Northside's Mayday hosts a killer triple bill for fans of songwriters who shape their own boundaries of tradition to forge new, singular Roots music sounds. Headlining is soulful, raw and rootsy Rock quintet Alone at 3am, which is on the cusp of gaining a lot more attention outside of their hometown base here in Cincinnati. Tonight's free show (with solid support from local acts Wonky Tonk and Arlo McKinley and The Lonesome Sound)
is the group's last local one for a while as A@3AM hits to road for tour dates on their way to Denver. The band is gearing up for its first full-length nationwide release, Midwest Mess, which is due out in April, the group's first for Denver-based Suburban Home Records. —-
Suburban Home is a cool, respected, independent imprint that was founded in 1995 by Pop Punk fanzine creator and booking upstart Virgil Dickerson. The label began issuing an increasingly steady stream of Pop Punk releases, but shifted to include Roots Rock/Americana/AltCountry acts in the early ’00s, putting the label on the leading edge of the emerging Roots music revival spurred by young musicians' newfound interest in the simple, soulful stylings. The label has put out music by Two Cow Garage, Look Mexico and Drag the River, to name but a few.
Alone at 3AM's members were already fans of a lot of the music released on Suburban Home when they performed at Denver's Underground Music Festival last summer and secured their deal with the label. In a post on the label site, Dickerson recalls how the band came to his attention (Brian Penick of the local Counter Rhythm Group, which does promo for the A@3AM, was a major factor, apparently) and how well he clicked with the members:
"I’ve said it countless times, but I’ll say it again. Obviously, the music is an important element of who I choose to work with at Suburban Home, but the personalities of the band members and how well I get along with them is equally as important. I can say without hesitation that Alone at 3AM embody everything I look for in a band on Suburban Home."
Alone at 3AM recently put out a three-track 7-inch EP on green vinyl called From an Ohio Basement in conjunction with SH and Cincy-area indies SofaBurn and Tiberius Records (which put out the band's excellent previous full-length, Cut Your Gills). The recording features unreleased tracks from different periods throughout the band's decade-long recording history. Click below to sample the whole thing:
Alone at 3AM - From An Ohio Basement by Suburban Home Records
