Each song asks a new question of the musicians and challenges them to bring something as of yet unheard to the record. Loïc Calatayud-Sola’s voice changes song to song and sometimes even the language he’s singing in shifts from English to French and back again. His falsetto lends a ton of bounce to the earlier songs on the track list and gives the impression that the album will be upbeat and dancey, but when he switches down to his lower tenor, the music drops in tempo as well. The synths in the more high-energy first half of the album create incredible sonic landscapes for the rest of the band to play in. Again leaning towards the first five or so songs on the album, the bass lines are funky, full-bodied, and they offer the percussionist a higher ranged selection of instruments to bang and hit. Likewise, the guitar riffs, with accompanying face-melting effects, rock the A side of the LP. 

You know that feeling when you’re looking out the window of some piece of public transit. And the window is stained purple from the ink of the night. And you stare so hard into the darkness, so you don’t accidentally just stare at your reflection in the window. That moment is better suited for a needle drop from the latter half of Something Out of Nothing. The final five songs on the album carry over some of the strength of the first half, but instead of centring their sound around the funk of their rhythm section and the soundscapes of their synths, they centre the music around an acoustic guitar and Loïc’s voice. At times Loïc soars, carrying the song with his voice alone. In “Quand vient le soir” he does his best Bryan Ferry impression to fantastic results. 

The weakness of the album comes in its fragmentation. The two halves of the album feel so distinct from each other that they seem like they could each have had their own TLC and then each become an album of their own. Despite the polarised track-list, the album is musically strong and stands tall as an example of the talent and range these musicians have. Looking towards their next album, I am excited to hear the cohesion that comes with shared history. Bye Parula have shown that they are seriously talented, even if their vision isn’t totally in focus yet.  

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Coming back to the garage, his sound returns to its lo-fi roots. His previous two albums were the answer to the question of what would a rocker do if they could do anything. That answer was two albums without the grit that made the King so tough. MOO finds Thomas returning to his newly refurbished Tascam 388, which he used to record his debut album (Was Dead) with all the vintage tone you could ask for.

Equipped with his Gibson SG, Jazijoo, he created a quintessentially rock n’ roll album which, through its analogue datedness, achieves poignance. Speaking on the process and music in general, Thomas says on his website, “Modern music sounds like absolute shit because everyone is trying to make everything sound big and epic, but it ends up sounding like painful, unlistenable, overcompressed shit. Plugins are shit. Computers are shit. It’s too easy to make “perfect” recordings, and I’ve got news for you: perfection is shit. However, imperfection is THE shit.” The clear driving creative force behind this album is returning to the creative spark and synthesis therein of creating music with flaws and restrictions. To Thomas, the music doesn’t get worse because of its imperfections or its limitations. It becomes real, and it becomes singular.

For those unfamiliar with King Tuff by name, he is as staple of the rock world and has been for nearly the last 20 years. He has toured constantly since he dropped his sophomore album in 2012, he played in Ty Segall’s band the Muggers, and is one of the frontmen in WITCH with J. Mascis. His name is not to be left out when talking about the rock scene of the last two decades. Even those who think they may not know him may still recognise the banger, “Sun Medallion,” off his debut album.

The songs off the new album are fun and funny and loud while still carrying complex expression to the listener. Thomas returned to Vermont from LA with the completion of this album. After years of being smothered creatively in a city often cited for its plastic feeling, Thomas has returned to his roots in the Atlantic Northeast to recapture the beautiful chaos of rock music. He plays most of the instruments on the album and did most of the engineering and mastering on his own as well.

The biggest strengths of the album are his guitar and his voice. Phased-out and distorted chords and riffs pair perfectly with his higher-pitched vocals. He emotes equally effectively through his word choice and inflexion as well as his note choice and tone. When the duo meet up to crescendo in solo and stanza, the effect is awesome. The dark horse on the album are the bass lines, which keep an upbeat tempo and jam packs in as much groove per note as I’ve heard on an album.

After taking time in his life to expand and then hone his style, King Tuff has returned. He has returned home and returned to his sound, and the results are electric. He goes on tour this spring, and as this is music that is meant to be played loud, I suggest any who find themselves unable to stop listening at home to go to one of his shows to see how the music comes to life.

Cover image by Wyndham Garnett 

King Tuff tour dates

April 15 – Troy, NY @ No Fun
April 16 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *
April 17 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s *
April 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie *
April 19 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd Music House *
April 21 – Raleigh, NC @ Kings *
April 22 – Atlanta, GA @ The EARL *
April 24 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa *
April 25 – Houston, TX @ Moon Tower Inn *
April 26 – Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom *
April 29 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
April 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium *
May 1 – Ojai, CA @ Ojai Women’s Center *
May 2 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel #
May 4 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza #
May 5 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
May 7 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge #
May 9 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall #
May 11 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Total Drag
May 12 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
May 13 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall ^
May 15 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme ^
May 16 – Toronto ON @ Sound Garage ^
May 17 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB ^
May 19 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground ^
May 20 – Portland, ME @ SPACE ^
May 21 – Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom ^
May 22- Boston, MA @ Middle East Upstairs ^
May 23 – Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church ^

With support from

* Morgan Nagler
# Gabriel Bernini
^ Mod Lang

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Enviornment images by Brandon Densley for Skyline. Cover image by Jamal Eid for Skyline.

The production overhaul this year was the most striking change beyond the venue itself, and each stage was visually stunning in a way that felt intentional instead of decorative. Our four venues here are Eastside, Westside, Downtown, and Arts District, all repping a distinct style and only a stones throw away from their actual namesake. Naturally each was designed to serve the particular energy of the acts they nurtured. 

Eastside leaned hard into a techno-industrial aesthetic that drew from the actual power lines, metallic and harsh geometry it was pocketed between. Downtown and Arts District operated similarly. The former, hosted in partnership with Resident Advisor, leaned experimental and selective. Arts District championed local and rising talent, giving the festival’s community roots a physical stage. Together the four stages morphed together like Voltron and created something greater than each part individually. 

The line up was a blur, and I found myself unfamiliar with most of the artists featured this year. It was a learning experience that I admit was a bit daunting, especially walking into the festival grounds. Quickly though, I learned. Danny Daze and Ryan Elliott brought the kind of complementary chemistry that B2Bs promise but rarely deliver. Two selectors with distinct sensibilities trading off in a way that felt conversational albeit a bit competitive as well.  Beltran, over on the Eastside stage, spun with rhythmic confidence, with a great track selection. 

Adrián Mills brought an explosive energy: channeling trance and bass influences into sets that felt propulsive and alive. I Hate Models has been blowing up the past year, and their urgent and powerful set was dangerously close to gabber than I thought they would dare.

It was Eli Brown on the Eastside stage for me though that took the evening. Weaving together trance, bass, and classic house records with a sense of narrative that DJs only manage in their best club sets. Pyrotechnic-lined transitions, the crowd responding in real time to the build-release, and everyone in that space knowing they were adjacent to something special. Brown played like someone with something to prove and by the end  it was beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

Gay Felony‘s vinyl-only set at the Arts District stage was massive. At the risk of sounding like everyone on Earth, there’s something magnetic about watching an artist work with wax. The deliberate physicality of it, the commitment each selection requires. It’s terrifying. Gay Felony made that format feel like a statement: a warm, textured, bouncy and deeply engaged set with raw craft at the forefront.

Gay Felony by Scott Hutchinson for Skyline.

Skyline’s greatest asset this year was the crowd. Every person I met over the weekend was open, friendly, laughing and genuinely happy to be there. There was a sense of mutual care running through the whole event: people checking on each other, sharing water, sharing dances and lighting up the blackened sky. The festival felt safe in the way that the best underground parties feel safe, not for lack of heavy-handed security but because the community itself holds the room. Los Angeles is all right, man. Everyone was there for the music, and that shared purpose created something that’s hard to manufacture. Skyline’s fifth anniversary was a rebirth. The move to Ace Mission Studios gave the festival more of an identity, and it added up to something that felt unmistakably like Los Angeles. The underground culture Skyline was built to celebrate. 

I walked out in shambles. Ringing ears and sore legs, completely shattered to the core. Dead to the world. Catch you next year.

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The third album by Winnipeg natives, Mise En Scene, is a comfortable blend of dream-pop and alt-country, creating images of disco-ready cowboys and motley, clothed long-haul truckers. This is a departure from the grungier feel of their previous albums. The change in their sound doesn’t feel like an abandonment but rather an evolution as they allow their influences to grow and their methods for expression develop. Lending to the alt-country feel of the album is the location where it was recorded.

Stef Blondal Johnson and Jodi Dunlop convened in a remote cabin in rural Gimli, Manitoba, with long-time friend, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Micah Erenberg (of The Secret Beach) to craft the album from the ground up. The rural setting seeped into the music but didn’t completely override the dream-pop feel that Mise En Scene has made the backbone of their music. They didn’t let go of the garage rock grunge of their past either, letting it mature into an accent for an album that didn’t need distortion at its core. 

Musically, Drive-Thru Confessional forefronts acoustic rhythm guitars, punchy small room drums, jangly guitar riffs(with some slide sprinkled in), and features a distorted lead guitar over the gentler backing track to act as an opposite to the soft reverb-laden vocals. The music is very easy to listen to. The vocals are kind and welcoming regardless of the subject matter, and each song has the familiar embrace of the genres it pulls from. Each layer is very clean except for some drops of reverb added here and there, and the lead guitar, which brings its slight distortion in as a contrast to add subtle layers of complexity to the music.

As a result, the soundscape has this warm roundness to it that can be punctured by the distorted lead guitar and the occasional roughness of the lead vocals. The acoustic guitar is featured heavily, both the music of the guitar itself and the spill of the strumming and the pads of fingers rubbing against the wire strings. This adds to both sides of their musical spectrum. On one side, the soft acoustic sound blends in nicely with the dream-poppy rhythm they build layer by layer. On the other hand, the acoustic guitar also pushes the music further down the alt-country road, bringing to mind songs sung around the campfire, matching perfectly with the notes from the slide guitar. 

Six tracks from the 10-track album have been released already, but the singles, “I confess,” “Leftover,” “Beige Corolla,” and “Days of our Lives,” are 4 of the 5 strongest tracks on the album. “I confess” is a song about confessing feelings to someone close to you, the anxiety of the moment is captured perfectly in the lyrics, and the music is upbeat and crunchy. Stef’s vocals on the track are smooth but carry with them a wave of emotions that aren’t lost in her ethereal style. “Beige Corolla” pushes the country influences forward and lets them play lead. Stef’s vocals again shine in this song as the only track where she really uses her voice as an instrument.

