Real and Immediate

The New Colossus Festival is in full swing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It started on Tuesday, but the best is yet to come, including a massive all-day Sunday lineup. If you are in NYC, consider going! Daytime shows are free, so you can enjoy lots of music without a badge.

Some people think that independent venues are dead and you have to go to TikTok to find the next big act. Others, like Seth Godin, say that we should wrestle our agency back from the algorithms tuned to serve the commercial interests of the media.

Music discovery does not get less algorithmic than the New Colossus Festival. You check the schedule on a delightfully static website (or grab a paper brochure,) go to a venue, and have the real, immediate experience right there. If the music is not to your taste, walk a few minutes and see someone else in a different venue and on a different stage.

But you make all the choices and not a computer that believes it knows your tastes and likes better than yourself.

On Tuesday, we headed to Pianos, which serves as the HQ of New Colossus, to see a few acts. Among them were Lille Venn, the band of Norwegian rocker Kristiane Lunde, and Welsh synth-pop artist Chloe Davis, aka twst. We chatted with Chloe after the show, which reminded us of the beauty of independent shows: the artists are not (yet) larger than life, and you can experience their energy and excitement up close.

Yesterday, we defied a torrential rain storm and checked out the M For Montreal party at Drom, another showcase festival on our radar. There, we saw Amery perfectly showcasing the kind of art pop associated with Montreal.

Back at Pianos, we had a trifecta of fantastic bands, Red Ribbon from LA, Scattered Ashes from Dublin, and Dictator from Scotland.

Check out some music from the two first days in our glamglare favorites playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

And that was just a short, casual evening filled with live shows because we had to be home early. So come and join us tonight for the next round of great live shows. See you there!

glamglare favorites

Listen to glamglare favorites on Spotify, Apple Music, or below on YouTube.

• Lille Venn - Bite Me
• Dictator - HL7
• twst - Are You Filming Me?
• Scattered Ashes - Kingdom
• Red Ribbon - Crying My Car

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on [YouTube](Link Here). Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features, or subscribe here to receive them in your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

"I know you want to run, I know you do, but there's no other way than straight through." The London musician Greentea Peng gives good advice in her new song "Green." The new exuberant track “Dancing Don’t Feel Right” by Bristol quartet Adult Leisure is "about the urge to let loose, to break out of the mold and do the bad thing." The Berlin duo strongboi has a new sun-drenched song, "be mine, “ inviting you to day-dream. An EP with the same name will follow. The words of "Could You Love Me?" you would usually yell at your partner, but elijah woods is a singer/songwriter, so he wraps them into a pop song, which may be much more effective. The London singer/producer Sølv released a gorgeous new single, "Nightmare-1000,” which is not as dark as the title suggests. “Dreaming,” the new song by Dutch Mustard, reflects the intensity of the early stages of a relationship.

A forgotten media format inspired Miynt to write the new single “Blu-Ray Land,” which is about “ high-definition resolutions in lo-fi relationships." Her new album is due in May.

New Albums Out This Week

Tomorrow, the Icelandic singer/songwriter Arny Margret releases her new album I Miss You, I Do, which was recorded in studios in the US and Iceland with various producers. "The main thing I wanted for this album was for it to be different," she says.

Nine Photos From Our First Day in Lisbon

Portugal’s airline [[TAP]] flies direct from New York to Lisbon in only seven to eight hours, but because the route leads mostly over water, it can get quite bumpy, yet in the end, the trip is all worth it. Lisbon is just magnificent!

To our surprise, and then again not, one of our two suitcases didn’t make it, and my first guess was confirmed: a fellow passenger had hastily grabbed “the first four suitcases,” as he explained to me on the phone. After several phone calls to the airport, explaining that we didn’t want the suitcase delivered two days later, while only staying for six days in total, we could eventually make the relatively short metro ride (less than 45 minutes) to the airport and pick the missing piece up there. Between all that, we went grocery shopping, equipped our Bohemian-style pad with everything necessary to feel at home, and enjoyed a savory breakfast on the little patio. The construction site (photo 2) in the Rua do Prata offered us a tranquil experience, as the tram couldn’t rattle through the street, and neither did the hordes of tourists. The last photo shows a glimpse of Rossio Square at night, but please stay tuned for a few more impressions from Lisbon to come. Enjoy!