The Dead Prez group established the slogan for hip hop: “One thing about music is when it’s real they be scared.” It was important of course for The Governors Ball to nod to how historic New York City has been to the creation of hip hop, even if the lineup was overwhelmingly from out of state.

In addition to social commentary, there’s something unique about starting out young. Day 1 saw the glorious return of Outkast in what has been their reunion tour of festivals this summer, Day 2 was the hailing of Childish Gambino the alt rapper turned James Franco of rap, and Day 3 was left to the young guns of Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator to explore what the scene means.

Tyler, the Creator is an outspoken kid. In 2013, the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, had an exhibit on the history of the music video, and tucked away a section for controversial videos. The youngest entrant and the most up to date was Tyler’s video for “Yonkers.” A year earlier, he made homophobic comments about Tegan and Sara. There’s volatility and passion, but there’s also a lot channeled into creativity.

The two collaborated on their Governors Ball performance adding a needed touch of youthful insanity that was missing the previous two days. The audience was encouraged to participate, and Tyler and Earl were in full connection mode with the audience. Connecting with the audience and checking exactly where they were, Tyler called out the VIP attendees who got to fill in the stage early, performing his standout “Yonkers” for the “working class.”

Earl Sweatshirt was in similar form. Each of his songs was polished rapping over classic beats. It’s dismissive when critics argue against the stereotype that hip hop creates. Hip hop does not promote itself as the only path for success for black Americans. Hip hop isn’t perfect and battles with misogyny but it’s still the most American genre, and often finds its focus on social change.

If you arrived early enough to cop a view, Cayucas also broke away from the rest of the day’s performances. Whether name checking themselves in a song, or just thrilling the audience with light and danceable pop music, Cayucas are brilliant craftsmen of the summer jam. They round out the energy emanating from the hip hop thread.

In all three days there was something to look for and enough to dig into. If you’re not listening to more bands after Governors Ball, you aren’t listening.

See more photos from Governors Ball here.

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Music Festivals can be the perfect incubators for buzz bands to break through. With the intensity of the heat, and with passions running high, that band that fills in space on your lineup can easily transform into a band you love. Not only does that band receive your love, but they’re forever bonded to you, an entanglement that forces you to spew nagging phrases to your friends like “you have to check out this band. They’re the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard and don’t even try to tell me that they might not be perfect.” Picture Natalie Portman sneaking out and to Governors Ball one year, with her helmet tightly cinched, and just as the Shins launch into what will become her favorite song, her heart stops. In that moment she’s become their number one booster and places headphones filled with their music over everyone’s head.

Hunter Hunted have straddled that line. Born of the Los Angeles electropop scene, the band is further incestuously linked to other buzz bands such as Air Life and Body Parts. This is Lou Reed, David Byrne, and Patti Smith making music together to create something more unique than the Beatles playing undercover to escape their personas.

Their set at Governors Ball was the breakaway performance that will catapult them into more obsessive fans’ hearts. Their music is the perfect summer setting. “Keep Together” is optimistic pop with the tone of “Hey Ya.” It’s not vapid electronica if it makes you swoon just a tiny bit as you sway from side to side wondering if they’re maybe singing about your personal life. “End of the World” sucks your breath in as a listener, prompting a vowel sing along. Hunter Hunted’s vocals are invitational, they encourage singing along, and they encourage having a good time.

Before giving all the love to Los Angeles at a New York City music festival, the headliners were in force to defend their city. The Strokes provided a solid set in the way that you expect the Strokes to, and Childish Gambino took his act onto the main stage. The NYU grad has talent with schizophrenic execution. The early mixtapes were attempts to revolutionize and the latest Because the Internet is an attempt to bottle what mega hip hop stars like Kanye and Drake are able to accomplish with an all enfolding multimedia experience. Gambino needs to settle down, shake off what’s come before him, and do his own style.

Music festivals offer intimate connections to bands that you see for the first time. It’s magical when something falls into your ear when you’re listening to Spotify on random, but it’s even more magical when it happens in person, and in this case Hunter Hunted is love at first sight.

See more photos from Governors Ball here.

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The rain is in the past and it’s a beautiful day to head to Randall’s Island for Governors Ball. Friday’s lineup is less intense than the next two, but contains the explosive Janelle Monáe and the returning southern gods, Outkast. In a lot of ways Governors Ball is the music festival that acts like the returning best friend to New York City. Instead of throwing a million indie bands that you have to sift through or just a couple large stadium fillers, Gov Ball carefully curates a musical experience that will charm anyone.

After last year’s mud debacle, it was nice to feel the sun politely shining down as I took the bus across the RFK Bridge to catch Janelle Monáe and everyone else. Because at this point (and if you aren’t paying attention) Janelle is already the real deal. Two years ago she was headlining Afropunk Fest with TV on the Radio, and brought a preview of her electric lady routine. At 3 pm, in the middle of the day, she was equally electric with the expanded repertoire of her third installment in the Cindi Mayweather chronicle. Her outfits are a testament of her devotion to both fashion and her solidarity with her upbringing. She wears a uniform because working professionals wear uniforms and her art never forgets that.

“PrimeTime” was stunning, from the soft spoken lyrics that begin the song to the slow jam instrumental building into the explosive and passionate chorus. Baking under the sun and just starting to feel the buzz of day drinking, the romance wafts around the edges and lets the audience take a moment to appreciate the musical, to appreciate what’s being created together. In usual fashion, Janelle was feisty and energetic, encouraging the crowd to get as deeply into her performance as possible. Sometimes offering stage directions to keep the flow unified. If Janelle was the star of Friday, it was an all female showcase.

