Twenty One Pilots (2026)

One Liner:  Massive hits with a synth-heavy rap rock thing that seems to have gone out of style

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative rock, electropop, alternative hip-hop, pop rap, indie pop, pop rock

Home: Columbus, Ohio

Poster Position: Headliner!
Both Weekends. 
Sunday at 8:30

American Express Stage

Thoughts: Weird.  I could have sworn that I already did them for this year, but apparently that was a fever dream.  But boy, I will tell you that when they last came here, I was not very complimentary!  Here is what I had to say back in 2015.  First, when I tried them out because they were on the 6th line of the Lolla poster:

Twenty-One Pilots.  This is crap.  Kind of EDM-y, kind of earnest piano rock, kind of Linkin Park rap/rock, with plain bad rap added in for good measure.  Two 2015 singles, "Tear in my Heart" and "Fairly Local" to follow up two albums and a Spotify Sessions from SXSW. Here is "Tear in my Heart,"

"The songs on the radio are OK, but my taste in music is YOUR FACE."  Mmmmkay.  Yeah, and that might be an improvement over the most popular songs on Spotify from the last album.  This reminds me of bad Good Charlotte.

And then once I realized they were on the ACL poster and I had to go back to the well:

Yuck.  I listened to these dudes a few weeks ago in trying to figure out who was on the 6th line of the Lolla poster, and they have not gotten any better with distance.  I just tried their most recent album out again (2013's Vessel) and its still bad rap/rock/electro badness.  I'm doing a public service here, forcing myself to finish the album long after I can tell how that is going to go.  This is the 7th line of the poster! Fitz & the Tantrums and Gaslight Anthem last year!  Ugh.

I already showed you "Tear in my Heart" (see link above), so here is their most listened to track on Spotify, "Car Radio"

In a nutshell, bad Linkin Park poetry rap over a simple piano/drum, then some synths kick in too, and then it turns into an electro dance instrumental until the singer screams some lyrics.  I mean, maybe if you are an angst-y teenager and you want to mumble these lyrics to yourself while you think about mean people in your junior high?  Is that what is going on here?  Over 16 million spins for that track on Spotify, so someone thinks its worth listening to over and over again.  And then a lot of the other songs are much more poppy and dance-y, not so screamo.  I have no clue what this is supposed to be. I'd love to dig the bands this high on the poster, but I just can't get behind that stuff.

Wow.  And the result of their ACL show in Austin that year was that they became massive stars.  So, shows you what I know about anything... My recollection is that the lead singer climbed up on the stage scaffolding and everyone was amazed by it, but I can't argue with the fact that they became a massive band after those two songs kept getting airplay.

And now, in 2026, I don't know if the world has worn me down, or if I have just come around, but I am actually finding myself enjoying some of this.  Their most recent release is an hour and twenty-six minute long live show from Mexico City, and I am finding myself grooving with it.  His singing/rapping voice sort of sounds like Eminem now.  Except for "Guns for Hands," where he kind of, confusingly, sings like Ben Gibbard.

They have an MTV Unplugged album on Spotify, and the intro was interesting to me because he admits that their normal music is mainly just preset loops that they then play and sing over.  I kind of figured these were mainly real instruments being played - like the synths play the fake ass reggae bop - but I guess the reality is that they just play the bass and drums over the otherwise computerized tracks.

In light of the fact that the University of Texas is playing Ohio State University this weekend, I can clearly and definitely say that Columbus, Ohio blows.  These two guys met each other playing basketball in Columbus youth leagues, and remained friends through middle school and high school.  Frontman Tyler Joseph began playing music with an old synth he received for Christmas, trying to replicate melodies from the radio.  Later, while attending Ohio State, Joseph met Chris Salih at a party and they started making music.  They invited another friend to join, and 21 Pilots was launched.  Several years later, some of the guys, along with Joseph's old friend Josh Dun, were involved in making music at a Columbus church and with a gospel rock band called New Albany Music.  In 2011, two of the founding members left the group, Dun officially joined, and the band moved forward as a duo.  Soon thereafter, they signed to the Fall Out Boy label and got to work on their big hits.

2013's Vessel included the very large hit linked above - "Car Radio" - now with 570 million streams.  The album reached #21 on the Billboard charts, and every single song on the album received at least a Gold certification, which was somehow novel.  They went on tour, opening for Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy.

But then it was 2015's Blurryface that blew it all open for them.  "Tear in My Heart," that first song up above, was the first mega hit, but then "Stressed Out" went 13x Platinum, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and racking up billions of YouTube streams.  It now has 3.1 BILLION streams on Spotify.

Honestly, if I put away my prejudices against rock rap and these being overplayed, the lyrics are close to perfect and the groove is undeniable.  I too wish that I could turn back time to the good old days.  Man, those mothers shown in that video SUPER look like they are Columbus, Ohio mothers.  Dammit.  I'm actually on board with that song once I really dig in to it.  It also won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category.  The next song that blew up on the album was "Ride," now with 2.3 BILLION streams and that super annoying reggae dub beat and half rap.

Ready made to be sung in a stadium, but not actually a good song to me.  Again, every song on this album went at least Gold, making them the first band with two albums in a row with Gold certification for every single track.  They also won the Billboard Music Award for Best Rock Album and Top Rock Artist in 2016.  Right around here, they also release "Heathens," which was featured on the Suicide Squad soundtrack, and racked up another 2.3 BILLION streams.

As I recall it, I kind of liked Suicide Squad.  Although, if you asked me to tell you the plot of it, I would be pretty unsure which one of the crappy DC Comic ones featuring Margot Robbie this one was.  Song is fine.  However, when it hot #4 on the Hot 100, the band became the third rock act in history to have two top 5 songs at the same time, joining Elvis and the Beatles.  That bums me out a little.

2018's Trench missed my consciousness at the time.  The top song from that album is called "Chlorine," and it really doesn't ring any bells.  Has 708 million streams though, so it has been around.  He sings about "sippin' on straight chlorine" in it, which seems like a really bad idea.  The lyrics overall make no sense to me.  This beat is a chemical and the moment is medical.  Deep bro.  2021's Scaled and Icy looks to have been a dud by their standards - many of the songs failed to hit 100 million streams, and the hit ("Shy Away") doesn't sound familiar at all and sounds like a weak 80's synth pop cover.

