Sera Cahoone + Margo Cilker w/ Night Palace
Thursday, July 28 // Doors at 7 PM // 7:30 PM // $15 (Advance tix recommended)w/ opener Night Palace Americana singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone grew up in the Colorado foothills. The daughter of a dynamite salesman, she played her first gigs on drums in a dive bar’s open blues jams at 12. As a young adult, she moved to Seattle where she played drums with the adored indie rock group, Carissa’s Wierd, and later Band of Horses. She then went on to release four solo records, two with Sub Pop. In 2019, Cahoone received a Gold Record for her work with Band of Horses. Cahoone has earned great praise from KEXP, NPR series Tiny Desk Concert, First Listen and Songs We Love. Her work has been featured on UPROXX, ELLE and KEXP. But not only do her songs ring out in rooms of mile-high castles and the edges of sprawling forests, Cahoone is beloved by her fans. Her audiences are filled with the curious, the seekers, and those who just want to hear sing once more, “I wanna be your sidewalk / I’ll take you everywhere/ We’ll travel ‘round this world a million times.” Margo Cilker is a woman who drinks deeply of life, and her debut record Pohorylle, released in November 2021 on Portland label Fluff and Gravy, is brimming with it. For the last seven years, the Eastern Oregon songwriter, who NPR calls one of “11 Oregon Artists to Watch in 2021,” has split her time between the road and various outposts across the world, from Enterprise, OR to the Basque Country of Spain, forging a path that is at once deeply rooted and ever-changing. Night Palace’s (ATHENS, GA / NYC) debut album Diving Rings is a shocking alchemy: aching nostalgia meets frothy anticipation of what’s beyond the garden wall. Tantalizing pop melodies take wing with lush instrumentation, weaving a reedy bed for songwriter Avery Draut’s shimmering vocals. It’s hard to believe the album is not a soundtrack to . . . something. You find yourself picturing it: a moonlit-gilded diorama of Draut’s dreams and memories. Spanning eleven songs and interludes, Diving Rings ebbs and flows through tracks like “Enjoy the Moon!” dubbed by AllMusic Editor’s Choice, “a song that sounds like a lost Pet Sounds track played by Broadcast;” grounded indie-rock songs “Into the Wake, Mystified” and “Stranger Powers;” and the celeste-gilded folk song “Titania.” Paste Magazine encapsulates the now Athens, Georgia and NYC-based act’s sound: “Diving Rings wraps freak-folk energy in a lush psych-pop package.” The album was released on April 1 via Park the Van. For further information, accessibility, and inquiries please visit https://www.zootownarts.org/meet-the-zacc/about/.
AJJ / WHY?
Thursday, August 18 // Doors at 7 PM // Show at 8 PM // $20AJJ”Comprising core members Sean Bonnette (acoustic guitar) and Ben Gallaty (upright bass), AJJ is a folk-punk outfit from Phoenix, Arizona. They formed as Andrew Jackson Jihad in 2004, when frontman Bonnette was still a teenager, and the duo quickly began writing humorously explicit music with macabre themes. Early topics ran the gamut from self-sacrifice to childhood drug addiction, all sung in a frantic manner with acoustic instrumentation. Their self-released debut, Candy Cigarettes & Cap Guns, appeared in 2005, after which a number of self-released demos and EPs attracted the attention of Plan-It-X Records. The label issued a split release with Andrew Jackson Jihad and the similarly styled Ghost Mice in 2007. On September 11 of the same year, Asian Man Records released the Jihad’s second full-length album, People That Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World. Another EP followed in 2008, and in 2009 Asian Man released the band’s third album, Can’t Maintain. They spent several years touring the U.S. and Europe before the 2011 release of their fourth LP, Knife Man. The following year Bonnette and Gallaty were joined by second guitarist/keyboardist Preston Bryant and drummer Deacon Batchelor, expanding the lineup for a fuller band sound. Their touring schedule and profile increased in 2013, and in 2014 the band signed with L.A. indie SideOneDummy Records to release their fifth album, Christmas Island. In 2016, after having been referred to as AJJ by many of their fans for years, the bandmembers officially changed their name, saying they no longer wanted to be either a reminder of the former President or disrespectful (as non-Muslims). The Bible 2 arrived under the AJJ moniker that summer and landed on multiple Billboard charts, including the rock, alternative, and independent albums charts.” – Marcy DonelsonWHY?Yoni Wolf has spent the last two decades traveling the remote sonic terrain where underground hip hop, avant-pop, and psych-rock meet. In that time he’s cultivated a unique sound, and a unique position as one of contemporary music’s most distinctive voices. Some of Yoni’s most compelling and critically-praised musical experiments have been issued under the moniker WHY?, but Yoni has been involved in various other freewheeling music projects, including Yoni & Geti, Hymie’s Basement, and the seminal cLOUDDEAD. For further information, accessibility, and inquiries please visit https://www.zootownarts.org/meet-the-zacc/about/.