Of the singles, “Leftovers” and “Days of Our Lives” hold the most similarity to their earlier music. Each has a more rock-focused sound, both songs letting the vocals stray away from the clean, unbroken sound to feature more raw emotion. The standout unreleased track is “Super Bowl Sunday”. The track features distorted guitar riffs over a rumbling rhythm section paired with high-tempo guitar chords. An easy song to put on repeat and jam to in any circumstance. This song and “Hollywood Car Crash” both parallel distinctly arduous American experiences (watching the Super Bowl and getting into a car crash in Los Angeles) with dating. The comparisons are witty and enjoyable to hear play out over the tracks. The writing on the album overall is strong, and the lyricism pairs perfectly with Stef Blondal Johnson’s vocals. 

Drive-Thru Confessional is a strong album that will hit for fans of Alvvays or the Snocaps. It brings a Canadian perspective to genres that are running rampant in the States and is another step for alt-country as it continues to grow in popularity worldwide. If Mise En Scene leave Canada to tour to support their new album, I encourage US indie-heads to attend, and if they stay north of the boarder then the Canadian fans are in for an exclusive treat. 

Cover image by Matt Horseman.

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Heavy Hair, Grace Inspace’s newest EP, strives to honour both of those ideas while perhaps focusing more on classic refinement. At its core, it is a pop EP, but it strives to break out of classic definitions of what pop can be by blending and bending the genre with a myriad of influences. The largest of these influences on the album is Grace’s pure emotion. She ascribes the name of the album to a drawing she made of herself as a child. The drawing depicted her with such long hair that it bogged her down. Her hair was filled with such overwhelming emotions that the locks grew longer and heavier to accommodate the overflowing feelings that emanated from within her. The indie-pop star had plenty of emotions to relinquish into her new music after suffering the pains of the LA fires and then a battle with long Covid soon thereafter. The result of what became a two-year hiatus from music is an emotional EP focused on catharsis and expression. 

The rhythm section of the songs sound classic and sit as the backbone for the album. She utilises electronic drums and bass to create familiar rhythm sections that catch the ear as pop music is meant to. In addition, the synth lines for the songs are captivating yet familiar. The music strays away from challenging the listener at its core. It instead strives for a sound that will settle the listener down in a familiar home before giving them something new to try.

Each track takes a piece from a different genre and mixes it in with the familiar drums, basses and synths. The first track of the EP, “Helium Balloon,” begins like a folk track before picking up into a bouncier final chorus. Meteor follows a similar formula, starting off like a piano-focused jazzier track before once again ramping up for the final chorus. The strongest track on the EP, “Emergency Contact,” has a grungier feel to its intro before hitting that same poppy stride. Keeper, the final track on the album, delivers on the spacier side of her sound with a slightly more ambient edge to the soundscape. The through line of the album is the aforementioned emotion of the singer and songwriter Grace, and the production of the album, which allows a space for her to express that emotion, but overall, it lacks a thematic core. 

The EP works a return to the scene after a long hiatus. The visuals for the album help exemplify her desires for her music. The image of her childhood drawing being extremely strong, as well as the promo images and music videos she shot for the EP, which she largely shot with her mother, visual artist and former member of Haysi Fantayzee, Kate Garner. A heavy emphasis for these images are Grace’s face and, in particular, her eyes. This allows the emotions to not only be conveyed through her voice and lyrics but also directly from the source as we see them play out through her features.

The music may need a live component to take its next step towards sentience. I encourage any who enjoy the EP, to seek out a live performance and see how Grace Inspace can convey her heavy emotions in person. 

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True to its name, the venue is bathed in blue light, staff dressed in light blue button-up shirts. They serve smiles and professionalism with a stern side of instruction to make sure that the limited space is used to its full 200-person capacity without selfish guests taking away from the experiences of others.

The venue is alive for Ella Eyre’s first of two shows of the night. The sold-out room sports a younger crowd than is often anticipated for a jazz club, but there is no shortage of seasoned jazz aficionados in the room. Eyre’s sound is rooted in soul and R&B, bringing to mind Amy Winehouse comparisons, and the audience waits to see how it will translate from the studio recordings from her recent album, everything, in time, to the live stage.  

At eight, the MC comes on the mic and introduces Grace Campbell. The audience is quiet, trying to understand if the MC made a mistake or if they did. Quickly, a blond curly-haired woman bounces on stage and tells the audience she is Ella’s friend and a stand-up comedian who will be doing a tight five to warm up the room. It’s an unorthodox, albeit charming way for the show to start, and it feels spiritually appropriate as the Comedy Cellar’s Village Underground venue sits across the street. Grace is witty and engaging, and despite some of the aforementioned seasoned jazz aficionados wrinkling their noses at a few of the crasser punch lines, the crowd enjoys it. After a few minutes of jokes, the MC announces Ella Eyre, and the crowd, now properly warmed up, cheers for the singer-songwriter as she walks to the stage.

Eyre begins her show by telling the audience a bit of the story of how she got here in the first place. She regales us with a tale of how, after needing throat surgery and not being sure if she would ever be able to sing again, she decided to cut ties with her record label and go indie. After feeling like she may never again be able to express herself through her music, she chose not to allow anyone else to decide how that expression would sound.