2024's Clancy looks kind of the same - no song on here breaks 153 million streams and many of them are under 100 million.  I don't recognize "Overcompensate" at all, the top track.  Pretty high energy though.  2025's Breach was an even worse one for stream counts, no song passed 75 million.  Feels like the world has passed by the rap/rock synth movement that they were pushing.

I have found myself surprisingly on board here.  And I honestly think that a big reason why is the live album that they released here.  The sound of the crowd, absolutely howling along with the hits, definitely brings a new angle to how I hear them.  It sounds like a blast.  Unfortunately, the XX is the only other headliner that I would consider watching, and of course they are up against each other.  But I guess I could see myself doing this one.

Grace Ives

One Liner: Heavy synths but pop that is drawing me in
Wikipedia Genre: synth-pop, electronic
Home: NYC/Brooklyn

Poster Position: Late Addition
Day: Sunday
Second Weekend Only

SnapChat Stage at 3:30.

Thoughts:  I had no clue there was a Snapchat stage now.  I hate that app and what it has done to my girls.

As a teenager, she participated in the School of Rock program - maybe she'll take the stage with them at the Fest and help them melt our faces.  She started college at Maryland Institute College of Art to study graphic design before transferring to the State University of New York at Purchase and starting music-making in her dorm room.

As low key as this music seems to me, she is one of the openers for the Olivia Rodrigo tour in 2027, so she is doing something right!  All synth pop, definitely seems like she is starting with a basic Casio beat, and then layering more action on top to make the songs interesting.  Sort of feels like when Haim does their synth-driven tunes.  And then it can sound like Chappel Roan doing her sort of campy sound over synth riffs.

Her first EP was back in 2016, so unlike many of these folks she has been at it for a while.  After that, a 2019 album called 2nd, a 2022 album with the amazing name Janky Star, and then a 2026 disc called Girlfriend.  Her top track is on that 2022 album, called "Lullaby" and boasting 16.6 million streams over a jenky ass casio beat.

I actually like it.  Calling it a jenky casio beat sounds rude, but I kind of dig the groove in there.  Her second biggest streamer is from the initial EP, but I wanted to give you the new hit instead.  From the new album, this is "Stupid Bitches" with 2.3 million streams for now and more of a straight pop sound to me.

I like it when it kicks in a bit more for the chorus.  That is a good beat.  Even though my normal attitude towards a synth-pop girl would generally be skeptical, this one is winning me over.  I find myself bopping along to these tunes and then starting her top ten over again.  Who knew I was a synth pop girlie?

Almost Heaven

One Liner: Another LCD Soundsystem-ish thing, but I like it
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is dance pop, synth electronic
Home: Austin!

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 24
Day: Friday at 12:45 (brutal time slot)
Weekend Two Only.

Tito's Tent (fun venue though)

Thoughts: I rolled my eyes a few songs into this because it is another blatant LCD Soundsystem ripoff.  I can't even remember the name of the LCD ripoff from last year's ACL, but I remember there being one with a song about slutty girls or something.  Well, after a few songs, I stopped rolling my eyes and started boogie-ing around in my desk chair.  This is kind of fun.  But when the cowbell effect starts kicking in, I sometimes start to roll my eyes again.

An aside, based upon the name, is that I think it is extremely cool and good that "Take Me Home, Country Roads" has become an unofficial supporter song for the USMNT in the 2026 World Cup.  That song freaking rules.  Many decades ago, someone started the tradition at my summer camp that we would sing that on the first night in camp and awkwardly try to shoe-horn "Echo Valley" into the slot where the song says "West Virginia" and it felt very special at the time.

I searched Wikipedia for the band, and apparently Almost Heaven was the 10th studio album by European American pop group The Kelly Family.  The cover of that album is giving me pedo vibes.  But this is the joinder of Stefan Barraza, originally from El Paso, and Austin native and drummer Jaelyn Valero.  Barraza says he was a student at Texas Tech when his professor walked into class to give a presentation about the Graphic Design program and he was smitten with the thought.  He dropped out and started doing graphic design and video, working with a lot of musicians, but soon realized that he really didn't like some of the music he had to work with for the visuals.  So, he decided to make the kind of music he wanted to go with his visuals, and this band was born.

Some of their earliest 2022 singles have no tracked streams on Spotify, so they didn't kick the door open right there at the start.  3 EPs since then, and even though I am digging some of what they are laying down, the stream count is really not there yet.  Top track is called "FEEDBACK" with 18k streams.

I'm expecting some pretty damn good visuals to come along with this song, since the whole reason for making music was just to match the rad visuals.  He wants her to bite his arm to take something away?  She is not interested.  "fever trying to blow" with 15k streams is the second-biggest streamer.

Hear that LCD thing?  But here is the deal, I bet that song is absolutely fantastic to freak out to in a crowd of people looking to dance and have fun.  he even tried to design a dance for it.  "hypnoxia" has a similar feel, or "LOVE ON THE RUN."  "power music (elektrik revival)" had me sitting here like "wheeeeere do I know that from, dammit!" before finally blurting out OUTKAST on my third or fourth listen.  "THE GOOSE" is kind of cool in a different way, with some frenetic drumming in the middle and almost a Franz Ferdinand meets The Strokes thing.

I'd go watch.  I wonder if the skuzzy club vice will come through very well as noon on Saturday in a dusty field with like 45 people there, but a man can dream.

New Constellations

One Liner:  the 80’s called and they want their synths back

Wikipedia Genre:  Dream pop, synthwave

Home: Portland, OR

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 16.
Weekend One Only.
Friday at 2:30

T-Mobile Stage

Thoughts:  Man, I am probably over-generalizing, but it really feels like we are overloaded with this sort of thing.  Synth heavy, overly-dramatic female vocals, vibey but entirely forgettable pop.  That is probably more rude than I wanted it to be, but its like Sylvan Esso reboots are all over this poster.  And I don't like it.

Childhood friends Harlee Case and Josh Smith met at church when they were teenagers, and made their first song in his childhood bedroom. Yeah, they did.  After high school, they went off and did things with other people and themselves, but in 2015 she put out a note on Instagram that she was looking for collaborators for a band, and Josh popped back up.

