A short time ago organisers announced the first two names for Øya Festival’s Wednesday 7th August, PULP and PJ HARVEY. Now they follow this up with a strong release for Friday 9th August!
Friday will be closed by the power rockers QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE on the main stage. On the same day, Øya favorites BIG THIEF will also play.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE are in great form and come to Tøyenparken to round off the Friday evening. Their eighth studio album In Times New Roman… was released in the summer of 2023 and was their first in six years.
NME wrote about it that «*this is up there with their darkest, knottiest material to date, and will be appreciated all the more for it*».
Band leader Josh Homme has had a stable staff for the past ten years, which continues the band’s distinctive alternation between the catchy and the dark. Together they play with modern hard rock, mixed with influences from kraut, electronica and underground music. Among former members and contributors to single albums, one finds an impressive network of renowned musicians. The band was originally started as a collaboration in the underground after Homme had finished Kyuss and briefly stopped by Screaming Trees. Around the same time, he launched the respected studio project Desert Sessions. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE built up a loyal following with their first two albums, before their definitive breakthrough came with Songs for the Deaf in 2002. Since then, their popularity has remained strong, and for around 20 years they have been topping the headlines at festivals all over the world . The band are steady suppliers of good musical experiences, both on record and from the stage.
Joining them are American band BIG THIEF who has gained a large audience over the years. Organisers know there are many who have wanted the quartet to return and in 2024 it will happen. The band started as the duo Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek, before they gradually expanded into the band we know today as BIG THIEF.
The debut album came in 2016, but many people caught their ears with the third album U.F.O.F. in 2019. It was released on the highly respected label 4AD. In the same year, they also released Two Hands and continued their rise with the rich Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You in 2022. Since then, two new singles have been released, and there is good reason to look forward to a new album and a new visit to Norway. The band’s sensitive and slightly reserved mix of indie and folk is constantly gaining critical acclaim.
The last addition today is WEDNESDAY from North Carolina, who mix raw vocals, great tunes and noisy guitars in a way that has led Pitchfork to call them “*one of the best indie rock bands around*”. After starting as the solo project of Karly Hartzman, it is now a full band with an expanded and more powerful sound. Guitarist Jake Lenderman has several releases on his own, under the name MJ Lenderman. After a collection of cover songs the year before, the third regular WEDNESDAY album Rat Saw God was released in the spring of 2023. It was very well received and the band is now experiencing increased attention on both sides of the The Atlantic.
Festival organisers are looking forward to introducing this group to the Øya audience. Slantmagazine.com believes that the songs on the new album: “…can be gentle and melodic at one moment, and aggressive and even violent in the next, cycling through an eclectic range of influences, from grunge to shoegaze to country-style balladry.“
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