Click Image To Enlarge
If you haven't heard of Jason Reeves, you've almost certainly heard his music. With multiple hits around the world and collaborators from Colbie Caillat to Kara Dioguardi, Jason is one of the most sought-after new co-writers around. Yet Jason is also an artist in his own right, with a fresh honest approach that is rapidly winning fans everywhere. His debut album in 2007 earned raves from iTunes and a nod as one of the top indie songwriters of the year. Now signed to Warner Bros. Records, he is ready for his major label close up. Still don't know who he is? You soon will.
Click Image To Enlarge21+FREE: you must rsvp to drums@pegstar.net with your name and number of tickets requested in subject line. You will gain entrance if you rsvp up until capacity is met. Under 21 or if you are over 21 and want guaranteed entry tickets are $5 and can be purchased here, or at the door until sold out.
The Drums -
We only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you're walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever.
Alpha Rev - Half Greek, half Latin, the words pulled together loosely mean "the beginning of something new." At least that's how Texas-born musician Casey McPherson describes the name of the group he fronts. He goes on to say, "It's that feeling when the light bulb goes off, that instant of inspiration and redemption, those moments that keep us going forward."
Click Image To Enlarge
Tera Melos play a brand of music characterized by quickly alternating rhythmic patterns, start-stop dynamics, improvisation, two-handed tapping on the guitar, extended open-ended bridges, and the use of effect pedals and samplers. After releasing a four song demo, they self released their untitled debut full-length on October 4, 2005. The album comprises eight tracks, and was re-issued in 2008 on Sargent House. While some of the tracks on the album feature distorted vocals that are somewhat undecipherable, guitarist Nick Reinhart started contributing more prominent vocals to the music with the release of their 2007 split with By the End of Tonight, called Complex Full of Phantoms.
Click Image To Enlarge
"In 2nd grade, music began to move me. I had it bad for Amy who sat three desks in front of me in Miss Rush's class. I got up the guts to ask her to go steady with me via note and she checked the "yes" box. Also, she gave me her class picture and drew hearts and wrote my name on the back of it. Basically everything was right in the world. After school at night (when I was supposed to be sleeping), I used to tune in to the love songs show on the radio. You know the one where people call in and talk on the radio and dedicate songs? And then there's always that DJ with a cheesy, whispery voice that summarizes what the caller already said. Anyways, I would listen to those songs and just hold that picture of Amy in my hands. My heart would soar."
Click Image To EnlargeAttempting to stand out among your peers when you practice your art in the rather insane world of Japanese pop/rock/punk is no mean feat, but New York City based Peelander-Z certainly made some serious waves. Blending elements of the Power Rangers, Japanese and American pop culture images, sci-fi, and pro wrestling, Peelander-Z won fans and friends from a wide cross section of the pop audience, appearing on a number of compilations, as well as festivals and conventions.
Click Image To EnlargeThe Gaslight Anthem is a punk rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. Since forming in 2005, they have released three full-length albums and an EP. They were described by Kerrang! magazine as "the best new band you’ll hear in 2008." The lineup consists of Brian Fallon (vocals and guitar), Alex Levine (bass), Benny Horowitz (drums), and Alex Rosamilia (guitar).
The Gaslight Anthem's music embraces many elements of blues, classic rock, and punk rock. The band has described their sound as "Bruce Springsteen singing for a Cure cover band, with a tinge more aggression." The group’s fondness for Springsteen, a significant influence on their music, is a fact celebrated by fans and critics alike. Representative of such views, one critic wrote, "The Gaslight Anthem are like something out of speculative fiction: this is what pop music would be if Springsteen hadn’t listened to his producer, let the Ramones record 'Hungry Heart,' and launched the C.B.G.B.'ers into megastardom."
