Celebrate the holidays with new music!
Treefort Music Fest has an early gift for you: 166 more bands on the Treefort 10 lineup!
This second wave of artists includes musicians from six countries and 22 states. Get your fam singing and dancing with dance-pop grooves from Brazil’s Atalhos, rock out with Venezuela’s psychedelic, post-rock band Zeta, chill out with reggae tunes from Puerto Rican artist Pachyman, or set the vibes with Seattle-based Shaina Shephard’s powerful R&B Soul music.
Learn more about this wave of artists below. For a full list of artists, check out our lineup page.
To guide you on your music-discovering journey, we’ve made you a few playlists on all your favorite music platforms that include all of the artists. Organize the bands you like by hearting your faves on the official Treefort Music Fest app.
JOSHY SOUL
( los angeles, california )
Joshy Soul is an artist who finds his stride amongst the things he knows best: art and soul. As a performer, writer, producer, art director, stylist, fashion model, and roller-skating provocateur, his medium traverses first note to the last, first thread to final seam, and curtain draws to fall. His craft of art and soul varies as much as the clothes he struts. Through Joshy’s love of skating and fashion, he has planted himself in the modeling and influencing zeitgeist as one that evokes feeling through the way he dresses and the way he moves.
Based in Long Beach, CA, Joshy Soul has soaked up every hint of inspiration during his journey. At an early age gospel music was a critical thread of his youthful fabric. His grandmother from New Orleans would sing hymns of the religious South throughout their house, and this lit a musical fire in his heart that would eventually manifest itself into Joshy Soul. It was the clanging of the piano, hallowing of harmonies, and the impenetrable truth of music that rang true to Joshy.
STATE OF CONFUSION
( boise, idaho )
State of Confusion is a 1980s original hardcore punk band (second hardcore band in Boise after Septic Death). Original line up was Pat Schmaljohn AKA Pat “Brown” singer, writer, Erik Hansen drums, Wayne “Rhino” Flower bass, Scott D. Schmaljohn guitar. Troy Wright played at the tail end of State of Confusion (SOC) for a few shows. R.I.P Pat Schmaljohn passed away in 1999. Troy Wright will again be joining SOC but this time as the singer in place of Pat Brown. Troy has been the BIGGEST SOC fan so it is great honor that we have him working Pat’s place. Troy will make him proud no doubt. Three members of SOC: Pat Brown, Wayne Rhino Flower and Scott D. Schmaljohn went on to team up with Dug Martsch to form Treepeople in 1988. Looking forward to “Bringing it!”
THE NUDE PARTY
( north carolina )
The Nude Party formed in a North Carolina dormitory in 2012, and celebrates the clanging frat rock of the ’60s. Working with early mentor and producer Oakley Munson of Black Lips, they debuted with the Hot Tub EP in 2016. The band’s eponymous full-length debut arrived on New West Records in 2018, and their critically-acclaimed follow up album Midnight Manor was released in October 2020
NEAL FRANCIS
( chicago, illinois )
Neal Francis’ sophomore album ‘In Plain Sight’ offers up a body of work both enchanting and painfully self-aware, recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates. Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (Spoon, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. The album came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing. ‘In Plain Sight’ ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.
GEESE
( new york, new york )
Fresh to the music scene, Geese originated this year from a talented basement in Brooklyn. The band is made up of five high schoolers who bonded over psychedelic rock from the 70s and shared a dream of showcasing their alternative sound with the world.
PACHYMAN
( los angeles / puerto rico )
Pachyman is the LA based one-man-dub-band of multi-instrumentalist Pachy Garcia, who released his stunning new album The Return Of Pachyman in August of 2021 on ATO. He has recently toured with Black Pumas, Khruangbin, Buscubulla and more.
THE LIL SMOKIES
( missoula, montana )
Drawing on the energy of a rock band and the Laurel Canyon songwriting of the ‘70s, The Lil Smokies are reimagining their approach to roots music on Tornillo, named for the remote Texas town where the album was recorded. Produced by Bill Reynolds (The Avett Brothers, Band of Horses), Tornillo is the band’s third studio album. Formed in Missoula, Montana, The Lil Smokies have built a national following through constant touring, they have performed at Red Rocks, LOCKN’, High Sierra, Telluride, Bourbon & Beyond and more.
SHAINA SHEPHERD
( seattle , washington )
Shaina Shepherd is a Seattle-based vocalist whose dynamic range features the raw power of rock, the richness of soul, and the tender introspection of American folk.
Shaina grew up around gospel music and not much else. She would watch her mother sing with the church choir and emulate the steady richness of her tone. Her passion for vocal technique led her to both opera and musical theater — and eventually led to Shaina’s obsession with anthem rock artist Queen, Led Zeppelin and Heart.
RITUALS OF MINE
( los angeles / sacramento )
Hailing from Sacramento, Rituals of Mine is the immersive, hybrid R&B-electronic project of Terra Lopez. Formerly known as Sister Crayon, the project led by Lopez and musician Dani Fernandez changed their name to Rituals of Mine after the then-duo signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2016. After parting ways with Fernandez in the fall of 2017, Lopez reclaimed Rituals of Mine as a solo project. Now, Lopez as Rituals of Mine is set to release her first album as a solo act, Hype Nostalgia.
ZETA
( venezuela )
Zeta is a collective art piece. Defined by its strong emphasis on dense polyrhythmic percussion that sway from profoundly authentic Afro-Caribbean to the most crude and raw punk with atmospheric elements that are drawn from 70’s era Psychedelia and post-rock to form a visceral, intense and unique listening experience. Zeta are known for touring relentlessly – and due to their nomadic nature they foster and adopt artistic communities from all over the globe.
HELP
( portland , oregon )
Help is the frenzied sound of a broken and collapsing society.
In a world beset with anti-human reactions to daily struggles, Help responds with ways to dismantle evil machines and systems: Remove fear from decision making. Act in defiant joy. Refuse to dominate others. Do not hoard the gifts of the universe. The future is uncertain. Ends don’t justify means. Solidarity now.
The trio holed up for two blood-soaked days at The Map Room studio in their hometown of Portland, OR with producer Sonny DiPerri (Portugal. The Man, Animal Collective, Protomartyr, Emma Ruth Rundle) whose unblinking production captures the band’s urgency without taming their ferocity. The resulting EP is a mere six songs but each one cuts like a power-saw with the safety off. Bruised and gnarled there’s an unfiltered sense of humanity, pain, solidarity, and even optimism. This is the plain justice of anarchy.
TELE NOVELLA
( austin, texas )
Tele Novella is a project out of Lockhart, Texas–a small town lost in time–where their classic and sincere pop songwriting is slowly processed through a loner medieval-tonk machine and then captured on cassette 8-track. Their latest record, Merlynn Belle, was the music they wanted to be making all along but didn’t know until it happened accidentally. It’s out now on Kill Rock Stars.
ATALHOS
( sao paulo , brazil )
Atalhos is a dreampop duo from São Paulo, which is promoting a new album, “A Tentação do Fracasso”.
The new album ‘A Tentação do Fracasso’ (translating in English as “The Temptation of Failure”) is scheduled for worldwide release on 4th February 2022 on the Costa Futuro label in Barcelona. Creating dreamlike landscapes like portals to other dimensions, Atalhos’ new album is designed to feel like the atmospheric road trip of a lifetime. Combining layers of guitar picks, synths, and drum loops with reflexive and sentimental lyrics, it’s an album both profoundly transportive and wholly immersive as its 8 songs ebb-and-flow with an ephemeral fluidity and a subtle grandeur.
Atalhos sound feels like an atmospheric road trip: lots of guitar picks, layers of synths, and drum loops that lead the listener to another dimension. It reveals a dreamlike landscape and a profound immersion with reflexive and sentimental lyrics.
FRENCH CASSETTES
( san francisco , california )
French Cassettes music is filled with winding melodies that pop up unexpectedly but grab hold and don’t let go… and may leave you asking “who needs hands with hooks like these?”
The harmony-driven power-pop quartet’s new LP, Rolodex, was conceived beneath a stairwell in the band’s adopted hometown of San Francisco, where frontman Scott Huerta spent months staying up until 4 am, obsessing over elaborate demos that would eventually become his band’s sophomore album. “I adopted the mentality, which was probably unhealthy, that every song I wrote needed to be my favorite song,” he remembers. “I lost my mind so many times in the middle of the night.”
ESTHER ROSE
( new orleans , louisiana )
As much as she’s a songwriter, Esther Rose is a scene setter, a crystalizer of moments, and a full time inhabitant of the dimly-lit world depicted in her songs. Rose found her voice over the course of years spent regularly performing and recording in New Orleans, combining her diy work ethic with an affinity for traditional country arrangements.
On How Many Times, Rose expands her alt-country sound into a blossoming world of folk pop and tender harmonies. A collection of complete takes recorded live to tape with rich instrumentation, soul-tugging hooks, and resonating vocal melodies, How Many Times carries you into the room in which it was made. Tracked live to tape with help from co-producer Ross Farbe from synth pop band Video Age, Rose and her small band cultivate a warm, lived-in atmosphere to deliver songs that are deceptively restless and turbulent. Swaying vocal harmonies and dialed back, straightforward instrumental backing congeal around Rose’s most fully realized work to date.
CHRIS COHEN
( los angeles , california )
Chris Cohen’s songs initially sound easy. They’re each tiny jewels that unfurl at a leisurely pace, but dig a little deeper and you’ll reach a melancholy core. His previous two albums — 2012’s Overgrown Path, and 2016’s As If Apart — were built from lush, blurry tracks that embedded themselves in your subconscious, like they’d always been there.
Chris Cohen, his third solo album, was written and recorded in his Lincoln Heights studio and at Tropico Beauties in Glendale, California over the course of the last two years. Cohen would sing melodies into his phone, fleshing them out on piano, then constructing songs around the melodies, and later, adding lyrics and other instrumentation with the help of Katy Davidson (Dear Nora), Luke Csehak (The Lentils), Zach Phillips, and saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, among others. It is his most straightforward album yet, but it is also the conclusion of an unofficial cycle that began with Overgrown Path.
THE FRENCH TIPS
( boise , idaho )
Following the fevered reception of their debut record It’s the Tips, Boise based garage rock trio The French Tips went to work on a worthy successor of bangers and disco damaged dance punk. Delayed a year by the pandemic, Angela Heileson, Rachel Couch and Ivy Merrell returned to Rabbitbrush Studios in January 2021 to record their sophomore album All The Rage. Without the outlet of live music, they instead collaborated with local artists and musicians to create a fully formed second studio LP. All The Rage hits the waves Spring 2022.
VISION VIDEO
( athens , georgia )
As an active paramedic, firefighter, and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Vision Video lead Dusty Gannon has seen more horror in real life than in the classic movies he draws inspiration from. When not saving lives on the front-line, Dusty dons torn fishnets, combat boots and makeup to play post-punk that recalls the genre’s heyday when the lines between goth and pop blurred to create some of the underground’s most beloved acts such as The Cure, The Smiths and Joy Division. But hidden within Vision Video’s catchy hooks and dancy beats is a nostalgic yet desperate message exploring the darker undertones of our existence. At its core, Inked In Red looks inward to understand the effects of war and the global pandemic. Dusty’s experiences in service have imparted an authentic gravitas to the music, revealing a cautionary tale of unhinged mental illness born of trauma. Sonically, this is reflected in every chord and melody through its enticingly gothic yet often upbeat nature. Vision Video’s debut imparts a duality of mania that, simply stated, is real malaise and existential dread that cannot be made facsimile.
OH, ROSE
( olympia , washington )
The Olympia, WA based four-piece Oh, Rose has solidified their place in the PNW music scene through powerful, upbeat performances showcasing the emotive and unfiltered voice of front person Olivia Rose. Their catalog is both intimate and explosive; since forming in 2014, the band has released two albums and an EP, amassing a catalog that ranges from soft, synth-tinted love songs to full-on, painfully screamed ballads. Their latest release, While My Father Sleeps via Park the Van Records, tells the complex story of family, adversity, love, and friendship, while also serving as an homage to Rose’s mother, who passed away in January of 2017.
MIDWIFE
( san miguel , new mexico )
Midwife is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston. She lives and works in San Miguel, New Mexico by way of Denver, Colorado, where she spent the better half of the past decade developing her experimental pop project. As a self taught guitarist and recording engineer, Midwife explores dark subject matter in her anthemic, soft-gaze hits. Self-described as “Heaven Metal,” or emotive music about devastation – catharsis.
When 2020 began, Johnston had several national and international tours planned, but the pandemic shifted her focus back to recording, and back to her internal landscape. Midwife’s third full length record, Luminol, was written and produced during quarantine, and is out now on The Flenser. Luminol navigates themes of incarceration, locus of control, clarity, self harm, confinement, agency, and truth-seeking – all erupting in a bioluminescent Rothko color-field of blue. Midwife is interested in turning trial and tribulation into sources of light.
In Spring 2022, Midwife will be on tour Supporting Deafheaven and Holy Fawn. She has shared the stage with acts like Nothing, Bambara, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Jenny Hval, Have a Nice Life, Marisa Anderson, Circuit Des Yeux, Big|Brave, and more.
