Thursday:

Rachel Kushner (6:00 PM) & Kim Gordon (8:45 PM)

Kim Gordon will be coming to Mission Creek Festival on Thursday April 3rd, with two events. Her first performance will be at 6:00 PM at Hancher Auditorium. She will be coming to conduct an interview with Rachel Kushner, who is an author of many different novels and essay collections.  

Kushner is on a reading tour for her newest book Creation Lake. It’s a fiction work focused on a secret agent who is sent on a mission in London. The book was also long listed for the 2024 Booker prize. She is considered to be one of the biggest rising writers at this time. Rachel Kushner’s books are written with thrilling narratives and heart racing action that keeps readers enthralled. The use of heavy characterization is also employed throughout many of her stories. She has been praised for her use of the characters telling their own stories and how it differs from the traditional style of having them live through current moments. 

Kim Gordon’s second event of the night is performing with her band live at the Hancher at 8:45 PM. This was a last-minute change-up after previous headliners Julien Baker & Torres had to drop from the festival. Gordon is a music icon from her work with Sonic Youth that put her on the map, to her solo work that has continued to amaze, and her work as a music critic. Her solo work often has a very experimental sound to it that intrigues and amazes listeners. She released her second studio album The Collector in March of last year to wide critical acclaim. The album blends hip-hop, trap, dub, and many other genres. An all-time generational talent comes this year for Mission Creek. 

-Will Clair, News Staff

Friday:

Nat Baldwin (7:30 PM Riverside Theater)

Nat Baldwin is a New Hampshire born musician, improviser, and founder of the experimental music label Tripticks Tapes. He has led a storied and successful music career for over 21 years. A disciple of avant-garde jazz legend Anthony Braxton, Baldwin has trained amidst the best in his field to distinguish himself as a modern virtuoso of the electric and double bass. He has put out numerous solo records heavily featuring his performance on said instruments, along with a rousing demonstration of his compositional skills.  

Besides his rich solo career, Baldwin was additionally a longstanding band member of the indie darlings Dirty Projectors, wherein besides playing bass, he also served as a songwriter. Despite being a veteran in the industry, Baldwin hasn’t strayed from his avant-garde roots. In recent years he has released several free improvisational projects, the most recent of which being 01.30.22, a collaboration with fellow artist Stella Silbert, released in (as the title suggests) 2022. Baldwin’s performance is undoubtedly one you don’t want to miss. 

-Evan Raefield, Training Director

Mabe Fratti (8:00 PM Englert Theater)

Combining improvisational jazz and avant-garde experimental music with tinges of rock, Mexico City based artist Mabe Fratti is not to be missed on your Mission Creek Festival schedule for Friday night. About a year ago, KRUI received a promo for Sentir que no sabes, Fratti’s most recent project, and I was instantaneously captivated with its bold presentation. Superficially, that captivation was attracted to the vast sound landscapes that put synthesizers forward alongside the beautifully played cello, which in turn is elevated by Fratti’s vocal performance. 

Now delving deeper, I see the bold presentation of these farfetched elements captivating due to their perceived dissonance and how well it matches the album’s lyrical themes of uncertainty. Now if you don’t understand Spanish, sonically alone, Mabe Fratti is sure to leave you in awe by the end of her performance.

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

Diles Que No Me Maten (8:30 PM Riverside Theater)

Diles Que No Me Maten is a quintet formed in 2017 from the Mexico City scene and will be gracing the stage at Riverside Theater for Mission Creek. Despite currently producing dreamlike jazz influenced psychedelia on albums like Obrigaggi, the band has roots in metal prior to 2020. Raúl and Gerardo Ponce, Jéronímo Garcia, Andrés Lupone, and Jonás Derbéz work together, on the spot, to generate atmospheric yet conscience music, bringing in elements of the Aztec language into their music to acknowledge their native connection to their Central American roots. The band are masters of their craft, bringing in diverse instruments and manipulating tension beautifully, drifting from reflective slowcore ballads to energetic anthems.

