Hoochenanny

The band takes their name from a Virginia Woolf quote. Truth be told this is quite a fitting lineage as, like Woolf herself, fewer artists give quite as convincing a portrayal of someone on the verge of a mental or nervous breakdown as Modest Mouse.

Isaac Brock’s is the man responsible for that. His voice could convincingly stand up with the likes of Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Morrissey and David Bowie as one of the acquired tastes that you’ll eventually wonder how you ever did without it.

However, it’s when his guttural howl delivers his lyrics that things get truly worrying. The evocative images of everything from the endless dust bowl deserts of the American West, to the sheer expanse of space and the cold, unfeeling ocean posit how we as individual people can possibly mean anything compared to the vast canvas of existence itself. Don’t worry, there’s also some damn catchy choruses in their as well!

Catchy enough to have arguably lead the charge of indie rock into the mainstream after The Strokes and The White Stripes kicked the doors down. They have sold 1.5 million copies of April 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”, the album which gave the world their deathless Billboard Hot 100 hit “Float On”. The follow up album 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”, which featured the aforementioned Johnny Marr as a member of the band for the album’s creation and subsequent tour, was certified Gold as well.

On the surface, it would seem that they are an odd band to have Gold and Platinum albums to their name, but look closer and they always temper their experimental and haunting tendencies with solid gold hooks. If R.E.M are no more, they can be satisfied in the knowledge that there are still alternative rock bands bringing literate, profound and edgy rock and roll to arenas and concert halls the world over.

Two original members remain in My Morning Jacket - frontman Jim James, and bass player Tom Blankenship. Over the course of their sixteen year career to date, the band have proven themselves to be one of the most versatile and stylistically diverse rock groups on the planet, with their unique style of psychedelic rock usually punctuated by a flurry of other influences; country, folk and even the blues have seeped into their sound as time has gone on. They’ve released six records to date; their second, ‘At Dawn’, was released in April of 2001, and marked the point at which they began to really nail down the fundamentals of their sound - tracks like ‘Death Is the Easy Way’ and ‘Just Because I Do’ laid down the blueprint for future albums.

‘It Still Moves’, released in September 2003, marked their real critical breakthrough, with ‘Run Thru’ being ranked as one of Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Guitar Songs’. They expanded their burgeoning fanbase in October 2005 with the considerably more polished ‘Z’, and ‘Evil Urges’, from June 2008, cemented their place as one of the premier indie rock bands in America. They received rapturous reviews for their latest LP, ‘Circuital’, in 2011; since then, the individual members have taken some time away from the band to focus on other projects, with James releasing a solo album in 2013.

Guster was formed in 1991 when the members met each other at a freshman orientation at Tufts University in Boston. A year after their formation they booked their first gig as Gus, later independently releasing their first album entitled “Parachute.” Shortly after, they renamed the band to Guster due to another artist who already took the name Gus.

In 1996 Guster again independently recorded and released their second album entitled “Goldfly,” which was later re-released when they signed with Sire Records in 1998. A year later they released a third studio album with the title “Lost And Gone Forever” followed by television appearances such as on the Late Show with David Letterman. After the release of their fourth studio album, they also released a live album/DVD from their performances in Portland, Maine.

Led off by the single, “Manifest” Guster released a fith studio album in June 2006. Later that same year the band won the Album of the Year award at the Boston Music Awards. Continuing their string of success they released “Easy Wonderful” in October 2010, and before setting out on tour, it was announced that Joe Pisapia would be touring with k.d Lang and would be replaced by Luke Reynolds. By 2014 they worked on and released an album entitled “Easy Wonderful” which was released on their independent label, Ocho Mule label.

Joywave was first formed in 2010 in Rochester with Daniel Armbruster on vocals, Joseph Morinelli on guitar, Sean Donnelly on bass, Travis Johansen on keyboard and Paul Brenner on drums. Inspired by 80s electronic music, the group self-released their first single, “Ridge” followed shortly by their first mix tape, “77777” in 2011. A year later in 2012 they digitally released their first EP album (also self-released) entitled “Koda Vista.” The following year they released yet another mix tape entitled “88888.”

In 2013 Joywave collaborated with fellow electronic group, Big Data, for the hit song “Dangerous.” The song reached multiple Billboard charts, including Number 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Chart, and was fairly successful on an international scale as well. Additionally, Joywave’s single, “Tongues” features KOPPS did considerably well with the music video hitting over 300,000 views, and was featured on the video game, FIFA 15. In March 2014 they released another EP entitled “How Do You Feel?” via the label Hollywood, Cultco. The group has also made a number of television appearances, including a performance with Big Data on Late Night With Seth Meyers, as well as festival appearances like Lollalapalooza, Osheaga, and multiple appearances at CMJ in New York City. They have played alongside other indie alternative bands like Little Daylight, Grouplove and Bad Suns.