Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Pageant is simply across the nook, bringing a few of the most enjoyable names in rock and pop to the Parc del Fòrum from Could 30 to June 1. This 12 months’s headliners embody Lana Del Rey, Pulp, the Nationwide, FKA Twigs, SZA, Disclosure, Justice, Mitski, Phoenix, PJ Harvey, and Vampire Weekend, and with over 150 artists on the invoice, it’s not simple choosing even only a tenth of them for our record of the must-see acts on the competition. Clearly, you must see these headliners you probably have the possibility, particularly with Lana Del Rey, Mitski, and Vampire Weekend having put out a few of their greatest materials up to now 12 months, however we’re narrowing the record right down to non-headline acts. Even then, there’s some notable names we’ve needed to miss, together with Clipse’s solely European present and a uncommon reside efficiency from Jai Paul. However that can assist you navigate this 12 months’s program, listed below are 15 acts we’re excited to see at Primavera Sound Barcelona 2024.
Beth Gibbons
Portishead’s Beth Gibbons is supporting the discharge of her debut solo album, Lives Outgrown, with a uncommon tour, and Primavera Sound is one in all its first stops. Portishead haven’t put out any music since 2008’s Third (which they showcased on the Barcelona competition that 12 months), and Gibbons hasn’t toured solo in over 20 years, however the two singles which have been launched from the report thus far – ‘Floating on a Second’ and ‘Reaching Out’ are mesmerizing. The entire thing comes out Could 17, and whether or not or not you select to spend time with it beforehand, seeing the legendary vocalist reside is bound to ship chills down your backbone.
Bikini Kill
In 2019, Bikini Kill reunited after a 22-year breakup, they usually’ve been enjoying exhibits recurrently ever since. Kathleen Hanna, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail had been set to play the competition in 2021, however the efficiency was cancelled final minute, which I hope doesn’t occur this time – it’s the primary cease of the European leg of their 2024 tour, so pleasure might be excessive. The affect of the riot grrrl motion they helped lead will be felt on most of the acts on the Primavera lineup – one other band on this record, Model Pussy, opened for Bikini Kill final 12 months – and in line with critiques, the band hasn’t misplaced any of its reside ferocity. They’re certain to placed on a robust efficiency, and whether or not you grew up on them or not, listening to their anthems reside needs to be an absolute thrill.
Chelsea Wolfe
Over time, Chelsea Wolfe’s sound has leaned into neofolk, electronica, and doom metallic, however her core aesthetic – one in all darkish magnificence and aching vulnerability – has remained intact. Her newest album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, is marked by her signature melancholy, however blends these completely different components into one in all her most assured releases but. The songs are visceral and hypnotic, however Wolfe’s voice by no means drowns within the environment she creates, her vocals blended increased than traditional, and I’m curious how Wolfe will solid herself on the middle of them in a reside atmosphere. No matter what kind of theatrics she’ll use to amplify them, her songs swell with emotion, and listening to them needs to be a cathartic expertise.
Ethel Cain
Other than a couple of stray tracks, Ethel Cain hasn’t put out any music since her debut LP Preacher’s Daughter, which we named our album of the 12 months in 2022, however she’s an unmissable act at any competition she’s performed since, together with this 12 months’s Coachella. Unsettling, hypnotic, and defiant, her songs abound in doomful, non secular imagery that’s knowledgeable by her strict spiritual upbringing, bearing on themes of affection, homicide, abuse, and intergenerational trauma. A reside present could be the purest and most compelling approach of greedy the persona Hayden Anhedönia has constructed across the challenge, and if her stage presence is sort of as gripping as her storytelling and performances on report, you don’t have any excuse to not be there.
Jessica Pratt
Jessica Pratt simply launched Right here within the Pitch, her first album in 5 years and the most effective information of the 12 months thus far. It accommodates a few of the singer-songwriter’s most entrancing and evocative songs to this point, with melodies which have been swirling in my head for the reason that second I heard them and lyrics that talk on to the soul. In some methods, it’s laborious to think about any of its songs, and even Pratt’s earlier materials, being carried out in entrance of me – so hypnotic and dreamlike of their logic, so ghostly and timeless of their intimacy. However in a competition setting – Pratt will play her first present of the 12 months at Primavera earlier than touring Europe and the UK – it also needs to be a quiet marvel, offering a chance for pause and mild introspection. Even if you happen to’ve traveled a good distance simply to get there, Pratt’s music will transport you someplace else fully.
Joanna Sternberg
Joanna Sternberg’s music is spare, idiosyncratic, and tenderly affecting, earnings followers in everybody from Jeff Tweedy to Phoebe Bridgers, who has known as the singer-songwriter “emo Randy Newman.” One other frequent comparability level, introduced up Primavera itself, is Daniel Johnston, who performed the competition again in 2013. Final 12 months, Sternberg adopted up her debut LP Then I Strive Some Extra with I’ve Bought Me, an album that’s a pleasure to revisit: heartbreaking, brutally trustworthy, and playful, like a good friend serving to you soldier by way of the hardest feelings. “Regardless of what number of instances I sing these songs, there could be one other time I sing it the place I’ve a brand new catharsis,” Sternberg stated in our Artist Highlight interview. You wouldn’t wish to miss it.
