Things used to be so simple. June hit, summer vacation started, and you had all day to do whatever you wanted for three months — even if all you wanted to do was nothing at all. Things were even simpler in the time period depicted in the video for Toro Y Moi‘s new Kevin Abstract-featuring song “Heaven,” before computers were the size of Pop Tarts, fit in your pockets, and demanded your attention all hours of the day and night.
Even friendships were easier; the youthful stand-ins for Toro and his childhood friend run through flower-dappled fields and splash in ponds in the wilderness surrounding their suburban housing development. It’s cute and innocent — sure, the seeds of a later romance can be seen, but for now, these kiddos are more concerned with enjoying their idyllic summer days to their fullest.
“Heaven” is the second single from Toro’s upcoming album Hole Erth, following his June track “Tuesday,” another nostalgic look at the singer-producer’s laid-back childhood. That seems to be the running theme for Hole Erth, which is due on September 6 via Dead Oceans and features appearances from Don Toliver, Duckwrth, Kenny Mason, and more.
You can watch Toro Y Moi’s “Heaven” video featuring Kevin Abstract and Lev above.
Hole Erth is out 9/6 via Dead Oceans. You can find more info here.
Over the course of his career, Toro Y Moi has followed his muse to some pretty interesting places, from chillwave to synth-pop, house, R&B, and more. On his next album, Hole Erth, which drops on September 6 on Dead Oceans, he seems to be leaning into a blend of modern alt-pop and the scuzzy SoundCloud rap sound of the past decade. Lending to this impression are features from rappers like Don Toliver, Duckwrth, Kenny Mason, and Kevin Abstract, while the rockier, more melodic features include Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard, hyperpop artist Glaive, and synth-pop project Porches, among others.
To kick off the rollout for the album, Toro shared the nostalgic video for “Tuesday,” which reflects on the half-idyllic, half-rebellious teen years of suburban youth. There’s a tongue-in-cheek quality to the lyrics, which toe the line between poking fun at the painfully earnest songwriting of the heyday of Hot Topic and earnestly reproducing it. You can watch the video above and check out the album’s cover and tracklist below.
Toro Y Moi
01. “Walking In The Rain”
02. “CD-R”
03. “HOV”
04. “Tuesday”
05. “Hollywood” Feat. Benjamin Gibbard
06. “Reseda” Feat. Duckwrth & Elijah Kessler
07. “Babydaddy”
08. “Madonna” Feat. Don Toliver
09. “Undercurrent” Feat. Don Toliver & Porches
10. “Off Road”
11. “Smoke” Feat. Kenny Mason
12. “Heaven” Feat. Kevin Abstract & Lev
13. “Starlink” Feat. Glaive
Over the years, more and more artists have jumped into the music festival game. This week, Aminé joins the likes of Chance The Rapper, Tyler The Creator and J. Cole with The Best Day Ever Festival, coming to his hometown, Portland, Oregon’s Edgefield Lawn on August 10 and 11. Aminé made the announcement in his usual, quirky way, employing a helicopter to announce the lineup in a colorful trailer, which you can watch below.
Naturally, Aminé himself will headline alongside his Kaytraminé collaborator Kaytranada, with a lineup rounded out by avant-garde jazz band BADBADNOTGOOD, breakout Atlanta rap star Karrahbooo, Aminé’s tour DJ MadisonLST, R&B singer Ravyn Lenae, chillwave pioneer Toro y Moi, and Portland rapper 3WayHeff.
Tickets for the festival go on sale beginning on Friday, May 17, at 10 AM PT, at thebestdayeverfest.com.
Aminé
Although Aminé hasn’t put out a new album since 2020’s Limbo, Aminé fans haven’t gone too long without something exciting from the “Caroline” rapper. In 2021, he dropped TwoPointFive, the follow-up to his 2018 mixtape OnePointFive, holding fans over until last year, when he teamed up with Kaytranada to release Kaytraminé. Although Aminé hasn’t announced a new album for 2024, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see him do so before his performance at The Best Day Ever Festival.
Toro Y Moi makes a sonic departure and a spiritual return on his new EP, Sandhills, which he released today. According to the story on the project’s Bandcamp page, the EP is a love letter to Toro’s South Carolina hometown, Columbia, which he recorded after making a pilgrimage to the locales of his past. Rather than the chillwave and synth-funk of his past projects, Sandhills is a folk-pop project marked by banjos and other homages to small-town Americana — without the weird politics. Here’s a quote from Toro’s Bandcamp:
Toro y Moi’s ‘Sandhills’ is both a tender love letter to Chaz Bear’s hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, and a poignant, bittersweet acceptance that one can never really go back home. Recalling Sufjan’s ‘Seven Swans’ or Karen O’s soundtrack work for ‘Where The Wild Things Are,’ these loping folk-pop songs are themselves a sort of Saturn return, reminiscent of Bear’s first handmade CD-Rs as Toro y Moi. Bear gave them out to friends in the earliest days of the moniker, the releases stuffed in the Case Logic visor of their cars, and each listen brings a little more of that detail to life: the mall after which ‘Sandhills’ is named; the teenaged friends spending aimless hours there, full of big ennui and bigger dreams; the late-capitalist decline and empty big box stores of Sandhills today.
