There’s no sweeter comeback than one by a band that didn’t quite get their due the first time around. After leaving an indelible mark in the 1990s underground with their massive and melodic rock and then disbanding, Kansas City post-hardcore heroes Shiner have mounted a gradual revival that was somewhat muffled by the pandemic.
Now that they’re out with their first post-COVID album (BELIEVEYOUME), only their second since their 2003 breakup, Shiner are ready to take a delayed and deserved victory lap.
The also-excellent openers are Chicago’s Bursting and Orlando’s Hollow Leg. This one will be historic.
Southern Culture on the Skids Credit: Jim Leatherman
If classic 1960s garage rock were to be pickled in unhinged Southern-fried blues, that would land in the wheelhouse (tractor-house?) of Southern Culture on the Skids.
A mashup of Americana, gonzoid proto-punk and country rock, the band has churned out hits like “Camel Walk” and “Fried Chicken and Gasoline” from their 1995 album Dirt Track Date, as well as “Run Baby Run,” from their pandemic-era release, At Home With Southern Culture on the Skids.
With more than 30 years of playing together, the band have performed seemingly everywhere for everyone: from normie late-night talk show audiences to North Carolina correctional facility inmates to, of course, gangs of clued-in freaks here in Orlando.
Composed of bassist Mary Huffs, guitarist Rick Miller and drummer Dave Hartman, the North Carolina-based band is on an extensive touring road trip that will bring them back to Will’s Pub — much to the delight of our local freak contingent.
It’s been almost a year in the making, but the day is finally here: The first episode of Shook — drag meets ghost-hunting reality show — gets its Orlando premiere celebration.
The show features top Central Florida drag performers Medusha, Dollya Black, Venus Envy, Draggedy Anne and Sue Cyde on the hunt for the paranormal. This first episode sees the queens — armed only with cameras, killer looks and copious one-liners — exploring the very haunted St. Augustine Lighthouse.
This watch party also features live performances from Davi Oddity, Sue Cyde, Medusha and Draggedy Anne, and E. You will believe.
We can’t think of a better way to usher in 2026 than being crammed into a club facing down a 70-year-old, saxophone-playing, oiled-up possible vampire. It’s just the right dose of surrealist, unselfconscious joy to make for a dandy palate cleanser to 2025’s unrelenting grimness. And it’s happening. It’s real.
That this saxophonist (maybe) vampire has one truly great 1980s anthem in “I Still Believe” under his studded belt is a bonus.
We’re speaking, of course, of Tim Cappello, known to several successive generations of film freaks as the jacked-up and well-lubricated sax player jamming with Tina Turner both onstage and on screen in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and leading his own band in iconic teen vampire flick Lost Boys in the 1980s.
But here’s the thing: Whereas Cappello could have been just a footnote in pop-culture history, instead he grabbed hold of both his sax and his own creative destiny and kept at it — playing gigs with ponytail, physique and hip-thrusts fully intact. Cappello is very much in on the joke, and like every good comic, he knows that it’s all in the conviction of the delivery. Plus, his “I Still Believe” is a rock-solid jam.
Orlando Weekly reached Cappello at the very un-undead hour of 9 a.m. to talk about his live return to Orlando after a couple of years’ absence. Yes, Cappello will be back on stage at Will’s Pub on Wednesday, Dec. 31 with Super Passive and Smilin Dan , and he’ll be the last thing lucky attendees will see of 2025 on New Year’s Eve.
“Me and Will’s pub are just meant to be together,” says Cappello. “I consider that a home away from home. I love it there. They are just absolutely right up my alley, and they take care of me so well.”
Reminiscing about the 2023 show at Will’s, talk turns to how he started the show snaking through the crowd, into the bar area, playing irreverent blurts and wails on his sax as people crowded around him, yelling appreciatively and taking video. (Not unlike Ohio sax maniac Bobb Hatt, oddly.) We wonder what goes through his mind when he gets down with the people like that.
“First I’m thinking, ‘Am I going to come out of that with an intact saxophone?’” Cappello laughs. “Is somebody going to, like, get so excited that they raise their fists and yell, and I’m left with something that sounds like I’m playing in a marching band? I could care less if somebody punched me in the face by accident. I understand that entirely. But the whole thing of you not having a saxophone that’s going to make it through the night, that’s scary!”
Accidental face-strikes aside, Central Florida seems to be a place that has particularly taken Cappello to heart. Maybe it’s because Tampa was a hotbed for goth in the 1980s/1990s (see: Castle, The), or maybe it’s because we in Orlando have a soft spot for larger-than-life heroes and villains (see: Epic Universe). And it’s not just a nostalgia thing, either. While there are fans who clearly came of age watching Kiefer Sutherland smolder in a blond mullet wig, there are just as many young folks who weren’t even a glimmer in their parents’ eye when Lost Boys came out.
“Go ahead and rub it in!” jokes Cappello.
To which we reply: You’re a vampire, come on now.
“When I did the film, it made no dent on anything. I never got one gig out of it. It never mattered. Then when I became [fans’] grandfathers’ age, with that Saturday Night Live Jon Hamm skit, that is when people started calling me. … When I played gigs 20 years ago, there was hardly anybody there, and then, for some reason … in my 70s, for some weird reason, people want to come out and see me.”
This multigenerational appeal that Cappello is so amazed by is particularly strong in Florida. Cappello says that it’s been either feast or famine here in the Sunshine State.
“Florida crowds are either not interested at all, or else they’re the absolute best crowd that you could ever have,” says Cappello, adding that it’s leaning more toward the latter of late. “I’m the luckiest guy in the solar system. … Their grandfather in a pair of purple tights, shaking his ass. I mean, who would ever pay for that?”
Adding even more to the “good luck” side of Cappello’s ledger is his recent collaboration with on-the-rise synthwavers Gunship on “Tech Noir 2,” laying a sax solo over the futuristic grooves.
“Like I said, talk about the luckiest dude in the world! This is one of the great acts that is just totally up my alley. And they are the most talented people. They are just killing me, you know, I listen and I go, ‘OK, I’m doing good. I sound good. But that’s not even close to what they’re doing.’ They are laying it down.”
And Cappello wasn’t the only legend recruited for the single and video — horror icon John Carpenter did a narrative intro for the song.
“Oh my god, this is an idol of mine! It’s just plain old chance that somebody must have said, ‘Hey, the crazy guy that used to play with Tina Turner and was in Lost Boys, let’s see what he can do,’” says Cappello. “And it turned out to be one of the most satisfying musical experiences.”
But looking ahead, you’d best believe that Cappello is going to make sure he’s on stage when the clock strikes midnight Wednesday.
“We’re going to time this as best as we possibly can,” promises Cappello. “There’s no way that I could not play ‘Auld Lang Syne’ for everyone. We can all enjoy ourselves and then break it in.”
Will’s Pub is hosting a Pledge For a Prosperous Palestine benefit concert over this holiday weekend, with a legion of local acts uniting to raise funds for aid organizations.
The lineup pulls from Orlando’s indie, punk and alternative scenes with sets from Fatties, Future Bartenderz, TV Dinner, Caustic Bats, Platonic Valentine and Jordan Schneider all on deck.
Every dollar raised from the show will be donated to humanitarian organizations including Heal Palestine, the World Food Program, the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund, Medical Aid for Palestine and Doctors Without Borders.
If you’re looking for a way to spend a Sunday night in a way that blends activism and aesthetics, this is a solid bet.
“We are running off of pure love of doing what we do, and I want it to be an escape for people. I want them to have 30 minutes to an hour out of their day where they can just be a little freak and run around and punch and whatever.”
Coco Kinnon, frontwoman of rising Nashville-based pop-punk band Winona Fighter, started early in music: drumming on stage at the age of 12, playing underground shows in the New England punk scene.
Kinnon, whose father raised her on rock and grunge, always found herself drawn to punk. But after joining her first band (a punk band, of course), she started to fall in love with more than just the music, but also the punk scene.
“The music is very scary and harsh, and the mosh pits can be a little much for people,” Kinnon tells Orlando Weekly, “but it’s also a community where everyone has each other’s back and everyone’s welcome, and it’s open to all new faces and to those who are young and old.”
Years later, Kinnon met bassist and producer Austin Luther, who was into late-’90s and early-aughts alternative, and lead guitarist Dan Fuson, who loved ’80s metal. The three shared a mutual drive to play in a rock band.
“So for me, it was like that feeling of taking what I grew up in and bringing it into something new and fresh, because Nashville doesn’t really have a punk scene,” says Kinnon. “And for the boys, it was like this cool introduction to a totally new community.”
Before the release of their first EP, Father Figure, in 2022, the band was just going by Kinnon’s nickname, “Coco.” Then one night, after mulling over potential band names, Luther — a pop-culture obsessive — came up with “Winona Fighter.”
