Foxtails Brigade The Hollywood Hills-born daughter of a cult filmmaker and sister of offbeat stand-up comedian Brent Weinbach, Laura grew up in a musical household that embraced eccentricity. Laura started Foxtails Brigade in 2006 with her friend, violinist Sivan Sadeh. She moved to San Francisco a year later, playing every club and street corner and she could find and it wasn't long before the city started to notice. She quit her day job as a substitute teacher in 2009 and has been a full-time performer ever since, sharing stages with Faun Fables, Chris Garneau and Bart Davenport amongst others. She has collaborated with a number of talented musicians in Foxtails Brigade, including cellists Jen Grady, Robin Reynolds and Lewis Patzner and multi- instrumentalist Joshua Pollock. Her most recent musical partner is violinist and arranger Anton Patzner of Bright Eyes and Judgement Day. Panther and Bear Fight Founded in the Gold-flooded Foothills of Northern California, we are a unique six-piece band specializing in thematic sing-along performances with a ghastly Victorian-era flair. Promoting the pure rawness of our version of the hits of the 1870's, we also do spooky originals and ghost town anthems. Lasher Keen The world of Lasher Keen is both dark and bright, living and past, mythically inspired and mystically sensual. Comprised by multi-instrumentalists Dylan Sheets and Bluebird Gaia with a rotating cast of musical collaborators, Lasher Keen make music that’s inspired by ritual-induced trance states, yet grounded infolk traditions. Drawing on a wide swath of influences stretching from Neolithic British psychedelia to the distant underworld of matriarchal times, they are a band who transmute the dust of history into the gold of creation. The release of their latest album, Berserker on the Pesanta Urfolk label shows them broadening theirscope furthertoincorporate disparateelementsranging from Motown soul tosea shantiesand delicate harp music.Aidedbyalt-folk luminarieslike Dawn McCarthy (Faun Fables, Bonnie "Prince" Billy), Cornelius Boots and Nils Frykdahl (Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum, Faun Fables), they avoid the usual musical clichés witha battery ofstrange instruments including the bouzouki, jaw harp, hunting horns, singing saw, glockenspiel, penny whistle, bodhran, autoharp, accordion, zils, baritone sax and shakuhachi flute alongwith traditional harp, acoustic guitars, cello, violin, bass and hand-drums. Their deeply cathartic live performances tread the fine line between rock concert and elaborate Pagan ritual. Dressed in cloaks and leathers and awash in tribal war paint, theycreate a sacred space onstage where the spirits ofthe underworld are invoked and honored. Deftly switching instruments mid-song, they create an atmosphere of danger and passion, melding the stately naturism of Pentangle with the grinding miasma of the Velvet Underground. The roots of their live shows can be tracedfrom The Grand Guignol theatre of 19th century Paris to the subtle “rockas ritual” performances of pranksters like Sun Ra and Diamanda Galas. When Lasher Keen take the stage, audiences are transported toa netherworld of sound, rhythm and living myth. Following in the footsteps of the wandering minstrels from Renaissance Europe to the post-war Mississippi Delta, Lasher Keen have embarked on numerous tours. The duo have traversed the West Coast from the ancient rain forests of the Pacific Northwest to the concrete wastelands of Southern California. Their most ambitious tour took them across Europe, where they were welcomed by crowds in France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and Austria, who found the language barrierno impediment. Lasher Keen call the rural mining community of Nevada City, California home. It is a land of deep history, a place suffused with natural magic long before the gold miners arrived, and a place where Sheets and Gaia are free to howl at the moon, burn ritual bonfires and hone theircraftfree from the intrusions of modern “progress”. The world of Lasher Keen is one of mystery andknowledge, ritual and spontaneity. While some bands cling to nature as an aesthetic pose, Sheets and Gaia create from a deeply held reverence for the natural world, a worldwhere life and death coexist in the decaying leaves on the forest floor and the new green blossoms of spring. $8.00 - $10.00