Damn Tame Impala and Julien Baker are playing the same day. If I lived near Chicago I'd be all over that.
New podcast episode / lengthy interview: 032: Julien Baker & Music as Recovery — eduPUNX Podcast — Overcast
If you want to cry this evening, read #15 of this: 25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going "If we are to believe that faith is a choice and love is a choice and somewhere in between is the rigor of staying alive when you don’t have the will to, then Baker is one of the best nontraditional gospel singers of her generation..." Goosebumps.
Hanif Abdurraqib wrote a nice essay about "Claws in Your Back" for the NYT Magazine. 25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going
Ah but that lineup looks so damn good: Julien, Florence, Arctic Monkeys, St. Vincent, Jenny Lewis, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, James Blake, Anderson Paak. I really wish I lived close enough for this.
Well, you do haha. It's a 6 hour drive. That being said, Osheaga is probably my least favourite festival, the crowd blows.
The first time I went to Osheaga in 2014, I had a blast. But when I went back in 2016 it was like a whole new crowd had adopted the festival. The shows were still great, but the people were mostly a nightmare.
Oh hey, just saw Julien play the first night of her new tour. She played for 75-80 minutes, and it was absolutely incredible - I'm not sure I've ever seen a better live musician. The only bad thing was the venue was less than half full, somehow - and this is a venue that has been sold out by Manchester Orchestra, TBS, the Wonder Years, MCS, etc. The audience exists, but didn't come out. It was sorta embarrassing for my town that more people weren't there, and I'm afraid this means she'll never return. But she couldn't have been better and I couldn't be happier with life.
Glad you enjoyed the show. Sad to see it was a low turnout, though. Maybe it’s just the people I associate with and their close-mindedness, but a lot of my friends won’t go see someone like Julien as they consider her “boring” and “slow” compared to the usual metal core / pop-punk artists they like. They’ve actually asked why I go out of my way to see her and what I find so appealing music-wise. Regardless, how was the setlist? Any new merch items?
It was just surprising - ManOrch played here a year or two back and the place was so packed I was worried for fire safety lol. It just feels like if you like one, it would follow for the other, but I guess not. It's probably just my perception of stuff. It was also a bit of a strange crowd - my wife and I are 33, and I think we brought down the average age in the balcony. She really isn't a 'scene' artist, I don't guess, which might explain it. Regardless, the crowd that was there was super into it. The setlist was pretty great. To my recollection, from the new record she did Appointments, Turn Out, Sour Breath, Televangelist, Everything to Help, Hurt Less, and Even. She played both B-side singles (Funeral Pyre and Distant Solar Systems), and commented that she only play 'Solar Systems' as a request from someone earlier that day and had to relearn it. She also changed the pronoun of God from 'He' to 'She' and made a joke about it, saying it was written five years ago and she had forgotten that she used to gender God. And from the first record, she played Sprained Ankle, Rejoice, Everybody Does and Something. Also, probably half the songs had some sort of extended intro - especially the piano ones. It was pretty amazing. One thing - there was no encore. She just showed up, played, said very little between songs other than a couple pleasantries, said 'thanks' and left. Her last two songs were 'Sour Breath' and 'Something.' The merch wasn't much exciting - she has a couple color options on the Sprained Ankle vinyl, which is cool. But other than that, just t-shirts and CDs. I should mention - Tancred opened and was FANTASTIC. They played for thirty minutes and said 'those were all new songs on our record coming out June 1' before closing with an old one. I'd never heard the band before, but I'll be definitely buying that record in June.
Bought tickets to see her for the first time! I can't wait. The date is the day before my birthday too. (September 24th)