According to several Chicago news sources, Lollapalooza has begun to drop hints about potential performers, but you’ll have to be paying close attention. Today, on Chicago’s public transportation system, CTA ads on video screens in the Logan Square Blue Line station have reportedly been displaying lines from song lyrics, followed by “#Lolla.” According to these ads, we can expect to see Die Antwoord, Justice, The Weeknd,and Jack White at this year’s Lolla festival. Here are the four reported hints, via Wine & Pop:
– “I fink u freeky” from Die Antwoord’s “I Fink U Freeky”
– “Do the D.A.N.C.E.” from Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.”
– “I got a test for you” from The Weeknd’s “Initiation”
– “I won’t let love disrupt, corrupt, or interrupt me” from Jack White’s “Love Interruption”
It remains to be seen whether these first four hints provide the festival’s headliners, or whether even more exciting additions are to come. If you’re in the Chicago area, keep an eye out for new Lolla clues, because their video-screen locations means they could be changing by the minute. Here’s a photo from one of the CTA ads, displaying the lyrics to Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.”:
Seven weeks 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.
Apparat aka Sascha Ring is an electronic musician from Berlin. You could probably tell that he was European from the photo above. Beyond his stereotypical European DJ look though, Apparat is one of the more versatile artists in the game. You see, Ring became Apparat 11 years ago in techno-dominated Berlin. Like so many others in his position, he began making techno, but soon became bored with the direction it was moving in the late 90’s. In 1999, along with T. Raumschmiere, Ring started up Shitkatapult Records with the goal of releasing the type of music “we wanted to release.” Eschewing genre ties at an early point in his career was a telltale sign for Ring, as we’ve seen over the past decade.
Apparat’s early work, Multifunktionsebene and Duplex, were both heavily influenced by Ring’s techno background and Berlin surroundings, but also included elements of ambient and early IDM. In 2005, Ring collaborated with Ellen Allien, another offspring of the German techno movement on Orchestra of Bubbles. Like Apparat’s solo work, the album harkened to the 90’s techno era, but also took influence from modern electro and featured Allien’s vocals on many tracks. Orchestra of Bubbles pushed both artists into the spotlight outside of Germany, and along with Modeselektor, helped define a growing techno-influenced, yet distinctly ambiguous, form of electronic music.
In 2007, Apparat released Walls, a drastic change in direction from his previous work. Essentially abandoning the techno that had dominated his previous releases, Walls instead takes more from synth pop acts like M83 and The Antlers. For the first time, Ring flexed his vocal muscles and results were pretty spectacular. The album was widely hailed as one of the year’s best and showed, once again, Ring’s versatility as a producer, and now as a vocalist as well.
2009 saw Apparat rekindling his relationship with the now wildly successful Modeselektor to from Moderat. The trio released an EP in 2002 but due to some form of creative differences, took a seven year break before rejoining forces. The self-titled result, recorded entirely with analogue equipment in Berlin’s legendary Hansa studios (where Bowie recorded Heroes), is a mixed bag of styles, but ultimately highlights both Apparat’s and Modeselektor’s individual talents. Apparat’s vocals and ability to create ambient soundscapes that are immense in both sound and feel, yet rarely solely fall into the ambient category, instead borrowing from glitch, electro and other genres, are heavily featured on the album. Modeselektor’s innovative ability in the studio to use analogue equipment like no other makes the album what it is. Moderat is a scattershot attempt to fuse two artists styles that is far from cohesive, but in the end, quite enjoyable. In the two years after the release of Moderat, the trio toured the world endlessly, and experience that would exhaust Ring and eventually spur a distinct change in his sound.
Fast forward to 2012, Apparat is playing guitar and singing on stage. There’s a band behind him, yet unlike his previous tours, both as a solo artist and as Moderat, they are not manning analogue synths and keyboards, they are all playing acoustic instruments. The electronic sound is still there in some sense, more in the layering of the instrumentals than anything, but the music is more organic and takes place far from the sweltering clubs Ring made his home in for so many years. Most of the tracks comes from 2011’s The Devil’s Walk, an album that maintains those classic Apparat atmospherics, but repositions them into an acoustic framework. After touring for two years as Moderat and DJing for years, Ring got sick of the dance music scene. He got sick of spending hours in the studio crafting music on his computer. He got sick of playing what the crowd wanted to hear and not what he wanted to play. Eventually, he got sick of the people associated with the dance music scene.
Apparat is scheduled to perform in the Banana Shack (the dance tent), although his newer music would translate better to an outdoor stage (maybe around sunset). Nonetheless, despite eschewing the dance community, The Devil’s Walk is no snooze fest and will surely get people off their feet. They might be swaying as opposed to fist pumping/flailing uncontrollably, but that’s not a bad thing in my book.
