We’re less than two months away from our 10th Treefort and it’s been nearly two years since our “regularly scheduled programming” that welcomes fans, artists and spring to Downtown Boise!
In this third wave of artists you’ll find our last Main Stage headliner, artists from all over the world and many local groups. Everything from electronic retrowave and soulful R&B to Americana folk, punk rock, and dance pop — our 10th festival lineup has something for everyone!
Discover your new favs by checking out indie rock babe Snail Mail, LA punks The Regrettes, Ghanaian-Australian singer Genesis Owusu, Boise’s own electro gods Magic Sword, and many more. Dive into this final wave of artists below and for the complete list, check out the full lineup and poster lineup.
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.
SNAIL MAIL
( new york city, new york )
On her 2018 debut album Lush, seventeen-year-old Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) sang “I’m in full control / I’m not lost / Even when it’s love / Even when it’s not”. Her natural ability to be many things at once resonated with a lot of people. The contradiction of confidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact of a wrecking ball when put to tape. It was an impressive and unequivocal career-making moment for Jordan. On Valentine, her sophomore album out November 5th on Matador, Lindsey solidifies and defines this trajectory in a blaze of glory. In 10 songs, written over 2019-2020 by Jordan alone, we are taken on an adrenalizing odyssey of genuine originality in an era in which “indie” music has been reduced to gentle, homogenous pop composed mostly by ghostwriters. Made with careful precision, Valentine shows an artist who has chosen to take her time. The reference points are broad and psychically stirring, while the lyrics build masterfully on the foundation set by Jordan’s first record to deliver a deeper understanding of heartbreak.
THE REGRETTES
( los angeles, california )
The Regrettes continue to solidify their reputation for unapologetically honest pop songs with the release their new song, “Monday,” their first new music since the release of their sophomore LP, How Do You Love?, which NPR Music proclaimed “a terrific culmination of a band that has been honing and perfecting their sound.”
The band, which consists of lead singer and songwriter, Lydia Night, as well as Genessa Gariano (guitar), Brooke Dickson (bass) and Drew Thomsen (drums), earned widespread acclaim with the 2019 release of their sophomore LP How Do You Love?, including NME who declared them “truly unstoppable,” and Teen Vogue who praised their “incredibly self-aware, empowering pop-punk” with additional accolades from Vogue, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and more. The band has headlined sold-out shows throughout North America and Europe, performed at festivals including Coachella and Reading + Leeds, and have appeared on Good Morning America, Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
GENESIS OWUSU
( canberra, australia )
Genesis Owusu’s debut body of work, Smiling With No Teeth arrived in 2021 as an artistic triumph that has resonated with audiences globally, surpassing genre and disrupting boundaries. Six months on from its release, the album has proven a runaway success and garnered universal acclaim from critics, including covers with Acclaim and NME Australia, feature album on triple j, FBi, Triple R and Radio Adelaide and praise from The Needle Drop, Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, T Magazine, The Monthly, The Australian and ICON.
In 2021, Genesis Owusu received four ARIA Awards for Smiling With No Teeth, including the coveted Album of the Year award, as well as triple j’s J Award for Album of the Year, Music Video of the Year J Award alongside his close collaborator, Riley Blakeway for“The Other Black Dog”.
MAGIC SWORD
( boise, idaho )
Magic Sword is an ageless tale of good and evil told through an ever expanding graphic novel with each volume accompanied by an original, synth-heavy soundtrack as well as immersive live performances. With the three mediums intertwined from conception, together they create an epic experience for those bold enough to bear witness and come away with a deeper understanding of the ultimate hero’s journey. Armed with a musical and visual aesthetic that has its roots unabashedly buried deep in the golden era of ‘70s and ‘80s fantasy and sci-fi, Magic Sword’s followers are called to another plane of existence where the struggle between light and shadow becomes all too real. The multiverse has aligned to bring the people of the land together for the birth of their album Endless, followed by a tour of the realm searching for the greater good.
