Day for Night Lineup, Now Released

Today’s the day, folks — the official lineup for brand-new music (and other stuff) festival Day for Night, which takes place at Silver Street Studios on December 19th & 20th, was just released a short while ago. And yeah, it’s pretty damn impressive, both in scope and diversity.

I’m not sure who all is officially a “headliner,” but there’re some nicely big names up at the top of the list, the top two being Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar and ’80s legends New Order. Then there’s the expected pile of high-profile EDM producers, people like Dillon Francis, Flying Lotus, Madeon(!), and Com Truise, and a handful of more oddball hip-hop/soul artists that includes Janelle Monae, Mystikal, and Death Grips.

So far, so good, at least in my book. What makes this festival different from most I’ve seen, though, is that alongside the more predictable folks on the lineup is that there’s a bunch of less-predictable folks on there, as well. Right after New Order, for one, there’s the Philip Glass Ensemble, and then there’s Throbbing Gristle spinoff Psychic TV, strange quasi-indie-rock duo CocoRosie, EDM-gone-experimental guy Nicolas Jaar, digital composers Holly Herndon and Julien Bayle, and transgender performance artist/singer Amanda Lepore, plus others whose names I’m not recognizing…

It’s great to see Houston’s own experimental/noisy/whatever side represented at Day for Night, too — they’ve got local noisemaker Richard Ramirez on the lineup, as well as personal faves Indian Jewelry, Future Blondes, B L A C K I E, and FLCON FCKER, and a handful from the brighter, shinier side of the spectrum, like the ever-amazing Hearts of Animals, Children of Pop, and Wrestlers.

Beyond the music, there’s a whole other area called “LIGHT”, and I think that’s the “visual” side of DFN, although I’m not absolutely positive that’s the aim. I know Matthew Dryhurst, Zach Lieberman Casey Reas are all three visual artists who either also make music or collaborate with musicians to create their pieces, and Reas and Lieberman, in particular, are both heavily focused on the programming side of things (which I happen to think is very cool, personally). I’m thinking that the rest of that side of the slate are probably along similar lines, which makes Day for Night much more of a multimedia experience than its “sister” festival, FPSF, has ever really been able to pull off.

Overall, the lineup points to Day for Night being darker, moodier, more experimental, and more art-focused than any other festival I’ve seen arise in this city since I’ve lived here, and I’m pretty psyched to see how it actually happens. Get your tickets now, before it sells out or the prices go up, whichever…