WHY?: https://www.facebook.com/whywithaquestionmark

WHY? is also a trio of handsome Cincinnati-born men who fiddle with skins, strings, bells and microphones and present their findings to the listening public. Singer Yoni Wolf grew up the second son to an art book editor and a rabbi. He got his start recording bad poems and sloppy beats on the family synagogue’s 4-track. In junior high he discovered hip-hop. At art school, he learned how to drop out. Yoni’s brother Josiah played drums at Rabbi Wolf’s worship service as a kid, became a band geek as a teen, and fell in love with Thelonious Monk on his way to study music at University of Cincinnati. Doug McDiarmid would eventually get expelled from that same school for carrying a stun gun, but first he was raised by two French teachers and taught piano while in kindergarten. He also went to high school with the Wolfs, where he played in Steve Miller cover bands.

In various permutations together and with other now-notables (i.e. Doseone, Odd Nosdam, Mr. Dibbs, Atmosphere’s Slug), these three created and/or contributed to several freewheeling rap and lo-fi rock-related projects including Greenthink, Miss Ohio’s Nameless, Reaching Quiet, and the seminal cLOUDDEAD outfit. Their wildest dreams were achieved when they relocated to Oakland to make pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop.

For four years, two EPs and 2003’s cult classic LP, Oaklandazulasylum, WHY? comprised Yoni Wolf alone. He honed his trademark delivery – a sickly sweet, half-rapped, singsong style – shined up his wry, picturesque poetry, and developed a clip-and-collage aesthetic using keyboards, toys, guitars, samplers and anything worth banging on. When Doug and Josiah moved west to join Yoni, they brought with them a hoard of instruments and the ability to wail on every last one. By chops and imagination, WHY? grew into a thing of flesh, bones and fully fledged songs, resulting in 2005’s Elephant Eyelash album. Critics swooned; ladies lauded; WHY? neither resisted nor rested. They toured – with Silver Jews, Yo La Tengo, and Islands. They collaborated – with Danielson Family, Department Of Eagles, and Subtle (Yoni also recorded with Fog’s Andrew Broder as “Hymie’s Basement”). They put out yet more
music.

The brand new album Eskimo Snow is something of a companion piece to last year’s celebrated Alopecia LP. In February of 2007, the WHY? trio temporarily relocated to Minneapolis and officially inducted Fog players Andrew Broder and Mark Erickson. Recording live as a five-piece, WHY? created two distinct albums from those sessions:
Alopecia, with its taut rhythms and biting wit, and Eskimo Snow, a shadowy and sprawling set that finds Yoni resigned to and ever-awed by those infinite erring bits of existence that make WHY? what it is.

Naytronix: http://naytronix.com/

Naytronix is an evil dance band cloned from the stem cells of multi-instrumentalist/producer Nate Brenner. His songwriting style is deeply rooted in the traditions of the future, which few alive today know anything about. And while the compositions are geared towards the sinister post-apocalyptic dance colonies that are on the verge of sprouting up around the world, an undeniably timeless funk is woven into the Naytronix hit machine. Fashionable grooves merge with found sounds and homemade instruments to unsettling yet familiar effect, as humans play side-by-side with robots, intertwining in a nefarious tango until you don’t know where veins ends and circuitry begins. Rumor has it Nate Brenner himself is half robot. The parties of the 23rd century never end. The world is bathed in the continuous dirty glow of evil summer twilight, and bands of 300 or more pick up anything they can hit and gather to play the music of Naytronix. This is pure speculation.

Brenner has been called, “The Bootsy Collins of Oakland, California,” where he currently resides. He is a native of the synthetic desert cities of William Onyeabor, the vanguard estates of Charles Mingus, and the family manor of Sly Stone. As the bassist for genre-bending institutions tUnE-yArDs and Beep!, he is not a stranger to voyaging across his great many homelands and spinning platinum out of the resources he trades along the way. Naytronix is the confluence of these worlds as well as of the virtues of the past and the dark exuberance lurking in the future. Brenner conducts the show with the exactitude of a subtle supervillain. Let the evil dance party begin.

The Black Swans: http://theblackswans.com/

Jerry DeCicca and The Black Swans have been winning hearts with their highly unique and beautiful folk sound since the early 2000s. Critically acclaimed by Pitchfork, MOJO, and many others, The Swans have released a split 7″ with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, opened for amazing acts all over the country, and are here to help you.

Ladies & Gentlemen, this is folk rock from the existential capital of the world.