Sasquatch Artist Of The Week: Grouplove

Three months ago, the Sasquatch Music Festival lineup was released to much fanfare. Like all festivals, some hated the lineup while others loved it. For the more levelheaded, it appears to be a very balanced lineup with a deep undercard. From here on out we will be underscoring the lesser-known Sasquatch artists by highlighting a different artist each week. Beyond delving into each artist’s bio, sound, etc., we will attempt to give some insight into what will make their performance at Sasquatch so amazing.

The story is synonymous with the band. Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Ryan Rabin and Andrew Wessen met at a commune in Crete, an Mediterranean island off of Greece. The five immediately became friends. A year went by without any developments; then, the five reunited in Los Angeles and the rest is history. In 2010, Grouplove performed for the first time. It would be easy to dub the band a flash in the pan in the mold of The Ting Tings, what with their effusive pop ballads, but  they have more staying power than one would immediately assume. Sure, they went the iPod commercial route, but hey, you gotta paid, right?

After such fabled beginnings, it would be easy to wash away into the muck of contemporary “indie” music. 2011’s Never Trust A Happy Song was far from the mushy filler surrounding a few solid singles we’ve come to expect from similar releases. Despite its pitfalls (falls into singer/songwriter cliche a little too often, song arrangements are often scatterbrained, too much ukulele for my liking), the album is through and through a cohesive product, and more importantly, a downright enjoyable listen. It’s difficult to deem whether a band enjoys each others presence, but I’m going to go ahead and make that assumption.

With an early Monday time slot (1:05) on the Sasquatch Stage, I can imagine the five-some having a similar effect to Chromeo’s early Monday set in 2011, bringing out the revelers in grand fashion and starting a lawn dance party like no other. Despite sound issues, they smashed their early day set at Coachella last month and I would expect nothing less at Sasquatch.