As proven on their strange and beautiful new album Mudglimmer, the looming specter of artistic oblivion pushed The Slaps to lean into their idiosyncrasies: snaking rhythms, complicatedly interlocking guitar riffs, grubby yet alluring poetry, and homespun post-modern Americana sing-alongs all surge with a free-wheeling improvisatory verve informed by free jazz. It’s a stunning DIY comeback story, a doubling-down on avant-garde impulses that pays immediate dividends. Spontaneous composition and earnest, threadbare folk collide on Mudglimmer. It’s a marvel of influential synthesis, evoking Slint’s comfortability with ominous tension (“Mudglimmer”), Tortoise’s slinky push-pull grooves (“Filthy Sex Manuevers”), Waxahatchee’s slice-of-life Americana gems (“Flip”), elliptical funk-punk a la The Minutemen (“Forward”), minimal grunge-pop in the vein of Sebadoh (“King”) and so much more. Mudglimmer, in short, rips. Faced with existential threats, The Slaps reconfigured and reenergized — finding purpose, not in reaching for a brass ring, but in becoming fully, unashamedly, their own wonderfully confounding thing.

hemlock is the swamp-raised "phone-fi” alt-folk project of multi-disciplinary creative force Carolina Chauffe and various rotating collaborators, currently anchored between Chicago, Austin, and Louisiana, but more often on the road. Their most recent album ‘444’ – self-released in October 2024 – is a "best of, so far" of an ongoing song-a-day-for-a-month project, with its 12 carefully chosen tracks recaptured, rearranged, and reimagined in eager collaboration with an all-star Chicago cast.  This is means-to-an-end modern-day folk art for the open-hearted. Eager, intentionally imperfect, prolific. Doggedly DIY, Chauffe is an avid documenter, an amateur archivist, and a believer in magic, with a discography spanning hundreds of songs in half a decade, including their independently released debut full-band LP 'talk soon' (2022), and 6 months' worth of aforementioned phone-recorded song-a-day collections (2019-present), among other works. In addition to hemlock, Carolina has toured in Merce Lemon (2023), Babehoven (2022), Fran (2023), and is a long-time member of TX band Little Mazarn. They are a gatherer, a neighbor, and a hopeful for a free Palestine, for a free tomorrow for all. They will be a road dog for as long as they can, and make music for as long as they live.

Smooth Hands the self described "funky bois", is a force of nature that isn't afraid to genre bend. A look back at their discography will reveal sentiments of feel good indie rock anthem's, lyrics of introspective reflection, and rowdy humor. With "In the Grass" the band takes a left turn into a country/folk aesthetic while retaining their indie pop sensibility and diy grime. They put on their cowboy hats and ride the western wave in to faux urban cowboyism with songs of sorrow, battles with inner demons, and an attempt at communion with the higher self. Join Smooth Hands and their friends for a beautiful night of music in a damp basement in the valley of the sun!