Car Seat Headrest kicked off their 2019 US Tour with a new song called “Can’t Cool Me Down” and you certainly can not cool them down! The band is touring in promotion of the remastered version of their 2011 underground hit Twin Fantasy. Car Seat Headrest originally started as a solo project by frontman Will Toledo when he was in high school. Toledo released over ten albums on Bandcamp before being signed to Matador Records in 2015. In their initial contract with Matador, Toledo included a stipulation to have a chance to re-record Twin Fantasy in a studio setting. Years later, Toledo got his dream and we got to hear a higher fidelity version of the original cult hit.

Seattle natives Naked Giants opened, playing a mix of songs from their debut album SLUFF and their ep Green Fuzz. Naked Giants were an enthusiastic bunch and warmed the crowd up with psychedelic-inspired songs like Everybody Thinks They Know (But No One Really Knows) and Sluff. This was my first time listening to the band and I really liked them and would recommend checking out their music. It is definitely for fans of Car Seat Headrest and more psychedelic music like Tame Impala and King Gizzard.

Car Seat Headrest’s show included many favorites from Twin Fantasy  as well as other hits from their previous albums including Maud Gone and America (Never Been). Can’t Cool Me Down, which was debuted for the first time, was the perfect opener because it started off slow but quickly got the audience going and dancing. We were even lucky to be teased with some new music which is a slight departure from their current discography but definitely moving in a similar direction and the crowd loved it. The highlight of the night was the complete 14 minutes of Beach Life-In-Death which served as the encore. Toledo poured all of his emotion throughout the show but especially into this final performance. Besides the music, the visuals of the show were spectacular. The songs were synchronized with the lights which matched the intensity and energy of the room. Lights of every color were splashed against the stage, which sometimes provided a nice juxtaposition to the darker lyrics of some songs.

As a dedicated fan, I really enjoyed the show and the band’s performance. I think more casual listeners or people unfamiliar with the Car Seat’s work would still be able to dance, mosh and, yell with the audience too. I don’t get to go to shows too often but next time Car Seat Headrest is in town; drop everything and get a ticket to see them!

Here's the tracklist:

Esteman · Daniela Spalla - Amantes Joy Crookes - When You Were Mine Froukje · S10 - Zonder Gezicht A Box of Stars - Frankie is Alive Hippo Campus · Jake Luppen · Zach Sutton · Nathan Stocker · Whistler Allen - No Poms (Demo) Aimee Mann - Lost In Space Noso - Allie Lupin · Jake Luppen - NZ Vit Päls - Mina moves (Edit 2013) Kate Bush - Cloudbusting Miya Folick - Felicity Oh Pep! - What's The Deal With David? Katie Gavin - Sanitized Noah Kahan - Homesick

Listen to ali :) - Wednesday @ 8:00PM on WZLY 91.5 FM Wellsley! She's your favourite radio dj's favourite radio dj 🍊

Seeing Junglepussy live convinced us, above all, of one thing: she is a prophet. We had previously listened to her music and were impressed by her confident references to her own sexuality, but attending her live performance showed her in an even more phenomenal light. Junglepussy loves herself, and it’s obvious. She tells us. She also loves her fans, and in between songs preaches messages about confidence and self-love. Seeing her run around on stage, dance freely, and make some frankly hilarious faces showed just how much the power of positivity could elevate someone’s self-expression.

Her opening acts burst with the same confidence in self and sexuality. The first opener, Hopeadope, filled the room with her bubbly energy. She wore a unicorn horn, talked with audience members while on stage, and pulled people up from the crowd to dance with her. She danced, it seemed, not to perform but just to have fun. Fun was a theme of the whole concert -- relaxing, dancing, singing, and having the time of your life. After Hopeadope finished her act, she weaved through the floor, distributing stickers and compliments. She was followed by Brandie Blaze, a woman overwhelmingly proud of her queerness and blackness. A local Boston hip hop artist, she flooded the room with her confidence.

Junglepussy’s music delivered a similar message to every other aspect of the show: one of independence, self-love, and self-knowledge. She knew exactly how to engage the audience with this message, singing to us and with us, and demanding our attention. Pretty much every one of her song contains the word “pussy,” and, in this same vein, pretty much every song is an ode to owning, caring for, and proudly displaying one’s body. Her songs also embrace her black womanhood. She talks about the ways in which she’s been mistreated, but recenters the focus around the idea that her awareness of her mistreatment comes from her knowledge of her own worth.

Junglepussy had us dancing, singing, laughing, and reflecting. Her performance was fun and uplifting, and we think that she’s a powerful black female artist on the rise.

For those of you new to Kali Uchis’ crowd, Uchis is a 24 year old Colombian-American singer who has spent the last 6 years living in California. Isolation is her first “proper” album, although she has released both a mixtape (Drunken Babble, 2012) and an EP (Por Vida, 2015). Uchis has been compared to Billie Holiday as well as Amy Winehouse (and Uchis actually worked with Wayne Gordon of the Daptone House of Soul in Brooklyn, which is where Amy Winehouse made a lot of songs). Isolation is an introspective album, full of self reflection that displays how much work and thought Uchis put into this album.

“Body Language” is the opening track, with the sounds of breezes and laid back hints of jazz. Each song has its own distinct sound and feeling, but yet it is still a very cohesive album. A personal favorite of mine is “Miami.” Uchis sings “But why I could be Kim, I could be Kanye” which stuck out to me the first time I heard the track. Uchis talked about this line in an interview with Pitchfork, where she said that she’s “a woman who knows what [she] want[s] out of life and feels very perfectionist about things, the way Kanye does.” As a female listener, I am always looking for empowering female singers and Uchis is certainly that. Another important track on the album is “Your Teeth in My Neck” where Uchis comments on capitalism and how the rich just keep getting more wealthy while so many others are barely scraping by. Uchis perfectly integrates the personal with the political. Overall, this album is a rich, complex work that deserves a thorough listen. Some tracks you should not miss are “Just A Stranger,” “Flight 22,” and “Tyrant.” For further reading on the album, I highly recommend her interview with Pitchfork where Uchis goes through every song on the album (linked below).

-Anna Morgan ‘21

https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/kali-uchis-breaks-down-every-song-on-her-debut-album-isolation/

I’m trying to write this article, and there aren’t a lot of words that could accurately capture the experience of going to one of Superorganism’s shows. When Superorganism performed at Brighton Music Hall on April 1, 2018, I didn’t know what to expect. Their music is full of distorted voices and quirky synth, and I wasn’t sure how this would translate to a live performance.

Much like the nature of their band, the show was unlike any I had seen before. It was meticulously choreographed between the eight members Orono Noguchi, Emily, Harry, Tucan, Robert Strange, Ruby, B, and Soul. Noguchi, the lead singer, is only seventeen years old but had the vocal talent and commanding stage presence of a seasoned performer–if Noguchi told you to headbang, you headbanged. If she told you to put your hands in the air, you put your hands in the air. Her compelling presence in conjunction with animations of blue whales and woodsy scenes projected onto the stage made for a performance that overstimulated all of my senses in the best ways possible.

Their talent as a collective is undeniable. They worked the crowd and made it one of the most exciting and creative shows I’ve ever been to. Their music is fun. It makes people want to dance, and it makes people want to keep listening. I look forward to seeing what Superorganism has in store for us in the future.

Check out more of their work:

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