3 YEARS AGO

It’s here, folks: the final round of Treefort 7 artists ! The 2018 lineup is now complete thanks to this fine cast of bands and musicians.

There’s now over 400 bands playing Treefort Music Fest 2018 — make sure to do your homework and explore the lineup! We’ve helped you out by doing research on some of the artists featured on this final round below. But first, crack the code of this year’s Treefort Video:

((( moscow, russia )))

((( new york, new york )))

Cults made their name in black and white. A pair of film school dropouts who burst onto the New York scene with a perfect single and a darkly retro sound, the band’s first two albums play like noirish documentaries on a lost girl group. Four years after Static, Cults returns with Offering, an exciting collection of songs bursting with heart, confidence, shimmering melody and buzzing life. The time off has given the band new energy and new ideas–Cults are working in Technicolor now. The core duo remains the same. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, both 28, still live in New York. They still finish each other’s thoughts and still share a love of catchy music and black humor (this is a band that sampled cult leader Jim Jones on their first hit). But the pair have put some blood on the tracks since their breakout debut: they’ve toured the world, built a devoted audience, survived a breakup, grown up in green rooms, parted ways with their old label and made a home of their new one. After the whirlwind of Static died down, Follin and Oblivion made a conscious decision to shift gears.

((( ann arbor, michigan )))

Matthew Dear is a shapeshifter, oscillating seamlessly between DJ, dance-music producer, and experimental pop auteur. He is a founding artist on both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He writes, produces, and mixes all of his work. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none, now nearly 20 years into his kaleidoscopic career, with five albums and two dozen EPs plus millions of miles in the rearview of his biography. Dear kicked off 2017 as a selector, DJing regularly and contributing a deeply considered and personal mix to !K7 Records’ long established DJ-Kicks series. This was bookended by a number of releases through his techno guise, Audion. Dear hadn’t shared material under his own name since his 2012 LP, the multi-colored Beams, which was preceded by the critically acclaimed avant-pop albums Black City, Asa Breed, and Leave Luck To Heaven. This return to his artistic id, apart from his other projects’ egos, makes “Modafinil Blues” momentous, a prodigal shift inward to a dark and playful psyche.

((( boise, idaho )))

Ages ago, the immortal Dark One was freed from his prison. Since that time, the forces of good have been searching for the Light, the Chosen One to force him back into his cell. The key to this prison is the MagicSword. Wielded by the proper soul, it will put the universe back in proper balance. The Keeper of the Magic Sword is an old soul who searches endlessly for the Chosen One. With the help of other immortals, The Seer and The Weaver, they are ever trying to stem the tide of the Great Shadow from engulfing all life. When the need is great, they appear with the Magic Sword and a high stakes proposition for those who are pure of heart, perpetually hoping that their search is finally over. The hope is that one day soon one of those who wield the Magic Sword will in fact be the Chosen One, and the enormous power they wield from the Sword will be immeasurably amplified and drive the Shadowbringer back into his cage. Until that fateful day, The Dreadlords of the Nameless One continue to call forth the power of evil and destroy all that is pure and decent in the world with the malevolent forces of Darkness.

((( cincinnati, ohio )))

Chronic collaborator, podcast host, and wordsmith Yoni Wolf, known for fronting the scrappy, genre-blending project WHY?, will be joining us at Treefort 7 for a solo set. WHY? signed with the revered Anticon label for its debut, a partnership that developed out of Wolf’s college friendship with Anticon artist Doseone. While WHY? does incorporate rap and spoken lyrics into its music, it became one of the more indie rock-styled acts on the usually hip-hop-leaning label. An enigmatic Split EP with Odd Nosdam was WHY?’s first release for the label in 2002, followed a year later by the full-length Oaklandazulasylum. Both the Sanddollars EP and the Elephant Eyelash LP were issued in 2005. The following year saw the Rubber Traits EP, and in 2008 the Alopecia album hit shelves and became their first to hit the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. Featuring Mark Erickson along with Fog’s Andrew Broder, Eskimo Snow arrived in 2009 and also landed on the independent albums chart. The title for their next effort, 2012’s Mumps, etc., was inspired by contracting the disease while in Europe, along with other “on tour” calamities. For its sixth studio album, WHY? moved to Joyful Noise, which had released the 2016 debut of Wolf’s duo with rapper Serengeti, Yoni & Geti. Co-produced by Yoni Wolf and his brother, Josiah, Moh Lhean was released in 2017. It was the first fully home-recorded WHY? LP since the project’s debut.

((( orillia, ontario, canada )))

“I don’t want to waste it this time…” If anyone has earned the right to sing those words, it’s Elizabeth Powell. Since forming Land of Talk in 2006, the one certainty in her life has been uncertainty, as her band has gone from being one of Montreal’s most brash, buzzy indie rock acts to one of its most elusive and enigmatic. After recording Land of Talk’s debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, Elizabeth lost her drummer (the first in what would become a semi-regular pattern of line-up changes). After releasing Land of Talk’s first full-length record Some Are Lakes in 2008, she lost her voice. And after the 2010 follow-up Cloak and Cipher, she lost her will. Elizabeth knew she needed a break from the album/tour/album/tour cycle after Cloak and Cipher’s release—she just didn’t plan on it becoming a full-blown hiatus. “I was just tired and felt a little disenchanted,” she says. “I think that’s very common—to feel industry-weary. I just couldn’t do it. The only thing that was keeping me there was the music, and I think the music had become a footnote of the whole story. I wanted to get back to the music.”

((( los angeles, california )))

L.A.-based garage punk outfit Together PANGEA formed in 2008 around the home recordings of singer/guitarist William Keegan. After Keegan enlisted friends Danny Bengston (bass) and Erik Jimenez (drums) to flesh out his material, the trio soon began gigging around the CalArts campus area and involving themselves with the Southern California D.I.Y. scene. Their noisy, boozy shows earned them a loyal following and they began releasing a variety of indie cassettes, singles, and EPs, eventually issuing their full-length debut, Jelly Jam, in 2010. The group worked with a variety of small labels and in 2012 released its second LP, Living Dummy, on esteemed California indie Burger Records. Between their touring and the second album’s strong reception, Together PANGEA entered the international radar, and attracted the attention of London’s legendary Harvest Records, which signed the band in 2013. Their third album (and first for Harvest), Badillac, was released in early 2014. In October 2015, Together PANGEA returned to Burger Records to release the six-song EP The Phage. Produced by former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, the EP also introduced new guitarist Roland Cosio. The group’s next full-length album, 2017’s Bulls and Roosters, was co-produced by Badillac’s Andrew Schubert and marked their debut on the Warner-distributed Nettwerk label. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi