GATHERING OF THE CLOUDS 2012 FEAT: Spindrift, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, Overcasters, Twin Guns, ...

Supporting Acts: Hearts in Space, Munly, Rowboat Row, le divorce, Wire Faces, Glass Homes, double shadow, Spires, Boyhollow, DJ Tyler Jacobson, DJ Jake Ryan, DJ Julie Lizak, DJ Mondo Garage

SPINDRIFT

"Spindrift: experimental, epic, cinematically inspired music more akin to the textured, symphonic layers of Portishead than the chaps and 10-gallon hat-wearing Riders in the Sky....makes you feel like you've just been made love to by a handsome stranger, a genius visceral experience." - LA WEEKLY "[Spindrift makes] you feel like you've been granted access to the distant memories of a two-bit-saloon harlot as she watches her nameless lover ride off into the sunset." - LA WEEKLY "Spindrift are living the American dream, were it written by acid-popping UFO enthusiasts with a hard-on for John Wayne" - THE SALT LAKE CITY WEEKLY -------------- Spindrift is: Kirpatrick Thomas - Guitar and Vocals Henry Evans - Bass and Baritone Guitar Luke Dawson - Pedal Steel and Guitar Sasha Vallely - Keyboards, Flute, and Vocals James Acton - Drums and Autoharp Additional Members: Riley Bray - Sitar, Tablas Marcos Diablero - Harmonium, Autoharp, & Slide Guitar Dan Allaire - Drums Past Members: Frankie Emerson - Keyboards, Organ Guitar Bobby Bones - Lead Guitar Jason "Plucky" Anchondo -Drums & Percussion Dave Koenig - Rhythm Guitar & Harmonica Julie Patterson - Lap Steel, Organ "Thomas and his musical cohorts are creating a scene that embraces the outlaw because of it. He calls this shady hombre the "spiritual vigilante," adding a psychedelic ingredient to the mix. It is in the old films and music of Leone, Morricone and the general spirit of the Wild West that he and other neo-cosmic cowboys have excavated an essence that seems more relevant today than ever before, a surreal and dark cowboy anti-hero for a spiritually and ethically decaying world." - LA Alternative Spindrift frontman Kirpatrick Thomas's fascination with the West has existed from childhood, stemming from his passion for films depicting the wild American frontier, especially those scored by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. This early interest has played a major part in his songwriting, and his druggy, spacious, psychedelic music found a supportive community in Los Angeles, where he arrived in the early part of the new millennium after a stint with the Brian Jonestown Massacre as a touring guitarist. Wholeheartedly embraced by the local music scene, members of BJM and the Warlocks joined Thomas in fits and starts at first before eventually leaving their former positions to play with Spindrift fulltime. The completed line-up prompted the rare phenomenon of creating a new genre unto itself, Spaghetti Western psychedelia. With a rapidly expanding fan base and a growing resume of many high profile shows, Spindrift attracted the attention of Indie 103.1 disc jockey (and Sex Pistol) Steve Jones of Jonesy's Jukebox, who began playing tracks from their album Songs From the Ancient Age on a regular basis. Since then, they have toured nationally a number of times. In 2005, Thomas, along with filmmaker Mike Bruce, produced a feature film entitled The Legend Of God's Gun, for which Spindrift also wrote the soundtrack. Starring members of the band, it was shot in and around Death Valley, Joshua Tree and Los Angeles in the style of 1960s Spaghetti Western films, and was screened at the 2008 Cannes Market and premiered (as a drive-in) in California in May of the same year. Spindrift was also given the nod by Quentin Tarantino who chose their song "Indian Run" to be included in the soundtrack for the latest film he produced, Hell Ride, released August 2008, and starring Dennis Hopper and Michael Madsen. The bands tracks, "Ace Coletrain" and "Girlz, Booze, Gunz", have also appeared on HBO's East Bound and Down and will be featured in upcoming films, Treasure Of The Black Jaguar, Dust Up, and Legend of the Widower Colby Wallace. Relentless US touring has given them the opportunity to share the stage with such bands as Dead Meadow, The Black Angels, Vietnam, country legend Charlie Louvin, A Place To Bury Strangers, Black Mountain, and The Dandy Warhols, as well as headlining nearly a dozen US tours of their own and an appearance at The Monolith Festival at Red Rocks. In the spring of 2010, the band seized the opportunity to tour in Europe as main support for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Spindrift's forthcoming album "Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1" is scheduled for release early May 2011 on Xemu Records (Dead Meadow, The Morning After Girls). The album was mixed and engineered by Ethan Allen (Gram Rabbit) and is currently being mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, The Beastie Boys, Ramones). "Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1" is a highly cinematic album. The songs on the album were written as themes from films past and present and range greatly in style. A different director will be represented for each video ranging in cinematic style as well.

