If you’re an avid concertgoer, then you’ll definitely know that there are some music festivals with great lineups coming up all over. While we often know the headliners, there are so many smaller names that put on great shows on stage. Music festivals are one of the best ways to get to know lesser-known artists since you can walk from stage to stage and see concerts that interest you, even if you aren’t familiar with the artist. So, in honor of music festival season, YEM wanted to make this New Music Friday playlist with a bunch of smaller names that will be taking the stage at festivals coming up!
Singer and bassist who made a name for herself on TikTok, Blu DeTiger, will be performing at the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas, alongside big names such as Arctic Monkeys and Jack Harlow. Her song “Blutooth” is a great summer track, and you can definitely jam to the funky, seamless bassline and catchy vocals! Keeping to the trend of smaller artists who utilized TikTok, we have PinkPantheress with “Pain.” You can catch her at Austin City Limits festival and can definitely count on her hyperpop-ish style of music and great stage presence to lead to a great show!
Omar Apollo has been an up-and-coming artist on a lot of people’s radar within the past few years, as his Latin indie has broken through language barriers and appealed to any audience. His song “Useless” appeared on his album Apolonio and has a super catchy guitar riff; combined with the varying vocal styles he uses, it’s definitely a fun track to listen to! You can also catch him at ACL. Speaking of catchy riffs, we added Gus Dapperton’s song “Gum, Toe and Sole.” The song starts off with a repeating vocal track and builds from there. Gus will be performing at Firefly Music Festival alongside multi-talented rapper, Princess Nokia, who you can hear “I Like Him” from.
Lollapalooza is always a super popular festival, where indie-rockers Last Dinosaurs and flipturn, who sing upbeat summer tracks, “Collect Call” and “August,” got a spot on the lineup and put on great shows. On theme with indie-rock. ROSTAM and Briston Maroney will be at Outside Lands festival. ROSTAM’s song “Bike Dream” is a great track that combines hyperpop with indie rock, while Briston Maroney’s “Freakin’ Out on the Interstate” has some sonic build-up that’ll make you just want to scream the lyrics in the car!
Experimental indie rapper, Yung Bae, also has some great songs of the summer, namely “Cool With Me.” It has a funky beat, backing track, and trumpets. Singer-songwriter Ezra Furman also loves trumpet or saxophone in her songs, which you can hear in her upbeat, yet profound song, “Lousy Connection.” Both Yung Bae and Ezra will be at Firefly Music Festival!
If you’re into EDM and R&B, you can take a listen to Black Coffee’s song “Drive,” which is a mix featuring David Guetta and Delilah Montagu on vocals – you can catch him at III Points Festival in Miami! On the genre of R&B, Erica Banks and Remi Wolf have been trailblazing the genre. Erica combines R&B with rap, which you can hear in her song “Down,” featuring Tyler Royale, while Remi often has a mix of R&B, reggae, and indie in her songs, which is notable in “Disco Man.” You can see Erica at Rolling Loud and Remi at Corona Capital Festival.
