WCPO Lounge Acts

In a meteoric rise to popularity, electronic rock duo Missio had dozens of record labels come calling the same day Sirius XM's Alt Nation picked up their breakthrough single"Middle Fingers" a year ago.

Just a couple months later, RCA Records released the Austin, Texas-based pair's debut album "Loner" in May 2017.

"At first glance, most people will say it's a pretty dark record, but as you listen it's not just dark," producer/instrumentalist David Butler told WCPO Lounge Acts co-host Gil Kaufman last year. "It's taking an honest look, and hopefully people will feel an acknowledgment that life is hard and there are lots of dark parts to it and that this is the real s--t that happens in everyday life."

More specifically, it happens in lead vocalist Matthew Brue's life.

Loner's 11 tracks are filled with brutally honest looks into Brue's struggle with drug addiction and alcoholism after more than six years of sobriety. Exhibit A: "Everybody Gets High."

"Whiskey was his friend, he didn't have another. Vicodin his vice, his real and only lover," Brue achingly croons over wailing synths.

"Music became my way of writing in a diary. You have to do something so you're not constantly wrestling inside of your mind, just telling you to do stuff," Brue said in Missio's 10-minute "Skeletons" documentary produced by Jeff Ray. "You spend so much time focusing on money, success, goals, fans. But I didn't start writing songs for them. I started writing songs because it was my way to express how I felt."

And his feelings have certainly resonated with fans. At every show, Brue and Butler stare out upon a sea of middle fingers wagging at them, even once including Brue's own mother at a Houston festival.

"You would assume it's a 'f*** you' to the world. It's actually not. In a way, it's a song about unity. It's not f***you; it's f***this situation, which everyone can apply to their own lives," Brue said in the band's biography. "There's no better feeling than seeing hundreds of people from different religious and political backgrounds forget about everything and raise their fingers together. Flipping the bird can unite us."

Hook-y music and killer beats are important to Missio, but a vulnerable honesty lies at the crux of their mission.

"As a whole, all of the songs revolve around being in seclusion," Brue said. "There are so many people out there who feel that isolation. Being in a band with this sort of lyrical content, it's all about reaching listeners, meeting them at shows, hearing their stories and helping them feel like they can relate to someone. Maybe we can make the world feel not so alone."

Missio's next challenge will be to avoid the sophomore slump. In their Skeletons documentary, Brue revealed that struggle - whether with drugs, alcohol or conflict - has become a sort of crutch for his songwriting. 

"Going into record No. 2 sober scares the hell out of me," Brue admits.

For all of the harmony between Brue and Butler, their backgrounds couldn't be further apart. Born and raised in Colorado, Brue studied classical piano as a kid and toured the world in a choir. In Houston, Butler "grew up in the least musical household ever" and didn't touch a guitar until he was 16.

Butler escaped the Office Space-style corporate world in order to pursue a career as a producer and audio engineer, while Matthew spent a year living in a remodeled 1974 Airstream, "learning how to write better songs." They had crossed paths many times in the Austin music scene, but their initial collaboration led to a larger commitment than most bands. 

"When we were in the studio, we just started talking about our lives," Butler said. "Completely unplanned, I mentioned that my wife and I were looking for a roommate."

It just so happened that Brue was ready to move out of that trailer, and they've been roommates as long as the band has existed. 

Since Loner, Missio has released two EPs with each containing four acoustic versions of their songs and a previously unreleased song. In October 2017, that new song was the heart wrenching "Can I Exist?" whose music video provides a tear-jerking and timely commentary on America's epidemic of police brutality against black men.

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Fresh off the Feb. 2 release of their fifth full-length album, Fruition stopped by the WCPO Lounge with a stripped-down, acoustic set that tackled heartbreaking love lost with just a dash of hopefulness. 

For the band, "Watching It All Fall Apart" represents far more than a collection of break-up songs. Like a dying tree that falls in a forest, new hope and new life eventually spring forth from the wreckage.

"It describes the feeling of letting go of a sweet love, or of watching the political climate be super gnarly, or watching rainforests get mowed down, or whatever it is, and just being a spectator as well as a participant," said guitarist and vocalist Kellen Asebroek.

Fruition's last Tri-State visit was as a supporting act to Greensky Bluegrass, whom mandolinist Mimi Naja called their "crazy uncles." All that time on the road with the Michigan-based jamgrass band rubbed off on them, said lead guitarist and vocalist Jay Cobb Anderson.

