Hey campers!! Excited to start sharing Treefort Music Fest 2013 artists with you all!!! In the spirit of the grand vision of Treefort Music Fest, we have chosen to use this first artist announcement this year to introduce you all to some of the incredible emerging artists that will be a part of Treefort 2013 — you will have to wait a bit longer for our Main Stage headliners, but fret not, these are some tasty treats you’re about to sink your teeth into. Get to know them — if you don’t already — read their introductions below, click on their photos to visit their page and hear their music, see some videos and dive deep into their worlds.

We hope this finds you all in good spirits and in good health. Thanks for being a part of this amazing, vibrant community and for playing your role in the exciting times ahead for us all. Without further adieu, we recommend you start your journey with this introductory video created by our friends at Retroscope Media and Red House Media…

MAGIC SWORD
((( boise, idaho )))
When looking for “emerging” talent for a festival like Treefort, it doesn’t get any fresher than a hot, mysterious recording project that has yet to play a live show locally or otherwise. Magic Sword started releasing tracks online during the summer of 2012 to some niche local Boise fanfare as well as a variety of domestic and international blogosphere love, both for original tracks and remixes of songs for the likes of Purity Ring and Youth Lagoon. Incredibly honored that the first live presentation of this fantastical force will be at Treefort Music Fest 2013. When the Magic Sword appears……… Good will always prevail.

JAPANTHER
((( brooklyn, new york )))
Japanther is an art project established circa 2001 by Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly while attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. They have since made a name for themselves in unique performance situations. IE along side synchronized swimmers, a top the Williamsburg Bridge, with giant puppets, marionettes and shadow puppets. Out of the back of a moving truck in SOHO, with giant dinosaurs and BMXers flying off the walls. In 2011, they were named “Best Live Band” by The Village Voice. Long revered in the DIY/punk/house-show/zine scene around the US, we’re very excited to introduce them to what’s happening in and around Boise these days.

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
((( portland, oregon via new zealand )))
UMO first played Boise in early July 2011 to a fairly small Neurolux crowd just a couple weeks after their self-titled debut was released by Fat Possum Records. That debut release would soon have their psych-rock all over the blogosphere and launch them into a heavy touring schedule around the world. They’ve now signed on with indie heavyweights Jagjaguwar, who would like to introduce them like this — “Think Pink Floyd, the Family Stone, The Beatles and Soft Machine shaken up and pushed through Ruban’s distorted rock’n’roll kaleidoscope.” Their new album II will be released by Jagjaguwar on Feb 5th, 2013, and UMO will return to Boise for Treefort Music Fest toward the end of their first tour in support of it, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to host them.

FOXYGEN
((( los angeles, california )))
Foxygen is the Los Angeles-bred songwriting duo of Sam France (vocals, Olympia, Wash., 22 years old) and Jonathan Rado (guitar/keyboards, NYC, 22). They are the raw, de-Wes Andersonization of The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Velvets, Bowie, etc. that a whole mess of young people desperately need. They create a sometimes-impressionistic, sometimes-hyper-real portrait of sounds from specific places and times. Yet, it never comes across as anything but absolutely modern music. They bring the manic, freewheeling qualities of an artist like Ariel Pink to those aforementioned influences to make for one of the most refreshing listens of the year. Also a recent Jagjaguwar signing, Foxygen will be touring with UMO for much of early 2013 including this stop at Treefort Music Fest 2013.

WHITE LUNG
((( vancouver, british columbia )))
White Lung is a punk band from Vancouver, B.C. comprised of Mish Way (vocals), Grady Mackintosh (bass), Kenneth William (guitar) and Anne-Marie Vassiliou (drums). The riot-grrrl-indebted four-piece has several DIY punk North American tours under their belts, a recent European tour, five 7″s, and now two LPs released by Deranged Records. Their most recent US tour was cut short due to visa issues, but I imagine that that will only fuel their growing buzz and their brash delivery of their oft-feminist inspired punk fury. The Seattle Times recently said they evoke “Hüsker Dü’s speed, At The Drive-In’s angularity and Hole’s melodic rage.” Sounds like a blast. We welcome them to Boise for the first time for Treefort Music Fest 2013. Border patrol, be nice.

GRASS WIDOW
((( san francisco, california )))
With records out on Captured Tracks and most recently Kill Rock Stars, and tour history with the likes of Sonic Youth and Mike Watt, these three Bay Area ladies have carved out a well-respected niche amongst the DIY post-punk revivalists with their surf-punk minimalist indie-pop. “The San Fran phenom Grass Widow,” as the New Yorker dubs this post-punk band, “inspires as its pastoral harmonies float effortlessly over trellises of spindly guitars.” In addition to The New Yorker, Grass Widow has been featured in Yeti Magazine, Nylon, ArtForum, and The New York Times, among other publications. In February of 2012 the band appeared in an episode of IFC’s Portlandia. They played Boise back in 2010 (reviewed by Tara Morgan for Boise Weekly) — very excited to have them back in town for Treefort 2013.

