My Coachella Band Exploration led me to Grimes today. My close the eyes and point sometimes leads to someone I actually know. Grimes is played on the radio constantly and Artboy digs her. I’ve never been a fan, but let me explore and see if that’s changed.
Grimes played Coachella in 2013. I did not see her. Artboy caught her set, and said it was amazing, that she put on a really good show. As the sun was still up, I was probably drinking or eating, or doing something besides seeing a band like taking a nap in the grass. Here’s a video of her playing Coachella in 2013.
So I listened to that whole video and I still wouldn’t go see her instead of eating or drinking based on that, but figured I’d better go listen to her new album.
I totally get why Artboy likes her. She has a cute squeaky voice over dancy indie pop, very reminiscent of the stuff I listened to in high school and college, the flipside of the riot grrl movement was this more arthouse electronic not quite dance music that was burgeoning out of dream pop in California and New York but took a few years to catch on before melting into electroclash. You can hear the Bikini Kill in her music and the Le Tigre and some Shonen Knife or Bjork, among all the other crazy influences. I loved my girls doing this 20-plus years ago when Indie music was otherwise so boring. I was really into this kind of pop at one point and I don’t dislike it now, but I fall back on Lush (who I really only mention because they are also playing Coachella, squeeeee). At some point everything on the radio started to sound the same.
Over all, based on the videos posted online only, I think I like Grimes more than I did in 2013, but I don’t know if I will see her or not. Sun, heat, conflicts, truffle hamburgers, margaritas….her videos are amazing and I might add a couple of her new songs to running playlist.
Grimes the person, Claire Boucher, seems amazing and someone I would be friends with if I was still cool, instead of being a hermit in Seattle, and still made new friends that were insanely creative and taking over the world.
