Vulfpeck

Inspired by the instrumental prowess of sessions musicians like The Funk Brothers and The Wrecking Crew, Vulfpeck formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2011. The band's four co-founders — keyboardist Woody Goss, bassist Joe Dart, and multi-instrumentalists Jack Stratton and Theo Katzman — had met while attending the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan. Inspired by the house bands that performed on vintage Motown recordings and Muscle Shoals productions, they began collaborating together, with the single "Beastly" marking their official debut in April 2011. An EP, Mit Peck, followed later that year, with the follow-up EP Vollmilch arrived in 2012. Although Vulfpeck initially existed solely as a recording project, three members of the band's lineup toured the country in 2013 as a backing band for Glee star Darren Criss, and the band began playing its own shows later that year. Following the release of a third EP, My First Car, the band made its full-length debut with Sleepify, a tongue-in-cheek release featuring 10 tracks of absolute silence. Although the album was eventually pulled from circulation, its profits enabled the band to embark upon an admission-free tour. Now acclaimed for their synthesis of funk, R&B, and jam-band virtuosity, Vulfpeck released Thrill of the Arts in 2015, reaching Number 16 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart. 2016's The Beautiful Game peaked at Number 10 on the same chart. Albums like Mr Finish Line (2017) and Hill Climber (2018) swelled the band's audience, enabling Vulfpeck to perform a sold-out show at New York City's Madison Square Garden — a rare feat for an independent and self-managed band — in September 2019. The Joy of Music, the Job of Real Estate was released one year later, but the group didn't perform live again until July 2022, several months before releasing Vulfpeck's sixth studio album, Schvitz. After a tour from Bonnaroo to Austria's Jazz à Vienne in 2024, the band returned to the studio and recorded Clarity of Cal (2025), accompanied by the concert film Live from the Palladium.