Hey Bellingham

BALTHVS
2025-02-27 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Thursday 02/27/25
Bellingham Exit Presents:
BALTHVS
$22.50 ADV / $25 DOS
7pm Doors / 8pm Show
21+
At Wild Buffalo

BALTHVS, the Bogota, Colombia based psychedelic funk trio was formed in the countryside while the group waited out the 2020 pandemic. The band was escaping the city during uncertain times and according to Balthazar Aguirre, “we wanted the music to meld with the peaceful environment surrounding us at that moment.” Alongside Aguirre (guitar, vocals), the band consists of Johanna Mercuriana (bass, vocals) and Santiago Lizcano (drums, vocals).

Their genre-defying sound blends cumbia, surf rock, funk, and Turkish musical influences. The music is comprised of lyrics in English, Spanish and plenty of instrumentals that meld mysticism and psychedelics. “Colombia is very psychedelic, there’s plenty of availability and a lot of traditional medicine involving entheogens and plant medicine around.” The result is a captivating sonic tapestry that transcends conventional boundaries, captivating listeners with its multifaceted influences.

Known for their dynamic and electrifying live performances, BALTHVS has become synonymous with energetic shows and captivating improvisations. Since their inception, the band has embarked on a prolific creative journey, releasing an impressive catalog featuring over 34 singles and 3 full-length albums. Their music has resonated globally, amassing over 6.8 million streams worldwide, establishing BALTHVS as a formidable presence in the music industry.

While BALTHVS has conquered their home turf, gracing the stage at Colombia’s largest music festival, Rock al Parque, they have also taken their infectious sound to international audiences. With three performances at SXSW in Austin, TX, a successful U.S. tour, and a triumphant inaugural European tour in 2024, the band is poised for even greater heights with a new full-length LP set to release on Mixto Records in the fall. Eager to continue their sonic exploration, BALTHVS is set to enchant audiences worldwide with their innovative and boundary-pushing approach to music.

Bellflower, Asa Menlove & Sixteen Fluid Ounces, Ivy Ficarra Indie folk
2025-02-27 21:00 | Shakedown, 1212 N State Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
Starts: February 27, 2025
Time: Doors Open 8:30 pm | Show Time: 9:00 pm
Location: The Shakedown
1212 N State St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Email: info@shakedownbellingham.com

Baynk
2025-02-28 21:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
LNE Presents

BAYNK
with special guests
Friday, February 28th 2024
8pm doors | 9pm show | 21+

Jock Nowell-Usticke once aspired to make sunny electronic music meant for summer festivals and poolside hangs, intimate dance songs that glittered with bright-eyed wonder and smiling charm. As an engineering student in New Zealand, he played saxophone and keys in a band but became increasingly drawn to big-tent dance acts like Skrillex and Flume, whose production wizardry Jock thought transcended his classically trained skillset. Shortly after downloading Ableton, however, he released a few downtempo electronic songs under the alias BAYNK and soon garnered a large, devoted fanbase, as well as a reputation as one of the most promising young talents in electronic music. Now, ten years into his career, BAYNK has netted hundreds of millions of streams, sold-out international tour dates, festival-headlining sets, and a Grammy nomination, establishing himself as a quietly visionary artist who continues to expand his sound and aesthetic palate with each new project.

BAYNK takes another massive leap forward on his terrific sophomore album, SENESCENCE, a record he sees as a spiritual successor to his full-length 2021 debut, ADOLESCENCE. While the latter reveled in the heartbreak and immediacy of youth, the former looks to the future, grappling with themes of loss, love, death, and connection. “SENESCENCE is the other side of the coin, about time and the passing of it and the realisations that physical life is not forever—the acute awareness of one’s own biological vulnerability, and with that, a greater appreciation for the true richness of life.” Such an ambitious and amorphous concept could lend itself to platitudes, BAYNK acknowledges, but his scrupulous songwriting and deeply idiosyncratic production resists clichés. “I’m constantly avoiding trying to sound cliché,” he says. “But the majority of the time a cliché is just how it really is.”

