ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Julia Wolf

This week’s artist of the week goes to Julia Wolf.

Good Thing We Stayed summed up in a mood-board!

A singer-songwriter based in Queens, NY, Wolf crafts an extremely unique soundscape by fusing together elements of alt-pop, electronic, and hip-hop to express her narratives. If you’re a fan of K.Flay, renforshort, or Kiiara, then run to add Julia Wolf to your playlists.

Most recently, Wolf dropped her debut album entitled Good Thing We Stayed on Friday, January 13th of this year, which is fitting because with song titles like “Dracula” and “Hot Killer” there’s definitely some spooky nods on the record. To further expand about that theme, Wolf has said that her mood-board for Good Thing We Stayed is infused with her obsession for horror films, Jack Skellington of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the dark suburban streets of New York City where she was raised.

Just as much as Wolf’s fascination with horror presents on the record, her lyrics ooze with nostalgia and biographical content. “The woods back in my hometown and Friday night Blockbuster countdowns,” she sings in “Gothic Babe Tendencies,” a single that also features blackbear. We also get a “the floor was lava” reference in “Virginity,” in which Wolf poetically describes her first time, a nod that’s equally as nostalgic as Blockbuster. While there’s no shortage of those light-hearted, childhood callbacks and Wolf delivers plenty of her lyrics with a cheeky flourish, Wolf artfully contrasts that playfulness with a transparent lens peering into some of her most personal memories. “This album is a collection of memories that have left heavy marks on my life,” Wolf says, and as a listener, I can’t help but be in awe of the amazing balance between hearing a catchy song and being blown away by the vulnerability in the writing every time I listen to these songs.

Once you’ve had your fair share of her debut record, make sure to check out Julia Wolf’s earlier singles and her 2021 EP Girls In Purgatory for more of her incredible work. She’ll also be touring this year, including a stop at Schubas here in Chicago on February 20th. See all of Julia Wolf’s upcoming tour dates here.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Moon Kissed

This week’s Artist of the Week goes to Moon Kissed, another incredible band I had the chance to see at this year’s Riot Fest.

Moon Kissed is a trio based in NYC composed of Emily Sgouros on synth, Leah Scarpati on drums, and Khaya Cohen on vocals. The band has strived to make their shows an atmosphere where “anyone is free to be themselves, gender isn’t real, and the person you’re dancing next to is your best friend but also could be your next makeout partner.” Their set that I caught at Riot Fest definitely had an intense yet free-spirited vibe to it that was both inspiring and mesmerizing, and it stuck with me as one of the best performances of the weekend.

To date, Moon Kissed has released two full-length albums, including 2019’s I Met My Band At A New Years Party and 2021’s follow up called I’d Like to Tell You Something Important. If you couldn’t guess by the debut album title, Sgouros and Cohen happened to meet Scarpati at a New Years Eve Party, and since that moment, the rest is history—the trio has continued to tour, write music, produce music videos and sell out shows at iconic NYC venues. The band has said that the sophomore record showcases some of their most collaborative writing yet, since Cohen had actually written a majority of the songs on the first record before they all met and banded together. “I think it’s really special that we help bring things to the table and just really zoom out and see them as a work of art or a song and just be excited about them no matter who wrote them,” Cohen says about Moon Kissed’s creative partnership.

The second album highlights Moon Kissed’s limitless range and exploratory creativity throughout its 12 tracks. The introductory song “Bubblegum” has a bouncy, sweet introduction but explodes with a crescendoing chorus, and “Dance” fades in with a hypnotic beat and atmospheric vocals that describe the feeling of unrequited or lost love. Then there’s also “Saturday Night” that’s a punchy, synth-drenched dance anthem about tuning out the real world for a night. The spoken-word track “I’ll Ask for It” vividly captures the too-often experience of victim-blaming that women encounter in its short 39 seconds, once again holding up the album’s promise of telling the listeners something important.

Make sure you tune into Moon Kissed’s entire discography, including their 2022 EP “I’m On My Way” and see where you can catch them live here.

ANCHR’s Artist of the Week: Poise

Poise is the brainchild of the NYC based songwriter and musician Lucie Murphy. I recently caught Poise on tour opening up for Pinegrove, and it was one of those support sets where I immediately went to Spotify to save some of the band’s songs because they were that good.

Photo Courtesy of Poise

Murphy grew up in Manhattan, admiring the diverse music scene of the city thanks to her dad’s love for any and all types of music. “He was always keeping an ear to the ground musically,” Murphy says about her dad. Unfortunately, Murphy ended up losing her father in an unexpected and sudden manner, and that grief was the catalyst behind her debut album Vestiges, released in 2021. Murphy displays transparent and introspective outlooks on the record, which also explores her devastation around the start of the pandemic and the cancellation of Poise’s first tour.

Murphy persevered through the challenges and found comfort through this creative outlet, stating that “a lot of this record is about finding confidence and learning to put myself back together when bad things happen.” Murphy primarily wrote the songs on Vestiges in a Vermont cabin that she stayed in during the summer months of 2020, in a space that allowed her to focus more on her artistic process. Once the skeletons of each track were composed by Murphy, she invited fellow musicians Sam Skinner and Theo Munger to help flesh out the arrangements. The end result is a multi-faceted album that showcases both a refined delicacy and a controlled power in Murphy’s vocals, paired with sweeping and exploratory melodies.

If you get the chance to catch a live show from Poise, don’t miss the opportunity. The band will be on tour with Pinegrove throughout most of August, and you can see the full tour dates here.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Geese

Photo by Daniel Topete

We've got some new and exciting rock coming out of NYC everyone! Lucky for us, they’re migrating west for the winter and playing three shows in Pittsburgh, Michigan, and Chicago before heading out on a European tour.