That journey culminated with her abandoning the dancey sound the label pushed on her and instead pursuing a more soulful or jazzy sound. That is what she is here tonight to perform for us. As she speaks, it stands out how incredibly charming she is. Her regular talking voice is smooth and bubbly, and it’s hard not to hang on to her every word. Sitting there, you almost forget that you’re there to hear her sing, getting lost in her stories.

Ella’s voice is incredible. It contains a power and sass that make it uniquely engaging. Where her songwriting shows some of the pitfalls of youth, her voice overcomes and brings in what sounds like generations of emotion. Her set is a mix of songs. The standouts are the new tracks from her everything, in time album.

Where the show lags ever so slightly are the rearranged tracks from her earlier music. She tells stories of a song blowing up in a detergent ad or one being the theme song for Love Island USA. These tracks still exhibit her awesome vocal prowess, but lack the same authenticity that the new tracks have stamped into them. Her power comes from that authentic, no apologies style. Her stories are honest and don’t hold back how she feels.

At one point, she just blatantly says “fuck Virgin Records” while throwing up a rude two-finger salute to her former signers. Her music is an extension of that honesty. She sings for catharsis, often speaking about her therapy in conjunction with her music. She stepped onto the centre stage at 17 singing the music that others told her she had to, and now 14 years later, she can finally sing the music she wants, and it can come right from her heart to our ears without a filter.  

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Ryan Castro’s SENDÉ is a Caribbean love letter to his roots and my personal favourite album of the year. Throughout the project, he authentically blends reggae, dancehall, afrobeats and reggaeton into a vibrant kaleidoscope of sounds. The album also serves as an ode to his heritage in Curaçao, a tribute paid through his lyrics, musicality, and thoughtful collaborations. The song “BOMBASTIK<3”  was my ultimate favourite and was a high-energy collaboration with Blaiz Fiyah and Tribal Kush. This year also marked Castro’s first major headline world tour, the “SENDÉ World Tour.” I was fortunate enough to be invited, and it was my favourite concert of the year. He brought the Caribbean vibes to every city and had backup dancers to further bring the SENDÉ theme to life. Castro’s evolution is evident sonically and visually, fueled by a meaningful reconnection with his mother during the creative process. If you’re ready for a journey through the sounds of the Caribbean, this project is as much for you as it was for me.

Eric Mura: Greg Freeman, Burnover

In a year that saw the influence of alt country take center stage in the American indie music scene, with the rise and proliferation of acts like MJ Lenderman and his work with groups like Wednesday and The Snocaps (a collaboration with Waxahatchee and her sister Alison Crutchfield) the real standout came not out of North Carolina or Alabama, but from 1,000 miles north in Burlington, Vermont. This year, Greg Freeman followed up his 2022 debut, I Looked Ou,t with a 10-track skipless album that pushed the boundaries of mainstream sound with his warbling voice and big band sound. Burnover is a steam-powered album with lyrics that overlay fire and ice one after another until the resulting pressure bursts forth in explosive avalanching crescendos. Many of the songs sing of feverish love that now sits broken in the winter snow.

Freeman prescribes for the heartache either a running appointment with your bartender, smashing the windows out of cars lining the street, or burning the furniture to keep the darkness away. The images he conveys through his thickly poetic lyrics are at once beautiful and haunting. If his lyrics are what keep you listening, is a sound that entices you to invite him in. His voice carries what sounds like a traditional country twang, singing from his nose and the back of his throat, but instead of letting his voice round out the sounds like Hank Williams would, he lets it rattle and shake around his throat. The effect is a unique, almost keening sound that lacks much predictability but keeps you hanging onto each word. His band creates an enormous sound that nearly teleports you to a barn house stage. He replaces the traditional reliance on the slide guitar with layers of horns, strings, and keys. Each song carries a familiarity of the genre it represents, but at each place Freeman and his band could find to deviate, they did. Bonus points from me as they reported that they recorded some of the tracks live as a band, and that has to be my favourite recording style on the planet. 

Danyyil Nosovskiy: ROSALÍA, LUX

LUX feels like the work of an artist fully in control of her direction. ROSALÍA embraces restraint, using space, careful phrasing and melody.  whether she is singing in Spanish, Catalan, Ukrainian or English to shape each song rather than relying on excess. The album moves deliberately, incorporating flamenco influences into modern production without overdoing it. What makes LUX my album of the year is its quiet confidence: it never demands attention, but it holds it. The more time you spend with the record, the more it reveals, proving that artistic growth does not need volume to make an impact.

Danyyil Mosovskiy: Machine Gun Kelly, Lost Americana

With Lost Americana, MGK delivers his most grounded and emotionally direct record to date. The album feels lived-in, shaped by memory rather than momentum, and it leans into storytelling with a clarity that has often been missing from his work. There’s a worn, reflective quality about youth, regret, and the search for belonging that’s a common theme in all the tracks. And it feels honest rather than performative. What sets Lost Americana apart is its sense of place and purpose, capturing an artist embracing where he’s been and choosing vulnerability over volume.