Snake Rattle Rattle Snake

With songs as seductively venomous as its name suggests, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake began in October 2008 when veterans of the underground music scene in Denver decided to pursue a mutual interest in darkly atmospheric music with a grounding in dance rhythms. Since its debut performance on Valentine's Day 2009, the band has played numerous shows including sharing the stage with the likes of Amazing Baby, Pink Mountaintops, Wovenhand and The Entance Band. With severe yet ethereal guitars chiming over the top of tribal percussion, shot through with singer Hayley Helmericks' caustic lyrics, Snake sounds like a vital combination of spooky surf band, haunted carnival rock and Siouxsie Sioux fronting a pre-synth-driven New Order. The sense of menace and haunted introspection heard in the act's music ultimately transforms in the end into the kind of catharsis born of vanquishing personal demons with a joyfully cinematic flair. One of this band's secret weapons is the interlocking rhythmic structure created by dual percussionists Andrew Warner and Kit Peltzel. The rich percussive textures allow the seething whirl of guitar interplay between Doug Spencer and Wilson Helmericks to ride on the waves of James Yardley's driving bass lines. The resultant harrowing aesthetic is one shared with the early releases of The Rapture and Goblin's soundtrack work for Dario Argento. Always an inspiringly compelling live act, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake is poised to strike out of the insular Denver rock scene and into wider pastures. -Tom Murphy

Overcasters

If you've been paying attention for the past several years, you know that scores of bands have been cultivating atmospheric pop music with sweeping melodic hooks. While most claim Joy Division as a predecessor, too many are diluted third-rate Radiohead clones. It might seem foolish for Overcasters to tread such well-worn ground - but instead of trying to emulate their heroes or aping the latest trend, the group's members are focused on what they want to do with their music and the way they want it to feel. In the textured guitar sparkle and roil, you can hear hints of Will Sergeant's arresting tones, the House of Love's impeccable sense of phrasing and Catherine Wheel's swirling exorcisms, while the sinuous and forceful rhythm section accents and directs the music. The vocals are plaintive - not from desperation, but out of a conviction that life and music are much more than cheap commodities and that love, in the larger sense, is what keeps our fragile world going in the right direction. Overcasters isn't a bunch of mope-rockers who came late to the Manchester scene plunder party only to shy away from the precipice of Ian Curtis' tortured psyche on the way to the dance club. The melancholy you'll hear in the music isn't born of anguish and despair. Rather, it is the expression of a preference for deep emotional experiences even if they leave you shaken to the core. Beyond the indigo atmospherics, Overcasters are a rock and roll band. Its defiant spirit and sonic exuberance can be heard across the entirety of its latest album, The Whole Sea is Raging. Website: www.overcasters.com/

Twin Guns

New York's TWIN GUNS features Andrea Sicco (Oscura, Rockethouse) and "Jungle" Jim Chandler (The Cramps, The Makers). Despite being just a duo, Twin Guns has the power and chops to really bring it. Drenched in reverb, fuzz and an overdose of atmosphere, Twin Guns combine parts Jesus & Mary Chain, the Count Five/Seeds vibe, and the New York "No Wave" scene into its own dark stew.

Land Lines

voices, cellos, drums Former members of Matson Jones

Varlet

Minted together by psychedelic, folk, rock, and doo-wop influences, Varlet is an indie genre-bending sonic dream layered over earthy, driving drums. On Varlet's November 2011 release, "The Drifter," Lilly Scott's vocals rise like bubbles bursting into a rocking jazz wail, as if Billie Holiday decided to resurrect and front a Neil Young-inspired indie act. The drums pulse with earthy distinction and song structures on guitar, lap steel, and piano range from classical composition, to jazz, to intricately woven '60s and '70s psychedelic progressions. Yet Varlet's lyrical content may be the grittiest element the band offers on The Drifter. All members collaborate on each track's instrumentation and lyrics. Their partnership creates tangible narrative settings in every song on the new album: Perhaps Varlet is exploring the female experience of constructed identity ("High Heels", "Lady Lie"), or delivering straightforward commentary on the subculture of a city big enough to raise social adrenaline, yet small enough to wrap around yourself ("Eastern", "In My Pocket"). Fast riffs over folk elements pound your heart steadily into your throat as you listen to the only current female-fronted act delivering haunted, candid lyrics about modern urban life, without packaging that content into a gimmick. The Drifter realizes Varlet's artistic vision to effect a striking amalgam of experimental folk with pulsing rock and roll undertones. "VAR-LET" -- A Shakespearian word meaning a rogue: a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel.