I honestly wasn’t sure I’d get to post a “Top 10 From The Bottom Half Of The Outside Lands Poster” post this year. Delta hit shortly after 2021 was announced, and I started getting scared. However, after Lollapalooza gave excellent data about music festival infections, and the Bottlerock showed EVEN BETTER DATA, I’m feeling pretty confident that SF’s premier music festival is going to be a safe and fun affair. So here are my personal picks for the Outside Lands undercard. The full line-up is here, as well as the schedule, so you can start making the hard decisions about who you are going to see. The fest runs from October 29th-31st.
Hinds
Hinds are more than our favorite band from the bottom half of the Outside Lands poster. They are our favorite band playing this year, end of story. Their off-kilter harmonies, infectious hooks, and passionate joy all remind me of something that sounds like it came out in 1975 on a tiny record label based in Barcelona and fell out of print quickly and now fetches $1,000 on Discogs whenever it shows up. BUT- they are a modern band that you can enjoy in the here and now!
The Hu
I mean, it’s Tuvan folk-metal. They bring together Mongolian throat singing, play on traditional Mongolian instruments, but amplified and electric and heavy as fuck.
mxmtoon
Bedroom pop is the genre that may have benefitted most from the pandemic. mxmtoon was already gearing up to break in 2020, with high-profile slots on Coachella and a sold-out club tour that was going to take her highly personal, uke-centered pop to the masses. Instead of resting on her laurels while waiting to hit the road again, she’s had a highly productive pandemic with a ton of great material coming out during her time stuck at home. The spotlight is now ready for her again, and it may have taken an extra 18 months to arrive; it’s well earned.
Yves Tumor and Its Band
Are you sad that you never got to see David Bowie live? Well, that’s not going to happen. But if you want to see a genius that bends both genre and gender that’s straight out of the Bowie playbook, Yves Tumor is for you. They are the next level that the glam innovators of the 70’s envisioned for the music of the 2020s.
The Soul Rebels
I appear on a corporate video that will never see the light of day where I play a bouncer that gets bribed with tickets to see The Soul Rebels to let someone into a conference. It didn’t work on the video. It would’ve worked in real life. Big horns, a little hip-hop, and all New Orleans love:
Caroline Polachek
Gen Y loves disco. We see it in Dua Lipa. We see it in Charli XCX. And we see it in Caroline Polachek, and she does it GREAT. Remember that it gets cold in October, so making sure you find music to dance to is vital. Polachek will make sure to get your heart rate up.
Remi Wolf
It’s no secret that the current crop of pop singers coming up owe a LOT to Gwen Stefani. There is no other voice that I hear getting emulated for than the legendary No Doubt leader. However, it feels like Remi Wolf is the only person influenced as much by the Stefani spirit as the style. Her aesthetic is bright and cheerful; her lyrics, however, come from a much more complex place emotionally. The darkness is there as well as the light. And, most importantly, she knows how to navigate through both.
Julia Jacklin
Julia Jacklin is an expert storyteller in the same school as Jenny Lewis and Tom Waits. She can paint a coherent picture with instantly relatable characters. This should be a stunner of a set that will convince you to buy a record and analyze the lyric sheet.
Resistance Revival Chorus
Gospel music has been the root of the most effective protest music for decades. Resistance Revival Chorus is a group of as many as 60 non-binary and female-identifying singers who are bringing the gospel of the protest song into the 21st century. And there certainly is a deep need for this right now.
Cam
What?!? The tiny East Bay town of Lafayette, CA, is the home of one of modern country’s hottest rising star? Do we even have a country radio station out here? AND SHE’S REALLY GOOD?!?!? It’s true!
Buscabella
What?!? TWO ACTS ON THIS LIST THAT DON’T PERFORM IN ENGLISH?!?! Yup. Puerto Rico’s Buscabella makes sexy Latin groove music in Spanish. Perfect for, well, when you need some gentle Latinx rhythms to get down to during the fest.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Both Neil Frances and Neal Francis are playing on Sunday. Just in case you were wondering if the folks that program Outside Lands were into creating chaos, there you go.
