OctFest 2018 Preview

Music website Pitchfork and beer website october team up to bring OctFest to Brooklyn, with music & beer. Yes, it’s in September (8th & 9th), because we American are...
Octfest

OctFest 2018 Preview

Music website Pitchfork and beer website october team up to bring OctFest to Governors Island, with music & beer. Yes, it’s in September (8th & 9th), because we American are too impatient:

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th

Vince Staples, 9:00 PM, Skyline Stage

OctFest got a choice lyricist in Vince Staples (QRO photos at a festival). The Long Beach native first came up with others, such as in the group Cutthroat Boyz and in association with Odd Future (QRO live review), but has since made a name all his own (QRO photos at a festival), most recently with last year’s sophomore album Big Fish Theory.
Vince Staples
Jeff Tweedy, 8:00 PM, Island Stage

One of the biggest & best names in alt-country thanks to his work fronting maybe the biggest & best bands in alt-country, Wilco (QRO live review), Jeff Tweedy’s (QRO photos at a festival) done some fine work outside of the Wilco juggernaut as well, such as teaming up with Stax Records legend Mavis Staples (even playing The Daily Show/The Colbert Report’s ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ with her). In 2014 he teamed up with his son as Tweedy for Sukierae, and last year did his first full-on solo record, Together at Last. So look for Wilco & much more as he raises a glass (hopefully the beer won’t run out like at some Wilco shows – QRO live review).
Jeff Tweedy
NAO, 7:15 PM, Skyline Stage

East London’s NAO takes soul and combines it with electronics, funk, R&B, and more.
NAO
Saba, 6:30 PM, Island Stage

Chicago’s Saba first got notice with his verse in Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap mixtape, as well as collaborating together on “Angels”, he’s since put out two studio full-lengths, most recently this year’s Care for Me.
Saba
Preoccupations, 5:45 PM, Skyline Stage

Containing half of Calgary’s defunct Women (QRO photos at a festival), Preoccupations, the band formerly known as Viet Cong (QRO photos at a festival) bring a “labyrinthine post-punk” to OctFest, behind this year’s aptly titled New Material.
Preoccupations
Also:

Vagabon, 5:00 PM, Island StageQRO photos at a festival

Standing on the Corner, 4:15 PM, Skyline Stage

Hatchie, 3:30 PM, Island Stage

Flasher, 3:30 PM, Skyline Stage

Madison McFerrin, 2:30 PM, Island Stage
Vagabon

 

 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th

The Flaming Lips, 8:45 PM, Skyline Stage

There’s a good reason The Flaming Lips (QRO photos at a festival) have been so popular for so long on the festival circuit (QRO photos at a festival), as there is no live show out there like a Flaming Lips live show (QRO live review). Confetti cannons, costumes, video screens, balloons from the sky, puppets, singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne (QRO interview) surfing the crowd in a giant plastic bubble – The Lips have it all (QRO photos), and expect them to take it even higher (QRO photos at a festival) as they play their umpteenth festival (QRO photos at a festival).

Oh, and they’ve got some great music, too, from early nineties hit “She Don’t Use Jelly” to seminal The Soft Bulletin (QRO photos from top-to-bottom performance, at a festival), as well as 2006’s Grammy Award-winning At War With the Mystics (even put out a movie, Christmas On MarsQRO review), and 2009’s Embryonic (QRO review), 2013’s The Terror (QRO review), and last year’s Oczy Mlody (QRO review). Plus they (QRO spotlight on) appeared in an issue of X-Men, headlined both The Colbert Report’s ‘Pepsi Presents StePhest ColbChella ‘012 Rocktaugustfest’ (QRO photos) and Amnesty International’s ‘Bring Human Rights Home’ event (QRO recap). They’re perfect to headline OctFest (QRO photos headlining a festival), where one can expect it to get a little weird (QRO live review).
The Flaming Lips
Yo La Tengo, 7:45 PM, Island Stage

There are precious few alt-rock bands with as wide a discography to choose from for fans that Hoboken, New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo (QRO photos outdoors), like their umpteenth new releases, 2009’s Popular Songs (QRO review) and 2013’s Fade (QRO review), 2015’s Stuff Like That There (QRO review), and this year’s There’s a Riot Going On (QRO review). The trio (QRO photos at a festival) of singer/guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer (and wife) Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew (QRO photos outdoors) has been making critically acclaimed music for song long now that it’s hard to think of a time when they weren’t (QRO photos at a festival). Their live show (QRO live review) has always featured some audience requests, from a very knowledgeable crowd (QRO live review). Maxwell’s (QRO venue review) might be gone, but Yo La Tengo are very much here (QRO live review in New York)!
Yo La Tengo
Nile Rodgers & CHIC, 6:45 PM, Skyline Stage

Nile Rodgers has had one of the most impressive & extensive music histories out there. He worked in the house band for the famed Apollo Theater (QRO venue review). He toured with the Sesame Street band. And then he was part of CHIC, who gave the world “Le Freak”; CHIC was even sampled in The Sugarhill Gang’s genre-creating “Rapper’s Delight”. Rodgers then was part of everything from “We Are Family”, David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, Madonna’s Like a Virgin, The B-52’s Cosmic Thing, even the soundtrack to The Beavis and Butt-head Experience (co-writing “Come to Butt-head”). More recently, he was part of Daft Punk’s chart-topping disco revival Random Access Memories (QRO review).

Oh, and he’s revived CHIC (QRO photos at a festival) – because you can’t keep a good Freak down. Freak out!
Nile Rodgers & CHIC
Hop Along, 5:45 PM, Island Stage

From the folk-rock side of the City of Brotherly Love is Hop Along (QRO photos at a festival).
Hop Along
Girlpool, 5:15 PM, Skyline Stage

Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad form guitar-and-bass duo Girlpool (QRO photos at a festival), who come to OctFest after the release of last year’s sophomore record, Powerplant.
Girlpool
No Age, 4:20 PM, Island Stage

L.A.’s young guitar & drums duo of Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt (QRO photos at a Los Angeles festival) blew up very quickly as No Age since 2008’s Nouns (QRO review), including joining Dan Deacon & Deerhunter on the 2009 ‘Round Robin’ tour (QRO live review) & a controversial appearance on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. While their nascent ‘shitgaze’ style was stillborn – 2010’s Everything In Between (QRO review) didn’t stand out, and 2013’s An Object (QRO review) put the nail in the coffin – they revived themselves with this year’s Snares like a Haircut (QRO review). The punk rock of such tracks as “Eraser” (QRO video), “Teen Creeps” (QRO video) and “Ripped Knees” (QRO video) plays fast, but look out for a beer-fueled crowd to go nuts (QRO live review), as the band comes to OctFest (QRO photos at a festival).
No Age
Kamaiyah, 4:15 PM, Skyline Stage

Oakland rapper Kamaiyah (QRO photos) got notice last year for performing alongside Drake on YG’s single “Why You Always Hatin?”. She comes to OctFest behind last year’s sophomore mixtape Before I Wake.
Kamaiyah
Also:

Shopping, 3:15 PM, Island StageQRO photos at a festival

Julie Byrne, 2:45 PM, Skyline Stage
Shopping

 

 

For festival website, go here: http://octfest.co/p/1

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