Just one album, 2026's It Comes in Waves.  If I stop being a hater and am being honest, I think "Sun Chasing the Rain" is actually a really nice song.  But the big hit was a 2021 single that was re-used for the new album.  "Hot Blooded" is by far their biggest song at 137.8 million streams.

Sounds like Depeche Mode making a guest appearance on Stranger Things with a guest vocalist.  Haha, I just made myself laugh.  I was trying to come up with something else to say and instead just sighed very loud and very long.  I just absolutely do not care for this song.  I'm sure it is fine, but I have heard it four times now and still could not tell you anything about it.

Second-biggest streamer is "Think It Over," a b-side to a 2025 single that didn't make the album. 16.2 million streams.

Same feeling for this one.  Very good homage to the 80's sound that we all should have left behind before these two musicians were even born.  Sorry if I am being rude, I just don't care for this at all and want to move on.

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.

Brandon Flowers (2026)

One Liner: The Killers
Wikipedia Genre: alternative rock, new wave, heartland rock, synth-pop
Home: Vegas

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 4
Day: Friday at 5:15
Weekend One Only.

Miller Lite Stage

Thoughts:  I know I have written about this before, not sure if it was because of Eddie Vedder, or Marcus Mumford, or Jim James, or The Revivalists guy, but I just generally don't care for a lead singer doing a solo thing.  Especially if it was a band that I really like.  The Killers are really just Brandon Flowers.  And yes, there are other members (I couldn't tell you any of their names), but for all I know they are also playing the backing music on these tunes.  I can see if the band breaks up, and David Byrne keeps making music because the Talking Heads are dead.  But where the original band is still out there and sounds just like what you are doing on your solo thing, what are we doing?

Anyway, he was last here by himself in 2015, but he has been here with the Killers 73 times since then.  His solo stuff is disappointingly bland pop rock.  Truly a bummer to me.  The Killers' Hot Fuss was a freaking great album, coming out of left field with retro-80's pop synth-rock flourishes and really fun songs.  A lot of people crapped on their next album, Sam's Town, but I thought it was pretty good too, even if not as good as the debut.  So, I'd love to imagine that his solo stuff would be like the classic Killers.

Well, this ain't Hot Fuss.  Two albums - 2010's Flamingo and 2015's The Desired Effect.  Glad ACL was able to snag him when I'm sure the fervor to have someone here who hasn't published music in over a decade was probably fierce.  Here is the most popular tune overall on Spotify, which is from that 2010 album, called "Crossfire."  83.3 million streams.

I mean, not terrible, its just super generic sounding soft rock.  The album opener, "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" is a sweeping love-song-to / warning-about Las Vegas.  "Didn't nobody tell you, the house will always win!"  Not an especially good album.  I also listened to the top ten most popular tunes on Spotify a few times, and honestly, the best are the live covers.  But still not nearly as good as the original Killers tunes.  Here is the first single from the "new" album, "Lonely Town."  18.6 million.

Oh man.  Auto Tune in the house?  Check.  Backup choir?  Yup.  Synth blips to hope that people remember the Killers?  Of course.  Honestly, not a terrible song, but also not something that I'll ever need to hear again.  I have to say the second disc is better than that older album.  It still isn't something I'd ever buy, or probably even listen to again, but it has some okay songs on there.  "Can't Deny My Love" is actually pretty snappy.  But some of these other songs are soft rock schmaltz.  Maybe I'd go see him, but I doubt it.

Haute & Freddy

One Liner: Overly theatrical 80's synth pop by veteran songwriters
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I will go with 80's synth pop
Home: unclear

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 16
Day: Sunday
Weekend One Only.

American Express Stage at 2:30

Thoughts:  I made myself laugh out loud just now by trying to say this band name out loud like the Ahmed character in Beverly Hills Cop.  I'm a simple man.

Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp wrote hits for Britney Spears and Katy Perry, says Rolling Stone.  The RS website is unreadable - in part because it is behind a paywall, but also because of the number of popup ads and garbage floating around there.  And yes, I cannot install a pop-up ad blocker at work so I have popup ads like a boomer.  She also co-wrote a song for Kylie Minogue, one for Bebe Rexha, and one for Lady A.  He co-wrote songs for Shenseea, Britney, Bebe Rexha, Taevyon, and others.  This project finds the two of them together, but it appears to just be Buzz singing over the top of synth pop.  Definitely 80's music sound, which they have called "runaway carnie" theatrical pop.  Weird that the band name has nothing to do with their names.

Only four songs, so not just a ton to judge from so far.  And very few streams for really any of them, so it is interesting that they are up here on the poster over more established acts.  I guess they are in to being freaky so that gets them some cred.  I'll give you the second-most streamed song, just because the article I just read said that this video will cause me to clutch my pearls.  "Scantily Clad" with 1.7 million streams.

Yes, very theatrical for sure.  As an ex-theater kid myself, I can see where we are going with this, but at no time did I feel the need to clutch a pearl.  Cringe a little, yes.  But actually find something offensive or over the line?  Nah.  I think I am good without seeing them, even though major theatrics may be fun for an hour at the festival.

DJO (2025)

One Liner: One of the Stranger Things actors making good psych and indie rock.

Wikipedia Genre:  neo-psychedelia, indie rock, psychedelic rock, synth-pop
Home: L.A. (born in Massachusetts, college in Chicago, but he's bound to live in L.A. now, right?)

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 2
Both Weekends.  

Saturday.

Ladybird Stage at 7:30

Thoughts:  He was supposed to come in 2022, but he actually bailed at the last minute.  On Insta, he shared a cryptic message saying that an unfortunate last minute scheduling conflict is causing him to miss.  But it was a month and a half prior to the Fest.  What is last minute?  You've got a month and a half to get it fixed!  But, since then, he has grown significantly in popularity.

Before I understood who this was, I was slightly confused.  Here was my digging into that in 2022... Always fun to have someone like this on the poster, where I get to find out that Djo is a Portugese futsal player, DJO is a manufacturer of medical devices (headquartered in Lewisville, Texas!), DJO High is Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School (high school of Eric Metcalf!), Djo d'Eloy is a Cape Verdean singer (whose greatest song is "Arriola"!), Djo Mpeko is a footballer (a defender for the Girabola!), Djo Tunda Wa Munga is a film director (winner of the 2011 MTV Music Awards for Best African Movie!), AND HE IS ALSO THE OLDER BROTHER IN STRANGER THINGS!?!?!

