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
Saddle Creek
xBk Presents:
Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn
Sunday, May 22, 2022
ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
ON SALE FRIDAY, 2/18 @ 10AM
Time
(Sunday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About Tomberlin:
What hides in the fog that keeps people apart, and what does it take to cut through it? These questions hang heavily over Sarah Beth Tomberlin’s music, whose hushed and intimate tones orbit answers as much as they savor the unanswerable. To be in relation to another human being is to engage with a deep mystery: We are all fundamentally alone, siloed into confusing bodies, and yet occasionally we find someone who lets us feel as if we weren’t. Tomberlin, the Louisville native who recently relocated to Los Angeles, delights in articulating and amplifying that mystery, picking out its details and marveling at its scale. In singing her aloneness she soothes it, and extends a hand to others reckoning with their own solitude–a paradox that warms her spectral songs.
Tomberlin’s new Projections EP continues the arc of her critically acclaimed 2018 debut At Weddings, weaving new collaborators and new techniques into her signature dusky milieu. Since the LP’s release, Tomberlin has toured with Pedro the Lion, Andy Shauf, American Football, and Alex G, played a Tiny Desk concert for NPR, and given a riveting performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The five-song EP, capped with a cover of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s stunning “Natural Light,” reflects this period of intensive growth and self-discovery. “I wrote these songs while getting to know myself outside of people’s perceived notions of who I was,” says Tomberlin. “I just started being like, What am I interested in? What do I want out of relationships and friendships? What am I looking for that I don’t have in myself already?”
The rich vocal harmonies and guitar lines that made At Weddings so riveting still provide the EP’s foundation, but new percussive backing and instrumental flourishes open the path forward for Tomberlin. After touring the US with Alex G and playing new songs for the band in their shared green room, Tomberlin reached out to Alex Giannascoli and his bandmate Sam Acchione to produce the EP’s four original tracks. She recorded her new songs in Giannascoli’s Philadelphia apartment alongside Acchione and frequent collaborator Molly Germer. The fleshed out sound lends a sense of urgency to tracks like “Wasted,” an uptempo romp across the kind of thorny relationship that withholds as much as it gives, and “Sin,” a song that applies reclaimed Christian imagery to an unorthodox romantic partnership. “I don’t mind sinning if it’s with you,” Tomberlin sings against washes of violin and brushed cymbals. “Say a prayer/Lay your hands on me/I just wanna be clean.”
“I wrote ‘Sin’ while living at my parents’ home and exploring my queerness, but afraid to make it too obvious,” Tomberlin says. “It’s definitely using imagery that gets used against queer people, but making a joke out of it. That’s a thing with queer people. We all use humor to deflect our pain.”
Tomberlin’s ability to pan across the general disaster of human relationality and then zoom in on an effervescent moment of pure intimacy is one of her greatest strengths as a songwriter. Queer people get shuttered under the label of sin by the wider world, and yet despite that brand they steal moments of love and healing for themselves. Love is, generally speaking, a wellspring of pain and dysfunction, but look at the moments where it works. “It’s all sacrifice and violence, the history of love,” Tomberlin sings on EP opener “Hours,” “But remember when we stayed up/And took turns playing songs?” The camera zooms in, and magic alights on the people who suddenly take up the whole frame.
You can refuse the mystery of how people manage to be among each other, or you can delight in what it offers, no matter how fleeting. Tomberlin opts for delight every time. Hers are songs for people who, despite the turmoil of the world at large, despite the weight of its sadness, unshield themselves and fall into wonder.d themselves, dreaming their way out of the cold by writing songs like “Coconut Grove,” a whirly psychedelic love song, and “Ribboned Skies,” a blazing ode to guitars and syncopation. Minneapolis has always played a part in the creative process for these dyed-in-the-wool locals. Long heralded as local hot shots in the cold, desolate, land of Prince, Westerberg and Dylan, John and Micky have still never stopped working the grind; in donut shops, bakeries and restaurants, toiling to make ends meet yet trying find beauty in the mundanity, and in the tranquil midnights.
Pelant, as a writer, thrives in the gloom of isolation; a cold void, “I think it’s this type of environment that helps me feel focused. Zero distractions. Focused in a way where I can tap into certain emotions. I think some of the best music transports you to a place in time where your memories become potent visualizations. When writing closed off like this, you can see the images easily and your brain will pick the right chords and tones and guide you where you ought to go. I think being alone during that type of hibernation season is a great space in which to create.”
Once they emerged from their creative cocoon, it was down to the warmth and mythical allure of Austin, TX to bring the album to life. If Minneapolis was about hunkering down in cold isolation, Austin was about heat and life, working with producer Jim Eno (founding member and drummer of Spoon) out of Public Hi-Fi Studios, alongside live band members Mark Hanson and Chuck Murlowski, to record the ten tracks that make up Can You Really Find Me.
