Co-Presented by SCOPE Productions

Kurt Vile realized his musical disposition at the young age of 14, recording lo-fi cassettes of original slacker-pop-inspired material with a gifted banjo he’d wished was a guitar. The Philadelphian multi-instrumentalist picked up guitar and piano, and at age 23, began collaborating with singer/guitarist Adam Granduciel, together forming indie rock outfit The War on Drugs. Vile amicably left the group in 2008 to pursue solo projects and has since released a steady stream of increasingly strong and well-received studio albums and EP’s, most recently 2015’s b’lieve i’m goin down. On this folky, new-wave offering, Vile “really wanted it to sound like [playing] on [his] couch … more unguarded and vulnerable.” Pitchfork praises the album’s lyric cohesiveness, exclaiming, “the quotable lines are many” and “humor was always part of his music, but on b’lieve i’m goin down it’s an animating principle.” The Violators features Jesse Trbovich on guitars and bass guitar, Rob Laakso on guitars, bass guitar, and keyboards, and Kyle Spence on drums and percussion.