Niall Fitzgeral: Jim Legxacy, black british music

Released in July on XL (Legxacy’s debut for the label after years of honing his reputation in the London underground scene), black british music puts Legxacy firmly on the map as a leader of the next generation of rap and hip hop voices not only in the UK, but across the globe. Several tracks (“Stick”, “Father”, “06 Wayne Rooney”, “I Just banged a snus in Canada Water”) already sound like classics, toeing the line between contemporary chaos and a classic rap feel. Black british music manages to feel both extremely relevant and of the moment while also having a tinge of nostalgia throughout. The hype man doing the intros to tracks reminds of a bygone era of downloading mixtapes off of DatPiff, and the whole record has an element of taking the best of the past and pushing things forward. Legxacy has a pretty yet gritty voice. He utilises incredible samples. One could envision hearing the tracks in the grime of a basement party just as well as on the terraces of a football ground, and it would make total sense in both contexts. Incredible ad-libs throughout. black british music will continue to grow in stature as the rest of the 2020s roll by, but it already feels like an instant classic.

Kateryna Topol, Romain Garcia, EURÊKA!

Another signature sound release from Anjunadeep, Romain Garcia’s EURÊKA! works well from day to night, much like the infamous Millennial office-friendly club outfit, except tonight we’ll opt for a much more comfortable shoe. The album is a journey through Romain’s transformative breakthrough summer, and as far as debut albums go, this one tells a cohesive story hard to find a fault in. The sound is reminiscent to that of Ben Böhmer and Tinlicker, perfect as summer soundtracks (“Lost in Bisca,” “Next To You“) sprinkled with songs that will heat up a late-night dancefloor in euphoria-induced morning (“Eurêka!,” “Heya“).

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As the clocks rolled the day over from the 31st of May to the first of June, opening artist Cal Fish held a homemade pillow to their microphone, capturing a resonance from within it, then modulating and amplifying the sound. The New York-based sonic pioneer Cal has their show rooted in creating a live soundscape from scratch. The scratch in question were homemade pedals, sample pads, cabling, and on, all wrapped in scraps of fabric and towel so they can be handled and stomped on as the show went went.

The act consisted of Cal, with their iconic flute, and Becca, the guitarist for the night, singing into microphones that followed a complicated signal flow of effects. The sound was much like that of an experimental DJ set, but all of the loops and samples being played were manufactured live in the room. It gives their live show a party feel to them, but also creates a show that is fascinating to watch to see how they will complicate the sound further. The only downside of a show of this kind is that if sounds are being modulated live, they can hit extremes that can become hard to listen to. During a few moments of the set notes hit a pitch that became a little painful for a prolonged amount of time. These moments were few and far between and often overshadowed by the complexity of the soundscape they were creating.

As June first began to take shape around us, the act of the evening was setting up on stage. Pry consist of four member: Amara, the bassist who stands front and center on stage; Simeon, the guitar player, standing off to stage left; Ollie, the synth player, set up behind a wall of synths on stage right; and Dave, the drummer, behind the three acting as their rock.

Pre-show, when asked to describe their sound, the band wouldn’t put an exact genre on it, saying their music is defined by their influences and what they want it to sound like. They don’t fear making changes mid-song to emphasise a different style. It could be easy to say they are a rock band, beyond that, it may depend on what song you have on or even what point of the song you’re listening to at the time to get more specific.

This is the band’s third lineup iteration, with Simeon, Amara, and Dave being the most consistent members through their two years of history. Simeon and Amara, prior to the show, spoke about how Ollie’s addition to the band has opened their sound up and allowed them to explore new facets of their music. They dropped from a two-guitar act to a single-guitar act to allow for a more prominent synth sound. This allows Simeon to switch from lead to rhythm guitar mid-song and back again when needed. It is a focus required style of play, and you can’t rest on the remainder of the band to carry you when you’re playing the role of two.

Despite all the factors, the new lineup, album, and venue, the group tore the house down. The set was tight and went by in the blink of an eye as they had a limited repertoire to choose from, but the songs they had arranged for the show sounded perfect. They played into the light of a projector that sent images of warped light and colour over them and the wall behind them. The room was packed for the show, and the crowd loved what the band had to offer.

Simeon bounced around the stage with his guitar slung high, giving him a hunched shoulders look to his dancing. Amara stood one foot in front of the other and plucked the band’s rhythm and singing with equal parts consonance and dissonance. Great energy in the room and on the stage alike.

The group is in their relative infancy, so it wouldn’t be unexpected for their sound and lineup to continue to grow and change. The direction they seem to be heading in, though, be it with this group of players or not, is only looking positive. Each position on stage contained an immense amount of talent, and while they may have not started to make eye contact with each other much while playing, their rapport on stage is high class. Put their new album Wrapped in Plastic in your queue and keep an eye out for future show dates.

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The duo-turned-trio’s sixth studio effort captures many of the strengths fans have come to expect from their music. Vulnerability and emotion stick at the forefront of the this project as the new parents, Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, invite us inside their home to view glimpses of their family life and hear songs that feel like they are sung to a toddler over a sink of sudsy water or while toys are touted to their homes.

Leo, their son, can be heard throughout the album’s interludes and his vocals are featured in the song Limelight. Within their vulnerability, you can also feel a vein of anger or restlessness running through the album. This feeling is seemingly a result of the political climate in America, as the album’s reported original title was set to be Fight Fascism with Trash Music. The music shares the sentiment of the proposed album title with a mix of negativity and frankness, with levity and optimism. Their lyrics act as a call to action rather than just rage:

“I don’t feel, or I don’t feel so well/Sick from living through this fiery hell/Turn away from those who hate you/Turn to meet the ones that keep you warm/Turn away the absent future/Come away, and we’ll become the swarm.”

