New Idea Society

After the release of their new album Fire on the Hill via Relapse Records, the live version of NEW IDEA SOCIETY has grown to a culmination of their entire history: a sonically powerful quintet featuring core duo Stephen Brodsky (Cave In, Mutoid Man) and Mike Law (Wild Arrows, EULCID), with Santos Montano (Old Man Gloom) on drums/percussion, longtime synth and piano player Chris DeAngelis and newest contributor Matthew Boyle (Ghastly City Sleep) on bass. They dig deep into Fire On The Hill, adding big and sweeping dynamics to the album’s crucial tracks plus old favorites from 2005’s You Are Awake Or Asleep, 2011’s Somehow Disappearing, and the 2019 Sargent House singles.

Midwestern Medicine

If Brock Ginther is actually the “Jorge Luis Borges of Maine rock songwriters” as The Bollard once claimed, then Midwestern Medicine is… uh… what was that band Borges was in? Influenced by the sincere surreality of Guided by Voices and the wry caricatures of The Kinks, Ginther’s songwriting ranges from wordy comic narratives to scathingly self-deprecative manifestos. The newest lineup sees longtime bassist McCrae Hathaway joined by Zach Hansen on drums and Alex Merrill on guitar, bringing even more punk urgency and psychedelic jangle to the band’s performances.