Sunday, September 27, 2015

TBDfest, new music, hip hop, rap, crews, and Ralph Lauren undies

Ty Dolla Sign
Ty Dolla Sign, TBDfest, 2015
Last year, TBDfest 2014, I came away with one band added to my must-listen list: The War On Drugs, and a few others who I wanted to listen to further... Kurt Vile, MS MR, to name just a couple.

Towkio
Towkio,, TBDfest 2015
This year was different: my take-away was not about one particular band or performer, but rather an opening of ears and appreciation to musical genres that I might not often listen to, and rarely take the opportunity to see live. This will now change. I'll be looking for the poet behind the words.

Mobb Deep at TBDfest 2015
Mobb Deep, TBDfest 2015
This is what I love most about TBDfest: the unique mix of music that pushes each-and-every-one of us beyond our comfort zone. Whether it's metalheads listening to hip hop, classical ballerinas dancing to EDM, or pre-teens hearing Tears For Fears for the very first time... it's all wonderful. I love it.

Tyler the Creator
Tyler The Creator, TBDfest 2015
The hip-hop and rap performers at TBDfest this year, for the most part, showed their poetry, their soul, their hopes and their dreams and their conscience, above and beyond the litany of mysogeny and insult that is far-too-often a huge part of these genres.  I particularly enjoyed A-1, Towkio, Ty Dolla Sign's performances... I can't say that I'd want any ten-year-old children of mine singing along with some of these songs (go google the lyrics if you want to know why), but I did enjoy the shows.

A-1 at TBD 2015
A-1 (Adam Traore), TBDfest 2015
(I don't know about Sacramento's Death Grips. I arrived to their end of the festival ground late in the set, entranced by the ballet happening between Purity Ring and Death Grips' stages. I couldn't see anyone's face in the back-lit dark, and the only word I understood was "California". I obviously missed something special... Will have to check them out another time.)

Death Grips
Death Grips, TBDfest 2015
(I still don't understand the droopy-pants-showing-your-nice-underwear thing. Heck, I admire you if you can run and jump with your pants somehow staying magically suspended just short of revealing everything, because it must be about as tricky as running in sand while wearing stilettos, but... I still want to offer to buy you a belt, and/or braces/suspenders, and/or The Right Size Trousers. The falling-down-pants-style has to be about as useful a fashion as bustles were to women, and only half as practical as codpieces were to men. I really don't get it. Maybe someone could help explain?)

Chance The Rapper
Chance The Rapper, TBDfest 2015
See all the photos for each of these performers at this year's TBDfest here, by clicking on their names, or by clicking on the individual images above:

A-1 (Adam Traore)
Chance The Rapper
Death Grips
Mobb Deep
Towkio
Ty Dolla Sign (TY$)
Tyler The Creator

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