Steve Aoki

One Liner:  Techno remix king

Wikipedia Genre:  EDM, electro house, big room house, Dutch house (huh?), trap, hardcore punk

Home: Newport Beach, CA

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 5
Both Weekends. 
Friday at 6:30

Tito's Tent (that sounds like fun)

Thoughts:  Another artist where I absolutely expected that he had already been here before.  But if he has, I didn't write it up!

The music listening experience is pretty damned weird, because you get techno-fied versions of all sort of things.  Like, EDM Hava Nagila, followed by a remixed version of the Pirates of the Caribbean song with a lady singing, right after REM's "Losing My Religion," right after a techno reggaeton song, right after a electro-trash version of the Goo Goo Dolls, after a remix of that Kid Kudi/MGMT track?  It's like I am not listening to one artist at all but just a mixtape of things that happen to involve beats.  I threw on his most recent album - Neon Future III - from 2018, and it is just terrible pop music.  Really bad stuff with famous collaborators like Blink 182, BTS, Lil Yachty, Lady Antebellum, and a fake Kesha called Bella Thorne.

So, I guess the hope is that he just remixes cool songs the whole time and avoids his own songs.  His Spotify is completely overwhelming - I can't think of another artist I have run through where their catalog appeared to be a billion songs.  It's like he just throws up another song every day, and so you get things like "LIES (Extended Mix)" from 2020 with 1,838 streams, in the midst of other songs with millions of streams.  Just see what clicks with the kiddies!

Aoki was born in Florida, but grew up in California.  This next set of facts just made me do a double-take.  His father was a former wrestler who founded the restaurant chain Benihana.  WHAT?  This dude was playing with Benihana money when he started making sick beats!?!  He played varsity badminton in high school, which is another funny anecdote.  Graduated from UC Santa Barbara, where he had been experimenting with music and throwing underground shows.  He formed his own label and started releasing music in 1996 as he cruised along, he has remixed famous songs by everyone.  In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours.  He honestly seems like a likeable guy.

In a Statesman article, after this lineup was released, he even noted the overload of EDM.   "I would even say 40% to 50% of the artists are DJs,” Aoki said. “Rock bands have a harder time because DJs are com­ing up so strong now, so the tides have shif­ted a bit. It would be tough to be in a band at this point.”

Hard to even know how to present this to you, but I'll just go with the top thing, which is that Kid Kudi/MGMT/Temper Trap Extended Steve Aoki Remix thing.  743.7 million streams.

Did that "crush a bit" thing come from Schoolboy Q first, or did this dork do that first?  I was going to say I refuse to look it up, but now I kind of care.  Dangit.  Q sampled Kudi.  I wanted it to be the other way around...  Whatever, I can see that song being very fun to jump around to and be crazy in the mosh pit.  I get it.  His second-biggest streamer has BTS in there, which is smart.  397.2 million streams.

I like how they show Aoki look all badass as he turns that one knob and nothing changes in the song.  Also, those lyrics are freaking amazing - "I DO IT. I DO IT. You're a tasteless RATATOUILLE."  Hell yeah.  BUUUUURN!  Also, "Foot foot watch it your mouth mouth you watch it."  DAAAAMN!  That video makes me laugh.  Dancing super tough as they are asking me if I have seen their hella thick bag.

I can see that this show would likely be a lot of fun.  He is just going to play remixes of hit songs and make a big fat party over there at his stage.  What would be amazing is if this was in the Tito's Tent.  Likely will not go, but who knows.  This is better than some of the other EDM on this poster.

Jesse Welles

One Liner:  Modern protest music for the current moment

Wikipedia Genre:  rock, folk, folk punk

Home: Ozark, Arkansas

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 5

Both Weekends
Friday at 4:15

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  My guy is coming to the Bourbon and Beyond festival, and I remember being confused to see him on the third line of that poster.  Because he is on par with Counting Crows, Forster the People, Goose, and Jason Isbell.  Which is some heady company for someone I had never heard of.  But I think he's hot shit right now as part of the current protest against all of the corruption and evil in our current government, so he is having a moment.

Real name is Jesse Allen Breckenridge Wells, and he originally performed as Jeh Sea Wells, then as the front-man of the bands Dead Indian, Cosmic-American, and Welles.  Wait, I remember Welles.  They came to ACL a long time ago, but I really liked their brand of psych rock.  "Are You Feeling Like Me" was a jam.

But now, he is a completely different brand of fella.  This should be fun: "In 2024, Welles garnered attention on social media for writing and performing folk protest songs, including "The Poor", "Cancer", "The Olympics", "United Health", "Join ICE", and "War Isn't Murder", a track about the Gaza war."  I can't wait to hear "United Health" rail on the man!  It is apparently appreciated by the Man, though, as he received four nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards.  Dave Matthews introduced him at Farm Aid as "one of the best songwriters I've ever heard in my life."  Which is high praise.  I wonder if Dave has heard Jason Isbell?

Holy shit.  OK, this is awesome.  You can listen to it and tell what he is saying because his lyrics are pretty clear, but here are the lyrics to "Join ICE."

[Verse 1]

Well, if you're lookin' for purpose in the current circus

If you're seekin' respect and attention

If you're in need of a gig that'll make you feel big

Come with me and put some folks in detention

[Verse 2]

Just last week was kind of tough, I put a kid in cuffs

I zip-tied a lady to a van

We can sneak around town, hunt workin' folks down

I hear they got a great benefit plan

[Chorus]

Join ICE, boy, ain't it nice?

Join ICE, take my advice

If you're lackin' control and authority

Come with me and hunt down minorities

Join ICE

[Verse 3]

Well, I failed the academy, the cops weren't havin' me

The Army didn't sound that fun

So I found me a paramilitary operation

That was keen to hand me a gun

[Verse 4]

I got picked on at school, I never felt that cool

There's a hole in my soul that just a-rages

All the ladies turned me down, and I felt like a clown

But will you look at me now, I'm puttin' folks in cages

[Chorus]

At ICE, we're respectin' power

Join ICE, I hear they got great hours

There's a sign-on bonus of 50 grand

They're in need of you needin' to feel like a man

Join ICE

After reading about the absolute nutjob who recently murdered Johan Sebastian Suran Guerrero in Maine, this absolutely hits a true note.  The ICE agent was an Army veteran who had serious mental health issues since early childhood.  When he told his ex-wife that he had been hired by ICE, she assumed he was having a mental health episode and was lying.  They broke up after his abuse, including throwing boiling water at her while she was holding their child.  Only the brightest and the best!!!

