One of the best parts of any festival is discovering new music.
You’re walking to get an overpriced grilled cheese, and a chord progression suddenly catches your ear. Suddenly, you forget about bread and cheese and your on a mission to get a better listen. Before you know it, you’re halfway in the crowd, yelling, “Who are these guys?!” at the enlightened strangers around you that already knew: this band rocks.
The 2013has more than its share of top shelf headliners—you know that. But down below the first two lines of the bill, it also has plenty of lesser-knowns just waiting to distract you from your grilled cheese. To save you the guesswork, we took six Snowball headliners and matched them to their unsung counterparts at the festival to help you make those “aha!” moments less far between.
If you likeBig Gigantic, check outThe Floozies.
before them,set themselves apart from the mess of electronic DJs out there by mixing live saxophone and drums in with their digitized block-rocking beats. The Floozies are the latest duo in the lineage of live-tronica, but with a few drops ofthrown into the mix. A typical song goes like this: Producer/guitarist Matt Hill cues up a vaguely recognizable backing track while his brother Mark catches the beat on his real-life drum kit and breathes some air into it. Cue guitars. The result is a bit hip-hop, a bit jazzy and—bottom line—fun.
Portugal. The Manis too slow and貹ԻǾistoo fast,Delta Spiritis just right.
Those looking to scratch their itch for un-sampled rock music will likely be getting at it with either the cloudy indie-rock of Portugal. The Man or the rougher-edged. But if you’re looking a happy medium, try Delta Spirit.
Like any band worth its salt, they’ve been experimenting and changing since their excellent debut, “Ode to Sunshine.” But if one thing’s been consistent, it’s the song quality. Their new songs have a big, booming quality to them that’s custom fit to the sprawling crowds of a festival, without abandoning the emotion present in their earlier stuff. Anyways, it’s fitting that they’ve hit on a sound more at home in an arena than a barroom—at this point in their career, those are venues they deserve to be filling.
If you likeFlying Lotus,tryShlohmo.
Flying Lotus will bring some of the festival’s most intricate beats with him when he seizes control of the Groove Tent come Sunday evening. That’s because unlike most of the other DJs at the festival, FlyLo isn’t as focused on flicking the gallery’s collective bobble head as he is getting inside of it. The same could be said for the cough syrup-coated beats of L.A.’s Shlohmo. His soundscapes trend toward the organic and introspective, thoughbegs to differ. Regardless of his mood, it’s music worth experiencing.
If you’re there forKendrick Lamar, look intoZion I.
Hip-hop is scarce at this year’s Snowball, so those going just to see Kendrick Lamar might just go with Friday passes. But even so, give yourself time to check out Zion I, an MC/DJ combo from Oakland, a.k.a. thatCalifornia hip-hop town opposite of Kendrick’s Compton. If you’re strictly there for drum pads and synths, fear not: these guys are no strangers to the electronic scene, a fact their beats and collaborators confirm.
ForSTS9fans, check outTotally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
It’s hard to match the scope and sound of. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs doesn’t try; in fact, other than the general flavor, he doesn’t sound anything like Sound Tribe. What you do get is some fun, ethereal dance music, thoughtfully executed—something fans of STS9 should be able to get behind.
Dylan Owens is Reverb’s indie and bluegrass blogger. You can read more from him in Relix magazineand the comment sections ofWORLDSTARHIPHOP.