Of all the things I did not expect to happen today, way way way high on the list would be to click on the listing for Djo and see that it is the stage name for Joe Keery's music career, when he is not starring as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things or the movie Free Guy or the fifth season of Fargo (as a super psycho Sheriff Deputy).  Fascinating.  He went to DePaul University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.  In his musical career, he apparently started out by releasing music under the name Cool Cool Cool, but then became a guitarist for a band called Post Animal for a few albums.  According to one interview I read, he said that the fame from Stranger Things made that weird because the rest of the band didn't want to just be the "guy from Stranger Things" band - but they've stayed friends and he's gotten their help on making his solo album.  In 2019, he started releasing music under the Djo name.

And you know what?  It's actually pretty solid!  Kinda low key indie psych rock.  Think super basic Tame Impala.  One song, which I have heard in the interim on the radio a good bit, is for sure the megahit with 1.58 BILLION streams.  Damn.  "End of Beginning."

Good, chill, nugget for me.  I dig the groove.  Part of me wanted to come to this post with the angle of whether or not he would have gotten this far on the ACL poster if he wasn't the Stranger Things guy.  Like, would he have separated himself from the other indie rock out there without that slice of pop culture notoriety?  Almost like a nepo-baby thing, but instead of a famous mom, being cast on a wildly popular show.  But after churning through these songs for a day, this is legitimate.  I dig it.

Well, then I have to say that the 2020 single "Keep Your Head Up" is not my favorite.  Too much falsetto, too much saxophone, too much squelchy synths.  The stuff from the 2019 album Twenty Twenty is much better.  The second most streamed tune from that album, called "Roddy," has 102.4 million streams.

Pretty good tune - nothing particularly stands out in there, but good guitar and vocals and a nice little groove.  The synth voice thing in the middle, straight out of Ferris Bueller, is a little weird, but otherwise it is a solid tune.  "Chateau (Feel Alright)" is the other big song, with 142.9 million streams and a similarly woozy rock sound.

Nice chill tune.  Brings me some Beck vibes.  "Mutual Future" has some Strokes vibes, but also some jam band guitarage near the end.  "BNBG," with its ridiculous outro of repeatedly saying "babygirl," is a massively cringe inducing moment.  "Personal Lies" kicks in with a pop rock swagger, but then devolves into a spacey meander.  I like it.

After that disc, you get 2022's DECIDE, which includes that mega-hit posted up above.  Nothing else on there comes anywhere close to that level of excitement.  The top song otherwise has 33 million streams.  Finally, you get 2025's The Crux, which is pretty good as well.  The title song has a Beatles piano ballad vibe to it.  The bigger song is "Basic Being Basic," but I like "Delete Ya" much better.  20.4 million streams.

Again, nice groove to go with a catchy tune.  Sort of a The Cars vibe in there to my ear.

I'm in.  A little shocked at that decision with where my head was pointed when I started this, but I like it.

Magdalena Bay (2025)

One Liner:  More synth pop that loves the 80's and the Eilish bedroom pop sound.

Wikipedia Genre:  Synth pop, electropop, indie pop, alt-pop
Home: Miami to L.A.

Poster Position: 6
Both Weekends.
Saturday.

Ladybird Stage at 5:30.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2022, and I was not a fan in my preview.  But they went from the 14th line back then to the 6th line now, so I apparently don't know what I am talking about.

Dang.  I hadn't heard any Billie Eilish copies in a few weeks, was kind of hoping I was done with the whispery, dark, bedroom pop thing.  This is an electronic duo from Miami who headed west for L.A. to make their mark.  Wikipedia says they formed in 2016 while the two members were in college.  They had originally met while in a music class in high school in Miami, where they had a band called Tabula Rasa that did prog rock.  That sounds much more enjoyable than this.  Wikipedia also mentions: "The group is not named after the bay in Mexico, but an administrator at Lewin's former job."  Freaking weird.  His administrator was named Magdalena Bay?  Ah, nope, but close.  Maggie Bay.

Their first album was 2021's Mercurial World.  But their only big single isn't on there - it was on an earlier EP called A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling.  "Killshot" has 113.1 (up from 20.6 in 2022) million streams and some bad remixes.

You heard that Eilish thing there?  Whispery?  Check.  Dark?  Check.  Could have been made on a laptop while these two were supposed to be getting homeschooled by their mom?  Check.

Okay, it isn't all dark pop stuff, it also does just general pop stuff.  Generic stuff.  The top track from their 2021 album is called "Secrets (Your Fire)"  15.5 (up from 4.7) million.

Way too sticky sweet and breathy for my tastes.  The ridiculous goofiness of the video is kinda amazing though.  But I don't love the song.  

They released a new album in 2024 called Imaginal Disk.  Nothing nearly as popular as that "Killshot" song from their early days, but they got one track with 37.1 million streams.  "Image" is still kind of breathy and annoying to me.

You, like those weird aliens on the Home Shopping Network, would dance to it.  But this doesn't change my opinion on them from before.  I wouldn't go watch this.  To my ear, the rest of these songs are in this same vein and none of in interests me very much.

Yoke Lore

One Liner:  Unremarkable indie synth pop by a former member of Walk the Moon

Wikipedia Genre:  indie rock, indie folk

Home: New York

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 13
Both Weekends.
Saturday.

Miller Lite Stage at 1:30.

Thoughts:  I need to know how to pronounce this one.  I sort of want it to be pronounced like the thing that two oxen would get attached to.  Funny thing, is it is a made-up moniker, not a name like one might expect.  The guy's real name is Adrian Galvin, and he was once a part of Walk the Moon ("Shut up and Dance" and whatnot).  After a few hours, I can say that this is not my jam.  Also, I found a video, and it is in fact pronounced like "thing you attach to oxen" and "collection of stories about the history of something."

Our buddy Adrian is from Katonah, New York, and his brother is actor Noah Galvin, who I am pretty sure I saw play Evan Hansen in Dead Evan Hansen on Broadway.  He was also in movies Booksmart and Theater Camp, a TV show called The Real O'neals, and another called The Good Doctor.  But this is not that guy, this is that guy's brother.  Adrian attended Kenyon College in Ohio, where he began writing songs and playing drums for Walk the Moon.  He went solo and released his first EP in 2016, performing at SXSW and touring the WORLD!

