Five people, five towns, and a few hundred miles in between...none of this should have ever worked. Still, fate has a funny way of bending the rules. CLIFFS represents a leap of faith. A departure from the safety of the wheel they all found themselves stuck spinning in. Like yarn-linked thumbtacks on an evidence board, there was something undeniably connective from the first time. With passion at the forefront, their music floats atop the pool of category. It is abstract, but familiar. It's wherever you want to go. It's echoes of old, and glimpses of new, an homage to the sounds that raised them.

Swirling organs, analog circuitry, omnivorous world influences, digital manipulation and an all-American high lonesome sound come together in Estate Sale's new album, combining emotional and plaintive song-writing and singing, offbeat instrumentation, retro sensibility, and modern production. In an effort to stay sane during quarantine, Joey Colando (Meekos & Me, Kidd Bayou) and David Wechsler (Piñataland, Tyranny of Dave) teamed up to craft an album detailing the vagaries of modern American life. Colando would write songs and record them into his phone and Wechsler would try hard to keep up with arrangement ideas on his computer. On one collaborative song, No Road, both of them stumped for lyrics for the end section, they asked songwriter Anna Soltys (Anna Soltys & The Familiar, Syzygal) to help finish the lyrics, which started a collaboration that led to her singing on 6 of the album’s tracks, including duets with Colando on both No Road and the epic finale Curtain Call, a song detailing the fraught relationship between Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Mayo Methot. Breaking quarantine to record final parts (and re-record phone recordings), they set up an impromptu recording studio in an empty Chicago theater closed by the pandemic. The 10 songs span the gamut, from obviously inspired by current events to a meditative road movie without a destination, the indifferent hand of fate, and, of course, the inescapable bête noire of songwriting, relationships.

Hollow Bastion is the DIY solo project born from the midwest suburban bedroom of Teagan. Now based in Chicago, she takes the stage with live accompaniment to elevate her lo-fi recordings to new heights and expanded possibilities. Centered on Teagan’s guitar and vocals, Hollow Bastion’s live incarnation enlists the talents of a few good friends to help deliver her richly layered songs to their fullest. Key influences include the artists Japanese Breakfast, Hop Along, Wilco, and Lomelda, as well as soundtracks to video games such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Her third EP “Unravel” was entirely written, recorded, and produced as a then-teenager in 2022, weaving together an array of elements like exotic bongos, starry synths, and fuzzy electric guitars. As a young artist, Teagan’s music continues to grow and mature as swiftly as she does. She’s just getting started, guys. Teagan wears her heart on her sleeve, and at some shows, a bandana around her neck. If everything goes according to plan, she’ll blow your socks off.