Category: Viral

Last Saturday, Lexa Gates was supposed to perform at Governors Ball, her very first music festival. But unfortunately, the morning she was set to play, the fest sent a message to fans: the performances would be delayed and early sets — the ones more likely to feature up and coming acts — would be canceled. When Gates realized her set was one of the performances scrapped from the lineup, she sent a direct and witty (much like her lyricism) message to fans via Instagram: “Sorry, they told me to F off” she captioned a photo of multiple DMs from followers asking if she’d play.

However, the Queens-born singer and rapper took the cancellation in stride, bringing her hometown show to the streets of New York City. On Monday, she played a free show in the middle of Canal Street, blasting her hits from the top of a car. She announced the renegade gig to fans only a few hours before the performance went down, sharing a flyer to Instagram with the caption “(complimentary) pull up. rain or shine.” What’s more New York City than that? “I gotta show love to the people of New York, this is my city,” she tells UPROXX, after the impromptu show. “It was nice to do something anyone could go to free of charge and it made me feel loved to see so many people show up.”

Last Friday, the day before her would-be set, she dropped her latest single “Latency,” — a soulful, honest, hypnotic track produced by Grammy Award-winning producer, Jasper Harris (Baby Keem, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X). The track pontificates on the push and pull of an almost romantic connection, sampling “Tell Me You’ll Wait,” by Hamilton Bohannon, as Gates sings, “I got ideas of you making moves on me, what’s the latency?” It’s a fresh and organic sound, one that could only come from a Gen Z creative with internet access, a push against what’s trend-worthy, and no allegiance to rules. Last year, she released her debut album, Elite Vessel, followed by a sold-out US tour. She’s been making the rounds on ‘who to watch lists,’ and, with an impending next album on the way, it’s safe to say she’ll be making her way up multiple festival line-ups.

We spoke to Gates about “Latency,” her favorite fan interaction so far, and what it means to be from New York City.

Let’s talk about “Latency.” What was the inspiration? How did it come to you?

It’s a term in music, when the microphone isn’t working. It’s a cute romantic song. I made it with Jasper Harris. It was his idea, the beginning that … “I got ideas about you” and then we just ran from there. It was just fun. It’s the only fun song on the album. Everything else is pain.

How do you hope people react to the track when they hear it live or when it drops?

I hope they dance a little bit. I hope they listen, I hope they put it on TikTok.

You shared Elite Vessel last fall. How has it been to have that out in the world?

Amazing. I’m happy people liked it. I was just doing it for fun. I was listening to it this morning actually, and it was really good.

You’re like, “I’m also a fan.”

Yeah, exactly.

I know you just had a sold-out tour. What are some of the memories that you have from playing those shows and interacting with fans?

I remember when I was in Atlanta and there was a girl in the front who was crying the whole time. Looking me in my eyes, just crying. I had to not look at her ’cause she was making me hella emotional.

I wanted to ask about your personal style — from your signature cat eye to the way you deliver your bars. There’s a lot being said about your authenticity, but what is authenticity as an artist to you?

I’m just doing what I want to do and I never really listened to anything new growing up. I just didn’t care about anything or any movies or anything trendy at all. I feel inspired by walking outside and just looking into the world. So I guess moving without fear … that’s what that means to me.

I love that — just being inspired by yourself and not tracking what everyone else is doing.

Yeah, exactly. Not trying to do what other people are doing ’cause it’s popular. You know how when Cash Cobain started doing sexy drill, everybody did sexy drill. I just feel like that’s not a good idea.

What’s inspiring you right now?

I actually feel more into the trends right now. I love Labubus. Being in new environments … I’m also into interior design right now.

Are you making mood boards? Are you decorating your home?

No, no. I’m just going to people’s houses and seeing that they have a bunch of cool things, and I want that too.

What are you most excited about sharing with fans?

This album, I’ve been working on an album for like hella long and it’s just taking a long time to clear everything, but I’m ready to just do full rollout and put everything out.

Without spoiling it, what can we expect from the album?

It’s like an autobiography. It’s a recording of whatever the present moment I was in.

I have to ask, since we were talking about Gov Ball, NYC’s signature fest, what does it mean to be a NYC artist for you?

