Music

The Stepkids are an American psychedelic soul band composed of Tim Walsh, Jeff Gitelman, and Dan Edinberg. Their early live performances were characterized by kaleidoscopic projections by experimental video artists David Pond and Jesse Mann, consuming the stage with light for a multi-sensory experience while the band plays.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a revival movement of mid-1960s to mid-1970s style funk and soul music. They released their debut album Dap Dippin' in 2002, the first of seven studio albums. Their 2014 album Give the People What They Want was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Following Sharon Jones' death in 2016, the band released the posthumous album Soul of a Woman in 2017 and a compilation of cover songs in 2020.

The Dap-Kings, the Daptone house band are notable for their collaborations with Mark Ronson, including their contributions to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black. The band continued to work and perform together through 2018.

White Denim is an American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas, United States. Their music is influenced by dub, psychedelic rock, blues, punk rock, progressive rock, soul, jazz, experimental rock with home-based recording, jamming approach, intense looping work and unusual song structures.

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently during its first decade, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. Since early 2004, the lineup has been unchanged, consisting of Tweedy, Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released twelve studio albums, a live double album, and four collaborations: three with Billy Bragg and one with The Minus 5.

Cass McCombs is an American musician and songwriter. Since 2002 he has released ten albums, an EP and a B-sides compilation under his own name. McCombs' music blends elements of many styles including American roots music, underground music, country, psychedelia and international music. His satirical lyrics, often the focal point, touch on the ambiguities between the personal, the political, mortality and nature.

Charles Edward Bradley was an American singer. After years of obscurity and a part-time music career, Bradley came to prominence in his early 50s. His performances and recording style were consistent with the revivalist approach of his main label Daptone Records, celebrating the feel of funk and soul music from the 1960s and 1970s. One review said he "echoes the evocative delivery of Otis Redding".

James Edward Olliges Jr. (born April 27, 1978), professionally known as Jim James or Yim Yames, is an American vocalist, guitarist, producer, and primary songwriter of the rock band My Morning Jacket. He has a solo career, as well, and has released several solo albums.

James grew up in the Highlands–Douglass neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. He attended St. Martha grade school and graduated from St. Xavier High School in 1996. James briefly attended the University of Kentucky.

Prior to forming My Morning Jacket, James was the vocalist and guitarist of Month of Sundays, currently known as Mont de Sundua.

As the vocalist, frontman, producer and lead songwriter for My Morning Jacket, James has been instrumental in defining the sound of the band. He was given an "Esky" for best songwriter in Esquire's 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue.

Wise Up Ghost is a collaborative studio album by British singer/songwriter Elvis Costello and American hip hop group The Roots. The album was released on 17 September 2013, by Blue Note Records. The album's first single "Walk Us Uptown" was released on 23 July 2013.

Growing out of Costello's appearances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where the Roots are the house band, Wise Up Ghost was well-received by professional critics.

In January 2013, it was announced that The Roots and Elvis Costello were working on an album. On 29 May 2013, it was announced that the album would be titled Wise Up Ghost and would be released on 17 September 2013. In July 2013, in an interview with entertainment.ie, Roots drummer Questlove spoke about how the album started, saying: "Elvis first came on the Jimmy Fallon show in 2009. I knew he was a fan of the Voodoo album I did with D'Angelo, so we asked if he would be open to the idea of “remixing” his stuff. He was into it, so we did these radical versions of "High Fidelity" and "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea", and he loved it. Then we did that a second time the next year, and then last year he was on when the show did a Bruce Springsteen tribute week. At that point, I kinda subliminally put out the idea of a larger collaboration. I was passive-aggressively suggesting it—I was too afraid to actually say, “Let's make a record together."

Willis Earl Beal (also known as Nobody) is an artist and musician.

Willis Earl Beal was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. In his early twenties Beal joined the U.S. Army, moving to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Beal was medically discharged from the army due to intestinal and visual problems. He then returned to Chicago where he worked at Sears Tower, following a five-month hospital stay. In 2007, Beal moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here Beal spent some time homeless, and working entry-level jobs, notably as a night-shift security guard. During this time Beal began to record music, leaving CD-Rs in public spaces around Albuquerque. Beal would also leave self-illustrated flyers around the town in the hope of finding a girlfriend. One of these flyers was discovered by Found Magazine who put Beal on the cover of their magazine. Found later released a limited-edition box set called The Willis Earl Beal Collection, which included Beal's poetry, artwork and a 17-song album. Through these flyers and the subsequent coverage in Found, Beal was contacted by more than 100 members of the public. Beal participated in auditions for Simon Cowell's The X Factor television show, but dropped out of the "boot-camp" stage of the competition.

Brian Joseph Burton, known professionally as Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from the Beatles' The Beatles, also known as The White Album. In 2008, Esquire named him one of the "75 most influential people of the 21st century".

The War on Drugs is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 2005. The band consists of Adam Granduciel, David Hartley, Robbie Bennett (keyboards), Charlie Hall (drums), Jon Natchez, Anthony LaMarca (guitar) and Eliza Hardy Jones (keyboards).

Skeletons (also known as Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys, Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities, and Skeleton$) are an American entertainment unit from Oberlin, Ohio. They currently live in New York City.

Skeletons began as the solo project of Chicago native musician and filmmaker Matt Mehlan in 2001. In 2003, Mehlan released the albums Life and the Afterbirth and I'm At the Top of the World on Shinkoyo, an Oberlin College-based music collective known for its focus on group improvisation and DIY ethics. Following the name change from Skeletons to Skeletons & The Girl-Faced Boys and the addition of a rotating cast of collaborators, the full-length Git was released on Ghostly International Records in June 2005. In 2007, Skeletons released the album Lucas, also on Ghostly, under the name Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities. The album was recorded in the band's converted Queens warehouse studio and home, The Silent Barn.