Outside Lands '15 Rising Acts, Day 2: Django Django, Misterwives, Unknown Mortal Orchestra & More
Day two of San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park had its share of mega-acts, from Kendrick Lamar to the Black Keys to even Billy Idol – the first two frustratingly playing at the same time on competing stages. But the earlier part of the day brought an abundance of indie riches. Listed below are some of the best rising acts of Saturday. Perhaps we’ll see them play their own headlining slots at Outside Landses to come.
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks played the (wait for it) Twin Peaks stage. How meta of them! Of course, with a setup like that, they played the stage like they owned it. The Chicago fuzzy, scuzzy garage-rockers thrilled the small crowd with their unabashedly shambolic, Stooges-meets-Strokes, by-the-seat-of-their-overalls set, and even inspired a mini-moshpit at the ungodly-early festival hour of 12:45 p.m. And the crowd participation didn’t stop there: Band member Clay Frankel borrowed a last-minute guitar from a fan in the audience. “Pretty unf—ingprofessional, if you ask me,” quipped Frankel’s bandmate, Cadien Lake James. “But that’s OK, that’s how we do it.”
Misterwives
The quirky electro-pop buzz band went over so well on the Lands End stage, no one even complained when they halted their crowd-rousing cover of Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” (right at the “stop/wait a minute” mark) to lurch into one of their original tunes. Their frothy, funky sound – part Tom Tom Club, part Miami Sound Machine, part No Doubt, and 100 percent awesome – was the perfect kickoff for a day of fun in the sun, and frontwoman Mandy Lee proved she is a true star, ready for the main stage.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
A sort of KC & The Sunshine Band for the indie-psychedelic crowd, this Kiwi-American collective also evoked Prince, Zeppelin, Hall & Oates, Tahiti 80, Steely Dan, and even a bit of Burt Bacharach (the title track of their new album Multi-Love bears a slight resemblance to “I Say a Little Prayer for You”) during their dizzyingly poly-genre Twin Peaks stage set. While their energy lagged at times (that drum solo wasn’t really necessary), when they brought the jams, they really brought the jams. We can’t think of a better modern-day San Francisco soundtrack than the one by these adventurous disco-hippies.
Django Django
It was perhaps no surprise to find out that Django Django’s drummer/producer, David Maclean, is the brother of the Beta Band’s John Maclean; the Edinburgh College-bred art-rockers’ folktronica showcase boasted a similar tribal, experimental vibe. (Newer fans unfamiliar with Maclean’s pedigree would probably draw comparisons to alt-j, Foals, or Klaxons). But Django Django definitely have their own unique style, equal parts Krautrock and American surf-rock, as evidenced on their excellent new sophomore album, Born Under Saturn – and their heady, percussive set on the Twin Peaks stage, one of the top highlights of the day, showcased a band truly coming into its own.
photos: Getty images
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