You have less than ten thousand minutes until Lollapalooza 2019 — and it’s summer. Take advantage of these long days! If you haven’t noticed, we are in an explosively creative moment in music and if you can’t get yourself to Lollapalooza in Chicago next weekend then you must not deprive yourself of the music that will be hitting the stages in Grant Park and stream away. Who knows, maybe you’ll love one enough to buy it on vinyl?

Nothing genre-specific lumps these artists together. They are all just crazy talented, have something to say, are mad fun to watch and deserve our attention.

Here’s the thing. No one wants to be old but everyone wishes they were at Woodstock. We are still listening to so much of the music from half a freaking century ago not because it was played at some muddy farm in upstate New York but because it was good. Get thee to a music festival. Just go. 

 

In Alphabetical Order

 

 

 

?Flume

Let You Know

 

It takes less than five seconds of listening to Let You Know, Flume’s (born Harley Streten) latest electronic drop to become if not obsessed, then at the very least, smitten with his music. The producer/DJ/songwriter delivers clear vocals that tell a good story, dreamily atmospheric tracks that are just layered enough to tickle your need to move your body and think about time. 

 

 

?Gothboiclique

Tiramisu

how could I love you, I don’t even love breathing?

Don’t let the name, Gothboiclique, or the angsty words, “how could I love you, I don’t eve love breathing?” fool you. Listen, really listen to Tiramisu, the words are a reflection of where any of us could have been at a point in our lives when everything hurt a little bit more than it should of. It is how the words float above the music that is so controlled and never contrived that gets me. 

For a full list of tour dates and to purchase tickets click here.

 

 

 

? King Princess

Prophet

I’m a cheap queen, I can be what you like

Brooklyn born, King Princess, is that beautiful amalgam of betwixt and between that makes queer so intriguing to those of us who are just plain ole sis gendered. Probably able to play a guitar and piano before being able to walk is evident on her forthcoming album, Cheap Queen. The twenty-year-old sounds like she’s absorbed her surroundings and the lifetimes of others into her lyrics that are delightfully playful with her judicious mix of tracks that include a well-placed electric guitar riff to close out the song.

For a full list of tour dates and to purchase tickets click here.

 

 

 

 

?Ryan Beatty

Haircut

 

I grew up with MTV and not all music videos make me want to listen to the artist’s music. If you want to just see someone  expressing himself as a vocalist and human being acting like a someone who just figured out that aphorisms like, “you got to give a little to get a little,” mean nothing when your heart aches then you need to watch Ryan Beatty’s music video, Haircut from his debut album, Boy in Jeans (out now). Beatty springs into the video much as his music jumped onto my playlist. 

 

 

? Ruston Kelly

Mockingbird

It ain’t like I’m tricking on the corner for crack, Baby won’t you take me back

 

Ruston Kelly is an artist who is hard to define. Some people want to know that someone sounds like so and so from such and such or imagine this song but with a little bit of that one, but honestly, it is totally original. Bleh. Kelly’s song, Mockingbird could fall into the genre of “Americana” but that seems too simple. There’s a trend in country music to hybridize towards other musical styles to crossover to the mainstream. Nashville artist, Kelly, weaves rather than mixes and matches country and folk music into a sound that supports his lyrics, which range from wistful to sardonic to hilarious. Faceplant sports some of the saddest funniest lines I’ve heard in a hot minute.”It ain’t like I’m tricking on the corner for crack, Baby won’t you take me back.”

 

For a full list of tour dates, please check here.

 

 

 

?The Strokes

Future Present Past

 

 

If you happened to be in LA last May and had tickets to see The Strokes at the Wiltern, you would have heard their new song, The Adults Are Talking. Biblical amounts of rain washed out the Governer’s Ball so us East Coasters still have to go to YouTube to hear/see it. Go ahead and Google this one. Like the great bands that have come before them, they have a codified sound. You know you are hearing their music but it’s also transformative. The Strokes somehow straddle time and genres. It feels oh so familiar maybe because they’ve been around for over twenty years but somehow, they never get old.

 

 

 

 

?Yaeji

One More

 

 

The danger of being a woman with a soft, breathy voice is not being heard or taken seriously. Not, Yaeji’s issues—just look at her latest music video, One More directed by Alex Gvojic. The New York-born vocalist, producer, and visual artist controls her music and vocals in a dreamy almost unearthly voice that just screams pay attention. She intertwines her songs in Korean and English and both sound somewhat childlike in the best of ways and yet you never lose awareness that you’re listening to a woman. Yaeji’s house music like her lyrics seep into you and if the desired effect is getting you to move, she’s gonna getcha every time.

 

For a full list of tour dates and to purchase tickets click here.