The tunefulness of this collection is not by accident. As Pelant deadpans, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a record that sounded like it has a lot of singles on it?” Whether it’s the infinitely hooky “Strands Align,” the up-tempo synth flourishes of “Recollections,” or the buttery soul of “Saving the Dark,” each song so adeptly sticks to the album premise of feeling “single-like” that you wonder how they will even choose any.
In the grab bag of modern pop genres, from neo-psychedelia to shoe-gaze, ambient pop to cosmic country, Night Moves dream big on Can You Really Find Me and deliver a genuinely sparkling set that corrals all of these styles into one cohesive collection.
Reflecting once more on the new album, Pelant feels it functions in part as a rumination on aging; a period piece denoting his last 3 years, “I told myself at 18 I wanted to dedicate my 20’s to music and if nothing came of it, I would move on. So now closing out my 20’s, I feel there is still ground left to cover, I’m not quite satisfied yet. Our last album saw us hit a lot of hurdles; despite the successes we had, we parted ways with our management and lost a founding member of the band. While it’s proven to be a bumpy ride, I feel it just may be worth the trouble. I think I’m more comfortable now in my skin than I was at 24.”
fri17jun6:00 PMCactus Blossoms6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents: The Cactus Blossoms Doors: 6:00 PM Show: 7:00 PM All Ages $20 (General Admission)
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents:
The Cactus Blossoms
Doors: 6:00 PM
Show: 7:00 PM
All Ages
$20 (General Admission)
Time
(Friday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About The Cactus Blossoms
Blood Harmony. Whether it’s The Beach Boys, Bee Gees or First Aid Kit, that sibling vocal blend is the secret sauce in some of the most spine-tingling moments in popular music. The Cactus Blossoms – Minneapolis-based brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey – offer compelling evidence that this tradition is alive and well, with a deceptively unadorned musical approach that offers “creative turns of phrase, gorgeous harmonies, and an ageless sound” (NPR All Things Considered), not to mention spine tingles aplenty. Their 2016 debut You’re Dreaming, a stunning and transporting collection of original songs, earned high praise from Rolling Stone and Vice Noisey, tour stints with Kacey Musgraves and Lucius, and a perfectly cast performance on the third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Now their unlikely rise continues with new album Easy Way, to be released on their own label Walkie Talkie Records.
While many bands would have been content to stick with the winning formula of their debut, the Blossoms refused to repeat themselves. If You’re Dreaming celebrated their vintage country and rock influences, Easy Way reveals a songwriting style that has changed, evolved, and gotten more modern. Dan Auerbach, another artist who knows from bedrock influences, co-wrote two songs on the album. “Dan’s love for songwriting was inspiring, just the kick in the pants we needed to start writing again after being on the road,” says Page.
The brothers’ decision to produce the new album themselves no doubt led to the new sound. “We wanted the freedom to experiment with our own weird ideas,” says Jack, “We used to joke that the working title album should be Expensive Demos.” As they crisscrossed the nation on tour, the brothers would stop through Alex Hall’s Reliable Recorders studio in Chicago to chase the new sound they were after. The result joins together what would otherwise be distant corners of the American songbook. Both the traditional twang of Chicago pedal steel guitarist Joel Paterson (Devil in a Woodpile, The Western Elstons) and the primal wail of free jazz saxophonist Michael Lewis (Bon Iver, Andrew Bird) are at home on the album. Just as they did with their debut, the brothers found a voice all their own.
sun24jul6:00 PMDaniel Champagne6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents Daniel Champagne ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25 DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Event Details
xBk Presents
Daniel Champagne
ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25
DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Time
(Sunday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
he story goes that the young Australian singer, songwriter and one-of-a-kind guitar virtuoso first picked up his instrument of choice as a five-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. He began writing songs at 12, training classically throughout his teens and performing solo wherever he could, honing his craft and developing what would become the dynamite live show that he is renowned for today. At 18 he left school, turned professional and hit the road. The next five years saw him traversing North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and of course, his homeland Australia playing such festivals as Vancouver and Mariposa Folk (Canada), Belgium’s Labadoux Festival and Australia’s Woodford, Falls Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival and the legendary Byron Bay Bluesfest.
Daniel has toured and shared the stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Albert Lee, Kaki King, Lucinda Williams, Judy Collins, INXS, John Butler, KT Tunstall and Ani DiFranco, Jake Shimabukuro, Rodrigo Y Gabriela – all of this while writing, producing and independently releasing “Satellite City EP” (2018) “Fault Lines” (2017) “Heartland Hurricanes” (2015) two Eps, Gypsy Moon Volumes 1 and 2, (2014)his first long player, ‘Pint of Mystery’ (2011), ‘My Own Design’ (2009) and ‘Wide Eyed and Open’ (2010), and the ‘Real Live’ offering in 2012.
