ALT AZ BLOGS | Homegrown | The Mo Show!

By Mo Ro |

This Week On Homegrown With Mo: New Chums, Luxxe, The Darts and MRCH!

Homegrown-with-Mo---Layered

WELCOME TO HOMEGROWN!

A Local Music Segment airing every Monday through Friday at 11pm w/ Mo!

Like one of one the bands we’re featuring this week on ALT AZ 93.3? Vote to hear their song again for the Friday replay at the bottom of the page!

Monday:

New Chums Picture

New Chums: Tuolumne (pronounced to-wall-a-me) is not just the northern California County where front man, Seth Boyack, grew up. As he developed his love for music, learned to play guitar, and sang in the choir, he also began to set his sights on fronting his own band. Now as the singer/guitarist/songwriter for New Chums, it was only fitting to name the band’s debut EP, Tuolumne (released September 2015) for the place where it began.

When New Chums solidified, they began sifting through Seth’s catalog of songs to get a set together, and start playing shows around Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. It would be from this selection of songs that New Chums would choose the first five to head into the studio and record the aforementioned EP. With Curtis Grippe (Dead Hot Workshop) producing, the band quickly recorded their indie rock debut in a week’s time during the summer of 2015. While spending the next couple of months mixing and mastering the EP, the band continued to work on solidifying their live show taking any dates they could get.

After only a couple months since the release of Tuolumne on CD, iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora, the New Chums began to gain some traction with online radio play, excellent reviews, and the growth of their fan base. With an eye on larger shows, the band brought in guitarist Chad Bergman, from Minneapolis, to fill out the sound with clever guitar leads, and help the band win some trivia matches.

With comparisons to Interpol, Jimmy Eat World, the Strokes, and others, new fans of the band should keep an eye open for New Chums in Arizona clubs. The band plans to begin touring the east and west coasts, as well as playing festivals. You can catch New Chums at our Low Dough Show w/ The Weeks at Pub Rock Live May 5th and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Check out their song “City With No Dreams” and vote below:

 

Tuesday:

Luxxe

LUXXE is a contemporary/folk-pop act hailing from the deserts of Phoenix, AZ. The band released their sophomore EP “Rolling Thunder” in May, 2016, featuring infectious choruses and inevitable summer-anthems. Vocalist Seth Smades’ addicting rasp and vivid storytelling makes for an indie/pop slam dunk. You can catch Luxxe at our Low Dough Show w/ The Weeks at Pub Rock Live May 5th and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Check out their song “Stay A Little Closer” below, if ya love it, vote to hear it again on the Friday Replay at the bottom of the page.

 

Wednesday:

The Darts

THE DARTS (US) are an all-grrrrl garage-psych-rock supergroup featuring Nicole Laurenne
(The Love Me Nots, Motobunny, Zero Zero), Rikki Styxx (The Two Tens, The Dollyrots, Thee
Outta Sites), Christina Nunez (The Love Me Nots, Casual Encounters, The Madcaps), and
Michelle Balderrama (Brainspoon).
The band formed in early 2016 when, after watching each other’s bands from the sidelines for
years, Nicole and Michelle realized there was no good reason why they shouldn’t just start
writing songs together already. With six songs ready, Rikki and Michelle recorded their tracks in
Los Angeles and then Nicole and Christina tracked their parts in Phoenix. Arizona producer Bob
Hoag (The Format, Dear And The Headlights, The Ataris) then masterfully stirred the mess
together over a piping hot console. The result is two smoking 10” vinyl EPs full of garage riffs,
girl-group harmonies, fuzz bass, farfisa organ, badass drum fills, and all-around lo-fi-turned-hi-fi
goodness.
Soon after their October 2016 release, the singles “Running Through Your Lies” and
“Revolution” enjoyed instant radio airplay and “Take What I Need” was selected by Sirius/XM’s
Underground Garage channel as “The Coolest Song In The World” and was even tweeted by
author Stephen King. The band then played its first live show in October, 2016, signed with
London’s Dirty Water Records (MFC Chicken, King Salami, Archie and The Bunkers, Muck and
The Mires, The Morlocks), and proceeded to tour the Southern US, to the delight of several
media outlets (CBS Dallas, PBS Houston, more). Shortly thereafter, the Darts signed deals with
licensing companies Media Horse (US) and Wipe Out Music (UK).
The band has released one DIY music video to date and will release two more official videos in

March 2017. The Darts will tour the western US with Weird Omen (France) in March 2017 and

with The Jackets (Switzerland) in September 2017.
The Darts will invade Europe for the first time in May 2017, with appearances in England,
France, and Italy booked by Jostone Traffic (Bellrays, Guitar Wolf, Man or Astroman?, Los
Straitjackets). A full-length record will follow in late summer 2017 on the Dirty Water imprint.
You can catch The Darts at Last Exit Live at VIVA PHX and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube.
Check out their song “Take What I Need” then vote to hear it again on Friday, below.

Thursday:

MRCH

In their first year and a half, indie electronic duo MRCH has been recognized by The Guardian as “Band Of The Week” and CMJ as “One To Watch”. They’ve toured the west coast extensively while releasing singles. Their track Highway Drivin’ was played in Showtime series Shameless and ABC’s Guilt, while their single Spin was placed in Pitchfork/Ford In Focus series featuring the front-women of Best Coast and Sleigh Bells. You can catch MRCH on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Soundcloud. Check out their song “Shake Shake” then vote to hear it again on Friday, below:

 

If you’re interested on being featured on Homegrown With Mo,

email an mp3 of your song to Mo@KDKB.com