SUN JUNE
( austin, texas )
The five members of Sun June spent their early years spread out across the United States, from the boonies of the Hudson Valley to the sprawling outskirts of LA. Having spent their college years within the gloomy, cold winters of the North East, Laura Colwell and Stephen Salisbury found themselves in the vibrant melting-pot of inspiration that is Austin, Texas. Meeting each other while working on Terrence Malick’s Song to Song, the pair were immediately taken by the city’s bustling small clubs and honky-tonk scene, and the fact that there was always an instrument within reach, always someone to play alongside.
Coming alive in this newly discovered landscape, Colwell and Salisbury formed Sun June alongside Michael Bain on lead guitar, Sarah Schultz on drums, and Justin Harris on bass and recorded their debut album Years live to tape, releasing it via Keeled Scales in 2018. The band coined the term ‘regret pop’ to describe the music they made. Though somewhat tongue in cheek, it made perfect sense ~ the gentle sway of their country leaning pop songs seeped in melancholy, as if each subtle turn of phrase was always grasping for something just out of reach.
MARCHFOURTH
( portland, oregon )
MarchFourth is a joy-inducing force of entertainment. The colorful explosion of brassy funk, rock, and jazz is all about the groove. This larger-than-life group of musicians and acrobats tours the country year-round, bringing a spirit of celebration wherever they go. MarchFourth is, in a word, FUN!
Fifteen MarchFourth musicians traveled from Portland, Oregon to New Orleans, Louisiana to record their fourth studio album, MAGIC NUMBER, self-released in September 2016. With Producer Ben Ellman (Galactic) and Engineer/Producer Mikael “Count” Eldridge (DJ Shadow, Tycho, Trombone Shorty) at the helm, the album is full of the captivating grooves and brassy swagger you’d expect from MarchFourth, plus a healthy dose of New Orleans magic, with guest appearance by Trombone Shorty, Stanton Moore (drums), and Matt Perrine (sousaphone). The album was fan-funded through Kickstarter.
THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND
( brown country, indiana )
The new album from The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band was written by candlelight and then recorded using the best technology available in the 1950s. But listeners won’t find another album as relevant, electrifying and timely as Dance Songs for Hard Times.
Released via Thirty Tigers, Dance Songs for Hard Times conveys the hopes and fears of pandemic living. Current BMA nominee, Rev. Peyton, the Big Damn Band’s vocalist and world-class fingerstyle guitarist, details bleak financial challenges on the songs “Ways and Means” and “Dirty Hustlin’.” He pines for in-person reunions with loved ones on “No Tellin’ When,” and he pleads for celestial relief on the album-closing “Come Down Angels.”
SNOTTY NOSE REZ KIDS
( kitamaat village, canada )
Snotty Nose Rez Kids is a Canadian Hip-Hop duo of Haisla (Indigenous) descent from Kitimat, BC. Rappers Yung Trybez and Young D formed the duo in 2016, releasing two albums in 2017 with their second, The Average Savage, winning them them Best Hip Hop Artist at the Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA’s), cemented them on 2018’s Top 10 list of the coveted Polaris Music Prize, and landed them a 2019 Juno Nomination for best Indigenous Music Album. The group toured heavily in Canada with appearances in New York City, Seattle and Darwin, Australia. They quickly gained notoriety for their energetic, inspiring and thought provoking performances.
KARL BLAU
( philadelphia, pennsylvania )
Hailing from north of Seattle in the Skagit Valley, hewn from NW institution, record label known simply as K – Karl Blau’s music currently releases under the Bella Union/Raving Marching Band, and now Blau resides in Germantown, Philadelphia as of late Fall 2018. His last two albums – acclaimed country/soul covers produced by Tucker Martine (Laura Veirs, The Decemberists) known as Introducing Karl Blau, and the twin sister to Matthew E. White’s “Big Inner” called Out Her Space– have continued the legacy of Blau’s genre-hopping and led Blau to multiple EU/UK and US tours.
THE SHIVAS
( portland, oregon )
Whatever growth led The Shivas to Feels So Good / Feels So Bad, plenty of their fascinations remain. They’re still turning love songs into psychedelic, transcendent epics. “Tell Me That You Love Me” subverts doo-wop extravagance and dabbles in Flamenco rhythms. “Rock Me Baby” is a bubblegum anthem soaked in so much reverb that we might just be hearing it from stadium nosebleeds.