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may
thu12may7:00 PMWidowspeak7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
On Sale Friday, January 7th @ 9am! xBk Presents: Widowspeak May 12, 2022 ADVANCE: $13// DOS: $15 DOORS: 7PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
On Sale Friday, January 7th @ 9am!
xBk Presents:
Widowspeak
May 12, 2022
ADVANCE: $13// DOS: $15
DOORS: 7PM // SHOW: 8PM
Time
(Thursday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
Widowspeak
“The stone that’s buried: what the fruit is for.”
So goes the title track from Plum, Widowspeak’s forthcoming fifth album. The line serves as an apt analogy for the record itself: the self-aware sweetness that the band employs to deliver the seed of a harder, sharper idea. Singer Molly Hamilton coats wry observations in a voice as honeyed as the sun-ripened fruit, and Widowspeak have always made a bitter pill much easier to swallow. From its opening strum, there’s a palpable warmth and familiarity to the music even as it hints at darker truths below the surface, questions about inherent worth. What value and meaning do we assign ourselves, our time, and how do we spend it?
With Plum, the songwriting partnership rooted in the creative rapport between Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas continues to expand on shared visions, delving deeper into what was always there: dusty guitars, ear-worm melodies, warm expansive arrangements. Each entry to their catalog has marked a subtle reimagining of Widowspeak’s sound, though perennial points of reference remain the same: 90’s dream pop, 60’s psych rock, a certain unshakeable Pacific-Northwestness. Speaking to the timeless feeling of each, the albums continue to be discovered well beyond their respective PR cycles, made beloved by new listeners through word of mouth.
More akin to the sunny spaciousness of All Yours (2015) than the darker, denser Expect the Best (2017), Plum carries a sense of unhurried self-awareness. It feels comfortable and lived-in: humble in structure, heavy on mood. Perhaps that came taking time off from the touring grind, instead working full-time jobs and settling into the rhythm of daily life in a small upstate New York town. Plum was recorded over a handful of weekends last winter by Sam Evian (Cass McCombs, Kazu Makino, Hannah Cohen) at his Flying Cloud studio in the Catskills, and was mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, Perfume Genius). In addition to Hamilton (vocals, guitar) and Thomas (guitars, bass, synth), it features instrumental contributions by Andy Weaver (drums), Michael Hess (piano), and Sam himself (bass, synth). Plum nestles into the band’s canon like it was always there, but with new textures coming to the fore, like the polyrhythmic pulse of “Amy” and “The Good Ones”, or the watery, Terry Riley-influenced track “Jeanie”
The broader themes that run through Plum are almost eerily prescient for the time of its release, written and recorded in the eve of a global pandemic. Hamilton couldn’t have predicted the relevancy of mesmerizing track “Breadwinner”, with its central analogy of bread as time as money, or the song’s yearning pleas to a partner who’s “always bringing their work home”. And on “Even True Love”, Hamilton acknowledges the imminent loss of those closest to us: “In the deepest wells, in the shallow sick/I can see you shaking in the great unknown/Will you learn to live with what you chose?/Even true love, you can’t take it with you”. They’re songs for our time to be sure, but Plum reckons with existential pain that was always there, that will endure well beyond social distancing and into our collective new reality.
Still, Plum isn’t weighed down by crushing angst. The approach is humble and frank, like a friend sharing intimacies. These are songs made to be listened to, enjoyed. “Money” is particularly hypnotic, built around a repeating, cyclical motif that serves as both skeleton and body. “Will you get back what you put in?” Hamilton asks over an insistent guitar riff. The line is delivered with a knowingness that transcends its surface critiques of late-stage capitalism, asking both herself and the listener whether this is, in fact, the world we want to live in. A world that increasingly sees monetization as the greatest goal, even at such great expense to ourselves, and especially our future. What does it mean to contribute? And what is the cost of “selling out”?
Hamilton cites a crisis of meaning as being central to the origins of Plum. “I didn’t want to write for a long time; I didn’t even really want to listen. I stopped believing in ‘music as a career’ and the distorted idea of what it had become in my mind: building and projecting a personality, promoting it, selling it. Losing that sense of purpose… it made me question my own value, usefulness.” She looked methodically for ways to reframe those thoughts about overconsumption, and found inspiration in the writings of MFK Fisher, in the Danish film “Babette’s Feast” and David Byrne’s “True Stories”, and in YouTube playlists of pop songs remixed to sound like they’re being played in abandoned malls. She also found a book about wabi-sabi principles by Leonard Koren (who founded WET magazine): “So much of it is centered around allowing things to be what they are, and just noticing. I tried to notice more, and I think those observations became the songs.”
Plum is an album that navigates the spaces between the lesser emotions of modern life. From the creeping dread that “things are getting worse” to the resigned but sanguine recognition that “no one is old, nothing is young,” Hamilton’s lyrics speak to the unique turmoil of anyone who creates as their work, who must somehow survive off such “fruits of their labor.” With its release, Widowspeak have brought something into the world that seems to know its own worth, even as it wonders aloud about what is to come. Like the wabi-sabi tenant that lead to the song that became the album, all things are devolving to, or evolving from, nothingness.