I don’t wanna necessarily identify myself with anything. I hate when people are like, ‘Oh, you’re a Latina female rapper.’ You know? I’m trying to create my own type of thing. That’s how I feel about it. But obviously it is really important and I’m heavily influenced by my neighborhood and how I grew up. I’m just like the most New York person ever.

What else do you want your fans to know?

I’m dropping an album. In a few months. In a few months. We’ll just keep it vague.

Sabrina Carpenter released her latest album, Short N’ Sweet, last August. Less than a year later, she’s already onto a new album with yesterday’s announcement of Man’s Best Friend. That’s a relatively quick turnaround, but the way Carpenter sees it, she didn’t want to wait to drop a new album just because she might be expected to.

In a new Rolling Stone interview, Carpenter said:

“If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short N’ Sweet much, much longer. But I’m at that point in my life where I’m like, ‘Wait a second, there’s no rules.’ If I’m inspired to write and make something new, I would rather do that. Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years? It’s all about what feels right. I’m learning to listen to that a lot more, instead of what is perceived as the right or wrong move.”

She also shared her mindset ahead of the project’s release, before anybody outside of her circle has heard it yet, saying, “I’m living in the glory of no one hearing it or knowing about it, and so I can not care. I can not give a f*ck about it, because I’m just so excited.”

Read the full feature here.

It’s Bonnaroo time: The four-day festival launches today (June 12). If you’re not going to be down in Tennessee this weekend, though, you can still watch: Some of this weekend’s sets will be streaming on Hulu, including performances from headliners Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler The Creator, Luke Combs, and Hozier (who’s still performing despite his recent illness).

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, meanwhile, are doing the first Roo Residency this year, meaning they’ll be playing three different sets over three days.

If you’re not currently a Hulu subscriber, Hulu’s Bonnaroo landing page also includes a link to sign up for a one-month free trial.

Check out the livestream schedule below. All times are p.m. and CT unless otherwise noted, and the channel where the set will broadcast is noted in parentheses.

Bonnaroo 2025 Livestream Schedule For Thursday, June 12

07:15 — Marcus King (1)
07:05 — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2)
08:20 — Wisp (1)
08:50 — Die Spitz (1)
09:10 — The Red Clay Strays (2)
09:20 — Wilderado (1)
10:10 — Luke Combs (1)
10:30 — Rainbow Kitten Surprise (2)
11:10 — Goose (2)
12:00 a.m. — Joey Valence & Brae (1)
12:45 a.m. — Megadeth (2)
01:05 a.m. — Insane Clown Posse (1)

Bonnaroo 2025 Livestream Schedule For Friday, June 13

07:05 — Cults (1)
07:05 — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2)
07:40 — Foster The People (1)
08:45 — John Summit (1)
09:10 — The Red Clay Strays (2)
10:05 — Marina (1)
10:30 — Rainbow Kitten Surprise (2)
11:10 — Tyler The Creator (1)
11:10 — Goose (2)
12:30 a.m. — Glass Animals (1)
12:45 a.m. — Megadeth (2)

Bonnaroo 2025 Livestream Schedule For Saturday, June 14

07:55 — Dope Lemon (2)
08:15 — Jessie Murph (1)
09:00 — Action Bronson (2)
09:25 — Beabadoobee (1)
10:05 — Wave To Earth (2)
10:30 — Olivia Rodrigo (1)
11:10 — Mt. Joy (2)
12:05 a.m. — Modest Mouse (1)
12:15 a.m. — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2)
01:25 a.m. — Nelly (1)

Bonnaroo 2025 Livestream Schedule For Sunday, June 15

04:10 — Treaty Oak Revival (1)
04:10 — Alexandra Kay (2)
04:35 — Natasha Bedingfield (2)
05:15 — Remi Wolf (1)
05:25 — James Arthur (2)
06:15 — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (2)
06:25 — Alex Warren (1)
07:30 — Vampire Weekend (1)
08:30 — Jack’s Mannequin (2)
08:45 — Queens Of The Stone Age (1)
09:40 — Dispatch (2)
10:05 — Hozier (1)

Every time you turn on the radio, you are hearing Sly Stone.

That’s not literal. It’s not just a poetic exaggeration, either. Whether your bag is rock or rap or soul or pop, the artists you love either loved Sly And The Family Stone or loved artists who loved Sly And The Family Stone.

That’s because Sly Stone created music without boundaries or regard for the constraints of genre. It was Black music, because Sly was Black, and that’s the only kind of music we can make. But the sound was universally appealing, defying the racist radio standards that persist to this day.

As pointed out in endless histories of rock and roll, hip-hop, pop, and country (including Questlove’s Sly Stone documentary Sly Lives! [aka The Burden of Black Genius]), when Stone started making music in the 1960s as a DJ in San Francisco, commercial music broadly belonged to just two categories: pop and “race” records, meaning Black-originated genres.

The primary distinction between those categories wasn’t a time signature or unique preference for instrumentation, lyricism, or vocal intonation. It was the skin color of the performer. Lots of stories have documented and dramatized this distinction, but my favorite among them is the “Cadillac Car” sequence from the 2006 Dreamgirls adaptation. Here, check it out:

But Sly Stone lived up to his moniker in his approach to circumventing this system. By assembling his band of both Black and white members, incorporating both men and women, he bypassed record executives’ and radio programmers’ instinctive need to classify the band’s music by their facial characteristics or gender presentation.

When their manager, David Kapralik, advised Sly that the music needed to be more broadly accessible after the band’s debut album A Whole New Thing flopped commercially, Sly knew how to simplify the songwriting to appeal to anyone’s sensibilities. Sly Lives has a remarkable breakdown of just why “Dance To The Music,” the group’s breakout hit, was able to tap into every taste, no matter the market.

As Jerry Martini, the group’s saxophonist, points out, the song’s drum line is “close to the Motown beat… but it ain’t.” There are elements of jazz, with the scatting of the background singers offering familiarity to fans of that music, along with horns backing the howling of the electric rock guitar.

Each piece is spotlighted in the breakdown, giving everyone something to look forward to. In many ways, “Dance To The Music” is the Platonic ideal of the concept of the American Melting Pot — many voices coming together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. It fits that the song skyrocketed The Family to Top 10 status and set about laying the groundwork of the group’s ubiquity in modern sound.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a genre that was influenced by Sly And The Family Stone. Some of their first shows after blowing up in 1968 were with guitar gods like Jimi Hendrix and the performers at Woodstock, filtering out and down to more funky rockers like Beck, Maroon 5, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Funk mainstays like Parliament owe at least some of their popularity to the Family Stone (or all of it, if you ask George Clinton). Like Sly, Prince sought to populate his bands with female members and push against easy categorization.

In the ’80s and ’90s, Sly And The Family became a huge part of the foundation of hip-hop and New Jack swing, with samples of their music appearing in songs from the likes of Arrested Development, 2Pac, Ice Cube, Janet Jackson, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg, The Roots, and too many others to name. It’d be criminal not to mention, Outkast, which took so many pieces of Sly Stone’s look and philosophy, including breaking with convention and incorporating psychedelia to the street-heard sound saturating 1990s rap radio.

Heck, without Sly, we might not even have Drake. For as maligned as the Canadian pop rapper has been over the past year, he undoubtedly dominated pop culture for the past decade and a half, spreading his own influence throughout music. And Drake himself will tell you, some of his first experiences with maneuvering around the recording industry were visits with his uncle, Larry Graham, one of the founding members of The Family Stone.

Perhaps there’s no better voice to speak about the impact of Sly Stone than Sly himself. At the end of his 2024 autobiography, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), the 81-year-old Sly muses about how peers from his era were so imitable, quoting his brother Freddie. “He was talking about how the world has lost certain kinds of figures that it needs to see itself clearly,” Sly recalls.

“He said there’s no one like Bob Dylan anymore. When I heard, I nodded. He said there’s no one like John Lennon anymore. I nodded again. He said there’s no one like Sly Stone anymore. I couldn’t nod so I just shook my head.” Sly Stone was one of a kind. It seems unlikely that anyone will ever shift global culture in the ways he did. But thanks to his work and his influence, Black artists can create as freely as they want. Everyone can be at least a little like Sly Stone.

Sabrina Carpenter doesn’t shy away from incorporating sexual moments into her live shows, which sometimes sparks complaints. She is absolutely unbothered by this.

In a new Rolling Stone cover story, Carpenter said:

“It’s always so funny to me when people complain. They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that. If you come to the show, you’ll [also] hear the ballads, you’ll hear the more introspective numbers. I find irony and humor in all of that, because it seems to be a recurring theme. I’m not upset about it, other than I feel mad pressure to be funny sometimes.”

She also offered her thoughts on women, saying, “I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I truly feel like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity. I’m not just talking about me. I’m talking about every female artist that is making art right now. […] We’re in such a weird time where you would think it’s girl power, and women supporting women, but in reality, the second you see a picture of someone wearing a dress on a carpet, you have to say everything mean about it in the first 30 seconds that you see it.”

Read the full feature here.

Addison Rae’s new album Addison is out now, which begs the question: Is there anything left to this era? The answer is yes, as she’s working on a tour, she revealed on a new episode of Therapuss.

When asked if she’s planning to tour, Rae said with a laugh, “I don’t know! Am I allowed to say that?!” She continued, “There’s definitely plans to tour the album. […] I do really like performing. I don’t know, I think I was always wanting to perform, just in life, I think it’s always been so fun to me to be on stage and convey some sort of feeling to people. I grew up competitively dancing, so…”

She also discussed what it was like making the album and her mindset behind it, saying:

“I didn’t know initially that I wanted to make the entire album with the same people. Because, you know, with my EP and other music that I’ve made, it’s kind of been sessions and sessions and sessions. […] When I made other music and had done other sessions before, it never made full sense to just stay in the same room, because it kind of felt sometimes, like, too stale if you’d stay in the same room with the same people for too long. […] After we made ‘Diet Pepsi,’ we were like, ‘I don’t know, it feels like something really special is happening here.’ And having a room of all girls was something I had never experienced before because I had never really worked with female producers like that.”

Watch the full episode above.

Charli XCX has cultivated an image based in part on partying, but what you don’t hear about as much are the after-effects. Fans got a taste of that yesterday (June 11), though, when Lorde gave her an unexpected call.

Lorde was a guest on BBC Radio 1’s Breakfast Show yesterday and host Greg James had her play a game called “Sitting Or Standing,” where Lorde called random people on her phone and tried to guess if they were sitting or standing. She started with Gracie Abrams, who she guessed would be sitting. It was a quick call, with Abrams revealing she was on her feet. After hanging up, though, she told James that she and Abrams talk often, so the phone call wasn’t an out-of-the-blue sort of thing.

Next, she dialed up Chappell Roan, who was standing up (Lorde guessed sitting). Then came Charli, who Lorde speculated would be sitting. She was sort of right: When Charli answered, she revealed that she was laying down and also “so hungover.”

In a different recent Radio 1 interview, Lorde explained how Charli’s Brat inspired her upcoming album Virgin, saying, “Brat coming out really gave me a kick in a lot of ways. It forced me to further define what I was doing because Charli had so masterfully defined everything about Brat and I knew that what I was doing was very distinct to that. When a peer throws the gauntlet down like that, you’re like ‘OK, yeah, we’ve gotta pick it up,’ I’ve spoken to a lot of peers who’ve all had the same feelings. It’s very sick and I’m so grateful to her.”

Check out the full video above.

Brian Wilson died today. He was 82 years old. I have been asked to write a column that sums up his impact on modern music. The problem is that this is impossible. It’s like trying to explain the impact of water or oxygen on modern music. Brian Wilson’s influence is so vast and all-encompassing that mere words cannot do it justice. Perhaps if I wrote 12 perfect songs, collaborated with some of the world’s finest musicians in recording them, and then laid down the most heart-stoppingly beautiful vocals ever over those tracks, I could give Brian Wilson the tribute he deserves.

Instead, I’m going to tell my Brian Wilson story.