Across 10 songs, SENESCENCE announces itself as a daring, dynamic fusion of pop, deep house, contemporary club, funk, and ambient; it instantly stands out as BAYNK’s most fully realised and sonically sophisticated work to date. “It took a long time for my output to catch up with my taste,” he said. “For a long time I felt like I was listening to as much music as I could and learning about how it was made and its history.” If ADOLESCENCE caught BAYNK attempting “to create the perfect festival lineup” from his youth, SENESCENCE finds him exploring the uncharted parameters of his adult artistry, pulling inspiration from the likes of Caribou and Toro y Moi to capture gnarled moments of anxiety, openhearted longing, and searing vulnerability with expressive textures, tempos, and melodies.

After touring ADOLESCENCE around the world—a thrilling yet tumultuous experience, he admits—BAYNK retreated to London in 2022 to begin working on another project. As the conceptual framework and track list for SENESCENCE began to materialise, his ears spontaneously started ringing for days and weeks at a time without end. He was eventually diagnosed with tinnitus, a condition he continues to struggle with. “It just came on one day and hasn’t stopped,” he says. “At the time I thought, ‘It’s over. I won’t be able to listen to mixes the same because I’ll constantly hear this mosquito in my ear clashing with the frequencies.’” Learning to live with tinnitus has been strange and painful, but BAYNK says that his brain has slowly acclimated to the unsettling sensation.

One of the key evolutions for BAYNK on SENESCENCE is his improved songwriting. “This album’s a lot more focused on lyricism and stories as opposed to just being dance tracks,” he says. “The songs still have the DNA of dance music, but the album is mostly concerned with love, friendship, and death—I wanted to reflect that in the writing.” While BAYNK has always been able to distil strong
images and intense emotions in his music, his past lyrics often scanned as cue points that listeners could project themselves onto. On SENESCENCE, he challenged himself to evoke the album’s core themes with greater narrative precision: “I haven’t been a strong songwriter in the past or even cared about it that much. It’s always just been melody and beat for me.” he says. “I’m now really precious about the words in my songs. It has to mean something.”

The skittery, restless early album highlight “Fool For You” epitomises BAYNK’s ability to thread evocative writing into electrifying production. “I don’t trust you anymore, you don’t love me like before,” he sings in a double-timed warble over a disjointed drum loop. “I used to be the sort of person who would obsess over people I was in relationships with. I would become a chameleon to their needs and change myself,” he recalls. “‘Fool For You’s’ about the contortion of oneself emotionally to make a relationship work, even when it might not.” Whether it’s the naturalistic imagery deployed to mourn his late grandmother on “What Am I Going to Do With You” or the celebration of romantic commitment on “Lonely World,” BAYNK’s moving descriptions meld brilliantly with his detail-rich, assured production.
Although longtime friends and collaborators The Nicholas, Joe Mason, and Golden Vessel offer their hand to some of SENESCENCE’s instrumentation and production, BAYNK is the only vocalist on the album. “As much as I love collaboration, the most enticing thing for me has always been that I can control everything,” he says. “I can have my hand in the visual, writing, singing, and producing. I love collaboration, but you do lose a little creative freedom when someone else sings your songs.” Making this album between London, Paris, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Hawkes Bay, BAYNK flitted between flats and studios, making beats and writing songs with the help of a Crumar Seven 73-Key Electric Piano, which he played on a bulk of the album and made him “fall back in love with playing keys.”
SENESCENCE is more stylistically varied than BAYNK’s previous projects. There’s hardly a wasted motion, never a stray move. Beyond the stirring emotional tracks there are plenty of punchy strobe-lit anthems that’ll satiate long-time fans. “Mr. Jocko” and “When I Think About Us” are primed to set dancefloors on fire, especially during his upcoming tour. “The album encapsulates the experience I want in a live show and the stories that I want to tell about my life, both now and in the future,” he says. As is consistent with BAYNK’s oeuvre, astonishing visual content will accompany the release of new music, including music video drops for each single. With SENESCENCE, BAYNK once again proves his singular identity and persistent growth as an artist.

