Doug Gillard’s formidable body of recordings is as impressive as it is voluminous, encompassing his work asa key member of such notable combos as Guided by Voices, Nada Surf, Death of Samantha, Cobra Verde, and Gem, as well as an array of noted collaborations with the likes of Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Bill Fox, and The Hold Steady. Parallel Stride is the Ohio-bred, New York-based singer/songwriter/multi- instrumentalist’s fourth official solo album.

Although he’s well established as a luminary of the American indie-rock community, Gillard’s musical sensibility is firmly rooted in the time-honored old-school virtues of catchy melodic craft, emotionally resonantlyrics and emotion-charged performances. Parallel Stride standouts “Face Of Smiles”, “Yes, She Loves Me”and “Lost Alarmists” effortlessly embody the magnetic melodicism and vivid wordplay that have been constants in his work. “Wire backing Paul McCartney”, the apt shorthand that’s been used to describe Gillard’s output, is especially on-point in regards to parts of Parallel Stride, and his second and third albums, Parade On and Call From Restricted.

Growing up in the rock ‘n’ roll hotbed of Cleveland, Gillard’s talents established him early on as a major player in his hometown’s underground rock renaissance. He first gained attention as a charter member of seminal glam-punk iconoclasts Death of Samantha. Later, he co-founded the D.O.S. spin-off Cobra Verde and simultaneously recorded and released two albums, an EP and various singles of his own compositions with his combo Gem.

In 1997, Gillard began his first tenure as lead guitarist and occasional songwriter with Ohio lo-fi legends Guided by Voices. During that period, he penned the single “I Am A Tree” and was featured on six of theband’s albums as well as various singles, EPs and side projects. By the time they initially disbanded in 2004, Gillard had already branched out as a solo artist with the acclaimed Malamute Jute EP (1998). In 2005, he released Salamander, his first full-length album under his own name, after 15 odd years of contributing solo songs to various compilations.

Moving to New York in 2007 further intensified Gillard’s output. In addition to playing his own shows and releasing his 2009 solo album Call from Restricted, he also became a member of popular alt-rockers Nada Surf as well as all-star Beatles tribute combo Bambi Kino. He also composed and recorded the scores for the independent features American Cannibal and Donnybrook, as well as produced albums by Eternal Summers, The Bye Bye Blackbirds, and Sally Crewe and The Sudden Moves. Gillard rejoined GbV in2016. In 2023, he was listed in Rolling Stone’s list of 250 best guitarists, and was the subject of a multi-page feature in Guitar Player magazine in 2024.

His prestigious resume aside, the eleven effortlessly engaging tunes that comprise Parallel Stride rank withthe most compelling music that Gillard’s ever created. The album was recorded in the New York City area by co-producer Tom Beaujour at Nuthouse Recording, and Travis Harrison at Serious Business Recording.

Matt Hunter & the Dusty Fates formed just before the pandemic, as a vehicle for longtime indie rock musician Matt Hunter to lead a band again. 

“The idea for the Dusty Fates is that it would be an unstable, constantly changing cast of people, with me as the sole full-time member,” said Hunter. “I love the idea that a band’s dynamic can constantly be in flux, based on whoever’s around, who wants to play at a given time, and who might be best for a particular song.”

“It means that your songs can be completely different every time they’re performed, and you have to be ready for that. I find that thrilling.”

Hunter has a long pedigree in underground rock music. He was a co-founder of Western Massachusetts’ New Radiant Storm King, which put out nine records on many different labels over 20 years. The band toured extensively, playing with bands like Guided By Voices, Grifters, Polvo, Built to Spill, and many others. 

Independently, Hunter has played or recorded with J. Mascis & the Fog, Silver Jews, King Missile, the Wharton Tiers Ensemble, and SAVAK, and also is in New York City’s The Whimbrels. His first solo record, New Rotations, was released on Darla several years ago.

For his latest album, and the first one to appear under the “Dusty Fates” moniker, he recruited drummers Roger Murdock (of King Missile) and Hampus Öhman-Frölund. Hunter handled most of the guitar and bass duties, but other friends were brought along to fill various roles – including a number of NYC luminaries.