Kinnon felt the name was “the perfect balance of masculine and feminine, like pretty, but harsh.” Thus Winona Fighter was born, and they are now part of the lineup of the 2025 Vans Warped Tour on the heels of their latest album, My Apologies to the Chef.
Kinnon describes the whole thing as surreal, with the band gearing up to head to Orlando not just to play the main fest, but also Will’s Pub for an official afterparty — all on Saturday.
“I grew up going to Warped Tour, and I looked up to these bands, and I looked up to bands that were as big/little as we are. I thought they were like the shit,” says Kinnon. “It’s so funny now to be in that position of, you know, we’re still grinding so much, and we’re still doing van tours. We’re still little fish in such a big pond. But to know that we are having that weird impact on people that I had with the bands I saw at Warped Tour and Warped afterparties, it’s such a really cool, exciting thing for us.”
Luther recorded their entire album in his home studio, which also doubles as a garage. Kinnon, who helped produce the record, says the band loves to do as much as possible by themselves, staying true to their DIY roots.
As a pop-punk band, they created this new album to make punk accessible to all music lovers. Kinnon says the goal was to make a record of really catchy punk music that would appeal to people unfamiliar with the genre, even to those who weren’t into “super thrashable, yelly, loud punk music.”
The record’s lyrics center on the human experience and universal struggles of daily life, with tracks like “You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers” and “I’m in the Market to Please No One.”
“Everyone can listen to the record and find one song where they relate to it, because it’s like we all go through these things,” says Kinnon. “Everyone feels like it’s a lonely, unique experience, but in reality, there’s always someone who can relate to what you are going through.” For Kinnon, every day with the band feels like an impactful moment.
“Every moment, even if it’s like, we show up and the green room has our little snacks that we like, or we show up and there’s even 50 people in a room, it’s so cool to us, like, ‘Oh, we are reaching people, and we are having an impact,’” says Kinnon. “Or we write a song that we think no one’s gonna understand. But then people are on Reddit and they’re just like, ‘Wow, this song hit me hard.’ Every day we have something that happens that is just very surreal for us.”
It’s that same passion for what they’re doing that helps the band whip up high energy onstage and in the crowd. Kinnon says it’s a mix between a true love of performing and a desire to give fans an outlet.
For aspiring Warpers out there, Kinnon says that chasing viral moments won’t help you grow as artists. Instead, it’s the tough shows or embarrassing moments that help artists find themselves and their community much quicker.
“Pick up a guitar, get out, play shows. Be kind, be willing to learn and it’ll come. What you’re looking for will come if you just put your head down and keep grinding, keep learning, keep being kind. That’s all you can really do. And make music you’re excited to make.”
If you were wishing that someone could only make ren faires cool, then come forth ye lords and ladies with all your finery and make plans for the all-ages Ren Night by upstart promoters Blood Moon Bookings.
It’ll be a full concert lineup of new shoegaze and heavy bands featuring No Clue, Deer, Fawn and Suisside. What do they have to do with the Renaissance? Don’t know, don’t care — because it’s a great slice of the rising young class of Orlando indie talent. But for those who do care, the organizers are serious about wanting attendees to come in full costume.
So get all medieval and go on with your royal self.
Hardy concertgoers packed in to Will’s Pub on Monday night for a veritable mini-fest of punk bands from around the world. For this 10th edition of the now-venerable showcase Foreign Dissent, the crowd was treated to Germinar (Chile), Small State (Germany), Swear (Italy), LEXT (Japan), Toodles and the Hectic Pity (England), Back Teeth (England), Descartes A Kant (Mexico), Harker (England), Modern Shakes (England) and Sunliner (England). Jim Leatherman’s photos from the hectic night reflect that running order, if you’re looking to play who’s who.
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Foreign Dissent brings punk from around the world Credit: Germinar/Bandcamp
“Like a hangover with harmony. Big choruses, bad decisions and songs about how everything’s getting worse but we’re still making the best of it,” promises England’s Back Teeth of their upcoming set at Foreign Dissent, Orlando’s international punk band showcase.
Event founder Craig Mazer is celebrating a decade of building a loud global community with a lineup of 10 firebrands from around the world. Foreign Dissent offers international bands already in Florida for Gainesville’s Fest an opportunity to add a gig (read: food money) in what is often their first time playing in the States.
This year features bands from Chile, England, Mexico, Germany, Italy and Japan. Chile’s Germinar share the inspiration they find on our shores with OW: “Many of the bands that inspired and still inspire us come from Florida and the U.S., so this feels like a really special trip.” And this will doubtless be a special night.
Gasoline Heart conjure the spirit of Backbooth Credit: Facebook
In the history of Orlando indie clubs, much-missed downtown spot Backbooth is, without question, in the hall of fame. Among the many reasons, one was its double duty as both concert venue and dance club.
Well, this weekend Will’s Pub will, in effect, become Backbooth for a night. First, erstwhile local legends Gasoline Heart will return to bring back those glory days of the 2000s with their triumphant rock anthems.
But because it’s also a celebration of Gasoline Heart bassist John Fortson’s 50th birthday, the concert will be followed by a reunion of iconic Backbooth indie dance night Midnight Mass spun by DJ Zouain. Indie-rock cover band New Eagles opens. This one will be a greatest-hits parade all night long.
8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, Will’s Pub, $10.
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With a deep lineup of homegrown indie-rock notables Like Father, Funeral Homes and Lowtalk, this concert would already be worth recommendation.
What ups this show to an imperative is the return of exceptional Orlando band Boston Marriage.
After emerging in the late 2010s to become one of the city’s most promising acts, they went suddenly, utterly and agonizingly quiet. Now, Boston Marriage are miraculously rising again to show us what music of true indie integrity sounds like.
Saucers Over Washington headline Youth to the Front Credit: Jim Leatherman
The “Youth to the Front” concert series has been Orlando Girls Rock Camp’s latest and greatest campaign to provide special, early and safe access to our city’s live music scene for local youth.
This latest edition features outstanding neo-shoegaze pacesetters Saucers Over Washington, political alt-rockers The Pinko Beats, young pop rockers Dismera and brand-new OGRC shoegaze product Physalia.
It’ll be a great showcase of both the now and the next in Orlando music. As always, the concert will be an afternoon matinee open to all ages.
Salty Jazz Crabs (a tandem featuring Derek Morton) will play the first Odd Harmonic Credit: Matthew Moyer
“For this particular event, I wanted to keep things a bit more eclectic and not hyperfocus on one genre of music. All artists that are playing are approaching their music with a sense of exploration and not trying to ‘game a genre.’ … The vibe of Odd Harmonic should be expansion even at the cost of some risk.”
The last time Orlando Weekly spoke to Derek Morton (Berz3rkr, Salty Jazz Crabs, Circuit Church collective), it was about the inaugural ODrone drone-music festival in 2024 and his co-curatorial work on it. Now in the latter half of our cursed year 2025, ODrone is firmly in its terrible twos and Circuit Church is practically a local institution (even boasting a new offshoot, Uncontrolled Voltage), so it must be time for another show series.
So it is that this Wednesday, Sept. 24, Morton debuts the mad scientist-style genre-clash Odd Harmonic. Headquartered at Will’s Pub, the series will spotlight all flavors of the area’s avant-underground, mixed and matched for maximum pleasing confusion. Morton envisions it as a “gateway to the avant-garde” for curious attendees, to “showcase Orlando’s experimental community but also bring artists from out of town to share their work here.”
The lineup certainly fits the bill, featuring the electronic dreamscapes of Drujhn, the spy-versus-spy noise of Salty Jazz Crabs, Derek Dunn’s always serene electronic loops (or maybe guitar ambience, or perhaps even pedal steel — he ain’t saying) and jazz maestro Thomas Milovac’s improv-rock juggernaut Moon Rays all on one stage.
Dere Dunn plays Odd Harmonic Credit: Matthew Moyer
We feel duty-bound to point out that this freewheeling style of curating experimental music shows is not really a new phenomenon locally, with folks like Jonas Van den Bossche, the aforementioned Milovac, Dylan Houser, Will Bess and Dan Reaves doing it as much out of a sense of perverse adventurism as maximal noise show necessity. But Morton brings to the table his own lifetime of experience within alternative circles — “organizing shows, music series and various festivals in the D.C. area in the mid-’90s” — and an ambitious enthusiasm to present “experimental music of all genres” from all around the country. He spitballs bringing names like Fire-Toolz, Alessandro Cortini and Peter Evans to the area and maybe even collaborating with scene touchtones the Civic Minded 5 on a show or two down the line.
For shows like this, where it’s less a matter of putting together a lineup to match with a touring band to serve as local draw, there can be a sense of play in putting together musicians and finding hidden connective tissue between wildly different outsider sounds. For Morton, saxophonist and New York City underground fixture John Zorn is a curatorial inspiration.
“I was lucky enough to benefit from his support when I was living in NYC from 2005-2015. Not only did he release my Brown Wing Overdrive band on Tzadik, but his tireless and workaholic dedication to releasing all kinds of music on Tzadik and running the Stone proved to me that it can be done,” says Morton. “I love how all of his projects have a Zorn feel but can casually spend multiple genres. He networks with people he respects despite if they neatly fit into one genre.”
Morton will be both playing and running the show, always a challenge for even the most starry-eyed of promoters, playing as part of the tandem Salty Jazz Crabs with Stephen Connolly of Pothole Skinny. He says he’s ready for the double duty.
“In the past, there were some scenarios where I had to run the sound, collect door, perform, play stage manager and pay out artists at the end of the night or make up the difference out of my pocket if there were guarantees. Now that was stressful. It’s great to play a club where there is a staff to do most of the duties so these shows are relatively easy for me,” says Morton of running the show at Will’s. “My day job requires me to juggle a lot as I am a technical project manager in technology. There is always something going wrong and often the project manager is tasked with overseeing the solution. Running shows definitely presents their own unique challenges but the journey is extremely rewarding.”
If he makes it through Wednesday, Morton already has the future arc of Odd Harmonic mapped out.
“My immediate plan is to work on three shows a year including a larger festival or a special presentation at a unique venue,” says Morton. “One of my goals is to bring more experimental music and avant jazz to the Orlando and Central Florida area.”
Tele and the Ghost of Our Lord celebrated the release of their new, satisfyingly twangy musical zig-zag, The Jukebox Has Gone Sentient, at Will’s Pub (their musical home) with a release show featuring Brett Staska, Billy Ruben & the Mind Readers, and Swamp Blossom over the weekend.
Credit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim Leatherman
Tele and the Ghost of Our Lord celebrated the release of their new, satisfyingly twangy musical zig-zag, The Jukebox Has Gone Sentient, at Will’s Pub (their musical home) with a release show featuring Brett Staska, Billy Ruben & the Mind Readers, and Swamp Blossom over the weekend.
Credit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim LeathermanCredit: by Jim Leatherman
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Stiletto is one of a legion of bands Jim Leatherman has photographed at Will’s Pub
Though we don’t want to embarrass him in the fashion of a helicopter parents at a kid’s soccer game, we can’t help but rah-rah encourage you to check out Jim Leatherman’s photo exhibition opening at Lil Indie’s on Friday.
There’s really no one else like Leatherman in Orlando — or, we’d go so far as to say, in the entire state of Florida. Leatherman has seen it all and lived to shoot the tale, with a vast archive including seminal snaps of Björk, R.E.M. and Green Day.
But Leatherman is no nostalgia act. His passion for new music is on par with his love for those alt-rock greats, and you can see him down front at gigs by the likes of 0 Miles Per Hour and M.A.C.E. This exhibition focuses on snaps old and new, covering several decades’ worth of shows at Will’s Pub.
Get to the gig … we mean, gallery.
6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, Lil Indie’s, 1036 N. Mills Ave., willspub.org, free.
Orlando music venue — winner of “Best Bar Overall” in our 2024 Best of Orlando Readers Poll — Will’s Pub is celebrating 29 years of spirits and spirited mayhem with (what else?) some live music this wekend.
The Mills 50 bar hosts three different anniversary events that go a long way toward showing off the Pub’s essential eclecticism. First off, on Friday night (Sept. 6), Kaleigh Baker’s Someday Honey throws down with a dreamy rock-folk hybrid. On Saturday (Sept. 7), things get louder with Cat Company, Pulses, Sails Ahead, Mode and Burial Joy. And finally it’s all-out war on Sunday night (Sept. 8) with the “Will’s Ponx” event featuring the stacked local lineup of M.A.C.E., Double Bubble, Future Bartenderz, Petty Thefts and Vicious Dreams. (Take a nap that afternoon!)
Tickets will be available at the door or through the venue’s website.
“We were in Detroit, in Hamtramck, last night, and there was a power outage. So I ended up playing the set acoustic, sitting on the bar for a bunch of people with a bunch of candles. We did a Nirvana Unplugged kind of deal,” says Fiona Moonchild. “You know, the show must go on.”
