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Shakey Graves and Trampled By Turtles
Across his career, Shakey Graves—a.k.a. the performance moniker of Austin, Texas-born Alejandro Rose-Garcia — has intentionally created thrilling musical adventures tailored to each fan: burning CDs and putting them in personalized decorated bags, building intricate scavenger hunts that send fans in search of unique tapes; and Bandcamp-exclusive releases. "The fans and musicians that really resonate with me — and the inexplicable ways that I and things that I like — are usually entirely through randomness and chaos and accident," RoseGarcia says. "I've always been on this quest to make people feel like my own music is a choose-your-own-adventure." As Rose-Garcia releases his new Shakey Graves album Movie of the Week — a collection of songs whiled down from epic-length recording sessions — he has devised one of his most innovative musical adventures yet. “For the album release, I’m setting up a website,” he says. “On this website, there will be a way to shuffle a collection of alternate tracks and unique songs from the sessions in seemingly infinite combinations to create new albums.” Thanks to this cutting-edge technology, fans will be able to own this alternate version and do whatever they want with it— giving them control over the destiny of the music. “Imagination really is the tool,” Rose-Garcia says. “The point is to make and create something yourself.
Trampled by Turtles is from Duluth, Minnesota, where frontman Dave Simonett formed the group as a side project in 2003. At the time, Simonett had lost most of his music gear, thanks to a group of enterprising car thieves who'd ransacked his vehicle while he played a show with his previous band. Left with only an acoustic guitar, he began piecing together a new band, this time taking inspiration from bluegrass, folk, and other genres that didn't rely on amplification. Simonett hadn't played any bluegrass music before, and he filled his lineup with other newcomers to the genre, including fiddler Ryan Young (who'd previously played drums in a speed metal act) and bassist Tim Saxhaug. Along with mandolinist Erik Berry and banjo player Dave Carroll, the group began carving out a fast, frenetic sound that owed as much to rock and roll as bluegrass.