"How do you write about a musician who has spent more than 30 years defying musical conventions? You could trot out all the cliched rock-critic terms: seminal, hyperbole, incendiary, eponymous, masterful, achingly poignant, priceless, alt-country, old-school, outlaw. Some of those might even fit if you shoehorned them into context.

2012 was a big year for The Sideshow Tragedy: in addition to continuing their tireless, never-ending tour of The United States, the band also completed their first European tour and released a new record, Persona. Recorded and produced by Austin TX funk outfit T Bird and the Breaks, the LP is the Austin, TX duo’s rawest, bluesiest, dirtiest offering to date.

Conveyor is a Brooklyn-based music project spawned by the fated juncture of a wandering tarot of musicians in Gainesville, FL. Was it kismet or perhaps a primordial summon which led these gentlemen purveyors of sound to individually tune in and migrate North to the bustling seductress known as New York City? Their retort is Sun Ray, a debut EP birthed and released in the warm embrace of Spring 2011.

Vintage with a Vengeance Autosalvage returns…Vintage with a Vengeance! After forty-odd years, and from several lifetimes of musical experiences, the band is back ‘by popular demand’ (and acclaim on NPR’s Fresh Air). They are based near San Francisco … still Rockin.’

Schooled in the bay, tested in New Orleans, G-Eazy isn’t a stranger to paying dues. His live shows have turned heads from the smallest of Midwest clubs all the way up to arenas on dates with Lil Wayne, Big Sean, A$AP Rocky and Drake, among others.

Audacity spent three years on relentless touring, working up and scrapping (except for a few rare 7"s) what could have been an album all its own and even serving as backing band for both glam-garage savant King Tuff and San Pedro punk godfather Todd Congelliere, who stepped away from his bands Toys That Kill and Underground Railroad to Candyland to play solo songs in the adorably named Toddacity. By May 2011, however, Audacity felt they were ready, and began recording what would become Mellow Cruisers with L.A. producer Rob Barbato (Soft Pack, Cold Showers).

French-born Tucson chanteuse Marianne Dissard premieres her live collaboration with Seattle producer/musician Budo (Rhymesayers, Grieves & Budo) @ SXSW 2013 in the Hotellounge (ICA) & Tucson Music Factory showcase w/ Spain.

“…a sound that simultaneously stimulates and satisfies…” – My Old Kentucky Blog

Boy+Kite released their debut album Go Fly the summer of 2011, although the band started in 2009 when the two main members Beth & Darvin met in a hot tub. Since the release of Go Fly they have been flying high, opening up for acts such as Ume, The Quiet Company and The Toadies. The band also hit the Top 10 Charts on KUT 90.5 in Austin, TX and stayed in the top 10 for 12 weeks!

From Wellfleet Massachusetts, a town of crashing waves, gnarled pine trees, and the only town clock in the world that still rings ship’s time, step the Parkington Sisters. Like their hometown surroundings, they have “a collective magic — part chemistry, part alchemy, and entirely mysterious.” The four sisters emerge from a lineage of musicians, each a songwriter and dynamic multi-instrumentalist; Rose plays piano, guitar and accordion, Ariel and Sarah play violin and viola, and Nora plays violin and percussion.

Moon Taxi is one of those rare bands that unites musical ingenuity with thoughtful lyrics and still somehow manages to wildly entertain and thrill a crowd. Their new record, Cabaret, is a layered, multi-dimensional endeavor that displays the band’s maturing sense of their own musical identity. A follow-up to their live album, Live Ride, Cabaret illustrates the challenges of defining yourself in a world that seems to be suffering from its own identity loss.