Primavera Sound LA: Who to See + Playlist
Barcelona-originating festival Primavera Sound is making its way across the Atlantic. Coming to LA for the first time, the event will take place at the city’s Historic State Park from September 16th to the 18th. The festival features a healthy mix of pop superstars, cult favorites, and nostalgic indie groups. Here are the acts that you shouldn’t miss.
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Friday, 9/16:
PinkPanthress is in the early stages of pop stardom. Her single “Pain” is a full one minute and thirty seconds of glitchy, electronic bliss and the song “Picture in my mind” and its accompanying music video are mandatory viewing. She is one of a growing number of Garageband-using DIY musicians who got famous on TikTok, then managed to parlay their internet fame into real-world success (although the line between the two is increasingly blurred). She plays at 5pm.
Tim Hecker’s surreal, pulsing soundscapes are also worth checking out. Breaking from common western rhythmic structures, his recent work came from collaboration with members of the gagaku ensemble outside of Tokyo. Hecker is on from 3:30 to 4:15pm.
Nick Rattigan is a part of two bands performing over the weekend: Surf Curse and Current Joys. Current Joys are playing on Friday, and they should not be missed. Rattigan sings at a Springsteen-like emotional register that is intertwined with modern indie rock sensibilities. Current Joys’ music contains occasional orchestral swells as well as guitar freak-outs, and their most recent album Voyager carries on the melancholic grandeur that he is known for. The band comes on at 8:15pm.
Giveon, Clairo, and Mitski will take over during the evening as Lorde headlines the night. For many people I know, Clairo acts as a teleportation machine to late high school, when “bedroom pop” had barely entered the collective vocabulary.
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Saturday, 9/17:
Saturday features rock in all its varied modernity.
Special Interest take stage at 1:50pm; they’re a compelling mix of electronic, punk, and new wave, generating a loud and angsty sound. Fontaines D.C is an Irish outfit with an anger-bordering-sinister mood, quite a detour for a group who claimed to start out by “copying The Strokes”; they play at 6pm.
There’s also plenty of music that feels completely modern. Paloma Mami’s slick reggaeton comes on at 3:45pm. Drain Gang, a Swedish rap group, is on at 6, whining bars over ridiculously loud 808s and video game sound effects. Jungle/rave duo Machine Girl create a sound that feels as though it emerged from the darkest corners of the internet - they are on at 2:20pm.
Surf Curse, the other band of the prolific Nick Rattigan, is pure indie garage rock. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth is set to perform some solo material that feels quite a bit like Sonic Youth before Nine Inch Nails end the night.
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Sunday, 9/18:
The last day is full of very exciting music.
Faye Webster and girl in red bring their own take to indie music, and they are very worth checking out. Webster, playing at 3:45pm, has a pretty, polished rock sound that selectively draws from both country and orchestral music. Girl in red is more lo-fi, reaching emotional highs through a staticky buzz. She plays at 6:45pm.
It makes sense that Cigarettes After Sex and Arca would play at the same time on different stages, because they couldn’t be more different… I am hoping to catch some of both. The Venezuelan artist Arca is on at 7:45pm. She is in the category of self-produced, internet musicians who generate an otherworldly pop persona, and she takes it to another level. Her sound is abrasive and harsh, yet somehow very danceable. Cigarettes After Sex plays at 7:30pm. They have a sultry, electric guitar-driven sound that is highly melancholic and quite pretty.
Arctic Monkeys close out the night; their last album, Tranquility Base Hotel, successfully pivoted from garage pop to arty, piano ballad rock. Their newest single, “There Better Be a Mirrorball” has been released in anticipation of the next record, The Car, and successfully furthers their new sound. They are on at 8:30pm.
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Get your tickets for Primavera Sound LA here.
Listen to Matthew’s recommendations of who to catch at Primavera Sound LA here: