Welcome to our weekly show recommendation column RSVP HERE. Due to live show cancellations we will be covering virtual live music events and festivals.
Photo by Angelyn Toncray
This week marks the one-month anniversary of most COVID-19 lock downs in the US and everything that came along with that. Mass amounts of tour cancellations have ushered in a new world of consistent live streaming on social media. While most bands are still adapting to this new quarantined way of being, NYC-based synth dance punk duo The Fantastic Plastics are about to celebrate their one year anniversary of live streaming on Twitch. Self-described as “the future of the future,” the Fantastic Plastics are heavily influenced by Orwell and sci-fi movies, so maybe they knew this particular dystopian fate was coming all along. Their visually stimulating live show includes matching outfits, backing projections, Moog synths and a theremin and is guaranteed to captivate your attention, whether in person or from the comfort of your phone screen.
The Fantastic Plastics’ interactive Twitch stream is tonight goes live every Wednesday and Friday at 9pm EST, with occasional bonus shows on Sundays and Mondays – your next opportunity to tune in is tonight, April 17th! We chatted with The Fantastic Plastics about some of their live stream effects, their sci-fi movie favorites and their advice for starting your own Twitch channel.
AF: You were in the live streaming boat far before quarantine started. Coming up on your one year anniversary on Twitch, how has your performance style grown over the year? How has your fan base changed?
FP: Our performance style over the last year on Twitch has evolved to become more interactive with our audience. Before we started live streaming, we were accustomed to jumping on stage to play a quick 30-45 minute set and then tearing our stuff down off of the stage as quickly as possible. Now with streaming, we stretch our performance out over 3-4 hours with lots of chatting with our audience between songs. Our fan base has changed in that we spent years touring and trying to find our audience, whereas with live streaming, most of our audience has found us instead. We are also able to reach people in parts of the country and world that we’ve never toured.
AF: What goals do you have for streaming in the year to come?
FP: Streaming more often, making our stream more interactive, and branching out with a variety of content.
AF: Have you noticed a change in your audience since the quarantine began? Has the quarantine affected your creative process in any way?
FP: Since the quarantine began we have noticed that our audience, as well that of many other musicians on Twitch, has grown quite a bit as people are searching for new ways to see live music. As far as our creative process goes, we’ve been putting more energy into ways to make the stream more interactive and visually stimulating, and of course there’s always the pressure to keep writing new music.
AF: How do you make your outfits change pattern during your set?
FP: We are misusing the chroma key effect, haha! We actually used this same effect in a music video we filmed for our song “Teleport” in 2017 and thought it could work really well with our video projection show in the background on Twitch.
AF: What are your favorite sci-fi movies? What movies have had the most influence on your sound?
FP: Most sci-fi movies that we like, such as Barbarella, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, influence more of our aesthetic vs. our sound. Musically and lyrically, we have always been really inspired by William Gibson novels and of course 1984 by George Orwell.
AF: How do you think an extended quarantine is going to affect musicians’ (and humans’ in general) relationship with technology and live music?
FP: There has definitely been a shift and more of an appreciation for watching live music performances via streaming, and it seems like people are making a switch from passively watching Netflix to enjoying the chance to have more interaction with the musicians and bands they like via streaming. Hopefully after things start opening up again, this will be beneficial for both streaming and live, in-person gigs as we know everyone really misses the energy of being in live concert venues and is looking forward to seeing those rescheduled concerts.
AF: What advice would you give someone starting their twitch channel?
FP: The best thing to do if you are thinking about starting a Twitch channel is to just watch as many other streamers on Twitch music as you can – most importantly to learn the culture. Once you start streaming, just be consistent, and don’t give up.
AF: What are your plans for the rest of 2020 & beyond?
FP: We have a remix album, MLFNCTN, coming out at the end of the Spring/early Summer this year, and we just plan to keep writing new music, releasing more videos on our YouTube channel and streaming on Twitch as much as we can.
RSVP HERE for The Fantastic Plastics live stream on Twitch 4/17 9pm est.
More great live streams this week…
4/17 Zola Jesus via Saint Vitus Instagram. 8pm est, RSVP HERE
4/17 Jeff Tweedy via Recording Academy’s Facebook page, Amazon Music’s Twitch page, and Pickathon’s YouTube page. 1 p.m. pst, RSVP HERE
A month after the Grammys, I’m still thinking about Lizzo’s opening performance: how she belted “Cuz I Love You” in a black, bedazzled Christian Siriano ball gown, and just moments later, danced across the stage in a neon bodysuit, rapping the lyric of the year: “I’m 100% that bitch.” And let’s not forget about that flute solo.
It’s empowering that a self-proclaimed “fat bitch” is one of the most successful musicians in the world right now (side note: did y’all see this perfection?). But it often feels like the Lizzos of the world – the women who see their fatness as a point of strength, rather than weakness – exist only in these untouchable, highest echelons of fame. Where are the musicians who are fat and proud, but don’t yet have their own Rolling Stone cover?
That’s where Chub Rub comes in. If you have your own personal, tried-and-true method for mitigating chub rub in summer months, then this band is tailor-made for you, like that pair of jeans that actually fits the shape of your body right.
It’s still an incredibly radical act to be a fat woman who is comfortable in her body. In the Huffington Post feature “Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong,” Michael Hobbes explains, “… the most unique aspect of weight stigma is how it isolates its victims from one another. For most minority groups, discrimination contributes to a sense of belongingness, a community in opposition to a majority. […] Surveys of higher-weight people, however, reveal that they hold many of the same biases as the people discriminating against them.” Fat people rarely join together in solidarity, because calling oneself fat is still often perceived an admission of shame, or a self-deprecating insult.
This is what makes Chub Rub feel so victoriously ground-breaking: that they’re four femme people demanding “fats to the front!” at their shows, performing alongside other explicitly body-positive acts like Thunder Thighs. By encouraging support and community among fat femmes, the four-piece addresses an aspect of accessibility and inclusivity in the DIY scene that is often ignored.
Representation aside, Chub Rub’s debut Make Some Fucking Space is a triumph. The four-song EP is reminiscent of Girlpool’s debut, thriving on vocal harmonies set atop simple, stripped-down guitars. And, like the former Philly basement dwellers’ early music, Chub Rub’s lyrics are cutting and clever (“I watch too much true crime to think that I’d get away with it/But the thought of you six feet under keeps me from losing my shit,” they sing on “50 Ways to Kill Your R*pist”).
Make Some Fucking Space evolves in tone from start to finish, in spite of its brevity. The EP opens with “Portland, Maine,” a love song anchored by a ukulele and surf pop twang. At first, they try to be blase (“It was nice kissing you/or whatever,” repeats the refrain), only to ease into a confession of love: “Trying to be subtle about how into you I am/but I just wanna kiss your fucking face/and hold your fucking hand.” On the other hand, “CoDA” reflects on the emotional baggage that comes along with romance gone wrong. These first two songs aren’t as explicitly political as the ones that follow, but there’s something inherently subversive about this duality. It acknowledges that we are capable and deserving of love even after we are hurt, and that we can move forward even when pain still lingers – that we can be both confident and insecure at the same time, even when trauma is nonlinear and unpredictable.
The song title “50 Ways to Kill Your R*pist” primes us for an angry punk treatise, but instead, it’s a dark folk ballad that demands a dramatic, Western-style music video (I volunteer to direct this). The quartet sings, “I carved R-A-P-I-S-T into the side of your shitty Honda Civic/and still to this day I wish I had cut your breaks along with it.” Each couplet follows the same melody, making this a song that you can sing along to upon first listen – it’s a brilliantly subtle choice for a song that all too many listeners may be able to see themselves in. But even more anthemic is “Shrink,” the final song on the EP, which boasts the titular lyric: “If you think I don’t fit in, well/Make some fucking space.” It feels like the entire EP has built to this moment: a declaration that no matter what size jeans we wear or what abuse we’ve faced, we deserve to be on stage, whether at the local bar or the Grammys.
With their long overdue messaging and irresistible four-part vocals, Chub Rub will certainly “make some fucking space” for themselves in the Philly music scene. And, P.S.: the best antidote to chub rub is a solid pair of bike shorts. That shit is magical.
Lizzo press photo by Luke Gilford, courtesy of Atlantic Records.
Every year I keep a running list of new album releases. The idea is that I’ll have new stuff on my radar, along with a go-to playlist if I’m feeling adventurous (or bored) and want to hear something new. This year that list grew to nearly 9,000 songs, and I’m still adding stuff I missed from this year to it. When it came time to make my year-end list, I had some ideas about what would be on it, but I decided to do something more immersive than I’d done years prior (basically narrowing my list down to ten albums). This year, I decided to rank every record I listened to that came out in 2019, resulting in a list of more than 200 albums. That’s a lot, certainly. It’s my job, of course, to listen to music. But what was more mind-boggling was that, when I made a separate list of albums I hadn’t had a chance to listen to or simply didn’t stick in my mind, it was more than double that number. Y’all, a lot of music came out in 2019. And a lot of it was really, really good.
I think our list at Audiofemme is unique in that it gives each of our regular writers (and some of our contributors) complete ownership over their favorites, and that makes our list unusually eclectic. That’s especially true this year; last year’s lists featured a lot of love for Mitski and Janelle Monae, while this year’s lists were so disparate there’s very little crossover from list to list. So while it’s hard to choose one overarching narrative around who slayed hardest this year – Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen releasing the best albums of their careers, Big Thief releasing two amazing records, Jamila Woods and FKA Twigs going big on concept albums – I think we all know that person was Lizzo.
EDITOR LISTS
Marianne White (Executive Director)
Top 5 Albums:
1) Jamila Woods – LEGACY! LEGACY!
2) Big Thief – Two Hands
3) Boy Harsher – Careful
4) FKA Twigs – Magdalene
5) Cate le Bon – Reward
Lindsey Rhoades (Editor-in-Chief)
Top 10 Albums:
1) SASAMI – SASAMI
2) Hand Habits – placeholder
3) Crumb – Jinx
4) Pottery – No. 1
5) Orville Peck – Pony
6) Cate le Bon – Reward
7) Kim Gordon – No Home Record
8) Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow
9) Black Belt Eagle Scout – At the Party With My Brown Friends
10) Big Thief – Two Hands Top 10 Singles:
1) Sharon Van Etten – “Jupiter 4”
2) SOAK – “Valentine Shmalentine”
3) Jonny Kosmo – “Strawberry Vision”
4) Mineral – “Your Body Is the World”
5) Drahla – “Stimulus for Living”
6) Mattiel – “Keep the Change”
7) Girlpool – “Minute in Your Mind”
8) Charlotte Adigéry – “Paténipat”
9) Weyes Blood – “Andromeda”
10) Palehound – “Killer”
Mandy Brownholtz (Marketing Director)
Top 5 Albums (in no particular order):
Summer Walker – Over It
Jamila Woods – LEGACY! LEGACY!
Angel Olsen – All Mirrors
Mannequin Pussy – Patience
Raveena – Lucid Top 3 Singles:
Summer Walker – “Anna Mae”
Solange – “Binz”
Jamila Woods – “ZORA”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Guayaba – Fantasmagoria
2) Ings – Lullaby Rock
3) The Black Tones – Cobain & Cornbread
4) Lemolo – Swansea
5) Stephanie Anne Johnson – Take This Love Top 5 Singles:
1) Lizzo – “Juice”
2) Karma Rivera – “Do More Say Less”
2) Heather Thomas Band – “When I Was Young”
3) Stephanie Anne Johnson – “Never No More”
4) Sarah Potenza – “I Work For Me”
5) Ariana Grande – “Thank U, Next”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Charly Bliss – Young Enough
2) PUP – Morbid Stuff
3) Kim Petras – TURN OFF THE LIGHT
4) Microwave – Death is a Warm Blanket
5) Caroline Polachek – Pang Top 3 Singles:
1) Jess Day – “Rabbit Hole”
2) Ashnikko – “Hi, It’s Me”
3) Saweetie – “My Type”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Yola – Walk Through Fire
2) Louis York – American Griots
3) The Highwomen – The Highwomen
4) Sara Potenza – Road to Rome
5) Rising Appalachia – Leylines Top 3 Singles:
1) Kacey Musgraves – “Rainbow”
2) Louis York – “Don’t You Forget”
3) The Highwomen – “Crowded Table”
Top 5 Albums:
1) The Raconteurs – Help Us Stranger
2) Harry Styles – Fine Line
3) Brittany Howard – Jaime
4) MARINA – Love + Fear
5) Death Mama – High Strangeness Top 3 Singles:
1) Sam Burchfield – “Blue Ridge June”
2) Pip the Pansy – “Siren Song”
3) 5 Seconds of Summer – “Teeth”
Top 5 Albums:
1) YBN Cordae – The Lost Boy
2) Wale – Wow… That’s Crazy
3) Roddy Ricch – Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial
4) DaBaby – KIRK
5) NF – The Search Top 3 Singles:
1) DaBaby – “Intro”
2) Polo G – “Pop Out”
3) Lil Baby – “Yes Indeed” (feat. Drake)
Top 5 Albums:
1) Palehound – Black Friday
2) Great Grandpa – Four of Arrows
3) Charly Bliss – Young Enough
4) T-Rextasy – Prehysteria
5) Leggy – Let Me Know Your Moon Top 3 Singles:
1) Mannequin Pussy – “Drunk II”
2) Charly Bliss – “Chatroom”
3) (Sandy) Alex G – “Southern Sky”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Karen O & Danger Mouse – Lux Prima
2) FEELS – Post Earth
3) Francie Moon – All the Same
4) Lizzo – Cuz I Love You
5) Crumb – Jinx Top 3 Singles:
1) Dehd – “Lucky”
2) Bodega – “Shiny New Model”
3) Y La Bamba – “Entre Los Dos”
Top 5 Albums (in Chronological Order):
1) JANITOR — She Hates The Hits
2) Haybaby — They Get There
3) Holy Tunics — Hit Parade Lemonade Supersonic Spree
4) Bethlehem Steel — Bethlehem Steel
5) Francie Moon – All The Same
6) SUO – Dancing Spots and Dungeons
Top 5 Singles (in Chronological Order):
1) Big Bliss – “Contact”
2) Gesserit – “Silence”
3) Vanessa Silberman – “I Got A Reason”
4) New Myths – “Living Doll”
5) Miss Eaves – “Swipe Left Up”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Hot Chip – A Bath Full of Ecstasy
2) (tie) Chelsea Wolfe – Birth of Violence // K Á R Y Y N – The Quanta Series
3) !!! – Wallop
4) Yacht – Chain Tripping
5) Chromatics – Closer to Grey Top 3 Singles:
1) Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy”
2) Roisin Murphy – “Narcissus”
3) Boy Harsher – “Come Closer”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Xiu Xiu – Girl With a Basket of Fruit
2) slowthai – Nothing Great About Britain
3) Boy Harsher – Careful
4) Thee Oh Sees – Face Stabber
5) Sylvia Black – Twilight Animals Top 3 Singles:
1) Squarepusher – “Vortrack – Fracture Remix”
2) Coyu & Moby – “I May Be Dead, But One Day The World Will Be Beautiful Again”
3) Cocorosie – “Smash My Head”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Bad Books — III
2) Pedro The Lion — Phoenix
3) Laura Stevenson — The Big Freeze
4) An Horse — Modern Air
5) Black Belt Eagle Scout — At the Party With My Brown Friends Top 3 Singles:
1) Kevin Devine – “Only Yourself”
2) Rain Phoenix feat. Michael Stipe – “Time is the Killer”
3) Sigrid – “Strangers”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Stef Chura — Midnight
2) Angel Olsen — All Mirrors
3) Lisa Prank — Perfect Love Song
4) Carly Rae Jepsen — Dedicated
5) Cheekface — Therapy Island Top 3 Singles:
1) Caroline Polachek — “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings”
2) Priests — “Jesus’ Son”
3) Lana Del Ray — “The Greatest”
Top 5 Albums:
1) The Highwomen — The Highwomen
2) Better Oblivion Community Center — Better Oblivion Community Center
3) Various Artists — Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’
4) Vampire Weekend — Father of the Bride
5) J.S. Ondara — Tales of America Top 3 Singles:
1) MUNA — “Good News (Ya-Ya Song)”
2) Lizzie No — “Narcissus”
3) Noah Gundersen — “Lose You”
Top 5 Albums:
1) King Princess – Cheap Queen
2) Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated
3) Tyler, the Creator – IGOR
4) Kim Petras – Clarity
5) Charli XCX – Charli Top 3 Singles:
1) King Princess – “Hit the Back”
2) FKA Twigs – “holy terrain”
3) Charli XCX – “Gone” feat. Christine and the Queens
Top 5 Albums:
1) Marielle Allschwang & the Visitations – Precession of a Day: The World of Mary Nohl
2) Angel Olsen – All Mirrors
3) Sudan Archives – Athena
4) Karen O & Danger Mouse – Lux Prima
5) Sigur Rós – Sigur Rós Presents Liminal Sleep Top 3 Singles:
1) King Princess – “Hit the Back”
2) Sleater-Kinney – “Hurry on Home”
3) Lizzo – “Tempo”
Top 5 Albums:
1) Jenny Hval – The Practice of Love
2) Mariee Sioux – Grief in Exile
3) Carolina Eyck – Elegies for Theremin & Voice
4) Julia Kent – Temporal
5) Rhiannon Giddens – There is No Other (with Francesco Turrisi)
Top 5 Albums (in no particular order):
Mal Blum – Pity Boy
Jamila Woods – LEGACY! LEGACY!
Durand Jones and the Indications – American Love Call
Tony Molina – Songs from San Mateo County
Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated Top 3 Singles:
Brittany Howard – “Stay High”
Angel Olsen – “New Love Cassette”
Jacky Boy – “Get Along”
Lizzo press photo by Luke Gilford, courtesy of Atlantic Records.
Midway through the final show of the Cuz I Love You Too tour, Lizzo let the crowd know where she stands on the drama surrounding the iconic line on “Truth Hurts.” From her purple pulpit with golden robes a-flowing, our patron saint of self-love was not mincing words. “Recently I’ve been getting alot of letters…from past fuckboys.” She then offered any future fools a warning: “Thou shalt not fuck with Lizzo because thou shalt come back two years later, bitch.”
“Truth Hurts” is a resounding hit and has been a huge part of the massive momentum behind Lizzo’s rising star – enough to sell out the first leg of the tour supporting her most recent LP, Cuz I Love You, and extend it two more months, wrapping up at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Sunday. But with this success comes some dispute. Everyone wants their cut of “Truth Hurts,” whether they deserve it or not.
Like a game of telephone, the tale of the traveling lyrics – “I just did a DNA test / Turns out I’m 100% that bitch” – crosses international waters, through singers and producers, reminding us once again that women, especially black women, have to fight hardest for what is rightfully theirs. Lizzo recently gave a writing credit and rightful compensation to British songwriter Mina Lioness, who initially tweeted the line in 2017 (in response to an embarrassing tweet from Demi Lovato claiming her 1% African DNA) and Lioness says that she and Lizzo are on good terms.
Litigation continues between Lizzo and three white male producers – whose names I really don’t feel like giving any more attention to, but OF COURSE two of them are named Justin – and they are demanding 20% of the song’s profits. They claim that the demo Lizzo recorded in their studio, “Healthy” which includes the DNA line, is something they created together, and they deserve writing/producing credit. There’s no doubt that intellectual property and artists’ creative rights matter and are legally, rightfully protected. Today’s collabs though, continue to blur these boundaries. When sharing, sampling, curating is everywhere, where is the line? Well, the line here is money, and the Justins want some.
Lyrics are important and fundamental to the songs we love and remember. 100%. But you know what else is important? Delivery. Ask anyone who’s ever been to karaoke night or watched The Voice. The Justins of the world can keep trying to steal her shine, but right now on this planet, there is no human being delivering more starpower and talent than one Melissa Vivianne Jefferson. All 8,500 of us at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium felt that love on the tour’s final stop. Even for San Francisco, the crowd was noticeably diverse. Humans of all kinds came to worship at the church of Lizzo and we were not disappointed.
Backed by DJ Sophia Eris and her dancers, the Big Grrls, the vibe was loose and playful. The last show of a long, blockbuster tour, their bodies gave us every bit of talent left in the tank. The bedazzled Patron bottle made an extended appearance as did, of course, the glorious diva Sasha Flute. Warming us up with “Heaven Help Me” and “Worship Me,” breaking our hearts with “Cuz I Love You,” and setting some hella clear boundaries with “Exactly How I Feel” and “Jerome,” Lizzo came prepared with her biggest hits. On “Like A Girl,” she added new lyrics, extending the self-acceptance even further: “If you feel like a girl then you real like a girl – if you feel like a boy then you real like a boy – if you feel like neither then, bitch, do you! Do you, period. PERIOD. Do your thing and run the whole damn world.”
She wrapped up the party with her record-breaking bangers “Truth Hurts,” “Good As Hell,” and “Juice,” coming down into the crowd to get closer to us. There were moments where she would pause and catch her breath, visibly soaking it all in, alone on stage in between songs, her brown eyes earnest and open, big smile beaming. It’s been one hell of a ride for this band geek and classically trained flautist from Minneapolis. Six years since self-releasing her first album, Lizzo has arrived and she is just getting started.
Between last-show hugs and tequila shots, she left us with clear goals for 2020: “You know what I realize, at the time when I was dealing with these people, with these fuckboys? I thought I was the problem, I thought it was me. But I’m here right now to let you know – I don’t know who needs to hear this message – it’s not you, bitch. It’s not you. It’s them. You are 100 PERCENT that bitch. We are no longer dealing with fuckboys in 2020, ok? No fuckboys, no fuckgirls, no fuckthems, no fucktheys. We are free from the fuckery, Amen?” To which all 8,500 of her new best friends agreed: AMEN.
Where to begin? Claire Boucher (who turned 31 on Sunday and now prefers to be addressed as the italicized, lowercase letter ‘c‘) gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal; between the very odd conversation and her recent Instagram posts, it seems like she’ll be appearing in our News Roundups for a while, so buckle up.
First of all, she’s officially announced a new Grimes record. It’s called Miss_Anthropocene, and revolves around the concept of the “anthropomorphic goddess of climate change,” according to her own Insta post. She describes the character thusly: “A psychedelic, space-dwelling demon/ beauty-Queen who relishes the end of the world. She’s composed of Ivory and Oil” and continues, “Each song will be a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through a Pop star Demonology. The first song ‘we appreciate power’, introduced the pro-AI-propaganda girl group who embody our potential enslavement/destruction at the hands of Artificial General intelligence.”
In the same post, she also hinted that there might be an EP coming soon as well, which would ostensibly contain some of the stand-alone stuff she’s been working on while putting the LP together, like “Pretty Dark.”
