JW Francis ~ Moon Kissed
**All shows 21+—valid ID required** Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 7:30 PMJW FRANCISBorn in Oklahoma, raised in Paris, living in New York City, assistant to a Nobel Prize Winner, licensed New York City tour guide and Murder Mystery business owner, JW Francis is one of the newest signings to Sunday Best Recordings. His brand of lo-fi, utterly irresistible bedroom dream-pop takes its lead from the city JW lives in, with echoes of Jonathan Richman, The Velvet Underground and the lo-fi sound New York has been inspiring for decades.https://www.jwfrancis.com/MOON KISSEDhttps://moonkissedmusic.com/
Will Joseph Cook
**All Ages** Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 7:30 PM Will Joseph CookWill Joseph Cook makes music that will put a smile on your face. The indie-pop dreamer’s third album, Every Single Thing, is an exercise in joy: a collection of unashamed love songs, it’s a bubbling and exuberant reminder to cherish the present. “I felt that from a cultural perspective, not that many people write about love in a positive way or from a perspective of being happy anymore,” Cook says. “Most of the sincere, biographical writing these days is about a break up or the pursuit of love, whereas I just wanted to celebrate the moment I was in rather than looking forward or backwards. I wanted to see what a sincere love song sounded like in 2021 and share what I was feeling. All of the songs are real in that respect. They’re all based on my life.” Aside from being in love and releasing a new album, Cook has bountiful reasons to celebrate this moment in time. The past 24 months have seen his life change exponentially. After he released his second album, 2020’s chirpy yet reflective Something To Feel Good About, one of his songs, the glimmering and breezy “Be Around Me,” went viral on TikTok. This wasn’t just viral, though: for weeks the cutesy bridge of “Be Around Me” was inescapable, becoming one of the platform’s most popular sounds with over a million videos made using it. “A good chunk of the top 200 videos will have had millions of views, too,” Cook says, still in disbelief. “So how many times was it heard? It’s kind of magical in that respect. Also, I had no control over it. Even if I deleted it, it’s part of the internet. It’s in TikTok’s DNA. It’s not mine anymore.” Such an explosive response to his music was validating for Cook, who says that he’d been feeling a bit of self-doubt about his place in music before “Be Around Me” blew up. Why? Because despite his young age, the 24-year-old is a little bit of a music industry veteran. Born and raised in Tunbridge Wells in the south east of England, Cook has been involved in music since he was a teenager, gigging locally and uploading music to YouTube and Soundcloud. His songs about the tumult and technicolour of teenage life captured the attention of managers and before he knew it, he had signed a major label record deal by the age of 17.https://willjosephcook.co.uk/
IAMX ~ Mighty Mike Saga
**All shows 21+—valid ID required** Doors: 8:30 PM Show: 8:30 PM IAMXTransformation is at the core of Chris Corner’s music and outlook. Ever since leaving wildly successful trip-hop group Sneaker Pimps, Corner’s process of becoming IAMX beginning in 2004 has been theatrical, transcendent, and communal. Androgynous and visceral, IAMX has metamorphosed from small-town blue-collar kid to international pop star in the late 1990’s to creator of raw art that disrupts gender and genre in the 2000’s. Fuelling electronic experimentation with punk energy and confessional lyricism, Corner’s dark alternative electronic sound, fashion, performances, videos, and persona are larger than life, iconoclastic, and shockingly intimate.https://iamxmusic.com/Mighty Mike Saga – DJ SET
Thumpasaurus ~ Natalie Brooke (The Loft)
