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Nation Of Language and Blonde Redhead
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
Four years on from the release of their unexpectedly self-assured debut album, NYC-based Nation of Language has attracted a rapidly growing international audience via their danceable and impassioned take on new wave, post-punk & shoegaze genres. Following the critical acclaim of their first LP Introduction, Presence, its 2021 follow-up A Way Forward pushed them to a wider audience — landing them their late-night TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a string of sold-out tours — and their 2023 record Strange Disciple has continued this momentum, landing Rough Trade's coveted #1 album of the year spot. Now a mainstay atop lists of the best live acts of recent years, the band continues to charge synth-first into their latest chapter as a major festival draw at recent iterations of Austin City Limits Festival, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo and many others.
Moving from Sonic Youth-like art punk to eclectic pop over the course of their decades-long career, Blonde Redhead remained one of indie rock's most creative acts. The band formed in 1993 after Japanese art students Kazu Makino and Maki Takahashi randomly met Italian twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace at an Italian restaurant in New York. (The name was taken from a song by the '80s no wave band DNA.) With Makino and Amedeo on guitars and vocals, Simone on drums, and Takahashi on bass, the band's chaotic, artistic rock caught the attention of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, who produced and released the band's debut album, Blonde Redhead, on his Smells Like Records label. Shortly after the album's release, Takahashi left the band. The remaining members continued as a trio, releasing a second album, La Mia Vita Violenta, on Shelley's label in 1995.