On to the interview, which is behind a paywall I can’t afford and don’t want to pay to a conservative pub, so bear with me. c wants to “kill off” Grimes in a “public execution” because she feels limited by the branding she created back in 2009; her vision of herself as an artist is much more expansive, necessitating a Game of Thrones-esque book that will create a “lore” around her art and music. “It’s super, super pretentious,” she notes.
Reiterating her Instagram post, she says that she aims to make climate change “fun” with the new record, feeling that people ignore it largely because it makes them sad. Her solution to this dilemma is a series of “apocalyptic PSAs” in which she sits nude at a Last Supper-style dining table eating species on the brink of extinction, like a big bloody elephant head. You know, fun.
The album features an epic love ballad called “So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth” which Grimes says was inspired by the Assassin’s Creedmovie trailer rather than her relationship with Elon Musk, whom she all but refused to talk about. She did say she “loves him” but was “simply unprepared” for the attention/criticism that dating him has brought her. WSJ did quote an email Musk sent to them about Grimes, saying, “I love c’s wild fae artistic creativity and hyper intense work ethic.”
Grimes tweeted that she was mostly pleased with the interview, but that generally she hates doing them because “it’s like fighting a battle with a fake version of urself to see who the public believes more.”
Red Bull’s NYC Music Academy Lineup is Here
Taking place across NYC throughout May every year, Red Bull Music Academy has become one of our favorite non-festivals – the lineup is always diverse and well-curated, with an eye on slightly more obscure avant-garde acts playing off-the-beaten path venues. Now in its 16th year, the programming for 2019 has been announced, and there’s a lot to be excited about.
For one thing, RBMA will host breakout Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía for her first live appearances stateside. Her stunning 2018 album El Mal Querer flips Flamenco on its head, and the elaborate visuals that characterized her gorgeous visuals will likely make their way into the two performances scheduled for the newly-reopened Webster Hall.
Also performing over two nights, FKA Twigs returns to NYC for her first shows here since 2015, when Red Bull staged her vogue-opera Congregata in an abandoned hangar. This time, she’ll take over the Park Avenue Armory’s similarly cavernous drill hall. She hasn’t released new music in a while, so we’re curious to see what form these shows will take.
Four more women will bring immersive shows to the fest: Harlem’s own Teyana Taylor presents House of Petunia, a “spectacular audio-visual experience spearheaded by her all-female production company, The Aunties, featuring provocative stage design and mesmerizing choreography from a world-class team of dancers;” Tierra Whack headlines New York for the first time at the iconic Rainbow Room with “quirky and surreal stage design” that mirrors her surreal “Whack World” project; composer and sound artist Holly Herndon premieres the live iteration of her forthcoming album PROTO, “incorporating a fluid ensemble of eight vocalists, Spawn (a nascent machine intelligence), machine learning specialists, choreographers, and visual artists;” and Moor Mother weaves sound and history together with a “large-scale performance” she’s curated alongside an installation by Black Quantum Futurism, both of which are based on the race riots that engulfed America in the “Red Summer” of 1919.
More from RBMA’s press release:
Additional Red Bull Music Festival New York shows include: Rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA, who will showcase his gritty and abrasive beats with a dynamic live show in-the-round; NYC’s Onyx Collective bringing together their notable friends from the worlds of jazz, hip-hop, soul, and R&B for a free and unreplicable performance of intense, genre-expanding jazz at one of New York City’s beautiful parks; and the festival closes with Nyege Nyege Night featuring a propulsive and bass-heavy set from Ugandan DJKampire who – after laying the bedrock for the creation of safe party spaces for women and the LGBTQ+ community at home – will make her US debut, co-headlining with rising singeli duo MCZO & Duke.
Tickets are sold for individual events and can be purchased here.
That New New
Speaking of Red Bull, break out that Hennessy – it’s Jenny Lewis Day, bitches.
Fresh off her Tim Presley collab DRINKS’ sophomore LP and tour, Cate Le Bon has announced her next solo album, Reward, out May 24 via Mexican Summer, with lead single “Daylight Matters.”
Nearly fifteen years after the release of their collaborative EP In The Reins, Calexico and Iron & Wine have reunited to record a full-length, Years to Burn. “Father Mountain” is the first single from the LP, out June 14 via City Slang.
Damien Jurado shared a new song from his stripped-down acoustic record In The Shape of a Storm, out April 12.
Juan Wauters has released the first single from Introducing Juan Pablo, out May 31. “Letter” was written in 2015; the record as a whole is something of a companion piece/prequel to his recently released La Onda de Juan Pablo LP.
Surprising no one, there’s a second volume to Broken Social Scene’s recent Let’s Try the After Vol. 1 EP on the way. Vol. 2 is out April 12 and its first single is “Can’t Find My Heart.”
Papercuts released a new three song EP, Kathleen Says, this week.
Lizzo and Missy Elliott have collaborated on a track, so music is basically over. Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You is out April 19.
Building on the momentum of recent single “Not What I Thought,” Somalia-born, Toronto-based vocalist Amaal brings the heat with another scorcher, “Coming & Going.”
Czarface, a hip-hop and comics collective featuring Inspectah Deck, has just released a collab LP with old Wu-Tang buddy Ghostface Killah. Czarface Meets Ghostface is out now, and so is this rad video for “Powers and Stuff,” seen from the POV of a very good boy.
Obliques are back with their first single since 2017’s “Instant Pleasure.”
Reptaliens’ sophomore LP VALIS arrives on April 26 – on cassette and limited edition pink vinyl. Watch the video for “Venetian Blinds” below.
Kero Kero Bonito released a video for “Swimming,” from last year’s Time ‘n’ Place.
Fat White Family return with a new video directed by Roisin Murphy. “Tastes Good With The Money” will appear on their third studio album, Serfs Up!, out April 19.
Plague Vendor unleash their new John Congleton-produced Epitaph Records LP By Night on June 7, and have shared a rowdy video for the raucous first track “New Comedown.”
Ibibio Sound Machine have a new album, Doko Mien, out today, and have shared a video for “Wanna Come Down.”
The latest video from Colombian breakout “Artist on the Rise” Elsa y Elmar is a journey, fam – and “Ojos Noche” is the Spanish-language alt-country bop you didn’t know you needed. Her next LP Eres Diamante arrives May 17.
Analogue special effects make for some gorgeous visuals in the dreamy new single from Heather Woods Broderick, who releases her newest album Invitation April 19. She’ll open for longtime collaborator and bandmate Sharon Van Etten at Webster Hall May 4.
Following the official announcement of her April 5 release Titanic Rising (and a video for “Everyday“) Weyes Blood shares a video for the album’s next single, “Movies.”
Tame Impala has released a new stand-alone single, “Patience,” to promote a headlining Coachella spot, numerous other festival appearances, and Saturday Night Live debut on March 30.
Honeyblood, now the solo project of Stina Tweeddale, releases their third LP In Plain Sight May 24, and have released a lyric video for “Glimmer.”
Here’s a ripper from new Queens-based band WIVES, who drop a two-part seven inch on City Slang in May.
Wes Miles unironically sings “Got the crew back together/Feels like it’s been forever” on “Bad To Worse,” the first song from Ra Ra Riot since the 2016 release of the LP Need Your Light; it’s produced and co-written by Discovery cohort Rostam Batmanglij.
End Notes
Iconic surf guitarist Dick Dale, best known as the man behind “Miserlou,” passed away on Saturday at the age of 81.
Did you know that Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst hosts a jazz night at Los Angeles club The Black Rabbit Rose every Thursday? Lady Gaga does – she showed up last week to perform some Frank Sinatra covers.
San Francisco’s Outside Lands have announced the semi-retired Paul Simon as a headliner and reveal the rest of the lineup on Tuesday.
Woodstock 50 has official released their previously leaked lineup.
The Lollapalooza lineup has been announced; we’d save you a click thru and tell you who’s playing except that it’s literally the same bands playing every other festival, but in Chicago.
Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner will bring a topsy-turvy version of Berlin event PEOPLE called 37d03d (get it? good, because it’s annoying to type) to Red Hook’s Pioneer Works; it’s a five-day residency featuring experimental-ish musicians like Vernon, Dessner, Sinkane, Boys Noize, Greg Fox, Shahzad Ismaily, and others, culminating in two performances on May 3 and 4.
The David Lynch Foundation, which brings transcendental meditation to sufferers of PTSD, have also announced a lineup for their benefit showcase on May 17 and 18 at Brooklyn Steel, featuring Wye Oak, Garbage, Phoebe Bridgers, Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem, and more.
In other Cardi B news, she’s been announced as part of the ensemble cast for Hustlers, a movie about vengeful strippers based on this New York Times article.
Madlib squashed some rumors that his collab EP with the late Mac Miller (dubbed “Maclib”) will see ever the light of day.
Questlove is teaming up with SF-based vegetarian “meat” purveyor Impossible Burger to created a Questlove Cheesteak sold at sports stadiums nationwide.
Democratic Hot but actually pretty centrist presidential candidate hopeful Beto O’Rourke has unveiled a unique platform: reuniting the Mars Volta.
Cardi B and Offset make their reconciliation official on the red carpet at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Cardi B Makes Grammy Moves
Cardi B made Grammy history on Sunday night with a huge win in the Best Rap Album category for Invasion of Privacy (she had five nominations total). She’s the first solo female rapper to take home the award – the only other woman to have received a Grammy for Best Rap Album is Lauryn Hill, when her group The Fugees nabbed the 1997 honors with their iconic album The Score. Cardi appeared on the red carpet dressed in vintage Thierry Mugler and husband Offset on her arm, signifying the end of a tense hiatus for the couple following rumors of Offset’s infidelity. Cardi also made fast friends with Lady Gaga, who offered support in the face of a backlash D, she also spent time on the red carpet chatting with Lady Gaga, who was quick to support the rapper in the face of backlash from haters following the award ceremony. Cardi took a brief break from Instagram but, never one to rest on her laurels, capped off the week by releasing “Please Me,” a duet with Bruno Mars.
Donald Glover also had a big night, though he didn’t attend the awards ceremony; Childish Gambino’s “This is America” won both Song of the Year (distinctly given to songwriters) and Record of the Year (which goes to the performers, producers, and engineers). It was the first rap single to do so.
Other big winners included Brandi Carlile, who won three of the six awards she was nominated for (Best Americana Album for By the Way, I Forgive You LP and two awards for its single “The Joke”); Kacey Musgraves, who won overall Album of the Year for Golden Hour as well as three additional awards in Counrty categories; Lady Gaga, who won an award for “Shallow” as well as “Joanne” despite it being released two whole years ago; Ariana Grande who nabbed the Best Pop Vocal Album; St. Vincent who won Best Rock Song for “Masseduction;” Greta Van Fleet who won for Best Rock Album; and Best New Artist Dua Lipa.
We’re Not Surprised Ryan Adams is a Creep
“If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley lol.” This is a pretty damning text coming from a 40-year old man who’s soliciting nudes from a teenager, and they came from none other than Ryan Adams, according to an investigative article by the New York Times. The report details the online relationship between Adams and a woman they call Ava, who was just fourteen when the two began to exchange messages that eventually culminated in phone sex less than two years later. The piece has prompted an FBI investigation into the singer-songwriter, though the alleged victim never disclosed her actual age during their relationship and never met in person.
