Brothers Jared and Dominic Cortese spent their youth running through the shifting sands of Warren Dunes State Park in Southwest Michigan. In Warren Dunes, their band with Julia Massey, they chart new realms of musical fantasy with contagious joy. Post-modern beach music from the Pacific Northwest, Welcome to Warren Dunes weaves threads of indie pop, art-rock, psych, and Tropicalia into a complex yet easy going whole. This is a record of nuance and bubbling ornament, where bold swaths of melodic primary color burst into neon-flecked clouds of sonic glitter as Massey’s arresting, crystalline voice soars overhead.

Though Warren Dunes is a relatively new endeavor, its members’ lives have been steeped in music. Mom and Dad Cortese were the head of music at their church, touring the states’ conferences and retreats. “Music was just something I thought people did. Though, to be honest, my earliest memory of feeling like music was what I wanted to do for a living was watching the Saved by The Bell episode where the cast starts a band” laughs guitarist Jared. Julia began piano lessons after she figured out how to play “Go Tell It On The Mountain” by ear as an eight-year old.

A prolific creative, Julia wrote and recorded her first solo record, Brains in Bubbles, as a college student in Colorado. At twenty-one she relocated to Brooklyn, NY and released her second LP Moons and Stars Convene. The following year she toured the southern United States in veggie-oil powered RV and filmed a documentary called The Break Free Project along the way. From 23 to 25 Julia lived in a National Forest in Colorado and wrote the record OUT. Following that release she headed west, and into the thriving art scene in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

Julia placed a Craigslist ad for a bassist. The ad was answered by Andy Kingham, who also played in a band called The Jesus Rehab – featuring Jared and Dominic Cortese. A few weeks later and Dominic was the official drummer for the newly minted Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount. A few months after that, and Julia started dating the lead singer of The Jesus Rehab, Jared Cortese. They were married in 2012.

Julia released a slate of critically-acclaimed records with Five Finger Discount, touring nationally behind each. The band released their final recording, Heart Tones, in 2017. Drawn together by their shared love of live performance, Julia and the Cortese brothers decided to form a true family band. The name came easily; “Warren Dunes is the place where we first really experienced wonder and raw inspiration” explains Dominic.

That sense of wonder and inspiration pervades the music Julia, Jared, and Dominic make as Warren Dunes. They are happiest together on stage, moving and flowing as synchronous aspects of a greater whole. That grace and delight comes through in their recorded work, telegraphed transparently to the listener. A cohesive statement, unique yet instantly recognizable, Welcome to Warren Dunes slides seamlessly from delicate post-punk explorations to anthemic, sing-along pop built on a foundation of arena-worthy choruses. Self-assured yet free of bombast, Welcome to Warren Dunes is an art-pop dreamscape of unapologetic fun.

Seattle power pop group The Hoot Hoots are irresistible party starters. Their songs are powered by fuzzy guitars, fuzzier keyboards, and headhum-inducing hooks, and all these combine in a glorious, slightly insane energy in both their live shows and in their new album, Colorpunch.

Seattle Weekly has compared them favorably to the Shins, the Deli Seattle Magazine has praised them for their “flashy, out-of-control pop sensibilities,” and Seattle radio 90.3 KEXP named their song “Go For a Walk” their Song of the Day, calling it a “brilliant pop tune and nothing you should skip out on”. Think vintage Flaming Lips with a splash of NES and a dash of the Unicorns, and you get the idea.

Lead vocalist/guitarist Adam Prairie grew up with his brother/drummer Chris in the middle of Midwestern corn fields in Clifton, IL. The two played whiffle ball and Nintendo, watched the original Star Wars trilogy obsessively, and learned to play guitars and Casio keyboards in the bedroom they shared for most of their formative years. They wrote a few songs in high school, but they mostly tinkered with sounds until Adam left home to study at Knox College in western Illinois followed by Chris a few years later.

“The Hoot Hoots really took shape at the end of my stay at Knox,” Adam said. “Chris and I wrote and performed music for a psychedelic 60’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and we were kind of overwhelmed how much people were into it. That was the first time we both thought, ‘Maybe we should give this band thing a shot.’ ”

They’ve also relentlessly hit the road the last couple years, making stops in the Midwest, Southwest, Texas, West Coast, and all over the Pacific Northwest. And they somehow manage to do it stuffed into a Toyota Prius.

Listening to the music of the Seattle-based roots rock ‘n’ roll band, The Salmonberries, feels like spending time with close friends around a campfire. You’ve been there before: someone starts singing. Suddenly, two or three more voices join in the chorus. Someone who just showed up with beers begins to bang a drum as another plays an old acoustic. It’s a friendly groove. It’s music that swells your heart.

The group, which formed in the city’s north end Greenwood Neighborhood in 2017 playing house shows, is a multi-racial, multi-talented band of brethren. With skills matched only by their bonds as friends, The Salmonberries released their debut EP, Reason To Be, in 2018. The record received acclaim from the Emerald City tastemaker publication, Artist Home, as well as spins from the famed radio station, KEXP.

In an era when music is regularly tailored to pre-determined niche audiences, The Salmonberries play a boisterous brand of rock music rooted in classic songwriting throughout the decades. With lightening-quick electric leads, funk-forward rhythms and vocals that bounce between the walls, the band offers comradery in its joyous music. Just as the crackle of a campfire is for anyone, so the songs of The Salmonberries are for you.