The rest of these tunes are similar - mostly basic little pluckin' ditties with him singing pointed lyrics about why our system sucks.  "The Poor" has great lyrics too.  

The new album, 2026's Masks Off, keeps in the same vein but a little more rock forward.  "Red" has a groove to it that is fun as well.  "Masks Off" has an anger and truth to it that is very good as well.  "All the masks are off, and they don't even try.  They know that you know that they know, and they don't even mind it.  All the masks are off, and they're getting lazy, they think you're so damn stupid, they think you're so damn crazy.  Killing people from a distance in an instant, at the insistence of a president, with a blackmail gun to his head, for the fun that he had in the Dark Ages, pages and pages and pages and pages, they thought they'd get away with it."  In the background, I feel like that guitar riff he is using during the verses sounds like one from a Rage Against the Machine song.  Can't put my finger on which one.  Just under a million streams.

The unfortunate thing is that the right people will never hear that song.  Although, I suppose, the people I think ought to hear just wouldn't give a shit because that is the whole point.  They're getting money and power despite their terrible behavior and destruction of the proper order of the world.  Pretty good guitar solos in there too.  "The Ballad of Big Balls" comes on like the Georgia Satellites singing about keeping your hands to yourself and yet is singing about the failure of DOGE, I think.  "Domestic Error" is a good one about making up terror to scare people.

I'd absolutely go watch this guy play.

Natasha Bedingfield

One Liner:  "Unwritten" from that Glen Powell/Sydney Sweeney movie and other pop

Wikipedia Genre:  R&B, pop, dance-pop, blue-eyed soul

Home: Cuckfield, West Sussex, England

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8.
Weekend Two Only. 
Friday at 4:30

Tito's Tent (really?  Weird venue)

Thoughts:  Had a fun interaction with my 15 year old when the poster came out and we were looking at all of the things she loved on this poster and I was naming off the few things I could stomach.  We came to Bedingfield and she had no clue who this was until I told her this was the "Unwritten" lady from that Sidney Sweeney movie and she got very excited.  That movie absolutely changed the trajectory of this singer's life.  I wish I knew the stream count from before that movie came out, but it is now at a whopping 1.8 BILLION streams.

Funny thing, now the YouTube video has been retitled to say "Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten (Official Video) (as featured in Anyone But You)."  But, because of the movie, my kid told me this was their theme song last summer at camp for their group of friends.  So, one little movie placement turns an eminently forgettable pop nugget from 2004 into a juggernaut hit in 2023. A Billboard article from 1/4/24 says it went from 511k streams a week to 1.3 million streams a week after the release of the movie and spiked on TikTok as well.  If I am being entirely honest, when I heard the song in the movie, I liked it and it worked really well in the flick.  But I thought it was by Nelly Furtado.

Other funny thing about that is that she had already pulled this move - get a song to be central to the plot of a hit RomCom and profit.  Do you remember Easy A with Emma Stone?  Well in that flick she receives  card that won’t stop playing Pocket Full of Sunshine, and she decides it is the most annoying song ever.  But then in the end, a mall flash mob is performing the song and the world is loving it  

She was born in England to two Kiwi parents and grew up in between London and Auckland.  She and her siblings formed a teen dance/electronic group called The DNA Algorithm, where Natasha sang the vocals.  She went to one year of University before leaving to explore the music career.  Her first work was on live albums with the Hillsong Church UK (meaning cheesy Christian tunes).  When she was about 22, she signed with a label and they threw her in the lab with a pile of collaborators to create 2004's Unwritten.  It sold well, hitting platinum in the UK and gold in the US.  She was nominated for a few Brit Awards and a Grammy, but didn't take any hardware home.

2007's N.B. had mixed reviews and didn't get much chart traction.  She got to open for Justin Timberlake though, and performed "Unwritten" at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley ten years after Princess Diana's death.  Her label held off on her next album for a while because of the disappointment from the prior disc.  After some heavy re-work, Pocketful of Sunshine came out in 2008, repeating six songs originally on NB, which seems bad.  The title track from that is her second-biggest streamer at 646.3 million streams.

Doesn't seem like a good way to react to your boss giving you some correction, but maybe thats just me as an old man.  I figured I would not know any of her other songs, but actually "Pocketful of Sunshine" sounds familiar for sure.  Very Brit Pop from the 90's vibe (even though it was from 2007).  "These Words" is familiar too.  2021's single "Lighthearted" sounds like she is trying to be Taylor Swift.

Her more recent albums are not good.  She was "Pepper" in a 2021 season of The Masked Singer.  She lives in New York.  I will let the teens go and scream the hit together and see something else during this slot.

Lauren Sanderson

One Liner: Generic pop now veering into Limp Bizkit
Wikipedia Genre: pop, hip hop, rap rock, alternative
Home: L.A. (but from Fort Wayne, Ind., I feel like you need to know this)

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 21
Day: Sunday at 5:30
Weekend One Only.

BMI Stage

Thoughts:  Oh boy.  Her most popular song right now features Fred Durst.  That was not what I was expecting to happen in 2026.  Has kind of a Limp Bizkit sound too, with a little rap/beat thing plus grinding riffage.  Just going to give you that one now because this is an artist I need to just write about and move on from so that I can enjoy the rest of my day.  3 million streams.

I mean, that sucks.  And I have a deeply guilty pleasure love for two of those Limp Bizkit albums and a happy memory of times driving around Dallas when I lived there and feeling extremely tough to yell along with songs a lot like that.  But Fred should not be keeping this same schtick going 30 years after he originally annoyed people with it.  Her biggest streamer overall is not her song, it is a song by something called G Flip.  And it is called "GAY 4 ME," so I am getting a theme here from her.

The first line of her Wikipedia Early Life just says that she grew up the only child of divorced parents.  So?  Is that so weird?  But, by 2014, she had created a YouTube personality that was awarded "Most Influential Up & Comer" at the Indiana Social Media Summit six months after graduating high school.  NO WAY!  Why didn't you say so!!!  I make fun, but she was getting over a million views a day on her channel, so I'm over here writing this post for 24 people to read.  SMBAU.  She started doing motivational presentations and support for kids whose parents were unsupportive, and then started making raps to reduce her stress.

Four albums - 2018's Spaces, 2020's Midwest Kids Can Make It Big, 2022's Death of a Fantasy, and 2026's Lauren.  Top streamer comes from that 2020 album, this is "But I Like It" with 8.8 million streams.

This is what much of her catalog sounds like - less like the rap rock Fred Durst cosplay, and more like generic pop where she is trying to vamp and sing in cursive.  I don't love it, and it doesn't help that her scary visage is reminding me of a family member who stresses me out.  I am for sure not going to see this.  If Fred Durst comes out and they cover "Rollin" together I will be very sad.

The 4411

One Liner: Local boys making some raw indie rock 
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is indie rock
Home: Austin!

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 25
Day: Friday at 12:45
Weekend One Only.

Tito's Tent (go see them!)

Thoughts:  I literally just started two other artists, cursed under my breath about how I couldn't take anymore of this pop schlock, and scooted down the poster to these fellas.  I didn't know their music, but I knew some of their backstory, so I knew they wouldn't let me down.

Two members of this band have some sort of very tenuous connection to me.  I grew up with the singer's aunt, and the drummer went to my kids' high school.  Those facts also may be fake, but they have been bandied about around me for a while.  I do not know these guys at all, I have never interacted with any of them as far as I know (unless Gerlach was one of those little punks who kept ding-dong-ditching my house).  They started making music in high school when locked down during COVID, and then moved to Texas State to share a dorm and keep making tunes.  They got a song onto a Spotify discovery playlist, met a new friend (and guitarist) down the hall, and made a go of it all.  

No full albums yet, just a couple of EPs and singles.  They sound pretty raw, but it is appealingly good indie rock without a lot of polish and pretense.  One song that breaks the million stream barrier - "As You Please" was on their 2025 EP and has 1.7 million streams.

Weird video.  Y'all just walk around this kind of crappy park for a bit.  Cool.  Good.  Their new EP has been out for about a week, so the stream count is pretty low for some of the songs, but "Her" is doing pretty well with 284k streams.

I'm getting a little of the Briscoe vibe on some of these songs too, but that may just be that they are making me think locally.  But I like once this one opens up and gets a little louder.  I don't know if they are getting to get a terrible time slot, but I'd go check the set out for sure.

Josh Conway (no longer playing the Fest)

Josh Conway tour Cancelled : r/aclfestival

One Liner: Forgettable bedroom pop from the Maria's drummer

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is dream pop, indie pop, bedroom pop
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 12
Day: NO Longer Playing
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  Odd.  When you search Wikipedia for him, this name comes up as the drummer/producer for the band The Marias.  I guess it is the same dude.  One thing I read said that he is now an in-demand producer.  He also co-wrote a song for Bad Bunny.

Reading about some of the artists these days feels surreal.  I think it is probably because the agents and promoters just use AI to create blurbs about their guy, but they make this dude sound like the second coming of Michael Jackson mixed with Stevie Wonder.  "Melodically, ‘forget him’ glides rather than pushes, unfolding with a calm assurance that never slips into boredom. The transitions between verse and chorus feel natural and unforced, like a conversation that knows exactly where it is going without rushing to get there. Hooks linger without overstaying their welcome, which is a harder trick than it sounds in a genre that often confuses repetition for impact."  Suuuuuure.  Here is that tune, with 476k streams.

Oh wow, that calm assurance was sick.  I feel like I wasn't pushed at all during that song.  Thank goodness I didn't have to confuse repetition for impact in there.  Just an unmemorable slice of quiet pop that, when someone asks what I think about Josh Conway in two months, I will not recall in the slightest.

Just one album, 2026's plum.  That one is the top streamer by a good amount, several of the songs are under 35k streams.  We'll go with "crumble" for another single, because I'm sure it is all about those cookies that, thankfully, my kids seems to have finally forgotten about.  182k streams.

That little room full of instruments is fun!  I wish he would use more of them!  He just turned on the Casio2000 beat and let it roll while he sang.  The polar bear is putting in some good work, but I could use a little something extra from him there.  I'm good!

Night Tapes

One Liner: Whispery and Falsetto dream pop that is making me insane
Wikipedia Genre: dream pop
Home: London

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 15
Day: Saturday at 1pm
Both Weekends.

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  I sort of went in to this the other day in writing about Happy Landing.  I feel bad when outside influences make me dislike something, but I literally am having trouble listening to this band.  I have been getting about a phone call a day from someone at work whose voice reminds me of the lady in Office Space who shrilly answers the phone in the same high-pitched cadence over and over again.  And then I turn this on, and its a lady whispering and shrilling over synth pop and I can't take it anymore.  I'm about to clean a bass on my desk.

More importantly, I need to write this up and move on to something I want to hear so that I can get some work done.  Night Tapes is a UK-Estonian dream pop band based in London. The members are Iiris Vesik (Estonia), Max Doohan (UK), and Sam Richards (UK), who began jamming together as housemates in South London in the late 2010s resulting in their first release Dream Forever in Glorious Stereo (2019). Their band name comes from these evening jam sessions.  There you go.  One real album, 2025's portals//polarities.  The top song on there is "television" with 6.7 million streams.

I am having a hard time imagining standing in a dusty field when it is 102 degrees and trying to pay attention to this.  I am sorry to be so dismissive, but this is really under my skin today.

Skye Newman

One Liner:  Brit R&B Belter following the Winehouse model

Wikipedia Genre:  Neo soul, R&B, pop, indie rock

Home: L.A. (via Mississippi)

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 9.
Both Weekends. 
Saturday at 3:30

SnapChat Stage

Thoughts:  Doing that Amy Winehouse brassy blowout belting thing here with a good number of cuss words and a heavy Brit accent.  Sounds sort of like I am dissing it, but I find that I like this sort of R&B more than the American style.  It's not my favorite thing ever, but it has me grooving along a little bit.  I like that she is also singing about real things.

I like that Wikipedia calls her a singer/songwriter.  In my mind, a singer-songwriter is holding a guitar and singing a simple, folky-style tune.  Not belting lyrics about being high and you being annoying.  But also, her Wikipedia entry is very short.  Pretty much mentions two singles and then says her aunt was a jazz and blues singer who influenced her.

A handful of singles that were later collected into a 2025 EP called SE9 Part 1, and then the 2026 eight-song-"single" Woman I Am, which again collected those songs together.  "Hairdresser" was her first big one, 30.2 million streams.

As a novice to the world of smoking, I'm curious how she does that thing where the smoke puffs out for a sec, gets sucked back away, and then comes blowing out.  Kinda cool looking.  That song is less appealing to me though, more of a traditional R&B tune.  "My Addiction" is more my speed I think.  But the other big streamer is "Family Matters" with 41.3 million.

Again, pretty standard R&B sort of thing for that one.  I guess those are the ones people like!  I probably would not go see this one, but I was surprised to find that some of the songs resonated.

Rebecca Black

One Liner: "Friday" and other slightly better garbage
Wikipedia Genre: Pop
Home: Irvine, CA

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 11
Day: Friday at 4:30
Weekend One Only.

Tito's Tent (really?)

Thoughts:  Really?  The "Friday" girl is coming to ACL?  This is truly awful music.  I also think it is kind of funny that "Friday" was a massive viral "hit" and yet it only has 27.8 million streams.  That ain't squat!

I don't know if I had ever actually heard that song until just now.  What an absolute piece of shit song.  Absolutely looks like a music industry insider's daughter making a song.  Awful awful song.  Sounds like a damn robot.  Wikipedia: "The song had a polarizing reaction as while it peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was also panned by audiences and music critics, many of whom considered it "among the worst songs ever made". In 2013, Black released a follow-up single "Saturday" (with Dave Days) to similar commercial success and marginally improved reception."  Deeeeply awful song.

And the music she has released since, no better.  "Sugar Water Cyanide" is terrible pop slop, like AI trying to recreate a Gwen Stefani song.  "TRUST!" is also terrible.  Super generic EDM pop beat and her smearing falsetto words around on top.  What I honestly wish is that no one would go to her stage.  That she would walk out and be like "WHAT UP AUSTIN!" and literally there is no one standing there.  I also hear Dime Store Lady Gaga in here as well.  I hate it.  I so want to stop listening to this.

She is not the daughter of an industry person - both of her parents are veterinarians.  She attended private school when young but then transferred to public school because of bullying.  Probably because she sang "Friday" to someone.  She joined the musical theater program and soon dropped out entirely to be homeschooled and focus on her career.  Apparently, Black's mother paid $4,000 to a company called ARK Music Factory that had two pre-written tracks for her to perform.  She chose "Friday," made the video performing the song, and it did nothing on YouTube until a week later when Twitter found it and it absolutely blew up.  Almost entirely negative reviews, and also terrible shit like death threats over it all. She was 13.  It was YouTube's #1 video of 2011.

Two albums - 2023's Let Her Burn and 2025's Salvation.  That first one has no songs with more than 2 million streams and the new one has a few approaching ten million.  Here is the previously mentioned "Sugar Water Cyanide."  9.6 million streams.

Ugh.  I hate everything about it.  I will not watch this.

Finn Wolfhard

One Liner:  Another Stranger Things alum coming to the Fest

Wikipedia Genre:  alternative rock, indie rock

Home: Vancouver

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 11
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 2:45

American Express Stage

Thoughts:  I sort of thought we would see Maya Hawke here as the next Stranger Things alum on the ACL poster before we would have seen this fella, but I guess she is busy still acting.

Very limited catalog.  He's definitely cashing in on the fame and I would guess he will hop up there and bash out a smattering of covers into his originals.  One album, 2025's Happy Birthday, and then two singles since then.  It is pretty regular indie rock stuff.  The top song right now on Spotify is a new single called "I'll Let You Finish" which I really want to think means that he is a generous lover.  1.7 million streams.

Nice enough.  Nothing too special or revelatory.  If he wasn't on one of the most famous shows of the past decade, not sure that anyone would notice this.  But let's unwrap that a little bit.  Stranger Things.  Mike Wheeler.  Who was not as much of a lil' bitch as Will, but sometimes was an annoying lil bitch in that show.  He was in a show called The 100 long ago, and I don't recall him from there (not sure if I watched more than one season though, it got annoyingly soap opera-ey), and then went to an open casting call for Stranger Things.  After blowing up along with the show, he got to star in the new version of It and then It Chapter Two, did a pile of smaller things, and then scored a spot in the Ghostbusters re-boot.  Pretty good deal for a kid from Vancouver.  In addition to this solo music, he has also been in bands Calpurnia and The Aubreys.  Don't know them.

His biggest streamer is "Objection!" from that 2025 disc.  9.9 million streams.

Good tune.  The start of that song keeps making me think of Cracker's "Happy Birthday to Me."  "I'm feelin' thankful!  For the small things today!"  And the start of "Wait" brings to mind "Satisfaction" when he sings "I can't" in a slow way.  You know, with rock stuff being so few and far between on this poster, I'll probably go watch this.  But I wish there was something more interesting in his space.

Bella Kay

One Liner:  Confessional bedroom indie pop with good lyrics and a vocal style I dislike

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie pop

Home: Houston born, Austin-area for high school, Orlando now

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 7
Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 2:30

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  Her music is stressing me out.  For a little while, I was like, OK, this is going to be better!  Just some indie music for a change will be really nice!  She uses a guitar!  But she has a tone to her singing voice that grates my nerves, a way that she switches tones.  It's not vibrato, she's not warbling, but somehow there is a wahwahwahwah quality going on here that makes it so that I am having trouble continuing to work as she keeps singing.

Bella Kathleen Ann Williams was born in Houston, but graduated high school from Vista Ridge in Cedar Park (north of Austin).  She now apparently lives in Orlando.  As a teen she wrote her own tunes and shared little snippets recorded in her bedroom online.  Her debut single hit the charts and she has since been asked to open for Noah Kahan and Gracie Abrams, which are both pretty large.  Some songs with big stream counts too.

That first single was "The Sick" with 157.1 million streams.

She almost has a country twang in that one, under the warble.  Lyrically, I get the attraction, but I just can't do the voice.  Her biggest song was "iloveitiloveitiloveit" with 352.3 million streams and a really difficult to type name.

Again, lyrically, that really works well with the emotions and description of that feeling.  Around 2:20, she starts singing softly and you can hear that she is able to remove that affectation from her voice.  I prefer that for sure.  Doubt I would go watch this.

Sienna Spiro

One Liner: Another London girl power-belting pop-soul
Wikipedia Genre: pop, jazz, soul
Home: London

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 4
Day: Friday at 3:30
Weekend Two Only.

Miller Lite Stage

Thoughts:  Comes off like another power-belter in the Winehouse, Adele, Olivia Dean lineage.  She, like many other extremely pretty young artists, got her start by posting videos of herself singing on TikTok and went viral from there.  She released her first official single in May 2024 and by November was named a "Musician to Watch" by something called Dazed.  Her big breakthrough came near the end of 2025, when she released "Die on this Hill" and it shot up to #9 in the UK.  498.6 million streams.

