End of the Road Festival 2016
photo by Christopher Jesse Jaure

End of the Road Festival 2016 part 1 pics: The Shins (who played new songs), Cat Power, Animal Collective & more

photos by Christopher Jesse Juarez

We’re all sick of hearing that stuff is ‘Lynchian’, but off-kilter electro-pop musician U.S. Girls provides the Dictionary definition with a cabaret-style set in which she shimmies into a bright red, sequinned gown and skull cap, while at various points a cornball cowboy in a cream Stetson wanders on to shred guitar. The best bit is when she tells the guitarist to fuck off when he’s not needed. It’s pure theatre, and appears to have the audience by turns bewildered and transfixed, which is presumably just what she wanted. [NME]

Annual English music festival End of the Road recently went down in Larmer Tree Gardens, from August 31 to September 3. We’ve got pictures of the first two days in the gallery above, including Animal Collective, Cat Power, Eleanor Friedberger, Ezra Furman, Phosphorescent, Savages, Stealing Sheep, The Shins, Whitney, U.S. Girls, and more.

The Shins, who have said their new album will be out in 2017, debuted two new songs at the festival, one called “Dead Alive” and one called “Rubber Balls.” The band also revealed in an interview with Portland’s KBOO that “Coachella was a factor in [their] label wanting to postpone the release of the record,” so that probably means we can expect to see them at Coachella 2017. Here’s the setlist of their End of the Road set, via The Line of Best Fit: