Carolina label, Tiny Engines, is excited to welcome Asheville's i26connector to the label family. The emo southern rock band's self-titled debut album, originally self-released in March of 2026, has been reissued by Tiny Engines with physical copies soon on the way. Digital is streaming now and you can pre-order the album on vinyl and cassette here.

i26connector sounds way more bold and vivid than what you might expect from a home recording, though there’s still plenty of organic charm—“Old Beater” crashes in like a Drive-By Truckers song cranked up to eleven...a jolt of big-swinging alt-country by way of second-wave emo... - Paste

i26connector is essentially a Southern-fried version of Sunny Day Real Estate. On i26connector, they’re able to meld together the things I love most about alt-country, along with of multple waves of emo and 90s indie rock, with a pinch of post-rock to boot. - Obscurity Knocks

i26connector started because of a school project. Eli Whitlow needed an original song to finish his senior portfolio at UNC Asheville, so he called upon his friend & housemate Caelan Burris. On a break from their main project Tombstone Poetry, Burris had a song in their backpocket, written while crashing at their parents’ house due to Hurricane Helene. The two quickly recorded the song, titled “Bethel”, in the basement studio below the house they shared, with Whitlow on drums and Burris on guitar & vocals. Soon after, they realized they had something and brought their housemates Lawson Alderson and Hana Parpan in on these sessions, with Alderson joining on guitar & production and Parpan on bass, rounded out by their friend (and eventual housemate) Will Elliott on pedal steel. Spurred on by their transit-obsessed friend, the group took on the name i26connector.

But don’t take their name as an endorsement of the long-delayed Asheville I-26 Connector, as the (almost) title track “I-26 Connector” makes clear in its opening lines: “They tore down my buddies house / To build the I-26 Connector.” The N.C. Department of Transportation breaking ground on the I-26 Connector is just one of a number of events that have left the city of Asheville crestfallen in recent years, but don’t mistake that feeling for dejectedness. On i26connector, they confront these feelings head-on and turn them into pure catharsis, from the monstrous wall of noise heard at the end of “Spirit Manger” to Burris’ full-throated howls that round out “Talked To Moses.”

But even under the near-apocalyptic circumstances that inspired i26connector, friendship is the key to understanding what makes the group tick. There was no burden of expectations that fueled the album’s making, just friends allowing each other to express themselves however they see fit, as who else would approve of the low-pitched producer tag “this is i26connector, bitch” heard on “Old Beater” but your best friends in the world? And it’s because of this friendship that allows i26connector to pull at the heartstrings as much as it does, as the trust each member has for one another brings out the best in them all. (bio by Matty Monroe)