Sure, very pretty.  Feels like something I may have already heard before today, but I'm not sure if that is because it is generic or if I actually heard it somewhere.  Her top lip shape is very distracting to me.  Completely different than any top lip I can recall.  Also, hugging that weird stuffed doll thing to sing it its ear is so very unhinged.  I have listened through her catalog twice now, and the Spotify keeps playing Olivia Dean once all of Sienna's songs are done, and sadly, I just prefer Dean to this.

One EP, one album (2026's Visitor), and one song on the Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack.  She has also been nominated for a few awards - American Music Awards, Brit Awards - but no wins as of now.  Her second and third most streamed are from the new album, so I'll give you the soundtrack track.  "Material Lover" with 48.2 million streams.

A live version, but you get the idea.  Her voice is great, she looks lovely, all those things.  But I am just not interested in any of it.  I very much doubt I would go watch this set happen in person.

Charlotte Lawrence

One Liner:  More pop schlock, this time with famous parents!

Wikipedia Genre:  electropop

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 13
Weekend Two Only
Sunday at 2:45

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  This first song sounds very much like Taylor Swift to me.  Odd thing, ACL for some reason seems to book a lot of Charlottes.  When I just searched to make sure this one hadn't already been here, I have written ACL reviews about Charlotte OC, Charlotte Cardin, Charlotte Sands, and Charlotte Adigery.  And Charli xcx's real name is Charlotte.  It doesn't feel like quite that popular of a name, and yet here we are on our fifth person using the name in their stage name.  Now, this next song I am hearing sounds like Billie Eilish.

Her mother is the fantastic Liz Bishop in Shrinking - Christa Miller.  She has apparently been in lots of things, but I have never seen Scrubs or Cougar Town, and don't remember her roles in Seinfeld (as a prospective boss to George and then later as a girlfriend to George named Paula).  Charlotte's father is TV producer Bill Lawrence, who (hey, what a shocker!) produced or co-created Scrubs and Cougar Town, as well as Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Rooster.  Those last three shows are all fantastic.  He was also a KA at William & Mary, so he probably has a confederate flag somewhere in his attic.

Unfortunately, her parents are infinitely more interesting than her music, which is generic pop.  Prior to releasing any music of her own, she was featured on the Kaskade single "Cold as Stone" in 2018, and then started releasing her own EPs.  In addition to the singing, she is a model who has been featured in Teen Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.  She has also taken to acting, appearing in something called Doctor Odyssey and in the relatively funny Bad Monkey as Caitlin.  Which was executive produced by her Dad.

Two EPs, tons of singles, and one 2025 album named Somewhere.  None of the songs on that album have really popped off - most are in the 200k-300k range, with only one breaking 5 million.  That one is called "Morning" and has 5.5 million.

Very cinematic video.  I wonder if Dad executive produced that one as well.  Perfectly nice little pop rock song with a little too much breathiness for my taste.  Although, she really should consider getting a mattress.  Sleeping on hardwood floors will be a nightmare for your back, girl.  Her top song by a good amount is the single she had placed on the Birds of Prey (DC Comics thing) movie, called "Joke's On You."  148.1 million streams.

Funny thing about those superhero movies by now.  I expect I probably saw that movie, but I have zero recollection of anything that might have happened in it.  This girl could have played a major character in it for all I know.  I don't think so, but coulda happened.  These songs are fine.  They are definitely not actively bad, but they I can't remember anything about them after spending a day and a half streaming them.  Doubt I would go to this.

¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U

One Liner:  As far as I can tell, just a mixtape of other people's tunes

Wikipedia Genre:  EDM

Home: Japan

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 7

Both Weekends.
Saturday at 6:30pm

Tito's Tent (I can see that being a sick show)

Thoughts:  SO EDGY TO WRITE HIS NAME LIKE THAT!!!  He was born in Joto-ku, Osaka, Japan, and began DJing when he was almost 30.  WHy, you might ask, make that late-in-life move?  "Originally employed in construction, Yukimatsu was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 2016, leading him to leave his job. After undergoing treatment and two surgeries, he shifted his focus entirely to DJing."  Sure!  Why not!  If you're gonna die, just go party down!  He was underground for a bit, and then got recognition on the Japanese club circuit.  He got discovered by DJ Nobu, who got him a spot at a party in Tokyo, and he was able to break out.

Here is the problem, as far as I see it.  He has no original music.  Or at least none on Spotify.  The only things available there when you search are playlists where people have compiled the songs that he uses in his sets - things you may have heard of like The Prodigy, 100 gecs, Skrillex, The Chemical Brothers, and things I have never heard of like Underworld, 3Phaz, or Overmono.  But they are just other people's songs.

Here is the video that apparently made him famous, and what many of those playlists are based upon.  Boiler Room: Tokyo.

But, like, that first song sounds just like the real 100 gecs song.  He is screwing around with those knobs and whatnot, and nothing is changing?  I also really dislike the young lady who is filming the whole first song.  Just jam it!  You'll be on YouTube!

Yeah, I guess if you want to go hear stressful songs played all in a row by a dude who used to mix concrete, kicked cancer's ass, and now wants to melt your face?  Go get 'em.

Snow Strippers

One Liner:  More regular ass EDM

Wikipedia Genre:  Electronic, EDM, electropop

Home: Detroit

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 5.
Both Weekends. 
Saturday at 5:15

Miller Lite Stage

Thoughts:  Sadness.  Another generic EDM thing.  Gotta hurry up and write something about this so that I can move on to something less depressing.

Formed in Detroit in 2021 with singer Tatiana Schwaninger and record producer Graham Perez.  Wikipedia says they were part of the "indie sleaze" movement in 2021, but I don't know why this music would be considered indie or sleaze.  Its just generic electronic crapola.  And yet its on the 5th line of the poster!!  They met on Tinder in 2018 and then moved together to Detroit.  Some of it sort of sounds like messed up video game music from the 8 bit days.

Top track is "Under Your Spell" with by far their most streams at 297.9 million.  Nothing else cracks 70 million.

They put as much effort into that video as they did into the song.  I don't get it at all.  Here is "Just Your Doll," with 67.8 million streams.

Another garbage video to go with a garbage song.  I feel like I am watching human trafficking happen in that video.  Hard no to seeing this dumb stuff in person.

BUNT.