Hunter’s former (and sometimes current) New Radiant Storm King bandmate Peyton Pinkerton added chiming Irish concert scale bouzouki to the dreamy “Sandcastle Row.” Dave Rick, of NYC legends King Missile and Phantom Tollbooth, added his unique squealing guitar sounds to “Narrator.” Gerard Smith, formerly also of Phantom Tollbooth and the Royal Arctic Institute, added bass to “Narrator” and “Take Your Sweet Time.” Robert Poss, of Band of Susans, added drone and noise to “Weed Garden.” Matt Sutton’s jarring and anxious pedal steel added a unique flavor to “Reindeer Soul,” and Jennifer Coates’ Appalachian-tinged pentatonic violin playing appear all over the album. Jim Santo, co-producer, engineer, and mixer, added guitar on many tracks, bass on a few, and helped make the entire thing happen.

“I think this approach really worked on this record. The songs are really diverse stylistically, and the variety of players pushed things in directions I didn’t expect. But despite that, emotionally the record feels coherent, all of a single piece.”

Hoboken’s Karyn Kuhl has always evoked the hum of NYC right across the river, with all of its tension and light. Her new Dromedary Records single No Traces (produced by Charlie Nieland) is no exception, evoking post-punk with a touch of the ethereal. Karyn draws a scene of loss and transcendence, with her lush voice and icy synths glinting off the driving guitars and drums, all tough and glossy. The Tower (produced by Larry Heinemann) rounds out the two-sided single release, with moonlit swampy grace. 

Karyn Kuhl first received national acclaim for her early bands Gut Bank and Sexpod, growing out of the vibrant Hoboken music scene and the legendary club Maxwell’s. Over the past 20 years, she has released nine LPs, EPs and singles under her own name and with her band. With her solo material, Karyn lets the unexpected and the familiar take shape into sculptures of melody and noise, sensual, ethereal and heavy. With her alluring mix of different rock styles, she continues to push the boundaries with No Traces‘ retro and modern sound, finding the enigmatic in the everyday. 

These days, she performs both as a solo act and leading Karyn Kuhl & The Gang. In addition to her long-time rhythm section of drummer Jonpaul Pantozzi and bassist Lou Ciarlo, the band now includes guitarist/producer Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainright). Karyn’s music has been used in several films & series and is available on all streaming platforms. 

No Traces b/w The Tower will be available as a 7” single and digital download at dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com

Discography

“I Feel Love” single

Earthbound. Interstellar overdriving or rooted in terra firma? Both, both. On their 11^th album, 30 years down the line, Columbus, Ohio collective Moviola step on with a world-weary stride, holding two thoughts at the same time, containing multitudes, making the most personal, direct, and urgent music of their lives.

In between the cracks of the musical Rust Belt, Columbus, Ohio’s Moviola has quietly—FOR 30 YEARS—produced an expansive catalog, with (now) 11 records and countless 7” inch singles, a radio show, and a concert film to their name, spanning everything from 4-track fuzz-pop to hi-fi country soul. With five equal singers and songwriters—the whole is greater than the parts, democratic ideals, Gestalt theory in action.Recording themselves, in studios that they built themselves. Writing and performing fully fleshed concert films. As much prankster art collective as…band. Some parallel universe Midwestern EGOT stuff, right there. A small cadre of supportive labels, writers and fans have followed along for the ride. This August, they return with record #11, Earthbound, their first on Kingston, New York-based Dromedary Records. 

Started by Jake Housh in 1993 in a duplex near Ohio State, the band, on early 45s and 1994’s Frantic sounded less like their Columbus punk contemporaries, and more like “Neil Young’s noisy nephews” (LA Weekly). Throughout their early career, the group played live shows with kindred bands like Fruitbats, Flaming Lips, Calexico, Califone, Guided By Voices, and many others, yet it was the pursuit of collective learning-by-doing, happy accidents, experimentation and recording in various basement, warehouse, and attic studios that became their primary raison d’être. In quick succession, The Year You Were Born (1997), Glen Echo Autoharp (1998), and The Durable Dream (1999) saw the group cover wide sonic turf, traversing buzzing lo-fi rock, Space Echo® folk, pure pop arrangements, and nooks in between. Split singles were fast and frequent as well, sharing sides with like-minded friends like the Handsome Family, Cobra Verde, Tobin Sprout, Hiss Golden Messenger and Eric’s Trip. Rumors of the Faithful (2001), East of Eager (2004) and Dead Knowledge (2007) came next, and found the band growing in sound and scope. A singles compilation Broken Horses (2008), Scrape and Cuss (2019), Broken Rainbows (2022) bring us up to the release of Earthbound. 
As has been the unique blueprint for how they approach music-making, Earthbound contains multitudes: shared songwriting from each member of the group, at times lush, at others coarse, yet the result has a singular “Moviola-ness” about it all, occupying its own headspace. Recorded in Columbus, Brooklyn, and Brattleboro, it’s the most realized, succinct and least ambiguous effort of their career. Five separate voices, coming off as one, a band of brothers, no time for mincing words. Can a group be hitting its stride 30 years in? It seems so. Listen in.

