Coachella Band Preview: BROODS

We are officially less than 2 months away from Weekend 1 of Coachella! The hype is increasing at this point and yesterday it increased for me too. I’m proud to say that I accepted a position to work at Coachella in its entirety (meaning both weekends)! I’m beyond stoked. However that being said, even though I’ll be out in the desert once again, I’m going to have some serious business to take care of. I have no idea if I’ll be able to see any music at all, but being in the Coachella atmosphere is a gift in and of itself. At least now you’ll know who I would be seeing if I get a chance out there. Anyway with this building anticipation, it’s time to ramp up that listening and preview another band playing the festival this year for their first time, BROODS.

BROODS is a brother-sister band duo who come from Nelson, New Zealand. Georgia Nott (lead vocals) and her brother Caleb (backing vocals, production, multi-instruments) grew up in a music-oriented family. They even performed in an ABBA tribute band growing up and were a part of an indie band while in college. Both ended up eventually dropping out of college to pursue BROODS. Their band name was suggested by their manager but has a relevant double meaning which they love. It relates to family but also deep upsetting thoughts that the siblings resolve through music. They formed the band in early 2013 and released their debut single “Bridges” by October of that year. The duo worked early on with music producer, Joel Little, who also worked with Lorde on her single “Royals”.

They released their debut self-titled EP in early January 2014 after signing a deal with Capitol Records/Polydor a month earlier and then toured the UK, North America, and Australia for the better part of 2014. Some of their tour gigs were in support of acts like Haim, Ellie Goulding, and Sam Smith. Their debut album, Evergreen, was released in August 2014. It debuted at No. 1 on the New Zealand Album Chart. In 2015 they returned to North America to tour making several stops on the festival circuit along the way. None of those included Coachella however, making this year their first Coachella appearance.

After the release of their debut album, they immediately began working on its successor. With a tour filled 2015 though, it wasn’t released until June of 2016. The album, Conscious, features collaborations with fellow 2017 Coachella performers Lorde (writing) and Tove Lo (singing) (surprise guest anyone?!). Both albums earned BROODS several New Zealand Music Awards. Since their debut on the music scene, the duo has racked up a total of 10 of the awards, along with 2 more nominations that didn’t result in wins. They were also nominated for the APRA Silver Scroll Award in 2014 but lost.

BROODS style of music is primarily indie pop with a mild electronic influence. Georgia Nott’s vocals are soft and hypnotizing to listen to. If I had to compare them to other artists, I would say their current sound is kind of like BANKS/Lorde/Tove Lo meets St. Lucia, but with a more BANKS/Lorde/Tove Lo sound than St. Lucia. It’s really just a few songs from their latest album that give off a St. Lucia style indie pop feel than their debut, especially the song “We Had Everything” (I mean come on…don’t you start hearing “Closer Than This” with that intro?).

I first heard of BROODS in late 2014 when a person I follow on twitter tweeted about how good the band was. I, of course, checked them out and loved their sound. I downloaded the songs “Bridges”, “Four Walls”, and “Mother & Father” and listened to them periodically. Over the last year I added two songs from their new album to my iTunes and again listened to them as they played on my “Most Recently Added” rotation.

I’ve never been a super fan of BROODS, only a casual listener, but I’ve always liked what I’ve listened to. If I have the opportunity to see BROODS live in a festival setting, I’ll definitely see them. As I said before, this is their first time playing Coachella. They play Friday. I’m not sure what kind of crowd they’ll attract in their first appearance at the festival, but I don’t think it will be overwhelming. So if you’re up to listen to some indie pop from the siblings Nott then check them out. You won’t be disappointed. Here’s a few songs to get you ready for their set:

1. Bridges
2. Heartlines
3. Mother & Father
4. Four Walls
5. Free
6. We Had Everything
7. Freak of Nature (ft. Tove Lo)
8. Never Gonna Change
9. Couldn’t Believe
10. Everytime

Bonus: Ease by Troye Sivan ft. BROODS

It Was 1980 Something

Since 2013 my Wednesday nights during the fall, winter, and spring usually consist of watching TV comedy. I grew up watching half hour family comedy TV shows like Home Improvement, Boy Meets World, and Full House, but in high school I fell out of the whole comedy phase and opted for shows like drama, The OC and reality drama, Laguna Beach. In 2013, there was a new show to premiere on ABC that caught my attention and finally returned me to my TV watching roots. It was called The Goldbergs and it’s currently in its 4th season on prime time TV.