One Liner:  EVEN MORE regular ass EDM

Wikipedia Genre:  Electronic folk, folk house, deep house, techno, garage house

Home: Stuttgart, Germany

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 6.
Both Weekends. 
Friday at 5:30

SnapChat Stage

Thoughts:  SON OF A GUN!  Is everything on this poster EDM?!?!?!  I can't take much more of this.  Never thought I would wish for Mumford to be on this poster again, but here we are.

Levi Wijk is a German "folk DJ."  The fuck is a "folk DJ"?  Trust me, he is not doing his sick beats using a banjo or something.  In German, bunt means "colorful."  So that is nice.  This used to be a duo, but Nico Crispin bailed in May 2021.  He left to run a tennis brand.  Sure.  Of course.  Never really understand DJ duos.  It only takes one person to program the computer and then act like the knobs do something.

I will admit, he has a track with Temper Trap remaking their big hit, and when it slows down the vocals a lot, that was kind of cool.  He also does a remix of Taylor Swift's "Opalite" that some how made that bad song even worse.  "Clouds" crushes the rest of his songs on stream count - nothing else touches 70 million, but this one has 427.4 million.

I like Levi's smile very much.  That is a genuine expression of happiness and I like it.  The song does nothing for me.  Let's get this over with.  "TRIPPIN" has 69.4 million streams.

I mean, yeah, that show looks awesome in a packed club full of knuckleheads there to dance and go crazy.  But the idea of just sitting here and listening to this music as I work or cook or read a book could not be further from something I would do.  Blurg.  Wish me luck with my next random selection of a band name.

Fcukers

One Liner: Sexy electronic dance party
Wikipedia Genre: Electronic
Home: NYC

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8
Day: Sunday at 6:30
Both Weekends.

Tito's Tent

Thoughts:  I definitely had an idea of what this music would be, and EDM was not my first expectation.  I was really hoping for some grimy punk music.  Instead, this is some incessantly pounding dance music with a lady repeating sexy phrases over it without end.

Two members of a band called Spud Cannon decided to quit the band because it was "some nimby kimby indie rock bullshit."  They hooked up with the vocalist from something called The Shacks, and started exploring electronic, dubstep, etc.  Early on, they got to collaborate with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, and soon thereafter were signed to a label.  Only one album, 2026's Ö.  Some of the songs are kind of cool, many of them get old really quickly because it is just the same thing for minute after minute. Makes me think of "Flat Beat" by Mr. Oizo from way back in the 90's.  Top streamer is "Bon Bon," a 2024 single from their "early" days. 11.7 million streams.

Gotta respect spending 45 cents on the video.  That one does nothing for me.  But since this year appears to be the year of the EDM, I guess this is what we get.  They do a cover of "Devil's Haircut" on their first single that I was sort of excited to hear, just because, Beck.  But it is not very good.  She's a little sloppy on the delivery of the vocals, and the beat is pretty generic - like my first Casio pre-set #7.

The top single from the album is called "I Like It Like That," but I hate that one even more, so I am going to give you the top track in the Spotify Popular list, the Daft Punk-considering "if you wanna party, come over to my house."  5.5 million streams.

Another big budget video in the books!  I swear this group's name is doing some really heavy listing.  I wonder if they were named PastaWater if people would be listening to this stuff?  I do not care for it.

Cure for Paranoia

One Liner:  Up and coming rapper who won the Tiny Desk contest this year

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but rap, hip hop, R&B

Home: Dallas

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 19

Weekend One Only
Saturday at 2pm

BeatBox Stage

Thoughts:  This is a Dallas-based rap collective, and they are pretty solid.  The rapper who seems to front it is named Cameron McCloud, and he is apparently a preschool teacher on the side.  I can't imagine the concept of thinking of the sweet, little old ladies who were my preschool teachers at Good Shepherd leaving their day feeding us graham crackers and stacking blocks to go write a sick rhyme about their gay identity or their depression.

A year ago, he challenged himself to release a new verse daily on Instagram, so that he would push his writing forward no matter what.  He says that helped him to let go of his perfectionist mentality and just go with things rather than obsess.  Also, his mom died of a heart attack while he was completing his last EP, which is terrible.

Aside from that sad shit, this is pretty fun.  The name comes from his mental health journey and being placed on medication a decade ago for bipolar depressions and paranoid schizophrenia.  he soon realized that creating music was a better cure than the drugs, so he went for it with these jams.

His early singles from 2015 and 2017 are not as good or as fun.  Feels like he is feeling out the plan on those - more R&B focused to me.  But by the 2021 album BAMN and 2023's Center of the Maze you can see the focus is onto the rap and wild fun.  His 2025 album, Work of A.R.T. is where he seems to finally get noticed though, as it has his top streamer - "No Brainer" - with 652k streams.

Got some Andre 3000 flavor in that as the beat just barrels forward with funky joy.  I know that those drums aren't actually groundbreaking of whatever, but that beat is funky and tight.  Dig it.  His newest single is called "WTF (Where the Files)" that appears to be about the Epstein files.

The other top streamer is a 2025 single called "THE ARTSHOW" with 652k streams.  Just like his other single!  How did he do that?!?!

As you might imagine from that video, he made a submission to Tiny Desk, and actually won!  His show just got published about 3 weeks ago!

Those outfits are fire and his hair matches... The text below that video says that he applied four years in a row for the contest, and then finally won this year!  it also says that the decision to crown Cure for Paranoia was unanimous.  That is really pretty cool.  And now we have the chance to see him go off in person!

Marlon Funaki

One Liner:  Self-taught, self-produced indie psych rock fella

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, indie rock, funky pop, psych rock

Home: Highland, CA

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 10.
Weekend One Only.
Friday at 3:30

BeatBox Stage.

Thoughts:  Japanese and Mexican heritage, entirely self-produced, and sorta funky.  The section of these tunes that I am in right now is making me think of Khrungbin.  He was named the Luck Reunion Artist on the Rise in 2025, so it makes some sense that we snagged him for the Fest.

He apparently played drums in the middle school marching and symphonic bands, but fell in love with music because of the jams his dad would play around the house - RHCP, Zep, Floyd - and so he shifted out to join the high school jazz band and go a little further afield with his sounds.  He sold his X-Box as a sophomore in high school, bought an electric guitar, and became obsessed with making sounds.  he then began mastering the other instruments so that he could be a one man band.  After high school, he started busking and was successful enough to feel like he could really give it a go.  So, he got a job at a Guitar Center (lol) and started using his earnings for equipment to master and produce his own stuff.  That is so cool.