"We are the culmination of every influence that we've had. You try to just use your voice to express feelings that most people have felt before or can be sympathetic with," Anderson said, noting lead singer Paul Hoffman's writing particularly resonates with him. "When you're around a songwriter enough, you start to ... things just get embedded in you. You can pick up on one's style."

In a significant shift from their DIY style on 2016's "Labor of Love," Fruition teamed up with producer Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, First Aid Kit) to weave his golden thread through every song and make their newest album sound like "magic" in just 10 days' time at Portland's Flora Recording & Playback.

A good producer captures the essence of what a band is going for, and Anderson said that's just what Martine did.

"It was nice to have that captain of the ship, but he was one of those captains that let the crew think they were in charge. We're just out there doing our thing, and that's what he wanted," Anderson said.

Jeff Leonard on bass and Tyler Thompson on drums and banjo round out this folk rock crew. As Fruition tackles its biggest supporting act yet this spring, opening a five-show stint with Jack Johnson, it may be that intimate shows like Saturday's visit to Octave come fewer and farther between.

Set list:

• Eraser
• Northern Town
• - interview -
• Turn to Dust
• Let's Take it Too Far

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She made a big statement with her debut EP "Life/Death/Life" last fall, but now the Queen City's own neo-soul artist Lauren Eylise is sharing her "unapologetically feminine and soul-stirring vibes" with an R&B-loving crowd Thursday night at Downtown's Aronoff Center.

The songwriter and her band, the Part-Time Lovers, are celebrating Valentine's a day late by opening up The R&B Love Show, featuring Pretty Ricky, Lloyd and J. Holiday.

Earning a 15-minute slot opening for these Billboard-charting artists will be one of her most prominent opportunities so far this year, but Lauren Eylise explains it's not the only one of this caliber so far in her career. Alongside local shows at MOTR Pub and the Southgate House Revival, she opened for R&B artists Linkin' Bridge, Raheem DeVaughn and Tank in 2017.

Although she's been performing for more than six years, it wasn't until September 2017 that she released her first EP.

Using her ability to translate raw emotion into song, "Life/Death/Life" is Lauren Eylise's interpretation of her own healing. Having learned of the unplanned conception of her son while pursuing her music career in New York City, the singer narrates her journey through the perceived death of her dreams, the life of her child, the end of some relationships and the beginning of her career.

Each of "Life/Death/Life's" seven tracks draws from loves lost, lessons learned, plans diverted, black womanhood and the natural relationship between loss and gain.

"While I am excited to share this project with you, I must admit, it is for me," she wrote on her blog in August 2017. "This project is from me, to me, for me. It is a mirror for me to look on and within myself for healing and the reminder of all I’ve made it through and all that I am. I hope it can be a mirror for others as well."

Lauren Eylise's witty lyricism gives off the matter-of-fact tone of Lauryn Hill and the unapologetic savagery of SZA’s "CTRL" layered with vulnerability that is purely her own. While the EP is an ode to Lauren Eylise’s own personhood, she hopes any woman can pick it up and see herself. But with blatantly transparent lines sung in a sultry voice to her own guitar strumming, not only women and R&B fans will find themselves identifying with the themes of "Life/Death/Life." This is an album for us all.

Set list:

• Loud Afternoon (Part II)
• Petals
• - interview -
• Peaks and Vallies
• Part-Time Lover

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From first listen, Adron's hypnotically voiced songs grip you with their unconventional blend of Brazilian samba, Bossa nova and Tropicália in multiple languages punctuated by birdcalls, whistles and rainfall.

Her music may sound odd to some, but therein lies Adron's appeal. Folk sounds have elbowed their way into the mainstream over the past decade, yet hers is still something undiscovered. 

"I do a lot of musical acrobatics, and the lyrics are not quite what you expect," Adron told the University of Georgia's student newspaper in 2012. "A lot of times the lyrics are funny or sardonic, but still optimistic. I want the music to be something that you can subjectively enjoy and manipulate and make into something you like."

Wondering about that Tropicália mentioned earlier? You're not alone. It was a short-lived '60s movement fusing Brazilian and African rhythms with rock 'n' roll and humorous lyrics in protest of Brazil's totalitarian government.

As a teenager poking through a record store, Adron stumbled upon one of the movement's ringleaders, Os Mutantes.

"There was some tag on it that said the 'Brazilian Beetles.' I just felt really at home in a lot of that music, even though I don’t speak Portuguese, and I don’t know the cultural context," Adron told The Red & Black.

This discovery led her to explore other Tropicalia artists and start creating what she calls "righteous tropical pop music" in English, Portuguese and French.

“(As) a songwriter who listens mostly to non-English-language music -- after a while, you start to feel like English just often isn't the right instrument for the vibe you want to get across,” she told Flagpole magazine. “Language is textured and musical all by itself.” 

Alongside her sonic artistry, Adron insists on personally creating the visuals for her album art and merchandise. For 2011's Organismo, she drew inspiration from the artwork of the Huichol people of western Mexico to produce an intricately beaded heart sculpture and mask.

Adron has been slowly recording material for her next two full-length albums since at least 2013: a concept album about death and mazes called Thanatrópica and a follow-up to Organismo entitled Water Music.

Set list:

• When I Leave You
• Low Key
• - interview -
• Wase
• Ave Maria

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Since 2000, this five-piece group out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has been picking its own version of bluegrass imbued with a rule-breaking spirit and a concert light show to rival any rock 'n' roll act.

"We bring bluegrass to people who aren't familiar with it. Often I’m told, 'I don’t even like bluegrass, but you guys are great,'" mandolinist and lead singer Paul Hoffman told Rolling Stone. "We're the gateway for some people; I think that's an important tradition."

Greensky Bluegrass began more traditionally. Over the past two decades, though, this "jamgrass" band has delved into original writing and exploratory jams, even winning the Telluride Bluegrass band competition in 2006 as a last-minute (and sleep-deprived) addition.

The group's latest studio effort, 2016's Shouted, Written Down & Quoted, contains 11 tracks running the gamut from freethinking improvisation to focused songwriting.

"There's a flow to this album, just like there's a flow to our setlists," Hoffman said. "There are some aggressive, rocking moments. Some bouncy, funky moments. An acoustic think piece or two. It's a balance of moods and textures that we create as a band, almost like a mix tape."

Joining Hoffman on a grueling tour schedule that can top 175 shows a year are Anders Beck on dobro (an awesome resonator slide guitar), Michael Arlen Bont on banjo, Dave Bruzza on guitar and Mike Devol on upright bass.

"We play two sets of music every night with a big light show and really care about creating a large-scale production," Bruzza said, adding that "the goal isn't just to play important music. We want to cultivate an experience, where people can escape from their everyday lives for a minute and put their worries aside."

Set list:

• Room Without a Roof
• - interview -
• Fixin' to Ruin

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The holidays are a great time to come together, reconnect with friends and family, share sumptuous meals, exchange gifts and, after all that face time, get far, far away from home and check out some awesome music.

This year, we are doubly blessed. Local favorites Pearlene are celebrating the 10th anniversary of one of the best albums ever written and recorded in Cincinnati, For Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, with a free show at the Northside Tavern Friday night.

The blues-spiked Americana rockers are offering fans the first-ever double-disc, 180 gram vinyl version of the 2007 album, which comes with the Rosemary Girl EP and some unrelated tunes from their Sons of Anarchy album -- featuring songs from the popular TV show -- on the local We Have Become Vikings Records label.

The limited-edition copy of the classic release features the original 9 tunes plus the bonus material in a double-gatefold, gold-stamped cover version with only 300 copies available for sale.

Setlist:

• Watch the Way
• We All Get Off
• - interview -
• Hosannah
• Bones on my Back
• High & Dangerous

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Breaking up can be soul-crushing. But for Alex Cohen writing, and singing, about it one way to help ease the pain. The frontwoman of four-year-old Brooklyn-via-Austin indie rock band Alex Napping channeled the hurt, confusion and distress of a painful romantic split into the band’s excellent second album, "Mise En Place," which came out on the Father/Daughter Records label in May. 

Speaking to Paste Magazine earlier this year, Cohen explained the inspiration behind the album’s nine emotionally rich songs. "While I was writing the songs on this record, and what a lot of the songs are about this time in my life where I was really unhappy; I was in a relationship that I was making a lot of personal sacrifices to be in, and I felt like I had lived my whole life on this idea that if I do things a proper way then things will turn out the way that I want them to,” she said. "I feel like while writing this record I slowly began to realize that things are way more chaotic and unpredictable than that.” 

So she did what so many young, creative seekers do with her broken heart: she wrote a song about it. A whole album, really, some of which she shared during her visit to the WCPO Digital Lounge for the latest Lounge Acts session. The emotionally fraught collection from the four-piece — which also includes guitarist Adrian Haynes, bassist Tomas Garcia-Olano and drummer Andrew Stevens — is anchored by Cohen’s feathery voice and clear-eyed, direct lyrics. One of the finest examples is from “Fault,” where she sings the laceratingly direct couplet, “There’s a pause in your breath, I know it/ There’s a fault in your step, I can tell/ If nothing is wrong then you’re lying/ The water’s all gone from your well.”

