It’s been 10 years of U.S. Girls as the unapologetic pop revisionist we know and love. What better way to celebrate than to witness creator Meg Remy, backed by a sample-emulating large ensemble, attempt to swing all fates toward love. The expatriate returns Stateside with a plan to dance beyond reality. Performing compositions that Pitchfork has called “part Shangri-Las, part Sun Ra” alongside new material from the soon-to-be-released follow-up to 2015’s celebrated, 4AD-backed, Half Free, may this live show give you the courage to face whatever the next 10 years may bring! “As U.S. Girls, Meg Remy writes whip-smart pop music that tackles everything from feminist liberation to doomed love affairs. Her influences are especially protean—cramming together golden oldies, disco, glam rock, and noise into eccentric packages that vibrate with ideas. Her voice can be elegantly shoehorned into almost any genre—she is as comfortable with caustic lo-fi experiments as she is making glossy glam-pop.Remy’s new song, “Mad As Hell,” is an inventive anti-war song that combines outré smarts with utter catchiness, a hard thing to do for the type of messaging that accommodates both Nickleback and Marvin Gaye.” – Pitchfork // Watch the great video for “Mad As Hell”

((( brooklyn, new york )))

Born in a Brooklyn warehouse in 1997, 12-piece ensemble Antibalas is credited with introducing Afrobeat to a wider global audience, influencing countless musicians and developing a live show that is the stuff of legend. “If you’ve ever caught Antibalas live over the course of their nearly two-decade existence, you already know what an overwhelming and exhilarating experience their music is in-person, and somehow they’re able to bottle it up and make their studio work groove and climax just as dramatically, like you’re right there in the room with them. It’s been five years since the Brooklyn collective released a record, and now they’re about to return with their sixth, Where The Gods Are In Peace. True to classic Afrobeat’s potential to tackle dire social and political issues via cathartic party music, Antibalas emphasized positivity and hope in their statement about the album: We are still very much a political band, but as we mature we present and pay homage to the deep courage of our ancestors, we express a message of peace, harmony, and dance, and we take a hard look into the past while forging a future of solutions.” – Stereogum

((( chicago, illinois )))

((( london, u.k. )))

Even in the increasingly crowded field of electronic music, Kelly Lee Owens’ debut album arrives as a wonderful surprise. An album that bridges the gaps between cavernous techno, spectral pop, and krautrock’s mechanical pulse, the 27­ year ­old Londoner has made a debut album brimming with exploratory wonder, establishing a personal aesthetic that is as beguiling as it is thrillingly familiar. “KLO’s stunning debut is a beautifully immersive and enveloping take on all of our favorite things: emotional, floating electronic dream-pop and more propulsive and visceral dance music that pulses like an underwater heartbeat, seamlessly woven into something that feels both familiar and entirely new.” – Gorilla vs. Bear

((( new york, new york )))

MIRAH featuring JHEREK BISCHOFF. Brooklyn-based songwriter Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has been creating incorruptible independent pop music since the late 1990s. She has released over a dozen solo and collaborative recordings on K Records, Kill Rock Stars, and various domestic and foreign independent labels. She has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Contemporaneous Orchestra, and the Portland Cello Project, and has toured solo and with countless iterations of her own band in concert halls, music clubs, and punk basements all across North America, Japan, and Europe. Her latest release Sundial is a retrospective of songs from her catalogue arranged for string quartet by the beloved Los Angeles-based polymath Jherek Bischoff. This special Treefort performance will feature a quartet of talented string players from Boise.

((( los angeles, california )))



Hanni El Khatib grew up in San Francisco, California. The son of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants and the first American in his family, he became obsessed with classic Americana and pop culture of the 1950s and 60s. Influenced by pioneers of early rock and r&b (Johnny Burnette, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash), El Khatib created a musical aesthetic to match his vision. The multi-instrumentalist serves as singer, songwriter & producer for his one-man band (live he is joined by a drummer) that is part blues, part garage rock, part soul, part folk & part doo-wop. As the creative director for HUF and lifelong skater, El Khatib professes to a love for well-crafted objects: classic cars, cans pomade and stiletto switchblades. This craftsmanship carries over into his music, where El Khatib is inspired and informed by the specificity of a guitar tone or the fuzziness of an amp sound. His background in DIY and skate culture manifests as a desire to “keep mistakes in” and make things “as raw as possible.” Merging primitive rock sounds with punk aesthetics, El Khatib toes lines between all genres and ends up firmly in his own.

