Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties is as much a band as it is a story.
The band plays americana, sometimes with 6 or 8 or 10 people—a horn section, banjo, lap steel, strings and more—and sometimes as one man with an acoustic guitar and his voice. It’s rock & roll with fragmented pieces of punk and country and troubadour-style sing-songwriter music taking influence from Springsteen, Rilo Kiley, and The Weakerthans. Some nights, it’s somber and intimate. Some nights, it’s loud, bombastic and joyous.
The story follows a man named Aaron who, on the band’s debut release, “We Don’t Have Each Other,” suffers a series of severe losses that reshape his life entirely. In the intervening years, cataloged on the new sophomore LP, “Routine Maintenance,” the story follows Aaron through sublets, bar fights, train yards, fire escapes, truck stops and the basement of a county church in search of something resembling purpose and redemption.
Both are the creation of Dan Campbell, best known as the vocalist of Philadelphia band, The Wonder Years who performs the songs live in character for a show that feels in part theatric. Formed in 2013, Campbell has continuously added layer after layer to the Aaron West universe, ensuring that every show and milestone is factored into the bigger picture and creating a story so meticulously crafted that it’s easy to forget it’s a story at all.
Future Teens
Future Teens’ 2019 album Breakup Season sounds like the most hurt band on Earth. But the Boston bummer pop quartet returns Sept 23 on Triple Crown Records with ultra-cathartic Self Help, celebrating pandemic-honed coping tools and aching optimism. Self Help is a vulnerable, empathetic, healing wound that sweetens universal anxieties with lovesick melodies, intuitive harmonies, and elevated songcraft recalling indie-pop’s Pitchfork-propelled 2000s heyday.
Formed in 2014, Future Teens’ lighthearted, classic pop sensibilities and self-effacing confessional lyrics resonated rapidly and widely, propelling vocalist/guitarist Amy Hoffman, vocalist/guitarist Daniel Radin, drummer Colby Blauvelt, and bassist Maya Mortman from basement shows to extensive touring and widespread critical acclaim. The pandemic initially derailed what was poised to be their breakout year, but proved a self-exploratory creative windfall.
Maura Weaver
“You’re not a band from Cincinnati unless you shoot yourself in the foot” and fortunate for Maura Weaver, Cincinnati has had a difficult time claiming her as its own. Nearly fifteen years of touring with peripheral regional projects (Mixtapes, The Homeless Gospel Choir, Direct Hit!, Ogikubo Station) has kept her tethered to both the road and to sounds that were not always her own. But a new solo endeavor marks the beginning of an autonomous output for the artist’s vision and harkens to sounds distinct to Ohio’s brand of humble homespun experimentation, roots aesthetics and pop reliability.