The EP is also accompanied by a short film produced by Toro’s high school photography teacher, Katherine Perry, and directed by her husband Steve Daniels, who worked with Toro on a video for his high school band. The film also features his school’s football team and local artist Ernest Lee (aka Chicken Man), who also created the cover art. Sandhills follows Toro’s collaboration with SBTRKT, “Days Go By,” and his 2022 album Mahal, which spawned its own short film co-starring Eric Andre. Toro Y Moi is billed to appear at Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in LA in November.
Watch Toro Y Moi’s Sandhills short film up top (as of writing, it premieres in one hour) and get his EP here.
Just when you thought that we had enough music festivals announced for 2022, San Francisco’s brand new Portola Music Festival has splashed onto the circuit with an incredibly diverse lineup of marquee electronic-leaning dance, pop, and hip-hop crossover acts. This is a seriously stacked lineup with big names at the top like Flume, The Chemical Brothers, Jamie xx, and a #rare performance from MIA.
Pier 80 is the grounds for the inaugural edition of the Goldenvoice-produced two-day festival on September 24th and 25th. Also appearing on the very well-curated bill are acts like Kaytranada, Jungle, Charli XCX, The Avalanches, Caribou, Toro y Moi, James Blake, Four Tet + Floating Points, Caroline Polachek, PinkPantheress, DJ Shadow, Lane 8, Yaeji, Slowthai, The Blessed Madonna, Justin Martin, and more. While late to the party, this is a legit unbelievable lineup.
And while the festival takes place nowhere near San Francisco’s Garden District known as the “Portola,” it’s actually named after the short-lived Portola Festival of 1909, which celebrated San Francisco’s re-opening following the great fire of 1906. Back then, the festival was built around a parade down Market Street. It then disappeared in 1913 for 35 years before re-establishing itself as a series of Mardi Gras-style parades in 1948, and then fading into the abyss in 1950. Now we have a full-on dance party in a refurbished warehouse and tents on a historic pier. Sure.
Check out the lineup poster below and tickets go on sale on Friday, May 20th, here.
Portola Music Fest
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.
Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of April below.
El-P — Fantastic Damage (20th Anniversary Reissue), I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (15th Anniversary Reissue), Cancer 4 Cure (10th Anniversary Reissue)
While El-P is best known today as half of Run The Jewels alongside Killer Mike, he had previously made a name for himself with his own material. He put out three solo albums between 2002 and 2012, with each one of them celebrating a milestone anniversary here in 2022. So, now, El has made those albums available on vinyl for the first time in years, all getting special colored pressings.
Wet Leg has Dave Grohl’s attention and they should have yours, too. The Isle Of Wight duo is fresh off releasing their beloved self-titled debut album, which went No. 1 in the UK and Australia. The album has a lot going on besides viral hit “Chaise Longue,” all of which are sure to be delightful when experienced on a turntable.
Sixth time was the charm for French group M83, as their sixth album, 2012’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, was their most iconic release and biggest success so far. It’s been a decade since the release of the Grammy-nominated album, which has prompted an anniversary reissue, pressed on vibrant orange vinyl and emblazoned with alternate cover art.
Terror Twilight is a truly classic Pavement release and now it’s being given a reissue so in-depth that it necessitates a new title: Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal. This edition of the album has a ton of extras, most notably 28 previously unreleased tracks, consisting of the remastered original album, B-sides, home demos, rehearsal tapes, live recordings, and even the rough tracks from a scrapped session.
Vile recently told Uproxx of his new album, “Basically, I just want it to be as honest as possible. I want the songs to creep up to me. In the older days, I used to think too much. ‘Oh, why am I not writing? Am I going to write a good song?’ None of that matters, because now I like when I’m not writing. I like to be present in whatever I’m doing and then the music comes through inspiration. If you just go about your day, inspiration’s going to strike. I’m not too worried about anything really. I feel like I’ve proved a lot on this album, to be honest. But at the same time, I have nothing to prove.”
Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On (50th Anniversary Reissue)
Motown/UMe
What’s Going On has been at or near the top of so many “best albums of all time” lists that it truly justifies the cliche of needing no introduction. The album is 50 years old now and a new reissue in honor of that milestone is full of treats. Included here are four rare cuts making their vinyl debut, including a previously unreleased “stripped” version of the title track.
Queen is of course Brian May’s biggest claim to fame, but he also had a handful of solo albums following Freddie Mercury’s death. Now, 1998’s Another World has been given new life via a fresh reissue, which, among other goodies, includes Another Disc, a collection of alternative versions, B-sides, and live recordings.
Jack White, perhaps the music industry’s biggest supporter of vinyl, has a new album out, so it’s only natural to pick it up in LP form. Furthermore, Target has an exclusive “moon glow white” pressing of it, which pairs gorgeously with the cover art.
A Tribe Called Quest — The Low End Theory (Vinyl Me, Please reissue)
Vinyl Me, Please
Speaking of prominent figures in the vinyl community, Vinyl Me, Please has been up to a lot lately: Aside from announcing a new pressing plant in Denver, one of the latest albums of the month is a reissue of A Tribe Called Quest’s classic album The Low End Theory, a 2-LP release that is pressed on aesthetically simple and perfect red and green vinyl.
VMP’s monthly album selections are their main attraction, but they have other sorts of exclusive pressings available, too. For example, they’re currently offering an edition of Toro y Moi’s new album Mahal, pressed on “blue jay and white” vinyl. To even further connect this specific pressing with the aesthetics of the album cover, VMP references the bus on the cover by offering a bumper sticker, the sort of clever nod that helps make VMP the best at what they do.