The members of Diles Que No Me Maten describe their local scene as spiritual, involved, and hyper-inclusive of varying genres. Their sounds pull from 1970s krautrock, along with post rock’s textures and poetic lyricism. They fuse it with their own droning, repetitive beats that have been compared to Oaxacan funeral marching music. Because of their improvising nature, a live show could be unpredictable, likely depending on the crowd’s energy. When it is time to get the audience moving, Jonás Derbéz shakes the crowd with spoken word on top of danceable alt-rock grooves. Their eclectic instrumentation and intimate performances resemble some of the projects that came out of the Louisville punk scene in the ‘90s and the current Windmill Scene in London.

-Julia Wilson, News Staff

Angry Blackmen (9:00 PM Gabe’s)

Formed in early 2017, Chicago based experimental hip hop duo Angry Blackmen consists of rappers Quentin Branch and Brian Warren. Their 2020 HEADSHOTS! EP opened with an audiobook style narration on the track “DREAM!” that introduced the prominent themes of their music: “Once upon a time, in a post-apocalyptic, racially divided white America, there lived two angry black men. The two embark on a savage journey to the heart of the American dream.” As Branch raps on the following track “PROPAGANDA!” this is, “Not that cotton candy rap. This that Dark Night, Batman vigilante rap.” Across the EP, the beats spit and sputter while the fiercely insightful words relentlessly flow. 

A similarly tense atmosphere is curated on The Legend of ABM, the duo’s full length 2024 release. It’s an intense, raw, and powerful listen, grabbing the listener’s attention with the explosive opener “Stanley Kubrick” and not letting go across the album’s brisk 30-minute runtime. Producer Formants absolutely nails the instrumentals, crafting a series of tight, thorny beats that refuse to let the audience settle. Clocking in at just over four minutes, the closer “Magnum Opus” is the album’s longest, and most introspective, song. Featuring the ethereal vocals of Abbie from Mars, it’s the perfect way to end the demanding project. With heavy beats and sharp lyrics, Angry Blackmen make Gabe’s the place to be on Friday night. 

-Glenn Houlihan, Editorial Staff

Mannequin Pussy (9:30 PM Englert Theater)

Hailing from the ever-innovative music scenes in Philadelphia, Mannequin Pussy is an indie pop-punk band that is just as melodic as they are hardcore. Their Mission Creek performance on Friday comes over a year since their last project, I Got Heaven released. Having cut their teeth on the underground scene for nearly a decade, last year’s record pushed them to a new stratosphere with popular online music blogs. It’s the band’s best album yet and is a deep well of emotional depth that manages to compellingly describe the human condition with a tinge of euphoric luster.  

Similarly, their performances complement their incredible discography and match the intense cathartic energy of their music. This show is a must see for those who enjoy performance art and creativity of any form in music. Mannequin Pussy represents the best of what alternative music has to offer in both sound and style. 

-Maurice Crawford, Editorial Staff

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Armand Hammer – “Doves“

In the wake of their critically acclaimed 2023 release We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, despite both of their unrepentant proliferation, I don’t think anyone was expecting further work under the Armand Hammer name anytime soon. Both artists, Billy Woods and ELUCID, would likely return to their bustling and increasingly demanding solo careers. However, many listeners found that at the end of February, an 8 minute 45 second song was released. Now, I think that the culture surrounding ‘bonus tracks’ is a general regard for them being throwaways. Songs that didn’t make the final cut tacked onto the end for the fans. That being said, Armand Hammer is no average group, and this is no average bonus track.

In conversation with Armand Hammer, you wouldn’t think it to be the staggering composition it is, with easy humbleness from the two veteran MC’s simply seeing it as business as usual. However, the product is unprecedented. Beginning with an eerie, echoing sample of throat singing buried under a haze of vinyl crackle, the track patiently develops with weary guitar lines, then echoing piano meandering like staircases to nowhere. Then complimented by contemporary blues artist Benjamin Booker’s whispered rasps, the song expands, crackles, and wavers in the cold air. Blasts of harmonic noise appear and decay, stabbing through and then collapsing in on themselves.

When Billy Woods finally appears, he is reticent, yet remorseful from his decrepit hideaway. He easily delivers one of his weightiest and brooding verses from an album of weighty and brooding verses. By the time ELUCID’s echoing vocals enter, the stabs of noise have returned, gathering for a moment behind his harmonies before the entire song begins to fall inwards, accompanied by increasingly panicked cries of “Great day!” “Doves” is undoubtedly a peak in a career of towering achievements and one of the most evocative compositions I have heard in my life.  

