“Greg Freeman deals in biblical deluges, apocalyptic fever dreams, Floridian miscreants, and green mountain malaise. On his excellent debut LP “I Looked Out,” Gregs’s voice takes center stage, creaking, crooning, and cutting through clouds of static. The songs are linked together by a palpable urgency, whether it is the punch-in-the-face, careening momentum of “Tower,” the country-gazing guitar squall of “Souvenir Heart,” or the singalong finale of “Palms.” Careful arrangements and production choices bring out the best of the 7-piece band that ornament the album with pedal steel, horns, eerie strings, and tape warbles. Greg’s strong narrative songwriting is equally effective chronicling the demise of a 1920s ocean liner as it is documenting his own interpersonal uncertainties. The sounds on the record conjure up the feeling of driving around Chittenden County in the middle of winter, high beams on, slush on the floor mats. It’s hard for me to imagine a more promising debut record, and I can’t wait to see where this band goes next.” – Garrett Linck Like a more glittery version of the legendary generations of Washington, D.C. hardcore bands, Ekko Astral play a style of punk they call “mascara moshpit.” Debut album Pink Balloons became one of the year’s best-reviewed debuts, thanks in part to the group’s catchy, in-your-face melodies and lyrics that provided a necessary alternative to the more traditional doom & gloom of 21st century American life, from the climate crisis to attacks on transgender rights. Ekko Astral was founded in the nation’s capital in 2021 by two longtime friends, singer/songwriter Jael Holzman and guitarist Liam Hughes. Hughes, a grad student earning a master’s degree in audio technology at American University, realized he could access the college’s recording studio while studying, and collaborated with Holzman, an energy and climate journalist who spent the COVID-19 lockdown coming out as a trans woman. Inspired by a diverse clutch of bands from Arctic Monkeys and IDLES to the MC5 and Death Grips, Holzman and Hughes (alongside Pretty Bitter bassist Miri Tyler and drummer Stephen Yeager), put together the 2022 EP QUARTZ as part of Hughes' graduate thesis. The band began to evolve after its release; Tyler switched to drums, and the group added bassist Guinivere Tully and guitarist Sam Elmore. Their first album as a quintet, 2024’s Pink Balloons, explored the pain of death, decay, gender, class inequality, and lives augmented by a haze of internet subcultures and sharpened lyrical allusions to everything from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Carly Rae Jepsen. Instead of succumbing to empty platitudes and rote calls to action, the undercurrents of Pink Balloons push for hope and joy in times that felt short of either. The result was a rapturously reviewed full-length debut and waves of impressed profiles in music publications. - Biography by Mike Duquette