Neko Case and Jenny Lewis wowed with their girl fronted, girl named acts. But it was Little Daylight that impressed with their blend of shoegaze vocals and nostalgic rock-pop instrumentals. This little Brooklyn band is captivating. “Overdose” is unsettling in the best of ways. The choral vocals that back the lead singer add substantive depth, the drums are pervasive and groovy, and the occasional bass line that slips to the surface is a ripple. Fresh off their television debut on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Little Daylight is a band that needs more attention. They’re fun and grooving, a unique blend of Blondie and the anthemic Imagine Dragons.

Friday at Governors Ball was like returning to an old friend and catching up over coffee. There is the initial awkwardness of getting together, and then trying to decipher what’s the most important thing to talk about first, but then when things start to connect it’s a magical experience. Remember when you listened to The Strokes in high school and now Julian Casablancas is playing with a new band? Or El-P moving in a new direction with his group Run the Jewels? New York City may change, but there are things that you can come back to if you feel overwhelmed, and there will always be musicians who will love you as much as you love them. And that’s what Governors Ball lets us experience.

See more photos on our Facebook page here.

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Day one, I went to Banners CMJ Party at Pianos to check out a young, beautiful, and much-hyped Brooklyn psych-rock band who will remain anonymous. What happened next saw me trying to find the exit as quickly as possible because I was in the presence of musical anathema: the genre known as too cool for school. In music, as in any other form of art, if you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re not doing it for anybody. So I went upstairs to check out the smaller stage and promptly found myself bobbing up and down to infectious and bittersweet pop songs, one after the other, belted out by a slightly distressed-looking singer whose arms tend to pitch upwards and hang in the air like he’s waltzing with a ghost.

How Sad are a great band because (to borrow Updike’s words on Nabokov) they play music the only way it should be played: ecstatically. A few days later, I met up with singer Harris Gilbertshper before How Sad’s last CMJ show to learn more about this compelling Montreal quartet:

Jack Kredell: Can you say something about how you got started? 

HG: It started out quietly about a year and a half ago as a way for us to play loft parties and have fun. We were all in different projects and we’ve all been friends for a while so it just came together. Things started to happen when people from POP Montreal saw one of our loft parties and invited us to play a few festivals across Canada. Since then we self-released an EP [Indian Summer] in September and did a little touring. We have a few more festival dates, and then we’re going to work on a full-length. The plan is just keep playing.

JK: So tell us about the name, How Sad.

HG: It’s funny, whenever I write really happy music, I usually write very sad lyrics. Everyone is always like, “You guys are such a happy band,” but the music isn’t so happy if you listen. A lot of these songs were written during a difficult year for me. I was going through a break up, moving around a lot, and was homeless for a bit. Actually, the song “Indian Summer” is about this time I slept on the street in New York.

JK: That sucks. Do you remember where it was?

HG: I think it was in the Lower East Side on 3 avenue and something. It’s also the name of a song by The Adicts. That song also sounds very happy when it’s actually very sad.  Boy meets girl and falls in love, girl runs away. How sad. Sounding happy while not being happy.

JK: You guys remind me of Sunset Rubdown a bit.

HG: Yeah, I think for all of us Montreal has been a big influence. I moved to Montreal when I was 18. Those are the bands – Sunset Rubdown, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade – those were my heroes at the time.

JK: I kind of hate the “what are your influences” question. I mean there are the shameful influences and then the influences you want to be your influences. 

HG: As for the shameful ones, I try not to be too shameful. I listen to a lot of pop music. I really like the new Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus singles. They’re great songs written by great songwriters. Obviously, there’s something there if millions of people like this music. But the biggest influence, I’d say, has been Bowie. But when it comes to influences and being influenced, especially at the level of an individual song, it’s very… schizophrenic. There aren’t a lot of instances, if any, where I can say I listened to this band and then wrote this song.

JK: There’s some danger in putting your first EP online. Has releasing it on your own worked in your favor?

HG: I don’t know. At a certain point we just wanted people to hear the music. If somebody came around and wanted to re-release it with a couple new songs I might do that. It’s always never the right time. I know people who hold onto stuff for years and then they’re releasing music they made five years ago and by then they have two more albums. So at a certain point you just have to make a call: ok, I can write more songs, I can write more music, let this stuff go and keep working.

How Sad debut EP Indian Summer is available for download here. And booking agents, if you’re listening, please snatch this band up and send them stateside so we can all have the pleasure of How Sad once again.

The post How Sad speak to their debut EP “Indian Summer” and much more appeared first on Quip Magazine.

That sound is dominated by post-rock influences but cleft in places where lighter and brighter things have made their mark – such as the warmth of Oasis. There’s a swirling, droning quality to the upper ranges that is fed and supported by a brisk and invigorating rhythm section. The Darcys will playfully entertain pop song structures and tonality before ultimately revealing a different and more oblique harmonic disposition (remember, this is a band that released a track-for-track homage to Steely Dan’s Aza). The songs are like constellations in that you could trace the outline of a pop song but in reality it’s just a collection disparate stars.

In the age of Youtube I often wonder about the usefulness and audience for live show reviews. So far, at CMJ I’ve seen a handful of bands where the YouTube clip would’ve sufficed. What can I tell you about a band’s live show that two or three minutes of streaming reality can’t? In the case of The Darcys, only this: go. You can catch them tonight, Friday October 18^th with Flagship, Duologue, Misun, Claire, and The Ceremonies at Spike Hill in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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