Take a listen
Yes, it’s going to be hot out there this weekend, but here are 10 acts that should make it worth the burn
Typically scheduled near the end of the long, hot summer festival season, FYF Fest can be a tough sell every year for music fans who’ve spent the previous several months watching bands while standing under a broiling sun. ¶ That said, the lineup for the latest edition — set for Saturday and Sunday at Exposition Park — is a strong one, with plenty of diverse acts worthy of (whatever’s left of) your attention, including the inimitable Grace Jones, the inscrutable Father John Misty and the inevitable LCD Soundsystem. ¶ Here are 10 others to catch this weekend:
Julien Baker
As festivals go, FYF is usually extremely loud: incendiary hip-hop, thrashing punk and glamorously out-there dance music. Baker is probably going to be the quietest act on the bill this year, but maybe one of its most commanding — just a voice and guitar and tales from the edges of queer Southern heartbreak. And in the year since her debut “Sprained Ankle” came out, she’s only gotten more powerful onstage.
The Black Madonna
One of the most important conversations going on in nightlife right now is centered around 1) how to get more women and non-binary people behind the decks and behind the scenes in club music, and 2) how to stop awful dudes from ruining it for the rest of us. The Black Madonna is doing both right now, as one of contemporary techno’s most exciting producers and one of the scene’s most vocal advocates for female performers and fans.
Blood Orange
“Freetown Sound,” the latest record by Dev Hynes’ arty New Yorkbased outfit, is an impressive balancing act, with clear-eyed assessments of social injustice set against lush, openly romantic R&B that never sacrifices its danceability.
Grimes
This gear-loving electro-punk auteur made strides toward pure pop with last year’s “Art Angels” album, as in the breezy “California” and “Flesh Without Blood,” which suggests a noisier (and more gore-obsessed) Katy Perry. In concert, though, Grimes emphasizes her love of speed and volume — and reminds you that hooks can be weapons too.
Head Wound City
A post-hardcore supergroup featuring members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Locust and the Blood Brothers (which reunited to play FYF in 2014), Head Wound City should please old-school types who miss the days when this festival put punk before all else. And as for fans of the dippy singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco — who is also on this year’s bill — Head Wound City probably won’t please them at all. Honey Soundsystem
It might be fair for us down here in SoCal to assume that the freaks have given up on San Francisco in its slide toward becoming the city equivalent of Soylent (white, expensive and existentially unnerving). You’d be wrong, at least on account of Honey Soundsystem, the great DJ crew who is just about the last holdout on the peninsula still keeping the flame for the city’s legacy of sexy, hairy, masterful modern disco. It runs no less than three killer record labels too — anything from Dark Entries will make your after-parties at least 40% more handsy.
Kamaiyah
Oakland is ground zero for the nation’s gentrification debate, but this young MC represents the city’s best possible future. On “A Good Night in the Ghetto,” she riffs on all the best sounds from her formative years (Aaliyah, Death Row Records, Missy Elliott) with a style that’s smart but not didactic. It’s a bawdy and partyready record, but one always complicated by thicker feelings and ambitions.
Kendrick Lamar
The most celebrated rapper in Los Angeles, Lamar has popped up recently on records by Beyoncé, Kanye West and Taylor Swift. But to many fans he’s still riding high on his landmark 2015 album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” which drew on decades of soul, funk and R&B to tell a stark yet optimistic story about black life in America right now. Expect to hear highlights like “Alright” and “King Kunta” — and perhaps to see a hometown pal or two drop by.
Rae Sremmurd
The Southern hip-hop duo just released its fine sophomore album, “SremmLife 2,” on which brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi expand ever so slightly on their rowdy clubrap sound. Come for the tunes about partying and wearing leather pants; stay for the one about their love of women who do yoga.
Saves the Day
Is the emo revival a genuine reconsideration of a long-maligned genre, or just early-thirtysomethings having a last gasp of teenage feeling before home ownership and PTA palace intrigue? Whatever the case, Saves the Day’s 2001 “Stay What You Are” is an undisputed genre classic, and holds up well as a songwriterly record from pop-punkers figuring out a more meaningful sound.