Mike Baggetta & Eli Winter
Each show features solo sets from each artist, with special guests, throughout The South & Midwest this November. Join us for an intimate night of new songs and new sounds. _____ About Mike Baggetta: “Mike Baggetta is a player of immense subtlety across all dimensions, working with an impressive palette of tones … distilling Robert Fripp’s loopscapes with hints of John Fahey.” -The Wire, UK “…A terrific player, capable of weirdly elegant fretwork, shivery Tom Verlaine-esque tones, freeform freakouts and crunchy fuzz, shifting from one zone to another with a naturalness and ease.” -Aquarium Drunkard About Eli Winter: “Here, the Chicago-based wunderkind—an accomplished writer with storytelling bonafides beyond the guitar—merges the mythos of his native Texas with jazzy, explosive bombast, like a cowboy on DMT.” — Pitchfork “Eli Winter’s second turn as bandleader unfolds like a sky bleeding exhaust fumes, alternating pedal steel waltzes and jazz-burnt fuzz bombs. The record starts with an ecstatic riff on a Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell tune and doesn’t really let off the gas.” — NPR
Ouija Macc
Mr. Phylzzz
Formed in late 2015, mr.phylzzz (pronounced mr. flyzzz) has spent the last decade mutating, evolving, and cementing their reputation as one of the most blistering, uncompromising forces in modern noise rock. What began as a raw, multi-instrumental project has sharpened into a lean, mean, two-piece wall of sound consisting of Clinton Jacob (guitar/vocals) and Danny Sein (drums). Now anchored in the gritty musical landscape of Chicago, the duo crafts a chaotic, high-velocity sonic assault that balances punishing, heavy riffs with an undeniable knack for twisted, melodic hooks. The band’s rapid, jagged trajectory quickly caught the ear of Tom Hazelmyer, founder of the legendary underground imprint Amphetamine Reptile Records (AmRep). A badge of honor for any band pushing the boundaries of aggressive music, mr.phylzzz made their label debut on the prestigious Dope Guns ’N Fucking in the Streets Vol. 14 compilation. They followed that up with their first proper full-length album, Penitent Curtis, in 2019—a record that laid the groundwork for their signature blend of cranked amps, driving percussion, and volatile vocal delivery. When the pandemic brought the world to a standstill, the project underwent a metamorphosis. Operating in isolation, Jacob continued to write at a feverish pace. As restrictions lifted, a relocation to Chicago sparked a powerful new chemistry with the addition of drummer Danny Sein. The resulting synergy produced 2022’s Cancel Culture Club, a critically acclaimed record that showcased a tighter, more furious version of the band. The album drew well-deserved attention from noise rock royalty, featuring guest appearances from the Melvins’ King Buzzo and Kevin Rutmanis. Refusing to let off the gas, mr.phylzzz returned to the studio to track their next chapter, 2023’s Fat Chance. Captured in a rapid-fire, four-day session at Chicago’s iconic Electrical Audio, the album perfectly bottles the raw, frantic energy of their live performances. The songs are dense, blown-out, and hyper-focused, earning praise across the underground for keeping the historic flame of midwestern noise rock burning bright. While their records are masterclasses in controlled chaos, the stage is where mr.phylzzz truly becomes a monster. Renowned for their furious, tight, and unpredictable live sets, the band spent a grueling autumn tearing across North America as the main opening act for the monumental Melvins and Boris “Twins of Evil” tour. Playing to packed rooms and massive crowds night after night, the duo proved that two people can create an atmosphere just as heavy, loud, and mesmerizing as a five-piece band. Today, mr.phylzzz remains a relentless touring machine and a staple of the underground circuit, constantly writing, traveling, and pushing their gear to the absolute limit. They are modern torchbearers of heavy music—chaotic, cathartic, and entirely on their own terms.
Steel Beans
Slothrust
The Velveteers bring a visceral energy to their explosive sophomore album, A Million Knives, loaded with blistering rock anthems infused with melodic indie songwriting. With GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Dan Auerbach at the helm, the Boulder, CO trio encapsulates the raw, forceful, and profoundly heavy power of their live performances and laser-focuses a spotlight on tightly crafted songs as they carve out their own distinctive niche. Driving The Velveteers is the commanding presence of frontwoman Demi Demitro, a no-bullshit, five-foot-something spitfire with thunderous guitar riffs and soaring vocals, backed by her incendiary double drum duo. The band’s signature dual drum setup creates a thunderous foundation that propels their gritty, dynamic garage rock sound. On A Million Knives, this setup melds seamlessly with a more modern indie rock influence–the attitude of Wolf Alice, the colossal sound of Queens of the Stone Age, and the singular lyrical voice of Hole. The Velveteers have built a dedicated following through relentless touring and electrifying performances, sharing stages with renowned acts such as Smashing Pumpkins, The Black Keys, Greta Van Fleet, Guns N’ Roses, and Des Rocs. With A Million Knives, The Velveteers offer a compelling testament to their rising stardom, a rock ‘n’ roll album as beautiful as it is electrifying.