A couple EPs, with only one true album - 2022's Monterrey Village.  The photo on the cover is awesome - shirtless in overalls with a sombrero and cowboy boots at about age 4, holding a play guitar and looking at the camera.  The top track is from that album - "when sunday comes around" has 20.9 million streams.

Got an indie rock thing with a little psych rock flavor in there.  Sounds kind of like a lot of indie rock artists right now, but I think some of the other tunes on the disc are even better.  Like, "buen provecho" has some of that funky instrumental groove that I love.  "novocaine" is snappy as hell. "Skin" reminds me of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who I like a lot.  Let's do that one, a recent single off of his 2026 EP called Half Moon.  857k streams.

Digging the groove.  I have enjoyed this one.  At times, I wonder if he is pretty generic and sounds like a lot of other things, but then I just find myself cruising along and enjoying the ride.  I'd go check him out to do his thing.

Laszewo

One Liner:  Regular ass EDM with lots of covers/remixes

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but EDM

Home: Santa Barbara, CA

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8.
Weekend Two Only. 
Saturday at 3:15

Miller Lite Stage

Thoughts:  Bummer.  Their top track is just a techno remix of Lola Young's "Messy."  Who cares?

Wikipedia has four entries for this word, and they are all locations in Poland.  Łaszewo, Brodnica County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland); Łaszewo, Świecie County in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-central Poland); Łaszewo, Masovian Voivodeship (east-central Poland); Łaszewo, West Pomeranian Voivodeship (north-west Poland).  So there you have it.  Poland.  You pronounce it La-zay-woah.

In 2018, Justin De La Fuente overheard Keeva Bouley singing through her open apartment window with her sorority sisters, he immediately knocked on her door and the rest was history. Well, that's not creepy at all.   "Hey ladies, just wanted to meet that girl singing, I make sweet beats on my laptop."  Other funny thing, one of the two DJ guys said that "there's not really any other electro-pop music group doing what we do."  Reaaaaaally?  Listen to one song and it feels pretty much like any other generic EDM with a lady singer adding vocals.

Many, many singles, and then one album, 2024's In Color.  The album tracks have not been very popular - no track has more than 2 million streams.  The top one is "Headed Back Home (Life's In Color)" with 1.9 million.

Sorry, but that just sounds like generic EDM to me.  I hear nothing new or interesting or groundbreaking.  If you told me that was John Summit, or Diplo, or whatever other EDM guy you want to name, I'd be like, sure...

Top song other than Messy, which has 92.5 million streams BTW, is "HIGHJACK (right back)" which could also be a cover for all I know.  46.9 million streams.

Sure.  I could see people grooving to this in the Fest.  Completely uninteresting to me, but I know my girls will probably love it.

Girlfriend

One Liner:  R&B action and a very difficult to Google moniker

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, this is R&B

Home: L.A. (via Mississippi)

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 22.
Weekend Two Only. 
Friday at 3:30

BMI Stage.

Thoughts:  Well, this will be a short entry, because the band does not appear to exist yet.  When I search on Spotify, I get that Rebecca Black has an album named Girlfriend, and that Avril Lavigne, Matthew Sweet, and Michael Jackson all had songs named "Girlfriend."  Wikipedia lists that there is an Australian pop group and a South Korean pop duo who use that name, as well as an American girl group called The Girlfriends.  Oh no, wait.  Maybe this is it?  Really weird that the artist with this name would have been like 20 items down in Spotify's search, but there is an R&B lady who goes by Girlfriend?  One song in, and its not good!

If it is this person, this is Kenya Edwards, and she sings pretty standard R&B stuff.  it is sort of hard to find things written about her just because the searches bring up those other items I mentioned before that also use her name.

3 albums - 2022's Girlfriend (no song w more than 250k streams),  2025's It's Complicated (only seven songs for an album?), and 2026's Honey Water (no song more than 2 million streams).  Top track is from that 2025 album, "Emergency" has just over 5 million streams.

Sure, she has a nice voice and can do cool stuff with those notes, but R&B is just never the thing for me.  Feels like I've already heard a song just like this.  And I'm sure an R&B lover will tell me the same thing about rock songs, but this just isn't interesting for me.

Fai Laci

One Liner: Solid Boston rock band now working with Dan Auerbach
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but rock and roll, alternative rock
Home: Boston

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 21
Day: Saturday at 5:15
Weekend One Only.

BMI Stage

Thoughts:  Oh, thank goodness, that's a guitar.  And good guitar!  I heard some Spoon in one song, and now I hear The Black Keys in part and Cage the Elephant in part in this one ("Elephant").  It's pretty good - although for some reason Spotify is being a little hoe and every time it finishes one of their little EPs, it shifts to some other band that sort of sounds like this, instead of playing the next single or EP.  So my idea of what this band is has been entirely skewed by believing that many other songs are attributed to them.

When I saw this on the poster, I thought it said Fat Laci and was intrigued to either hear another London Adele-clone belter or some sort of cross between BigXThaPlug and Iggy Azalea.  Instead this is Luke Faillaci and four of his close friends who make music in Boston, originally using songs and music that Luke had written and gathered through college.  According to one bio, they actually ignored industry interest until one particularly tenacious manager forced their attention, signed them, and they all quit their day jobs.  They still have not released an album, but apparently are working at Easy Eye Sound, which is Dan Auerbach's place, which is probably why I hear the Black Keys in their sound.

Like I said, no album as of yet, just several EPs, but if looks like an album is on the way soon as they keep releasing slightly more crowded singles with the same cover art.  Top track is a 2022 track form an early EP called "Five," with 6.2 million streams.

Good, basic, rock and roll track.  Nothing especially memorable, but an easy listen.  It's the new tunes where I think you can tell that they have an expert in the room with them and are making better moves.  Here is "Elephant" with 306k streams.

Now, that one has some funky and some groove and sounds like the kind of song I could hear hanging around on the alt rock radio for a few years.  When he says "you know," that very much sounds like Black Keys, but also the guitar licks.  Good guitar solo in there too - nice and fuzzy.

I would absolutely go see this, although I fear they are going to get the old BMI stage at noon treatment. [close, right stage, but at least later in the day!]

fakemink

One Liner: Very bad rap over EDM-ish beats
Wikipedia Genre: cloud rap, UK underground rap
Home: NYC

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 6
Day: Saturday at 7:30
Both Weekends.

BeatBox Stage.