It was 2015, and I was assigned to write a profile of John Cusack timed with the release of Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic. If you haven’t seen it, the film cuts between two different eras — we see the 1960s Brian Wilson, the boy-genius singer, songwriter, record producer and leader of America’s most popular rock band, The Beach Boys. The visionary who made one of the greatest and most famous albums ever, Pet Sounds, and then attempted to complete the greatest and most infamous “lost” record of all-time, Smile. The legend eventually felled by mental health and substance abuse problems in the late ’60s and ’70s, forever cementing him as rock’s greatest “tragedy” story.

That version of Wilson was played by Paul Dano with eerie specificity. He captured Wilson’s unlikely combination of ambition, innocence, brilliance, and fragility. The sense that the man who produced so many incredible, haunting melodies was losing a piece of himself with every hit song. Parts of his soul that he would never get back.

Cusack played a different Brian Wilson. His Brian was from the ’80s, the eccentric middle-aged man under the tutelage of a crackpot therapist, Eugene Landy (played with suitably gonzo bombast by Paul Giamatti). After ballooning in weight during his wilderness years, Landy bullied Wilson into slimming down and putting out his first solo album, 1988’s Brian Wilson. The production was dodgy and the song credits suspiciously listed Landy as a co-writer on five of the 11 tracks. But it did have the song that lent the film its title, an achingly pure plea for kindness and forgiveness that became a kind of personal anthem for an artist cruelly denied both love and mercy for much of his life.

The film’s structure is intended to give Wilson’s story a redemptive arc, from the glory and pain of his artistic prime to the “comeback” of his middle and later years, when he met and married his second wife, Melinda Ledbetter. And that mostly matched the reality of Wilson’s life. The reclusive figure who retired from touring in his early 20s after suffering a nervous breakdown became something of a road dog in his later years. Suddenly, if you wanted to see Brian Wilson in person, you could. And he was backed by an amazing and supportive group of musicians who played his music as well as anybody ever did, The Beach Boys included. In 2004, he even managed to finally finish Smile, and it turned out incredibly (even shockingly) well.

But there was always a sadness about Brian Wilson. So much sadness. And it was that sadness which drew me to his music as a teenager in the ’90s. “Sometimes I feel very sad,” he sings in one of his greatest songs. But it was more than sometimes. I was sad and Brian was sad, but Brian could make our sadness sound like an opera. He turned depressive introspection into an art form.

It might be strange to imagine a 16-year-old in the era of grunge and gangsta rap huddling up with headphones and playing “Til I Die,” “Caroline, No,” or “The Warmth Of The Sun” on repeat. But The Beach Boys had a renaissance in the ’90s. I had actually liked them before that. My first concert ever was The Beach Boys at Milwaukee’s Marcus Amphitheater in 1987, when I was 9 years old. I don’t know if Brian Wilson was there, but I’m pretty sure John Stamos was. They were, at the time, known as the Full House band, due to Stamos’ friendship with Mike Love and their occasional appearances on the ABC sitcom.

This was not, exactly, a cool reputation. But that started to change in the early ’90s when the best Beach Boys albums — the ones released between Pet Sounds and 1977’s Love You, though I’m a big enough fan to stump for a few albums to the left and the right of those signposts — were reissued. In high school, I bought the Good Vibrations boxed set, which contained a disc with 10 songs from Smile, my introduction to that glorious corner of Brian Wilson’s work. My favorite track (and probably my favorite Wilson composition overall) was the piano demo version of “Surf’s Up,” a song that later was repurposed and refurbished (without Brian’s input or consent) as the title track for The Beach Boys’ great 1971 album.

But I always preferred the piano demo. Unlike most Brian Wilson classics, there are no production flourishes on that record. No grand orchestrations anchored by Carol Kaye’s probing bass and Hal Blaine’s Wagnerian drums. It was just Brian, his remarkable tenor, Van Dyke Parks’ fantastically impenetrable lyrics, and a suite of melodies so sweet and striking they are destined to linger in your heart and mind from the moment you hear them.

A lot of people were listening to those records, and a good number of them were musicians. In indie and alternative rock, “records that emulate Brian Wilson” practically became its own subgenre. Flaming Lips took their shot with The Soft Bulletin. Wilco did it with Summerteeth and (to a lesser degree) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Elliott Smith applied serious Beach Boys overtones to albums like XO and Figure 8. Fiona Apple put her own spin on Wilson’s grandiose production style on her early records. The Elephant 6 collective was almost entirely predicated on trying to will a modern version of Pet Sounds or Smile into existence. And one of those bands, Neutral Milk Hotel, pretty much pulled that off with In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, right down to leader Jeff Mangum’s subsequent Brian Wilson-esque retreat from the world.

Some bands drew inspiration from the pre-Pet Sounds era. Weezer’s “Blue Album” was among the decade’s most influential examples of taking Beach Boys-style songs and adding heavier guitars. The semi-jokey argument that Pet Sounds is the first emo album might actually be better applied to a song like “In My Room,” which sounds more like an emo song while expressing core emo themes. (It’s dark, I’m alone, I’m trying not to be afraid, etc.) But Wilson’s reach extended into all sorts of genres, including pop-punk (Blink-182), electronic music (Air, The Avalanches), freak folk (Animal Collective), shoegaze (My Bloody Valentine), and so much more. So, so, so much more. I couldn’t possibly list every artist who owes him a debt here. His music is like that one Jenga piece where if you remove it, it sends the totality of modern music crashing down.

Zooming out even wider, Brian Wilson with Pet Sounds invented the concept of the auteur-driven album that attempts to break new ground while fearlessly ignoring commercial concerns. Believe it or not, there weren’t really records like that — not in a pop context, anyway — before Brian dared to do it. (When you’re considered a primary influence on Sgt. Pepper’s, you have truly achieved “elemental” status.) Even artists who aren’t directly influenced by Brian Wilson — or even people who have never knowingly listened to his music — have been shaped by Pet Sounds. When Radiohead made OK Computer, they were shaped by Pet Sounds. When Kanye West made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he was shaped by Pet Sounds. When Beyoncé made Lemonade, she was shaped by Pet Sounds. Which means you and I and every other music fan have also been shaped by Pet Sounds.

Back to Cusack: The plan was to interview him in the basement of Metro, a well-known rock club in Cusack’s hometown of Chicago. And, I was told, Brian Wilson was going to be with him. I was beside myself. I was going to meet and interview Brian Wilson? I felt immediate anxiety. For one thing, Wilson was known as a difficult interview. His memory was faulty and his answers were often short and nonsensical. (Like the time he called the Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit his favorite movie of all time.) What was amazing is that he was probably the most accessible rock icon of his generation. If you wanted to interview Brian Wilson, there was a good chance you could do it. And then you might regret it.

At the same time, I could not believe that I was going to meet Brian Wilson. It didn’t seem real. I had seen him the night before at a screening for Love & Mercy, where he appeared for a short (and awkward) Q&A. Upon his arrival on stage, he was immediately greeted with a standing ovation. I’m sure Brian Wilson provoked this kind of reaction wherever he went. People applauded for all the wonderful music he had given the world. They applauded because they empathized with his troubled past. And they applauded because he was Brian Wilson, American monument. Seeing Brian Wilson, talking to Brian Wilson, shaking Brian Wilson’s hand — it was like somehow encountering Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln in the wild. Only those guys never wrote “God Only Knows.”

Suddenly there I was, sitting on a barstool next to Lloyd Dobler and the modern-day Mozart. What do you say to these people? I decided to talk about “Surf’s Up.” I told Brian how much I loved that song. How I used to listen to it when I felt alone and rejected and how his music had shepherded me through all that hurt. How I can’t believe someone actually wrote that song, because it seems like one of those properties that magically appears to prove that God is real.

“I wrote that in 1964!” Wilson exclaimed.

I nodded my head and ruled against a fact-check. We chatted for a bit more about the film, and the surreal feeling started to fade. Brian Wilson really was just a person. He woke up in the morning, brushed his teeth, ate his breakfast, and tried to make it through another day like the rest of us. He was more fragile and innocent than ambitious and brilliant. His life was hard, and his life was unfair, but it was his. And, in his endless generosity, he shared it with the world.

“Thanks for the interview, man,” he said, suddenly, extending his hand. We had talked for about 10 minutes. Then Brian Wilson got up, walked away, and was gone.

