A freeform project that merges music, art, new media, social involvement, and community values; dedicated to a constantly-evolving ethos of collaborative creation, self-reinvention, and boundary-pushing experimentation. While existing as a mutating collaborative effort, Bassnectar is traditionally the amorphous music project of Lorin Ashton, a San Francisco based Musician / Producer / DJ, (“probably the largest cult following of any DJ in San Francisco” – SF Weekly) highlighted by massive basslines, thick mob scene beats, freakshow energy, emotive melodics, traditional acoustic instrumentation, and fearless mashing of genres, styles, sounds, moods, and approaches. Fusing elements of midtempo breakbeats, big beat, old school hip hop and dub, DnB, glitch, IDM, electronica, death metal, grindcore, punk rock, alternative, folk, swing, and jazz; and sampling anything from the human history of sound and music, Bassnectar might be most accurately described as “omni-tempo maximalism."

BRING THE FUNK! Delta Nove (delta novay) is a national touring world-funk band based out of Long Beach, CA, comprised of members with diverse musical backgrounds and influences. From coast to coast, Delta Nove has been rocking the dance floor with their tasty blend of funk, Brazilian samba, afro-beat, world, jazz, rock, ska and reggae music since 1998. In addition to being voted as one of the "Top 10 Bands to See in 2005" by Jambase.com, Delta Nove was nominated "Best Live Act" at the Orange County Music Awards in 2004 & 2005, and named Best Live Act in 2006 & 2007. Delta Nove has been supported by national media outlets including Entertainment Weekly, Paste, CMJ, Relix, and local media outlets around the country. The group has also enjoyed radio airplay on over 200 radio stations throughout the United States, including Brasil and Japan, as well as web-based radio and digital downloads. With an intense touring schedule, they are one of the hardest working bands in the independent music scene and are a unique addition to the already rich musical history of Long Beach, CA. The varied rhythms, deep grooves and funky horns that make Delta Nove stand out are what moves the crowd and gets the place jumping.

Jason Hann and Michael Travis (percussionist and drummer from the band The String Cheese Incident) compose this brand new 100% improvised live breakbeat, trip-hop, house, and drum n' bass project. Drawing from the ethos of some of the great DJ's and computer artists of the world, they use cutting edge technology to create truly original and melodic dance music in the moment, with the undeniable power of live drums. The music is all created on the spot, recorded, then mixed and remixed live to create an ever evolving musical experience. Since the project is 100% improvised, every night promises to be a unique dance experience. Hann and Travis play different roles in this band than in SCI. Jason plays the drum kit, percussion and sampler, while Michael is in charge of the tonal elements, playing bass, guitar, and keyboards, and hand percussion and live mixing.

Mama's Cookin' has emerged on the scene with a sound that could only come from the modern age. Hip-hop beats and conscious lyrics melded with a solid base of rock and delta blues. The four players generate sounds completely unique to this band. Audiences across the country attest to the fact that this is dance music that inspires. Their steady rise has elicited the attention of industry watchdogs and die hard music fans alike. The group features Zebuel Early (guitar/vocals), Todd Holway (keyboards/vocals , Steve LaBella (bass), and Mike Adamo (drums/samples). In early 2007 the band made their way to New York City to record their much anticipated third album released on 7/7/07. This self-titled album is the first from the new stripped down four-piece and features award-winning producer Chuck Zwicky (Prince/Jeff Beck) along with special guests Maya Azucena (Stephen Marley), Traedonya (Large Professor) and Pete Miser (Dido). As one reviewer put it "This album hits like a ton of bricks wrapped in velvet." Mama's Cookin's sole objective is to create music the moves: Songs that are inspirational both in the headphones and on the dance floor.

Take catchy pop hooks, add a twist of reggae, some ska, Latin beats and hip-hop sensiblities and blend it together with some funk . . . it sounds like a recipe for confusion. In Hawaiian, there's a phrase for this: KAPAKAHI, or twisted, bent, and confused. What better word is there to describe a band that takes all the above influences and flawlessly fuses them together into something so booty-shakin' good it doesn't matter how you define it? Kapakahi formed in April of 2005 when five musicians brought together different geographical and musical backgrounds into a garage in the Mission district of San Francisco. Now a four-piece band, Kapakahi has ventured a long way from its garage roots, developing a sound all their own and performing in top-notch venues all over the Bay Area and beyond.

2005 Relix JamOff winner Plum Crazy is an expressive and original group of five experienced and dedicated musicians from Northern California. They are a groove/jam based band playing a danceable mix of genre-bending music including rock, pop, funk and bluegrass. Their self titled debut is gaining radio play and acclaim from grassroots efforts by the band. Plum Crazy has had the pleasure to share the stage with many great acts, including Tea Leaf Green, Garaj Mahal, The Motet, The Mother Hips, Melvin Seals and JGB, and David Nelson, among others.

The origins of the band go back to the year of 2000 when guitarist/vocalist Josh Yenne and vocalist Shawna Anderson began singing together . Drummer Skip Urmson and Josh starting jamming in 2001 with the loose but ambitious idea of starting a full band that had the will and the means to express their varied musical concepts.