Six weeks 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 past several weeks we’ve covered Sasquatch artists who by and large only perform their own material. This week, we’re taking things in a drastically different direction. In 2005, Brian Shimkovitz, a recent graduate of Indiana University and an ethnomusicology major, spent a year in Ghana on a Fulbright Scholarship. While in Ghana, Shimkovitz acquired a number of cassette tapes of local artists. On his return to his home in Brooklyn, Shimvokitz launched a blog to share the tapes with his friends. That blog, Awesome Tapes From Africa, is now one of the premier sources for “world” music on the web. Along with the blog, Shimkovitz now takes his show on the road, Djing with cassette tapes, as well as running an Awesome Tapes From Africa label. Last week, we spoke with Brian about his live sets, the label, where to look for awesome cassettes in Los Angeles (Little Ethiopia), and most importantly, if he’s excited to play at Sasquatch. Brian was incredibly helpful in making this interview happen and provided us with articulate, well-thought out answers. Brian also recently moved to Berlin so let’s show him a little love stateside. Read the entire interview after the jump and be sure to bookmark Awesome Tapes From Africa.
Five weeks 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.
If you are a Seattle native, attend or attended the University of Washington, or have spent anytime at house parties in the University District, chances are you have seen Beat Connection play at least once in one form or another. The duo, originally made up of Jordan Koplowitz and Reed Juenger, have been DJing and performing for around three years now and built an impressive level of notoriety in the Seattle music scene. Since their days on the UW party circuit, the band has gone through quite a few changes. In 2010, Jordan and Reed released their debut, the Surf Noir EP, with the help of friends Jarred Katz and Tom Eddy, both now members of the band. The EP quickly became a hit and Beat Connection began to play at various clubs and venues around the city. Eventually the blog world took notice and the EP took off. The band, now at four members, signed with UK label Tender Age and are currently prepping an album for a 2012 release date.
While their output to this point has been fairly minimal, the Surf Noir EP was an excellent debut and sounds even better live. Beat Connection’s sound falls somewhere between Beach House and LCD Soundsystem. That’s a ridiculously wide net to throw, but the band has shown that they can carry the torch for both driving punk-addled dance music and unassuming, tropical tunes. Reid and Jordan’s DJing days shine through on tracks like “In The Water” and their remix of Cosmic Revenge’s “Memories.” You can also tell that Reid and Jordan have spent some time on the decks based on how well Surf Noir flows. As good as each individual track sounds, the EP sounds remarkably smooth and complete from start to finish. As fun as the dance-floor oriented tracks are, the majority of Surf Noir gives off a completely different mood. Tracks like “Same Damn Time” and “Theme From Yours Truly” have a youthful vulnerability about them that belies the struggles of growing up.
Coming back to their penchant for rowdy live shows, Beat Connection should excel at Sasquatch. One of the few bands in the dance tent, they will most likely get an early time slot, but based on the crowd at Capitol Hill Block Party, people will come out for the show. It’s easier said than done, but Beat Connection just make people dance. It’s exultantly unpretentious dance music and it’s nearly impossible to hold back from jumping into the mass of sweaty kids. Beat Connection will be playing in the Banana Shack over Memorial Day weekend.
The Los Angeles beat music scene has a resonant notoriety surrounding it throughout the world. Anyone “in the know” has at least heard of the Flying Lotus’s, Daedelus’s and Gaslamp Kiler’s of the world and Low End Theory has become a household name as well. The scene churns out talented new artists from a multitude of different backgrounds like hotcakes. These artists are represented on labels like Brainfeeder, Alpha Pup and more and routinely play shows in Los Angeles and up and down the West Coast. The scene’s sound has permeated other genres and is only growing in popularity. It is no surprise then that similar scenes, centered around a regular or semi-regular gathering of heads, have began to pop up across the country over the last five years or so. One of the most engrossing of those scenes happens to be in Austin, Texas, the setting for next week’s South By Southwest festival. Hopefully in the near future, we will provide a longer feature on the Austin beat scene, but for now, this will serve as an introduction.
Austin has not one, but two Low End Theory-styled events. The first, Applied Pressure, is a monthly event held at the Barcelona club in the heart of Austin’s live music district. Applied Pressure has four resident DJ’s, Hobo D, Kid Slyce, Boombaptist and 4th Wall. Like Low End, guests are routinely featured, ranging from Jonwayne to Eprom. Look out for more on Applied Pressure on The Astal Plane in the near future.
