Primavera Sound: Opening Day

The opening day of the Primavera Sound festival is free and open to the public, and it serves to get everyone geared up for the three intense days that follow at the Parc del Fòrum venue. Today you can check out the five-piece Catalan group Anímic, presenting their sixth album, ‘Skin’ (2017), where they feature dance music on an album about our inhumanity; 7 Notas 7 Colores, a band started by Mucho Muchacho along with producer Dive Dibosso, pioneers of hip hop in Spain and authors of one of the key albums of the genre in Catalonia, ‘Hecho, es simple’ (1997), who are back on stages to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album’s release; the elegant electro pop of British trio Saint Etienne, with Sarah Cracknell, Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley; the combination of pop, Afrobeat and epic rock from Californians Local Natives; and the young Australian artist Sophie Payten.

Best Covers: Gordi “00000 Million”

Sophie Payten, the Australian singer and songwriter who records as Gordi,is Jagjaguwar labelmates with Bon Iver, and she was part of the all-star chorus that sang backup for Justin Vernon when he debuted “8 (circle)” on The Tonight Show earlier this year. So it just makes sense that she’s recorded her own version of “00000 Million,” a song from Bon Iver’s great new album 22, A Million. Payten’s version is almost entirely a cappella, but it doesn’t sound spare. She layers her own voice and runs it through a few filters so that it sounds otherworldly.