PURPLE CITY 2024 LINEUP
ARTIST PROFILES
Gustaf
An indie rock band whose keen intelligence is never compromised by their sense of fun, Gustaf play lean but danceable music powered by minimal rhythmic grooves, spare guitar figures, and dual vocals that play with boundaries of sound and gender. Fans of venerable avant-garde musician Laurie Anderson, one of their singers, Tarra Thiessen, makes use of a trick Anderson called "Audio Drag," running her vocals through an effects pedal that lowers her singing to a male register, adding extra levels of meaning to their songs as Thiessen and Lydia Gammill trade verses. The group generated an impressive buzz for their energetic live shows before they gave out-of-town fans a better chance hear them with their debut album, 2021's Audio Drag for Ego Slobs. They offered a tighter and more advanced variation on their themes on their second LP, 2024's Package, Pt. 2.
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Urban Heat
The band formed in 2019 when multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jonathan Horstmann enlisted Kevin Naquin and Paxel Foley to form a live show based on his analog sound design. The result fuses dark 80's stylings with modern flourishes, with Horstmann's throaty baritone delivering musings on existence and romanticism against an unrelenting industrial gothic pulse.
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Spoon Benders
Spoon Benders is a progressive psych-rock powerhouse that has been relentlessly crisscrossing the United States, leaving a trail of newly acquired fans in their wake. Spoon Benders have become synonymous with an electrifying stage presence that can only be described as loud, controlled chaos. They have been carving their path through the musical landscape since their inception, and are now consistently supporting notable acts such as Frankie and The Witch Fingers, L7, Fuzz, Meatbodies, Deap Vally, Death Valley Girls, and The Paranoyds. In April of this year, Spoon Benders unleashed their sophomore album, "How Things Repeat," upon the eager ears of the public. The album is a testament to the band's artistic evolution and ability to push the boundaries of their sound. "How Things Repeat" has been met with resounding acclaim, cementing Spoon Benders' status as a force to be reckoned with in the psychedelic rock landscape.
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Total Chaos
Thirty years ago in Pomona Valley, California, was the birth of Total Chaos. Created out of the desperate need to save a dying genre of punk rock, during a time that the market was saturated with a more commercial new style. It was more important than ever to express their social and political views. The idea of social responsibility was a significant thing, from organizing peace punk picnics, to protesting against the gulf war, their music had a meaning and stood for something. Over the years, the band has seen many things come and go, but they have stuck to their original ideals. Whether you are pop punk, street punk, hardcore punk, straight edge, political punk, goth punk, skate punk, crust punk, metal punk, or whatever box they try to put you in, Total Chaos unites you all into one scene: PUNK ROCK!
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LEATHERS
Inside a neon-lit dreamscape, LEATHERS (aka Shannon Hemmett; Canadian musician, visual artist, and keyboardist of acclaimed Vancouver post punk band ACTORS) crafts songs with razor sharp style and substance. Although Hemmett was musical from an early age, she came to singing later in life after a career in the graphic arts. Her songs, mingled with her love of photography, the films of David Lynch, and the writings of J.G. Ballard; explore the disquieting uncertainty of modern life and the liminal spaces where our emotions reside. After teasing audiences with a trio of stylish singles, Hemmett signed a worldwide album deal with Toronto-based Artoffact Records. Her Reckless EP compiling these tracks, amassed a loyal cult following and became the top-selling EP of the label’s 20+ year history.
This summer, the eagerly awaited debut album Ultraviolet promises to launch LEATHERS to the forefront of smart, exciting, electro-pop. Aglow with glossy synths, and nocturnal atmosphere, Hemmett’s sublime voice comes into focus—searching for the truth between fantasy and reality. Ultraviolet is available for pre-order May 3rd on Bandcamp Friday and out everywhere August 16th, 2024 on Artoffact Records.
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Pelada
Pelada, the duo of singer Chris Vargas and producer Tobias Rochman, broke out of Montreal’s underground warehouse rave scene in 2014 after uploading tracks to SoundCloud which caught the attention of the global dance music scene. They spent the next five years touring the globe extensively before signing with Berlin experimental label PAN in 2019 and releasing their debut LP ‘Movimiento Para Cambio’. A record which Mixmag included in their ‘Best Albums of the Decade’ list, Resident Advisor named it ‘One of the Best Records of 2019’ while DJ Mag asserted “they are a vital and contemporary addition to dance music’s punk cannon”. The LP was featured twice on the godfather of punk Iggy Pop’s BBC6 radio show who personally told his listeners “They always wake me up. I like this.” Their collaboration is a blend of urgent Spanish language vocals centered around themes of power, control, social justice with hardware samplers, synths, and drum machines. The unique sound has led them to perform in many different contexts, whether it be entire tours opening for more traditional punk acts like Iceage and Shame, to the exact opposite, performing live during peak times at techno clubs such as Berghain. In 2024, Pelada set out on the final chapter of their project supporting their latest album "Ahora Has Qué Nunca" which has notable guest appearances, including Zambian-Canadian rapper and 2020 Polaris Prizewinner Backxwash and trumpet player Aquiles Navarro (of Irreversible Entanglements, Impulse! Records). Both Pelada’s sound and ethos translate to a galvanizing live show that will spring dance floors to action in festival contexts.
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1876
With notable sounds that any pow wow goer will recognize, combined with the aggressive guitar playing, catchy melodies, and political lyrics of the punk world, 1876 expresses their unique perspective as “the city ndns your aunty warned you about.”