On the towering and mournful “You Wanna Be My Man,” a slow-burning six-minute shoegaze prayer for a higher sort of love, there is a level of emotional nuance that feels altogether revolutionary.
Yes, Feels So Good / Feels So Bad is an album about acceptance. Sometimes that acceptance feels enlightened and sometimes it feels like the end result of a lot of kicking and screaming. The Shivas have adapted in both of those ways. The lessons they learned from having their normal upended, though, have only helped them grow.
MAD ALCHEMY LIQUID SHOW
( bay area, california )
Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show is an analog light show in the great San Francisco tradition of Bill Ham, Brotherhood of Light and Glen McKay. Headlights from the heyday of the Bay Area’s 60’s Psychedelic Ballrooms. Principal Lance Gordon has been involved and performing this art form since 1971.
In June of 2017 Mad Alchemy evolved into a “21st Century” Liquid Light Show forged by their first Red Rocks opportunity. Now the projections can live in a modern stage environment at venues like Red Rocks, Fox Theater Oakland, Block Stage: Desert Daze, Wiltern Theater, Orpheum Theater, Fillmore San Francisco and Denver, Irving Plaza, London Forum and many more. The band utilizes custom video presenters, video cameras and mixers projected through an array of Epson Lazer 6K and 8K equipment while still maintaining the analog art aspect.
TEZATALKS
( seattle, washington )
Seattle-based artist, TeZaTalks, opens portals. She points a finger and colorful wave glimmers grows. Suddenly a window of song is stretched open. TeZaTalks sings a note and a universe blossoms like a pink-purple rainforest orchid. Each is a route to a new realm of expression, energies. Each is a lesson to absorb, to find yourself within again. To walk through with refreshed skin and a renewed heart. Her passion dwarfs nuclear fission. Her soul is elastic like lungs.
Regeneration is the name of her game. Shields are broken and must be mended. In this way, the personal traumas TeZaTalks has endured along the way have led directly to her millions of song streams. To date, TeZaTalks has played coveted sets for SoFar Sounds, KEXP’s in-studio series, Seattle’s Upstream and Capitol Hill Block Party festivals, and AfroPunk. She has been featured prominently by publications like EDM.com, American Songwriter Magazine, Trap Nation, and Xkito.
EAST FOREST
( boise, idaho )
East Forest is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and international leader in underground sound meditation. His work explores living authentically within a modern context through an introspective methodology that weaves together elements of electro-acoustic live music, nature, technology, brain science, and guided meditation.
His “ceremony-concerts” utilize a skilled instrumental repertoire to create space for an emotive inner journey. IN: A Soundtrack For The Psychedelic Practitioner, vol. II is the latest chapter in his ever-evolving career, which includes over 25 albums, including 2019’s album-length collaboration with spiritual pioneer Ram Dass, the five-hour-long psilocybin soundtrack Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack For the Psychedelic Practitioner, and collaborations with artists Jon Hopkins, Typhoon, Laraaji, Dead Prez, Nick Mulvey, Peter Broderick, DJ ANNA and more.
ISLA DE CARAS
( buenos aires, argentina )
Isla de Caras is a psychedelic pop project from Buenos Aires, Argentina, formed in 2017 by composer and musician Lautaro Cura. Since then, Isla de Caras has been publishing hypnotic tracks that led the band to be part of the Lollapalooza poster in 2018. Chango (2018), their first album, was reissued in 2020 by the Japanese label P-Vine, and described as a “masterpiece from South America, an indie-pop paradise” on the racks of Tower Records Tokyo.
At the end of 2010, the Buenos Aires music scene was going through an indie pop boom. Many of the musicians involved in that scene came to participate in “Chango.” Nicolás Teubal, Salvador Colombo (Bandalos Chinos), Francisco Nicholson (Silvestre y la Naranja), Santiago Martínez and Cura, arrived at the mythical Los Pájaros studio and spent a week there, far from the city, recording old-style music, among electric guitars , rhythm machines, tape delays, birds and caterpillars. Matías Cella (Kevin Johansen, Jorge Drexler) on mixing and Alan Douches (LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective) on mastering, gave the album its final colors.
