K. Flay

One Liner: Not Britney's ex, instead, surprisingly good indie hip hop from the lady who went to Stanford

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative hip hop, indie, pop rock
Home: Wilmette, Illinois

Poster Position: 9

Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Immediate thought was to remember Britney Spears' ex-husband K. Fed.  I wonder if that is what she is going for with this name?  I'm just going to give you the list of "jobs" that Wikipedia claims for K. Fed - "an American rapper, DJ, actor, television personality, professional wrestler, and fashion model."  Only in America, baby.  What a tool.  Although, in the realm of facts I either didn't know or didn't give a shit about, Federline actually got custody of the Spears babies and gets a $20k a month child support check.  Maybe not a total dumbass after all!

Anyhoo, this is not Britney's ex, this is a gal named Kristine Meredith Flaherty, who walks a line between rap and Lorde-like electronic indie.  She's been nominated for two Grammy awards (in the 2018 ceremony) and went to freaking Stanford.  I bet she is the only person on this ACL lineup who went to Stanford.  Just going to wholesale steal this section of her Wikipedia page: "K.Flay began her music career in 2003, believing that most hip hop hits on the radio were "simplistic, misogynistic and formulaic". After bragging to a friend that she could write similar songs, she wrote "Blingity Blang Blang", which she described as a "low budget rap parody that contained far too many obscenities". After writing and performing the song, Flaherty realized that she enjoyed writing and recording music. She continued to experiment with music by writing songs and performing and recording them on her computer. She released a mixtape called Suburban Rap Queen in 2005, which she produced on her laptop, and began performing."

A friend had just told me about her last night - but he described this as similar to the other indie rock bands out right now that are fronted by women.  I had been telling how those bands were lighting me up in the last year - stuff like The Beths and Waxahachie and Charly Bliss and Starcrawler - but this is mostly not anything like that.  EXCEPT for her top track, which is rap/rock/indie hybrid stuff that makes me think of a more tame Sleigh Bells or a more rockin' Lorde.  34.4 million streams.

I dig it - catchy as hell, good groove, a little bit rock and roll abandon freak out.  Very much thinking about Sleigh Bells now.  After some more research, I found that her actual top streamer is a track with Louis the Child called "It's Strange," that has 61.3 million streams.

Actually, knowing that story, that she kind of cynically got into this career to show how dumb normal rap was, makes me listen to her music with a different ear.  "High Enough" starts to sound like something lab-crafted to hit certain pop trope notes, a cutesy, baby-ish voice to her lyrics, a bunch of lyrics about drugs, and a banging track.  Like she is smart enough to know what will sucker people in, so she laid the trap for the pop kiddies to stumble into.  That's her second most streamed track at 23.7 million streams.

Her first album available on Spotify is something with a guy named MC Lars, where the first track is very confusing, because K. Flay is calling herself MC Lars and rapping about him, while MC Lars is calling himself K. Flay and rapping about her.  Was worried that this was someone else for a bit there.  This is some silly shit, like intentionally jenky beats and goofy ass lyrics.  Kind of a Beasties vibe to it - or Lonely Island - smart people acting goofy to be funny.  It's kind of funny, but its definitely dumb shit that was intended to be dumb shit.  Here is "Single and Famous"

Dammit.  My initial take was that this was super stupid, but now I'm kind of into this album of dumb ass rap.  They are making clever rhymes and its kinda fun.  Although, that isn't the best song on this album, just the most streamed.

After that first silly shit, she got more serious and started with real-sounding music on 2014's Life as a Dog, with guitar-driven tunes that flex between rap and singing.  Much more of a Lorde sound here.  The big hit is "Make Me Fade," with 21.2 million streams.

Really weird to see her doing her hands like she's a rapper.  All, like, ready to throw her gunz up and shit.  Her most recent album is 2018's Every Where Is Some Where, which features "Blood in the Cut" and "High Enough."

Two new singles out in 2019 - "Bad Vibes" and "This Baby Don't Cry" - that are aiiight.  My initial take on her was that I was out - this isn't my thing, but after spending all afternoon rolling through her tunes, I've come around.  Pretty fun stuff.