Upcoming Shows…

Friday (3/29)
Willie Nile & His Band w/ Christian Marrone

$22-$25/All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM

Space Ballroom – Hamden

INFO: The New York Times called Willie Nile “one of the most gifted singer-songwriters to emerge from the New York scene in years.” His album Streets Of New York was hailed as “a platter for the ages” by UNCUT magazine. Rolling Stone listed The Innocent Ones as one of the “Top Ten Best Under-The-Radar Albums of 2011” and BBC Radio called it “THE rock ‘n’ roll album of the year.”

Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Jim Jarmusch, and Little Steven are among those who have sung his praises. His album, American Ride, won “Best Rock Album of the Year” at the Independent Music Awards. It appeared on over one hundred year-end Top Ten lists for 2013 and Bono called it, “One of the great guides to unraveling the mystery that is the troubled beauty of America.”

In November 2014 he released an album of piano-based songs, If I Was A River, to universal critical acclaim. “One of the most brilliant singer-songwriters of the past thirty years” said The New Yorker. No Depression raved “Willie Nile’s artistic renaissance continues unabated.”

His 2016 album World War Willie appeared on numerous year end top ten lists as did hid his live shows. As American Songwriter said “Nile cranks up the volume and tears into these tunes with the same hunger, passion and exuberance he displays in his legendary sweat-soaked shows.” World War Willie was voted “Album Of The Year” by Twangville Magazine and the song Forever Wild was named “Coolest Song In The World” by Little Steven’s Underground Garage. In 2017 he released the critically acclaimed album “Positively Bob – Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan”.

Willie has toured across the U.S. with The Who and has sung with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. As the induction program from the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame says: “His live performances are legendary.” His 12th studio album ‘Children of Paradise’ was released in the summer 2018 to universal acclaim. He is currently bringing his dynamic live show and amazing rock and roll band to enraptured audiences worldwide!
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2Mvv2Oj

Saturday (3/30)
Tiny Moving Parts

SOLD OUT /All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM

Space Ballroom – Hamden

INFO: Tiny Moving Parts are in many ways a family band. Founded by guitarist Dylan Matheisen and his cousins Matthew and Billy Chevalier (who are brothers), the group have been playing music together for the past 10 years. On their latest effort, This Couch Is Long & Full Of Friendship, they have honed their sound – combining mathy indie tunes with influences like Taking Back Sunday, The Promise Ring and more.

This winter saw the band in the studio with producer J Robbins (Against Me!, Jimmy Eat World, The Promise Ring) recording their sophomore album due out later this year via Triple Crown Records.
SOLD OUT

Monday (4/1)
Beach Fossils w/ Arthur, Laundry Day

$18-$20/All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM

Space Ballroom – Hamden

INFO: The long-awaited return of Brooklyn’s Beach Fossils, Somersault showcases a band in bloom. Charting into new musical territory with a refined songwriting style, it’s an album that captures flashes of life in New York grounded in personal experience.

The band’s self-titled 2010 debut established a sound that was both minimal and enveloping. With Somersault, the group’s first release since 2013’s Clash the Truth, Beach Fossils have channeled years of experimentation into expansion and reinvention. Augmented with more complex instrumentation, including string arrangements, piano, harpsichord, flute, and sax, the new songs offer multi-layered pop guided by sharp, poignant, and honest lyrics.

As the band’s first release on Dustin Payseur’s new label Bayonet Records, which he co-owns with wife Kate Garcia—the group made the most of their newfound independence, investing ample time in expanding its range both musically and lyrically. While Payseur handled the bulk of the songwriting duties in the past, Somersault is a true collaboration between the founding member and bandmates, Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson. The new songs speak to a more fluid, eclectic sound, filled with lush compositions formed by studio experiments and sam-pling of the band’s own recordings.

Orchestral pop gem “Saint Ivy” shines with plucked strings, buoyant basslines and a propulsive, wayward, guitar. “Tangerine,” a driving, tightly wound melody, rushes forward and briefly leaves the ground due to the gossamer guest vocals of Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. The effervescent “Rise,” which hinges on the spoken word of Gavin Mays (Cities Aviv) discussing a failed rela-tionship, hangs, like many recent breakups, in a sense of suspension. The cloudy, wistful “Soci-al Jetlag,” bustling with samples of crowded streets, features the type of candid, off-the-cuff lyr-ics that make the entire effort immediately illuminating.

Recorded at multiple studios across New York City, a cabin in upstate New York, and even Los Angeles (including the home studio of Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, who helped engineer part of the album), Somersault turns the newfound chemistry between the trio into a sonic tapestry. Due to the variety of sessions and recording locations, the album was a Frankenstein-like series of reworking and reimagining songs. As the group pieced together different parts in a cycle of creation and cooption, and built out more elaborate songs track by track, the process became more reminiscent of a record created via sampling and arranging than one built by simply grind-ing out riffs. The long-simmering album, filled with breezy music both melancholic and uplifting, sees the band channeling their voices and honing their craft.

Flowing between shimmering compositions and immersive soundscapes, Somersault evokes the laid-back mood of a warm, breezy city night, the air crackling with humidity and excitement. These songs pulse and pull, capturing a blend of promise and heartache. It’s beautiful and lay-ered, a refined, sweeping creation that threads together numerous styles, textures, and themes into a refreshing, singular vision.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2NBnKZU

Monday (4/1)
&More (Chill Moody & Donn T) w/ Ro Godwynn, Mooncha

Free with RSVP (or $5 at the door)/All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM

Cafe Nine – New Haven

INFO: Philly’s own, &More (Chill Moody & Donn T) made their debut during Grammy week at The Roots Jam Session at Gramercy Theatre in NYC (Jan 2018). The duo’s single, “My Own Light” appeared in Feb, followed by the official music video which featured Grammy Award-winning spoken word artist J. Ivy.

In a few short months, &More highlights included opening for former First Lady Michelle Obama at The Liacouras Center (Philadelphia), appearing on the Emmy Award-winning PBS tv series, Articulate , performing on The Chill Moody Music Stage as part of the Wawa Welcome America celebration, and rocking WXPN’s (88.5 FM) XPoNential Music Festival.

Icing on the cake? Powerhouse rockers Low Cut Connie (lauded by Rolling Stone for one of The Best Albums of 2018) invited &More to join their tour in Fall 2018 (which included country and Americana singer-songwriter Ruby Boots.)

Up next, forthcoming winter single, “WHOA!” by &More, and the official music video, featuring the legendary Chuck D leading into the release of their Ethel Bobcat album (Mar 2019).
RSVP HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2rLPqB3

SHOW ANNOUNCEMENTS

Friday, April 26th
JOATA w/ 3 O’Clock Losers, Ashley Hamel

$12-$15/All Ages/Doors at 7PM

Space Ballroom – Hamden

INFO: JOATA is the moniker of Puerto Rican indie pop musician, Jose Oyola. Based in Brooklyn and originally from New Haven, Oyola blends hip hop and indie rock with Caribbean rhythms and writes anthemic bilingual songs about love, outer space and the homesickness of being part of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW: https://ticketf.ly/2OtwmlO

Friday, May 10th
Bad Bad Hats

$12/All Ages/Doors at 7PM

Space Ballroom – Hamden

INFO: 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.

Alexander and Hoge met while attending Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2012, they formed Bad Bad Hats with friend and bassist Noah Boswell, and began performing around the Twin Cities. That same year, they were signed by Minneapolis label Afternoon Records. Their 2015 debut album Psychic Reader caught the attention of outlets including The New Yorker, NPR, Pitchfork, and Paste. Since the release of Psychic Reader, Bad Bad Hats has toured the U.S. extensively, supporting artists including Margaret Glaspy, Hippo Campus, and Third Eye Blind.

Lightning Round, the band’s second full-length album, finds Bad Bad Hats more confident and mature than ever. Producer and collaborator Brett Bullion (who also produced Psychic Reader) encouraged the group to record live in the studio, an approach which pushed the band outside of their comfort zone and lends many songs on the record a loose, organic feel. There is a vulnerability in this (fluttering tape loops, a few wrong notes) and it makes the music on the new album feel as honest and unpredictable as Alexander’s lyrics. In this spontaneous environment, Hoge, who is known to play every instrument in the band, delivers some of his most inspired musical performances yet.

As for Alexander, she’s still writing love songs, ones that recount with cinematic swell the subtle joy and pain of the everyday. Her vocals are supported by open, breathing arrangements that feature lush keyboard sounds and woody guitar tones. Davison was recruited to play drums on the album and became a full-time member in the process. His drumming and melodic contributions give the new songs a level of nuance not heard in previous releases.

Lightning Round marks the final release with contributions from original member Noah Boswell, who will be leaving the group this fall to pursue a master’s degree. Bad Bad Hats continues with Alexander, Hoge, and Davison. They have plans to tour the country this year.
TICKETS AVAILABLE 10AM FRI 3/29: https://ticketf.ly/2HwTMFa

Thursday, May 23rd
Tank and the Bangas w/ Adia Victoria

$22 ($19 adv) /All Ages/Doors at 7PM

Wall Street Theater – Norwalk

INFO: Coming from New Orleans, Tank and the Bangas are surrounded by plenty of grand musical traditions. And the five-piece group has a rare knack for combining various musical styles—fiery soul, deft hip-hop, deep-groove R&B and subtle jazz—into one dazzling, cohesive whole that evokes the scope of New Orleans music while retaining a distinctive feel all its own.

“It’s music that can’t really be put in a box,” says singer and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball. She fronts the band with vivid charisma that helped Tank and the Bangas win NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Concert Contest by unanimous acclaim, standing out among 6,000 entrants because of what Bob Boilen called “the depth of their lyricism and the versatility of their players.” Those same qualities also attracted the attention of Verve Records, which has signed the band.

Ball’s lyrical depth has been years in the making. She came up in the strong local slam poetry scene before meeting her bandmates: Merell Burkett on keyboards, Joshua Johnson on drums, Norman Spence on bass and synth keys and, eventually, Albert Allenback on alto sax and flute. “Growing up, I always could sing, but I wrote better than I sang, so I focused on writing,” she says. After her team won the National Poetry Slam Championship two years in a row, Ball turned her full attention to Tank and the Bangas.

What started as a loose collaboration at an open-mic night in 2011 has grown into a mesmerizing musical force that’s only picking up speed. After a featured set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival early in the band’s career, the musicians built a reputation outside their hometown by grinding it out on the road, honing their live show and releasing the 2013 album Think Tank, all the while converting audiences into passionate fans and garnering critical acclaim, from the New Orleans Advocate to The New York Times. “It made us work hard,” Ball says of playing Jazz Fest. “It made us want to feel deserving of it.”

Their hard work is paying off: The Huffington Post says Tank and the Bangas defy description onstage, adding, “It’s music that you have to experience.” The experience is subject to change from one night to the next.
TICKETS AVAILABLE 10AM FRI 3/29: https://ticketf.ly/2OtqGYP