Overheard’s offbeat brand of indie rock is both tender and frenetic. Weaving together elements of folk with rock and grunge, their dynamic and melodic songs shift between delicate moments and knotty catharsis. Originating in the Hudson Valley, Overheard now has members in both Kingston and Brooklyn. 

After becoming friends at a dive bar in Kingston, NY, guitarists Erin Barth-Dwyer and Will LaPorte made a drunken vow to play music together. Unlike most promises of artistic link-ups made by 20-somethings, they committed. After adding Kenny Thomas on bass guitar, the group chose the name Overheard for reasons lost to time.

Having formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the band spent most of their first year together engaging in socially-distanced backyard practices. During this time, they honed Barth-Dwyer’s tender, folk-leaning songwriting and LaPorte’s tendency toward distortion and hard rock into original songs. Post-lockdown, the band went on to perform at many Hudson Valley staples, including Kingston’s Tubby’s, Catskill’s Avalon Lounge, and Woodstock’s Colony. After releasing their debut single ‘Doesn’t Matter’ in May of 2022, the trio was approached at a house show by Kenny Hauptman (Top Nachos, Larry Locust). Having heard the ghost of his future parts in their performance, Hauptman was an immediate fit, rounding out the group on drums. 

Overheard has become known locally for their ‘soft-then-hard’ style. Barth-Dwyer brings intricately finger-picked guitar and a voice that ebbs between soft lullaby and emotional belt, delivering lyrics of being, memory, and home. LaPorte, providing backing and occasionally lead vocals, writes of childhood and what it leaves us, underscored by tastefully chaotic, overdriven guitar melodies. Thomas carries the group through its moments of peace and aggression with their lush and harmonious bass lines, while Hauptman is either a smooth resident of the pocket or a blonde blur behind the kit – all while providing backing vocals. 

After a year of dialing in their sound, the band connected with Hauptman’s long-time friend, producer and local musician Dylan Nowik (Camp Saint Helene, Steady Sun). In January of 2024, they spent a week at Dylan’s Pine Knoll Studio in Palenville, NY. Over the course of seven long days, many fresh pots (of coffee), and several sandwiches, the band and Nowik crafted Overheard’s debut LP, the forthcoming indie rock diary, Intertwined. 

Poet Karen Schoemer records and performs with several bands, including Sky Furrows, Jaded Azurites, Ivan the Tolerable, Day for Nights, and Karen & Peter. A former music journalist, she came to poetry and performance in midlife, with decades of music immersion in tow. Her first collaboration was with Oli Heffernan and Mike Watt in the band Detective Instinct; she contributed words and vocals to the 7” vinyl EPs Schoemer Songs and Falling in Lilacs in 2013. Sky Furrows has released two albums: Sky Furrows (Tape Drift/Skell/Philthy Rex) in 2020 and Reflect and Oppose(Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube) in 2023, and has performed with Oneida, Garcia Peoples, Savak, and Sweeping Promises. Jaded Azurites, a bass/voice duo with Mike Watt, has released seven digital EPs since 2018. Day for Nights (Sparrows & Wires) was a collaboration with Chicago guitarist Zak Boerger, who passed away from cancer in June 2025.

Schoemer published a nonfiction book, Great Pretenders: My Strange Love Affair with ‘50s Pop Music (Free Press) in 2006. She hosted The Schoemer Show on WGXC 90.7 FM in the Hudson Valley from early 2010’s. In 2019 she earned a master’s degree in creative writing from The Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s University in Brooklyn. 

In 2015-2016, Schoemer attended summer writing workshops with poet Bernadette Mayer, a former director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project known for her language experiments. In 1971, at the age of 26, Mayer took a 36-exposure roll of film every day for a month and kept fastidious notes on everything that happened. That material became Memory, an art exhibit with a 6-hour stream-of-conscious recorded narration, and eventually a book. August is partly an homage to Mayer, with 31 poems constructed collage-style into “a month of August.” Schoemer wrote the raw material in August of 2022, then spent weekends at an artist’s residency at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead in Pittsfield, MA (the house where he wrote Moby-Dick in 1851), cutting up the material and rearranging it into poems that float on top of the original hand-written notes. 

She recorded the vocals at home in the winter of 2024-25. Sky Furrows bassist Eric Hardiman, who contributed several tracks to the album, co-produced, mixed, and mastered.