Gabrus, through her still powerful vocals, gives us the opportunity to feel that anger with her and feel the catharsis of the music designed to make you want to dance-to shake that anger out of your joints to the chugging rhythm of Nate Brenner’s bass and drums.

Better Dreaming is a clear evolution in the Tune-Yards’ sound. Some of their time between albums was spent working with fellow Oakland musician Boots Riley to score his projects, Sorry to Bother You and I’m a Virgo. Some of the time was spent building the family and centring their focus around the hearth of home. These influences seem to take effect on their sound as a storyline webs its way through the album, painting vivid pictures of a life at home and of a need for community and hope to weather an oncoming storm. The music is less the musings of a young couple at the forefront of the scene, but rather a concrete vision of two artists who know what they want to say and how they want to say it, and of course, fun-loving dancer and singer Leo.

Tune-Yards global tour dates

June 11 – Los Angeles, CA, The Bellwether
June 13 – Berkeley, CA,  UC Theatre
June 14 – Felton, CA,  Felton Music Hall
June 15 – Menlo Park, CA,  The Guild
June 17 – Eugene, OR, WOW Hall
June 18 – Portland, OR,  Wonder Ballroom
August 16 – Elora, ON, Canada, Riverfest Elora
August 23 – Carnation, WA, THING
September 6 – Evanston, IL, Evanston Folk Festival
September 9 – Fort Collins, CO, New Belgium Brewery *
September 10 – Boulder, CO,  Chautauqua Auditorium *
September 11 – Boulder, CO, Chautauqua Auditorium *
September 14 – San Diego, CA, Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay *
September 20 – Camden, NJ (XPN) – XPoNential Music Festival
September 22 – Washington, DC – Howard Theatre
September 24 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
September 25 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
September 26 – Nashville, TN  – Exit/In
September 27 – St. Louis, MO  – Off Broadway
September 29 – Indianapolis, IN – HI-FI
September 30 – Milwaukee, WI  – Vivarium
October 1 – Minneapolis, MN  – Fine Line
October 2 – Madison, WI – The Majestic
October 4 – Kalamazoo, MI  – Bell’s Back Room
October 5 – Detroit, MI – El Club
October 6 – Columbus, OH  – Skullys
October 8 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls Theatre
October 9 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
November 15 – Berlin, Germany, Festsaal Kreuzberg
November 17 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tolhuistuin
November 18 – Gent, Belgium, Wintercircus
November 19 – Paris, France, La Bellevilloise
November 21 – Brighton, UK, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
November 22 – London, UK, Royal Festival Hall
November 23 – Manchester, UK, Aviva Studios
November 25 – Leeds, UK, Irish Centre
November 26 – Glasgow, UK, St Luke’s
November 27 – Sunderland, UK, The Fire Station
November 29 – Dublin, Ireland, Whelan’s

Cover photo by Shervin Lainez

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As the 7:30 PM doors approached, the line had nearly reached the end of the block and would soon begin to wrap around. The show was 16+ and sold mostly to a female audience. The line was quiet; not a ton of talking besides a few groups peppered here and there. The people who had been waiting longer seemed to have run out of things to talk about and could then only focus on the anticipation of being let inside. The girl in line next to me placed her phone on the ground and rested it against the building along the sidewalk to take a selfie before having second thoughts and nearly bailing before she mustered the courage and took the picture.

This was Mallrat’s first show in New York in three years, and the feeling of nervous excitement permeates every aspect. Besides the pre-show jitters of fans determined to see their favourite artist for the first time in years, there was also the anticipation of fans reuniting with Anna Shoemaker after she committed the worst coastal crime in the book by moving from NYC to LA. Those who found it in their heart to forgive her came out to cry their support for their heartbroken pop hero.

The Hall maxes out at around 1,000 attendees, and the floor was as near to full as I could tell for the opening act. No fewer than 18 disco balls hung from the ceiling and each had its own colored light focused on it, casting small colourful beams of light around the room and washing the whole space in a psychedelic rainbow. The front row before the stage was lined with the diehards in attendance who passed the time chatting about their favourite shows, songs, and other artists. The mostly female audience created a vibe of camaraderie in the crowd rather than one of competition. Mixed gender shows tend to come with more displays of chest puffing and posturing for floor space.

Moments before the show began, Anna’s loved ones came out from backstage to take a place in the crowd. Her friends came out into the pit to lead the cheering and get a good vantage point for a photo and video. Her boyfriend stood alone directly to the side of the stage, often putting one hand on the railing divider as his partner sang. She turned and performed much of the set, smiling, to him or to her friends. Anna had incredible chemistry with her performing and writing partner, Aaron Kennedy, the duo seemingly like two halves of one whole. They both play the show sitting down and mostly on a pair of acoustic guitars. Kennedy, however, would swap his wooden axe for an electric here and there and also has a sample pad he could use for rhythm and backing tracks. The duo wrapped their set after a heartbreakingly quick 30 minutes. The music was mellow and emotional, and the guitars intertwined beautifully with the soft harmonies, and it left the audience wishing the set could have lasted hours.

After a quick set change, the lights dropped, and spotlights began roaming The Hall as if searching for something. The high contrast look stayed constant throughout the show. The lights stayed bright and mostly white and the wings of the stage stayed bathed in darkness, except for those moments when strobes or fill lights would blast the area or the disco balls and light up the whole room.

