• Courtesy Of Drop Klick Images
• River City Rebels

Forest Station drop a single on Friday, March 22. "Yellow Aspens" is the debut song from the bluegrass band, which formed in 2023 after guitarist Eli Martell-Crawford and mandolinist Alex Skowron moved to Vermont from Bozeman, Mont., and joined forces with banjo player Thomas Bryce.

The tune, a rolling and rollicking tribute to the gorgeous trees, is from the band's forthcoming debut LP, Earth Tones, which hits streaming platforms on Friday, April 5. That same day, to celebrate the release, Forest Station open up for Nashville folk act Sicard Hollow at Nectar's in Burlington. Check out foreststationbluegrass.com for more information.

After a loooooong hiatus, Vermont punks the River City Rebels are back. The band formed in White River Junction in 1997 and went on to become one of the state's most successful rock bands of the late 20th century. The River City Rebels signed with Victory Records, and the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain produced their 2004 album, Hate to Be Loved. Their last recording, 2014's Headed to Hell, came out on Screaming Crow Records before the band went on ice.

A decade later, the band is back with Pop Culture Baby, a four-song EP produced by Dave Minehan of the Replacements and released last month. Aside from founding member Dan "Bopper" O'Day, the quintet is made up of fresh faces ready to carry on the River City Rebels name. With a 25th anniversary show at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction on June 1, it's shaping up to be a big 2024 for one of Vermont's most storied punk bands.

Eye on the Scene

Last week's nightlife highlights from photographer Luke Awtry

• Luke Awtry
• Jeff Howlett of Howlermano Photography

Howlermano Photography Tintype Portraits, Club Metronome, Burlington, Saturday, March 16: I develop my own black-and-white film. But nothing I've done as a photographer compares with the authenticity of the tintype portraits created by ex-Burlingtonian and former hardcore singer Jeff Howlett of Howlermano Photography. First, he coats a metal plate with an emulsion and bathes it in liquid silver nitrate. While his subjects sit, Howlett loads the wet plate into the large-format camera and, just as the plate is exposed, fires 4,000 watts of flashbulbs — and man, that heat is intense. Howlett runs back into his makeshift darkroom to develop the plate and finalizes the process by sealing it in a varnish lacquer and baking it. I got to witness this firsthand at a private event on Saturday at Club Metronome in Burlington (happy 60th to club cofounder Anne Rothwell!), and I'm already looking at my old four-by-fives and wondering if I have time for a new hobby...

Listening In

Spotify playlist of Vermont jams