Julie Byrne
The Higher Wings, Julie Byrne’s most up-to-date album, is mesmerizing, beautiful, and elegiac, specializing in themes of grief and transformation – round half of the report was written together with her good friend and collaborator Eric Littmann earlier than his premature loss of life on the age of 31. Dazzling of their aliveness, the songs had been additionally knowledgeable by Byrne’s life on the highway, so singing them to a crowd of individuals have to be significantly particular. Her efficiency could be stripped-back and delicate, however anticipate it to even be breathtaking.
Mandy, Indiana
Mixing membership rhythms and industrial noise, Mandy, Indiana – the Manchester quartet of vocalist and lyricist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Honest, synth participant Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall – make punishingly loud, enthralling music, as showcased on their 2023 debut i’ve seen a approach. Caulfield’s vocals vary from whispering to singing to screaming (all in French), whereas the band pulls you into their chaotic world with grooves it then distorts with eerie, ferocious sounds so that you’re by no means positive what they signify. It leaves you with the urge to see them reside only for a glimpse of the way it all comes alive, even if you happen to nonetheless gained’t have the ability to crack the code. To cite Honest: “Simply so you understand, you may wish to put on ear defenders for this.”
Model Pussy
Model Pussy’s newest album, I Bought Heaven, is as intense and hooky as something from the Philadelphia band’s again catalog, however it’s additionally their most collaborative and adventurous album to this point. It’s a potent expression of the band’s multi-dimensional sound, which channels rage and hope by careening by way of indie rock, hardcore, energy pop, and tender punk. Showcasing it alongside highlights from information just like the Good EP and 2019’s Persistence, Marisa Dabice, Kaleen Studying, Collins Regisford, and Maxine Steen are set to placed on a dynamic present that’s equal elements chaos and catharsis.
Militarie Gun
In 2023, Turnstile had been the hardcore band to see at Primavera. This 12 months, it’s Militarie Gun, the Los Angeles band whose tackle the style is extremely melodic and catchy. You may need heard their music ‘Do It Sooner’ on a Taco Bell business, however you must actually hearken to the entire album it’s taken from, Life Underneath the Gun, which refines and tightens the sound Ian Shelton constructed on their early EPs. It’s stuffed with relentless vitality, and there’s little question their reside set might be, too.
Gradual Pulp
Gradual Pulp put out the most effective (classically) indie rock albums of 2023 with Yard, which is filled with nice songs which can be heat, gauzy, and emotive. It won’t be the flashiest set you’ll catch on the competition, however once you’ve obtained these nice songs, you don’t have to do way more than merely showcase them. Extra than simply pleasurable, there’s additionally one thing distinctly summery in regards to the nostalgia and longing baked into the band’s music, making it the right match for a competition like Primavera. Pulp could be proper on the prime if this 12 months’s poster, however Gradual Pulp needs to be in your itinerary, too.
The Final Dinner Occasion
The Final Dinner Occasion managed to reside as much as the hype with their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, and Primavera is an unimaginable likelihood to see them reside – the band launched into a wholly sold-out tour of the US final 12 months earlier than the reocrd even got here out. Given the band’s theatricality, maximalism, and distinctive mix of influences, which vary from ABBA to Kate Bush, it’s no shock they’re identified for delivering thrilling and dynamic performances. Prelude to Ecstasy is stacked with memorable songs, however they’re virtually assured to finish their set with their hottest music, ‘Nothing Issues’, turning it right into a cathartic singalong that’s to not be missed.
Water From Your Eyes
There’s so many layers to unpack once you’re listening to Water From Your Eyes’ newest album, Everybody Crushed, which is admirable in its strategy to each dissonance and pop melody. However as a lot as I (and so many critics) liked that album, one thing tells me that seeing Nate Amos and Rachel Brown reside is the one, and positively the very best, approach to respect their music’s jagged depth. The extra their sound evolves, the extra its cacophony looks like a journey value following, one you’ll wish to bear witness to.
yeule
Yeule is the musical challenge of Nat Ćmiel, who was born in Singapore and is presently based mostly in London. Named after a Remaining Fantasy charater, yeule falls into the class of what the Primavera web page calls “avatar-artists,” evaluating them to acts like Yves Tumor and Grimes which have beforehand carried out on the competition. However yeule is a singular case – a self-identified “cyborg entity” whose music embraces the boundless freedom of the digital type: “Don’t you’re feeling so pure once you don’t have a physique anymore?” they requested on ‘bloobunny’. My guess is that Ćmiel has quite a lot of enjoyable embodying each the physicality and fluidity of the songs in a reside atmosphere, particularly when delivering the extra alt-rock-influenced, shoegazy cuts off their newest album softscars (very similar to Tumor did at Parc del Fòrum final 12 months).
Yo La Tengo
There’s no scarcity of indie rock veterans on the Primavera lineup this 12 months, however Yo La Tengo, not fairly on the prime of that invoice, actually deserve a shout-out. They’d be an act value seeing at any level of their profession, and easily operating by way of highlights from their beloved catalog would make for a rewarding efficiency. However the band’s newest LP, This Silly World, is one in all their sharpest and most dynamic albums in a very long time, and I’d not be disillusioned if it finally ends up dominating their set. The title monitor is what I’m aching to listen to essentially the most; Yo La Tengo songs is probably not the type you sing alongside to the best way, say, Vampire Weekend’s hits are, however listening to, possibly even buzzing alongside to, that chorus – “This silly world/ It’s killing me/ This silly world/ Is all we have now” – needs to be a completely cathartic second.