JEFF ROSENSTOCK

Jeff Rosenstock is a musician and songwriter from Long Island He was the lead singer of the band The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and the musical collective Bomb the Music Industry!, and is currently the front man of the band Kudrow. More recently, he has begun a solo career, releasing his first solo album, I Look Like Shit, in 2012, and a follow up album, We Cool? in 2015.

Few singer/songwriters manage to match the power and the passion of Long Island punk fixture Jeff Rosenstock, at least not without seem like self-important assholes. On second album We Cool? — well, some say it’s his second, some call it his first “proper solo,” and his press says “all are correct in some way” — Rosenstock also manages to be unusually likeable and downright funny, down to the year’s greatest album title/cover combo, while remaining just as tuneful and energetic as ever. Opener “Get Old Forever” cycles through xylophone, prime Weezer synths and gorgeous harmonies over double-time stomp, “Beers Again Alone” is the harmonica-led drunken emo singalong you never knew you needed, and blistering-but-sweet advance single “Hey Allison!” proves once again that there’s never been a non-awesome “Hey [Name]” song.

– Spin Magazine

KATIE ELLEN

Katie Ellen is a collaboration of longtime friends Anika Pyle and Dan Frelly (of the late Chumped) and Eric Sheppard and Anthony Tinnirella (of Adult Dude). Katie Ellen is an adaptation of the stage name of Pyle’s great grandmother, Kaytee Ellen, who was a successful radio personality at KTLN in Denver, CO until sued by the station for attempting to take her alias and adopted namesake to television. The band is an emotional exploration of the shifting nature of identity and personhood. The songs range from bare bedroom numbers, to dynamic indie power ballad, to snotty power pop jam.