Greetings, and welcome to issue #67 of Crow’s Nest. I hope you’re having a good St. Patrick’s Day. I went to see the river dyeing downtown and hung out with some friends after yesterday. Taking it easy today. Let’s get in to the music below:
We’re deep into the announcements for big summer events this year, as many people begin shelling out the big bucks to catch some of them. For me, Pitchfork Music Festival’s lineup announcement has been one of the most anticipated, considering how central it is to my summer going back over a decade. On top of that, the publication’s recent reorganization under GQ makes this year’s lineup of particular interest for clues about where the fest and site might go under these changes.
Overall, the lineup looks a bit odd but still fairly good. The easy-to-guess, super Pitchfork-y acts, such as Wednesday, Water From Your Eyes, Les Savy Fav, Sudan Archives, Billy Woods and Kenny Segal, L’Rain, and Joanna Sternberg are all worthwhile additions. Locally, Lifeguard and Kara Jackson were obvious bookings; Black Duck and Angry Blackmen not so much, but both are solid; and I’m not familiar with Akenya. The leftfield-for-this-fest choices, including Hailu Mergia, Grandmaster Flash and Muna, are all solid too. The dance music leans LGBTQ+, which is not unwelcome, but hip-hop feels underrepresented compared to past years, which is unfortunate. Thank god ML Buch is on here as well. I have no regrets about getting a 3-day pass during the presale considering I’ll likely need an aftershow or 2 to resolve scheduling conflicts once those drop.
It’s been a while since I cared super strongly about festival headliners, especially with an undercard this strong, but this is where things are especially odd. Alanis Morissette had long been rumored as a headliner, so it’s no surprise she’s here, and there’s always one that feels off but fine every year. I’m not too familiar with her, hold nothing against here, and will see her out on Sunday. I would not have given Jamie xx top billing. I’ve been underwhelmed by him several times before—dropping Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ at 3:30 AM in Miami is not transgressive or rebellious, it’s a bizarrely unforced error—and I feel he’s been coasting on In Colour’s legacy for far too long to justify this spotlight (unless his new album is just around the corner and matches that). I say this as someone who soundtracked one of my most emotionally intense moments in my life to that record. Some local press chose to note Carly Rae Jepsen in their lineup headlines instead of him, which doesn’t give a lot of confidence to how he’ll do.
Of course, the biggest issue is right at the top: Black Pumas headlining Friday. Nobody I know of saw that coming, and everybody seemed to immediately conclude they were booked as a sign of GQ’s new influence over the fest. They have a shockingly small amount of coverage in Pitchfork for a headliner, and I doubt there’s a critical shortage of better fits who could’ve been booked instead for this year. It’s not that I anticipate they’ll bomb as a headliner—they had a multi-night run at the Salt Shed earlier this year and so evidently have fans, even though I can only guess where those may come from—but they’re a poor match for what this festival has been, and their booking does not bode well for what has been a major holdout in a rapidly-homogenizing live music landscape. I won’t be bolting for the exit gates at 8:30 PM, but I imagine many people will be treating Jai Paul—in his first Chicago show!—as Friday’s true headliner and dispersing for other bars and evening entertainment soon after.
While the music is (and imo should remain) the primary attraction, this year’s fest also has a new VIP tier for those who aren’t already overpaying for this. This is probably another outgrowth of the GQ reorganization, as Semaphor reported Pitchfork’s corporate overlords being underwhelmed by the lack of premiumization on offer (along with the hilariously ridiculous idea that the fest could reunite The White Stripes and/or Oasis to increase sales). The ‘front-of-stage’ viewing area looks like it’ll be far off to the side and much better than Lollapalooza’s oversized and underfilled spaces; a to-be-revealed ‘double-decker’ viewing area might be more of an issue for GA plebeians if that’s much worse than the usual soundboard and tall guys in front of you deal. I’ve never paid for more than a GA festival ticket and have never regretted nor felt compelled to splurge for more, so maybe it’ll be worth over three times the cost of GA or $350 more than the existing PLUS tier if you can’t go a weekend without a ‘premium’ overpriced experience; hopefully it’s a growing pain that settles out into a new reality for the fest.
It’s been out for a little more than 2 weeks now, and we’re only 2.5 months into the year, but I don’t think it’ll surprise you that Uranium Club’s new album will likely be in the top slot of my Spotify Wrapped come December. Minneapolis’s favorite weirdo punks continue cranking out tightly-wound power-janglers—‘Game Show’, ‘2-600-LULLABY’, ‘Big Guitar Jackoff In The Sky’ (yes, really)—while expanding their orbit with slower, more melancholy numbers like ‘Tokyo Paris L.A. Milan’ (which I would love to hear Tropical Fuck Storm cover) and an surrealist album-interlude spanning story about walls and how we respond to them. I’m not sure this will be my album of the year, but it’ll likely be my most spun of the year. Here’s hoping they visit Chicago after returning from their current Australian tour.
Rotterdam appears to be something of a hotspot for literary-leaning post-punk—I might’ve been the only person who left Lewsberg’s gig at Sleeping Village without buying one of their records, and Iguana Death Cult’s LP from last year remains in rotation—and Library Card’s new EP only cements that. Drawing inspiration from Life Without Buildings and Protomartyr, this record is billed as the band’s “love letter to the patriarchy” and doesn’t shy away from confrontation, folding post-rock touches in to their mix. It’s an explosively intense listen, and while not one for everyday spinning, a very necessary reminder of the evils that persist in society.
If you spent any time engaging with the discourse surrounding DJ Seinfeld’s remix of Burial’s ‘Archangel’ in the past week, I’m going to need you to stop what you’re doing, listen to this, and tell me if it bangs or not. I hope the answer’s obvious. Propulsive and ever-changing, this record from Parisian producer Yssue see them throw bass music, hyperpop, dubstep/footwork and other strains from the past 15 years or so of dance music into a blender, coming up with something unique and original outside of modern dance music’s landfills. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Minor Science and SOPHIE team up on a record with innovative sound design that works at home, this one’s for you.
While neither Olof Dreijer nor his sibling Karin have exactly been high-profile, being the more reclusive half of The Knife is still fairly prominent. This EP is the third and probably finest release of his in the past 12 months, unusually prolific for him, and the second on such a taste-making label you assumed he was too old for. A bit more ambient than his prior solo work, he’s using the same palette as before but demonstrates an increasing mastery of it. Do not miss such a sublime slice of Nordic tropical music.
I don’t really associate Brazilian jazz with piano, but it’s a big country and I’m not an expert on the genre. Amaro Freitas’s new record makes ample use of it across this gorgeously spellbinding record, often sounding like Bing & Ruth on the first half, while including excellent guest appearances from Shabaka Hutchings on flute and Jeff Parker on guitar during the second half. I’ve not heard a record similar to this one in quite some time, and as great as the legends of Brazil are, this is a reminder of just how bottomless that scene is.
One challenge of writing about music is the limited vocabulary for describing fairly similar music and activities from artists, which can lead to peculiar phrasings and odd juxtapositions. Case in point: I saw ‘Bitter Melon’, the new single from the band Cola, described as both coming from “the new band of former Ought and U.S. Girls members” (Stereogum) and the band’s “return” (The Line of Best Fit). For a band that’s been publicly active for 2.5 years, I’m not suggesting to pick one or the other, as neither description seems accurate. Regardless of how you describe it, the new single is excellent, combining a midtempo yet chugging beat with Tim Darcy’s yearningly meandering delivery and some art-y cymbal work by drummer Evan Cartwright into something that blossoms like flowers through neglected pavement. If this is the first taste of a forthcoming album, it’s a welcoming one for sure.
Sparkle Division, the sleazy 70s revivalist group featuring ambient figurehead William Basinski, goes house on this surprise EP. I’ve set aside judgment this project based on the contributors’ other activities, but it’s a nice 10 minutes and change of genre-spanning groove; middle number ‘Voyetra 818’ could easily slot in to one of the Artificial Intelligence compilations, and closer ‘Come On Baby’ has a bit of the Glacier Lustwerk thump with some disco touches to it. Here’s hoping this is but a tease of the next phase of this group.
Local band Cusp seemed like an odd fit to open for terminally-online Philly shoegaze/ravers Full Body 2 last year, though it made sense upon learning that both groups originated in Rochester before going their separate ways. Far more a conventional indie rock act, Cusp mix in emo or other more confessional strains of music: ex-DCFC member Chris Walla is a fan, and I’d imagine fans of Alvvays or Mitski’s rock side would find much to enjoy on this EP too. They celebrate this release with a free show at the Empty Bottle on April 1st, which should help blunt the fact that that day’s on a Monday this year.
The high intensity of kuduro and batida music has always required a softer side to help balance things out, so while it shouldn’t be a surprise that this producer whose name I’m not writing out for obvious reasons has made work on the mellow side, the lack of hard-hitting beat work here is shocking in a different way than heavy, dope grooves from him are. Once you adjust your expectations, though, you’re left with another masterful EP of intricate work well worth sinking deep into (especially as you won’t exactly be moving to this material).
Berlin party series and label Hot Concept has been quiet for a moment, which almost caused this compilation of theirs to slip under my radar. As it includes the first original composition from The Field since 2018, I’m glad it didn’t if only for that. The other 14 inclusions, from longtime producers always worth checking out to names I’m not familiar with, gives it enough to be worth spinning in full a few times.
I don’t like using a record’s sound design as a detail worth noting—I’d rather a record have a memorable groove or some unique about it over sounding IMAX-explosive over a hi-fi—but you can’t really ignore that on this single from Emily Jeanne. Twitchy techno material with a hefty kick on the A-side, this could easily find a home on Nervous Horizon, though it’s not exactly unexpected to wind up on Peder Mannerfelt’s label.
Gaussian Curve is back! Alright, as it’s the ambient-leaning project of Gigi Masin, Jonny Nash and Young Marco, the exclamation point is probably unwarranted and Too Much, but this pair of songs—the trio’s first since 2016—is a refreshingly chill moment. I’ve definitely needed something like this recently and hope you benefit from it too.
And we’ll call that issue #67 of Crow’s Nest at that. You made it to the end of this issue and standard daylight, congrats! Hopefully something above tickled your fancy, and I’ll see you again soon enough.