20 Bands to Catch at Governor’s Ball This Weekend
By now you are probably well aware that Kanye West, Death Cab For Cutie, The Strokes, and The Killers are playing this year’s Governor’s Ball. That’s awesome! But there are plenty of other mid-level and even emerging bands who are on the packed bill this year, there’s even some other superstars you might have missed in all the tumult. For instance, did you know Robyn is playing the festival? That’s Robyn, as in Robyn. Use this handy guide to make sure you don’t miss any other acts you’re dying to see, and to confirm which of the acts you haven’t seen yet are worth checking out while you’re traipsing around the island this year.
Boogie
Day & Stage: Friday @ Bacardi House Stage
Set Time: 2:15 – 3:00 p.m.
It wouldn’t be Governors’ Ball without a set from an up-and-coming rapper. With two excellent mixtapes and an Interscope contract under his belt, Long Beach’s Boogie is poised to have a big 2016. Be sure to get aquainted Friday afternoon on the Bacardi Stage.
Public Access TV
Day & Stage: Friday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
Public Access T.V. are a New York-based band fronted by John Eatherly, known to most as a member of Be Your Own Pet. Like the beloved, now-disbanded garage outfit, Eartherly’s current band takes ample, pointed cues from ‘70s punk (unsurprising, considering a press release’s description of his mounting frustration with the “boring and played out Manhattan music scene”). Accordingly, Public Access T.V.’s playbook takes the accessible with the aggressive, bringing to mind another group of fed-up New Yorkers who similarly sought to Make New York Rock Great Again. (They just so happen to be headlining the festival the very same day!)
Father John Misty
Day & Stage: Friday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 5:45 – 6:45 p.m.
Former Fleet Fox Josh Tillman’s work as Father John Misty is all about cheese. Between the melodramatic ballads referencing blow-up dolls and the snarky Taylor Swift parodies, it’s easy to write off his act as the over-indulgent ramblings of a morally-tenuous lothario. Don’t fall for the trolling: Tillman’s satiric banter just another part of his performance strategy, along with surprise covers, glistening solos, and on the odd occasion, crowd surfing.
Robyn
Day & Stage: Friday @ Honda Stage
Set Time: 9:15 – 10:00 p.m.
Nothing against the Strokes, but you haven’t lived until you’ve howled the lyrics to “Dancing On My Own” into the summer night surrounded by thousands of your fellow human beings. Talk about cathartic.
Holly Miranda
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Honda Stage
Set Time: 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.
Singer-songwriter Holly Miranda specializes in hushed, piano-driven soul, striking some as an odd bet for a huge festival like Governors’ Ball. The Williamsburg-based performer is known for peddling intimacy, most recently on last year’s self-titled LP–and yet her steadily-expanding discography (as both a solo artist and a member of the Jealous Girlfriends) and collaborations with Karen O and TV on the Radio producer Dave Sitek point to a rock star on the rise. Unexpected setting or not, this is one set you won’t want to miss.
Nothing
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
There aren’t any extreme acts scheduled to play this year’s Governors’ Ball lineup, but fear not, headbangers: San Francisco’s NOTHING have got you covered where heaviness is concerned. While their crunchy shoegaze anthems may sound catchy, they’re informed by a hardcore menace that makes their pop sound downright threatening–and all the more alluring.
Bully
Day & Stage: Friday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 2:15 – 3:00 p.m.
Bully learned their lessons in loudness from the best. Before founding the band in Nashville, frontwoman Alicia Bognanno worked as an audio engineer, including an early gig interlining at a studio run by Big Black mastermind and producer extraordinaire Steve Albini. Bully’s gritty pop-punk quickly earned the attention of Columbia, who released the quartet’s infectious debut last year.
Haim
Day & Stage: Saturday @ GOVBALLNYC Stage
Set Time: 6:45 – 8:00 p.m.
The sisters HAIM are hitting New York right in the middle of the sessions for their follow-up to 2013’s buzzworthy debut Days Are Gone. Along with “The Wire,” “If I Could Change Your Mind,” and other breezy hits, keep your ears open for some never-before-heard tunes from the talented trio.
Purity Ring
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Bacardi House Stage
Set Time: 8:15 – 9:15 p.m.
Break out the witch hats and salt crystals: Canada’s spookiest, most loquacious pop duo are bringing their dark magic to Randall’s Park Island. This is peak goth, people.
Bat For Lashes
Day & Stage: Sunday @ Bacardi House Stage
Set Time: 1:55 – 2:40 p.m.
A month before dropping her much-anticipated album The Bride, Natasha Khan takes the Bacardi House Stage for 45 minutes of baroque-pop bliss. Her set will feature a host of cuts from the upcoming record, along with highlights from her enthralling, decade-spanning discography.
M83
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Honda Stage
Set Time: 9:15 – 11:00 p.m.
M83’s new stage show is rocking a serious Back to the Future vibe–and can you blame them? Junk, this year’s effort from Anthony Gonzalez and company, marks one of the most passionate musical love letters to the ‘80s in recent memory, right down to the mandatory Steve Vai guitar solo. Expect to hear charmingly-kitschy standouts from the LP like “Go!” and “Do It, Try It,” along with the classic “Midnight City.”
Day Wave
Day & Stage: Sunday @ Bacardi House Stage
Set Time: 12:25 – 1:10 p.m.
Who knew that a medical emergency could lead to a stint at Governors’ Ball? After moving to the Bay area to begin a career in music, Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist Jackson Phillips experienced an averse reaction to an antibiotic prescribed to treat a sinus infection. Instead of moping, he turned his focus to composing, and his band Day Wave was born. Two years later, Phillips and company have a handful of singles and an EP to their name, and have hit the road with Blonde Redhead and Two Door Cinema Club. What a sick blessing in disguise.
Vince Staples
Day & Stage: Sunday @ Honda Stage
Set Time: 2:40 – 3:25 p.m.
Vince Staples hasn’t lost an ounce of momentum since dropping his excellent debut Summertime ‘06 a little over a year ago. Don’t let the bass-heavy beats and wise-cracks of jams like “Loca” and “Blue Suede” fool you: this rapper’s got a lot more than hooks on his mind. Inspired by Staples’ experiences growing up in Long Beach, California, his rhymes convey grim tales of police brutality, teen pregnancy, and drug addiction. Make no mistake–Sunday’s Honda Stage set’s a guaranteed highlight of weekend, not to mention Gov Ball’s most woke moment.
Thundercat
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Bacardi House Stage
Set Time: 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
As one of the most talented bassists in music right now, it’s safe to assume that Thundercat’s Bacardi House Stage set will offer the best grooves of the weekend. Jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk, rock: Stephen Bruner does it all, hopping between genres as deftly as he does the frets on his bass.
Gary Clark Jr.
Day & Stage: Sunday @ Honda Stage
Set Time: 6:50 – 8:00 p.m.
Gary Clark Jr’s kind of a big deal. He’s performed at the White House (alongside B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and other legends, no less), cut tracks with Alicia Keys and the Foo Fighters, and opened up several stadium gigs for the Rolling Stones. Expect no mercy when the Austin bluesman plugs in on the Honda Stage Sunday night–this guy takes his riffs very, very seriously.
Marian Hill
Day & Stage: Saturday @ GOVBALLNYC Stage
Set Time: 1:30 – 2:15 p.m.
Producers Jeremy Lloyd and Samantha Gongol met in high school and have been artistic partners ever since. As Marian Hill, the duo churn out eclectic R&B tunes with an improv twist. Unlike the formalistic approach favored by peers like Wet and the xx, Marian Hill operate as an off—kilter unit; 2015’s Sway EP stunned audiences with a jazzy stream-of-consciousness courtesy of instrumentalist Steve Davit. As the release of the duo’s debut LP ACT ONE draws ever closer, attendees should anticipate new music from Marian Hill to go along with their typical trickery.
Jon Bellion
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 2:15 – 3:00 p.m.
If you know Eminem’s smash hit “The Monster,” then you know Jon Bellion. (At least, you should–he wrote its chorus, which is pretty much the only thing the track has going for it.) Five years after getting into music, the New York native’s finally getting recognized as a rapper, snagging feature spots on tracks by Zedd and B.O.B. and plotting a full-length debut, The Human Condition, out June 10. His influences include Kanye, André 3000, and… Coldplay. Now that’ll be interesting.
Lord Huron
Day & Stage: Saturday @ GOVBALLNYC Stage
Set Time: 4:45 – 5:45 p.m.
A little over a year after dropping their sophomore album Strange Trails, Michigan-bred, Los Angeles-born folk outfit Lord Huron are bringing their campfire songs to New York’s premiere festival. Consider it a nice, chill alternative to Mac Miller’s stoner-bro rager, which is set to go down on the Island at the same time Saturday afternoon.
De La Soul
Day & Stage: Saturday @ Big Apple Stage
Set Time: 5:45 – 6:45 p.m.
De La Soul been around for nearly three decades, with no signs of quitting–and thank God for that. While generations of imitators keep trying (and failing) to xerox the trio’s signatures (quirky wordplay, eccentric samples, jazzy arrangements), Posdnuous, Dave, and Maseo are putting the finishing touches on their star-studded ninth album And the Anonymous Nobody, due out in August. Get ready for “Potholes in My Lawn” (and maybe, some potheads in the crowd).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQ
