San Francisco – Day 2 Outside Lands is coming up. Hopefully, you’ll get there early enough to enjoy the food, the wine and the general ambience created by 60,000 or so of your fellow music crazies. Before you wonder off to claim your place for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers or Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, here are some of the new bands on the bill that are definitely worth your time.
Jagwar Ma
Twin Peaks Stage, 2:05-2:55 PM - For fans of: Tame Impala, Cut Copy, The Chemical Brothers, The Kinks
Fact: Australians make incredible music. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s something in the water, or maybe it’s the basketball-sized spiders that lurk in corners and eat birds…I don’t know. Jagwar Ma is no exception to the rule: their 2013 debut Howlin’ was easily one of my top three from last year, as their laidback, psychedelic sounds mix SO WELL with the underlying, churning dance beats that are just up-tempo enough to get you on your feet. Each song feels like an odyssey; each one washes over you like a warm breeze as you drive down a lush highway on a summer evening. They even threw some classic British Invasion guitar parts in there to keep you on your toes. This is definitely a show NOT to miss. I can’t wait to hear them outdoors.
Trails And Ways
Twin Peaks Stage, 12:40-1:25 PM - For fans of: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Lorde, Depeche Mode
Photo by Stewart Tomassian of Factual Photography
A self-described “cooperative house” quartet—hailing from nearby Oakland—Trails And Ways released their Trilingual EP last year, combining playful electronica with cascading guitar melodies and dreamy communal vocal contribution. Their instrumentation is a expertly executed balancing act, weighing out traditional analog orchestration with catchy digitally-engineered hooks, and the fact that everybody sings rounds this act to a nearly perfect equilibrium. This band just came off a brief stint on the road with Wisconsin buzz band PHOX, and is a local favorite, and looks to further the Bay Area’s reputation for producing inventive, talented musicians as their inevitably promising career is only just beginning.
Duck Sauce
Twin Peaks Stage, 6:55-7:55 PM - For fans of: Chromeo, Basement Jaxx, Diplo
OOO-WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO-WEH-OOO-OOO-WEH-OOO-OOO-OOO. So goes the hooky chorus to Duck Sauce’s hit track “Barbra Streisand,” the track that landed this demi-superduo—consisting of popular EDM artists A-Trak and Armand Van Helden—on the map back in 2010. These two DJ masterminds teamed up in 2009, and have since released a handful of EPs, several singles, and one proper LP, this year’s Quack album. Having seen them on Holy Ship!!! this past January, I can guarantee that this show will be one of the hottest spots at the festival, as their seamless set consisting of their own material and other EDM favorites make for one hell of a dance party.
Top Photo: Holy Ghost! – From Outside Lands Website – Uncredited
Corey Bell
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