Ziggy Marley is an eight-time Grammy winner, Emmy winner, musician, producer, activist and humanitarian who has cultivated a legendary career for close to 40 years. The eldest son of Bob and Rita Marley, Ziggy has hewed his own path as a musical pioneer, infusing the reggae genre with funk, blues, rock and other elements through mindful songcraft. Equal parts master storyteller and motivational guide, he deftly explores issues from environmental awareness to self-empowerment, social injustice to political inequity, while returning again and again to the transformative power of love.

Based in Los Angeles, the group progressed their sound over the course of five full- length albums, Gorilla Manor [2009], Hummingbird [2013], Sunlit Youth [2016] Violet Street [2019] and Time Will Wait For No One [2023]. In the span of one year the band performed twice on Jimmy Kimmel Live! For the first performance they were accompanied by Sharon Van Etten playing "Lemon feat. Sharon Van Etten" off the Sour Lemon EP. They closed out 2021 with a performance of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” from Music From The Pen Gala 1983, an EP coinciding with their appearance in the Apple Original Series The Shrink Next Door starring Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell. Local Natives have received praise from Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, The Guardian and many more. In between countless sold out shows and festival appearances - including a standout Coachella 2017 set - they’ve graced the stages of Austin City Limits, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Late Late Show With James Corden,Jimmy Kimmel Live! and more.

Balancing folk songwriting, rock ‘n’ roll energy, raw instrumentation, and sonic wanderlust, the Seattle- based musicians comprising Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners—Mitch Cutts, Nic Haughn, and Jakob Ervin— draw inspiration from the friendship between them. What began as a high school passion project in Colorado Springs has quietly translated to billions of streams and packed crowds. They have cultivated a signature style of their own across RMCM [2017], Solstice [2018], and Subliming [2019]. In 2023, the one-minute and 27-second intro to RMCM, “Evergreen,” caught fire on TikTok, and has since generated over half a billion Spotify streams, while the group has averaged north of 20 million monthly listeners on the platform. “Lake Missoula” also piled up over 100 million Spotify streams. They’ve graced the bills of festivals such as Lollapalooza, Under The Big Sky, and Hinterland, collaborated with Mt. Joy and Caamp on new versions of Lake Missoula and Evergreen, and remained prolific with new singles “Signal Sender,” “Careful,” “Northstar,” and “Sierra Vista.” They conclude 2024 with their biggest tour yet, playing to sold out crowds coast to coast, and are in the middle of finishing their 4th LP. No matter what happens next, the friendship and the music go hand-in-hand for Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners.

“I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law.”

With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on News of the Universe, the new full-length from California rock band La Luz.

With two songwriters, six albums, and more than a thousand shows under their belt, The Coffis Brothers have earned their reputation as modern-day torchbearers of all-American rock & roll. It's a sound caught halfway between amplified Americana, acoustic folk, roadhouse R&B, and electrifying roots music, crafted by a pair of California-born siblings who've been sharing the stage since childhood, and the five piece band filled out by their childhood friend, Kyle Poppen on lead guitar, and the rhythm section of Aidan Collins (bass), and Cory Graves (drums).

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That sound reaches a new peak with Kaw-fis Bruth-urs. The band's third collaboration with Bay Area legend (and longtime Mother Hips frontman) Tim Bluhm, who serves as the album's producer, Kaw-fis Bruth-urs finds Jamie and Kellen Coffis letting their guard down, enjoying the creative ride as much as the destination itself. For every signature-sounding song like "Cut Right Through" — a heartland rock anthem built for highway drives and long horizons, as sunny as the band's Golden State homeland and as hook-driven as a Tom Petty classic — there's another track that stretches the band's sound into new territory. The result is The Coffis Brothers' widest-ranging album yet, running the gamut from bluesy, blue-eyed soul ("Face the Music") to jangling, harmony-heavy power pop (“Do You Want To").  

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"This is what we do, and we're giving ourselves license to evolve and get better at it, too" says Jamie, who was raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains of northern California alongside his mother — a children's musician — and his younger brother. Decades after Jamie and Kellen made their stage debut alongside their mom, singing three-part blood harmonies at a young age, their musical bond has only grown stronger, sharpened by hundreds of live shows as much as their shared DNA. "It's the natural evolution of us performing together and spending so much of our lives together," Kellen adds. "We didn't set out to make anything in one particular direction — we just wanted to make a batch of really great songs."

midwest y'allternative from Sandwich, Illinois