RARE DM / 2020K / Rowan Sullivan

Thu Nov 13. 7:30 pm. $12 advance/$15 door. all ages.

Advance $12 tickets at https://raredmpittsburgh.brownpapertickets.com, at the Government Center box office (front desk) or from the local openers.$15 door tickets are cash only.

danceable synthpop and minimal darkwave from NYCRARE DMhttps://rare-dm.bandcamp.com/https://soundcloud.com/rare_dmwith special guests2020K (queer pop and electronics)https://2020k.bandcamp.com/Rowan Sullivan (dark wave and IDM from Georgia, now at CMU!)https://www.instagram.com/rowanxghost/

From a 2019 interview in The Paper:

This spring, New York synth-pop artist Rare DM (born: Erin Hoagg) released her debut album, Vanta Black. The LP is a cohesive exercise — or exorcise, if purging yourself of demons is your cup of tea — in ridding herself of dark inner truths by daring to lay it all bare. As pop music has done with impeccable precision through the ages, Hoagg explores who she is within and without relationships.

She does this through a range of analog and vintage synths, and shimmering melodies vaguely recalling early Kate Bush and Eurythmics — all elements work to create a foreboding aura. But Hoagg updates her self-produced retro electronic sound in often surprising ways, and the devil's in the details: In "Softboy," she interpolates TLC's classic Y2K hit "No Scrubs" for a stream of consciousness poem about wanting a man with a backbone. "I don't want no scrub, but I don't want a softboy," which can be interpreted numerous ways.

For the haunted video, directed by Jake Moore and Oliver Rivard, Hoagg hunts down the softboy who ghosts her to find closure, literally. The theme of love without resolution is a theme throughout Vanta Black, which Hoagg describes as an album made during her darkest hour. The song "Caracal," which channels elements of underground witch house, finds Hoagg attempting to give herself the closure she seeks. "I'll see you around," she sighs into the ether.

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