Tonight, In Videos: Jade Bird + Frankie Cosmos + TOKiMONSTA + The Phantom Royals

Hey there, People My General Age, we need to talk. See, I’ve been talking to The Kid, just asking her curiously how she listens to music these days; she doesn’t have a CD player anymore, she’s never owned a radio, Spotify’s not working for her at the moment (and Napster costs money, so that’s out), and her non-iPhone/iPad headphones are busted. So how the hell is it that whenever I go into her room, she’s jumping around and singing and whatever?

The answer is that she — and, apparently, a lot of her friends — get a large part of their music “listening” from a decidedly visual place. That is, from YouTube. Now, I know, I know; this is hardly groundbreaking news. It did get me thinking, however, and wondering if I could go and find out about a bunch of artists in that same way. No CDs, no Bandcamp, no Napster, just videos.

So for the hell of it, that’s what I’m doing for a handful of shows going on tonight, Thursday, September 20th, right around H-town. I had never seriously listened to any of these bands/people before (okay, I’m pretty sure I’d previously heard a teensy bit of the Phantom Royals, but it was years ago, and I have zero memory of it), and so randomly-selected YouTube videos would be my only exposure to ’em.

And honestly, that worked out pretty damn well. Here we go…

Jade Bird/Field Report @ White Oak Music Hall
First up, we’ve got Jade Bird, who you sure as hell wouldn’t realize is completely, totally British from her music; as soon as she started banging on her guitar and roaring with that powerful, Brandi Carlile-esque voice, I know I’d assumed she came from somewhere between Tennessee and Texas, no question.

But nope, despite making music that’s rootsy and folky and pretty much the definition of “Americana,” Bird’s from the UK and got her start playing at Croydon-area pubs. “Uh Huh,” in particular, feels like a song from an earlier era — it’s got the fire of a lot of ’90s female rockers, plus a seriously ’70s ish roots-rock vibe. Here goes:

Frankie Cosmos/Lomelda/Stef Chura @ Satellite Bar
Then there’s Frankie Cosmos, who is apparently a person, Greta Kline (who is also holyshityou’rekiddingme the daughter of Kevin Fucking Kline and Phoebe Fucking Cates, but I swear I didn’t know that until just now, putting the finishing touches on this thing), but also kinda-sorta a group of friends who make music together. And right from the first listen, she/they hooked me in pretty much completely.

On “Jessie,” at least, Frankie Cosmos’s music is like all my favorite bits of ’90s indie-pop, all soft, hyper-earnest vocals, jangly-but-not-acoustic guitars, nimble basslines and percussion, and retro-sounding keyboards/synths. Cosmos/Kline’s voice is gentle and sweet and shy-smiling over this warm, chilled-out layer of music that just shuffles and ambles along beneath. The video’s a lot of fun, too, with the band obviously having a good time just messing around and playing with visual effects (and playing the song, obviously). Here it is:

Zhu/TOKiMONSTA @ Warehouse Live
Changing gears quite a bit on this one. I’d heard of TOKiMONSTA before now, and knew the basic details — real name Jennifer Lee, an L.A.-based producer and DJ who’s had stuff to do with Flying Lotus. And yeah, I’ll admit I was dreading listening to/watching her video a bit, figuring it’d just be some bland EDM that would go in one ear and out the other while I made myself watch a bunch of DJ posing.

As it turns out, only one part of that statement turned out to be true. The song I grabbed, “We Love (feat. MNDR),” is surprisingly sweet and tropical-sounding, a total bliss-out-and-smile track that wouldn’t sound out of place coming out of the speakers at some hazy beach party just as the sun touches the horizon. It’s bright and warm, Caribbean-flavored like my favorite Cashmere Cat tracks, and when it gets to the chorus, it’s just a blast of joy. The video is similarly fun, just following a quartet of women around what is apparently the Ventura County Fair (where they have buggy racing!) without making it feel overly staged or fake; it’s just like a bunch of real-life friends hanging out (well, assuming they’re all models, anyway). See for yourself:

The Phantom Royals @ The Big Top
Last but absolutely not least, there’s The Phantom Royals, who will be tearing it up at The Big Top tonight with their throwback breed of be-masked surf-rock. As I noted above, I’d heard a little bit of ’em before, but it was a while ago, and I honestly wasn’t sure what quite to expect.

After watching/listening, though, I’m pretty damn psyched. These guys are like a strange mishmash of Man…or Astro-man?, The Ventures, and long-gone Houstonians the Fatal Flying Guillotines — especially with the masks — and their live shows look like they’d be a hell of a lot of fun. Here’s “Latin’ia,” shot live down in Galveston a couple of years back:

Other Cool Stuff:
Konk Pack Dis-Konked, featuring Tim Hodgkinson, Thomas Lehn, Roger Turner, & several Houston musicians @ Insomnia Gallery (8-10PM)
Three Women and the Truth (feat. Eliza Gilkyson, Mary Gauthier, & Gretchen Peters) @ McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Los Vertigos @ The Continental Club
Thursday Night Concerts, featuring David Lee Garza & Bombon @ Discovery Green (7-9PM)
Karbachtoberfest 2018, featuring Two Tons of Steel @ Karbach Brewing Co.