The second Low End-styled night in Austin is called Exploded Drawing and they do things a little differently. Unlike Applied Drawing and Low End, DJ sets are not allowed at Exploded Drawing meaning artists play only their own music. Six “beat makers, sound collectors, and electronic composers” perform a 20 minute set every night at the semi-monthly event. Exploded Drawing stresses creativity and attempts to stimulate creativity through a multimedia experience at every show. As an introduction to Exploded Drawing, host Butcher Bear has offered up a 17-track compilation in anticipation of SXSW. The compilation features tunes from artists who routinely play at both Applied Pressure and Exploded Drawing as well as Astal Plane favorite Corduroi. The compilation is a great introduction into the Austin beat scene and all of the artists involved. Mad Zach’s “Plundering Shmaster” is my personal favorite. Stream and download the compilation below.
There are dozens of incredible Showcases across Austin, TX during the week of South By Southwest. It feels like every label, collective, crew, blog, magazine, etc. etc. has there own showcase populated by some of the most talented names across the musical spectrum. If I was going to SXSW (one can dream), I would be the PORTALSXSW party. Located a few miles away from the chaos of 6th Street, the showcase is taking place in a wooded area and features two stages and over 20 artists. The lineup is electronic-centered, but is really all over the map. The two names that initially stood out to me were Astral Plane favorites Corduroi and Galapagos, but after looking into several other artists, the lineup looked even more enticing. Lucky for you, Portals has gone ahead and compiled tunes from all of the artists involved in the third installment of their Portals mixtape series. “Chant” by Men in Burka, “Put Your Love” by Young Pharaohs and “Shark Attack” by Triptides are the highlights, but the tape is excellent across the board. Big ups to the peeps over at Portal for this one. Stream and download the mixtape below and be sure to check out the PORTALSXSW party if you’re at the festival.
One month 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.
Seattle has long been known for its tendency to foster some of the biggest musical talents of the past several decades. Maybe it’s the rain, maybe it’s the attitude, but something about the city seems to create artist after artist brimming with promise. That being said, Seattle has not always been known for its hip-hop, and this may be because Seattle’s rappers tend not to fit the mold of a nationwide hip-hop stereotype. Today, we focus on two such norm-defying hip-hop artists, both of whom will be gracing the Seattle-hip-hop-focused Maine Stage at Sasquatch: Grynch and Sol.
The first, Grynch, is (in all honesty) probably the shortest rapper in the world. Name every physical characteristic you would expect a rapper to possess, and Grynch will defy nearly every one (known as the Ballard King, Grynch can be spotted driving a silver ’86 Volvo station wagon). His stature, however, does not detract from his talent. He has been releasing promising material since the mid-2000’s, and like other young Seattle rappers, he has been fortunate enough to fall under the wing of artists such as Geo of the Blue Scholars. Grynch will be releasing a new album, Perspective, on Friday, and judging from the tracks he has shared thus far, it’s shaping up to be a very respectable endeavor. Read a short review of the album by Larry Mizell Jr. in The Stranger right here. Check out “So Far,” featuring Brother Ali and Shaprece, and produced by JakeOne, right here:
Next up on the Sasquatch preview list is Seattle rapper Sol, a gangly UW grad who is relatively new on the Seattle hip-hop scene, but is nevertheless making a splash with his low-key, conversational flow and relatable lyricism. His most recent release, a full-length album titled Yours Truly, is more introspective and sophisticated than his previous efforts, and it is an enjoyably cohesive record. The album was funded entirely through a Kickstarter campaign, and it reached #1 on the iTunes hip-hop charts nationwide. Sol’s live shows are high-energy and undeniably fun, and he will certainly be a valuable addition to the Sasquatch lineup. Check out the music video for “2020” right here:
Grynch and Sol have been collaborating on occasional tracks for the last few years, and tend to make appearances on stage at each others’ shows, which will most likely be the case at Sasquatch. Here, check out a few of their most successful collaborations:
These two artists comprise only a fraction of the Seattle hip-hop talent that will be making an appearance at Sasquatch. The Maine Stage will bring us many great undiscovered hip-hop acts from around the Northwest. As the weeks progress, we will continue to bring you more coverage of the Maine Stage artists, as well as other Sasquatch artists in general, so stay tuned.
Update: Check out Grynch’s brand new album, Perspective, right here.
Three weeks 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 how great the undercard is by writing about a new Sasquatch artist every 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, a truly unique festival, so amazing.
So far in our Sasquatch artist previews, we have unintentionally covered solely artists that will be performing in the Banana Shack aka the Dance Tent. While this blog does trend towards the electronic and hip hop side of the musical spectrum, our goal is not to hem ourselves into any genre boundaries. Again, this week, we are covering an artist performing in the Banana Shack. Also again, this week’s artist, Little People, does not fit into the traditional confines of a dance act. Our first two artists, Com Truise and Tycho, plie their trade for Ghostly International, but our love affair for the label ends here.
Little People aka Laurent Clerc is a Swiss artist by way of London. Clerc is one of the few artists who have managed to stay under the radar, although he has built a following through untraditional means. Clerc released his first album in 2006, titled Mickey Mouse Operation, but has stayed relatively silent since its release. Rarely agreeing to participating in interviews (I only managed to unearth one) and only sporadically releasing material, Clerc has instead gained a following through listeners discovering his music on iTunes and internet-radio station Pandora. Since Mickey Mouse Operation‘s release, the album has steadily risen up the iTunes electronic charts and Clerc’s profile has risen accordingly.
Over the past year or so, Clerc has began to tour, most recently supporting Emancipator on his Winter tour, as well a stops at Re:Generation Festival and several other US tour dates. Clerc’s slow acceptance of the spotlight, along with the rise in popularity of his debut album, appears to be in anticipation of his second album, set to drop this Spring.
It is difficult to judge Clerc’s sound, as he has stated that he wants to move away from the sample based trip-hop sound that dominated his debut and move towards a more organic sound. Mickey Mouse Operation ranged from Emancipator-esque orchestral pieces dominated by strings and dusty percussion to more repetitive, hip hop oriented beats. Emancipator is a good comparison for Little People’s debut, but so is Endtroducing era DJ Shadow. In my opinion, no instrumental album will ever touch Endtroducing in terms of innovation and technical proficiency, but Shadow’s fingers are all over Clerc’s debut.
Little People will most likely have a late afternoon set in the Banana Shack after the house DJ performs (DJ Anjali was great last year), and barring a massive popular breakthrough in the coming months, will be playing for a pretty sparse crowd. Despite this, Clerc will undoubtedly put on an excellent show, and will serve as a nice break to the ravey-er dance acts that will dominate the Shack.
Earlier in the week, we wrote about the Sasquatch website malfunction that revealed a few acts from the lineup. Before the entire lineup is released tonight, we have another bit of information that leaked out when the website glitched. While this news is completely unconfirmed, several reports have articulated that this years festival will have an all Northwest hip hop stage called the “Maine Stage.” This is in line with confirmed reports that the festival will have a fifth stage, although the name is highly questionable. Probably a reference to hip hop slang, but who spells it that way? They really couldn’t have come up with a better name? Anyways, like the name or not, this is great news. The lineup leak included Grynch, Dyme Def, THEESatisfaction, Sol, Fatal Lucciano, Fly Moon Royalty, and SPAC3MAN, so if the stage is real, it is shaping up pretty well. Check out Guerilla Candy’s take on the stage, and their insights into the “Macklemore effect.”
One of my favorite seasons of the year is almost upon us. As Winter segues into Spring, another season begins as well: Festival Season. Coachella usually marks the start of the season, but another upcoming festival, Noise Pop, is taking a stab at the supremacy of festivals like South By Southwest and CMJ. These are not traditional camping festivals, instead opting to be held in urban environments, and across many different venues. Instead of highlighting massive headliners, and the previous years “up and comers,” these festivals are all about finding this years “up and comers.” Noise Pop is held in San Francisco and is put on by the same company, also called Noise Pop, that holds Treasure Island Music Festival in the Bay. It will take place February 21-26 Like all festivals, Noise Pop does have some major headliners, namely The Flaming Lips performing The Soft Bulletin, Die Antwoord, Porter Robinson and Sleigh Bells.
The above bands will undoubtedly put on a great show, but the smaller bands are the lifeblood of the festival. It’s incredibly difficult to predict who will make it big in the lead-up to festivals like Noise Pop, but here are a few random guesses. Check out the rest of the lineup after the jump.
Tropical Popsicle – San Diego four-piece band that has yet to settle on any specific niche, much less any genre. I don’t know what to call it, but I like it.
Born Gold– Don’t really know anything about Born Gold. He/she claims to be from US minor outlying islands and creates synth-pop with an emphasis on the synths.
The Los Angeles beat music scene has a resonant notoriety surrounding it throughout the world. Anyone “in the know” has at least heard of the Flying Lotus’s, Daedelus’s and Gaslamp Kiler’s of the world and Low End Theory has become a household name as well. The scene churns out talented new artists from a multitude of different backgrounds like hotcakes. These artists are represented on labels like Brainfeeder, Alpha Pup and more and routinely play shows in Los Angeles and up and down the West Coast. The scene’s sound has permeated other genres and is only growing in popularity. It is no surprise then that similar scenes, centered around a regular or semi-regular gathering of heads, have began to pop up across the country over the last five years or so. One of the most engrossing of those scenes happens to be in Austin, Texas, the setting for next week’s South By Southwest festival. Hopefully in the near future, we will provide a longer feature on the Austin beat scene, but for now, this will serve as an introduction.
The Astral Plane 