Secondhand Setlists

What a time to be a music listener.

The panna cotta remains ongoing, and recent efforts by certain states to open up(?!) mean that it’s not going to get any better anytime soon. Because of this, you are not currently spending money on concerts or travel (or at least, you shouldn’t be – but that’s your choice to go to a 1/3 filled Bowery Ballroom show). With a few free bucks in your pocket, why not support a few artists on Bandcamp Friday, where all funds go directly to the artist?

Deep Dickollective

In recent quests to update my overall knowledge of queer and women-lead hip hop (Clover Hope’s The Motherlode has been great for this), I’ve found myself drawn into acts like Freaky Boiz and Deep Dickollective. The latter, an 11-member group also known as D/DC, rose in Bay Area during the early to mid-aughts. With The Key (Sissies​)​:​The Very Best of Deep Dickollective gives a great introduction to the group, who rap about police violence against queer couples (“Red Lipstick”) with the same intensity as they do the the particular of bent wrists (“Straightrippin’,” “We Out”). They even trashed liberals long before the rise radical left Twitter and TikTok’s bite-sized eviscerations of capitalism. Had they debuted today, I’m sure there’d be many more eyes on them.

DJ Skat

For those who enjoy lo-fi hip hip (re: everyone), DJ Skat covers your bases, and then some. Not just for studying and journaling, an album like FRO PICKIN’ is just as much for hip-swaying and grooving. It helps that Skat keeps the strings plucked and moving across the album, which range in tone from funk to indie rock to neo-soul. Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for upbeat, melodic disco/funk, and “Hope” and “Justa” fit right into my interests; the former even adds a few strings in the midsection to imbue a little extra class as I swing my ass. The excellently titled “LIL BITTA” is anything but, a bass-heavy song whose short length is the only thing I’m bitter about.

Bali Baby

I feared Bali Baby, musician and entrepreneur, gave up the former for the latter, but her return with “Freestyle” alleviated some fears. While that song unfortunately hasn’t made it to Bandcamp, her magnificent 2018 project Baylor Swift is. Devious and exaggerated, this album lets you play as the villain, speeding down major streets (“Backseat”) and raining destruction (“Electrical”). Among the growing, and somewhat hard to define “hyperpop” scene, this felt like a precursor to today. An equal match to her synth rock skills are her MC skills, fully displayed on Resurrection (whose album art rocks the plastic package aesthetic long before it got hyperpop’d). She fully embraces exaggeration, adorning her production with her trademark “Mwah!” alongside giggles and lines as ridiculous as, “Yes I’m poppin’ just like I am a can.” Not that you’d laugh in the face of someone singing a song like “Shots” as they stare you dead in the eye.

Jup do Bairro

When stans stay “Come to Brazil,” the hidden implication of that statement is “there’s so much fun to be had here.” A hotspot for musicians, including a vibrant LGBTQ scene (Badsista, GA31), the country boasts draws that others simply can’t. Jup Do Bairro, a collaborator of Linn da Quebrada and Badsista, is one such musician, with a voice made to command the room. I can’t stop listening to the hook in “O Corre,” which runs through my head much like the title itself. On the flipside of that song’s romp and circumstance is “TRANGRESSÃO,” a thoughtful, melodic introduction to Jup’s CORPO SEM JUÍZO (Body Without Judgement). Metalheads get a taste of their interests on “PELO AMOR DE DEIZE” (For the Love of Deize), with its towering guitars and bass, elements that gradually fade into a dreamy R&B atmosphere. It’s a varied body of work from someone who challenges the very idea of what the “body” can be, and for that it is worth giving a listen.