Less than a month after finishing his run on “Waitress” on Broadway, Jason Mraz is embarking on a solo acoustic tour. To be honest, I don’t know much about Jason Mraz other than the fact that in addition to music he grows and sells around 30,000 pounds of avocados to Chipotle every year. But if you’d like to feel like you’ve been transported back to a middle school dance, blast “I’m Yours.”
Emo band Moose Blood is crossing the pond for their U.S. headliner to support their upcoming album “I Don’t Think I Can Do This Anymore.” Their particular brand of emo is similar to Dashboard Confessional with a hint of pop punk: heavy, emotive songs about love and heartbreak. “Knuckles” off of their 2016 album “Blush” perfectly encompasses this. I also highly recommend the acoustic version — it’s perfect to cry to.
Of Montreal is the indie-pop brainchild of Kevin Barnes, which features an ever-changing lineup of musicians. The exact genre of their music has evolved over their 22 years of existence, incorporating elements of psychedelia to funk to punk rock. Their most recognizable song is probably “Gronlandic Edit” from their 2007 album “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?”
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
A Story Told describes themselves as “emotionally forward pop rock” inspired by popular pop punk groups Paramore and Blink-182, which can be heard in their song “All Of You.” These pop punk influences are also echoed in their supporting bands, Summer Wars (Raleigh), Come Clean (Greensboro) and propersleep (Raleigh). I saw Summer Wars open for The Summer Set at Motorco last year — Summer Wars, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I yelled “Go to hell, Duke” at you. I know we were in Durham, but you can’t wear a Duke hat without expecting someone to say something.
If my description of Moose Blood convinced you to buy tickets to their show, you either already knew that Dashboard Confessional was coming to Raleigh or you’re buying your tickets now. Dashboard Confessional, which started as a solo side project for singer Chris Carrabba, grew into a genre-defining band with their song “Vindicated” getting featured on the “Spider-Man 2” soundtrack.
Sorority Noise, an indie-punk band out of Connecticut, is probably best known for opening for pop-punk bands Modern Baseball, Knuckle Puck and Bayside. But three full-lengths later, Sorority Noise is now embarking on their third U.S. headlining tour. My personal favorite song of theirs is “A Portrait Of” off of the album “You’re Not as _____ as you Think.”
As one half of fictional step-brother duo “Drake & Josh,” Drake Bell’s most notable contribution to music is the theme song to the show. But while Josh Peck has been busy being an internet influencer, Drake Bell has been working on new music. The ~very NSFW~ video for his song “Rewind” came out on Valentine’s Day, showing a vast departure from the pre-pubescent Nickelback-sounding vocals of “I Found a Way.”
