Composed and recorded in Los Angeles and San Francisco, I is the debut full-length album by Maxwell August Croy and Sean McCann. Croy is best known for his work in Bay Area duo EN, wherein he processes koto, voice, and other instrumentation into ecstatic and nuanced drone-based recordings. McCann is a solo artist whose work continues to undergo seismic evolutions, manifested most recently on the justly lauded “Music for Private Ensemble,” an album of autodidactic modern composition that defies easy categorization. Working as a duo, Croy and McCann have successfully synthesized compositional and aesthetic tropes from their respective discographies in order to produce something extraordinary. “Parting Light (Suite)” opens the album with a flurry of koto, cello, and violin lines masterfully woven together; a complex movement that dissembles to reveal a more spacious environment in which each gesture takes on a heightened significance. Croy’s koto lends the piece an Eastern aura that is complicated by McCann’s playing which is equal parts idiosyncratic and grandiose. Elsewhere, “Alexandria” finds the duo operating at their most celestial, working their instruments into a harrowing, beautiful dirge comprised of clarion tones and wide-eyed string arrangements. Ultimately, the sensibility cultivated by Croy and McCann on I proves to be utterly unique, perhaps situated best somewhere among the soundworlds of Gavin Bryars, Taj Mahal Travellers and Richard Skelton. The LP was mastered by Rashad Becker and the jacket features exclusive monotypes by Andrew Chalk.

Nyiko Beguin (“nee-koh” “bay-gan”) (born November 1, 1990), better known by his middle name NYIKO, is an American recording artist, producer, and visual artist.

Growing up in a close community of artists and musicians, Beguin started writing and recording music when he was seven years old. His music has taken on many forms since he began recording, but he is often identified with the genre of electronic pop. His stage name, NYIKO, is a South African name of the Shangaan people (which means “Gift”).

His new EP/Art Book — Always Always — is available now.

Most people now know Ari Herstand as the guy who helped them fly with their instruments. His Carry Your Instrument On The Plane… It’s The LAW blog post went viral and has been viewed over 250,000 with over 40,000 Facebook Likes. In just under two years, Herstand’s music business advice blog, Ari’s Take, has been nominated by the LA Weekly as the best music blog in Los Angeles and has become a go to resource for DIY musicians.

Ari Herstand is a DIY musician who has played over 550 shows around the country, has opened for Ben Folds, Cake, Matt Nathanson and Ron Pope, and has had his music featured in countless TV shows.

As an actor, he has co-starred in TV shows including 2 Broke Girls, The Fosters, Sam & Cat and Touch.

Before acting and blogging, Herstand spent a full year working on his newest release, Brave Enough, in his former home of Minnesota. Teaming up with his long-time engineer and close friend, Grammy nominated, Paul Marino, the two organized an all-star band, including Herstand’s “favorite drummer on the planet” Dave King (The Bad Plus), to create his 3rd full-length record.

Known by his fans primarily for his live looping – combining the trumpet, beat boxing, keys, acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals – this record is a clear departure from his solo show. The four interludes scattered throughout the record tease the looping he is known for.

Order the Vinyl release: http://ariherstand.com

Symbol is the solo effort of producer and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Royal King. Best known as a founding member and lead guitarist of the massive orchestral-rock ensemble This Will Destroy You, King has also composed and recorded scores for a host of prominent feature-films and documentaries, established Light Lodge Records, and moonlights in Austin’s amorphous ambient collective AMASA•GANA.

Now, on his first solitary odyssey apart from TWDY King’s masterful ear for signal processing and affinity for corroded elegance takes free reign over a vastly expanded inventory of instrumentation. Throughout Symbol’s debut –  Online Architecture – (out on HOLODECK / LIGHT LODGE April 8th 2014 on LP / CS / DL) organic sound-sources are meticulously transmuted through chains of modules and magnetic tape, each successive stage creating a compounded quantity of detail and decay. After four studio albums with TWDY King has crafted an arresting solo debut that is both gorgeously tranquil and devastatingly heavy, offering a direct-line into his psyche which had not existed until now.

Imagine that Deep Purple and Sly and the Family Stone had a love child that grew up in New Orleans listening to Ray Charles, Black Sabbath and Booker T.  That love child would be the Sugar Free Allstars.  With their diverse musical influences and unusual instrumentation, this funky organ/drum duo from Oklahoma City can be hard to classify. The music blends New Orleans funk, Memphis soul and Hammond organ-drenched gospel, wrapped in a colorful rock and roll package.   Add to the mix a touch of pop songwriting sensibilities, humor and a high-energy live show and you’ve got the Sugar Free Allstars.

Chris “Boom!” Wiser (Hammond B-3 organ, lead vocals, saxophone) and Rob “Dr. Rock” Martin (drums, backing vocals) make up the dynamic duo of Sugar Free Allstars.  As Wiser multi tasks the outfit covering bass lines on the B-3 and cranking out soulful sax solos, Martin lays down a rock-solid beat that keeps the heads bopping and hips shaking.    The connection and fire between the two musicians is obvious in their live performance. “We try to provide a good mix of humor and a tight performance,” explains Wiser. “Even in our kids’ shows, it’s meant to be a rock and roll party for all ages.”

We are pumped to have pressed SFA’s first-ever vinyl release — the Record Collection 7 inch.  Hit them up at one of their many live shows to grab a copy (they are almost always touring somewhere).

Grit, elemental rhythm, tight-as-a-drumhead playing, and a profound depth of feeling: these are the promises of a great soul band…and St. Paul & The Broken Bones deliver on those promises.
Half The City is the compelling full-length Single Lock/Thirty Tigers debut of the Birmingham, Alabama-based sextet, who have already created a maelstrom of interest with their roof-raising live shows and self-released four-song 2012 EP. Produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes, and recorded and mixed in the storied R&B mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the album harkens back to the region’s classic soul roots while extending the form with electrifying potency.

Nashville’s Plowboy Records is pleased to announce the signing of Chuck Mead and the release of his new record Free State Serenade. A wild ride of hillbilly blues and honky-tonk, Mead, best known for his work as frontman for BR549, wrote the album based on the stories, legends, crimes and lonesome open roads of his childhood and formative years in Kansas. Recorded with his longtime band The Grassy Knoll Boys, Free State Serenade was co-produced with Joe Pisapia (kd Lang, Ben Folds Five) and features special guests BR549’s Don Herron and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Critter Fuqua.

Free State Serenade jumps from jaunty mountain airs like “Neosho Valley Sue,” with BR5-49’s Don Herron lending his fiddle to what Mead calls a “coming of age ditty,” to “Sittin’ On Top Of The Bottom” – a whip-smart ode to “Sittin’ On Top Of The World.” Reaching into the dark lore of Kansas history, “The Devil By Their Side” is a chugging rock n’ roll number about William Quantrill’s murderous 1863 Civil War raid on Lawrence, Kansas.