Mallrat was made up of the titular Mallrat (Grace Shaw), a drummer and an accompanying synth player, though Grace was the focal point of the performance. She would sing from three primary points on stage (centre-stage, stage-left, or stage-right), either standing tall or squatted down, knees against her chest. Between locations and songs, she would drift around the stage almost purposelessly or she would dance and hop her way there as the song broke down.

Grace sang extremely well and mixed in interesting vocal mods to add some uniqueness to her hyper pop sound. The music she played was bedroom brat, a spiritual cousin to Charli XCX in the hyper pop space, but with the raw emotion and ruggedness that bedroom producers are known for. This allowed her to create an intimacy at her show that came from that vulnerability. The audience met her in that state of feeling and allowed themselves to feel authentically with her before the song drops, and in all that authenticity, they party. It’s a recipe for success, and as Grace Shaw continues to grow as an artist, so too will her popularity and success.

Catch the Duo of Anna Shoemaker and Mallrat on tour this spring and summer before they inevitably start playing much larger venues.

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Valley Boy (James Alan Ghaleb Amaradio): I live for the live side of [music], really. It’s where it makes sense. It’s so hard, I think live, it’s like a living thing. It suddenly becomes like a real moment between you and people. It’s just like the conversation you and I are having right now. You know, this is so engaging to me. And I feel like I get to see you and meet another human. And generally, even on my worst days, I like people.

You know, I might struggle to like myself the most, which is why it’s nice for me to interact with other people. And also, it’s less abstract. I get to give the thing that I spend however many years, weeks, hours doing alone in my room a purpose in real life. You know, it’s not just like going straight to the ether. And honestly, as a musician … there are so many aesthetic choices that happen along the way in producing and recording, it’s such a wealth of options and things that can work and can sound good and I love the limitation of reality and life. I like to push up against that barrier, you know, I like to see how I can bring myself to sing in a special way or how I can push myself and my body and my spirit to another level.

Dude, when I’m producing, every time I say I’m not going to over edit I fucking over edit… Every time I say like, no, no, this one, this recording is going to be really raw. I swear, somehow it ends up with me scooting [knobs and dials] tiny little fucking fractions. And now I have kind of one bad eye. So it’s even harder for me. You see, I’m like, squinting through my one good eye, like a microscope [he laughs] I love avoiding that at all costs. So live is cool. I don’t play to tracks, you know, it’s just me and a guitar.

Eric Mura: I like what you’re saying, because when you’re on the production side, it’s like your own project. How do you ever say it’s done? So you’re continually tinkering, tinkering, tinkering. And when you’re live, that’s not your decision. You’re there with so many people. I really I really felt that, too, with the “Happy All the Time” music video. It seemed like you wanted that to be kind of as close to a live performance as you could get for a music video. Will you talk to me a little about that creative process, and what you were thinking there?

VB: I grew up loving music videos, and they’re beautiful. And if you have a budget or if you’re a fucking editing genius on your own they can be such meaningful pieces of art, but I’m so fucking indie duuuuuuude. I got one pair of pants on this tour, you know, like that’s real for me [laughs]. What I want to give people, the thing that’s most me, is again, the least amount of decisions possible. It’s not about what the fucking set is. It’s not about how the edit works. I wanted to just give people the song as best as I could fucking play it. Live, if given the option, you know? And that’s what we did.

EM: Do you feel like you want to keep doing music videos in that style?

VB: Shit, dude, if I had the budget, that’s the dream. We did a series, because we were strapped, we were like, let’s bang out as many as we can. So we did four videos on that day, just in the same location. There’s a few more that can come out that we’re excited for and I really hope I have the option to do more.

EM: I read a lot about your feeling a connection, spiritually, to Frank Ocean on his pathway. Doing that producing, that songwriting at the beginning and then kind of going on your own journey, now. One of the things I hear kind of distinctly that I think diverges from [Frank’s] path is that connection. I know Frank has a big, I want to call it, social anxiety around his presence with his fans and his performances live. He keeps that very small, very intimate, and doesn’t keep himself very available to the audience. You’re describing a love for that connection to your audience like that, that performance aspect of it. Do you feel that divergence? 

VB: Yeah. So Frank is so special and important, you know, not enough people can say it. He broke through this barrier in my head and really woke me up to songwriting in such a way. Like, his craft is just at such a high level and so unique. I mean, there are others who are similarly fantastic, but he was the first one to really crack me open. Before, I loved songs and music, always, but I wasn’t always very lyrical. And I was like, I love fucking Led Zeppelin, dude. I grew out my fucking hair aged 12 and never looked back and was trying to be Robert Plant…But yeah, I kind of diverge from Frank and I think it comes from, I don’t know, also maybe my other hero or heroes, Jeff Buckley and Amy Winehouse, who were just truly such live icons.

That’s where it all clicked for them. Obviously, Amy’s recordings are beautiful. I love every single Jeff Buckley recording as well. I rinse Grace, I rinse fucking, Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk, like everything. I guess that’s where the divergence is. If I had the chance, I would take any show. I’d take every show. Because I don’t know why else I’m here. I wasn’t kind of a smart kid. I could have maybe done other more useful things in this world. And I really selfishly hung on to music, so I want to, at least, give it back somehow. Whenever and however I can.

EM: When you perform, do you prefer performing solo? Like you and your instrument, or do you like having a band with you?

