YACHT performs at Songbyrd Music House on Jan. 15, 2020. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Editor: We have updated this post with more photos of YACHT performing at Rough Trade NYC on Jan. 18, 2020!
Inspired in part by an application called the Verbasizer offered by David Bowie in the ’90s, synthpop trio YACHT wrote an album in collaboration with an AI program last year.
YACHT performed the appealing results in its entirety at Songbyrd Music House recently, offering the 10 new wave tracks of Chain Tripping live in reverse order of the record. And interestingly, the songs sounded like something that could have sprung directly from a Bowie collaboration with Brian Eno in the ’70s.
Yacht (Credit: Neurography by Mario Klingemann, Training photos by Jaclyn Campanaro)
Disco punks YACHT recently released Chain Tripping — the band’s seventh LP and third for DFA — after recording it between Marfa, Texas, and the band’s home in Los Angeles. The 10 songs are unlike anything YACHT has ever made: pop experiments from a sideways dimension coaxed into their studio through a portal opened by machine intelligence.
Chain Tripping received a Grammy nomination for Best Immersive Audio Album in the 2020 Grammy Awards, and YACHT performs the album in full at Songbyrd Music House on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
Kristie Di Lascio fronts Loi Loi at Rock and Roll Hotel on Jan. 19, 2018.
Led by Kristie Di Lascio, DC trio Loi Loi served up a strong synthpop brew opening Yacht at Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday. (Read our Parklife DC review of Yacht!)
Claire Evans fronts Yacht at Rock and Roll Hotel on Jan. 19, 2018. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Around nearly midnight, Claire Evans called out from the stage at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday: “How much time is left?” she asked.
“Five minutes!” the audience responded, informing Claire that the federal government would shut down any time now.
“It’s like fucked-up New Year’s!” Claire quipped to everyone, turning to her bandmates in Yacht on stage behind her. “Let’s enjoy the last five minutes of social services we have left.”
Yacht have dropped Strawberry Moon, a surprise EP, and announced a winter tour! The disco-punk trio will perform at Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday, Jan. 19, and tickets for that show went on sale today.
It’s Gary Numan’s Day on the third day of Moogfest 2016. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Saturday, May 21, could have been Gary Numan Day in Durham, NC, as the Moogfest headliner had quite a day there. First, he received the 2016 Moog Innovation Award in an afternoon ceremony, and then he performed the third of three concerts a few hours later at Fletcher Hall in the Carolina Theatre.
Sadly, I couldn’t make Gary’s award ceremony as the 2pm time conflicted with a Moogfest show by Gwenno, who was high on my “to see” list for the synthesizer festival.
Toward the end of her show, Welsh songstress Gwenno apologized for the sad lyrics of songs on her debut solo album, Y Dydd Olaf, which after all was inspired by a Welsch dystopian science fiction novel of the same name from 1976. (The title translates as “the last day.”)
Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange performs at Motorco Park in Durham, NC, on Thursday, May 19.
As I disembarked a shuttle to downtown Durham outside The Carolina Theatre, the sounds of a protest against North Carolina’s House Bill 2 greeted me last Thursday. A group on the corner shouted out against a new law they saw as discriminatory against sexual identity.
As I peered up and down the street, a growing yet small southern city unfolded before me. I wasn’t in DC any longer.
Moogfest, the premier music festival dedicated to the synthesizer, moved across North Carolina to a new home in Durham this year for four days of performances, classes, talks, and exhibits over May 19-22, 2016, and it drew me there largely to cover many of its concert performances. But it’s impossible to ignore the time and place of such a festival, particularly when the Moogfest organizers themselves protested the passage of HB 2 and particularly when the attendees for the “festival of the future” are as diverse as those descending upon Durham.
This time around, a few of the artists are the same but many of them are quite different. Take for example synthpop icon Gary Numan, who will conduct a three-night residency at Moogfest 2016 in Durham, NC, presumably May 19, 20, and 21. Gary will perform three of his classic albums -– Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, and Telekon -– over three nights.
Gary Numan will play three performances at Moogfest 2016, each dedicated to a different classic album. (Photo courtesy BB Gun)
Moogfest 2016: Initial Details Revealed!
In 2016, the top music festival for celebrating the synthesizer returns to North Carolina. Moogfest 2016, named for Dr. Bob Moog and his innovative synthesizers, will come to Durham, NC, from Thursday, May 19, to Sunday, May 22, 2016. In Durham, the festival will encompass 17 different venues across the core downtown area of the city.
This year’s festival, the 10th Moogfest, will feature headliners Gary Numan (for a three-night residency) and GZA (for two-night residency), as well as Odesza, Laurie Anderson, Oneohtrix Point Never, Suzanne Ciani, Blood Orange, and Sun Ra Arkestra, with keynotes by transhumanist pharma tycoon Dr. Martine Rothblatt and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier.
Watch comedian Reggie Watts announce the lineup for Moogfest 2016:
The rest of the festival includes more than 100 music acts, such as Explosions in the Sky, Sunn O))), The Orb, Daniel Lanois, DJ Harvey, Tory Lanez, Robert Hood, Simian Mobile Disco, Ben Frost, Floating Points, King Mez, Kode9, Hundred Waters, Empress Of, Mad Professor, Mike Dean, Moses Sumney, Mac McCaughan, Lunice, Ryan Hemsworth, Tim Hecker, and YACHT!
Moogfest 2016 offers a range of activities for day and night. By day, festival-goers can explore tech and art with a conference consisting of panels, workshops, and displays. By night, revelers indulge in performances by synthpop pioneers and newcomers alike.
If that doesn’t sound enticing enough yet, Laurie Anderson will host a daytime conversation as well as a night-time performance. Blood Orange will present a performance of future soul. Brian Eno protégé Daniel Lanois will experiment with ambient sounds. GZA leads the biggest hip hop presence at Moogfest ever with artists like Lunice, Tory Lanez, Denzel Curry, Dr. Dre protégé King Mez, and Well$.
Ryan Hemsworth brings together a crew of international DJ/producer friends for a kick-off party. And in a segment that is free and open to the public, DJ Lance Rock and Yo Gabba Gabba bring guest hosts Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO, Bootsy Collins, DJ Nanny Canteloupe, thereminist Dorit Chrysler, and others to celebrate electronic music for kids.
Moogfest 2016
The City of Durham, NC
Thursday, May 19-Sunday, May 22, 2016
Exact schedule TBA
$249 General Admission; $499 VIP
$1,000 Engineer VIP includes two-day synth-building workshop
All ages
Steve Norman of Spandau Ballet was a star player at the 9:30 Club on April 28, 2015. (Photo by Joy Asico)
When I look back upon 2015, I certainly discovered my share of new favorite bands. But I have to confess, the best shows of the year were dominated by legacy bands returning to reclaim their pop thrones. And so the shows I am most excited about in 2015 were generally those shows where a genre-defining artist came back to DC and absolutely mastered their art.
But I’ll add this postscript: 2015 also was the year of the punk rock girl, as several notable bands reminded me of how much I like a woman’s voice over a bit of surf or rockabilly guitar. I’ll explain more after my official list of Parklife DC Top 10 Concerts of 2015.
YACHT performs at Songbyrd Music House on Jan. 15, 2020. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
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