If Coachella is the place to spot celebrities, Governors Ball is where music fans go to soak up the vibes. The atmosphere, the attitude, the gritty, vibrant, unmistakably New York energy that even hours-long storm delays can’t damper – that’s what sets the festival, which just celebrated its 15th year, apart from the rest of the summer circuit. Here, the mood and the music take the spotlight, and it’s the artists – rising indie hopefuls, punk rock icons, pop princesses, and weirdo-rap savants – that set the tone, urging fans to ignore the heat, the rain, and the mud in exchange for a once-in-a-lifetime experience that outlives the gram.

We caught up with a handful of the coolest acts to grace the Gov Ball stages this past weekend, capturing a bit of their magic with a backstage portrait session that gives fans a hint of what it takes to hype the “city that never sleeps” crowd. Whether it’s Conan Gray donning a Sailor Moon fit and staging a mini-musical for an awed crowd or Mannequin Pussy stoking a bit of anarchy with their rebellious strain of rock, the story starts here.

From hip-hop duo Joey Valence & Brae to English pop siblings Wasia Project, here are some exclusive looks at how Gov Ball’s most exciting artists embraced their “made it” moment.

Conan Gray

Mannequin Pussy

Joey Valence & Brae

Militarie Gun

Wasia Project

Snow Wife

Mark Ambor

Olivia Lunny

Hozier was at Governors Ball this past weekend, but he wasn’t quite himself. As NME notes, he told the crowd he was feeling under the weather, and at times, that could be heard in his vocal performance. It turns out he’s not out of the woods yet and will be taking some time off to recover.

In a post shared on social media on June 9, Hozier explains:

“Due to illness my upcoming performances originally scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, NJ and Thursday, June 12 at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena in Ridgedale, MO are being rescheduled. The Camden show will now take place on July 15, and the Ridgedale show will take place on July 22.

All previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new dates. Ticket holders will receive additional information via email.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

My performance at Bonnaroo on June 15 will proceed as planned. Much love.”

Check out Hozier’s upcoming tour dates below.

Hozier’s 2025 Tour Dates

06/15 — Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo 2025
06/18 — Columbus, OH @ Historic Crew Stadium
06/20 — Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater
06/23 — Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
06/24 — Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
06/30 — Casper, WY @ Ford Wyoming Center
07/02 — Billings, MT @ First Interstate Arena
07/04-05 — Missoula, MT @ Zootown Music Festival 2025
07/08 — London, Canada @ Rock the Park 2025
07/10 — Québec, Canada @ Festival d’été de Québec 2025
07/11 — Ottawa, Canada @ Ottawa Bluesfest 2025
07/13 — Canandaigua, NY @ CMAC Performing Arts Center
07/15 — Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
07/18 — Saint Paul, MN @ Minnesota Yacht Club Festival 2025
07/20 — Commerce City, CO @ Dick’s Sporting Goods Park
07/22 — Ridgedale, MO @ Thunder Ridge Nature’s Arena
07/24 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
07/25 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
07/27 — Fargo, ND @ Fargodome
08/01 — West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/02 — West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/07 — Stateline, NV @ Lake Tahoe Amphitheatre at Caesars Republic
08/08 — Stateline, NV @ Lake Tahoe Amphitheatre at Caesars Republic
08/10 — San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands 2025
08/12 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
08/14 — Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park
08/22 — Reading, United Kingdom @ Reading Festival 2025
08/23 — Leeds, United Kingdom @ Leeds Festival 2025
08/29 — Stradbally, Ireland @ Electric Picnic 2025
08/31 — München, Germany @ Superbloom Festival 2025
09/10 — Toronto, Canada @ Rogers Stadium
09/13 — Asbury Park, New Jersey @ Sea.Hear.Now 2025
09/14 — Cavendish, Canada @ Sommo Festival 2025
09/16 — Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
09/17 — Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
09/19 — Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium
09/21 — St. Augustine, FL @ Sing Out Loud Festival 2025
09/23 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
09/27 — Dana Point, CA @ Ohana Festival 2025
09/28 — Bridgeport, CT @ Soundside Music Festival
10/03 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025
10/05 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
10/07 — Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
10/10 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025
10/14 — Mexico City, Mexico @ Palacio de los Deportes