ACID TONGUE
( seattle, washington )
The members of Seattle rock & roll outfit Acid Tongue are quite literally bouncing off the walls. In fact, it’s hard to even call them a “Seattle band”. There’s the core duo of songwriter Guy Keltner and drummer/vocalist Ian Cunningham—currently based in the Pacific Northwest—but with numerous touring and studio musicians scattered between Paris, New York, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, & Austin, the rotating roster seems to grow larger by the day.
The band’s latest album Arboretum takes things in the next logical direction: part glam-rock opus, part mixtape, this LP from Acid Tongue marks a significant step forward for a band well-versed in straddling the line between psychedelia and power-pop.
JEFF CROSBY
( boise, idaho )
Born and raised in a sleepy mountain town in Northern Idaho, singer-songwriter Jeff Crosby has managed to delineate the sometimes amorphous genre of “Americana”, package it perfectly, and deliver it to his listeners time and again.
His songs present almost as pages ripped out of an intimately personal diary, detailing the rugged beauty of what it means to have loved, lost and kept on the move. There seems to be no shortage of inspiration as Crosby is one of the last few “troubadours” that truly lives the life he sings about.
After dropping out of school at 17 to pursue touring full-time with a band on the west coast, he’s made his living by permanently staying on the road – night after night, show after show, from load-in until the last drink is poured.
STREET FEVER
( boise, idaho )
Street Fever is a dark seductive techno project within a world full of chaos and destruction. From club beats to breakdowns Street Fever offers a show unlike any other techno project filled with high energy and live performance art thats sure to make you sweat.
MISS DRE
( bay area, california )
Always and unapologetically in-control: MISS DRE is house music’s triple threat DJ, producer, and vocalist. Based in the Bay Area, she brings dirty downbeats to introspective trips, blending naughty lowend tech with timeless house melodies to redefine the Northern scene.
A fierce friend to many who come to SF, she’s already played direct support by personal request for Justin Martin, Walker & Royce, Prok & Fitch, J. Worra, Sacha Robotti, Ardalan, and more at esteemed venues such as Audio, The Midway, and Halcyon.
A rising producer, MISS DRE has released heat on Insomniac IN/ROTATION, Box of Cats, Anabatic Records, Psycho Disco!, House of Hustle, along with her most recent releases, “Technocality” on Farris Wheel and, “Take It All’ on My Techno Weighs A Ton. Her tracks have garnered support from contemporaries the likes of Gene Farris, J. Worra, VNSSA, Sacha Robotti, Codes, and more.
SUNSHINE JONES
( san francisco, california )
Sunshine Jones has been an active member of his ever expanding community since 1988. A voice in electronic music, Sunshine is a founding member of Dubtribe Sound System and has travelled the world for more than three decades performing live, improvisational electronic music anywhere and everywhere there is love, and art, and people willing to gather and dance, or lay back and listen.
A central piece of Sunshine’s philosophy has always been DIY. Do it yourself. Assaulting ideas like “someday” and “commodity fetishim” through the heart of a poet, and the mind of a situationst his radically inclusive music, words, and their recording, documenting, and presentation are always aimed at asking us to reflect upon ourselves, and to stand up, and get to work.
TK & THE HOLY-KNOW NOTHINGS
( portland, oregon )
Half-dutifully and half-facetiously self-dubbed “psychedelic doom boogie,” TK & The Holy-Know Nothings were born out of Taylor Kingman’s desire to create a loose, groove-heavy bar band that never sacrifices the importance of good, honest songwriting. Doing so required pulling together a local supergroup of friends, neighbors, and fellow Laurelthirst royalty, including drummer Tyler Thompson and multi-instrumentalists Jay Cobb Anderson (lead guitar, harmonica), Lewi Longmire (bass, guitar, pedal steel, flugelhorn, mellotron, lap steel) and Sydney Nash (keys, bass, slide guitar, cornet). It’s a band of deeply contrasting styles buoyed by a sincere and palpable mutual trust–one that allows them to find and lose the groove with the same ease.
They build graceful, spaced-out landscapes around Kingman’s storytelling–his voice ragged and broken one moment and raging the next–only to deconstruct them through a fit of manic and often dissonant rabbit holes. And Kingman’s equally irreverent, delicate, and cerebral first-person narratives somehow merge seamlessly with it all.
