Skip The Needle

Skip the Needle: Born from group of friends jamming: all veterans of multiple bands, tours, recording. Shelley Doty (Shelley Doty X-tet, Jambay) guitar, Kofy Brown (Kofy Brown Band, Sistas in the Pit) drums, Katie Cash (Katie Cash, Dolorata, Year of the Fist) guitar and Vicki Randle (the Tonight Show, Mavis Staples) bass. The band is the collective effort of four Bay area bandleaders, each lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, performer and songwriter. Lead singing duties rotate among the members while the others add background vocals. The songs are collectively written to showcase each member’s unique contributions, bringing together rock, funk, soul and fusion in an amalgam that rocks hard and is also musically diverse and complex; carries a strong, socially conscious message but wants everybody to party while hearing it. If Jimi Hendrix, Chrissie Hynde and Chaka Kahn cloned a baby, this band would be the result. Skip the Needle is reckless, eclectic, fearless and fun, dedicated to love and like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Skip the Needle Rocks the Love.

Links
www.skiptheneedle.com
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Zoe Boekbinder

Zoe Boekbinder (they/them) is a singer/song-writer/activist who currently resides in New Orleans, LA. Co-founder of the Prison Music Project, an album in collaboration with men currently and formerly incarcerated in New Folsom, a maximum security prison in California. From May 2010 to December 2014, Zoe volunteered as a performer and teacher at New Folsom Prison. Over those years, Zoe collaborated on songs using words offered by incarcerated men. In 2014, Zoe asked Ani DiFranco (having never met her before) to produce this record. 10 years later, it was released on June 12, 2020. The profits of the album benefit prisoners’ rights groups.

Links
www.zoeboekbinder.com
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Rooster Blackspur

Former lead-singer of Moody Little Sister band, Rooster is a born and raised Alaskan who set off from a life in the wilderness to the life of a full-time touring musician.
After spending the past ten years touring the lower 48 as Moody Little Sister , Rooster is currently working on her fourth album of original songs and booking now for her Solo Tour in 2020.
Drawn to the enchantment of the southwest, Blackspur stuck gold when she stumbled into a quirky small desert town in New Mexico nearly 4 years ago.
Some souls return to where they came from, and entwined in the new songs that have emerged from the influence of tireless sun and intense heat, a new sound has been forged in this singer-songwriter , the sounds of Southwestern Soul.
From the snow and ice to the cactus and tumblweeds comes a gritty performer, full of jangle and covered in dust, taking you through story and song on a timeless road trip through the Southwest on a horse with no name.

Links
www.roosterblackspur.com
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Heather Hills

Heather is a small town girl who always dreamed of a life bigger than the people and places she frequented. Always being put down for being different pushed her creativity to a level that would save her from suburban hell.

With her very house/electric hip hop/PC pop, Heather can take you back to 2006 with the snap of a finger. It’s almost like Missy Elliot, Britney Spears, Azaelia Banks, Nicki Minaj and Janet Jackson all came together into one girl!

Heather Hills doesn’t care about what you think about her and isn’t afraid to let that be known. An attitude that is very much contagious and takes over every heart present at her performances. Listening to Heather Hill is like taking a shot of confidence. And unlike motivational speaker, it only takes her 3 minutes to get her point across.

Links
www.transtrenderz.com/team/Heather-Hills
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Apollo Flowerchild

Apollo Flowerchild’s story is one of transformation. From a history battling addiction and the silencing of their identity, Apollo manages to rise above the roughness of other, and even themselves, lerning to reach new heights with every song they write.

Apollo’s music is a delicate blend of indie folk and soul. Their voice, reminiscent of the richness of artists like Khalid and Daniel Cesar, remains versatile to appeal to fans of artists like Ed Sheeran and John Mayer.

Apollo Flowerchild is an artist that finds beauty in the hardships of life. Like a flower growing our of the concrete, Apollo’s past has taught them how to be resilient yet stay soft. Their compassion shines through their presence and they have a gift for making their audience feel cared for.

Apollo Flowerchild is a NYC-based indie-folk multi-instrumentalist. They’ve been writing songs for about 5 years and have developed their voice to cover complex, difficult subjects with a sense of soulful beauty. Their voice is like spring after a long winter, holding the pain and soul of the cold, while expressing hope and lightness.

Links
www.transtrenderz.com/team/Apollo-Flowerchild
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Madeline Finn

Madeline Finn touches on a wide range of sonic directions in her solo work: sparse folk, meditative piano ballads, twangy rock, and string-laced indie. Luckily, the Cleveland-raised singer-songwriter is also the rare vocal talent with the range to handle just about any music she wants to write. She’ll howl and whisper, rage and mourn, croon and conspire—always with breathtaking precision and heart-piercing sincerity. A Top 70 American Idol finalist in 2018, Finn has also fronted two bands (the pop-punk-leaning band Envoi, Americana-tinged trio Whiskey Hollow) and toured throughout New England, the Pacific Northwest, and her adopted hometown of Nashville. Currently she’s working on new solo music mixed by Dave Schiffman (Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Frank Turner).

Links
www.madelinefinnmusic.com
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Eli Conley

Eli Conley titled his sophomore album “Strong and Tender,” but he might well have been describing himself. His songs address big themes like gender, aging, and death through the concrete and immediate details of daily life: a stolen truck, a flopping fish, a dime in the pocket. Eli founded Queer Country West Coast, a regular series featuring LGBTQ roots artists in the Bay Area, and has been featured in the Huffington Post, NPR Music, and the Advocate. At heart, Eli is a clear-eyed songwriter with high hopes for the human race. His songs urge us to love ourselves even when it feels like the world does not. You can’t help but sing along.

Links
www.eliconley.com
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