VB: If I had the option to have a band with me all the time, that would be really special because that’s like expanding the palette. Because so far I’ve been kind of like, sketched out about using tracks, you know? But yeah, I want to be able to give people a spectrum of sound. And also honestly, I look at the videos of Jeff Buckley or live videos of Amy, and I’m like, I can’t breathe – I’m like watching and waiting for them to take a breath so I can take a breath [laughs], but often those are with the band too, you know?

And that’s, I think, why I wanted to do those live videos with the band. I did one of them totally solo, just to like, do that. But yeah, it would be lovely to have a band, but I do love to be solo too. It’s beautiful to just be able to connect with people, but I take either or whatever. I mean, also, I’m like a fucking pack animal, dude. I love my people…You know, so it’s beautiful that you get to share that with people you love. And for me, I didn’t grow up with a great home life, so my band was like my family, I made my best friends into my band, and my best friends and band became my family.

EM: In that spirit of family, your previous album, which you made with your wife, Honeymooners, obviously has a theme of marriage. This next one, Child of Divorce, also has this theme of marriage in it. And we’re talking now about family and about finding our found family versus the family we have. I’d love to hear a little about family and your thoughts on that family unit, because it seems to be coming across in your writing.

VB: You know, it’s funny, I felt after my last record like it was a concept record written on my honeymoon with my wife. Couldn’t be more about marriage, right? And honestly, it was hard to know when to stop. There are so many other songs we’re probably going to pop out another one. Just ‘cus there’s more to say.

But then now I’m swinging to the other pole and examining what made me and what my family was like, you know. I had a bit of a broken home situation, and it was complicated growing up. And, it’s funny, I think I always wanted my first concept album to be about this. I don’t know why I always had, like, a real clarity about it. Like the first record, the first Valley Boy record is going to be called Children of Divorce, and it’s going to be about this, and I’m going to just take a crack at it.

Growing up, I just started realising, I was almost like a magnet for other children of divorce growing up. l  mean, it’s not hard to be [a magnet for other children of divorce] because they’re just like so many of them. And I wanted to tell some stories about it. I just didn’t know why there wasn’t any real focused literature on this thing. I’ve actually read some psychological studies, but I didn’t know why we didn’t just … have someone in music just give it a shot. You know, throw one out, see what happens. And I wanted to!

It’s such a complicated subject and it’s so common that it almost feels really small. And especially as we grow up and look at you and me and you’re like, okay, that was our childhood, you know, of course everybody has a hard childhood. That’s not even the hardest! It’s, “Oh, you’re a child of divorce? You’re lower middle class? So what?” Like you couldn’t be more common and as an adult, we should be really fucking over it. But I think, making [this album], it made me realise we experienced a lot of trauma as kids, but it doesn’t mean we’ve processed it. And, it’s okay that even these things that might feel small in the face of other people’s issues, which they could be, I mean, as experience, it’s really subjective. And for me, what I found anecdotally was that a lot of other children of divorce, this is still a pretty huge event. It shakes you, changes you, and it’s not to say that people shouldn’t get divorced. It was just kind of like, I really wanted to speak on my experience a little.

As difficult as it was for me to even make sense of it and try to bring other people into it, like my own brother, who is my half-brother. His dad was an addict. My mom divorced his dad before she married my dad, and then my dad, fucking left, than my dad’s dad got cheated and got a divorce from his wife and a best friend whose fucking his mom cheated on his dad and got a divorce and all the ripple effects of, like, the interesting instabilities and the things that we have to overcome to be functional people after that, like, fractures in our lives. So family and it was funny, I felt so fucking Freudian writing about parents like quite a lot [laughs]. Like, “Oh, geez, this has no love songs” [laughs]. What cafe is going to play this shit, I’m actually in a coffee shop right now, which is lovely. I love coffee shops, and every time I walk into a coffee shop, I’m like, oh god, I mean, what playlist am I on?

EM: [Laughs] It sounds to me like what you’re saying is that people, a lot of the time, tell themselves everybody gets divorced. Why should I let this affect me? You’re saying no, this is not normal. You should feel sad. It’s okay, and so I feel like that’s a hopeful message. All you’re doing is acknowledging the reality of what’s going on, but it sounds like there’s a hopefulness in it. Do you feel that way as well, or is it more emotional?

VB: It’s both. But I think it is hopeful. I mean, it’s so funny. While I was growing up, really because my home was so sad, I had an aversion to consuming any art that had sadness or pain.

I think people who have gone through it, like it might be common to not seek it out because it’s like I already have enough of that in my reality, you know?  I’d rather fucking sit down with some high fantasy and read about orcs or some shit…so many hours of watching silly TV shows next to my mom just quietly, silently, that was how we were trying to cope with things. So this album, it’s got heaviness and there’s loss in it…I keep going back to other concept albums that I love and being like, oh my God, I just didn’t mean, like, how do they fucking do it? And I keep trying to figure out how to slide the puzzle pieces together to make sense of it, is my narrative linear or non-linear, but really, I think it is an act of healing to recognise where you’re hurt and name it and let it have its moment. And, whether or not I button it all up at the end of the album, I have a song that buttons it all up, and I can’t decide if it’s like the director’s cut or if it’s like the theatrical version right now.

* * *

Valley Boy’s Debut album is out in September.

Cover photo by Natalie Hewitt

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