Glixen, She’s Green, After Indie rock, psych
2025-02-28 21:00 | Shakedown, 1212 N State Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
Starts: February 28, 2025
Time: Doors Open 8:30 pm | Show Time: 9:00 pm
Location: The Shakedown
1212 N State St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Email: info@shakedownbellingham.com

Cat Valley, Tinsley, Cat Positive Indie rock, pop punk, garage rock
2025-03-01 21:00 | Shakedown, 1212 N State Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
Starts: March 1, 2025
Time: Doors Open 8:30 pm | Show Time: 9:00 pm
Location: The Shakedown
1212 N State St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Email: info@shakedownbellingham.com

Madeline Hawthorne Rock, country
2025-03-02 20:00 | Shakedown, 1212 N State Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
Starts: March 2, 2025
Time: Doors Open 7:30 pm | Show Time: 8:00 pm
Location: The Shakedown
1212 N State St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Email: info@shakedownbellingham.com

Bingo Night!
2024-05-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Cheba Hut, 306 W Holly St., Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
Join us for a hilarious night of “Bongo”…I mean Bingo! Themed word bingo keeps things fresh, along with our fresh “toasted” subs, salads, and full bar offerings! Free to play, prizes for the winners!

Aslan Depot Jazz Night
2024-05-21 20:00 - 22:00 | Aslan Depot: Barrels & Blending, 1322 N State St, Bellingham, WA, WA 98225, United States
Every Tuesday evening is Jazz Night at Aslan.

First Fridays Art Walk Bellingham
2024-06-07 08:00 - 17:00 | WA
First Fridays Art Walk in Bellingham is a monthly celebration that showcases local artists and galleries, places to dine and sip, late night shopping, events, live music, and more! First Friday of every month from 6:00pm – 10:00pm.
First Fridays provide opportunities to engage with Downtown Bellingham and discover the city center throughout the year. Dozens of businesses host artists, feature signature dishes, become a stage for musicians, and more!

Yak Attack & Cytrus
2025-03-08 21:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Wild Buffalo Presents

Yak Attack & Cytrus
“Orange Is The New Yak” tour
Saturday, March 8th 2025
Wild Buffalo
8pm doors | 9pm show | 21+

Yak Attack is a live electronic power trio. The band’s music spans a wide variety of electronic genres (house, trance, breakbeat, drum and bass) and mixes in elements of many other genres such as jazz, funk, and psych. Founded in 2013, Yak Attack has gained recognition nationwide from virtuosic playing, a unique setup of live instruments and live looping with no pre-recorded samples or backing tracks, and compelling live performances featuring lush soundscapes, dynamic improvisation, and DJ-like transitions in continuous sets. The band has toured with an impressive array of national acts, thrown successful afterparties for many bands in numerous states, and has developed a passionate fanbase through its songwriting strength, extensive market history and festival appearances, live show recordings, and curation of an ecstatic, uplifting musical experience.
Shaped by Jared Squires (guitar/vocals), Luke Nevills (bass/keys), Brandon Hailey (saxophone), Owen Mayo (guitar/keys), Trevor Church (drums), Connor Merritt (aux percussion) Alex Dean (synth/keys), and Sean Connelly (vocals/keys), Cytrus’ eight-piece funk-driven fusion makes a place at the table for everyone, offering a psychedelic pallet of funk, disco, electronic, rock, hip-hop, prog, and more. The Seattle-based band is personalized by its juicy synths, bass-induced grooves, and cinematic live performances. The group is best known for their flowing transitions in variety, consistently sonic wall of sound, and undeniable chemistry – all of which you can hear on full display in Cytrus’ debut LP ‘Concentrate’.

Yot Club + Vundabar
2025-03-25 19:30 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Wild Buffalo Presents

Yot Club x Vundabar
with Faerybabyy
Tuesday, March 25th 2025
Wild Buffalo
6:30pm doors | 7:30pm show | 21+

Yot Club Artist Presale HERE
Vundabar Artist Presale HERE
Vundabar Spotify Presale: HERE

VUNDABAR – Fast Track

First Entry Into Venue
First Access To Merch
Commemorative Laminate
Keychain
Tote Bag
1 GA ticket to the show

YOT CLUB – Fast Track

First Entry Into Venue
First Access To Merch
Commemorative Laminate
Sticker Sheet
Tote Bag
1 GA ticket to the show

Yot Club

For decades the bright lights of New York have drawn artists to its storied city streets — those
seeking their tribe, those looking to solidify their identity, and those hungry for inspiration and fresh
encounters, all there for the taking on this new, broadened horizon. And now 26-year-old Ryan
Kaiser has joined those ranks, moving from Nashville to Brooklyn, at the tail-end of 2022. Except,
unlike so many who have come before him, Kaiser’s already made a name for himself creating
daydreamy, sun-blasted, Polaroid-pop as Yot Club.
With Yot Club’s second full-length, Rufus, Kaiser is expanding his sonic palette and challenging his
own established modes of music making by letting collaborators in. The record includes co-writes
with the likes of Tommy English (Carly Rae Jepsen, Kacey Musgraves), and singers Charli Adams and
Harrison Lipton, with Patrick Wimberly (Lil Yachty, Joji, Blood Orange, MGMT
) on mixing duties, and the result is a collection of songs that sounds bolder and brighter. From the
shimmering surf-pop of opener “Stuntman,” to the minor chord angst and quiet-loud-quiet pulse of
“New Day,” to The Strokesian swoon of album closer “Lazy Eyes,” Kaiser lo-fi hooks have a new
cinematic scope.
But let’s rewind to 2019 when his music first captured the ears and imagination of listeners thanks to
the song “YKWIM?” off his Bipolar ep, one of three EPs he released that year alone. Newly graduated
and still living in his college town of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, it was a pivotal year for Kaiser.
Seemingly out of nowhere the streams on “YKWIM?” started climbing: 500k streams a day soon
ballooning to a million. Unbeknownst to Kaiser, his song — which is now 2x RIAA Platinum — had
become a go-to sad song for nostalgia-centric TikToks. The virality didn’t stem from a dance craze. It
was about a vibe.
The knock-on effect was every major label came calling, but for Kaiser, signing his music away for 25
years in exchange for an non-recoupable advance was a hard no. Ultimately, Kaiser signed with
Amuse, a distro company-turned-label, where he retained ownership of his masters and gained their
full support for his vision. Kaiser followed 2020’s Nature Machine EP with 2022’s Santolina EP, and
then, in 2023, he released his debut album off the grid and the EP amateur observer. Not to mention
a ton of loosies including “LAUREN” with spill tab, and “Safe House” with Jordana, releases which
underscore his newfound explorations in collaboration.
Nostalgia is an oft-used descriptor too, but it’s one that Kaiser’s unafraid to lean into — “I don’t like
anything that sounds like it was made now,” he notes — with his own song titled, “Nostalgia,”
ringing out like the perfect soundtrack to a movie montage directed by John Hughes (with just a
pinch of The Postal Service). And then there’s “Drowning,” written with Charli Adams, where
Kincaid’s razored guitars recall Bloc Party. With production credits including MGMT, Solange, and Lil
Yachty’s latest LP, Patrick Wimberly mixing brings a different dimension to Yot Club’s sound.
There’s an economy to Kaiser’s songwriting, a feel-it, sing-it straightforwardness that cuts to the
meat of the matter, with his titles often providing the jumping off point, like lead single “Pixel.” With
its ticking urgency and cascading guitar line, it was written and recorded in two days with producer
Tommy English, and features Kaiser on live, looped drums, with additional slide guitar. “That song’s
about getting caught up in your own life and technology in relation to self-importance and how you
see yourself,” offers Kaiser. “It’s never been harder to appreciate your own circumstances than it is
today because you can play the comparison game. It’s a complicated dynamic: the people whose
lives look the best can often suck, ’cos why else would they go to such efforts to make it look like their
lives are great!”Then there’s “Human Nature,” written with artist Harrison Lipton, who also plays in the band
MICHELLE and happens to live down the street. Written and recorded at Lipton’s parents’ 100+ year-
old Connecticut house, Kaiser describes it as a driving-down-the-Pacific-Coast-Highway kind of tune.
But those sunny sonics belie the melancholic inevitability of so many splits: the lover you spent every
day with can eventually turn into someone you don’t recognize at all. “This album is not meant to
serve as an eloquent story where there’s characters and side characters and betrayal and
heartbreak,” he says. “It’s just 13 separate episodes that restart and don’t necessarily match each
other, but I wanted to give it a character to wrap it all together.”
Rufus is not exactly Ryan Kaiser, but these snapshots capture the essence of his experiences: a bad
relationship and fresh realizations; leaving it all behind to try and find footing in a shiny new city that
maybe isn’t exactly the imagined, mythologized creative utopia. It continues Kaiser’s coming of age
— looking back, picking it all apart, trying to work it all out, and constantly pushing forward.