Four or six EPs from 2016 until his one and only album release in 2023.  Toward a Never Ending New Beginning is quite a title.  None of the songs on that disc really hit - most are under 200k streams.  But he absolutely struck gold on one song - from 2017's Goodpain EP - called "Beige."  286.8 million streams.  No way this was not a TikTok thing.

I think it is the vocal tone that puts me off on him.  Slightly whiney.  Because otherwise, I could use more banjo music in my life.  Sounds like a Jack Antonoff-produced tune with grandiose 80's synths thrumming in the background.  He also has a song on Spotify called "Beige (unburdened)," which again, sounds like  TikTok thing where the children can do their unburdened dance only to that version of the song.  "Seeds" was a 2021 single that didn't pop back up on the album, but has 34.6 million streams.

I stand by my Jack Antonoff comment.  The whining feels less pronounced, I don't mind that one as much.  I can't think of who this guy reminds me of, maybe like Foster the People guy?  Mt. Joy?  And now after listening more I am less unhappy with it overall, but it certainly is not where I aim my musical tastes most of the time.  Doubt I'd do it.

LVVRS

One Liner:  80's synth pop like Adam Levine come again.

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia - synth pop and Maroon 5 cosplay

Home: Lafayette, LA

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 24
Weekend One Only
Friday.

BMI Stage at 1:30

Thoughts:  My initial thought is Panic at the Disco! and that may stay true.  They claim inspiration from Maroon 5 (yuck), INXS (hell yeah), T. Rex (sure), and the 1975 (meh), but everytime I see the name my brains wants it to stand for Livers, not Lovers.

From Lafayette, Louisiana.  Five guys in the band.  Lots of drums and synths, and a little too much effects on the voice.  Their songs have been featured in Netflix's Love is Blind, Netflix's The Ultimatum, and the Zac Efron film Iron Claw.  Which is weird.  But I guess that movie was a historical artifact, so maybe not so weird.

I have been listening for a while now, and while it is not terribly offensive or anything, it definitely is under my skin right now.  I think Maroon 5 is an apt comparison.  So, if that is your jam, then give this a chance.  If you never need to hear those songs again, then let's get this over with.

No albums since their 2018 initial single.  One 5 song 2024 EP called Midnight Fantasy that gathered up some singles from the years before that.  The top song is the last on that EP, "Iconic" with 566k streams.

You hear that Panic! At The Disco 80's synth rock ripoff right there?  I'm sure this would be very fun to hear in a big crowd of people jumping and dancing and partying down.  Only one other tune in their catalog breaks the 100k streams level.  "Dancing With a Broken Heart" fires up 168k streams.

Here's your taste of Maroon 5/Adam Levine action.  Again, this is fine.  Completely unoffensive.  But also not interesting to me at all.  If this is your jam, I hope you love the show!

Moody Joody

One Liner:  A little HAIM, a little recent Taylor Swift, in synth pop gals

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

Home: Nashville

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 21
Weekend One Only.
Friday.

BMI Stage at 5:00.

Thoughts: This totally reminds me of HAIM.  Some of the songs also crib from the Taylor Swift sound on her recent albums, all breathy vocals and tired Jack Antonoff beats.  "The Heat" is a perfect example of that.  This is two ladies - Kaitie Forbes and Kayla Hall - with a male producer named Andrew Pacheco.

The copy in this one bio is painful: "Moody Joody does not fit in any boring box — nor would they want to. Equal parts swoony, sexy, and, well, moody, the Nashville trio is all about “owning your humanness.”  "swoony, sexy, and moody" is a hard no for me, dawg.  Which is unfortunate, because I am not disliking the sound of the actual tunes.  That same bio also mentions that they were originally on a mission to be "a girl Bleachers," so there you go with the Antonoff thing I am hearing.  They also have one of those annoying schticks where every album or single has a photo on the front with their eyes scratched out.  Disclosure in 2005-ass decision.

"The Heat" was their initial single in 2020, and it is still one of their top streamers at 1.9 million streams.

You hear that Taylor sound?  Very much sounds like the recent stuff that I don't love from Ms. Swift. Still no real album for them, the closest is a 2024 EP called Dream Girl.  The top song on that one is the top streamer overall with 2.9 million streams.  "Velvet Connection."

 

There's that HAIM sound with the 80's synths and harmonies over the top.  Significantly too much shrugging in that video.  yes, I can see that you are both very pretty.  Stop shrugging so much.

Yeah, I don't hate this.  But I definitely don't just love it either.  They are going to get one of those terrible early Friday slots, so I likely don't have to worry about it anyway!

St. Lucia (2024)

One Liner:  80's synth pop renaissance with a few good songs and then <sound of Pac Man dying>

Wikipedia Genre: Indie electronic, synthpop, new wave, electropop

Home: South Africa to Liverpool to Brooklyn to Germany

Poster Position: Late Addition
Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 5:30.

IHG Stage.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2016, and it is an interesting thing.  Eight years later, my brain still confused them with a different band called Saint Motel who are significantly better.

Saint Lucia is an island in the eastern Caribbean that was originally colonized/taken by the French, and then England took control.  Those fools fought 14 different wars to switch control of the island over the years, with England the final victor, until it became independent in 1979.

Here is what I said in 2016: "I had predicted these guys, based on their inclusion in the lineups for two of the other major festivals.  At the time, I said that I thought they were another band (I think I was thinking of Saint Motel) but said that because they are electronic we are likely destined to have them.  And here we are.  This is more of that 80's retro synth pop, and while I want to dislike it out of hand, I've actually really enjoyed some of these songs.  They remind me of the radio stations on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.  Oh no, now I got to "Love Somebody" and this is why I wanted to dislike this band out of hand.  Blurg.  But, let's stick to the good stuff here so that you can get suckered into going to see them live!"

The band itself appears to actually just be one dude.  Jean-Philip Grobler is South African by birth but Wikipedia claims both that he is based in Konstanz, Germany and that his origin is Brooklyn, NY.  Not sure how to reconcile all of that.  Apparently his stage name is after a town in South Africa, not the island nation.  He started making music when he was 12, inspired by 80's acts like Michael Jackson, Sting, and Phil Collins.  Checks out.  He moved from South Africa to Liverpool at age 19 to study music at university, and after three years he moved to Brooklyn.  He got to work with like-minded acts like Passion Pit and Foster the People, as he was getting his own stuff going.  In 2021, he moved to Germany to be closer to his wife's family.  I guess that is where Wikipedia gets it all.  My bad.

