Remi Wolf (2024)

One Liner: Former American Idol contestant who loves vocal effects despite a strong voice.

Wikipedia Genre: Soul, pop, funk, bedroom pop
Home:  Palo Alto, CA

Poster Position: 6
Weekend Two Only.

Saturday at 5:10.

Miller Lite Stage.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2022.  And, le sigh.  I was really hoping that, when I picked this band off of the poster, that I was picking some sweet guitar rock stuff. WOLF RAWK!  I was very wrong.  This is kinda R&B/hip-hop, mostly plain pop, with loads and loads of voice effects that make it seem childish.

Two albums.  2021's We Love Dogs! is a bunch of remixes of her singles.  So, like, instead of a cohesive album of original songs, it will be two different remixes of a bunch of her tracks.  One of them involves Beck, although he never sings, and its pretty alright.  She never turns her voice into a funhouse mirror nightmare in that one.  In "Woo!" with Panda Bear she screams like Bjork having a baby.  2021's Juno was next, and then it looks like a new album is on the way because she is slowly releasing more tracks here in 2024.

Her top single is "Photo ID," with 76 million streams.  From a 2020 EP called I'm Allergic to Dogs!

Minecraft ass video.  With the song, the tune is kinda catchy when the chorus pops in, but her computerized vocal tones make my mouth turn down like a grandmother who just saw a nose piercing.  Sometimes I fear that I'm hitting the age when nothing new is every going to be appealing again.  I'll just have to die alone with my copy of Automatic for the People clutched in my sad old hands.  I like the funky part in the chorus, but I don't much care for the vocals or the verse music.

When she was a senior in Palo Alto, she appeared on the 2014 season of American Idol.  Let's see if her voice was intentionally grating back then?  Here's an interview.  No singing.

Loogit all that hair!  Here's a live video of singing from the year after that American Idol year.

Good voice - but she's still using effects.  Her Wikipedia says that she was in the audition rounds of American Idol, and got her golden ticket, but then "without any formal dismissal, mysteriously didn't re-appear later on in the show."  MYSTERY!?!?!

One of her remixed songs was used in an iPhone commercial:

I actually remember that commercial!  Neato!

"Woo!" (the original version) is actually kinda funky and good.  "Hello Hello Hello" (again, the original version) has a little calypso feel to it.  "Disco Man" is kind of a groovy R&B jam.  But my overall feeling with each of these songs is that they are just SO MUCH.  Just bring me a plain ass song for once.  Actually, a track from that 2021 album is a little closer - almost an early Amy Winehouse vibe.  "Liz" from 2021.  43.6 million streams.

Well, I thought it was a little more normal, but that is just the first section.  After that, she's still pushing it a bit too far for me.  Who is this Liz lady who is making you get so damn excited?  And skee-boppin' all over the place...

Let's pop in one of the new singles, just for reference, here is "Cinderella" with 14.8 million streams.

Oh.  Well, yeah, I kinda dig that one.  Funky, with horns, and a solid groove.  It sounds like she is just singing too - not trying to break glass or use weird effects.  Who knows, she might actually have something going on here with the new disc.  Another single from there - "Motorcycle" - definitely has a Winehouse vibe going on.  Oh, but "Alone in Miami" is not good at all.  Hmmm.  Uneven.  I wish they were all as funky as Cinderella.

I probably wouldn't go watch this one, but Saturday may be a day where I must both be a beggar and chooser.