Vundabar

Vundabar is a Boston-based trio that delivers jangly, fuzzed-out math-and surf-tinged indie rock shot through with plenty of post-punk spirit. Formed in 2013 by vocalist/guitarist Brandon Hagen and drummer Drew McDonald while still in high school, the duo eventually recruited bassist Zack Abramo and began playing locally. Sporting a melody-rich blend of knotty folk and loud-soft-loud indie rock à la Beantown luminaries Pixies, Vundabar issued their debut album, Antics, in late 2013. They adopted a grittier tone on 2015’s Gawk, which added grungy post-punk to the mix. The cathartic and dense Smell Smoke arrived in 2018, delivering an earworm-heavy set that was both bracing and sincere, and in 2020 the trio released the tight and succinct Either Light, which saw them working with a producer, Patrick Hyland (Mitski), for the first time. In 2021, online snippets of fans singing along to the group’s 2015 single “Alien Blues” flooded social media, which garnered millions of streams for the seven-year-old cut. Devil for the Fire, Vundabar’s wide-ranging fifth studio effort, appeared the following year.

Nite Wave
2025-03-29 21:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Nite Wave performs
Prince & The Revolution’s “Purple Rain” album in full!
+A Full Set of Live 80s New Wave
Wild Buffalo – Bellingham
Saturday, March 29th
Doors at 8pm
Tickets $20/$25

Featuring
Nite Wave (’80s New Wave) (NiteWaveParty.com)
Immediately following the album will be a full set of Live 80s New Wave (Duran Duran, INXS, Billy Idol and more)
w/ DJ Dance Dance
About Purple Rain:
Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, the first to feature his band the Revolution, and is the soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name. It was released on June 25, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records. The first two singles from the album, “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy”, topped the US singles charts, and were hits around the world, while the title track went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified thirteen-times platinum (diamond) by the RIAA. As of 2008, it has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, making it the third-best-selling soundtrack album of all time.
Nite Wave – Seattle, WA – (NiteWaveParty.com). Known for their high energy show, Nite Wave continues their ’80s dance ways performing New Wave hits from Duran Duran, INXS, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Cure, New Order, Prince, Depeche Mode and more! Most noted for being handpicked by Billy Idol to open for the legendary ’80s rocker, they have also performed with Multi-Platinum recording artist Tiffany, Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s, Clive Farrington of When in Rome and Everclear. Featured on CNN and Good Morning America, Nite Wave has help raise over $17,000 for Northwest Harvest and American Red Cross