SHIGETO
((( detroit, michigan )))
Beat-driven but given to richly textured sound design, rhythmically fractured but melodically sumptuous, Shigeto’s music is a bridge between the past and present, bringing the artist face to face with a creative legacy that spans decades. His releases on Ghostly International are nominally indebted to instrumental hip-hop but, like Zach, straddling many worlds at once. Cool shades of ambient music, stuttering early IDM, dubstep sub-bass, and jazz melodicism color Shigeto’s palette, which he wields with a painterly attention to detail. Shigeto brings his set of electronics and live drums to Boise for the first time this March helping to bridge the EDM scene with the live bands represented at Treefort Music Fest.

MESSY SPARKLES
((( fayetteville, arkansas )))
“Messy Sparkles is an Arkansan named JD Paul, but by listening to his full-bodied and quite tropical pop mastery, you’d think he was backed by at least a handful of talented musicians. He’s quite the rhythm machine, laying down fairly intricate and textured beats, and building up a skyscraper of rich synths and trickling vocal melodies on top of them. With the occasional steel drum swagger and deep vocal hymn, but with a scattered, yet charming diy/bedroom production. His voice is a bit juvenile and slightly off key, and after a few listens, I’ve realized that this wouldn’t actually work any other way. His tunes are youthful and full of life, filling your speakers with nothing but good vibes at all times.” -Cassette Gods /////// That sums up my experience of Messy Sparkles perfectly. A touring band of friends left some of his recordings with me after crashing on my floor and couch, and I fell in love with this mystery project from a far immediately. That coupled with my love for Fayetteville, AR and their scene there with it’s similarities to the quirkiness and awesomeness of Idaho, makes me extra excited to be bringing Messy Sparkles to Boise for the first time to be a part of Treefort 2013. Feeling Good Forever.

WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND
((( portland, oregon )))
This three piece from Portland damn near made my year. I took to their self-titled release on Mon Amie Records instantly upon its release this Fall, than they ripped a Beach House afterparty we threw at The Crux at the beginning of October on their way to CMJ Music Fest in NYC. Tour seemed to treat them pretty well, CMJ even better as Bob Boilen (All Songs Considered) deemed them one of his Top 10 Discoveries of CMJ. One their way home, they stopped back in Boise on Halloween for a last minute show at Linen Building for a Trick-or-Vote event, at which they threw one of the coolest sweaty psychedelic dance parties of the year. They are fresh out of the gate, as emerging as they come, but already turning plenty of heads for their reverb-soaked garage-y psych rock — in the vein of many retro-garage bands around the country right now, but executing at a higher level than most on many fronts. Ecstatic to have them out for Treefort Music Fest round 2. Brace yourself for good times.

RADIATION CITY
((( portland, oregon )))
This Portland quintet is influenced by certain staple macro-genres such as 60′s bossa nova and Chicago jazz, but their version of this classical sound is supported by irresistible pop vocal hooks and the employment of minimal electronics which provide rhythm but leave plenty of space. Since releasing their debut record with Tender Loving Empire in Sept 2011, they’ve not only taken Portland and much of the NW by storm, but are quickly taking that acclaim to the national level — they were just acknowledged as one of the 10 Artists You Should Have Known in 2012 by NPR. They were named Best New Band of 2012 in Portland by the Willamette Week’s annual poll of local industry insiders. Most importantly, their music is engaging, taught, exciting and incredibly listenable — at once as fresh as it is a reminder of beloved music from our collective consciousness. Their recordings are great, but their live shows are even better. If you’ve missed them on past trips to Boise in the last year or so, don’t miss them at Treefort Music Fest 2013.

FRENCH HORN REBELLION
((( brooklyn, new york via milwaukee, wisconsin )))
“These brothers from Brooklyn sound a bit like MGMT were they to hook up with moustachioed disco producers from the 1970s” — The Guardian (UK) ///// Seems like an appropriate deduction considering one half of this band of brothers produced MGMT’s “Time To Pretend EP” and they are currently on tour with Of Montreal and recently toured with Hot Chip. Just this week, French Horn Rebellion released an EP with Grammy-winning 80s and 90s R&B star Jody Whatley. Apparently they are working on a new sound called Next Jack Swing — Next Jack, as they describe it, is “like New Jack, but with heavier beats and groovier bass lines.” I have a feeling that this is electro dance pop dressed in just enough Williamsburg hipster irony to help us all not take ourselves too seriously — dance like no one is watching. Freaky space-disco Treefort dance-party.

THE LAST BISON
((( chesapeake, virginia )))
This seven-member ensemble led by Ben Hardesty has seemingly risen from the marshes of southeastern Virginia to captivate the national music scene with a rare blend of folk that is poetically steeped in classical influences. Band members describe the sound as “mountain-top chamber”. Already the band has drawn flattering though imperfect comparisons to indie rock superstars the likes of Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists and Fleet Foxes. Flattering because each of those bands has carried folk rock into the main-stream; imperfect because none of them have a front man that shares the stage with his father and sister, nor uses a 75-year-old chaplain’s pump organ and Bolivian goat toenails on stage. The Last Bison played Boise for the first time back in August at a last minute Neurolux show setup as they were headed back East after playing Doe Bay Fest in the San Juan Islands. The crowd that made it out on that sudden Monday show were left wanting more, and more they shall receive as we are delighted to welcome The Last Bison back to Boise for Treefort Music Fest 2013. We’re announcing them nice and early so that those that missed them the first time have plenty of advance notice this time around.