The Lifts are full throttle rock n’ roll fusion. Their music contains elements of progressive rock, metal and blues; a strong combination of muscle, imagination and weight. Their self-titled EP has what it takes, hitting us hard, endowing us with wit and an artistic certainty. Showing off their biceps, you are instantly satisfied. “What’s Her Face” is pure rock n’ roll with an ambitious sound. “The Sky is Peeling” sinks its teeth into you with grunge grit, heavy guitars and a luscious delayed vocal. “Darling” beats a drum with a heavy bellowing bluesy backbone and a vocal that “doesn’t let us down”. The last track on the EP “Mescal Blues” knocks on your heart with an unforgettable melody, as if you have known it forever; pulling its weight of heavy combinations of dark and light sounds. Don’t miss The Lifts this Friday March 20th @ The Cameron House.

Foxy Lemon and Cambrian Explosion, two distinguished bands in the Portland music scene, will release a split Joint EP, on Saturday, March 14th. In support of the release, the two bands headline Kelly's Olympian Saturday night along with Moon By You and Spirit Lake.

In the mood for some rock n' roll? It's Tuesday night--of course you are! Head over to TT the Bear's in Central Sq. (Cambridge, MA) for a colossal lineup. Locals Atlantic Thrills, Black Beach and CreaturoS will be setting the stage for San Francisco's Cool Ghouls, who are currently working their way around the US. You won't regret staying out late on a worknight, but you'll probably regret staying in and not going to this show. Music starts at 8:30PM. $10, 18+ with proper ID.

For more info about the show (including set times), click here.

-Dan McMahon (@dmcmhn)

 Avers has released a new video via Nylon for "Evil," off their debut album Empty Light. It's a sinsiter track, full of hooks, with distorted vocals hovering above pounding drums, a driving bass, and screaming guitars. Like all of Empty Light, it's all analog and masterfully produced. The video is a crazy Carnivalesque basement party, drowned in drugs, and not everyone is having the best of times.

Avers is back on tour this month, heading down through the southeast before taking a right towards SXSW. You can catch them tonight in DC at Black Cat Backstage with Nashville's ELEL to wiish them luck. --Natan Press    

If his music is anything to go by, Caterwaulrus is probably a nice dude to kick it with. He seems like he could be the kind that'd show up to a hang with some flowers he picked on his walk over, just for you, but who'd also be willing to tell you that he feels a bit weird about killing something pretty. That feeling of sunshine and good days with an underlying soft gloom just drips from the sound on songwriter's newest album, the just-released "Songs that Go Nowhere." That title is a bit misleading, but also a bit of the truth- these songs do float around like gentle clouds, but they're also dense and complex and there's nothing ambiguous about the way they hone in on their target tone. The album is laced with looping vocals all reverb-ed out to blissfulness, little electronic touches and pieces of beats, all of which melds together with no element ever threatening to overwhelm the rest of the track. And, despite the expansive warmth and haze in the sound, the sounds collectively bely the underlying subject of the tracks on the album, which almost all speak of Caterwaulrus' melancholy. Lyrics like "I'm so fucking picky and I over think god damn everything," or "I'm a synesthetic skeptic slowly snoozing with regret, it's not quite what mom expected" reveal a mind that is a bit worried and not always happy with itself, though it'd like to be, and that thought tunnels through the whole album. But, it's delivered in such a poppy (albeit highly experimental pop), major-key fashion, buried deep within the summer smile that is the overriding tone, that you barely notice that these aren't songs about having a good day at all. It's a modern feeling buried in a modern sound, and if you have enjoyed artists like Toro y Moi in the recent past, you might find Caterwaulrus a good fit for your modern moods. Give it a go below, and float through your own contemporary, confusing life with a friend in your ear who understands.