**All shows 21+—valid ID required** Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 8:00 PM *Due to popular demand the show has moved from Cambridge Hall to The Loft at Warehouse on Watts* ThumpasaurusIn the beginning there was Thump… The primordial groove of the Universe. Thump thumped its way through all things. In the beginning groove was harmony, and harmony was groove, and it was good. Long before the age of humans, the Thumpasaurus roamed the Earth, serving the cosmos as the teachers of the Thump. The thump traversed all beings, and the Thumpasarus helped distribute its secret wisdom to all sentient and non sentient creatures. It was good. As time passed and the Earth fluctuated between periods of great peace and great unrest, the Thumpasaurus became a threat to growing forces of evil- who fueled by a primary motivation in consumerism sought to eliminate the Thumpasaurus. To save the species and protect the goodness of the Universe, The Thumpasaurus fled the earth to the outer reaches of space time – though the Thumpasaurus swore to return to the Earth as harbingers of the age of reawakening. In their last gift to the consciousness of the cosmic manifestation of the Earth and its beings, the Thumpasaurus wrote down the secrets of the Thump in a manuscript of real troof and buried it in a sacredly SECRET location (the appalachian mountains) in hopes that the Thump would survive and benefit future generations with happiness, love and thump. As buildings turned to sand, and memories to dust, so too did the ancient memory of the Thumpasaurus and with them disappeared the philosophy of Thump.http://thumpasaurus.comNatalie BrookeNatalie Brooke is funk and rock brought to you by a powerful 4 piece from the DC area – female fronted with Natalie on keys, keytar and vocals and always backed by a stellar band. The music was once said to be the mashup of Rick James and Rush; a fiery blend of fast tempos, totally danceable grooves and some sloshy rock elements, too. Natalie’s keyboard playing is exceptionally unique because it is just as percussive as it is melodic and pianistic. Every performance from this band is electric.https://instagram.com/nataliebrooke_thebandhttps://facebook.com/music.nataliebrooke
The Slaps ~ Friko
**ALL AGES** Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 7:30 PMThe Slaps At its core, Tomato Tree by The Slaps is an exercise in patience that seamlessly showcases the virtues of experimentation. Composed of guitarist/vocalist Rand Kelly, bassist/vocalist Ramsey Bell, and percussionist/vocalist Josh Resing, the band’s latest collection of songs is an achievement – a document of deepening friendship and their collective and personal advancements in artistic maturity. Though the band formed out of a chance meeting at a party in 2016 during their first year of college at DePaul University, The Slaps are bound together by a spirit of pastoral music making – the notion that collaboratively using the available resources can produce stunning results. “It’s been about trust – it starts with each other. We trust each other so much. We trust each other to live in different places and keep this thing going,” says Resing, referencing Bell and Kelly’s recent move from Chicago back to their homes in Lexington, Kentucky. “You can’t do that with just anybody.”FrikoFans know Friko (Bailey Minzenberger, Luke Stamos, and frontman Niko Kapetan) as vital rising stars in the Chicago scene. The music, which freelancer Britt Julious described as “perfect slices of indie-pop” in the Chicago Tribune last January, is complex, layered, and dynamic. Over the band’s time together, it has become clear they are comfortable embracing multiple musical extremes at once. Take a listen to the explosive and hypnotic beat of “In_Out” off their self managed 2022 EP release, Whenever Forever, and juxtapose it against the serene, strings soaked tracks that follow, “Half as Far” and “Can I See U Again.” It becomes even more pronounced in live performance, where a frenzied floor, grinding with wailing guitars and animation, in the very next minutes finds itself collectively holding its breath silently as the band eases them into a spell. Lyrically, Kapetan explores the possibility and risks of a life given over to music, interrogating what a life well-lived means to him. The duality rings out in the compositions, evoking rock and folk icons such as Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake. As Friko plays out sweeping melodies, held up by thrashing guitar and punchy beats, it feels as if Kapetan sings to you. Crooning about stories you know, memories you had but have somehow forgotten. The band is planning tour dates, and is near completion of what is to become the core of a new full length album.
The Sonder Bombs ~ The Human Fly ~ Driving Underwater
Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 7:30 PM**All Ages**The Sonder Bombssonder – n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your ownhttps://thesonderbombs.bandcamp.com/track/the-starThe Human Flyhttp://www.thehumanfly.bandcamp.com/Driving Underwaterhttps://drivingunderwater.bandcamp.com/
