"Olive Vox is the creation of singer-songwriter Parker James and his brother guitarist-songwriter Caden Shea. Originally from Orange County, CA, Parker & Caden moved to Texas as pre-adolescent kids searching to fit into a new landlocked environment. A skateboard accident sidelined Parker with a broken arm requiring metal plates and screws. Parker took advantage of his down time away from skating and football to concentrate on music, gaming and social media. Parker would spend the next couple years honing his music, especially lyric writing. Eventually he’d form a one man project called LOVELORN and release music on Soundcloud. Lovelorn gave him the chance to put the lyrics to music and to expand his melodic range. At the same time Parker was finding an audience online, quickly becoming a breakout creator on TikTok with his lifestyle and comedy videos, as the app launched. Parker patiently waited for Caden Shea, his younger brother, to discover his love for guitar so they could do music together. Spending hours perfecting his craft, Caden listened to the music that inspired him most, from indie fuzz rock to the discovery of classic grunge. As early as age 11 Caden was writing dozens of songs, recording them into his iphone in hopes that one day his dream of a real band would materialize. In 2020 Parker banded together with Caden who had, by now, become both a formidable guitar player and songwriter. Olive Vox was born. During the COVID induced lockdown Parker and Caden developed their sound influenced by psychedelic indie rock pioneer Ty Segall, garage rock, 90s grunge mainstays Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and 2000s Jack White, Cage the Elephant and more. Their Gen Z perspective makes the music they play resonate to an audience searching for a new, yet familiar, sound to embrace. Olive Vox debuted LIVE at Levitation Festival in Austin, Texas in late October 2021. The band’s self-titled debut album is set for release February 25th."

83-year-old Nimblewill Nomad is about to become the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. But he didn’t start at Springer Mountain, Georgia – his trek began on Flagg Mountain in Alabama, the true southern terminus of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Throughout his odyssey, he’s meeting hikers along the way and sharing the magic of Flagg Mountain, where he has been the caretaker for the past three years. With more than two decades and 50,000 miles of hiking experience behind him, will this really be his last last hike?

"""Dark Thoughts, one of the few pop-punk bands it’s OK for hardcore folks to like."" Dark Thoughts: Must Be Nice 12” (Stupid Bag) Dark Thoughts’ 3rd LP is out, and I think it’s their best one yet. If you heard the first two, this one is a little different, with less of a stylized, Ramones-influenced sound. There are very few bells and whistles (except for the literal bells on the climactic closing track), and an apparently simple formula: take some smart and heartfelt lyrics, find a 3 or 4-chord progression that goes along with their tone, and bash it out as power chords with Ramones-style drums playing at an appropriate tempo (mid-paced to super fast, depending on the tone). For most bands, that would be a fast track to a bunch of generic and boring songs, but for Dark Thoughts the minimal ornamentation highlights how great these songs are. The lyrics give me all the feels (as the kids were saying in the not-too-distant past), and every track has the fist-pumping, energetic and anthemic sound that makes Dark Thoughts one of the few pop-punk bands it’s OK for hardcore folks to like. The overall tone and vibe is similar to what I consider the peak period of Screeching Weasel, i.e. their run of LPs from My Brain Hurts through How to Make Enemies and Irritate People, but if you whittled those records down to the faster, darker tracks like “Hanging Around,” “The Science of Myth,” “Every Night,” etc. Like most of the individual tracks, the LP is short, but it's such a thrilling listen that I often play it a few times in a row, something I rarely do with other records. I’ve been playing Must Be Nice since the digital version first went online back in December, and it shows no signs of leaving the “current listening” pile any time soon. - Daniel Lupton, Sorry State Records"

"The cast of Radioactivity reads like the credits to an all-star lineup of Texas punk and garage rock royalty, including members of The Marked Men, Mind Spiders, Bad Sports, Wax Museums, The Reds, VIDEO, and The Novice. Jeff Burke is one of the most distinctive songwriters in the punk rock underground, and these songs will sound instantly familiar to any fans of the aforementioned. Radioactivity's first LP was rightly hailed as a sort of sequel to The Marked Men's remarkable run through the first decade of the millennium, and while Silent Kill bears the unmistakable hallmarks of that band's tightly wound ""Denton sound,"" Radioactivity can now lay claim to a sonic territory of their very own. Burke's distinctive hooks dig as deep as ever, but the scope of his vision has expanded. Although the twelve songs on Silent Kill abide one strict rule--providing garage punk pleasure at all costs--Radioactivity bend that mandate in myriad ways. Breathless ragers like ""Battered"" and ""No Alarm"" are as fleet and raw as anything in the combined canon of Radioactivity's members, while mid-tempo heartbreakers ""Way Out,"" ""Connection"" and ""Where I Come From"" find Burke and company opening up their sound to let in a little tenderness. And then there are songs like ""Not Here"" or ""With You,"" which enact perfect unions of melody and kinetic energy. Admirers of Burke's legacy will be not only satisfied, but pleasantly surprised. Homebase: Denton, Texas Label: Dirtnap Records"