1876 proudly represents both the Northern Cheyenne and the Blackfeet nations, singing in both languages. From sweat lodges to punk clubs, 1876 helps shed light on a narrative often neglected by the music industry.
1876 was born in 2020 out of a dream of cultural and language resurgence being seen and produced by those who experience the hardships and triumphs of being born NDN.
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The Mall
The Mall is music for punks who dance. In the suburban wasteland of middle America, malls exist as decaying artifacts of conspicuous consumption–forgotten tombs haunted by the ghosts of capitalism’s failures. Using sequencers and analog synths, the Mall’s Mark Plant raises the dead to get glamorous amidst decay. Fusing the shimmering, plastic qualities of 80s dance electronica with the punishing, visceral energy of mid-Western hardcore, the Mall soundtracks the liminal space between beauty and anger, celebration and cynicism, resilience and destruction. Performances are as ephemeral as kisses in a movie theatre in 1987–and more lethal than radiation fallout from a space probe. The Mall experience is spasming, ecstatic technical disaster. -Micco Caporale
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BÖNDBREAKR
BÖNDBREAKR is a hybrid of black metal with grind/hardcore undercurrents, Afro-futurism, modern dance, performance art, Kabuki theater, and beyond. Stylized, political, and complex, from Austin, TX with powerplay riffage.
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Ratas
RATAS is a queer punk band from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Blending a raw, aggressive sonic attack with melodic hooks, shredding guitars and lyrics that focus on a queer viewpoint of life, love, anger and society.
And like rats, it started as a one person solo-project, but continues to grow every day.
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DOOM GONG
Formed in 2022 in Louisville, KY by 7 music school nerds, DOOM GONG has made a name for themselves throughout the states with their own home-baked genre: Denim Psych - a hodgepodge of psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, bedroom pop, lo-fi, contemporary classical music, as well as blood, sweat, and a lot of denim. Having only released their debut LP in 2023, DOOM GONG has quickly become a mainstay of the US psych scene. Bringing their energetic and seamless live show to numerous music festivals like Back Alley Ballyhoo (IN), Expansion Psychedelic Festival (KY), Moonshiners Ball (KY), Crave Festival (KY), and Moonshadow Music Festival (IN) alongside heavy hitters of modern rock including The Black Angels, Allah Las, King Buffalo, Bass Drum of Death, Death Valley Girls, HOLY WAVE, Ron Gallo, and many others. After completing their debut LP, the band took no time off and followed up with their second LP (also in 2023) with the release of “Dream Behemoth”. This album saw the band collaborate with a full jazz big band, and a string quartet not only for the recording of the album, but also for the Nov. '23 album release performance (Live at The Whirling Tiger). BUT, DOOM GONG isn’t done just yet: the band has a packed 2024 ahead. Including the release of a 3rd studio LP, the aforementioned live album, a slew of singles, many festival appearances around the US and a North-Eastern US/Canadian tour in the summer. THE GONG RINGS ON
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Gadfly
Born out of the streets of Tehran, Iran, artist Homa Khoshnavaz created her idea for Gadfly while locked away in her bedroom. Stewing in angst and misery due to the brutal treatment of women in her country, she created a strained sound by mixing her love of grunge and metal with traditional Persian scale work. After she finally got herself to Vancouver, Canada in winter 2018 she quickly assembled a band to help her flesh out the sounds she wanted to create. Her efforts culminated in the release of the debut album “Apranik” in Dec 2022 which was received to much local acclaim. Never fully satisfied, Homa along with her main collaborator Nigel Young and bass player Raine Menard continue their reign of terror as they constantly try to push their high energy, sold out performances and never let go of the idea of women, life, freedom. Keep an eye and ear out for their sophomore album "Sura" due out in summer 2024.
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Mares of Thrace
"hard-hitting, sludgy noise rock full of nightmarish riffs and venomous, seething vocals”—Metalsucks.net
“…Will leave you intrigued, perhaps even amazed… a figurative bag filled with ’90s post-punk and AmRep-ish sounds, and face-melting sludge from this decade or the last” —Blabbermouth.net
"a brilliant mix of everything great from the past 10 years of heavy music: the moody drones of Isis, the American black-metal banshee screams of Wolves in the Throne Room, the creative production of Boris and Eagle Twin, and the memorable riffage of the mighty Melvins" --The Grid
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Madeline Goldstein
With emotion and a strong ear for pop melody, Madeline Goldstein echos the energies of new wave, dream-pop, and dark wave, all while showcasing the vocal range and passion of femme pop icons and 80's theatrics. Her lineup featured a rotating cast of textural guitar and the occasional passionate saxophonist.
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Panic Priest
Panic Priest is the darkwave conduit through which singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jack Armondo reaches into your soul, takes hold, and doesn’t let go. If you’ve been following Panic Priest’s rapid rise in the modern dark scene, then you’re no doubt familiar with the phrase “death, sex, and doomed romance” - three themes that feature heavily throughout the Panic Priest canon.
With lyrics drawing from Armondoʼs real life experiences; stemming from personal heartbreak, life as a queer, non-monogamous individual and even current political anxieties, be prepared to be tempted and lured into the world of Panic Priest. After the success of 2020’s Second Seduction, Armondo could’ve played it safe and turned in a follow up that felt like an extension of his breakout sophomore album. But the 2023 PSYCHOGORIA album sees Panic Priest pushing in new directions, showcasing their exceptional baritone vocals, melodic synth lines, 80s inspired dance beats and memorable guitar work. It is an offering that truly captures the energy of their engaging live sets.
Panic Priest creates midnight melodies that won't soon leave your memory once dawn breaks.
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