The band remained little more than a grand idea and a book of inspired original songs for the three until keyboardist Dan Zemelman joined the group.

Recently, Plum Crazy has made the transition to a new bassist. Justin Hellman, who helped co-create the SF Bay area band Wayside, is returning to the scene by joining Plum Crazy.

A saxophone legend, graduate from Berklee, and all-around funk genius, Sam Kininger is building his fan-base and repertoire simultaneously at clubs across the country. Kininger has been in legendary funk/soul groups since the beginning, including, but not limited to Lettuce, Soulive and the Brotherhood of Groove.

As a solo artist Sam Kininger has developed a distinctive, organic sound on the saxophone that is strongly expressive. He consistently demonstrates his technical dexterity and rhythmic precision while maintaining an honest and innovative exploration of musical improvisation.

His debut album includes completely original instrumental funk/jazz compositions. The grooves are intense and the solos are aggressively rhythmic and deeply soulful. Loaded with guest musicians, Sam Kininger’s album features some of the most talented musicians on the scene, including Eric Krasno (guitar) and Neal Evans (organ) from Soulive, the legendary Fred Wesley (trombone) from George Clinton’s Parliament and James Brown’s JB’s, and Adam Deitch (drums), a member of guitar legend John Scofield’s band.

Sam Kininger’s new original funk band has performed at many festivals including The New Orleans Jazz Festival (LA), The North Beach Jazz Festival (CA) and Berkfest (MA). They have also had successful shows in clubs such as The Blue Note (NYC), The Mercury Lounge (NYC), The Elbow Room (CA), Tipitina’s (LA) and many others.

Joining Kininger for his Hawaiian debut are brothers Aaron (bass) and Luke (drums) Bellamy and Amy Bowles (keys)

An exciting new voice, coupled with extraordinary instrumental talent, is catching attention these days on the Bay Area music scene and beyond. Island-born guitarist and songwriter Stephen Inglis is delighting fans of songcraft with his "poet's ear for narrative and hypnotic guitar plucking" (reviewcentre.com, U.K.) With roots firmly planted in the evocative art of ki ho`alu (Hawaiian slack key guitar), Stephen's years of performance in rock, folk, jam band and reggae/ska outfits give him a versatility to mesh the native sounds and cultural forms he grew up with like few artists from any single stylistic world.

From his earliest years, Stephen had the unique advantage of working with and learning from seasoned musicians. As a five-year old student, he performed on stage with the venerable founder of the Suzuki method, a system that has trained the ears of countless successful instrumentalists. Not long out of his teens, Stephen linked up with The Grateful Dead's Bill Kreutzmann, as lead guitarist and vocalist for the veteran drummer's House of Spirits.

Stephen has also gained the respect of his peers in the younger set. He cut his teeth professionally as the bassist for the popular Honolulu reggae/ska outfit Red Session, opening for such headliners as Sublime and The Specials. For several years he was the mainstay of the improv-rock band Palolo Jones, playing to packed houses throughout the Hawaiian Islands and warming up mainlanders such as Big Brother and the Holding Company. In 2002, he joined slack key phenom Makana and Hawaiian music legends The Makaha Sons on a highly successful tour of Tahiti.

Tangleweed is a five-man acoustic Americana group from Chicago, IL, USA. The group has just released its highly anticipated second CD, Where You Been So Long?. Their first CD, Just a Spoonful, received airplay in 16 countries, earning the band enthusiastic fans around the world. Where You Been So Long? was recorded with engineer Mike Hagler (Wilco/Billy Bragg, among others) at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago. The 14-song CD features Tangleweed originals mixed with classic bluegrass, old-time country, and Irish tunes. The songs run the gamut from up-tempo rockers (‘Hard Times’, ‘Don’t Need a Bottle’) to delicate ballads (‘Leaving of Liverpool’), with hot jazz (‘I Found a New Baby’), mountain music (‘High on a Mountain’), Irish fiddle tunes (‘Sir Lucas De Somerville’), and classic bluegrass banjo (‘Black Eyed Susie’) all covered with equal skill and passion. In less than two years, the five members of Tangleweed have developed a tight-knit approach to writing, recording, and performing that is raising the bar for acoustic bands of all stripes. Their original compositions, such as 'Hard Times,' 'With a Bottle in My Hand', and 'Where You Been' are being played on radio programs all over the world. Their 'Wrap Yourself Around Me' was a semi-finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition. With four of the five band members now writing, arranging and singing their original material, Tangleweed is just beginning to reveal their true potential as a quality source of new Americana. In their first year of public performance, Tangleweed quickly graduated from quiet coffeehouses to high-profile Chicago venues like The Hideout, Abbey Pub, Martyrs, Irish American Heritage Center, Old Town School of Folk Music, and Navy Pier, developing a massive song-list and a faithful local audience along the way. The band raised its profile in the summer of 2006 with performances at Chicago’s Country Music Fest, Folk and Roots Fest, Summer Dance, and Irish Fest. The band was also featured on television programs such as WTTW's Chicago Tonight, CBS2's Morning News, and ABC7's Evening News. A complete list of upcoming performance dates and events is available at www.tangleweed.org/shows .