Jalen Ngonda played a sold-out show at The Swedish American Hall in San Francisco this September. You can tell his voice is more than a 70’s soul knockoff in his recordings alone, but it’s nothing like hearing him live 10 feet away.
Not even one of my favorite musicians over the past 5 years, Aaron Frazer, who had the song at my wedding’s first dance, could showcase live like Ngonda. I saw Frazer a week before, and while his catalog runs deep with fresh new soul, Ngonda’s live performance is best of the year, beside Mon Laferte at Bottle Rock. Ngonda still needs work on building his catalog and moving more into his own sound, but give him 5 years and he’ll be on top.
More than any musician before him, I heard more people tell me Spotify recommended Jalen Ngonda to them. If that’s not an potential sign of major success than take it from me. While I was a part of his Spotify recommended season late last year, I realized I reposted his song “Don’t You Remember” on SoundCloud 5 years ago. Bite it, Spotify recs.
I remember the first time I heard Aaron Frazer. With Durand Jones & The (rest of the) Indications at Outside Lands in 2018. Durand and his band were one of the most memorable sets of the 8 years I’ve been to OSL. Most memorable was hearing a high pitched vocalist in the band but took me a good 3 songs to figure out who it was. The drummer in the back, Aaron Frazer.
Now he is very much in front. Touring his second solo album, Into the Blue. What I hadn’t heard in his tracks online, but was very apparent that night at The Independent is that his falsetto isn’t half of what he’s got. Check out the first video on the Instagram embed below. It’s the best glimpse on camera I’ve got in hearing him in a different light, but I’m sure it’s just one small step in his much bigger plan. His catalog of singles is already stacked, imagine in 50 years.
Also, I didn’t realize how much swag he had, but with a voice like that.
Festival La Onda was BottleRock’s first run at a second weekend that was all latin music, new & old. Not dissimilar from Coachella’s third weekend, Stagecoach. And reminds me a lot of Lost in Riddim too. Each of these California festivals bring together the top performing musicians from a culture around the world, whether in country, afrobeats or latin music.
The first day of La Onda with my friends on Saturday was a good time, but my solo trip Sunday introduced me to 3 musicians I’ll be feeling through music for the rest of my life, particularly Mon Laferte. I went into her show with casual expectations. I liked one of her songs. It was near the top of my “Songs to see at Festival La Onda“, and was approved by my partner. I had no idea how impactful she would be live and in catalog.
My jaw still drops thinking about the feeling I’ll remember from hearing her for the first time live. It was like I was listening to music I’ve heard for years. Song after song, hit after hit. Ballads better at storytelling than most movies. And I don’t speak Spanish.
I’ve binged her 8 studio albums and the many live iterations on Spotify for the past 72 hours when I’ve been awake. It’s a lot of music. I’ve only narrowed it to just under a hundred, but a few more months and I’ll distill it down with much more discernment. Follow my progress in the Spotify playlist below.
She’s made me want to write. I never like to write. It’s been especially hard to write, let alone think, about anything other than war. But she made me feel something deep at La Onda and with so much more of her entire catalog. Something words can never and music can only do.
BottleRock 2024 was my third visit to the music festival in Napa. The first year in 2017, my partner and I heard Charles Bradley sing, which brought us to tears. The second year in 2021, we saw Jon Batiste play a charismatic set, which the crowd reflected back. Six months later, he won Album of the Year at the Grammys. So my third year had a lot to live up to and it did times 2 with the main headliners on Saturday, Kali Uchis and Pearl Jam. But the two had the same set times.
I had never been this conflicted with overlapping sets at a festival. I had seen Kali Uchis 5 times already, but Pearl Jam never. Plus, Pearl Jam was my second favorite band in high school (Smashing Pumpkins), but Kali was my first fav in 2018. And her new album, Orquídeas, is my favorite album of the year by far so far. I was so conflicted I did an Instagram poll (40% Kali, 60% Pearl Jam), which of course made me more conflicted. So I decided to go to both.
Pearl Jam started first at 7:45. That gave me about 30 minutes with them before I had to head to Kali Uchis for her 8:30 set. The funnest part of most festivals is swerving through the crowd dancing in moments with others along the way. Most of us don’t do it enough. I ended up leaving Kali Uchis after “Loner” and caught Pearl Jam close that night with an even better stroll through the crowds right before.
I love to compare and contrast everything, especially when others don’t. Pearl Jam topped Kali Uchis this time live, but they had twenty years of anticipation from me. However, of the 5 other shows I had previously seen of Kali, Pearl Jam’s set didn’t top a single one. I distinctly remember the first show I saw of hers in 2017. I had never heard such a majority of the crowd sing back every lyric to her. I’m sure Pearl Jam had a similar reaction a few years after they started playing, but I couldn’t witness because I was 8.
If that wasn’t controversial enough, Kali Uchis has a better catalog than Pearl Jam and she isn’t close to past her prime. Here are a few of my favorites from her.
Performing live looks so hard to me. I see a lot of musicians give so much and the crowd can be so tough, especially me. I’d be worse than 99% of them. I may just be projecting, but rarely do I see someone as present on stage and in the crowd as Josh Lane, lead singer of Thee Sacred Souls. I don’t think I’ve seen someone work a camera so well since Rema at Lost in Riddim.