Four albums (2012's When the Night, 2016's Matter, 2018's Hyperion, and 2022's Utopia) along with some EPs and a pile of singles.  The most popular track on Spotify is "Dancing on Glass," and it hammers the sunshine synths all the way to the promised land.  76.5 million streams.

This one is from that 2016 album - I definitely recognize it, although I am not sure if that is from listening to this band in 2016 or because they are getting radio play.  I really like that.  Then the second-most streamed is from the debut album and is called "Elevate."  75 million streams.

Just try to be crabby when that song is playing.  Just try!  You, over there stalking this blog in your black trenchcoat and Panic! at the Disco-brand eyeliner, give in!  You know this made you want to give a kiss to Molly Ringwald and take one of her diamond earrings from her!  You know it!   

"All Eyes on You," also from that debut album is interesting here in 2024. Here, listen to it.  40.1 million streams.  What do you hear?

I hear all three of the recent Taylor Swift albums and the Jack Antonoff production thing of quiet synth production and bare, confessional vocals soaring over the top.  This absolutely sounds like something cribbed to create the TayTay monster.  Stinking Jack Antonoff.  

Anyway, those two first two singles are really very good.  Hard to deny the soft caress they give to my pleasure centers and the undeniable danceability.  But, I've got to say that a foray through the entire catalog leaves me less enamored with the guy.  The new albums have very low stream counts - 2.7 million for the top track from the newest disc.  Not terrible music by any stretch of the imagination, just unmemorable synth pop that sails along under the ears' radar until something else comes on.  That top song is called "Touch."  I'll give it to you to get a feel for what I mean.

Like I have said before, didn't we all move on from this music on purpose a long time ago?  Pretty sure Hair Metal won, and then Grunge won, and then Rap won, and now everything is so fractured that people thing a generic Talk Talk redux song is new and exciting.  This feels like a guy ACL could call in for a favor when they needed a last minute schedule filler after Catfish and Tyla dropped out on them.

Empress Of

One Liner:  EDM and Spanglish pop time

Wikipedia Genre:  Dream pop, alternative R&B, synth-pop, electronica, experimental

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Recent addition
Both Weekends.
Sunday at 1:15.

AmEx Stage.

Thoughts:  Lorely Rodriguez has a surprisingly robust Wikipedia page, where most of the artists who get the noon spot on the poster will have nothing written about them (or very little).  She is originally from L.A., and received a degree in sound engineering from Berklee College of Music (which sounds so freaking cool - to go learn the real tools and tricks of the trade at a place like that, as your college experience!).  After that, she moved to New York and was in a band called Celestial Shore.  Strangely, I reviewed a Celestial Shore album years ago:

"Celestial Shore - Enter Ghost.  Interesting album.  I have listened to it a number of times, and just can't decide if I like it or not.  As I listen, it sounds good, kind of falsetto indie pop with classic rock/pop harmonies and organs and a 90's alternative overlay.  The thing is, when I'm done listening to it, nothing at all sticks in my mind.  It just melts right out of my brain as soon as the last note plays.

The start of this one sounds like it is an old Pixies B-Side you are hearing for the first time, but then the singing is entirely different.  "I Hide" is kind of cool too.  I like it well enough, but I just don't expect that I'll keep it around for good."

Her stage name is from a tarot card reading she did where the first card pulled was an Empress card.  In addition to the robust Wikipedia page, her discography is likewise much larger than expected.  Her first single was in 2012, and she has released four albums and a bunch of other stuff since.  Her top streamer features Khalid, so that seems unfair.  In fact, a lot of her songs have other folks on them.  She also does a lot of Spanish-language action.  But an early hit was "How Do You Do It," with 8.2 million streams and a spot on her 2015 debut album Me.

Feels weird to have a straight-up dance/electro thing happening at 1 on a Sunday - that feels like the stuff that should be later in the night, because otherwise you're going to have an artist trying to get the people hype to dance and whatnot when there are like 40 sweaty people kinda nodding their heads in a dusty field.  2018's Us features the next big track with "When I'm With Him," with 14.7 million streams.

Way poppier there, and split the lyrics up with English and Spanish.  Not sure, but I think I like the electronic dance music better than the pop.  After that, none of her songs that don't involve someone else get any higher on stream count.  I doubt I'll make it over to this one.

Tove Lo (2023)

One Liner: That "Stay High All The Time" electropop girl
Wikipedia Genre: Electropop, Synth-Pop, Dance Pop, Indie Pop
Home: Stockholm, Sweden

Poster Position: 1 (4)
Slot: Saturday at 7pm

Thoughts:  Last played here in 2017.  I reviewed her 2014 debut album Queen of the Clouds years ago and liked parts, but found the album overall pretty forgettable.  I'm going to steal a part of that old review to mention how disturbing her big hit is.

"Habits" is kind of disturbing - its a song about getting high all the time to keep from missing her honey, she's generally singing about doing sad and gross things because she's alone, including: "Pick up daddies at the playground, how I spend my day time, loosen up their frown, make 'em feel alive, make it fast and greasy, I'm numb and way too easy, you're gone and I got to stay High, all the time, to keep you off my mind."  Wow.  And the video is also a super depressing trip through her sad party time life.

Those lyrics are still disturbingly arousing to me.  Oh wait, did I say arousing?  I mean, uhhh...  The song is now up to almost 756.4 million streams on Spotify (over a billion if you add up the original and the remix) (up from 475 million in 2017, when combining the original and remix).  Here is the video, with 438 million views on its own.

So depressing and dark!  But don't it just make you wanna dance!  "Talking Body" is also a big hit from that same album - 560.6 million streams.  And a real deal pop banger.

Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson is her real name, and she's from Sweden.  Rolling Stone called her "Sweden's darkest pop export" and Wikipedia says that she is known for her "raw, grunge-influenced take on pop music."  She was in a band for a bit called Tremblebee, but then went solo working with some major producers like Max Martin and Shellback.  her stage name is based upon a nickname from her godmother - although the story is confusing since "Tove" is in her name, but according to Wikipedia, there was a lynx at the local zoo named Tove that she "totally fell in love with," and a singular lynx in Swedish is a "Lo."  So, Tove Lo.  She is also friends with the group Icona Pop, and lived with them for a while.