“You’re a peach and I’m a plum.”
thu19may7:00 PMBitch7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents: Bitch Thursday, May 19, 2022 ADVANCE: $15 // DOS: $18 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
xBk Presents:
Bitch
Thursday, May 19, 2022
ADVANCE: $15 // DOS: $18
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Time
(Thursday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About Bitch:
Bitch makes witchy poet pop. She does it with violins and synthesizers, and the songs she writes are spectral, heartbreaking, political, and beautiful. The longstanding queer music icon has been performing for over 20 years. Bitch first achieved notoriety as one half of the queer folk duo Bitch & Animal. The band went on to tour with Ani DiFranco, whom they met while playing a gig at a pizza shop in Provincetown. In the mid 2000s, Bitch went solo, and shared stages with the Indigo Girls, acted in the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus, and licensed some songs to The L Word. Eight years ago, she began to piece together Bitchcraft, her latest record. The resulting album is one that makes you think and makes you dance. It was recorded in LA, Austin, Provincetown, and Boston. Full of violins, synths, and huge vocals, the record is neon pink and in your face. It’s Joni Mitchell set to a click track; it’s queer Cyndi Lauper and will hex you with its brilliance.
sun22may7:00 PMTomberlin w/ Jana Horn7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
Saddle Creek xBk Presents: Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn Sunday, May 22, 2022 ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
Saddle Creek
xBk Presents:
Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn
Sunday, May 22, 2022
ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
ON SALE FRIDAY, 2/18 @ 10AM
Time
(Sunday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About Tomberlin:
What hides in the fog that keeps people apart, and what does it take to cut through it? These questions hang heavily over Sarah Beth Tomberlin’s music, whose hushed and intimate tones orbit answers as much as they savor the unanswerable. To be in relation to another human being is to engage with a deep mystery: We are all fundamentally alone, siloed into confusing bodies, and yet occasionally we find someone who lets us feel as if we weren’t. Tomberlin, the Louisville native who recently relocated to Los Angeles, delights in articulating and amplifying that mystery, picking out its details and marveling at its scale. In singing her aloneness she soothes it, and extends a hand to others reckoning with their own solitude–a paradox that warms her spectral songs.
Tomberlin’s new Projections EP continues the arc of her critically acclaimed 2018 debut At Weddings, weaving new collaborators and new techniques into her signature dusky milieu. Since the LP’s release, Tomberlin has toured with Pedro the Lion, Andy Shauf, American Football, and Alex G, played a Tiny Desk concert for NPR, and given a riveting performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The five-song EP, capped with a cover of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s stunning “Natural Light,” reflects this period of intensive growth and self-discovery. “I wrote these songs while getting to know myself outside of people’s perceived notions of who I was,” says Tomberlin. “I just started being like, What am I interested in? What do I want out of relationships and friendships? What am I looking for that I don’t have in myself already?”
The rich vocal harmonies and guitar lines that made At Weddings so riveting still provide the EP’s foundation, but new percussive backing and instrumental flourishes open the path forward for Tomberlin. After touring the US with Alex G and playing new songs for the band in their shared green room, Tomberlin reached out to Alex Giannascoli and his bandmate Sam Acchione to produce the EP’s four original tracks. She recorded her new songs in Giannascoli’s Philadelphia apartment alongside Acchione and frequent collaborator Molly Germer. The fleshed out sound lends a sense of urgency to tracks like “Wasted,” an uptempo romp across the kind of thorny relationship that withholds as much as it gives, and “Sin,” a song that applies reclaimed Christian imagery to an unorthodox romantic partnership. “I don’t mind sinning if it’s with you,” Tomberlin sings against washes of violin and brushed cymbals. “Say a prayer/Lay your hands on me/I just wanna be clean.”
“I wrote ‘Sin’ while living at my parents’ home and exploring my queerness, but afraid to make it too obvious,” Tomberlin says. “It’s definitely using imagery that gets used against queer people, but making a joke out of it. That’s a thing with queer people. We all use humor to deflect our pain.”
Tomberlin’s ability to pan across the general disaster of human relationality and then zoom in on an effervescent moment of pure intimacy is one of her greatest strengths as a songwriter. Queer people get shuttered under the label of sin by the wider world, and yet despite that brand they steal moments of love and healing for themselves. Love is, generally speaking, a wellspring of pain and dysfunction, but look at the moments where it works. “It’s all sacrifice and violence, the history of love,” Tomberlin sings on EP opener “Hours,” “But remember when we stayed up/And took turns playing songs?” The camera zooms in, and magic alights on the people who suddenly take up the whole frame.
You can refuse the mystery of how people manage to be among each other, or you can delight in what it offers, no matter how fleeting. Tomberlin opts for delight every time. Hers are songs for people who, despite the turmoil of the world at large, despite the weight of its sadness, unshield themselves and fall into wonder.d themselves, dreaming their way out of the cold by writing songs like “Coconut Grove,” a whirly psychedelic love song, and “Ribboned Skies,” a blazing ode to guitars and syncopation. Minneapolis has always played a part in the creative process for these dyed-in-the-wool locals. Long heralded as local hot shots in the cold, desolate, land of Prince, Westerberg and Dylan, John and Micky have still never stopped working the grind; in donut shops, bakeries and restaurants, toiling to make ends meet yet trying find beauty in the mundanity, and in the tranquil midnights.
Pelant, as a writer, thrives in the gloom of isolation; a cold void, “I think it’s this type of environment that helps me feel focused. Zero distractions. Focused in a way where I can tap into certain emotions. I think some of the best music transports you to a place in time where your memories become potent visualizations. When writing closed off like this, you can see the images easily and your brain will pick the right chords and tones and guide you where you ought to go. I think being alone during that type of hibernation season is a great space in which to create.”
Once they emerged from their creative cocoon, it was down to the warmth and mythical allure of Austin, TX to bring the album to life. If Minneapolis was about hunkering down in cold isolation, Austin was about heat and life, working with producer Jim Eno (founding member and drummer of Spoon) out of Public Hi-Fi Studios, alongside live band members Mark Hanson and Chuck Murlowski, to record the ten tracks that make up Can You Really Find Me.
The tunefulness of this collection is not by accident. As Pelant deadpans, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a record that sounded like it has a lot of singles on it?” Whether it’s the infinitely hooky “Strands Align,” the up-tempo synth flourishes of “Recollections,” or the buttery soul of “Saving the Dark,” each song so adeptly sticks to the album premise of feeling “single-like” that you wonder how they will even choose any.
In the grab bag of modern pop genres, from neo-psychedelia to shoe-gaze, ambient pop to cosmic country, Night Moves dream big on Can You Really Find Me and deliver a genuinely sparkling set that corrals all of these styles into one cohesive collection.
Reflecting once more on the new album, Pelant feels it functions in part as a rumination on aging; a period piece denoting his last 3 years, “I told myself at 18 I wanted to dedicate my 20’s to music and if nothing came of it, I would move on. So now closing out my 20’s, I feel there is still ground left to cover, I’m not quite satisfied yet. Our last album saw us hit a lot of hurdles; despite the successes we had, we parted ways with our management and lost a founding member of the band. While it’s proven to be a bumpy ride, I feel it just may be worth the trouble. I think I’m more comfortable now in my skin than I was at 24.”
june
fri17jun6:00 PMCactus Blossoms6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents: The Cactus Blossoms Doors: 6:00 PM Show: 7:00 PM All Ages $20 (General Admission)
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents:
The Cactus Blossoms
Doors: 6:00 PM
Show: 7:00 PM
All Ages
$20 (General Admission)
Time
(Friday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About The Cactus Blossoms
Blood Harmony. Whether it’s The Beach Boys, Bee Gees or First Aid Kit, that sibling vocal blend is the secret sauce in some of the most spine-tingling moments in popular music. The Cactus Blossoms – Minneapolis-based brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey – offer compelling evidence that this tradition is alive and well, with a deceptively unadorned musical approach that offers “creative turns of phrase, gorgeous harmonies, and an ageless sound” (NPR All Things Considered), not to mention spine tingles aplenty. Their 2016 debut You’re Dreaming, a stunning and transporting collection of original songs, earned high praise from Rolling Stone and Vice Noisey, tour stints with Kacey Musgraves and Lucius, and a perfectly cast performance on the third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Now their unlikely rise continues with new album Easy Way, to be released on their own label Walkie Talkie Records.
While many bands would have been content to stick with the winning formula of their debut, the Blossoms refused to repeat themselves. If You’re Dreaming celebrated their vintage country and rock influences, Easy Way reveals a songwriting style that has changed, evolved, and gotten more modern. Dan Auerbach, another artist who knows from bedrock influences, co-wrote two songs on the album. “Dan’s love for songwriting was inspiring, just the kick in the pants we needed to start writing again after being on the road,” says Page.
The brothers’ decision to produce the new album themselves no doubt led to the new sound. “We wanted the freedom to experiment with our own weird ideas,” says Jack, “We used to joke that the working title album should be Expensive Demos.” As they crisscrossed the nation on tour, the brothers would stop through Alex Hall’s Reliable Recorders studio in Chicago to chase the new sound they were after. The result joins together what would otherwise be distant corners of the American songbook. Both the traditional twang of Chicago pedal steel guitarist Joel Paterson (Devil in a Woodpile, The Western Elstons) and the primal wail of free jazz saxophonist Michael Lewis (Bon Iver, Andrew Bird) are at home on the album. Just as they did with their debut, the brothers found a voice all their own.
july
sun24jul6:00 PMDaniel Champagne6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents Daniel Champagne ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25 DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Event Details
xBk Presents
Daniel Champagne
ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25
DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Time
(Sunday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
he story goes that the young Australian singer, songwriter and one-of-a-kind guitar virtuoso first picked up his instrument of choice as a five-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. He began writing songs at 12, training classically throughout his teens and performing solo wherever he could, honing his craft and developing what would become the dynamite live show that he is renowned for today. At 18 he left school, turned professional and hit the road. The next five years saw him traversing North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and of course, his homeland Australia playing such festivals as Vancouver and Mariposa Folk (Canada), Belgium’s Labadoux Festival and Australia’s Woodford, Falls Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival and the legendary Byron Bay Bluesfest.