-Evan Raefield, Training Director

Charli xcx, Lorde – “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde“

If you haven’t heard of the album brat by Charli xcx it is likely that you have been living under a rock for all of 2024. The electronic dance pop album went viral with its minimalist album cover and unorthodox promotional tactics, essentially revitalizing mainstream pop music. While the album is loaded with hits from front to back, there was one track in particular that stood above the rest of the pack.  

That song was “Girl, so confusing” centered around a tumultuous relationship with another singer. This song highlighted one of the biggest flaws in mainstream music that starts with industry politics and often trickles down into obsessive fanbases. For some unknown reason, there always has to be a particular “it girl” in pop music. Some people would argue that it’s Charli xcx, others will make arguments for stars like Beyonce or Chappell Roan. To a casual fan like myself, it feels strange that an industry rooted in feminism thrives from pitting its biggest stars against one another.  

This is perhaps why the “Girl, so confusing remix featuring lorde” feels like the most monumental moment of pop music in a long time. This remix version of the song not only answers the questions posed by the original, but also adds perspective with Lorde’s stellar guest verse which addresses the toxic effects that industry politics has on artists and subtly pleads for unity amongst women in music. One can only hope this song serves as a turning point where pop stars and labels realize that there is enough money and critical acclaim to support multiple superstars and create an environment where the new norm for artists is to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. 

-Maurice Crawford, Editorial Staff

Cosmo’s Midnight, Franc Moody – “Fantasy“

A match made in nu disco heaven, Australian electronic duo Cosmo’s Midnight teamed up with British dance duo Franc Moody for their groovy single “Fantasy”. Released in February 2024, “Fantasy” continues to be in heavy rotation for me ten months later, making it a clear choice for my song of the year. Why? Well, there’s the sonically perfect opening, with a space laser giving way to funky drums, bass, guitar, and falsettos.

There’s the infectiously flirty chorus: “You’re my all night safari/You keep gettin’ me wild.” Then there’s the perfect instrumental pause for the start of the second chorus: “Joyride,” they harmonize before the instruments kick back in, “we can take it slow/Exhale, unwind, enjoy your time.” The song’s brilliant music video, featuring trains, chain mail, and a bath full of oranges, further exaggerates the carefree vibes. Glossy, upbeat, and above all else danceable, “Fantasy” is the ideal song to blast during a ride at “Cali sunset time.”

-Glenn Houlihan, Editorial Staff

gabby start – “Boys“

I genuinely can’t stop listening to this song. gabby start is an artist that I’ve been a fan of for a while, but something about this one is different. I really like lyrics that are kind of vague, and the only thing I truly know about this song’s content is that it references Interpol and hooking up in a car, and that’s really all I need. The line “I’m obsessed with the boys, but it’s not like that, it’s never been like that,” has rattled around in my brain ever since I heard it.  

“Boys” begins with a slow build up that feels like you’ve stepped into something new. I’m pretty sure gabby start writes all their songs to take place in a fictional world, which adds to that feeling even more. The synths of this song are absolutely insane; sharp, metallic, and peppered with spaceship noises, exactly as music should be. This bass tone could easily be part of a Skrillex song, also exactly how music should be. I’m glad that I live in a world where “future bass” is a term used to refer to music, and that one of those songs references Interpol and hooking up in a car and makes me think about gender a bit too much. 

-Sidney Bakker, Music Staff

Ikkimel – “KETA UND KRAWALL“

Summer 2024 was defined by one hyperpop artist, and that was Ikkimel. I first came across her music at the Euro 2024 Fanzone in Berlin, which was right in front of the Reichstag, on a day when there were no matches being played. Instead of showing games they had musicians playing on a stage. When I walked in, she was performing. Ikkimel had the wooden pallets placed over the muddied ground bouncing with pseudo techno beats and clashing electro synth sounds, all in a magnetic allure. Every single body was moving, caught up in the vivaciousness of her music.  