With a mix of alt rock sway and spare, sometimes icy arrangements that lift Cohen’s voice over the Haynes’ fuzzy guitar lines, the songs on "Mise" put her story front and center, bringing to mind the expansive sound of such beloved ‘90s shoegazer bands as Slowdive and Lush. From the subtle bubble of “Tender” to the loud-quiet-loud guitar rock of “You’ve Got Me” and the blistering “Temperamental Bed,” Alex Napping will feed your head and your heart.

Setlist:

• Fault
• Leave It
• - interview -
• Heart Swells 2.0
• Hear Me

Mixed by Brian Niesz

Hosted by Gil Kaufman

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If you’ve never seen Philadelphia’s Low Cut Connie live, let’s just say your nights have been kind of boring so far.

The excitable boogie-woogie rockers have been crisscrossing the country for the past seven years baptizing ever-increasing crowds with their patented high-energy tunes, propelled by wildman singer Adam Weiner and his trusty upright piano, “Shondra.”

Yes, she has a name, and by the end of Low Cut Connie's set you will know it well.

Think Jerry Lee Lewis fury meets Replacements-like gutter punk bounce on tracks such as signature shout-along anthem “Boozophilia” from 2012’s "Call Me Sylvia" album. (Not for nothing, but former Pres. Barack Obama put the song on his 2015 Summer Playlist, which landed Weiner and his wife a lunch at the White House.) Rounded out by drummer Larry Scotton, bassist Lucas Rinz and guitarists James Everhart and Will Donnelly, the band’s unique sound was born a decade ago when Weiner began landing gigs in old age homes, gay cabaret bars, children’s ballet classes and dive bars, perfecting his unique combination of '50s rock and punk attitude in front of any audience that would have him.

In addition to the Obama co-sign, the group got the ultimate 88-key stamp of approval earlier this year when the real Rocket Man, Elton John, kicked off an episode of his Rocket Hour Beats 1 radio show with the song “Dirty Water” from the group's latest album, "Dirty Pictures (Part 1)." That was topped off by John interviewing Weiner on the show and pledging to join the group on stage when Low Cut Connie plays in England in December.

"Dirty Pictures" is perhaps the best example yet of the group’s versatile sound, bouncing from the four-on-the-floor handclap young man blues of “Death and Destruction” to a Talking Heads-like new wave cover of Prince’s “Controversy” and the moody Memphis rumble of the title track. 

Set list:

• Dirty Water
• Death and Destruction
• - interview -
• Am I Wrong?

Mixed by Dave Chale

Hosted by Gil Kaufman

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Acclaimed Cincinnati songsmiths Young Heirlooms take you on a nostalgic journey with their sentimental, heartfelt original tunes. Music and lyrics composed by Kelly Fine and Chris Robinson are based on family history, personal experience, and adventures on the run.

Set list:

• Silverglade
• Bury Me (With My Hammer)
• - interview -
• Jellico
• Over & Over

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We all have vices, but few among us neatly package them into a sonic tour of our indiscretions. 

But thank the Lord for Suzanne Santo, who's fronted the duo HoneyHoney alongside Benjamin Jaffe for a decade. When her solo debut "Ruby Red" dropped in August, it sent listeners see-sawing through 11 tracks alternatively filled with vice and redemption. 

“There’s a lot of sex and booze on this record,” Santo told her hometown's weekly alternative paper, Cleveland Scene. "Just about every song has this common thread of accountability and reconciliation and sifting through parts of ourselves that aren’t savory."

Combining raw soul and honest Americana, Ruby Red marks an edgy change of pace for Santo from the album's very first line: "I want to smoke, I want to drink and screw every time I think about you."

Ruby Red borrows its name from producer Butch Walker's studios in Santa Monica, California, where Santo contributed vocals, guitar and banjo to his tour and latest album. Santo said she'd always been somebody else's bandmate, so she found time on the road with Walker to explore her own identity and forge it into Ruby Red, drawing inspiration from greats like Erykah Badu, David Bowie, Townes Van Zandt and Alabama Shakes.

"This record is so f***ing sexy, I can't deal," Walker said. "Proud to have been in the room when these songs were going down. Put it on and turn out the lights."

Set list:

• Ghost in My Bed
• Handshake
• - interview -
• Better Than That
• Best out of Me

Hosted by Austin Fast

Mixed by Brian Niesz

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