FRI 17 SAT 18

Sounds From Ukraine

Inn Cahoots Outdoor | 1221 E 6th St.

Consider closing out your fest at the Inn Cahoots Outdoor Saturday night, where you’ll get to check out some rising talent from Ukraine: electrifying electro-folk group Go_A, melodic singer-songwriter Igor Grohotsky, 2022’s Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra, and the avantrock of Balaklava Blues, a “reclamation of the violence perpetrated on their home country.”

TOMORROW’S ARTISTS TODAY

Five rising acts you must see in one-sentence descriptors.

iLe, the moniker of Puerto Rican musician Ileana Cabra Joglar, is both a veteran of the music industry and a rising voice, setting the stage for a new wave of Puerto Rican artistry. You may recognize her from her role as the youngest and only female member of the beloved Boricua hip-hop group Calle 13, or from her collaborations with Bad Bunny, or from her Grammy win back in 2017. Since releasing her debut solo LP iLevitable in 2016, iLe’s music has made a point to weave PR’s colonial history, political protest, and fight for independence across genres. Her latest album, Nacarile (a slang term that loosely translates to “No way in hell!”), moves from hip-hop and Caribbean folk to bolero, psychedelia, even reggaeton. Below, Den of Geek speaks to iLe about what fans can expect from her performances, and the current state of Puerto Rican representation.

Have you been to SXSW before? What do you make of the festival? I have. This is my second or third [time.] It’s super fun to listen to different types of music, different bands from different countries. I love the energy the festival has. I like the sense of musical community. And it’s nice to reconnect with musician friends you haven’t seen in a while and, at the same time, new people.

That’s the best part—how global the music community can be at SXSW. It’s a music business festival in Texas, a Latino place, a state with very complicated, conservative politics. When you play in a place

FROST CHILDREN Frenetic, clever hyperpop that is both present and the future, get on board. Stream this: “Fox Bop” like that, does your music take on a different political meaning? It is complicated. But at the same time, SXSW can feel like an oasis in the middle of so many critical things happening. For me, music is the best life tool to connect and to heal, even if it’s just [through] dancing or listening and enjoying being present at a show. It can also happen with political songs that speak about realities we all go through—like where I come from in Puerto Rico— and relate to that humanity, to be empathetic and find ways to be closer to each other. It’s about finding ways to feel solidarity between us, and I feel that in spaces like SXSW,

DEBBY FRIDAY Industrial synth and falsetto flourishes that never break. Stream this: “So Hard to Tell” having the chance to play outside of Puerto Rico, it gives me the opportunity to connect.

It seems like Puerto Rico has more visibility around the world—through amazing talent like your collaborator Bad Bunny, but also through tragedy, like Hurricane Maria. Has that been your experience?

It definitely has changed a lot. I try to express the magnitude because a few years ago, a lot of people didn’t know that Puerto Rico existed. I remember talking to some stranger, and I told him that I was from Puerto Rico, and he was like, “What is that?” Now Puerto Rico is a conversation topic. A lot of North Americans that come to the island don’t even know that Puerto Rico was a colony. But I love that everyone is acknowledging that Puerto Rico exists and is trying to find more information about our reality and what goes on here, our struggles and our culture. In The White Lotus, in the last season, they mention something about Puerto Rico being a colony. It’s a small moment, but it’s something we’re not used to. We’re used to feeling a little isolated from the rest of the world. It’s nice to feel that people know we exist.

Let’s talk about Nacarile. What were you thinking about while writing, and how does it connect to the island? My other albums absorb what was going on around me. This album is a pandemic album. Quarantine made it hard to concentrate. It was hard to be outside of myself, to deal with everything that was going on. Not only with Covid, but it was an election year in 2020, the government was mismanaging everything, and women were getting killed in their houses. [Ed.’s note: She’s referring to a severe uptick in domestic violence in Puerto Rico during the pandemic.] The uncertainty of all that—being affected by that, trying to understand how I was receiving that, and trying to take care of myself as well, everything felt like a barrier. The album became a challenge of trying to go through that.

Do the songs transform live? Like catharsis—a celebration of getting past all of that—and finding joy at SXSW, no less.

Definitely. It sounds different with the live instrumentations—you keep finding new ways of experimenting. It’s energetic and healing. It’s like finally releasing all [the emotions]

I’d accumulated in the process of making the album and just embracing what we were all going through.

MILITARIE GUN Your favorite music blog’s favorite band’s favorite melodic punk band. Stream this: “Pressure Cooker”

BEVERLY KILLS Sweet and Swedish post-punk; so beautiful you might mistake it for hopeful.

Stream this: “Revellers”

DJ FIVE VENOMS As the official DJ for the Rolling Loud festival, Five Venoms can rock an original. Stream this: “Look At What I Did”