On Tuesday, May 8th Mt. Joy comes to town with support by Wilderado and Dr. Slappinstein. The concert is brought to you by Pagan Productions and will be at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the music goes from 8:00 pm to 11:45 pm. General admission is $13.00 in advance and $15.00 day of show. It is all-ages and minors incur a $2.00 surcharge. Visit HERE for the event details on Facebook. Mt. Joy's debut album is out now. Wilderado releases their "Flavors" EP on May, 25th.
On Wednesday May 9th Wilderado will be in Kansas City, Missouri at the Uptown Theatre with FOXTRAX and Whitacre. The doors open at 7:00 pm and the show starts at 8:00 pm. It is an all-ages concert. Visit HERE for the event details on Facebook. Continue on below to visit the artists online and to check out their music. Follow on more more on Mt. Joy and also the latest on Wilderado.
- Mt. Joy: (Philadelphia, PA & L.A., CA)
Genre: Alt, indie
https://www.facebook.com/mtjoyband
- Wilderado: (Tulsa, OK)
Genre: Alt. Indie
https://www.facebook.com/Wilderado
- Dr. Slappenstein: (St. Louis, MO)
Genre: Super Heavy Funk
https://www.facebook.com/Dr.Slappinstein
- FOXTRAXX: (New York, NY)
Genre: Alternative Rock
https://www.facebook.com/FOXTRAXband
- Whitacre: (Denver, CO)
Genre: Folk Rock
https://www.facebook.com/whitacreband
MT. JOY
These dreams are more than paper things,” sings Matt Quinn on Mt. Joy’s infectious folk-rocker “Astrovan,” a warm, yearning bit of road-trip philosophy that posits the existence of a Deadhead Jesus cruising the dusty highways of the countryside, nursing a roach on his way to only He knows where. It’s an auspicious line from a band predicated on the revival of teenage dreams.
Mt. Joy started off as a rekindling of shared musical ambitions between Philadelphia high school friends Matt Quinn (vocals, guitar) and Sam Cooper (guitar). Reunited in Los Angeles thanks to the ebbs and flows of adult life, the pair met multi-instrumentalist Michael Byrnes through a Craigslist ad. They named themselves Mt. Joy as an ode to a mountain in Valley Forge National Park near Sam’s childhood home, and together, with Byrnes’ roommate Caleb Nelson producing, they recorded three songs and sent them out into the world, hoping for the best. “I knew I still wanted to write songs, but the realities of life made that dream seem pretty impossible,” Quinn says.
Much to the band’s amazement, “Astrovan” accomplished the impossible. Without initial promotion or fanfare, the song took off on Spotify, racking up 5 million streams to date. “The irony of ‘Astrovan’ was that song was really about being stuck in a life and wanting to have the opportunity to pursue a dream, and in an instant it gave us that opportunity. ” Quinn says. Mt. Joy quickly transitioned from a part-time calling into a full-fledged band rounded out by Byrnes on bass, Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums and Jackie Miclau on keyboard.
Come 2017, Mt. Joy hit the road, and hit it hard: They played tour dates alongside the likes of The Shins, The Head and The Heart, The Lone Bellow, and Whitney, and popped up at some of the summer’s biggest festivals, including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza and Made In America. “We were put on some big shows very quickly,” Quinn says. “The growth for us has been exponential - we’ve really just become a family that’s constantly pushing each other and the live show to be great.” They eventually caught the attention of Dualtone Records and began work on their debut album.
Steeped in folk-rock tradition and powered by the intuitive creative connection between Quinn and Cooper, the songs on ‘Mt. Joy’ depict Quinn wrestling with his own conscience, where the mundane and the fantastic collide as he processes tragedy, society, and love. Opener “I’m Your Wreck” describes “monsters in (the) closet, using up the wi-fi” as it cycles from its desperate, spiraling verses to its swinging, stubbornly optimistic coda, while the loping, plaintive chords of “Younger Days” meditate on a frayed psyche and the fear of choosing the wrong path. “Sheep,” with its collapsing, hoarse-voiced cry of “freedom was paid in blood,” is a post-Trump salvo on the responsibilities of the fortunate to overcome political and social despondency. And on “Silver Lining,” perhaps the album’s brightest moment, Quinn surveys the damage of hard drugs and the vicious cycle of addiction, as the song’s melancholic sentiment kicks into its fervid, defiant chorus, all shout-along vocals and trilling guitars.
Taken together, the self titled ‘Mt. Joy’ LP is a startlingly open document, wracked with the anxieties and fears that come just as life seems to start working out. It’s a natural reaction from a wary band like Mt. Joy - the result of a sort of professional vertigo, as they’ve gone from virtual unknowns to hot young commodity in little over a year. But there’s a sense of hope underlying everything, girded by the fact that the Mt. Joy LP is an impressive, honest portrayal of a young band facing that moment where dreams become reality, and finding beauty in the exhilarating uncertainty of it all.
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Wilderado releases first single "Sorrow" from forthcoming EP Favors - out May 25
“Sorrow is one of those songs that really feels like it’s a part of our band. It fell out of us one day and we played it for hours. We’ve been playing it on the road for over a year now. Finally releasing it feels amazing.” - Wilderado
Stream, Share, Download “Sorrow” HERE
As Wilderado is currently out on a Spring tour that will culminate at Sasquatch! the band is pleased to announce their forthcoming EP Favors with the release of the first single, "Sorrow". Favors was produced by Phil Ek (Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes, Vance Joy, Band Of Horses) and will be available on May 25. For more information please visit wilderado.co.
About:
Wilderado has a sound that is familiar and dreamy, combining elements of folk, pop, and rock to make a distinctive quality of music all their own.
Born and bred in Texas and Oklahoma before curing in the canyons off the Pacific Coast Highway, these boys are equal parts southern spirit and southern California levity. And frankly, their natural level of positive energy and charm is as impossible to believe as it is enjoyable to watch. Each of their shows seems to be imbued with the intimacy of a living room set put on for friends but large enough to fill a summer Amphitheatre or festival stage.
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