Daniel has toured and shared the stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Albert Lee, Kaki King, Lucinda Williams, Judy Collins, INXS, John Butler, KT Tunstall and Ani DiFranco, Jake Shimabukuro, Rodrigo Y Gabriela – all of this while writing, producing and independently releasing “Satellite City EP” (2018) “Fault Lines” (2017) “Heartland Hurricanes” (2015) two Eps, Gypsy Moon Volumes 1 and 2, (2014)his first long player, ‘Pint of Mystery’ (2011), ‘My Own Design’ (2009) and ‘Wide Eyed and Open’ (2010), and the ‘Real Live’ offering in 2012.
august
tue23aug7:00 PMThe Aristocrats7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents: The Aristocrats Tuesday, August 23, 2022 ADVANCE: $28 // DOS: $33 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
xBk Presents:
The Aristocrats
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
ADVANCE: $28 // DOS: $33
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Time
(Tuesday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
Guthrie Govan won “Guitarist of the Year” in the 1993 Guitarist magazine competition. He recorded two albums and toured as a member of Asia for three years, recorded and toured with Steven Wilson for several more, and continues to record and tour the globe with Hans Zimmer. Govan’s 2006 album, Erotic Cakes, set the guitar playing world on its ear showcasing complete mastery of his instrument. His popularity exploded as his instructional videos went viral racking up millions upon millions of views and through continued high visibility during four world tours in The Aristocrats. In fact, Govan is arguably the hottest guitarist on the international stage right now.
Bryan Beller, the long time Mike Keneally bandmate has been anchoring the low end for Joe Satriani for several years, but Beller’s credits don’t stop there. Aside from stints with Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai, he’s also the bass monster behind Dethklok, the tongue-in-cheek extreme metal band from Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” show, Metalacalypse.
Marco Minnemann is considered one of the world’s top ten drummers by the music press which has featured him on the covers of drums & percussion,(Gr) Stick It, (US) Batteur, (Fr) Bateristas, (Arg) and Modern Drummer (US). He has toured and recorded with Mike Keneally, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Belew, Joe Satriani, and Steven Wilson aside from appearances at drum festivals the world over. He is looked upon by his peers as one of the most gifted, innovative, cutting-edge drummers on the international music scene today
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Just Announced
tue23aug7:00 PMThe Aristocrats7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents: The Aristocrats Tuesday, August 23, 2022 ADVANCE: $28 // DOS: $33 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
xBk Presents:
The Aristocrats
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
ADVANCE: $28 // DOS: $33
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Time
(Tuesday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
Guthrie Govan won “Guitarist of the Year” in the 1993 Guitarist magazine competition. He recorded two albums and toured as a member of Asia for three years, recorded and toured with Steven Wilson for several more, and continues to record and tour the globe with Hans Zimmer. Govan’s 2006 album, Erotic Cakes, set the guitar playing world on its ear showcasing complete mastery of his instrument. His popularity exploded as his instructional videos went viral racking up millions upon millions of views and through continued high visibility during four world tours in The Aristocrats. In fact, Govan is arguably the hottest guitarist on the international stage right now.
Bryan Beller, the long time Mike Keneally bandmate has been anchoring the low end for Joe Satriani for several years, but Beller’s credits don’t stop there. Aside from stints with Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai, he’s also the bass monster behind Dethklok, the tongue-in-cheek extreme metal band from Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” show, Metalacalypse.
Marco Minnemann is considered one of the world’s top ten drummers by the music press which has featured him on the covers of drums & percussion,(Gr) Stick It, (US) Batteur, (Fr) Bateristas, (Arg) and Modern Drummer (US). He has toured and recorded with Mike Keneally, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Belew, Joe Satriani, and Steven Wilson aside from appearances at drum festivals the world over. He is looked upon by his peers as one of the most gifted, innovative, cutting-edge drummers on the international music scene today
sun24jul6:00 PMDaniel Champagne6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
xBk Presents Daniel Champagne ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25 DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Event Details
xBk Presents
Daniel Champagne
ADVANCE: $20 // DOS: $25
DOORS: 6:00PM // SHOW: 7PM
Time
(Sunday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
he story goes that the young Australian singer, songwriter and one-of-a-kind guitar virtuoso first picked up his instrument of choice as a five-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. He began writing songs at 12, training classically throughout his teens and performing solo wherever he could, honing his craft and developing what would become the dynamite live show that he is renowned for today. At 18 he left school, turned professional and hit the road. The next five years saw him traversing North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and of course, his homeland Australia playing such festivals as Vancouver and Mariposa Folk (Canada), Belgium’s Labadoux Festival and Australia’s Woodford, Falls Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival and the legendary Byron Bay Bluesfest.