Since that 2014 album, she more recently put out the unfortunately named Lady Wood in 2016.  The hit from that album is "Cool Girl," which clocks in at 377.4 million streams.

Nope.  That is terrible.  "Imma cool girl.  Imma imma cool girl.  Ice cold, I roll my eyes at you boy." This is like some Avril Lavigne in 2004 crap here, just with electro beats instead of rawkin' sk8tr guitars.  Ugh.  If that song stays in my mind (which it was likely scientifically created to do) I am going to be pissed.  The next album was the unfortunately named 2017's BLUE LIPS (lady wood phase II).  I gave it a shot, and it likewise is not good.  Pop dance stuff with super repetitive choruses (chori?  chorusi?).  No thanks.  The fact that this is poster line 4 means that I am either out of touch with the world or the poster maker was high all the time and boning old greasy dudes in playgrounds.

After that, she released 2019's Sunshine Kitty and 2022's Dirt Femme.  Some of those tracks have numbers, like 70 million and stuff, but nothing like the big hits from the debut album.  The biggest from the new album is "No One Dies From Love" at 65 million streams.

Slow to build up that one, but after the first chorus, it definitely kicks in.  I am not going to deny that her stuff is catchy and danceable and exciting.  Just super not the normal type of tunes that I gravitate towards.

Bummer for the big fans of this type of music, that Bob Moses is at the same time.  Two electronica people at the same time is a tough draw.  I'll be over there squeezing up close to the Foo's stage, so y'all have fun with this one.

Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul

One Liner:  Wacky electronica with clever and insightful lyrics

Wikipedia Genre:  Electronica, avant-pop, R&B, World, Experimental

Home: Belgium

Poster Position: 3 (16)  (kind of a high poster position for a 3:15 on Sunday artist)
Weekend One Only.
Sunday at 3:15

Thoughts:  Adigery is a Belgian musician who is also known as WWWater.  The desciption of things about her on Wikipedia just confused me.  "She is of Martinican and Guadeloupean descent. Her family background is Nigerian Yoruban via the Martinique slave trade. Adigéry attended college in Hasselt, where she studied music.  In 2016, Adigéry contributed vocals to "The Best Thing" a song on the 2016 Belgica film soundtrack that was scored by David and Stephen Dewaele, aka Soulwax or 2ManyDJs."  So many words with so many unknown meanings.

Her original releases were on her own, but since 2017 she has been working with Bolis Pupul, a human being whose name I apparently cannot spell on the first try.  He is the producer, and is apparently also from Belgium.  He apparently draws very realistic penises, and invited folks to DM him for an example.  Nope.  In one interview, he speaks out against racist atrocities that Leopold II did in the Congo during colonialization.  I guess old Leo was a Belgian bad guy, I've never heard of him.  Pupul is also the child of someone else I have never heard of, a "well-known Belgian musician, comedian and cartoonist known as Kamagurka."

"HAHA" is freaking awesome.  So weird, and yet I can't help but grin as I listen to it.  Some of the lyrics are confusing, in that they are in French (or apparently also Creole?) and so I don't know what is happening.  "Blenda" is clever - "go back to your country where you belong, Siri can you tell me where I belong?"  Like, an imminently danceable song, and yet it is about being xenophobic.  Not a normal thing, but entertaining.  The top track is from their 2022 album Topical Dancer, called "Ceci n'est pas un cliche," with 3.4 million streams.

Translated, the title means this is not a cliche, and then the lyrics of the song recount every cliche in pop music - "you're cold as ice" or "hey Mr. DJ" or "You're my baby tonight, I wanna hold you real tight."  These dudes are clever for sure.  The music itself is a generic EDM beat that could have been an LCD Soundsystem jab, which maybe is the point, the same way that the lyrics are.  In fact, I hear LCD on several of these songs.  I'mma give you "HAHA" as well, just because I like it so much.  2.4 million streams.

Freaking weird, man!  But also, catchy despite being a really basic-seeming beat!  Probabloy not going to go see this, but I could see it being a jam in the Tito's Tent!

M83 (2023)

One Liner: Atmospheric electro and dance, with that one big "Midnight City" song.

Wikipedia Genre: synth-pop, shoegaze, dream pop, post-rock, ambient, electronic rock

Home: Antibes, France

Poster Position: Level 2 (6) 
Weekend Two Only.

Sunday.

Thoughts:  They were last at the Festival in 2016, although I don't think I saw the set.

I have a great memory of a Girl Talk show years ago, where he mixed in "Midnight City" as the fruition of a build-up and drop, and it worked so freaking well I levitated.  Girl Talk was amazing.  I wish that guy still did festival sets and was just plugged into a slot at every ACL.  You know "Midnight City," it is far and away the biggest hit from this dude.  2011 song still getting airplay today.

Creepy ass video.  But the song has 879.6 million streams on Spotify (!!!), so it is up there in the streaming stratosphere.  The band is a French guy named Anthony Gonzalez (and used to also include another French guy named Nicolas Fromageau, who has the best French last name I've heard in the last ten minutes.  That name sounds like a beret-wearing stinky-cheese salesman if I've ever heard one.)

That song is from 2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, which is pretty cool for being kind of dreamy atmospheric synth pop mixed with dance tracks.  It is a kind of schizo album, in that many tracks are super chill and relaxing ("Splendor," for example) and then others get you all hyped up to jam out ("Ok Pal," for example).  It is a double-disc, for some reason, and so he could have left a song or three off of it, but it has a cool sound.  The other hit from the album, and his second most listened-to track on Spotify, is "Wait," which was used to high comedy in some commercial I saw where two kids were about to kiss.  Ah yes, this one.  310.5 million streams for the actual song.

I like that commercial.  Like most, I'd never heard of the band until this 2011 album, but it looks like they've been making music for a while.  2008's Saturdays = Youth, 2007's Digital Shades Vol. 1, 2005's Before the Dawn Heals Us, 2003's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, and 2001's M83.  Wikipedia shows that Saturdays = Youth was a breakout album for them, but I'm not feeling it much either.  It isn't bad, just kind of sounds like Cure b-sides covered by a stinky cheese purveyor.