Thoughts:  This guy kinda blows.  His Wikipedia makes me believe that he maybe is some sort of important figure in his area - "He has been credited with popularising the UK underground rap scene" - but it sounds like lazy rap to me.  Like, he's just kind of talking in a boring tone over a beat.

Vincenzo Nischal Camille Bhatia was born in Ilford, East London and moved to the town of Basildon in Essex when he was around 5. He is of Indian Punjabi and Algerian descent. He began making music in FL Studio when he was nine years old, on a pirated version of FL Studio from his father's hard drive.  he first used the name 9090gate, and then later flipped to fakemink and started piling on the singles.  His 2025 single "Easter Pink" went viral and Pitchfork described it as "Bloghouse meets cloud rap."  I have no clue what that means.  "This music is like if bootclap was snorthalf."  "If you love widgewhap, then this is like that in hufflekink."  Anyway, in July 2025, Drake brought him out as a special guest at a London show, and then he got a lot of attention from other stars.

Lots of singles, then 2023's London's Saviour, an absolute dump of singles with a few short EPs in the midst, and then the 2026 album Terrified.  His two biggest streamers aren't actually his songs, he just appears on a track by EsDeeKid and one by Buckshot.  The biggest of his own is a single called "Easter Pink" with 40.9 million streams.

At least it's short?  Like a hybrid between EDM and rap - maybe that is what bloghouse means, some ilk of EDM.  His top track from the new disc is "Night, Blooming Jasmine ." with 10.8 million streams.

I really can't take him seriously, blurting out that he's killing this shit, but in the voice of some sort of injured muppet that is stuck under a boulder.  "They try to cut my hair, I'm Sampson" says the Speak and Spell with a screwdriver impaled through the speaker.  I will not go see this guy do this in person.

Nat Myers

One Liner: Spot-on old school blues
Wikipedia Genre: Blues
Home: Kentucky

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 20
Day: Saturday at 2pm
Second Weekend Only

Tito's Tent

Thoughts:   This dude is legit.  Thirty-five years old, but sounds like he could have been born 100 years ago to sling the guitar blues through the South.  His Wikipedia bio is extremely limited - born in Kansas (no mention of the town), from Kentucky (no mention of the town), diagnosed in 2025 with sarcoma which had surrounded his heart and pulmonary artery.  That is it.  Two K states, one big C.

His dad was stationed in Korea while in the Army, and met his mother there.  Which is part of the reason for his 2023 album being named Yellow Peril, was him being pissed off that racist dopes might "just coldcock my mom while she's getting groceries of something like that."  I know this is bad, but I had sort of forgotten about all of those assholes attacking Asian folks after COVID. That sucked though.

His first music was released just after COVID, with singles starting in 2021 until his 2023 disc Yellow Peril.  No other discs available on Spotify, just more singles after that.  And it is pretty solid steel guitar picking and old-soul raspy-voiced singing in here.  I have been digging it.  Just one song with more than a million streams - from that sole album.  "Duck N' Dodge." 1.3 million streams.

To me, that easily could be a 50 year old song sung by a road-weary blues mastermind.  Can barely understand the words. I also notice, on the cover of that YouTube image, that this comes from Easy Eye Sound, which is the Dan Auerbach label (Black Keys guy) and so it makes more sense that this has been found for this poster.  That guy's label must have an in with C3 (even if the Keys barely ever play here anymore) because it seems like a few of their young up-and-comers are always on this poster.

Instead of another song from that disc, how about a 2026 single.  This is "God Don't Like It" with 44k streams.

Oh man, looks like he lost all of his hair and eyebrows.  That is wild.  It is also wild to hear that very young-looking dude rasping out those words.  He's kind of badass!  I am officially on team Nat.

Update on Posting

You may have noticed that I am finally posting a ton of reviews.  Sorry for the delay, but I am still not able to embed YouTube links using my work laptop.  The IT folks did something a while back that blocked my ability to even accept the cookies that allow me to do that.  But, I realized the other night that, even though the process sucks on toast, I am able to use my iPad to grab the YouTube urls that I have been saving in each post, make them into embedded videos, and then publish.  So, long story short, I have 83 drafts that I will be publishing.  Hopefully I will push all of those out this week, we will see how much time I can dedicate to that time-consuming process.  But, we are getting close!

Stay cool out there!

Presley Regier (no longer on the schedule)

One Liner:  Synth-y dance pop with introspective lyrics

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but this is synth pop and dance pop

Home: NYC

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 25
Weekend Two Only
No Longer Playing

Thoughts:  Interestingly, this second-to-last line on the poster has some pretty solid stuff.  Off-the-radar and I don't think they deserve to play the Super Bowl halftime show or anything, but all four of the things on this row have caught me off guard and I have listened longer than I needed to.  This one is way more pop forward than I would go for normally, but I've just kind of gone along with it.

This guy is an electronic pop fella, who writes introspective, revealing lyrics about love and life that he sings over the top of bright, poppy, danceable electronic music.  When you search for him on Wikipedia, it is odd, because his name comes up on many other people's page - Doja Cat, Tate McRae, Coco Jones, Big Sean, others - because before he was singing these songs, he was a hot producer for other people.  He taught himself to make beats after listening to Skrillex as a freshman in high school.  How is Skrillex such a touchstone?  This guy calls Recess his "holy grail," which is messed up.  He started making rap beats, and says that he searched Twitter for "send beats to" so that he could send a beat to anyone who had ever tweeted their e-mail address.  And then he spammed the hell out of the world.  Which took some time, and then Roddy Rich signed him to his label at 18.

He has three albums/EPs - 2023's RUN, 2025's SPILL, and 2026's Sensitive to the room.  No wildly successful hits, but the biggest streamer is a 2024 single called "Questions."  5.2 million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZMIxzhtJI4

Dude kind of looks like Scott Farkas from the Christmas Story movie ("so help me God, yellow eyes!"), but who is trying to dance and posture like he is Bieber.  I don't much care for that song,. to be honest.  Moody little number that isn't as fun as much of the other stuff.

His most recent single is "Dirty Shoes" with about half a million streams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh6u7dxCCpk

Comes on like an MGMT song, but then his voice hops on there.  I have been planning an NYC trip recently, and watching him walk down the scaffolding-covered sidewalks gets me excited all over again.  But, you get the introspective lyrics about him complaining to someone about why won't they try, while the music sounds like a dance track from the 80's.

I probably won't go see this one, but it is better than some of the other pop on this poster.