TJS
Emerging in 2024 from Bellevue Nebraska , United States, TJS blends rock, indie rock, alternative rock, dance pop, synth pop, indie pop, pop and singer songwriter into a genre-defying sound. TJS is a Boston-based artist from Nebraska who blends synth pop energy with the emotion of folk pop. His sound combines electronic textures with an intimate, storytelling approach that captures both nostalgia and modern life. A student at Berklee College of Music, TJS brings a thoughtful sense of musicianship and sincerity to his performances, creating music that resonates with authenticity and heart.
Secret Formula
Cornfields aren’t the only things in Nebraska… Based in Omaha, Secret Formula is a 4-Piece Progressive Groove Rock band that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. From playing shows in bars and clubs, to their first theatre performance within a year of gigging, they have quickly become a staple in their local scene. With a formula of storytelling lyrics and free-flowing riffs and grooves, the band’s eclectic style and ever-expanding catalog of songs keeps audiences on their toes. After quickly finding their niche, Secret Formula has continued to connect with fans through music and blissful moments in time one can only experience by SEEKING FORM.
SLEEZ KANGS
Squid Pisser
SQUID PISSER eviscerates the ego and and all things serene with their own vibrant form of vicious and mucky hardcore. Slamming down dolphin corpses at breakneck speeds, the duo, which is comprised of Tommy Meehan on guitar (Deaf Club, Cancer Christ, Sweatband Records, Cartoon Network) and Seth Carolina (Starcrawler), have constructed a fresh and mucousy new alien craft powered by tightly controlled noise-guitar, savage primal drum work, and gooped up vocal deliveries that might sound like a gaggle of frogs thrown into a garbage disposal (although the Squid boys wouldn’t recommend doing this). Conceptualized and formed in 2022, the band decided to fully utilize planet Earth’s viral slumber in order to gestate, write, and record 2 full length albums worth of material. Throughout the year, SQUID PISSER played a handful of shows in California and Nevada as a 2 piece as they continued the quest for further personnel and collaborators. Tommy Meehan’s tightly controlled noise-onslaught of rainbow vomit (spat out of a guitar amp via manic pedalboard wizardry and sophisticated finger work) paired with the utterly brutal and savage drumming of Seth Carolina, merge to create a collection of tracks that have been forged in a totally fucked and sonically chaotic storm of pus and goo.
El Ten Eleven
We like to believe our lives can be shaped into stories—clean arcs, legible meaning—but life refuses the outline. Instead, it moves bluntly and without apology, indifferent to our sense of order. Events pile up without resolution, momentum divorced from direction, motion confused for progress. Sometimes the only refuge left is the nowhere of our own minds. El Ten Eleven’s Nowhere Faster, the duo’s 16th release, was forged within that unease. Across eight tracks, it considers not just nothingness but velocity—the strange urgency that propels us forward even when the destination remains unclear. We are committed to acceleration, convinced speed itself might save us. The 33-minute album slows just long enough to pose the harder questions: what are we running from, and what do we think we can outrun? That tension appears even in the album’s artwork, once again created with longtime collaborator Rob Fleming. It depicts a classic liminal space: familiar, anonymous, quietly unsettling. A stained glass-colored building and a streetlamp blur at the edges, suggesting motion that feels less like escape than enclosure—the kind that traps rather than transports. Nowhere Faster emerged from Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty’s longest break from touring and recording in their 23 years together, though “break” is something of a misnomer. Dunn’s famously restless creative pace never slowed. Instead, he began writing for not one but two drummers, handing Fogarty one of the most demanding challenges of his career. The record also marks a first for the band, weaving real strings and piano throughout, deepening the palette of what is already one of their most layered works. The album’s titles and sounds draw from moments scattered across the band’s 23-year history. Opener “Uncanny Valley Girl” marks the return of long-retired effects like the delay pedal, stacking basslines into a dense, enveloping wall. It’s a clear-eyed take on AI-era paranoia, anchored by Fogarty’s steady rhythm—snare taut, cymbals gently alive—giving the sci-fi unease something solid to lean on. “Bjork’s Alarm Clock,” meanwhile, takes its title from an insult hurled at the band by a guitarist of a punk band on their first tour; you can almost hear Dunn and Fogarty’s quiet laughter beneath the buoyant bass and bow-scratched strings. Still, Nowhere Faster is not a retreat into nostalgia. El Ten Eleven remains invested in risk and reinvention. The record continues to center Fogarty’s propulsive drumming and Dunn’s bass-driven experimentation: the first four tracks (“side A”) feature electric bass, while the latter half (“side B”) shifts to acoustic bass processed through pedals, subtly altering the album’s emotional weight. “Last Night In The Kitchen” reaches for the slick, sleazy bombast of classic Bond themes, opening new corridors for Dunn’s ever-expanding musical ambitions. Ultimately, Nowhere Faster is an album about reckoning—about time, endurance, and the uncertainty of how long a band, or a life, can last. We are all fumbling toward finitude. The question is not whether we’ll arrive, but what we want to hear on the way there. What will we dance to as the ground begins to shift beneath us? If nothing else, it may sound something like Nowhere Faster.