The group is named after the galaxy M83, not the Soviet M-class submarine, the smoke grenade, the US copy of the German Butterfly bomb used in WW2, or the Michigan highway, all of which also share that name.

After those, 2014's You and the Night is an instrumental album that was apparently the soundtrack for a movie called Les Rencontres d'après minuit, which has the following plot, according to Wikipedia.  "Around midnight, a young couple and their transvestite maid prepare for an orgy. Their guests will be The Slut, The Teen, The Stud and The Star.  As each guest arrives they tell their story, most of them too fantastical to believe. Once the guests have shared their stories the hosts tell their story of immortality and a love that crosses death.  As the orgy begins fantasy and reality combine until the group is both watcher of and participant in their own liaisons."  Mmmmkay.  The soundtrack is fine, just atmospheric synth twiddling.

The next album, 2016's Junk, just does very little for me. Super 80's referential, with kind of a winking lean on outdated sounds in the midst of the synths and machine noises.  I just don't care for it.  I played "Do it, Try It" when I reviewed the album, so here is the other popular tune from this album, called "Go! (feat. Mai Lan)"

Pretty snappy little tune and all, I just still don't care about hearing it anymore.  In 2019, they released another album soundtrack, this one for something called Knife & Heart, which sounds like a lovely film.  The first line of the Wikipedia Plot is thus: "A young man dances in a nightclub. He spots a man wearing a leather mask and goes with him to a room to have sex. A black bird flies past him as he follows the masked man, who later ties him to a bed and kills him with a dildo containing a concealed, retractable blade."  Hoo boy.  After that you get 2019's DSVII and then 2023's Fantasy.  Neither of those albums boast much in the way of big songs - only one song cracks 4 million streams on either.  This is "Oceans Niagra," from that 2023 album.

That one gives me a little hope that this show wouldn't just be boring atmospherics and then "Midnight City."  It still isn't an amazing song or anything, but at least it isn't that soundtrack for the dildo murder movie.

So then where do I stand on seeing this one play live?  Hearing good things from people I trust about music makes me think that I should see the live show and experience the action in person.  Even if I know I won't listen to this music otherwise at home, maybe I'll just bite the bullet and go jam out in the crowd.  We'll see how the schedule shakes out.

Katzu Oso

One Liner: Bedroom-synth pop in both English and Spanish that I already can't remember and it is currently playing right now as I write this.

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but bedroom synth pop
Home:  L.A.

Poster Position: 30 (almost the bottom of the poster)
Weekend One Only. Saturday.

Thoughts: The stage name of Paul Hernandez, from L.A., this is some synth-y little dance pop stuff that sounds bedroom made.  He's shared stages with Cuco and Omar Apollo (checks out - bilingual bedroom pop makers unite!), but there really isn't a ton available about the dude online.  First song is from 2017, and after that he has two albums and one EP - 2018's Pastel , 2020's Colour, and 2022's Tmi (and the "i" there has a little accent over it).  Not a ton of streams for most songs, but a few crack a million.  The top track is a single that then made it onto the 2020 EP - "kiss u better" with 5.6 million streams.

Man, that house makes me feel claustrophobic.  I need some of those items on that table or on the shelves taken to Goodwill immediately.  His little synth thing is dope though.  Meh song - it is cute and sweet, but also feels super generic.  Like you know he made it at home by messing with some software for hours, and then wrote some generic love lyrics over the top.  (that sounds mean, he's way better than I could be, I just don't notice anything all that memorable or special here).

The top song from his new album has 405k streams, "Amor Estrano"

Oooh, he got to go outside for that one!  And he got some SWEET effects to add to the video!  That car blowing up was SICK!  He kind of looks like that actor who sticks his jaw out and reminds me of Sly Stallone.  Uh, Milo Ventimiglia!  There we go!  Like with the other Spanish-language artists on the poster, I have no clue what he is going on about, so all I am left with is a relatively lame little synth and guitar ditty.  Don't care for it.

No need to see this guy do it live.  I hope he has good luck with those mean people who want his girlfriend back.

Lido Pimienta

One Liner: Spanish language critical darling doing cumbia art-pop

Wikipedia Genre: Synthpop, Latin-American music, Art pop, Cumbia, Bullerengue
Home: Toronto (by way of Columbia)

Poster Position: 19
Both Weekends.  Saturday.

Thoughts:  I heard one of her albums a few years back because NPR named 2020's Miss Columbia as their #3 album of the year for 2020.  Which is a little whack - the top song now has 6 million streams.  I know that the best music doesn't necessarily get all of the streams (see Drake's dumb streaming counts), but at the same time you aren't the third best album of the year if people don't care to listen to you.

Her stage name is her real name, and she is Columbian/Canadian.  She won the Polaris Prize (goes to the best full-length Canadian album each year) in 2017 for La Papessa.  She was born in Columbia, but then immigrated to Canada.  She is currently based in Toronto.  Somehow, the Globe and Mail (a Canadian newspaper published in multiple cities) called her the future of Canadian rock and roll.  This is very distinctly NOT rock and roll.

But maybe this is: "There was controversy surrounding her performance at the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival on October 19, 2017. Pimienta, as she often does during her concerts, invited the "brown girls to the front" and asked that white people move back. Some white audience members saw the request as racist, and a white volunteer photographer refused to move from her spot near the stage. When the photographer refused to move after repeated requests, Pimienta said, "you're cutting into my set time and you're disrespecting these women, and I don't have time for this". The photographer was removed from the show and the festival organizers later apologized to Pimienta, saying they would increase "anti-oppression and anti-racism training"."  WTF man.  If I was close to the stage, because I'd been saving my spot for the Chili Peppers all day and peeing in bottles and achieving peak heatstroke, I'd be annoyed if she made me move back for my skin color.

The top track is from Miss Columbia, and is called "Nada."  I actually know what that means!  6.2 million streams.

Her voice is fantastic.  I just wish I knew what she was talking about.  Not feeling anything special on that track.  But, her voice, and the steel drums, on "Te Queria" sound freaking amazing.  Just a sweet vibe on that tune.  All of her more recent releases have been with other people, so I'll go back to the old school to give you one of those old songs from the first album.  This is "La Capacidad," with 538k streams.

Yeah, still a dope voice.  Almost like a freaky Bjork thing going on there.  But not my jam as far as the tunes go.