We’re talking to self-professed “road dog” and rock deity Fiona Moonchild from the parking lot of a Kroger in Ohio. She’s a few dates into her first headlining tour as a solo artist; it’s a tour that’s taking her everywhere from mineral caves in South Dakota to Will’s Pub in Orlando (Monday, Sept. 9). Moonchild is taking the songs from her album Sweets of Reason for a spin around the country, with a very familiar face in her backing band.
See, Moonchild is no stranger to Orlando stages, having played everywhere from Stonewall’s back patio on a frigid night to the aforementioned Will’s to Uncle Lou’s — all as the musical right hand and creative foil to one Scott Yoder. The duo have been playing together for roughly six years — though they’ve known each other since their teens — and their creative dynamic is near-telepathic. The first time we saw them onstage together, we immediately thought “David Bowie, Mick Ronson. Got it,” but that’s a reductive read on a bond between equals. Now the roles are flipped: Yoder booked this whole tour and is perfectly happy playing guitar in Moonchild’s backing band.
“He’s one of my biggest supporters. He’s so great to have on my side and fighting for me, to get my music out into the world,” says Moonchild. “It’s a really fun dynamic to play on stage and hear him let loose on guitar in a way that he doesn’t really ever do with own his music live.”
One thing Yoder and Moonchild have in common is a commitment to putting on a glamorous S-H-O-W, no matter how big the crowd or how small the venue. These solo shows will be no different, as Moonchild has her own vision for organic stagecraft.
“Since it’s my first tour with my solo project, playing these songs that I created almost entirely by myself alone in the studio, I’ve tried to treat it as a bit of a blank canvas. The band is wearing all black and I wanted really stark white light coming from the back, just to give us a little bit of a silhouette. I want it to evolve from there, what the actual visual show will become, letting it sort of progress naturally, and just seeing where it goes.”
Sweets of Reason came out in 2021, and Moonchild has been patiently waiting for the chance to take these songs on tour since. This album is intensely personal, recorded in 2020 with nearly every note played by Moonchild on the cusp of a global pandemic, and released when touring was still very much an uncertain proposition. The album was released by Cruisin’ Records, a DIY enterprise dedicated to supporting queer artists. Cruisin’ is a good home for Moonchild, a trans woman, and her music, among adventurous company like Tracy + the Plastics, Yoder and Wizard Apprentice.
“A lot of things with the record ended up being like one step forward, two steps back,” says Moonchild. “So it feels very redeeming to finally be able to get out on the road and give it its proper due. I feel very grateful to be able to do that.”
Sweets of Reason is a gorgeous record, lush and reflective. It has a progressive, magisterial quality redolent of a cross between Harmonia and glammy Eno — very different than the New York Dolls-style rager we anticipated, having seen Moonchild onstage ripping guitar solos. This is an album to spin in the wee hours, aimed toward the lonely, lost and lustful out there. But by all accounts, with a handful of shows wrapped, these songs are well-received live.
“It’s always an indicator when there’s a quiet part of a song and you notice that people are paying close attention to you and not trying to talk over you,” says Moonchild. “It definitely is a little more introspective and a little more mystical than the straight-up rock vibe of Scott’s music, but I’m still a rocker at heart, so we still have that going.”
We detour into a discussion about Moonchild’s life on the sea — she’s spent a good chunk of her youth and recent adult life on boats and on long sailing sojourns. We wonder aloud if that perhaps feeds into the questing sounds of Sweets of Reason.
“I think there’s definitely threads of The Life Aquatic on the record. I’m definitely — it’s in my name, ‘moon child’ — entranced by the moon. I think there’s something very hypnotic about being out on the ocean, living by the tides and living by the cycles of the moon with nothing around you; no land in sight on a crystal clear night in the middle of late summer, and the moon’s reflecting off the sea. It can be a very entrancing feeling, and it can be a feeling similar to being on tour. I think that’s a common thread running through the record.”
Moonchild — and Yoder — are increasingly rare spirits in a suffocatingly commodified music industry, truly happy and content wandering the country, getting dolled up and playing some music for whoever wants to lend an ear.
“I’m just kind of a vagabond. Growing up, I never had a really strong, rooted household anywhere. And being able to be on the road and just play a show every night is such a more clear focus of life than having to go to a job,” Moonchild explains. “I’m a Sagittarius, the fire-sign thing, just seeing what’s out there and what there is to experience. And also just looking around the world and trying to see where I fit in. Because I’ve never really known that.”
