SONS OF RA
Sons of Ra formed in Chicago in 2000 as a collaborative experimental instrumental musical project. The identity and lineup of the band morphed considerably during the 2000s playing around the midwest, experimenting with mixing electronic music with straight ahead and hard bop influences. The band went on a brief hiatus and returned in 2014 as a trio. The current line up embraces their roots in jazz fusion, heavier progressive music with a bend for experimentation in their newest compositions, drawing from Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, avant-garde composition inspired by Glenn Branca, and post metal/math acts such as Russian Circles and Don Caballero, occasionally incorporating extreme metal references from bands such as Cynic, Blotted Science and Behold… the Arctopus.
YOU BRED RAPTORS?
You Bred Raptors? is a three piece band with the Music Under New York program busking with legal permits in New York City. They are an orchestral post rock ensemble made up of 8 string bass, cello, glockenspiels and drums. Recently, the band has performed with Yoko Ono at her One Woman Show at the Museum of Modern Art, played close to 50 cities since 2015, performed and spoken at an official TED Talk, commissioned to be the house band for ADULT SWIM at Comic Con and provided soundtrack/scoring for TROMA Pictures. They have played alongside Spoon, Too Many Zooz, Kellindo Parker (Janelle Monae), Secret Chiefs 3, Snarky Puppy, Consider the Source, Big Something, Stu Hamm, I Fight Dragons, The Protomen, Bear McCreary (composer for the Walking Dead) and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), and were featured on Good Day New York, WNYC Radio, in The Economist, The Atlantic Magazine, Strings Magazine and Bass Guitar Magazine. The band has residencies across the boroughs including being a house band at the off-Broadway show “Sleep No More”.
FIRE GARDEN
Fire Garden is a music project founded in Chicago in 2011. A brainchild of songwriter Zee Baig the music fuses progressive rock with a wide range of styles such as rock, pop, industrial, and metal. Their main philosophy is to portray emotions with sound and lyrics without compromising the soul of music. Fire Garden with 2 full-length records Far and Near (2016) and Sound of Majestic Colors (2014) along with one EP The Prelude (2012) continues to breaching all the rules on exploration to define its own sound.
SNOWMAN
SNOWMAN is Michael Burns, bludgeon riff lord for heavy prog dicks Electric Hawk and sensuous texture prince for deep sonic Americana two-piece Mouth Captain. Like the Pele of guitar soccer, expect bendy Bill Frisellian moods, subtle bell-like virtuosity, and misty eyed instrumental versions of some recognized and not-so-recognized rock tunes from all eras.