New experiential series, Indo Warehouse, is a rapidly growing NYC-based label and event concept that takes pride in South Asian roots. It gets you to move to global sounds that celebrate growth and inspire connection. Throughout the span of the year, they threw six unforgettable, sellout events with each selling out sooner than the last.
Join us, as Indo Warehouse gears up for its biggest event yet: Year One. Taking place at Brooklyn’s coveted Avant Gardner on December 10th, Year One will run from 8pm until . . . late. It boasts electronic beats and multisensory sound and lighting experience soundtracked by a string of globally-lauded South Asian artists.
The night will feature co-founders Kahani and Kunal Merchant, as well as fresh and exciting artists that will become integral to the Indo Warehouse family for years to come, including Ethyr, ShiShi, Khanvict, AREUBLUE, Payal Jay, and many more.
To give fans a sneak peek of what the night will look like, Indo Warehouse also plans to release their debut compilation album, Year One, on Friday, December 9th. The Year One VA will showcase how the Indo Warehouse sound continues to grow and flourish across the 6 key artists that will step behind the decks the following night.
To feel sound and lose yourself in a world of blended cultures check out Indo Warehouse at Avant Gardner on December 10th. Tickets for Indo Warehouse: Year One are available for purchase HERE.
Self described as "Marilyn Monroe gone bad," Cazzi Opeia makes pop dance music that sizzles.
The Swedish-born DJ and singer/songwriter's stage name comes from the star constellation "Cassiopeia" — the vain but beautiful queen of greek mythology — perfectly describing her dark glam music style. Following her collaboration with legendary K-Pop producer on the club hit, "Batman & Robin," Cazzi Opeia returns with "Rich," a track with pop influences and lilting vocals that still manages to stay true to the artist's EDM roots. Popdust got the chance to talk with Cazzi Opeia and hear about her journey to stardom, what influences her music, and more.
Hey Cazzi! How are you? What have you been up to recently?
Hii :) I'm good thanks! I've been traveling, making music in lots of different studios & meeting lots of new people!
What does music mean to you?
Music is my rescue. It never lets me down! Music is a vibration that can make you go from 0 feeling rubbish to a pure 10 feeling fabulous.
It's amazing what music can do to you.
Where did your interest in music stem from?
I noticed at an early age that I love to sing! I've always been encouraged by family to play in bands, join musicals and write songs. So it's kind of always been around me and I'm forever grateful for that!
Can you let us know a bit about your journey as an artist?
Since a young age I felt a hunger to be on stage and to entertain. I started to write my own pop songs at the age of 11 and have always enjoyed to dress shockingly and colorful to make an impression on people. I released my first single in 2010 and have since released a bunch of cool stuff and experimenting as an artist. I was also a member of a touring DJ house collective "Female DJ Revolution" together with 5 other girls, I was the vocalist in the group jamming to all the beats. But now I'm back being solo artist again, and I'm super excited about my new single 'Rich'.
What do you love about creating music?
I love the fact that you go to the studio in the morning to create something, usually together with people you really like, making the whole procedure together, doing it just the way we want to with no rules. Then at night when you go back home you can actually push play and have a listen to something that didn't exist hours earlier, something that YOU created. That gives me such a rush! A song will never disappear, when it's written it's always gonna be out there. And I think thats pretty darn cool.
What was your inspiration behind 'Rich'?
A while back some stuff happened in my life that made me stop and think about what is actually important to me. Life is so freaking short and we all got so much pressure from the world, society and media saying "Be successful, make money, reach for the top". And I realized that I'm most happy and blessed when I have my family and friends around, being surrounded by pure love is everything I need. I'm totally rich in love and that's an amazing thing.
Who are your biggest musical inspirations?
Freddie Mercury!!!!
Do you prefer performing at festivals or smaller venues?
I mean both are really nice gigs to have! Smaller venues gives you the opportunity to come close to your audience and get that intimate feeling, SO many times I've been performing at small night clubs and literally walked around on the dance floor with my mic singing and performing with the crowd. I also really enjoy to grab a mic and jump on a bar and sing while people ordering drinks ;-) Then again performing at festivals on big stages is one hell of a rush as well. One time I was performing at Isle Of MTV in front of 70 000 people, that was crazy!
Where can fans see you performing?
Follow me on social medias and I will keep you updated there.
Where would you love to perform?
Ever since back in the 90's when I saw a video of Queen performing at Wembley Stadium in London, that has been a big fantasy dream!! So my answer is Wembley Stadium.
How would you sum up your music in two words?
Freaking Awesome!
You can follow Cazzie Opeia at cazzi_opeia on Instagram and find her new song "Rich" here, or anywhere you stream your music.
If you're anything like us, you're probably overwhelmed by the sheer number of albums being released on a weekly basis.
Popdust's weekly column, Indie Roundup, finds the five best albums coming out each week so that you don't have to. Every Friday, we'll tell you what's worth listening to that might not already be on your radar.
Japanese Breakfast, Jubilee
Coinciding with the release of her debut book, the memoir Crying in H Mart, Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner uses her new album, Jubilee, as an outlet for joy. Where the topics of her last records meditated on grief and loss, Jubilee sees a world anew with love songs that don't glaze over the imperfections. "Don't mind me while I'm tackling this void," Zauner sings on "Slide Tackle," a hopeful reminder that we have to confront our own demons first.
Rostam, Changeophobia
Changeophobia is the latest solo record from Rostam Batmanglij, former Vampire Weekend member turned in-demand pop producer for the likes of Haim, Clairo, and Maggie Rogers. The music he makes under his first-name mononym is whimsical and jangly, with a dose of warped production elements to keep things fresh.
Liz Phair, Soberish
For her first new music in 11 years, Soberish, pop-rock icon Liz Phair leans on her strengths: tongue-in-cheek lyrics, big melodies, and sticky hooks. "Soberish can be about partying," Phair said in a statement about the record. "It can be about self-delusion. It can be about chasing that first flush of love or, in fact, any state of mind that allows you to escape reality for a while and exist on a happier plane. It's not self-destructive or out of control; it's as simple as the cycle of dreaming and waking up."
Loraine James, Reflection
London DJ Loraine James return with the aptly-named Reflection, an album made last summer that encapsulates an era of looking inward. The album is full of club-ready beats fit for a dance floor, evidencing James' expansive repertoire of influences; Reflection is a stunning mix of UK grime, dub, and house that feels like the heat of a summer night.
Various Artists, Simple Demands: A Hop Along Tribute
We'll say it: Hop Along are one of the most consistently great rock bands of the past decade. Their mix of folk-rock and emo have earned them critical acclaim as well as a fervent fanbase. On Simple Demands, a compilation organized by Minneapolis blog Ear Coffee, 11 artists give their best whack at their favorite Hop Along tracks. (Popdust favorites the Sonder Bombs recorded a cover of "How Simple.")
In January 2021, Hop Along's singer and primary songwriter, Frances Quinlan, came out as non-binary on social media. To celebrate Quinlan and the beginning of Pride Month, all proceeds from Simple Demands benefit No More Dysphoria and the Jim Collins Foundation, which help transgender and non-binary people in need.
Nostalgia is one hell of a drug, especially once the stuff you liked as a kid gets unironically popular again.
If you're a '90s kid in the United States, you likely have vivid memories of Radio Disney. For over two decades, the radio station curated a constant array of family-friendly pop hits by teen idols and budding stars alike.
In conjunction with their radio station, Radio Disney also put out a series called Radio Disney Jams, which were compilation albums of the station's hottest tracks of the year. Whether you were in the car on your way home from school or dancing around your room listening to your Walkman, Radio Disney was always with you.
But alas, most listeners of Radio Disney's golden era are now adults, and the station ceased broadcasts earlier this year. There's no better time to reflect on the songs that raised us '90s kids — for better or for worse.
Below, we've rounded up some of the best songs from Radio Disney's prime around the turn of the millennium.
Myra, “Miracles Happen”
Few songs offer the same sense of endless possibilities as "Miracles Happen," which you might recognize from the iconic final scene of The Princess Diaries. The track's first notes evoke the possibility that you, too, might subvert all expectations and become complacent in a monarchy.
LMNT, “Hey Juliet”
Baz Luhrmann's 1996 thriller Romeo + Juliet? West Side Story? That one zombie rom-com with the guy from Skins? No — the best adaptation of Shakespeare's most-performed play is, of course, LMNT's breakout hit "Hey Juliet." Rhyming "you're fine" with "blow my mind" and "someday" with "run away?" Even our boy William would've been impressed.
Eiffel 65, “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”
No matter how often the song was memed (before memes were a thing), Eiffel 65 never got proper recognition for giving us the funkiest, catchiest metaphor for major depression there ever was. "Crying in the club" has never been so on-the-nose.
Skye Sweetnam, “Tangled Up In Me”
Never mind the naysayers who accused then-13-year-old Skye Sweetnam of ripping off Avril Lavigne; "Tangled up in Me" still goes hard. It's especially entertaining to revisit knowing that Sweetnam has been performing in the metal-punk band Sumo Cyco for the past decade.
Hoku, “Perfect Day”
You know it as the icing on the cake to the cinematic masterpiece that is Legally Blonde. Since then, it was also used in episodes of Lizzie McGuire and NCIS, as well as one of those Beaches Resorts commercials. And it still slaps.
Play, “Us Against the World”
In fact, Lizzie McGuire and its major-picture movie finale brought us a smorgasbord of bubblegum pop perfection. Lest we forget "Us Against the World" by tween girl group Play, who were essentially Sweden's answer to the Spice Girls. Nostalgia aside, this track would likely need very little tweaking to fit today's Y2K pop resurgence.
Simon and Milo, “Get a Clue”
Gorillaz were just getting started as everyone's favorite animated band, and then Simon and Milo said "hold our beers" and made one of the best Disney Channel Original Movie songs out there.
3 Doors Down, “Kryptonite”
At the intersection of dad rock and kid-friendly headbangers live 3 Doors Down, whose "Kryptonite" was likely suited for Radio Disney because the band's drummer was still a literal kid when he wrote it. Who hurt him?
Michelle Branch, “Everywhere”
You'd be hard-pressed to find a chorus objectively better than that from "Everywhere," Michelle Branch's most famous single to date. And if Gen Z pop-rock revivalists like beabadoobee are any indication, this track has aged incredibly well (even if its video feels painfully 2001).
In 1988, before Massive Attack even existed, a reporter went to meet a vivacious rap and DJ collective known then as the Wild Bunch, five of whom would soon create Massive Attack.
The braggadocious group described themselves as "originators" and said they had invented a new genre called "minimalist lover's Hip-Hop." "Put that in your magazine. Let's get some f**king respect around here," said one.
The genre would eventually become Trip-Hop, but to revisit Massive Attack's 1991 debut Blue Lines in 2021 is to bask solely in its scaling paranoia. When revisited under the guise of 2021 anxieties, love seems to be more of a fleeting theme on Blue Lines. "Don't need another lover, just need, I'm insecure," 3D stutters on "Daydreaming." A gluey guitar riff and dragging scatter of drums slink behind Horace Andy as he pines for unattainable monogamy on "One Love," purposefully contradicting Bob Marley's communal sense of the word that had become commonplace.
Nowadays, safety and survival seem far more critical than perfect love. The dusty sampling of Billy Cobham's "Stratus" on "Safe from Harm" conjures up images of a sweltering summer sun setting over an embattled city run by "gunmen and maniacs." Shara Nelson is uneasy as she sings, but she's okay with having the world "freed" just as long as her lover is granted safe passage through the night.
"Friends and enemies, I find it's contagious," 3D raps alongside her as paranoia sets in. "I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you."
This paranoia is deeply tangible these days as we slowly begin to re-enter the outside world. On Monday, The New York Timesreleased a collection of anecdotes from Americans uneasy about their post-pandemic future.
While many stories were mournful, many of the participants were somewhere in between reflective and depressive. "The pandemic has forced me into the present. It's the meditation I never wanted but have come to appreciate," said Jessica Berta from Milwaukee. "That said, last week I kicked a hole in the bathroom door." This past year has, at worst, taken away people we care about and, at best, locked us in a constant state of Stockholm Syndrome. We have lived in our captor's shadow for over a year, and COVID is so embedded in our everyday existence that imagining a world without its omnipresent risk can at times stir suspicion as if it's too good to be true.
