About this event
Vundabar In early 2023, as Vundabar prepared to return to the road, frontman Brandon Hagen went through a series of seismic life events: the end of a long-term relationship, the sudden death of his father, and a broken arm in France during a European tour. He reacted the only way he knew how: writing. It began with “I Got Cracked,” a song that sparked a new chapter and led the band to sign with Loma Vista after years of self-releasing. Surgery And Pleasure, their sixth album, emerges from this intense period. Written alongside Drew McDonald (drums) and Zack Abramo (bass), it marks a more mature version of Vundabar — blending their signature energy with a sharper, more refined sound. Unable to play guitar, Hagen approached the album from a production standpoint, layering parts and rethinking the band’s process. The result is one of their most urgent and visceral records to date. Moving from catharsis to release — from “I Got Cracked” to “Beta Fish” and “I Need You” — the album explores grief, physicality, and acceptance, where loss becomes not subtraction, but a shift in perspective. Formed in Boston, Vundabar built their name through the DIY scene, shaping a sound that blends surf guitar, post-punk, math-rock and jangle-pop. After five self-released albums, Good Old (2022) revisited their catalog, including “Alien Blues,” which went viral on TikTok and earned gold and platinum certifications. With Surgery And Pleasure, Vundabar enter a new era — shaped by rupture, rebuilt through reinvention. Yot Club SIMPLETON, the third album from multi-platinum indie-rock singer/songwriter YOT CLUB, dismantles the utopian view of the American suburbs, treating finely manicured life as a mirage. Across its 13 tracks, the LP wrestles with how curated feeds and predictable routines can blur, and even erase, empathy and responsibility, creating a world where difficult questions and harsh realities are easy to ignore. In 2019, Ryan Kaiser started Yot Club in his college dorm, crafting a lo-fi, classically cool indie rock sound grounded under a dreamlike haze. Two years later, his breakthrough single “YKWIM?” quickly reached viral status on TikTok (today, it’s been streamed more than 1 billion times) and has since taken him around the world at festivals like Treefort, Kilby Block Party and Pitchfork Paris. But even as his personal geography has shifted – to Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and now LA – the suburban logic he grew up with continues to color his writing. At one point in Kaiser’s life, his surroundings were just scenery; now, as his understanding of the world and his place in it have grown, they read differently – a learned sense of perspective that marks his songs. “When I first started, I was posting music into the void with no expectations that anyone would hear it,” he says. “I feel more ready now to write about something nuanced, whereas a few years ago I’d probably just say, ‘I’ll write about my dog.’ I've realized it all has to mean something – otherwise, what’s the point?”