Geese is a 5-piece group composed of teenage friends Max Bassin, Dominic DiGesu, Gus Green, Foster Hudson, and Cameron Winter. A career in Rock & Roll was not originally the aspiration of the band. Being 18 and 19 years old, the group figured they’d have some fun making music in the downtime Covid-19 provided and then head off to college once they graduated high school. Plans for college, however, have since been put on pause once Geese's music began to take flight.

Right as the pandemic began to swoop across the country in Spring 2020, Geese uploaded some of their self produced songs on to Spotify, to which lead to them getting management and eventually a label. Fast forward to Halloween weekend 2021 and they now have given us a great album to enjoy. They haven't played many live shows or gone on tour yet, but they do have a music festival under their belt in the 2021 presentation of Atlanta's Shaky Knees Music Festival. They even made their late night debut when they performed on Colbert. In May, they will be on tour opening for indie rock heroes Spoon on the West Coast leg of their tour, but ANCHR readers don't need to wait that long to catch them. They will be performing at Chicago's Tomorrow Never Knows Festival headlining a show at Lincoln Hall that also sports two other ANCHR favorites: Native Sun and Gustaf. I personally am excited to check them out. Their song “Low Era” is a certified bop. Come through so you can say you saw Geese's first Chicago show— get tickets here!

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Wet

The first song I heard from Wet was 2014’s “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl” from their self-titled debut EP. The song begins with a swirl of reverb-drenched synths and guitar melodies as lead singer Kelly Zutrau’s vocals fade in and begin to tell the story of recognizing the end of a relationship. Thanks to its hypnotizing production and the vulnerable nature of the lyrics, the track still remains one of their most popular songs and has racked up more than 71 Million streams on Spotify alone.

Composed of Kelly Zutrau, Joe Valle, and Marty Sulkow, Wet officially formed in 2013 in Brooklyn after the members had been introduced through mutual friends. Since then, the band released their 2016 debut record called Don’t You, which has some of my all-time favorite songs on it; “Island” and “Small and Silver.” There’s such a mesmerizing yet calming presence to Zutrau’s voice, which blends beautifully with the electronic production that Valle crafts. Wet followed up that debut with 2018’s Still Run and most recently released their third album called Letter Blue yesterday, October 22nd. The new album stays true to the beauty of Wet’s earlier material, but there’s a subtle refinement that showcases their growth as artists. Their second album was recorded while Sulkow was on hiatus from the group, so this third record also marks the reunion of the original trio.

In support of the new music, Wet will be hitting the road next month, including a stop at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall. See all of their tour dates here, and listen to the new album in full here.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Lewis Del Mar

photo credit: rubberband.

Chances are you’ve heard the song “Loud(y)” by Lewis Del Mar, which attracted the ears of many music fans with its cinematic production and swelling chorus. If you were living under a rock circa 2015-2016, allow ANCHR to introduce you.

Composed of childhood friends Danny Miller and Max Harwood, Lewis Del Mar officially released their debut self-titled album in 2016, but the pair began making music together long before then. The duo played trumpet together in grade school band before ultimately forming a garage rock band in high school that took them to New York City. Their debut release has pockets of that rock influence, but heavily leans toward an experimental side with some hip hop and electronic nods as well.

Since the touring success and critical acclaim that Lewis Del Mar saw following the release of their self-titled record, Miller and Harwood took some time to step back and reflect before setting out to work on their sophomore album. The second record, entitled AUGUST, came out in August 2020— nearly four years after Lewis Del Mar. Recording for the second album began in 2017 and spanned more than two years as Miller and Harwood worked out of their converted studio in a Rockaway Beach bungalow. The band says the emotional framework of AUGUST is rooted in the tension between the spiraling New York City summer that awaited them and the critical year-long period of reflection that followed, and that the songs depict the way life fractures and comes back together in new forms. That sentiment rings especially true following the start of the pandemic, and now the beginning of live music coming back in new ways.

Speaking of live music, Lewis Del Mar is currently back on the road and wrapping up their current tour in Chicago on Friday, October 15th. We hope you snagged your tickets because not only does Lewis Del Mar have their second album to showcase, but they also released a new EP entitled BOUQUET earlier this year, so there will be plenty of new songs to experience for the first time. See where you can catch them on tour next here, and watch a live performance of “Rosalie” below.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Gustaf

Gustaf is Lydia Gammill, Tine Hill, Melissa Lucciola, Vram Kherlopian, and Tarra Thiessen

Thanks to their notoriety around the New York live music scene, Brooklyn’s Gustaf attracted the attention of many music fans without releasing a single recorded piece of music for their first two years of being a band. Gustaf garnered their initial buzz by sharing the stage with the likes of Omni, Dehd and none other than Beck.

After forming in 2018, the group released singles “Design” and “Mine” in the later part of 2020— finally allowing listeners around the world a chance to experience all their magic. Produced by Chris Coady, who has worked with bands like Beach House, Future Islands, and TV On The Radio, the debut singles showcase a captivating and lively energy from Gustaf. Both tracks deliver art punk vibes laced with recurring call-and-response style vocals that egg listeners on. The band will be touring with Idles this fall, and that playful tone of their music will be the perfect provide the perfect way to ramp up the crowd for Idles’ rowdiness.

Be sure to check out all of Gustaf’s upcoming tour dates here, and pre-order their debut album entitled Audio Drag for Ego Slobs here.