Regardless, there is no returning to what came before. The same might unfortunately be true for Massive Attack's debut. On past listens, it was easier to disregard Blue Lines' underlying anxieties. They loitered in the background beneath the record's relaxed instrumentals and rhymes. After all, this is the same record that kickstarted an endless wave of chill-out compilations. But in the present day, the album's apprehensions overpower any sense of calm. For a record that ushered in the breezy Trip-Hop movement, Blue Lines sounds almost numbing when paired against the backdrop of our current existence.
"Five Man Army's" dubby baselines and quippy pitter-patter of drums are as cyclical as our quarantined days. A sprinkle of muted horns teases something new, only for the track to settle back into its unwavering syncopation.
Meanwhile, the album's quietened title track embodies the humdrum suffocation of this past year. Tricky raps as if he's lying on his bedroom floor, caught between the closing walls of an existential crisis. "It's a beautiful day, well, it seems as such," he raps quietly, doubting what his own eyes perceive out his window.
Other lines like "Are you a predator or do you fear me?" not only resonate with the trauma of racism but also encapsulate the disquiet anxiety that comes with living in a disease-ridden world. We've all wandered through this isolating year as "lonely as a puzzled anagram." Lines like, "Somebody died, did he? Nobody," are almost too on the nose in terms of our cultural desensitization towards death.
Apprehensive existentialism looms over us every day, and the 1991 album racks its brain with similar questions that have no answers. "There's a hole in my soul like a cavity," Andy sings on closer "Hymn of the Big Wheel," which commentates on Buddhism's cyclical "Wheel of Life." He sings, "Seems like the world is out to gather just by gravity."
On "Unfinished Sympathy," one of Massive Attack's biggest hits, Shara Nelson isn't so much heartbroken by her lover's departure as she is just completely empty. "Like a soul without a mind, in a body without a heart, I'm missing every part," she sings over lush, swelling strings.
The album's narrators can never see into the future, so Blue Lines instead basks in the present. "Be Thankful for What You Got" is itself just a funkier cover of the 1974 William DeVaughn hit of the same name, but it remains the album's most optimistic track with its bright strums of electric guitar and Hip-Hop drive.
Even then, the song doesn't offer any definitive promises of resolution. DeVaughn is just saying to appreciate the current moment. It's all, once again, almost too thematically identical to our current situation, especially if you live in New York City.
Massive Attack would go on to release even darker records, but Blue Lines offered sprinkles of hope. It's an album that still soundtracks the human experience 28 years later, and it suggests that no matter how dire it gets, we all might just make it. "Look, my son, the weather is changing," Horace Andy cries on "Hymn of the Big Wheel." "I'd like to feel that you could be free, look up at the blue skies beneath a new tree."
After a 28-year run, Daft Punk are reportedly shelving their robot helmets for good.
A publicist confirmed to Pitchfork this week that the legendary and elusive dance duo, composed of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, have broken up. Daft Punk announced the news in a clip titled "Epilogue," taken from their 2006 film Electroma, in which the band explodes. Their publicist gave no reason for the breakup (although they've been pretty quiet over the past few years).
Daft Punk formed in Paris in 1993 and put out four studio albums, finally releasing Random Access Memories in 2013 to widespread critical acclaim and worldwide recognition. But before the duo were ubiquitous on American radio, they cut their teeth in France's house music scene, making gritty garage-house tracks that have since been considered techno classics.
To honor our favorite helmet-wearers, we've rounded up the 15 best tracks that Daft Punk put out over their nearly three decades together.
15. “Doin’ It Right” feat. Panda Bear (Random Access Memories)
Prior to 2013's Random Access Memories, the record that cemented Daft Punk in America's pop mainstream, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were recluses who rarely accepted interviews and used robot helmets to conceal their identities — shocking, considering they had the power to command massive music festival crowds. Then arrived RAM, full of collaborations, and Daft Punk suddenly felt like the most humanized versions of themselves.
While RAM's high-profile features definitely garnered the most buzz, "Doin' It Right" smartly utilizes vocals from an indie favorite named Noah Lennox — AKA Animal Collective's Panda Bear — who grew up inspired by the sounds of early Daft Punk. His vocals, paired with a looped vocoder and a minimal, trap-tinged beat, are one of the album's biggest highlights.