After one song, it ended. I got there late. What followed was some wannabe Drake style rapper singing in English that sucked all the energy from everyone who then just lingered there listless. The one song I did get to hear from Ikkimel though was “KET UND KRAWALL” that came out ahead of her HAT SIE NICH GESAGT EP, which defined much of the remaining year. Her style is very provocative and assertive, with a patronizing attitude to everything around her, often making fun of macho culture. She has popularity in Germany, but it feels like she belongs as an icon in the global zeitgeist. “KETA UND KRAWALL” will insert life into anything in whatever place it’s played. 

-John Glab, Editor-In-Chief

Joost Klein – “Europapa“

In short, “Europapa” by Joost Klein is an absolute bop. It is the most fun dance tune to come out of this year, but there are bigger reasons why it should be on a list of the best songs of 2024. The song was written in tribute to Joost’s parents, particularly his father, both of whom he had lost by the age of 13. It is also an ode to the European Union, speaking to the freedom of movement and personal experiences Joost has had. 

Europapa was the Netherlands’ submission to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest which has significant impacts in terms of international relations. However, Joost was unprecedentedly disqualified from Eurovision hours before the final competition due to later dropped allegations from Israel. Europapa was projected to be the winner before Joost was disqualified, and his removal from the contest sparked a massive discussion around Israel being permitted to participate in Eurovision, as well as wider discourse around the genocide in Palestine and Gaza. People protested in person outside the contest, on social media with #FreeJoostKlein, and even inside the contest, booing and singing Europapa over Israeli contestant Eden Golan’s song. 

When asked to think of the best song of 2024, for me it had to be Europapa. Not only is it a fantastic and meaningful song, but it was one of the most politically powerful songs to come out of 2024 that sparked genuine discussion. 

-Amanda Moy, Editorial Staff

Kim Gordon – “BYE BYE“

Sonic Youth vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kim Gordon proves boomers still got juice in them with her genre bending release The Collective. Exploring trap and hip-hop styles through the lens of her industrial noise rock background, she creates a truly novel and badass experience. Specifically, its opening track left me in awe the movement I heard it and continues to stay in rotation.  

Structurally she contrasts huge wailing guitars and walls of sound around her deadpan vocals that feels like she’s seemingly just reading off a to-do list before her upcoming flight, hence the title “BYE BYE”. This track is the definition of hard and the fact an artist in their 70s is dropping mosh worthy bangers to compete with the likes of Death Grips and Soul Glo should serve as some kind of inspiration. 

-Amman Hassan, News Director

Objekt, DjRUM – “Ganzfeld (DjRUM Remix)“

As a way to showcase his new label, the Berlin based producer Objekt calls some of his favorite fellow producers to remix a re-release of one of his most acclaimed tracks, “Ganzfeld”. DjRUM is on the list. The extraordinary musician from the United Kingdom is characterized by his intricate productions and DJing. The resulting track we received can be described as a sonic, dreamlike odyssey, one that begins like any other great story.  

Echoing snares and stunning tambourines follow with an incredible piano progression over the wonderful percussion that characterized the original track by Objekt. The track then falls apart into a chilling half-time percussive section, that then becomes increasingly convoluted and frightening, yet doesn’t lose any of its engaging sound design. The track reassembles, combining those frigid sections with beautiful ones, creating a contrasting image on the story and resolving its conflicts into the finishing string and piano chords that formed the beginning. This remix is a masterpiece of electronic music composition, one that shows complexity and story building like none other.

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

Sabrina Carpenter – “Bed Chem“

While I originally wanted to give my spot for top song to Amyl and the Sniffers’ “Going Somewhere”, I couldn’t let Sabrina Carpenter’s success this year go untalked about. Her album Short n’ Sweet made a difference in my year for the better, especially the song “Bed Chem”. The song’s bright chords and grooves are unforgettable to me. The storytelling ability of the track and its early 2000s R&B influences make this one of the best pop songs of the year, if not the best. There’s just something about “Bed Chem” that is irresistible to dance along to. 

-Lee Nienhaus, Editorial Staff

Tom Cardy – “Transcendental Cha Cha Cha“

On particularly bad days, being asked to dance at the club fills me with a crippling fear of the expansiveness of the universe. It’s then that I listen to this song. Cardy steps out of his usual lane, musical comedy about flipping people off and the seminal 2009 classic film Human Centipede, to deliver this well produced ode to classic cha-cha and existential dread.  