Joe Pug
2025-04-10 20:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Joe Pug is an American singer-songwriter from Greenbelt, Maryland. He has released two EPs, as well as the albums Messenger, The Great Despiser, Windfall, The Flood in Color, and The Diving Sun.
While working as a carpenter in Chicago after dropping out of the University of North Carolina, Pug wrote and recorded what would eventually become his debut EP, Nation of Heat. Its literate lyrics received widespread acclaim and Pug’s unorthodox promotional strategy of distributing free CDs to anyone interested in sharing his music resulted in the EP selling over 20,000 copies. After touring with Steve Earle in 2009, Pug was signed by Nashville indie label Lightning Rod Records and released Messenger in 2010. After moving to Austin, Pug released The Great Despiser in 2012.
Pug’s acclaimed narrative songwriting has led critics to draw comparisons between his work and that of John Prine[3] and Bob Dylan.[4] His stated influences include John Hiatt, Warren Zevon, and Beck,[5] as well as literary figures such as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck,[6] Raymond Carver and most notably, Walt Whitman.[7]

Ghost Note
2025-04-12 21:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Wild Buffalo Presents

Ghost Note
with special guests
Saturday, April 12th 2025
Wild Buffalo
8pm doors
9pm show
21+

“I feel like mustard stinks. I feel like onions stink. You put the two of them together … it’s just funky,” says drummer-keyboardist Robert Sput Searight, co-founder and co-producer of groove titans Ghost-Note alongside percussionist Nate Werth.
Indeed, the 15 tracks on Mustard n’Onions — the band’s third LP, first new album in six years and debut for Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group — further Ghost-Note’s mission to provide rhythm-hungry crowds with, per Sput, “a mind-blowing healing sensation.” From the Soul Brother No. 1 tribute “JB’s Out! (Do It Babay),” through the masterfully funky “Bad Knees,” a co-write by the group’s visionary bass player, MonoNeon, the psychedelic-soul-tinged “Grandma’s Curtains,” and “Nard’s Right,” one of R&B/jazz hero Bernard Wright’s final recorded appearances, Mustard n’Onions delivers Ghost-Note’s supremely danceable goods. The 10-piece band’s performances — as befitting veterans of Snarky Puppy, Prince, Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Kirk Franklin and other icons — are bracing in their virtuosity, affecting in their soulfulness and inspired in their sonic choices.
But the album also presents a story of an ensemble maturing and solidifying and finding an identity. On the band’s freewheeling 2018 release, Swagism, the lineup was still developing and, as Sput explains, “We didn’t have a sound; we didn’t know what we were gonna sound like.” The music on Mustard n’Onions, he says, reflects the firmed-up character of a unit whose “camaraderie and chemistry” have accrued over countless gigs. What’s more, nearly every band member has at least one writing credit on Mustard n’Onions. Sput remains Ghost-Note’s primary writer and de facto musical director, but he’s now shaping his music for and with his bandmates.
Though it was tracked primarily on tour breaks, during fun, hang-style sessions at a house/studio facility in Southern California, Mustard n’Onions finds Ghost-Note carefully honing that sense of collaborative songcraft — wrangling the jammy openness of Swagism into Sput’s arrangements of striking clarity and precision, and using pockets of vocals to ramp up the house-rocking vibe. “It was authentic the way the recording happened,” Sput says, “but we were more strategic about it this time.”
Along for the funky ride is a who’s who of groove-music greats. Most moving is the presence, on three tracks, of Bernard Wright (1963-2022), a musical genius who led a nomadic life and who stayed with both Sput and Werth at various points. “It was like a celebration whenever he would show up,” Werth says, before Sput calls his time with the much-sampled sage “an opportunity to take care of your mentor — and to learn from him.” Mustard n’Onions also features, among other guests, Karl Denson, founding Robert Glasper Experiment member Casey Benjamin, Snarky Puppy standouts Mark Lettieri and Jay Jennings, pedal-steel luminary Travis Toy, and electric-bass GOAT Marcus Miller, whose funky melodicism is the perfect fit for the strings-accented “Yellow Dan” — titled for its evocations of Yellowjackets and Steely Dan.
One of Sput’s “all-time favorite” guitarists, blues-rock god Eric Gales, wails on the single “Grandma’s Curtains,” which Sput wrote in the image of his ’70s soul favorites — Tower of Power, Sly and the Family Stone, and Parliament-Funkadelic. (He also mentions a bit of Hendrix as an inspiration, and with Gales’ explosive guitar work, that association isn’t far from mind.) The tune is fever-pitch funk, with an atmosphere of sweet, personal nostalgia just underneath: “When this music was being created in the ’70s,” Sput explains, “I was pulling at my grandma’s curtains when she was babysitting me, ’cause I wanted to look out the window.”