Whether his actions are criminal or not is somewhat beside the point, though, as the rest of the piece establishes a pattern wherein Adams promised young female musicians – including Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Jaye, and his ex-wife Mandy Moore – a boost in their careers via collaboration, mentorship, production, tour spots, releasing music via his label Pax-Am (an offshoot of Capitol), et al, but then attempted to shift the relationship to something sexual, even exposing himself to women who came to his studio to develop their projects. In instances where consensual relationships resulted from his advances, they often became obsessive and abusive, and he allegedly held collaborative work hostage as a means of keeping contact open. After remaining vague in a profile in Glamour earlier this year that prompted him to refer to her as a “soggy piece of cardboard,” former teen-pop-star turned actress Mandy Moore went into much greater detail about the control Adams wielded over her career and their relationship, admitting that he was psychologically abusive.
It’s no secret that Adams has penned vindictive tunes about his exes; one of his most beloved songs, “Come Pick Me Up,” from his 2000 solo debut Heartbreaker, is said to be inspired by the end of his relationship with music publicist Amy Lombardi (another track on the record is titled with her first name alone). And though his back to front cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989 was critically praised, it certainly raised eyebrows for some. Since the NYT article was published, Liz Phair, Karen Elson, and others have hinted that professional endeavors with Adams went awry due to similar behavior, which through the years has often been seen as erratic, owing to drug abuse an mental health issues. But in an industry that (as manyhavepointedout) still needs to have its #MeToo reckoning thanks to the seemingly inextricable tangle of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, Ryan Adams’ creepitude is a whole new layer of yikes.
That New New
This delightfully bizarre video for “Under The Sun” has got us so pumped for Spellling’s new record Mazy Fly, which drops February 22 via Sacred Bones.
Pecas are all about the smooth grooves on their latest single “T-Shirt.”
Watch an adorable turtle monch some kale in the new Mal Blum video ahead of their tour in support of Lucy Dacus.
This Robyn video is equal parts promotion for her 2018 album Honey and her new clothing line.
Bebe Rexha shared a video for “Last Hurrah” as a teaser for her yet-unannounced sophomore record.
Lizzo shared a video for the epic title track from her forthcoming album, out April 19.
Lydia Ainsworth returns with “Can You Find Her Place,” from the upcoming LP Phantom Forest, out May 10.
Tim Hecker is releasing more music from his Tokyo sessions with Japanese gagaku musicians, which resulted in 2018’s gorgeous Konoyo. The companion album, titled Anoyo, will be out May 10 via Kranky; Hecker will do a series of sold-out performances with the Konoyo ensemble at National Sawdust next week.
Julia Holter shared a video for “Les Jeux to You,” which appears on last year’s Aviary LP.
Hand Habits’ sophomore album placeholder comes out March 1 via Saddle Creek; the video for latest single “what lovers do” follows clips for “can’t calm down” and the LP’s title track.
Flock of Dimes and Madeline Kenney are releasing a split 7″ after working together on the latter’s 2018 LP Perfect Shapes; Jenn Wasner’s other musical project, Wye Oak, just released a track called “Evergreen” for Adult Swim’s singles series.
Potty Mouth are back with SNAFU, out March 1, and have a new video for “Starry Eyes” to get us psyched.
Gangster Doodles mastermind Marlon Sassy shared a collab between Madlib and Oh No called “Big Whips,” which will appear on his curated comp Gangster Music Vol. 1.
Take a listen to previously-unreleased Tom Petty track “For Real,” which will appear on a posthumous collection called The Best of Everything on March 1.
A shooting at Westlake Recording Studio in Hollywood on Tuesday jeopardized the recording sessions of Usher and Rich the Kid; members of the latter’s entourage were pistol whipped in the apparent robbery, but no one was shot.
Katy Perry has pulled a controversial pair of shoes from her website and other retailers after facing backlash from critics who say the design is a little too reminiscent of blackface.
Capcom has uploaded the soundtracks to some of their classic video games, like Mega Man and Street Fighter, to Spotify.
Louisville, KY’s Forecastle Fest announced their lineup for this year, which includes The Killers, The Avett Brothers, Anderson .Paak, Maggie Rogers, Chvrches, and more, and will take place July 12-14.
Ozzy Osbourne is reportedly doing much better after being hospitalized for complications of the flu.
Democratic nominee contender Kamala Harris failed at an attempt to seem cool when she claimed to have listened to Snoop Dog and Tupac while smoking reefer in college… before either had released music.
Record Store Day has named Pearl Jam its official ambassadors for RSD2019. The esteemed position has previously been held by the likes of Metallica, Foo Fighters, St. Vincent, Run the Jewels, Jack White, Iggy Pop, and Chuck D.
I didn’t even have to break out my “The Future is Female” t-shirt to sound the alarm; at South by Southwest last week, the message was loud and clear. In a whirlwind five days, I saw dozens of acts – mostly emerging or signed to small labels – and only three of those bands did not have women on stage. I didn’t even have to try to make this happen. I made, as I always do, a must-see list, hoping to catch some new-to-me projects at showcases along the way, and in both cases, the most compelling artists at this year’s SXSW were women.
Now, it’s 2017 and women playing music shouldn’t inspire an epiphany. It’s a wonder then, that at this year’s Coachella, only 25 percent of the performers are women or prominently feature a female player. After facing criticism for gender-biased exclusion in years past, GoldenVoice (the company that books Coachella and its NYC sister fest, Panorama) killed two diversity birds with one stone by booking Beyoncé, the fest’s first black female headliner (and its first female headliner in ten years – Björk was last to hold that honor, in 2007). When Bey dropped off the bill shortly after announcing her pregnancy with twins, Lady Gaga was named as a replacement. This year’s Governors Ball doesn’t fare much better, with all-male groups, male DJs, and male rappers outnumbering women performers and groups that have, say, one woman in a band of five (like the Strumbellas or The Head and the Heart) by a shocking margin of ten to one. Lorde is closest to a headlining spot (followed by Beach House and Phantogram, both male-female duos) but she only gets second billing Friday night. Most of the women are relegated to earlier daytime slots, which begs the question – why can’t more of these slots be filled with ladies?