The cool thing about The Goldbergs is that the sitcom is based on the life of series creator, Adam F. Goldberg. It stars comedians Wendi McLendon-Covey and Jeff Garlin, young actors Hayley Orrantia, Troy Gentile, and Sean Giambrone, and acting legend George Segal. Comedian Patton Oswalt even narrates the episodes.

The show is narrated through the voice of an older Adam Goldberg (Oswalt) who recaps stories of his life as a junior high/high school student growing up in Jenkintown, PA, a small suburb of Philadelphia, in the 1980’s with his mom, Beverly (McLendon-Covey), dad, Murray (Garlin), older sister, Erica (Orrantia), and older brother, Barry (Gentile). Adam’s grandpa, “Pops” (Segal), also frequents the Goldberg house. The Goldberg family is far from average and Adam (Giambrone) captures their antics through the lens of his video camera. His mother is nicknamed the “Smother” because she overwhelms her children with love and affection to the point where she constantly invades their lives. His father who works as a furniture salesman is more of a realist when it comes to his kids and sees them for the “morons” they really are as he often criticizes them while sitting on his favorite chair in his underwear in front of the TV. Erica is the cool older high school sister who has a knack for rebellion as long as she’s with her best friend Lainey (Alyson Michalka) (In real life Adam actually has an older brother named Eric, but for the sake of good TV Eric was turned into a girl to add another dimension to the story line.). Barry is the overconfident jock and goofball of the family who believes he’s also a rapper named Big Tasty. He also tends to pick on Adam the most, as big brothers usually do, but also because Adam is a nerd who is fascinated by TV and movie pop culture of the 1980’s.

Each episode usually features a new story that ends with some sort of lesson or nice family moment, recreating that typical family TV sitcom feel. Then right before the end of the episode there’s a dedication to something from the episode that was actually a part of creator Adam F. Goldberg’s life along with a real home movie video clip showcasing that thing. Although there has been plenty of good ones, last week’s episode had the coolest dedication I remember seeing so far. It was my favorite for sure. Part of the episode was about the relationship between Adam and his best friend/neighbor from across the street, Chad Kremp. The dedication at the end was to the real Chad Kremp and featured a home movie clip of Chad along with a side by side clip of the TV show Chad (Jacob Hopkins) acting out the same piece from the real clip. Then it flashed to a frame from the show of the actor who played Chad’s dad in the episode and added an arrow to the actor with the words “Chad Kremp – my real life best friend” (or something like that). It was the coolest dedication ever. At least I thought it was super cool to honor your childhood/real-life best friend that way, but there’s probably other cool dedications I’m forgetting too.

After four seasons, the long-term story line has progressed. New characters have appeared. A few others have left, but in my opinion the show has become way funnier than it was when it first started. At this point, it seems like I’m laughing about something on the show every week. The actors have really fallen into their roles and have brought out the best in their characters. It’s been so good that after last week’s dedication to Chad Kremp, I really thought it was time to write a blog about this show.

If you have yet to see an episode, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you watched the first season or two and have stopped watching, you really need to check it out again. In case you want to, it’s now on Wednesday nights on ABC at 8:30 p.m. It’s honestly gotten better. I swear. The Goldbergs really is the perfect family comedy and it brings back that 80’s nostalgia for those who grew up in the 80’s like the Goldberg kids. That’s probably why the show is already into it’s 4th season. It hasn’t been picked up for a 5th season yet but I’d say the odds are pretty good that it will stay on the air. After all, how will we get to reminisce about 1980 something?

Coachella Band Preview: Grouplove

We are 2 months and 1 week away from Coachella Weekend 1. That means it’s the perfect time to start dusting off those flower headbands. It’s also the perfect time to check out another band playing the festival this year, Grouplove. This band is no stranger to the Indio desert having played Coachella in 2012 and 2014. Their 3rd and latest album was released in September making 2017 the year they make their return to the Empire Polo Fields.

