We’re not quite ready to say the city’s festival season is wrapping up, but we’re not gonna hold back from advising that you get your shit in beer-gear as soon as humanly possible and start really packing it in for the tail end of summer. This weekend Out in the Streets convenes in Ridgewood for the third year in a row and they’ve been holding out on announcing their headliner until this past weekend. So in case you missed it, ogle the top of that lil flyer there and you’ll notice that Mr Twin Sister (the band formerly known as Twin Sister) has joined the pack of some of the best indie acts the area has to offer.
Mr Twin Sister’s been around for a minute, but they’ve updated their sound enormously from their circa 2010 straightforward, quiet indie rock propelled by plucky guitars and a devotion to dreamy pop ditties to the dance-worthy, muted synth electronic arrangements they dropped last year at about this time on their self-titled album. Comparisons to The Knife were not unwarranted.
But as of this summer they band has a new single out, “The Erotic Book,” which we’re just wildly guessing bodes well for more new material. Who knows, guys — maybe they’ll whip out at Out in the Streets.
This being a festival, there’s a host of other acts to keep you entertained. We’re quite taken with the heavy psych offerings from Heliotropes (playing on Sunday), a band that reminds us of a riffier Magik Markers.
Then there’s Wild Yaks (look for ’em on Saturday) which is an act as cute as it sounds. Think brass, vocal harmonies, and swing-sway heart string stuff a la Arcade Fire, which is definitely a band that people like.
We can’t say we much, much identify with the Yak’s sense that “Rejoice! God Loves” us, but we’re right there with Lushes’ “Service Industry,” a dark ode to, you guessed it:
To familiarize yourself even more with the lineup, tune into Newtown Radio around 3 pm today (it’s Monday, you’re welcome) — the local radio station will be broadcasting tunes by participating artists.
Besides the killer lineup, what’s really appealing about Out in the Streets is the picturesque location. The Onderdonk House, a museum and Dutch Colonial-era home built around 1700, is one of those spots in the city you probably would have never known existed.
The building itself represents an interesting historical dilemma that was officially settled in 1769 by the placement of an enormous rock, but persists to this day in a certain sense: the boundary between Kings and Queens County (i.e. the divide between Ridgewood and Bushwick, the no man’s land to which the Times has desperately tried to attach that ol’ mouth-melter “Quooklyn”). The fest will obviously cram onto the grounds rather than inside the wee cottage, but trust– it’s a really pleasant setting for a festival.
And because people like to gorge on fancy delicious food before, during, and after they do all kinds of horrible things to their body in the name of dancing amongst strangers, Out in the Streets will also have a mad lineup of vendors to satisfy your noms. Expect offerings from Archie’s pizza, Montana’s Trail House, Miles, Faro, Cafe Ghia, Norma’s, and beer from Narragansett.
Out in The Streets gets underway Saturday August 1st and runs through Sunday August 2nd, Tickets: full weekend pass, $35 (includes free entry to after party), Saturday or Sunday only $20