And while these fiery guest spots remain highlights, so many of the most extraordinary moments throughout Mustard n’Onions belong to the core Ghost-Note players, and stem from the band’s nearly nonstop life on the road. Take “Where’s Danny?,” with its tour-de-force solo by the group’s youngest member, trombonist Danny Wytanis: The title, a band in-joke, came about after Sput, feeling the effects of psychedelics, couldn’t find his surrogate little bro at a music festival. “We lost Danny for two hours!” Sput chuckles today. “I was like, ‘I haven’t met his parents yet! It would be horrible for me to tell them I lost their kid!’”
Every element of Ghost-Note exudes togetherness — not least those house/studio sessions for Mustard n’Onions, where, as Nate Werth recalls, “quite often the rhythm section would be practicing — Sput would be teaching us a new song section by section — and in the kitchen the horns would be cooking up dinner.” But familial vibes should be expected in a band that began with a life-changing brotherhood.
Well over a decade ago, Sput and Werth found themselves gigging together in the Texas-rooted fusion powerhouse Snarky Puppy — Werth on his creatively, globally curated percussion setup, and Sput on keys and, later, drums. What developed, rapidly, was a great mutual respect and a musical kinship that seemed to border on telepathy. “I started to get a kick out of anticipating what it was going to feel like to play with Nate the next night,” Sput recalls. The two musicians’ hookup began to rhythmically define Snarky Puppy’s groundbreaking work, making both men multiple Grammy Award winners in the process.
At a certain point during Snarky’s ceaseless tour schedule, Sput’s nightly improvised solo began to signify a new pathway. “I got bored taking drum solos,” Sput says, “so I asked Nate to join me. It was like we were finishing each other’s sentences. We did it so well to where fans started coming up and asking, ‘What was the name of that song you and the percussion player were quoting?’” An idea for a beat CD was hatched, which quickly flowered into a new group — one that would function less as a “collective” à la Snarky Puppy and more as a dedicated squad.
“We bonded in life as brothers and in making music,” Sput says. Now, Ghost-Note have become OGs or elder statesmen in a way, influencing newer generations of “frustrated jazz musicians,” to borrow Sput’s favorite description of his bandmates: That is, state-of-the-art jazz-trained musicians who worship the groove but not genre limitations.
With its more focused approach to funk and vocal performances like those on “JB’s Out!,” featuring current lead singer Mackenzie, and “Grandma’s Curtains,” showcasing Sput and Dominique Xavier Taplin, Mustard n’Onions can also be heard as a “sign of what’s to come” for Ghost-Note: more vocal-led tunes, a greater emphasis on songwriting. This is, after all, a band that simply cannot stop evolving, that seems to grow and learn with every year, every tour, every gig.
Still, you can be sure that whatever the next phase brings will remain, as Sput puts it, “positively, unapologetically funky.”

Laura Jane Grace & The Mississippi Medicals
2025-04-23 20:00 | Wild Buffalo House of Music, 208 W Holly St, Bellingham, WA, 98229, United States
Laura Jane Grace is a major figure in today’s rock scene as both a solo artist and the front person of Against Me!, which she founded in Naples, FL in the late 1990s. As a working artist, she has released six solo offerings and seven albums with Against Me!, and in 2012 went public with her gender transition in the pages of Rolling Stone. In her music, she continues to detail her journey all while staying true to her earlier themes of outspoken political critique – environmentalism along with personal and social liberation – with a base in American music including country and folk-rock, with a penchant for noise and anarchy. Laura Jane will be joined by her band “The Mississippi Medicals” featuring Matt Patton of Drive-By Truckers (bass), Mikey Erg of The Ergs (drums) and Paris Campbell Grace (vocals, percussion).