Out of every band I’ve written about, Grouplove has the best formation story of any I’ve learned so far. Usually I’ll tell you where a band comes from, but with Grouplove the members come from all over the map. They officially formed in Los Angeles in 2009, but met before that in Crete at an artist commune in the village of Avdou. Members Hannah Hooper (vocals, keyboards) and Christian Zucconi (vocals, guitar) met on the Lower East Side of Manhattan after Hooper heard Zucconi’s band perform. She fell for him and ended up inviting him to the artist residency in Crete where they met future band members Sean Gadd (bass), Andrew Wessen (guitar, vocals) and Ryan Rabin (drums). Rabin and Wessen were also friends who grew up in Los Angeles. Gadd hails from London, England. The band formed a year after that fateful trip to Crete when Gadd, Hooper, and Zucconi decided to venture out to LA to pay a visit to Rabin’s father’s recording studio (his dad is Trevor Rabin, former guitarist of English rock band Yes).

The band played their first show in LA in 2010 and shortly after toured with Florence and the Machine and The Joy Formidable. Grouplove released their first self-titled EP in early 2011. That same year they joined forces with Foster the People on a co-headlining tour and played several music festivals including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, and Reading and Leeds. After their busy and travel filled spring and summer, they released their debut album, Never Trust A Happy Song, in September of 2011. Arguably the group’s two biggest singles, “Colours” and “Tongue Tied” were a part of the record. Following the release, Grouplove embarked on a fall North American headlining tour in support of the album. The touring and travel life continued into and through 2012 and included the group’s first stop at Coachella.

They released their sophomore album, Spreading Rumours, in September 2013 almost exactly 2 years after their debut, which brought on another album support tour. This time though Daniel Gleason became a temporary replacement for Sean Gadd, but by the following spring the replacement became permanent. In 2014 the band again played the festival circuit hitting Coachella, Bonnaroo, Firefly, and Lollapalooza.

This past September (clearly the month for Grouplove record releases) Grouplove released their third album, Big Mess, and toured in support of it from August through November. It’s only fitting that the band would play Coachella again after releasing their latest album since they played the festival after their first two releases.

Grouplove is your standard indie band. They play an indie rock/indie pop style of music. I’ve always felt like their songs have this summery sort of vibe. In my opinion their records are the perfect soundtrack to a pool party, laying out on the beach, or taking a road trip along the California coast line with friends. It’s that kind of indie rock.

I first heard of Grouplove in 2011. I feel like that was a prime year for indie rock for me. However though, I never got into Grouplove as a whole. I’ve liked a song here and there, particularly the song “Ways to Go”, but I don’t own any Grouplove albums or have more than a few of their singles on my iTunes. So why am I previewing them for Coachella? Well the reason is I think they’re a great live band. I’ve never seen them in person, but I watched part of their Coachella set in 2014. Their set seemed like so much fun to be at. It made me want to see them in person at a festival. Ideally that festival would be Coachella because their music kind of embodies the Coachella spirit.

Grouplove plays Coachella on Sunday. I recommend going to their set because like I said their music and style perfectly represents the essence of the festival. Their music is good too! I just never got into it like I did with other bands. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it though. If I were attending this year, I’d probably be listening to their music more. Maybe even enough that I might get into them just in time to see them at Coachella. Here’s what you should check out to prep for their set:

1. Tongue Tied
2. Ways To Go
3. Colours
4. Let Me In
5. Welcome To Your Life
6. Itchin’ On A Photograph
7. Good Morning
8. Shark Attack
9. Naked Kids
10. Do You Love Someone

 

I Love Music

So this week, I’m gonna take a little break from previewing Coachella bands and artists. I honestly figured I would write another preview, but I just wasn’t feeling it this week. Instead, I’m gonna write about myself, which I usually incorporate into each post, but only in limited capacity. This started because I got distracted from writing by wanting to play music. So I played music for an hour. The whole time I kept thinking that I should just write about my love for music instead of doing a Coachella Band Preview that I didn’t feel like writing. Well, I decided to go for it so if you’re expecting this to be about something in particular, stop reading now and if you wanna know more about me, here it goes.

Music has always been a big part of my life. It has made me feel a range of emotions. It has been there in good times, in bad times, in sad times, in mad times (look at that rhyme skill). It has inspired me. It has pissed me off. It has made me laugh. It has made me cry. Most importantly, it has always been there for me through everything. It’s like a friend, who up until this moment I never realized was actually like a friend.

