NPR Music and program directors from ' public radio music station network selected Big Thief, Jamila Woods and Lo Moon as the inaugural class of Slingshot, a collective effort among taste-making stations to elevate the profiles of exceptional emerging artists. The video, interview and live event series kicked off in the fall of 2017 on NPR.org/slingshot.
Big Thief
Big Thief is Adrianne Lenker (guitar/vocals), Buck Meek (guitar), Max Oleartchik (bass) and James Krivchenia (drums). The Brooklyn-based quartet's newest release, Capacity,comes just one year after its stunning debut, Masterpiece(No. 31 on NPR's Best 50 Albums Of 2016), brought Big Thief in-the-know audiences and critical acclaim. The expectations set by Masterpiecewere easily met by Capacity, garnering ecstatic support from the music press, including NPR, Pitchforkand Rolling Stone, fellow musicians such as Jeff Tweedy, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Father John Misty, and simply everyday fans of Lenker's quietly confessional and revelatory songwriting. NPR Music's Bob Boilen called the song "Mary" (No. 1 on NPR's Best 100 Songs of 2017) "the most beautiful song of 2017." Big Thief has appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and toured extensively, playing hundreds of shows in the past two years in the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. They will bring an extraordinary year to a close with one more trip around the world.
Jamila Woods
Jamila Woods' cultural lineage – from her love of Lucille Clifton's poetry to cherished letters from her grandmother to the infectious late-'80s post-punk of The Cure – structure the progressive, delicate and minimalist soul of her debut album, HEAVN(No. 27 on NPR's Best 50 Albums Of 2016). Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, Woods grew up in a family of music lovers. Now a frequent guest vocalist in the hip-hop, jazz and soul world, it took a surprise poetry class with a high school arts program for Jamila to finally find what is already a once-in-a-generation voice. In HEAVN, you'll find the bits and pieces of the past and present that make Jamila: family, the city of Chicago, self-care, and the black women she calls friends. Her poetry studies continued in college and in her professional career with Young Chicago Authors. True and pure in its construction and execution, her music is the best representation of Jamila herself: strong in her roots, confident in her ideas, and attuned to the people, places and things shaping her world.
Lo Moon
Lo Moon is a Los Angeles-based band comprised of Matt Lowell (vocals/guitar), Crisanta Baker (bass/keyboards) and Sam Stewart (guitar) whose sound meets at the intersection of artists like The XX and Talk Talk. With just two songs out in the world, the band is already one of the most talked-about new bands in Los Angeles's indie scene. The trio has received early accolades from The New York Times, V Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Having opened for the likes of Phoenix, Glass Animals, The Lemon Twigs, Air, London Grammar, and more, Lo Moon is currently putting the finishing touches to their debut album with producers Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) and Francois Tetaz (Gotye).
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