14. “Teachers” (Homework)
As much as Daft Punk were considered innovators, many of their ideas were borrowed from their forebearers. The duo thanks many techno and house pioneers on "Teachers," which reads like a grocery list of inspirational musicians, citing Dr. Dre, DJ Funk, Jeff Mills, and many others in Bangalter's pitch-shifted vocals. Considering "Teachers'' is featured on Daft Punk's debut, 1997's Homework, it almost feels like the duo were predicting their own fate as musical icons.
13. “Human After All” (Human After All)
On their third album, 2005's Human After All, Daft Punk ditched the disco-pop of their 2001 breakthrough Discovery for a heavier, more abrasive sound that backed darker and often nihilistic lyrical themes. Songs like "Television Rules the Nation," "Brainwasher," and "Technologic" — paired with some truly nightmare-inducing music videos — use crunchy, repetitive riffs to evoke the impending doom of glueing your eyes to the screen.
But Human After All opens on what seems like a more optimistic note, with a title track that lulls you into a state of comfort: "We are human after all," the robots murmur over a catchy, major-key guitar riff. "Much in common after all." Sure, it's a pleasant sentiment, but in the context of such a dystopian album, being human is a downright damning state.
12. “Lose Yourself to Dance” feat. Pharrell Williams (Random Access Memories)
With a co-writing credit from Chic's Nile Rogers, it should be no surprise that "Lose Yourself to Dance" — another infectious Random Access Memories cut — provides a perfect soundtrack to do just what the title suggests. The disco-house jam intersperses Pharrell Williams' falsetto with a robotic voice tempting you to join the dance floor, making for a song that takes the best of the '70s and updates it for a futuristic club setting.
11. “Human After All / Together / One More Time / Music Sounds Better With You” (Alive 2007)
Alive 2007 isn't just any ordinary live album. Spanning over an hour and a half, the record is tracked like a Greatest Hits compilation-turned remix album with hardly any moments to take a breath. The setlist culminates into an epic closer that splices "Human After All" and "One More Time" with "Together," a song Bangalter recorded with DJ Falcon, as well as "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust, which has become a techno standard in its own right.
While Daft Punk naysayers have brushed off the band's music as being repetitive and tedious, "Human After All / Together / One More Time / Music Sounds Better With You" proves how well they knew their own music. The closing track to Alive 2007 is sheer bliss, celebrating the great unifier: dance.
10. “Face to Face” (Discovery)
One of the more straightforward pop songs Daft Punk made pre-RAM, "Face to Face" is made distinguishable by co-production from New Jersey-born house musician Todd Edwards, who backs the track with a chopped-up guitar and synth riff that sound like milliseconds of sound spliced together. With Edwards lending his vocals to the song, too, "Face to Face" easily had the potential to reach "One More Time"-levels of popularity.
Like seemingly everyone and their mother in the 2000s, Daft Punk were longtime fans of the Strokes. It wasn't until the making of RAM that Bangalter and de Homem-Christo finally met the band's frontman, Julian Casablancas; fortunately, a musical connection struck.
Daft Punk presented Casablancas with the instrumental demo to a dreamy, synth-driven love song called "Instant Crush," and Casablancas was receptive about putting his finishing touches on the album. Though his voice is processed through a vocoder, his sound is instantly recognizable, making "Instant Crush" feel a bit like a Strokes song from the future.
8. “Da Funk” (Homework)
If "Da Funk" reminds you a bit of '90s hip-hop, you're probably not alone. The track, a standout single from Homework, was inspired heavily by G-funk, a subgenre that evolved from West Coast gangsta rap. While "Da Funk" is only an instrumental, its laid-back beat and jittery riff, made with a Roland TB-303 synthesizer, make the song feel effortlessly cool. It's since become a house music classic.
7. “Technologic” (Human After All)
If the Chucky-like robot in the music video doesn't make it evident enough, "Technologic" is intended to disturb. A pitch-shifted voice utters a list of commands: "Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it," go the song's first lines. Then, Daft Punk's gnarled guitar riffs come in, making for a darkly entertaining dance track.