Though he maintains his signature sense of humor, he dials down the funny to turn up the chaos, layering in a dense electro pop backing track with several unique percussive and piano features. His freewheeling lyricism adds to the madness, spinning the listener into an alternate universe where a lone human clubber in an intergalactic discotheque puts aside their existential fear and joins the room in a dance. Optimistic in its dread, “Transcendental Cha Cha Cha” is a certified club banger, club destroyer, club rebuilder, and every other reality in between. 

-Bailey Vergara, Music Staff

Verraco – “Godspeed >“

Once again Verraco, the Colombian who co-founded the label TraTraTrax, appears on my favorite tracks of the year, this time on his residency at Timedance, the UK label lead by Batu. As part of his Breathe… Godspeed EP, that includes tracks that also deserve to be in this list, especially “Sí, idealízame”. “Godspeed >” is an exhilarating piece of music that is made to be heard on large speakers at full volume with a crowd surrounding you.  

The track starts rather minimalistic with a dembow rhythm, and a vocal sample taken out of Dj Babatr’s notebook modified to sound other-worldly. A sliding bass comes in not too long after, teasing the party goer, to then be blown out of proportions with an organ like synth that calls for battle, and percussive elements to bring it all together. Truly a party starter, front to back. 

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

Zookraught – “Red Hot Summer“

For the past few months, I’ve had Red Hot Summer — particularly, the attack of its syncopated main riff — stuck in my head. Released as a single ahead of their debut LP Vida Violet, this track is an all-hands-on-deck effort from each member of the Seattle dance punk trio. Featuring Baylee Harper’s electrifying drumming, Sami Frederick and Steph Jones’ full-force vocals, along with their respective guitar and bass to boot, all give everything in a steamy five minutes.  

The lyrics’ passion infected me with an energy best suited in the basement of a house show, much like the one they played in Iowa City last fall. The switch ups, especially towards the bridge, are to die for, and the chorus alone gives a brilliant payoff. If I died right now and went to punk heaven, Zookraught’s “Red Hot Summer” better be playing in the mosh pit. 

-Harry Ginsberg, Music Staff

The post KRUI Staff Favorite Songs of 2024 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I first came across her album entitled No Home Record, which she released in 2019, when I was in high school. The first song from it that I listened to was “Paprika Pony”, which instantly amazed me by how different it sounded from any Sonic Youth track I’ve ever listened to. It took me time to put together the pieces, in order for it to register that this is the same vocalist who was responsible for the likes of Goo and Daydream Nation. These are albums which I think made an immense cultural impact at the time in underground hardcore punk, alongside the emergence of avant-garde and experimentalism. Now, it only makes sense. I put two and two together, with Gordon’s present affinity for electronica, in an ambient and drone like fashion.

When looking at her newly released album The Collective, it shows that Gordon is a trailblazer in artistic advances within the contemporary world. When it comes to music, she is always looking forward, doing things that have never been done before, with a consistent desire to provoke a certain sensibility toward shock value for how out there it is. In tracks within the new album like “BYE BYE”, “Psychedelic Orgasm”, and “Dream Dollar”, she confronts lyrics and instrumentals that are so daring, bold, and spirited with gutsy spunk that it begins to feel as if an outlandish alien is singing to us from an otherworldly pandemonium.

Brazen with static, edgy vocals, piercing synth lines, crunchy glitches, along with various clinking and clanking, what Gordon tells you through this new album is that she does not give a fuck. It’s a sentiment generally hard to impose on the self within the realms of the music industry’s current disposition. As a handful of musicians now feel more of saturated need to cater to the mainstream, Gordon sets up a path of her own that doesn’t comply or conform to these boundaries and limitations. It only becomes more impressive when we learn that she is age 71. It proves that someone can be 71 and still fiercely and vigorously cool. A few favorites of mine from The Collection consist of “I’m A Man”, “It’s Dark Inside”, “Shelf Warmer”, and “Tree House” which are all tracks that I will be listening to until I’m 71.

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