Click Image To EnlargeDevandra Banhart was born in Houston, Texas in 1981, and named by an Indian mystic whom his parents followed. When his folks divorced two years later, he moved with his mom to Caracas , Venezuela , where he was raised amidst the shanties and sweatshops. Though his family had enough money to stay above the poverty line, life wasn't easy. "Venezuela was insane," says Banhart. "You don't go out after 8 because it's too dangerous. You don't wear nice sneakers because, while here you may get assaulted, there you just get killed." When Banhart's mother remarried, his stepfather moved the family to Los Angeles . In the fall of 1998, having written songs since he was 12, Banhart left home to begin school at the San Francisco Art Institute, with a hefty scholarship. Though he was instantly disillusioned with the constraints of academic art, his environs took him in more productive directions. Living in the lower Castro, he was tapped by his roommates -- a gay couple whom Banhart refers to as "Bob the Crippled Comic and Jerry Elvis" -- to play two classic songs at their wedding: the gospel hymn "How Great Thou Art" and Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender." Touched by the request, Banhart found himself newly inspired.
Click Image To EnlargeThe story of Foals second album could not be told without the victories won by the first. One of the strangest, most exotic creatures to have seen the upper realm of the UK album charts this young century (debuting at #3 upon release), Antidotes was a special album. In the idiot clamor of retro guitars, its keen sense of dare and future marked the Oxford quintet out as a band keen to establish their own context: hurtling along on incessant, acrobatic fret-play and cymbals hissing with the bliss of exertion. It won them attention, and the chance to evolve in a space of their own.
Click Image To EnlargeEdward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an ensemble band led by Alex Ebert, vocalist of the power pop group IMA Robot. Their first full-length recording, Up from Below, was released July 7, 2009 digitally and July 14, 2009 physically on Vagrant Records. Their first show as a full band was played July 18, 2007 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. Their song “Home” was voted number 15 on the Australian Triple J Hottest 100, 2009 countdown, the largest music poll in the world. After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and joining a 12-step program for addiction, Ebert began work on a story about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. According to Ebert, Sharpe “was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind…but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.” Ebert later met singer Jade Castrinos in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2009, as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Ebert and Castrinos toured the country with a group of fellow musicians in a big white school bus.
Click Image To EnlargeFormerly the driving force behind Weeping Tile, Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer began her solo career in 1999 playing dates with the Indigo Girls, Great Big Sea, and Moxy Fruvous. Harmer's first album outside of Weeping Tile was a tribute to her father titled Songs for Clem. Credited to Harmer and Jason Euringer, the folksy album was released independently by Harmer, but was eventually given wider release by Universal Canada. Her proper debut album, You Were Here, was released in mid-2000 by Zoe Records, and showed a polished, more mature side to her music than her work with her former band. It wasn't until 2004 that Harmer returned with a follow-up, All of Our Names, while in 2006 she explored her country and bluegrass side in I'm a Mountain, which garnered the singer three Juno Award nominations. 2010 saw the release of her fifth album, Oh Little Fire, which features guest appearances from Neko Case, Julie Fader and James Shaw (Metric).
Click Image To EnlargeLike many bands before them, School of Seven Bells were born as the result of a late-night revelation. Benjamin Curtis connected with sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza in 2004 while their bands—Secret Machines and On-Air Library!, respectively—were on tour. While watching PBS at 3am, Alejandra caught a show about the School of Seven Bells: a mythical South American pickpocket academy that may or may not have existed in the 80s. The idea of seven minds working as one appealed to her, as did the phrase's cryptic musicality, and a creative spark ignited.
Click Image To EnlargePortugal. The Man is an experimental indie rock four-piece centered around frontman John Baldwin Gourley's abstract musical approach and corresponding upbringing. He was raised in a sort of technological isolation: his log cabin home in the winter wasteland of the fringes of Wasilla, Alaska was powered by a generator and had no telephone. Both of his parents helped completely immerse him in the unique lifestyle that comes with a land of seasonal darkness and perpetual cold with their jobs as dog sled mushers. Gourley's innate curiosity and individual spirit combined with a fascination with science fiction and experiences of homelessness create a distinctly transcendent sound that is always open to interpretation and change.
Wed13October(0)
Fitzgerald's08:00 PMAll Ages$12.00DOOR: $12.00 to $14.00
Click Image To EnlargeYou should by now understand there are two forces working on your behalf. The only reason you still have a fighting chance are Detroit's premier over-21 band Electric Six...and the benevolent violence and magnetic gravitational pulses of the stars, planets and moons in the cosmos. For centuries, we humans have taken refuge in the goodness, love and order that rains down on us from the heavens above. For decades we have turned to dangerous drugs to help us travel backwards in time, to sit with the wizards that conceptualized and realized...the Zodiac.
Click Image To Enlarge
The band was originally named The Muslims, but changed the name due to "ignorant and racist" comments. Matt Lamkin has stated Soft Pack can describe the band as being well mannered or it can refer to a device that when worn is intended to convince others that the wearer has a penis The band formed in San Diego but are now based in Los Angeles.
The Futureheads met at City of Sunderland College as a quartet consisting of Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar), David "Jaff" Craig (bass), Peter Brewis (drums), and Ross Millard (vocals and guitar). Millard and Craig had been in another local band together previously. They used the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project building (where Brewis and Hyde worked) as a free practice space, fitting since the project was intended to get young people off the streets by using music. They first performed in 2000, and through word-of-mouth their reputation in the local area grew. Hyde's younger brother Dave replaced Brewis (who went on to form Field Music).
Born Ruffians moved from Midland to Toronto in 2004. After some local performances and a growing online reputation, the band was signed to the UK electronic music label Warp Records. They released their self-titled debut EP in 2006. It was recorded by Ryan Mills at Little King Studio (now Sleepytown Sound). They have received extensive airplay on CBC Radio 3 with their debut single, "This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life," as well as a cover of Grizzly Bear's single "Knife" which the band recorded live on KEXP. In 2007, they released the single "Hummingbird," which was included on their first album Red, Yellow & Blue.
Click Image To EnlargeFormed in Glasgow in 1987 The Vaselines released two singles and one album Dum Dum on the 53rd & 3rd label. Splitting up in 1989 (in the same week their album was released), they might have faded in to obscurity but for the intervention of a certain band from Seattle. Nirvana covered three Vaselines songs, helping to fuel a growing after-the-fact appreciation of their seedy, two-and-a-half chord, garage pop manifesto 12 songs in 13 days (besides 2 b-sides), recorded the old-fashioned way. It may have taken The Vaselines 20 years to get round to making this baby, but it is worth the wait - bringing their solos careers to a climax with Sex With An X. The irony has not been lost. Who says indie music can't be fun? No hand-wringing on these tracks - just good clean smut with a twist of bitter.
Click Image To EnlargeCombining Devendra Banhart's "new weird American" eccentricity, Flaming Lips-influenced electronic bells and whistles, and a Wilco-esque twanginess, These United States create a musical melting pot that blends together a wide array of influences. Born of a collaboration between Jesse Elliott and David Strackany (the man behind Paleo), These United States put together the songs that would become their debut LP in 2007. The resulting album, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden, was released by United Interests the following year, with Crimes arriving six months later.
Click Image To EnlargeDawes is part of the Laurel Canyon sound, whose influences include Crosby, Stills, and Nash and Neil Young, among others, centered in the North Hillsarea of Los Angeles. At the invitation of producer Jonathan Wilson, the band joined an informal jam session in the area that included Conor Oberst, The Black Crowes's Chris Robinson, and Benmont Tench. The band recorded their debut album, North Hills, in Laurel Canyon in a live setting to analog tape, resulting in a sound that Rolling Stone magazine called "authentically vintage". Wilco multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone is also credited with appearing on the release.
Click Image To EnlargeLos Campesinos! are an indie pop band which formed in Cardiff. The band's name translates to "The Peasants" (or "The Farmers") in Spanish. The band's reputation continued to grow, and in August 2006 landed them a slot supporting Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene. In November 2006, the band were signed by Wichita Recordings, who put out their first single on 26 February 2007, a double A-side featuring new songs We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives and Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s). In April the band signed to Canadian label Arts & Crafts for Canadian and North American releases. In June 2007 the band released You! Me! Dancing! on limited edition 7" coloured vinyl, accompanied by a handful of dates playing Bath, Newport, Cardiff and London. The EP Sticking Fingers Into Sockets was released on 3 July on Arts & Crafts, produced by Broken Social Scene collaborator Dave Newfeld. The band embarked on their first full UK tour in October, preceded by the The International Tweexcore Underground single (released October 15th 2007). Their debut album, titled Hold On Now, Youngster... was released in the UK and as a digital download on February 25, 2008; the physical record was released North America on April 1. On August 1, 2008, the band released their second record We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed in the UK on October 14, 2008. On June 2 2009, Original member Aleks Campesinos announced she would be leaving the group after the release of their third album, to return to university to continue her studies Los Campesinos recently announced the release date for their new album Romance Is Boring. This will be released in the UK on February 1st, and in the United States on January 26th. This album was leaked about a month or 2 before it was released, angering Gareth. He then asked, that whoever downloaded the leak, buy it when it was released.
Click Image To EnlargeRa Ra Riot formed in January 2006, playing at houses and venues around the Syracuse University campus. The band started to attract attention due to their energetic live shows, enough to gain an appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon, fewer than six months after their formation. Following this appearance, their live show received the first of several favorable reviews from SPIN.com, who called them "one of the best young bands we've heard in a really long time".
Click Image To EnlargeGhostland Observatory is not a band, but an agreement between two friends to create something that not only heals their beat-driven hearts, but pleases their rock 'n roll souls. Taking the working man's approach, Ghostland Observatory spend countless hours in their south Austin studio. They have released two albums in less than a year, and have moved audiences from coast to coast with their live performances and unique style.
Click Image To EnlargeLawrence, KS-based emo quartet Appleseed Cast were originally comprised of singer/guitarist Christopher Crisci, guitarist Aaron Pillar, bassist Jason Wickersheim, and drummer Louie Ruiz. Signing to Deep Elm, the group made its debut on the 1998 label sampler Records for the Working Class, releasing the full-length The End of the Ring Wars later that same year. In 1999 Appleseed Cast (now with new drummer Josh Baruth) released a new single, "Skatter Ik Ignito," as well as a split EP with labelmates Planes Mistaken for Stars and Race Car Riot; Mare Vitalis followed in early 2000, heavily showcasing Baruth's complicated beats and the band's overall dense, atmospheric sound. Despite the hints of a new direction, the album couldn't have prepared fans for the two Low Level Owl albums released in 2001. Complex, delicate, and highly experimental, these two records took a cue from Radiohead's Kid A and sent the band careening into space rock and electronica with only traces of emo poking through. The records weren't nearly as commercially accepted, but their overall bravery showed that the band was prepared to make stylistic leaps.
The next year, Lost Songs brought four unreleased tracks from 1999 and five new songs together onto one album. Overdubbing new elements over the older songs, Appleseed Cast blended the tense emo of their early work and the broad experimentation of their new material. The band returned in 2003 with Two Conversations (Tiger Style), which continued to explore atmospheric texture in the framework of traditional rock & roll. An extensive tour followed the LP's release. The band next went on a brief hiatus following Tiger Style's demise, but soon returned with renewed energy and a new label. Peregrine appeared in March 2006 on Militia Group before hitting the road with dates on both coasts. By this time, the band consisted of founding members Crisci and Pillar, along with bassist Marcus Young and drummer Nathan Richardson (ex-the Casket Lottery).
Sat06November(0)
Fitzgerald's08:00 PMAll Ages$10.00DOOR: $10.00 to $12.00
Click Image To EnlargeBest Coast is an American indie pop trio based in Los Angeles, California, and is often categorized under the subgenres of garage rock, surf pop, and lo-fi. The band currently consists of songwriter and frontwoman Bethany Cosentino, multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno, and drummer Ali Koehler, who officially joined Best Coast in July 2010 after leaving the Vivian Girls and performing as the band's live drummer for some time.
Click Image To EnlargeOne of the most popular and accomplished bands in the arty, noisy indie rock offshoot dubbed math rock, Polvo touched on many of the genre's hallmarks: dissonant, intricately layered guitars that often employed alternate tunings; odd, off-kilter rhythms; an emphasis on dense sonic texture; and unorthodox song structures that, nonetheless, were often unconventionally melodic. Additionally, their music had a pronounced Eastern feel that came not only from the Indian and Middle Eastern-style drones in their compositions, but actual Asian instruments as well. The combination helped set them apart from other post-Sonic Youth/Slint guitar experimentalists.
Click Image To Enlarge"There was this feeling inside me going into making this record that we'd never made an album before," says guitarist/vocalist Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog's Shame, Shame, their Anti- debut and the first album made outside the safe confines of their home studio. "Four albums ago, we set out with this unspoken or unconscious mission, and I feel like we accomplished that to our own standards of fulfillment. With our last record [2008’s Fate], there didn't seem to be the next logical step with the general set of sensibilities and aesthetics that we'd been working from up until that point. It felt like a closed book."
Click Image To EnlargeStars are soft-revolutionaries and music is their rallying cry. Amy Millan, Chris Seligman, Torquil Campbell and Evan Cranley are four young people who through their music are trying to save us from our mundane and complacent fears. When at a loss for words, one music writer said the only way to describe Stars was "beautiful hope". Their music has been described as "breath-takingly effervescent" and they have been called the kind of band that "blue lights and fog machines are made for". Somewhere dancing between these designations is Stars' "Heart". An album with an otherworldly blissfulness and a sophisticated epicurean cool. To them, art is the way to change the world because it is sincere and heartfelt. With them it has no pretenses and is filled with passion and longing. Stars make music that musicians love.
Click Image To EnlargeWhile named after a street in the band’s hometown of Weston, Wisconsin, Windsor Drive are resonating with music fans far beyond their home state. Formed only three years ago, the alternative quartet shows no signs of slowing down. With an average age of 23, the band has completed an astonishing 13 national tours, in which they headlined as well as provided support for various major label & indie acts. Their loyal following stretches well past the band’s enthusiastic fan base, with Windsor Drive recently being profiled on the nationally syndicated E! News with Ryan Seacrest. The band was also featured by Clear Channel as an “Artist To Watch” in the CHR/Pop format, and WGN America Midday News invited Windsor Drive to perform live on air for its national audience. Not bad for four lads from the Midwest who also call Houston, Texas their adopted second home.
Click Image To EnlargeAlthough the New York-based trio Blonde Redhead made a connection with the art world in late 1998 when they performed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to celebrate an exhibit by Japanese artist Mariko Mori, the members of the group refused to define their music as "art rock." "We always totally avoid seeming pretentious or arty," vocalist/guitarist Kazu Makino revealed to Magnet magazine's Matthew Fritch. "I think arty bands are never arty. To me, the most artistic band is a punk-rock band. There's a big difference between an art band and a band that has a concept of its music. That's what's really artistic; it's not about dropping weird stuff in and making weird noises and having awkward pauses in the music. I never wanted to be categorized as that." Though Blonde Redhead's sound often includes odd harmonies, pulsating funk rhythms, and punk music, the band has become admired most for their ability to create direct-hitting, rather than avant-garde, rock.
THIS IS A SPECIAL LIMITED TIME PRE-SALE.As a way of showing loyalty to those of you who have made Free Press Summer Fest the event that it is we would like to offer you the first chance to purchase your 2011 passes. For a limited time GA passes are begin sold for $15, and Fancy Pants are begin sold for $32.50. Fancy Pants passes were $60 last time, so hurry these prices won't last.
GA- general admission in the festival and all public areas except the Fancy Pants tents.
Fancy Pants- Everything GA has to offer, plus: Access to the Fancy Pants tent which is decked out with AIR CONDITIONING, comfortable seating, Premium Bars, free stuff and much more.