Daniel has toured and shared the stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Albert Lee, Kaki King, Lucinda Williams, Judy Collins, INXS, John Butler, KT Tunstall and Ani DiFranco, Jake Shimabukuro, Rodrigo Y Gabriela – all of this while writing, producing and independently releasing “Satellite City EP” (2018) “Fault Lines” (2017) “Heartland Hurricanes” (2015) two Eps, Gypsy Moon Volumes 1 and 2, (2014)his first long player, ‘Pint of Mystery’ (2011), ‘My Own Design’ (2009) and ‘Wide Eyed and Open’ (2010), and the ‘Real Live’ offering in 2012.
fri17jun6:00 PMCactus Blossoms6:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents: The Cactus Blossoms Doors: 6:00 PM Show: 7:00 PM All Ages $20 (General Admission)
Event Details
First Fleet Concerts Presents:
The Cactus Blossoms
Doors: 6:00 PM
Show: 7:00 PM
All Ages
$20 (General Admission)
Time
(Friday) 6:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About The Cactus Blossoms
Blood Harmony. Whether it’s The Beach Boys, Bee Gees or First Aid Kit, that sibling vocal blend is the secret sauce in some of the most spine-tingling moments in popular music. The Cactus Blossoms – Minneapolis-based brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey – offer compelling evidence that this tradition is alive and well, with a deceptively unadorned musical approach that offers “creative turns of phrase, gorgeous harmonies, and an ageless sound” (NPR All Things Considered), not to mention spine tingles aplenty. Their 2016 debut You’re Dreaming, a stunning and transporting collection of original songs, earned high praise from Rolling Stone and Vice Noisey, tour stints with Kacey Musgraves and Lucius, and a perfectly cast performance on the third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Now their unlikely rise continues with new album Easy Way, to be released on their own label Walkie Talkie Records.
While many bands would have been content to stick with the winning formula of their debut, the Blossoms refused to repeat themselves. If You’re Dreaming celebrated their vintage country and rock influences, Easy Way reveals a songwriting style that has changed, evolved, and gotten more modern. Dan Auerbach, another artist who knows from bedrock influences, co-wrote two songs on the album. “Dan’s love for songwriting was inspiring, just the kick in the pants we needed to start writing again after being on the road,” says Page.
The brothers’ decision to produce the new album themselves no doubt led to the new sound. “We wanted the freedom to experiment with our own weird ideas,” says Jack, “We used to joke that the working title album should be Expensive Demos.” As they crisscrossed the nation on tour, the brothers would stop through Alex Hall’s Reliable Recorders studio in Chicago to chase the new sound they were after. The result joins together what would otherwise be distant corners of the American songbook. Both the traditional twang of Chicago pedal steel guitarist Joel Paterson (Devil in a Woodpile, The Western Elstons) and the primal wail of free jazz saxophonist Michael Lewis (Bon Iver, Andrew Bird) are at home on the album. Just as they did with their debut, the brothers found a voice all their own.
sun22may7:00 PMTomberlin w/ Jana Horn7:00 PM Buy Tickets
Event Details
Saddle Creek xBk Presents: Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn Sunday, May 22, 2022 ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18 DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
Event Details
Saddle Creek
xBk Presents:
Tomberlin w/ Jana Horn
Sunday, May 22, 2022
ADVANCE: $16 // DOS: $18
DOORS: 7:00PM // SHOW: 8PM
ON SALE FRIDAY, 2/18 @ 10AM
Time
(Sunday) 7:00 PM
Buy Tickets
Buy TicketsBio
About Tomberlin:
What hides in the fog that keeps people apart, and what does it take to cut through it? These questions hang heavily over Sarah Beth Tomberlin’s music, whose hushed and intimate tones orbit answers as much as they savor the unanswerable. To be in relation to another human being is to engage with a deep mystery: We are all fundamentally alone, siloed into confusing bodies, and yet occasionally we find someone who lets us feel as if we weren’t. Tomberlin, the Louisville native who recently relocated to Los Angeles, delights in articulating and amplifying that mystery, picking out its details and marveling at its scale. In singing her aloneness she soothes it, and extends a hand to others reckoning with their own solitude–a paradox that warms her spectral songs.
