a FYF Fest guide (more than LCD, Grimes, Kendrick, Tame Impala & Beach House)

UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS: It’s no secret that there are tons of metal bands who would appeal to non-metalheads (and vice versa), and the separation between those two worlds often is due more to record labels and tour packages than what the music sounds like. If garage rocker Ty Segall is one of the reasons you bought a ticket to this fest, we just wanted to make sure you were also thinking about checking out the only “metal” band on the fest, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. The UK band blends the stoner-y riffs of Sabbath and Blue Cheer with Revolver-era Lennonesque vocals. It’s a very similar approach to a handful of Ty’s songs (especially his Fuzz stuff), and it should really just appeal to any fans of psychedelic rock. [Andrew Sacher]

SAVES THE DAY (playing ‘Stay What You Are’): Emo is back and no festival is immune. It seems like every major fest at least books one band that scratches the itch of the genre’s late ’90s / early ’00s era (whether it’s a veteran or a new band bringing back that sound), and FYF got a pretty great one this year. Saves the Day have already played their most classic album Through Being Cool in full on tour, and now they’re doing a one-off performance of that album’s followup, Stay What You Are. Apologies in advance to the emo purists, but I’d argue Stay What You Are is even better than TBC, and the rarity of this set makes it even more of a must-see. It came right in between TBC and the band’s artiest album, In Reverie, and it’s pretty much the perfect middle ground between those two styles. Opener “At Your Funeral” is as classic as ’00s emo gets, closer “Firefly” may be the band’s most bangin’ banger, and there’s nothing skippable in between. [A.S.]

KAMAIYAH: What’s your 2016 Song of The Summer? “One Dance”? “Can’t Stop The Feeling”? Something too cool and obscure for the radio like Car Seat Headrest? Might we suggest Kamaiyah’s “How Does It Feel?,” which technically came out in the fall of 2015 but continues to pick up steam and has sounded great blasting in this summer’s warm weather. (Not to mention she’s on another of the year’s true hits, YG & Drake’s “Why You Always Hatin?.”) Her live show isn’t fully there yet, but her mixtape is one of the year’s best albums and we don’t think you’ll regret being able to say you saw her early on. [A.S.]

HEAD WOUND CITY: Head Wound City have the kind of lineup that people come up with in barstool conversations. As if two members of The Locust and two members of The Blood Brothers weren’t crazy enough, HWC threw in Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner just to make things even freakier. As you may expect, their sound is spastic and definitely built for a live setting. The fact that we can see them now is also sort of a miracle. They were initially around for just one EP and one show in 2005, but now they have a great full length and they play semi-regularly. [A.S.]

ALEX G: Alex G hails from the bandcamp-bred Northeast DIY rock scene, and like a lot of artists in that scene, he marries a slacker aesthetic to a prolific work ethic. He’s been on a steady rise for a while now, but his profile just got a major boost when he contributed guitar to a handful of songs on Endless, one of two just-released Frank Ocean albums. You can especially feel Alex’s influence on “Slide On Me,” so if you like that song, do yourself a favor and catch Alex’s set at FYF. [A.S.]

WOLF PARADE: Any festival with the reunited LCD Soundsystem is probably a fun one to attend this year, but they aren’t the only band who got back in action after five years for mid-2000s indie geeks to freak out over. Wolf Parade are back too, and their return has truly felt triumphant. Their NYC shows back all had the crowds bouncing around and the band sounded fantastic and looked truly glad to be back. Old favorites like “I’ll Believe In Anything” were huge singalongs and headier stuff like “Kissing The Beehive” was still mesmerizing. Not to mention they have new songs and those are good too. This is a band we really need to stick around. [A.S.]

TODD TERJE & THE OLSENS: Listening to a track like terrific single “Inspector Norse” you might think Todd Terje wouldn’t be much to see live. But with his band The Olsens, his live show rivals LCD Soundsystem and Soulwax in terms of how dance music should be performed in from of a crowd: everything played live with lots of acoustic instrumentation, including all manner of percussion instruments, not to mention sax and flute (and no laptops). It helps that Terje’s music is so much fun to begin with, embracing ’70s and ’80s cheese (some of it borders on game show themes) and making into into the highest end fondue. And when the dancers come out for “Inspector Norse,” forget about it. [Bill Pearis]

HOP ALONG: If Wolf Parade is the type of indie rock you like, there are a good amount of newer, smaller bands that’d be right up your alley. One of the best, Hop Along, play this festival. Singer Frances Quinlan’s voice is really a powerhouse and not like much else. The lyrics and melodies really stick with you quickly, and the rest of the band gives her a very strong backbone — especially those classic-style solos from Joe Reinhart. [A.S.]

CHELSEA WOLFE: Festivals are about fun under the sun, but sometimes you need a dose of darkness to counteract it all. Thankfully there’s Chelsea Wolfe, who feels like she emerged from the underworld and continues to progress her sound in interesting ways. She’s put out distortion-covered lo-fi, haunting dark folk, doomy near-metal songs, and more. Last year’s Abyss is another winner, and makes it clear that she still has plenty to say. [A.S.]

JULIEN BAKER: Even if you’ve never heard a single note of Julien Baker’s music, we feel pretty confident you’ll be won over by her live set. She usually plays with nothing more than a clean electric guitar and her voice, and we’ve seen her silence huge crowds when playing in between much louder bands. It’s a simple but truly undeniable live show, and with the power of her songwriting, embellishment is hardly ever needed. She seems to get bigger every month, and we won’t be surprised if she returns to FYF (or other festivals) with a much bigger font size in a year or two. Catch her now so you can say you did. [A.S.]

AIR: Use of proggy analog synthesizer tones is prevalent in music these days (hello Stranger Things soundtrack), but when Air released Premiers Symptômes in 1997 it was anything but au courant. With vocoder and strings helping soundtrack their retro-future bachelor pad motif, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel created an out-of-time sound that still sounds otherworldly, as their new career-spanning compilation Twentyears attests. Having not toured in five years, their FYF appearance is only one of a couple U.S. shows. Their live band is killer, and moog-heavy spacerock jams like “La Femme D’Argent,” “Playground Love” and “Sexy Boy” — played through a big sound system — may send you into outer space. [B.P.]

SHELLAC: Shellac have been quietly making bracingly loud, angular punk records since the early ’90s. “Quietly” in that guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini isn’t so much a believer in things like publicists and music videos and things like that. But Shellac’s six albums, full of flinty bass, sharp guitar turns and pummeling drums, hold up remarkably well. Shellac remain fierce live, and you can say “I saw the band of the guy who made all my favorite ’90s alt-rock albums.” [B.P.]

GRACE JONES: Supermodel, actress, and singer, Grace Jones is above all an iconoclast who is cooler now at 68 than any of us will ever be. Ever. She also continues to be an imposing badass on stage who can pull of the kind of costumes (or lack of) that would look ridiculous on anyone else. Likewsie, she switches music styles with equal elan, making reggae, post-punk, disco and pop her own. There’s no one else like her. [B.P.]

Banks & Steelz.