Phoebe Bridgers

One Liner: Melancholy indie rock music that still rules.
Wikipedia Genre:  Indie rock, indie folk, emo folk

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 3!  Big Time!
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 4:20 on the Lady Bird Stage.

Thoughts:  This show is going to rule.  I've never seen her play live, but I have to believe that she is going to be a good live show full of a difficult to follow system of hard rock and then depressing introspection.  

As a kid, Bridgers made pocket money by busking at the Pasadena Farmers Market (which is super cool!) and then started at Berklee College of Music before dropping out.  A short-lived band she was in called Sloppy Jane scored a spot in an Apple commercial, which gave her some cash in pocket, so she pursued music full time.

That's her, singing the Pixies while people use the iPhone 5 to do cool stuff.  As she worked up her debut album, she got in with Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst, and Julian Baker who helped her get noticed more.

Her first disc was 2017's Stranger in the Alps.  Its got a quiet-ness to it that is lovely.  The big hit from there, and her most streamed song overall still, is "Motion Sickness," with 102.9 million streams.

Great confessional lyrics, and a good groove of a song too.  Her voice reminds me of Sarah McLaughlin sometimes in there.  Also, she looks badass riding that scooter in those sunglasses and that suit.  But "emotional motion sickness" is a great turn of phrase.  Somebody open a window.  I do wish that the album had more jams - it stays in a quiet and tender zone almost the whole time.  "Funeral" might be the most sad song ever.

Also, Wikipedia claims that "Motion Sickness" is about her dating relationship with Ryan Adams, serial scumbag.  So that's neato.  

Her next album isn't really just her, but Spotify lists it in her list of albums, but I guess we treat it that way.  Better Oblivion Community Center - Better Oblivion Community Center.  2019.  Quite a mouthful of a band name there, fellas.  This is a new band made up of Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst.  I have tried, so many times, to get into a Conor Oberst-helmed band.  Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, his solo stuff, I just can't ever quite get to the point where I want to keep hearing it.  I don't think its just the depressingly bummed out lyrics he always uses, I don't think its just his bummer vocal tone, I don't think its just his tightly wound indie style.  Just something in there never makes me want more.  So this one adds in Phoebe Bridgers, who I didn't remember until someone at church last week asked me if I liked her tunes, and then quickly said "probably too sad for you, right?"  Which is weird, right?  I like sad music.  Like, you know, uh, "Nothing Else Matters" and, uh, "Let Him Roll."  I know sadness, yo!  (except she's probably right, screw sad ass music, man.).  "Dylan Thomas" is the hit so far, I've heard it on the radio a few times, with 16.3 million streams.

I like that one pretty well - kinda jangly and loose indie rock with a good singalong chorus.  Up tempo and cheery despite the lyrics about dying on a barroom floor.  Good guitar solo too.  But most of these songs are kind of quiet and isolated sounding, like the haunting "whoooooowoooo are you, waiting for" on "Service Road."  The album opener, "Didn't Know What I Was In For," keeps sticking in my head - I found myself randomly singing it last night while cleaning dishes.  But its a fucking insane song too - sounds lovely, and yet she's singing about losing it and getting strapped into a straight-jacket.  The last line, fading into nothing, says that she tries not to think about how living is just a promise that she made.  WTF.  Overall, very pretty music, but also bummer stuff.

Then, last year she released Punisher.  Which is such a great name for an album by someone who sings pretty songs that don't match that macho-connotated word, but actually is a punisher with her lyrics.  This disc is beautiful.  I'm in the midst of "Savior Complex" again right now, and between the lilting violins and gentle strumming of the guitar, it really is a lovely package designed to deliver a real bummer of a relationship song.  Which is kind of the default position in these songs - a deep, real, honest sadness.  Or maybe not sadness, maybe it's more just realism about how complex every relationship is and a lack of covering up the sharp edges of those relationships.  "Garden Song," the first real track on here, showcases that really well, singing about "I grew up here till it all went up in flames, Except the notches and the door frames" and a recurring dream that involves both movies, tidal waves, and a dorm room.  It's a beautiful tune, but has that deep longing in it that smells like sadness, even if it really isn't.  "Kyoto" has a brighter sound, and it sounds like the one that would get some radio play and become a hit.  50.1 million streams.

Again, despite the sunny horns, her lyrics are bringing up old disappointments like the guy calling her brother for his birthday, but missing the birthday by ten days, and then cutting into the chorus of her soaring as she sings "I don't forgive you."  It's a good one.  "Graceland Too" is freaking lovely as well.  In "I Know the End," she has this great line about "windows down, scream along, to some America First Rap Country Song" that I love to hear each time I breeze through that tune.  And "Moon Song" has a hilariously perfect line as well - "we hate tears in heaven, but its sad that his baby died."  So good.  This is an excellent album, even if it is very downtempo and chilled in tone.

She got four Grammy noms for the album - Best New Artist (which is weird since she ain't new!), Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Alternative Music Album.

Speaking of more sad shit?  She threw down an EP that I listened to a bunch at the end of last year.  If We Make It Through December, which is super freaking depressing.  Stranger thing was that, the other day, I had a Pandora playlist doing country-adjacent music and it played the original of the title song, by freaking Merle Haggard!  So, this bummer tune, released at the end of the mega-bummer year, right as the pandemic is surging and people are alone and the thought of making it through December is actually an open question, THIS WAS A COVER?!?!  What did fucking Hag know about sadness and stuff in 1973?  You were probably snorting coke and high fiving the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders while you wrote this.  2020 knows the true meaning of "Now I don't mean to hate December, It's meant to be the happy time of year, And my little girl don't understand, Why daddy can't afford no Christmas gift."  Anyway, hell of a good cover.  "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is pretty straight-forward.  "Christmas Song" is almost even more depressing than the Hag's song.  

Here's the opening stanza:  "Coming back from the country, For the good food and lousy beer, This winter's so dry and the dirt road so dusty, At the lightest fall of rain, the bacteria bloom."  Lousy beer and bacteria!?!?!  What the hell is this song about?  Then the chorus just kicks your teeth on in with Santa's big black boot: "You don't have to be alone to be lonesome, It's easy to forget, The sadness comes crashing like a brick through the window, And it's Christmas so no one can fix it."  Faaaaaaacccckkkk!!!  Hope an elf put some razor blades in my stocking this year!  Someone draw a warm bath!  Apparently, this song is actually by a Nebraska band named McCarthy Trenching.  So there you go!  If you need depressing Christmas music at the end of this year (God, I hope not, I hope we'll all swimming in communal pools of Champagne and listening to nothing but new R.E.M. songs by the end of the year) then this is your stash.

Because everything sucks, she also got caught up in stupid Twitter controversy after her SNL performance this year, when she smashed her guitar at the end of her performance and weirdos clutched their pearls about it.  

She couldn't even smash the damn thing!  That's a hard ass guitar.

Tiny Desk "at Home" as well, which is fun.

Hahaha - that set is awesome.  And she makes "Kyoto" really pretty.  "Hope everyone's enjoying their apocalypse" just made me guffaw out loud.  My goodness her voice is fucking magical during "I Know The End."  Just angelic.  

Yeah, I'd totally go see this show.  Not sure what it will feel like - if it will be quiet and beautiful, or if she'll go rock and roll to blast it out.  I'm excited to find out!