Announcing The Outlaw Roadshow Providence, RI

One Week From Tonight - 7/12

Original Poster Art by Chris King

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WALTER SICKERT
& THE ARMY OF BROKEN TOYS
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MUCK AND THE MIRES
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THE SUSAN CONSTANT
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MATT YORK

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All Things Outlaw

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Best New Song I've Heard In A While

I adore these purveyors of dark beauty. The instrumentation and songcraft of Murder By Death transfix, move, and inspire. The new song, "True Dark" appears on their forthcoming album, The Other Shore. LP emerges in August. 

THE NEW SINGLE

Murder By Death is in the midst of a year-long North American tour. Dates on their website. This is a formidable band you need to see live.

MURDER BY DEATH
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Interview with New York Songwriter Brian Dunne

Excited as hell today to share this fun Q&A with one of my favorite young US songwriters. Brian Dunne was raised in New York and his witty lyrics embrace a life in one of the world's largest microcosms. His travels up and down the east coast have left a lasting mark on audiences. 

Dunne's 2015 debut, "Songs From The Hive" won him his first taste of critical praise but it was last year's full length, "Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements" which won this music lover over. That record debuted in the Top Ten of iTunes Songwriter charts - an auspicious beginning to a season of creativity that today finds Dunne on the road to creative greatness. 

RYAN - Brian, thanks for visiting with me. I'm a fan. And ... man! You are just one hell of a songwriter! I've found there's a depth to your songwriting that I think kind of floors people. There's gravity, emotion and truth... But you're such a young guy. What do you attribute that to? 

BRIAN - I'm not quite as young as I look, but even so-- I simply draw on life as I see it and as it happens to me. I think in the songwriting world, we value wisdom, which tends to come from older people, so I get that a lot. But even though I have no such wisdom, it's all sort of happening to me at this very second. 

RYAN - What forces do you find yourself tapping into?

BRIAN -  I'm 29 and I live in New York City, and I drank too much last night, and I know a lot of very wild characters. So I draw on that. (Both laugh.) 

RYAN - Seems like a great time to expose your sense of humor. It plays out in the songwriting and in your social media presence. In one recent post you remarked about how many times you thought you saw Billy Ray Cyrus while driving through Tennessee. Care to share any lessons learned on the road?

BRIAN - I supposed learned not to sleep at the Rodeway Inn in Bellows Falls, VT on this particular run. Otherwise I just listen to podcasts, hang out with the band, grab a couple of beers and try to have a good time. It should be fun or you're doing it wrong.

RYAN - How often are you writing?

BRIAN - I try to write everyday.

RYAN - Can you walk our readers through one of your songs? I think it would be of real value to know how your creative process works.

BRIAN - I usually start with a line or a singable phrase that I keep turning over in my head and I'll build a song around that, though sometimes it's a lyrical idea or a title that moves me to write something. For "Taxi," I had this "heading through a tunnel downtown" line as sort of a building block. I just knew how I wanted to sing that, and I like the way it sort of sounded coming out of my mouth. I built a song around it, didn't like it, stripped it back to the original idea, stewed over what I was really trying to say, and came up with the concept of the whole song taking place in the back of a Taxi.

RYAN - Such a great song. Just want to thank you for talking with me today. Can you leave us with this... What are your artistic goals and objectives for the next 12 months? And sorry to put you on the spot!

BRIAN - Well, I'd like to rule the world, play Madison Square Garden, impeach Trump, and release the greatest record of all time. But if I had to, I'd settle for just one of those. (Laughs)

BRIAN DUNNE
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Poster Unveiling! The Outlaw Roadshow Providence 6/28/18

Original Poster Art by Chris King

The Alpaca Gnomes


Rick Berlin with The Nickel & Dime Band

Eddie Japan

Brian Dunne

Jenee Halstead

Alchemy in Downtown Providence, 6/28/18
Please arrive early and see it all.
Doors 8:00pm
8:30 Jenee Halstead
9:10 Brian Dunne
9:45 Eddie Japan
10:45 The Alpaca Gnomes
11:45 Rick Berlin with the Nickel Dime Band

The Outlaw Roadshow
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PREMIERE :: War Twins - American Kids

WORLD PREMIERE VIDEO
Video Credits: Cory Ingram & Zakk Conner

HOT NIGHTS - Starting summer off with a bang, we debut the hot new video "American Kids" by LA rock duo War Twins. We've been following the act for about a half-decade now and their hard work is beginning to truly take off. What better way to kick off the heat than this in-your-face music video?  

American Kids will appear on the War Twins' forthcoming album produced by the award-winning Sylvia Massy (TOOL, Prince & Johnny Cash.) The record will be released on tour this summer.

Known for their powerful performances War Twins recently shared stages with Wolf Alice, Filter, and Alien Ant Farm. I still remember the very first time I saw them years ago and even then I knew they were on to something powerful. This is a band you need to experience for yourself. National tour dates listed below.

THE AMERICAN KIDS
US SUMMER TOUR:
6.3 Phoenix AZ Joe’s Grotto
6.6 Santa Fe NM Boxcar
6.7 Amarillo TX Leftwoods
6.8 Dallas TX The Prophet Bar
6.9 Houston TX Madness on Main Festival
6.13 Knoxville TN Preservation Pub
6.15 Raleigh NC Deep South
6.16 Charlotte NC Snug Harbor
6.18 Lancaster PA The Chameleon Club
6.21 Washington DC The Black Cat
6.23 Brooklyn NY Saint Vitus
6.26 Lowell MA UnchARTed
6.28 Worcester MA Ralph’s Rock Diner
6.29 Boston MA ONCE Ballroom
6.30 Philadelphia PA Kung Fu Necktie
7.4 Durham NC Eno River Festival
7.5 Johnson City TN The Hideaway
7.6 Nashville TN The End
7.7 Knoxville TN Scruffy City Hall
7.8 Birmingham AL The Nick
7.11 Columbus GA SoHo
7.12 Jacksonville FL Jack Rabbits
7.13 Daytona Beach FL Rok Bar
7.19 Pensacola FL Chizuko
7.20 Houston TX TBA
7.23 Austin TX Mohawk
7.26 Tuscon AZ Sky Bar
7.27 Las Vegas NV The Beauty Bar
7.28 Los Angeles CA The Viper Room

WAR TWINS
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New Pages To Turn from Hallelujah The Hills

Keeping score on a band now logging in more than a decade of time-served can be difficult, especially if that band is Hallelujah The Hills. The indie rock band have toured extensively, released five albums to acclaim and now embark on the most ambitious phase of their career - finding fertile new sound space, falling in behind their rock-author front man Ryan Walsh.

Walsh's new novel, the widely celebrated 'Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968', has set the songwriter - and the band on a new trajectory as they prepare to craft and coax songs for their sixth album. Hallelujah The Hills recorded the soundtrack for the audiobook, making the best seller book a collaborative effort to celebrate music and the northeast's special place in pop history - focusing on Van Morrison and the cult of American music.

Returning from a creative hiatus of sorts, Hallelujah The Hills return to Providence this Thursday to play their first Outlaw Roadshow lineup in more than three years. There are more dates planned and more book signings. What you have right now is a fountain of creative energy - a stream of lava right from the core of the earth. And despite the highest expectations for the band's output, we can be assured all kinds of unanticipated bits of brilliance. This is one of the best music outfits in the country. And this is an important time.

HALLELUJAH THE HILLS
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Astral Weeks (Amazon)

Sinnet is a fun-first, tone-heavy love affair.

One To Watch - Think a number of my readers are going to really dig today's spotlight. Gifted Boston graphic designer Aaron Spransey has a geek-pop band I love - and need to share with you. Sinnet is a fun-first, tone-heavy love affair. Initially created by Aaron Spransy as a laptop bedroom project following his move from Milwaukee to Boston. Soon thereafter a band was formed and all kinds of creative and wacky dreams came true. 

Today, Sinnet is a three-piece with Spransey joined by Kevin Junker and Thom Valicenti. (Projects for the trio include The Fatal Flaw, Mount Peru and Soft Pyramids.) They have a new-to-you album called "Nervous Soul" (2017) which I adore for it's maniacal song-assertion and it's inherent weirdness. 

It's a collection of tightly arranged indie rock gems that drill down to the listener's psyche and then - once there, mess you up real good. Serious fun and quite irresistible once you've cracked the seal.  

Questions that keep a music blogger up at night: on Houdini Hands, when Spransey sings about the target of his affection, he utters, "she's a keeper, .. a trapper keeper" - is this just cleaver wordplay or something deeper, perhaps even profound?

From The Website: The name 'Sinnet' comes from the license plate Aaron's late mother Mary Spransy had on several Toyota Camrys. It was a birthday gift, she loved playing tennis. Their sound? As if Spoon, Elliott Smith and Booker T had some bizarre love triangle while writing a blog post about 80's horror movies.

SINNET
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