While "Technologic," on paper, seems a bit divisive, it continues to receive acknowledgement from artists across genres. New York rapper Busta Rhymes turned Daft Punk's chants into a set of NSFW taunts on his 2006 track "Touch It," while Dua Lipa used them in a reworked livestream performance of "Hallucinate" last year.
6. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (Discovery)
Discovery is likely Daft Punk's most funk-forward record, an aesthetic they achieved by crate-digging record stores for songs to sample. That's how "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" came about, based around a riff from the late Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby."
"[I recorded 'Cola Bottle Baby'] 30 years ago, and then here come some guys from France, their name was Daft Punk," Birdsong said in 2016. "I asked them, 'Where did you find the music?' And they said, 'Well, I was going through bins and it popped out.'"
Birdsong received a songwriting credit for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," which became the subject of multiple viralvideos. And then, of course, Kanye West's "Stronger" came along, which prominently sampled Daft Punk's version — the duo even joined the rapper for his 2008 Grammy performance of the song. For many, this marked the beginning of Daft Punk's immersion into America's mainstream.
5. “Around the World” (Homework)
Like an expertly-crafted Dr. Seuss poem tailored for the club, the only lyrics of "Around the World" are the three words in its title, repeated 144 times. Yet the seven-minute song somehow never grows stale, as the minimal instrumentation shifts and creates an irresistible momentum. With its ascending bassline, "Around the World" is a journey in dance.
4. “Get Lucky” feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rogers (Random Access Memories)
Sure, Daft Punk were hitmakers and Grammy nominees even before "Get Lucky" arrived. But was pop radio ready to accept two robots? Not quite — at least until Pharrell Williams and Nile Rogers lent their contributions.
In an interview series Rolling Stone conducted around the collaborators of Random Access Memories, Williams recalled meeting "the robots" in a studio in Paris, and he mentioned to the band that he was in the midst of a Rogers kick. Sure enough, Daft Punk had already asked Rogers to record the rhythm guitar part of "Get Lucky."
"When I heard 'Get Lucky,' it just reminded me of this exotic island — not sure if it was on this planet or not," Williams said. "But it just felt like a place where it was forever four in the morning."
3. “One More Time” (Discovery)
Rarely has house music sounded as euphoric as "One More Time," the opening track of Discovery. Here, Daft Punk boil down life's necessities to dancing, celebration, and freedom, reciting these tenets of happiness over a melodic loop that repeatedly builds tension and then releases it throughout the song.
Depending on your age, either "One More Time" or "Get Lucky" is Daft Punk's biggest song; but while both are guaranteed dance floor burners, "One More Time" carries the air of nostalgia, a reminder of "the good times" — whenever those were for you.
2. “Around the World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (Alive 2007)
Of the many highlights from Alive 2007, "Around the World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" best encapsulates the thrill of Daft Punk's live shows. From their towering pyramid, backed by an elaborate light show, the robots intertwined their deep cuts and biggest hits flawlessly, keeping the familiarity of "Around the World"'s steady bassline as the gradual buildup evokes the excitement of hearing the band's songs for the first time.
Some otherwise fantastic live recordings are unfortunately muffled by crowd noise, but the frequent cheers, wallops, and singing along from Daft Punk's crowds only elevate Alive 2007. Close your eyes, and it's not too hard to imagine yourself shouting "harder! Better! Faster! Stronger!" with thousands of perfect strangers in a stadium.
1. "Digital Love" (Discovery)
The first chords of "Digital Love," a standout track from Discovery, turn a 1979 George Duke sample into one of the best love songs of the 2000s. "Last night I had a dream about you / In this dream, I'm dancing right beside you / And it looked like everyone was having fun / The kind of feeling I've waited so long," the robots sing in the first verse. "But suddenly, I feel the shining sun / Before I knew it, this dream was all gone."
Bittersweet, campy, and complete with an iconic vintage synthesizer solo, "Digital Love" is also one of Daft Punk's most recognizable songs, thanks to its prominence in a number of commercials. But the general success of the track doesn't take away from its magic; the legend of the love-at-first-sight, the type that always feels like a once-in-a-lifetime dream.