My mom likes to credit my love for music from when I was in her tummy. She used to take aerobics classes when she was pregnant and at the classes they did the aerobics to modern music. I guess I was into it. When I was young, my mom would play the piano for me when we visited my grandparent’s house because the apartment we lived in was too small to hold the piano. I used to enjoy trying to play too and singing along to whatever songs she played. She would also play records for me. I distinctly remember being a fan of two songs from the Footloose soundtrack, the title track “Footloose” and “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”. I also liked the song “Ghostbusters”, the theme from the Ghostbusters movie.

In Kindergarten, besides being into the Power Rangers, I loved A Goofy Movie, especially for the music in it. I had the soundtrack on cassette. One time at a friend’s house, we put the cassette on and decided to jump around on his bed and all over his room while listening to the song “Stand Out”.

In 1st through 8th grade, I mostly listened to the radio and I liked pop music. I didn’t have any one super cool in my life to play me anything different. The first CD I owned was the Men in Black soundtrack, followed by OMC’s How Bizarre, Smash Mouth’s Fush Yu Mang, and Chumbawumba’s Thubthumper. After that, I forget who came next because a lot did.

In 5th grade on the bus to our yearly middle school camping trip, my whole class sang along to “All-Star” by Smash Mouth as we pulled into the camp. I remember having so much fun in that moment. I also had a brief interest in good music in 5th grade thanks to the video game Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Well, at least I was exposed to some good music because I was only hooked on 1 song from the game, “Superman” by Goldfinger. I also saw my first concert between 5th and 6th grade. It was Britney Spears. I went with my best friend Michael, his mom, and my mom. I only knew a handful of songs, but we stood on our chairs in the very last row of the amphitheater and sang along anyway.

I started writing my own Weird Al parodies to songs in 6th grade and it became a hit in my class. In 7th and 8th grade, I got really into basketball and started listening to more rap music than just “The Real Slim Shady”. Although, most of the rap music was on the radio anyway. 9th grade is when my whole music life changed. I wrote about it once so you can check it out here. That’s when I really got into good music though, high school, and from there music became one of my things. It was the same in college and right before I graduated I started listening to music that was part of a different scene than what I was listening to for the previous 8 years. I wrote about that too. Again check it out here, if you want to know more. I’ve been listening to that type of music ever since and even branching out further into the electronic spectrum recently.

So what’s the point in me giving you a life synopsis of my music life? Well, it’s to prove my love for music. I have a pretty good memory. I remember a lot of shit people might normally forget. Sometimes I even pretend to not know things because it might seem strange to remember so much. I have a great memory of time and place because I can visualize memories, but even so, after all these years I even forget a lot that’s happened to me from when I was younger. The point is that we remember things that are important to us. Going through and thinking about all the music in my life and remembering things about it reminds me that I have memories of music from when I was little because music has always been important to me. I also have a lot of memories involving music from high school and beyond, because that was the point that it started to rule my life in a way. In general I guess a lot of my favorite memories and life moments involve music. Being in a band, going to shows, playing and listening to music with my friends are all part of my collection of favorite moments.

I started this blog as a means to write for fun about my favorite things, which are music, sports, movies, and television shows. Let’s be real though, if you’ve read my blog continually since I started it, you’d know music has always been my number one. Honestly sports are probably number two, but I’ll get into that another time. It’s about music today. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to study in college, I basically settled for something that I found interesting. After I graduated and took a few grad school classes, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted. Sure I found that subject interesting, but it wasn’t what I wanted to spend my life doing. Thanks to an amazing group of inspirational women I decided I should go after what I’m most passionate about, but initially I couldn’t figure out what that was. It took going to Coachella to make everything click. It was music. It was always music. If I had enough confidence and motivation to go after it sooner, I probably would have. It’s never too late to chase your dreams though. So I decided to pursue the music industry as a career and I know that no matter what I do as long as I’m passionate about it or as long as it involves music, I’ll love what I do. That’s part of the reason why I keep up with this blog. I do enjoy writing, but it’s much more fun to write about something I love.

So thanks for reading this specific topic-less blog post. I needed it as a reminder today. Then again, I think wanting to play music instead of write in the first place was a reminder in itself. And just FYI, if you ever want to talk music/play music/write music with anyone, I’m your girl because I love music. Duh.