Katie Halligan

Sometimes disturbing and at other times astonishing, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan is a wildly experimental theatre company/psych-rock cult based in Toronto. Complete with anime-infused black, white, and red costumes and face paint, the collective pushes genre boundaries. The music ranges from progressive metal to psychedelic pop, with thunderous drum crashes, lightning-fast guitar lines, and a wash of […]

Amy McCarley has a deep alto voice with an affectionate delivery, which she pairs with a combination of fingerpicking and strummed folk-rock guitar technique. Her third studio album, “MECO” – named after a space shuttle program acronym that stands for “main engine cut off” – and observes McCarley’s journey from working as a NASA contractor […]

Uptown Tango is an instrumental duo that combines classical and jazz with original Argentine tango arrangements. Having met by chance as fellow performers, violinist Evan Meccarello and guitarist Seth Sealfon have been playing together as Uptown Tango ever since, releasing an album of demos in 2016 and a debut studio album in 2018. The music […]

Known for ethereally catchy pop struts like “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second,” Strfkr was originally given its name as a joke by an early fan. Based in Portland, Oregon, the band began as the brainchild of Joshua Hodges and evolved into a quartet. Strfkr has released five albums since 2008, including its latest album, “Being […]

Performing solo and with a group of friends known as The Backup, Alex Northrup is a local multi-instrumentalist and songwriter with two studio albums under his belt. Alex Northrup and the Backup perform nerdy piano pop similar to Ben Folds, but with more theatrical songwriting and conversational lyrics. Delivering danceable, psychedelic pop rock, the band […]

Former frontman of the late 90’s post-grunge band Pompous Pilate, local singer-guitarist Aaron DeRuyter expands the boundaries of Americana music by combining acoustic and electronic elements. He released his sophomore album “Astral” in 2016, and performs solo and with a rotating collective of musicians known as The Confluence. DeRuyter writes haunting soliloquies like Townes Van […]

Mixing traditional roots instrumentation with contemporary folk songwriting, The Cadleys wrangle up audiences with invigorating string pulses and harmonies so in sync, it sounds like one voice. Consisting of the core duo — singer-guitarist John Cadley and his wife, singer-banjoist Cathy Cadley — as well as bassist John “JD” Dancks and renowned mandolin player Perry […]