I first saw Thee Sacred Souls at SXSW and then Hardly Strictly Bluegress in 2023 and now Mill Valley Music Festival in 2024. Josh has only gotten better at making his performance interactive, tangible, and not the standard call & feedback. See a perfect example below with his performance of “Running Away” while running around the crowd.
Forest Claudette’s song, Violence, is top of the “Songs to see at Sxsw” playlist for this year, not because it’s the best song (still up there), but it has the most important message. We cannot speak about anything until we speak on the horror of genocide and all other forms of violence. Peace is our only awakening.
I spend over four months digging into the thousands of artists for SXSW each year and try to get the songs down to a manageable # for a playlist. It was 134 songs this year or around 10% of the artists I went through. Wish I woulda got it down to about 5%, but I didn’t have enough time. I focus on quantity and getting through all the artists because it is the first and most important step to quality with variety, but without enough time to digest and discern all the music, quality will suffer for variety.
For the first time since first going to SXSW in 2016, I don’t think I did a better job at finding emerging musicians than the previous year. Or any of the years before it. Next year I need to focus more on the personalities behind the songs sooner, using other curators rather than digging into the raw data myself, and leaving more room for serendipity. Although I’d argue digging into all of the music beforehand is the best way to amplify serendipity.
There was a big debate among “end of the year” music playlisters. Not that big, five people. If a song wasn’t released that year, can it be included in an end of the year playlist? Should it be included? The consensus of the 5 was it cannot and should not. I disagree.
Songs released that year should be prioritized and age of release should be weighed in, but discoveries of the year are just as important as when they were released.
Before we get to 2023’s music of the year, this year for the first time I wanted to start highlighting the music curators as well. This was the first year I actively sought them out. Usually I rely too heavily on recommendation systems, but a mix of the two is optimal.
SXSW was the most influential event. A good dozen artists are on this year’s Music of the Year playlist. NPR Music’s Best Songs of 2023 had the best end of year list. So much I’m going through all of their other Best Songs of the Year playlists. There are 9 total on Spotify. As far as quality music curators I followed throughout 2023: Saving Connie, Ladman, and Somewhere Soul. Also, shout out to my two good friends, Carl & Levi, who took their playlists as serious as I did.
As for the music, Pale Jay topped this best songs playlist. His voice, unlike most of the other many soulful vocals on this playlist, brought soul forward rather than taking it back. Strongboi had the single. Jungle was my #1 artist on Spotify Wrapped. And Jessie Ware had the best album of the year.
NFTs were my favorite tech last year, and took the cover for our Music of the Year playlist in 2022. This year, it’s AI generated. There’s a song on this playlist that was also AI generated. Can you tell which one?
It’s nice to just talk to someone. 1 on 1, without interruption, about what’s important to them. It’s hard to do that in public. There are lots of distractions, including my sobriety. I originally wanted to interview Lindsey of Annabelle Chairlegs at her show during Psyched! Fest in SF, but I got too tired and tipsy. I’m glad we got to chat over video after her tour ended.
Lindsey’s got personality and she knows how to show it – in her performances, which she learned from years in the theater, but in her music and in-person too.
I’ve seen Annabelle Chairlegs live 4 times, twice in SF / twice at SXSW. I discovered her music going through every one of the musicians at SXSW 2022 and she was at the top.
I love a lot of music, but I rarely like more than a song from a musician. Let alone an album. Or two. I looked over my listening history of Annabelle Chairlegs on Spotify and I liked a half dozen songs the day I found her music (March 4, 2022). Usually it takes a lot more listens.
I may not know a strand of lyrics more than a few words from her, but they’ve been the melody to my thoughts frequently over the past two years. It’s how you can tell if a song is sticky. When it’s popping up in your inner dialogue at the most random times. Usually an offshoot of its original lyrics […]
I’ve prepared a few playlists for wedding receptions & dinners over the past few years, so since I just had a wedding of my own, to celebrate I finalized those playlists here. It’s centered around millennials since I’m a millennial but covers at least the last 60 years of mostly American pop music and a few important tangents.
There’s music I intentionally left out. The music doesn’t focus on the stereotypical wedding songs, but there’s still quite a few in there–the same point my first wedding party playlist tried to make, Not UR Typical Wedding DJ. If I missed something send it to me. I’ll try to keep this playlist fresh with some of your selections.
These wedding playlists aren’t meant to be ordered to play through, though they could, but more for you to pull from a comprehensive list that will be a good start to any wedding music. I spent too many hours going through too many other playlists, hopefully this will eventually become a one-stop shop. I’ve already got over 10 hours of music on these two, let along the Bachelorette playlist.
We go to music festivals to see the musicians we love, but it’s also the best way to discover new music.
I remember seeing Durand Jones & The Indications for the first time at Outside Lands in 2018 and then the following SXSW twice. My partner and I have been so obsessed with the group that their song “Is It Any Wonder?” was the second song at our wedding’s first dance (“Suavecito” was the first). I went to the second annual Mill Valley Music Festival to see Durand Jones’s solo set, but even better to see something new.
I always jump the gun on these festivals and listen to all of the artists beforehand. My most highly anticipated performance was the psychedelic African rock ensemble from Oakland, Orchestra Gold, but there were a few other notable new discoveries including The Dip and Valerie Jones – all of whom you can see live video of below.