((( athens, georgia )))

Cindy Wilson’s current endeavor is as far from The B-52s as one can possibly imagine. Rather than shouting from the rooftops in “The World’s Greatest Party Band”, Wilson swoons and whispers over swirls of subtle psychedelia, Quincy Jones-era strings, and pulsing synths. With echoes of Air, Bjork, Tame Impala, and Gary Numan, the band refers to its infectious brand of new wave electro-pop as “Turbo Chill,” a sonic synopsis offered by the hosts of Adult Swim’s Stupid Morning Bullshit following the release of Wilson’s solo debut EP, Sunrise. Three years in the making, Change offers a challenge to fans of the iconic B-52’s, while cultivating a new generation of listeners. After four decades on the road internationally with The B-52s, Change represents a full circle for Wilson. Tapping into her own local stock in order to start anew, Cindy returned to the same town that nurtured her own creative roots: Athens, Georgia. Change features a “native” cast of Athenian musicians including Ryan Monahan (Easter Island, Monahan), producer/engineer Suny Lyons (PacificUV, Dream Boat), Lemuel Hayes (Ola Moon, PacificUV), and Marie Davon (powerkompany).

((( evanston, illinois )))

Kweku Collins is a 20-year-old rapper/producer/songwriter from Evanston, IL that has been making music for most of his life. Born into a musical family, Kweku joined his dad on-stage playing African drums as early as the age of 4. As a teenager, Kweku transitioned to making his own music, crafting bedroom classics throughout high school. In 2015, just shy of his high school graduation, Kweku joined the Chicago’s indie rap outfit Closed Sessions, and shortly after released his debut EP, Say It Here While It’s Safe. The EP received critical praise and landed Kweku on Pigeons and Planes “20 Rappers Under 20” list. In 2016, Kweku followed up with Nat Love — a proper LP that garnered an 8.0 Pitchfork review, produced a Pitchfork Best New Track, and landed Kweku in publications such as The FADER, Billboard, Chicago Reader, and more.

((( los angeles, california )))

The Earth Girl Helen Brown Center For Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.) is an inclusive expansive non-discriminatory group crooning in the name of the common cause. In 2017 the band’s inaugural planetary series focused on the topics of fire management ( MERCURY ), war ( MARS ), communication ( SATURN ), and love (VENUS). In 2018 the band is pleased to leave the city behind and bring the jams. // “Heidi Alexander, who you may know from The Sandwitches or The Fresh & Onlys, has a solo project called Earth Girl Helen Brown, and she’s got a new tape, Mercury, that is out now via Empty Cellar Records. It features a host of talented friends in pseudonym form: The Boogeyman (Emmett Kelly), Sunshine Lady (Sonny Smith), Loro Valiente (Tahlia Harbor), Ziggy Spec (Ty Segall), José Deseo (John Dwyer), L.F.F. (Tim Cohen), Jim Win (James Finch Jr.), the Former Future (Sean Smith), and Jasmine Ivanov (Jamin Barton). If you liked The Sandwitches’ breezy, twangy style, you’re going to like this, and you can stream the whole thing below.” – Brooklyn Vegan // Watch the video for Earth Elevator and prepare for their arrival.

((( philadelphia, pennsylvania )))

“The Districts are no ordinary rock band. They might come off as one, though. When representation remains an issue even in a field as progressive as music, who’s to blame for passing over the familiar trope of four white dudes in a Philly-based outfit playing guitar, drums, and bass in favor of something else? This would be a mistake. There are plenty of reasons The Districts’ music began to take off before these guys had even graduated high school; the band’s charm is undeniable to even the strongest of cynics. Playful dynamics and biting tales of romance, often littered with an occasional, easy-to-miss joke, have been the group’s signature since its self-released, debut LP, Telephone, in 2012. Later, the band’s first full-length for storied indie label Fat Possum, 2015’s sophomore effort A Flourish and a Spoil, brought the band to its biggest audience yet without sacrificing the qualities that its earliest fans cherished. Popular Manipulations, The Districts’ third and newest album, takes that album’s highlights—beefy guitar tones, disarming vocals and stories specific and sometimes surreal—and blows them up with stronger and more varied songwriting, sharper production, and crisper mixing.” – Paste Magazine THE SUFFERS ((( houston, texas ))) “What you get from this Houston band is soul, straight from horn to heart. I’ve witnessed The Suffers’ magnificence on a tiny stage in a D.C. nightclub, on a big stage at the Newport Folk Festival, and behind my Tiny Desk. What happens on the band’s first album is something that rarely happens on debuts: This band is on fire when it’s in front of an audience, sure, but the intensity of its shows is also captured in the studio.The Suffers’ sound is steeped in what the band calls “Gulf Coast Soul,” as well as elements of ska, Southern hip-hop, classic soul, rock ‘n’ roll and especially reggae. In fact, the group’s name comes from a line in a famous late-’70s reggae film called Rockers. What helps set The Suffers apart from most is the band’s sweet style of playing: No one is vying to show off, and everyone serves the song. It helps that singer Kam Franklin is at center stage — powerful and lovable and, like her band, careful not to overdo it. She seems to understand that there’s power in holding back or waiting for the perfect moment to let go.” – Bob Boilen, NPR Music // The Suffers have wowed Boise crowds a couple of times now, but this upcoming appearance on a Treefort stage is long overdue. We can’t wait.

((( chicago, illinois )))