HYPHAFEST
Oct 10+11

Art Castle: 915 W 100 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84104

a music festival but also something else

A highly curated time and place where guests can experience 22 local live music acts, local visual arts, local vendors, and community organizations in ways they haven't been able to before.

22 local musical groups and artists have been asked to include one daring or brave element into their performances. We believe that by creating a space where bravery is practiced, encouraged, and cherished, we can help build a community that is founded on brave folk who can trust one another to support and be supported while their fellows try hard, new, and brave endeavors. Together, we are strong and brave

Purchase your tickets online or in stores

TICKETS

The Bands

It Foot, It Ears

Legendary masters of rhythm and mood as well as curators and facilitators of the fine arts in SLC.

Sounds like: if Faraquet had a masters in jazz composition and survived in the movie Whiplash + Architecture in Helsinki + Nico Muhly + The Books

MEGARITUAL

Is the kinda person with the stories of someone who has seen it all, paired not with acoustic guitars but with doom riffs and a kick drum. He probably knows who Slavoj Žižek is outside of the two hotdog thing+Bill Callahan + Xasthur (depending on the day)

Jain Broom

Melodic harsh noise covered in red dirt.

Sounds like: the tape in a broken tape player you find in a post apocalyptic spaghetti western + Country western version of Set Fire to Flames

Hoofless

Cello led grandiose orchestral rock with a lot of fragility and nervous wobbles.

Sounds like: Silver Mr Zion + Julia Doiron. Prone to crying and to making people cry. Expect water works

Nicky VA & The Four Locos

Spaghetti psych and improv to keep things constantly interesting yet somehow hypnotic.
Sounds like: Orville Peck + Weedeater + the sound of a lap steel lulling you into a false sense of comfort and security before burying you under a mountain of heavy

Josaleigh Pollett

performs tender indie rock with their band - Ken Vallejos on drums and Julie Boswell on bass. For faDing Ding! Round two of artists for Hyphfest announcing right NOW! Slides in order of what you read below/ as above, so below.

For fans of Sharon Van Etten and Queen of Jeans.

hiss orchid

Experimental or electronic folk-rock. local SLC and is the solo project of teddy holly, often supported with the help of friends. been described like -- as depressive as it is heartfelt, which is to say very. or like Lit major crying music lol.

Affinity Artists: Mothers, Adrianne Lenker, Melaina Kol, Lomelda

LAST

Synthesizer driven sludge. The world's heaviest keyboard band.

Sounds like: Neurosis + Godflesh + Author & Punisher.

Molotov Dress

SLC’s finest authorized retailers of scum, debris, copper wire, and home goods.

Sounds like- how it feels to get a vasectomy with medical-grade nitrous. You might be uncomfortable. You may want to dance.

Sen Wisher

is a sentimental personal memoir rock band, which often includes howling pump organ and distorted grainy guitar, sometimDinges brass or bass and blurry booming drums, and always window pane cracking vocals, whose songs attempt to explore both the quiet-small and big-loud mysteries and moments of life.

Sounds like: listening to a tape recording of Mount Eerie + Sam Amidon + Björk trying to have a conversation together in a busy late night restaurant, so they have to all raise their voices a bit. And maybe even shout.

LL Baby Young

TRANSMUTES SWAG INTO GROOVE AND ESOTERIC KNOWLEDGE INTO FLAVOR. RIGHT HAND PATH YO!

SOUNDS LIKE: R Stevie Moore, XTC, Women

Portal to the Goddamn Blood Dimension

Portal to the God Damn Blood Dimension are 6-10 people in two vans who want to make you sad.

Sounds like: Godspeed You! Black Emperor + Circle Takes the Square

Guernica

A 5 piece post-hardcore/screamo band. Some might even say "Skramz". We're trying to recapture that golden age of 90s screamo, sad distorted riffs and harsh vocals. No breakdowns, no midwest twinkle, just raw, real post hardcore.

Influences include: Portraits of Past, Neil Perry, Unwound, Drive Like Jehu, Hoover

Black Flak and the Nightmare Fighters

Alternative post.rock close-knit friend group creating tumultuous crescendos for your ear holes via sonic walls of emotion.

Sounds like: It's as if Emma Ruth was fronting a sad version of E.i.t.S.

Jimi Dead

that basement smelt of b.o, weed and incense. i was hung over. we looked up peter steele's playgirl pic. "i dont want to be me" became a sort of theme song. i think the takes are a little cringe, and ash says they're pitchy, but they get the point across. - patrick

Sounds Like: Prince Daddy and the Hyena and Life in Vacuum

Francis Morning

Francis Morning is a US-based sound artist creating richly textured soundscapes using a blend of hardware, analog tapes and cassettes, field recordings, synths, pedals, pianos, and guitars. His hands-on process embraces imperfection and impermanence - preferring to record in single takes and deleting the elements after tracking.

Inspired by: Eno, Basinski, Duepree, Hatakeyama

Strog

Strog is two-piece slowcore played fast. Notes of Low, Wipers, Dry Cleaning, and Fugazi

I Hear Sirens

An American Post-Rock band that formed in the fall of 2005. Drawing inspiration from Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore, and Ambient genres, their sound seamlessly drifts between haunting melodies and climactic crescendos.

Theta Naught

formed as a collective of musicians in 2002 after a failed attempt to medal in bobsled at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. As membership has fluctuated for over two decades they continue to push their own boundaries of improvisational, instrumental, experimental music. Theta Naught has been labeled as Space Rock, Ambient Jazz, Post Rock, and more.

Sounds like: J.S. Bach + Miles Davis + Godspeed You! Black Emperor + Joy Division.

YOUCH!

A 3 piece from Alpine, they make songs for mice. Very fast, very tight, very fun.

Sounds like: Hella + Giraffes? Giraffes! +Legs on Earth

The Lavender Menaces

An activist street band! - A Salt Lake City based performance artist collective dedicated to the empowerment of women, non-binary and trans people. Our community welcomes all marginalized artists to freely express their creative talents as we break society’s expectations for who is allowed to take up space by fiercely and unapologetically bringing high energy brass music and visual arts to the streets and our community.
Sounds like: going to a protest + marching band

Grace and Silence

The winners of Battle at Beehive! Grace And Silence is an alternative heavy metal band from Salt Lake City, Utah. With hooks big enough to catch whales, and crushing breakdowns, Grace And Silence brings an uncompromising crushing sound. The bands sound is very diverse, just as influenced by prog rock as they are groove metal and metalcore. Spearheaded by frontman Tyler Casperson and rhythm guitarist Jace Wilkinson, Grace and Silence’s 2nd album is coming…….

Sounds like: Gojira + I Prevail, Bullet for My Valentine + Asking Alexandria + Killswitch EngagedSounds like: going to a protest + marching band