Tomberlin’s new Projections EP continues the arc of her critically acclaimed 2018 debut At Weddings, weaving new collaborators and new techniques into her signature dusky milieu. Since the LP’s release, Tomberlin has toured with Pedro the Lion, Andy Shauf, American Football, and Alex G, played a Tiny Desk concert for NPR, and given a riveting performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The five-song EP, capped with a cover of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s stunning “Natural Light,” reflects this period of intensive growth and self-discovery. “I wrote these songs while getting to know myself outside of people’s perceived notions of who I was,” says Tomberlin. “I just started being like, What am I interested in? What do I want out of relationships and friendships? What am I looking for that I don’t have in myself already?”
The rich vocal harmonies and guitar lines that made At Weddings so riveting still provide the EP’s foundation, but new percussive backing and instrumental flourishes open the path forward for Tomberlin. After touring the US with Alex G and playing new songs for the band in their shared green room, Tomberlin reached out to Alex Giannascoli and his bandmate Sam Acchione to produce the EP’s four original tracks. She recorded her new songs in Giannascoli’s Philadelphia apartment alongside Acchione and frequent collaborator Molly Germer. The fleshed out sound lends a sense of urgency to tracks like “Wasted,” an uptempo romp across the kind of thorny relationship that withholds as much as it gives, and “Sin,” a song that applies reclaimed Christian imagery to an unorthodox romantic partnership. “I don’t mind sinning if it’s with you,” Tomberlin sings against washes of violin and brushed cymbals. “Say a prayer/Lay your hands on me/I just wanna be clean.”
“I wrote ‘Sin’ while living at my parents’ home and exploring my queerness, but afraid to make it too obvious,” Tomberlin says. “It’s definitely using imagery that gets used against queer people, but making a joke out of it. That’s a thing with queer people. We all use humor to deflect our pain.”
Tomberlin’s ability to pan across the general disaster of human relationality and then zoom in on an effervescent moment of pure intimacy is one of her greatest strengths as a songwriter. Queer people get shuttered under the label of sin by the wider world, and yet despite that brand they steal moments of love and healing for themselves. Love is, generally speaking, a wellspring of pain and dysfunction, but look at the moments where it works. “It’s all sacrifice and violence, the history of love,” Tomberlin sings on EP opener “Hours,” “But remember when we stayed up/And took turns playing songs?” The camera zooms in, and magic alights on the people who suddenly take up the whole frame.
You can refuse the mystery of how people manage to be among each other, or you can delight in what it offers, no matter how fleeting. Tomberlin opts for delight every time. Hers are songs for people who, despite the turmoil of the world at large, despite the weight of its sadness, unshield themselves and fall into wonder.d themselves, dreaming their way out of the cold by writing songs like “Coconut Grove,” a whirly psychedelic love song, and “Ribboned Skies,” a blazing ode to guitars and syncopation. Minneapolis has always played a part in the creative process for these dyed-in-the-wool locals. Long heralded as local hot shots in the cold, desolate, land of Prince, Westerberg and Dylan, John and Micky have still never stopped working the grind; in donut shops, bakeries and restaurants, toiling to make ends meet yet trying find beauty in the mundanity, and in the tranquil midnights.
Pelant, as a writer, thrives in the gloom of isolation; a cold void, “I think it’s this type of environment that helps me feel focused. Zero distractions. Focused in a way where I can tap into certain emotions. I think some of the best music transports you to a place in time where your memories become potent visualizations. When writing closed off like this, you can see the images easily and your brain will pick the right chords and tones and guide you where you ought to go. I think being alone during that type of hibernation season is a great space in which to create.”
Once they emerged from their creative cocoon, it was down to the warmth and mythical allure of Austin, TX to bring the album to life. If Minneapolis was about hunkering down in cold isolation, Austin was about heat and life, working with producer Jim Eno (founding member and drummer of Spoon) out of Public Hi-Fi Studios, alongside live band members Mark Hanson and Chuck Murlowski, to record the ten tracks that make up Can You Really Find Me.
The tunefulness of this collection is not by accident. As Pelant deadpans, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could make a record that sounded like it has a lot of singles on it?” Whether it’s the infinitely hooky “Strands Align,” the up-tempo synth flourishes of “Recollections,” or the buttery soul of “Saving the Dark,” each song so adeptly sticks to the album premise of feeling “single-like” that you wonder how they will even choose any.
In the grab bag of modern pop genres, from neo-psychedelia to shoe-gaze, ambient pop to cosmic country, Night Moves dream big on Can You Really Find Me and deliver a genuinely sparkling set that corrals all of these styles into one cohesive collection.
Reflecting once more on the new album, Pelant feels it functions in part as a rumination on aging; a period piece denoting his last 3 years, “I told myself at 18 I wanted to dedicate my 20’s to music and if nothing came of it, I would move on. So now closing out my 20’s, I feel there is still ground left to cover, I’m not quite satisfied yet. Our last album saw us hit a lot of hurdles; despite the successes we had, we parted ways with our management and lost a founding member of the band. While it’s proven to be a bumpy ride, I feel it just may be worth the trouble. I think I’m more comfortable now in my skin than I was at 24.”