SXSW is pretty different than either of the above-mentioned fests. It’s really just a series of shows held in venues all over Austin, and SXSW-goers can certainly pick and choose what they want to see from a much wider array of artists. But music industry honchos – reps from labels, booking and PR agencies, and, of course, journalists – make up the bulk of the crowds. This year’s buzzy performances could populate the stages of tomorrow’s blockbuster festivals, even if they don’t yet have a big enough draw. That’s what’s exciting about the chaos. It provides a peek at who’s flying under the radar but poised to reach greater heights.
And this year, women ruled. Likely the biggest name of the bunch, the line to see Solange’s headlining slot at the dazzling YouTube house showcase wrapped around the block. Lizzo and Noname, two lady rappers with critically acclaimed albums out last year, routinely packed shows all week, and bring an energy to the stage that could easily translate to large festivals. Sylvan Esso, a male-female duo who toured festival circuits a few years ago on the strength of their 2014 debut, were on hand at SXSW to play new material to dense crowds as well. Any of these acts could’ve easily populated lineups this year.
Meanwhile, there are more than a few names that are likely to crop up when it comes time to book Coachella and Gov Ball for 2018. Hurray for the Riff Raff’s alt-country, pro-immigrant vibes won tons of hearts. Melina Duterte’s solo project, Jay Som, has evolved into an arresting full-band indie rock onslaught with the release of her excellent LP Everybody Works, which came out the week before SXSW. Her former tourmate Michelle Zauner, who founded Japanese Breakfast, played some gorgeously shoegazey sets (during the one I saw, she did an excellent cover of The Cranberries classic “Dreams”), and will get a big signal boost opening for a run of Slowdive’s upcoming North American performances. She’s not to be confused with The Japanese House, an electronic trio from England led by Amber Bain who may just be heirs to the xx throne. Similarly, Sneaks, Tei Shi, and Anna Meredith all brought unique blends of unclassifiable, off-kilter pop to SXSW’s many showcases.
There were a whole bevvy of astounding punk, grunge and garage acts, too. Speedy Ortiz’s Sadie Dupuis brought her Sad13 solo project up to full-band speed with killer all-woman backup. Baltimore babies Snail Mail delivered vintage teen angst, former Swearin’ singer Allison Crutchfield and her new ensemble the Fizz, New Paltz newbies Diet Cig made a ruckus with little more than a drum kit and guitar, Cherry Glazerr veered into delirious heavy metal, and at the She Shreds showcase, Jillian Medford of Ian Sweet triumphantly announced she’d gotten her period before a raucous set – no one batted an eye. Meanwhile, Pill, Downtown Boys, and Priests, three of the most important acts currently touring, didn’t shy away from political messages and protests, either in their songs or in between them. It’s easy to imagine any one of these rockers tearing up an afternoon stage at Governors Ball, once bookers get the hint.
By contrast, of those three man-bands (which sounds as ridiculous as it should when someone refers to bands featuring women as “girl bands”) I saw, two of them bored me to tears: Floridian punks Merchandise haven’t managed to really grab my attention the way they did with thir 2012 EP Children of Desire, even though I still keep giving them a shot. And Spiral Stairs, the revived indie rock project of Pavement’s Scott Kannberg, felt like a slog rather than a celebration of their upcoming record Doris and the Daggers, their first in nine years. I would’ve rather seen a band that was actually called Doris and the Daggers, because they probably would’ve played with much more conviction. I won’t keep my fingers crossed that they’ll get a headlining slot on a big fest any time soon, but there are plenty of real, live, female-fronted bands that certainly deserve a shot, and if this year’s South by Southwest is any indication, their day could be coming soon.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Sadie Dupuis (of Speedy Ortiz) and Lizzo released “Basement Queens,” on Wednesday, a song with a meta topic: women taking charge in the studio. The songwriting/recording process for the track was filmed by Google Docs, who sponsored the collaboration (in the video, you can see the two working on lyrics using the computer program). Next up: A Waxahatchee collaboration sponsored by MailChimp.
PJ Harvey Announces New Album
The singer, songwriter, saxophonist and guitarist released video previews, and a full track, of The Hope Six Demolition Project. Set for release on April 15th, the album was recorded in a special studio that let members of the public observe the recording process. The album trailer below hints at a record full of political commentary, and “The Wheel” is a grim look at the consequences of war.
Josh Homme & Iggy Pop Also Announce New Album
The frontmen for The Queens of The Stone Age and The Stooges announced that they secretly recorded an album together, and will be touring to promote it. Post Pop Depression comes outMarch 18th and also features Dean Fertita of the Dead Weather and Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys. Homme, who records drums with the Eagles of Death Metal and occasionally plays live with the band, said working on the album helped him process the ordeal his bandmates went through when their concert was a target of terrorist attacks in France. Check out Homme and Iggy’s performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DngIWkQVPgU
The Music Industry (Still) Has A Problem With Women
Twitter exploded on Monday after Amber Coffman, of the Dirty Projectors, shared her story of being groped by Life or Death PR & Management’s former CEO, Heathcliff Berru. After other women in the music industry spoke up about Berru’s pattern of harassing women, many artists who had ties with his firm quickly severed them, including Wavves, D’Angelo, Speedy Ortiz, and DIIV.
Berru released a statement blaming his behavior on alcohol on drugs, but as this piece points out, substance abuse does not suddenly make someone a sexual predator. As bad as his refusal to accept full responsibility is, what’s just as troubling is that many people in the industry seemed to know about his reputation, yet did not speak up and continued to hire him. The lack of consequences people like him face enforces a dangerous norm in the industry:
Glenn Fry of The Eagles passed away this week. He was 67. As all of our favorite rock’n’roll icons start to age, this is going to happen more and more frequently, making the next decade or so a very depressing one. Happy Friday!
