Latest news with #JoeKeery
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Djo review – Joe Keery mixes genres in an endearing, if uneven, Brooklyn set
By now, Djo is not a secret. The psychedelic electro-pop project led by Joe Keery, once an IYKYK solo bedroom-production artist, has reached the mainstream, making the festival circuit at Laneway, Coachella and Glastonbury. And Keery, an actor best known for playing foppish, helplessly winsome Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, has stepped out from the shadows of a persona initially meant to disguise his famous name; gone are the Scooby-Doo Shaggy-style wigs and costumes from Djo's early performances, meant to dissociate any notion of the Upside Down from Keery's longstanding interest in making music. It worked, though in a manner befitting a preternaturally charming and thoughtful celebrity who seemingly courts good fortune: by accident. Djo, pronounced like his first name, blew up not because he was 'the guy from Stranger Things,' but because he inadvertently caught a rogue wave of virality. End of Beginning, a synth-y, nostalgic ode to a past version of oneself, became a TikTok track, a million videos soundtracked to Keery's wistful 'and when I'm back in Chicago, I feel it', largely without knowledge of the name. The song racked up over 1.4bn streams in 2024, two years after its release on Djo's second album, Decide. Stranger Things may be gearing up for its final season, but the music is the show now. Keery made no mention of any of this context at the third of three sold-out shows at Brooklyn Steel for the Back on You tour, nor did he need to. As evidenced by the sheer amount of cheeky, anxiety-laced lyrics shouted back at him Wednesday night, the crowd was here for a hit of Djo – modern dread, ennui and revelation in psych-rock form, fleshed out with a six-member band and clear rock-star ambition. 'WHY TRYYYYYY', Keery wailed in opener Runner, accompanied by a gunshot bass, one of many hooks on which the largely twentysomething crowd hung their inhibitions. (Another, off live standout Roddy: 'There's somethin' wrong with this world / I feel it coming on / And contradictions take their toll / Is that where we went wrong?') Keery is a clear student of the classics: Djo's new album The Crux, released last month, is an irrepressibly catchy, if at times incoherent, genre mix that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, from Steely Dan to the Police, Fleetwood Mac to Tame Impala, Keery talk-singing with the shaggy world-weariness of Julian Casablancas. As a frontman, Keery channels each in a masterful performance of a rock star, guitar-slinging swagger and an ability to be funny just by bending 'new yorkkkkk' into different shapes over and over. Keery has enough natural charisma to get away with giving little in stage banter; even bumbling the microphone came off as endearing ('New York! You made me drop my mic! I like it' is the most revealing the night got). The band clearly wants the music to speak for itself – and for the most part, it does. The electrified 1975-esque listicle in new single Basic Being Basic, as accompanied word-for-word by the crowd, elided any winking humor into an exorcism of boredom. Chateau (Feel Alright) blossomed from almost too-quiet meditation, finally showcasing Keery's lovely singing voice, into full vibe-out drowning in guitar. In person, despite my ample cynicism over the TikTok-ification of music and the proliferation of phones at concerts, and Keery's own wariness of a single snippet overtaking everything else, End of Beginning gave me goosebumps – a glittering three-minute hymn to the passage of time, the obvious choice for a finale wisely held four songs before it. (And with fewer phones than I expected, as if the crowd knew to heed his longstanding disinterest in social media.) Some of Djo's lo-fi, talky tracks translated to the crowded 70s studio-style stage – six band members, two drum kits, at least five keyboards and more guitars than I could count – better than others. A few that started out boppy, such as The Crux opener Lonesome Is A State of Mind, soaked up the full band into a punch of sound and swagger. Others, such as album standout Delete Ya, drowned out Keery's voice, which flickered in the lower registers and at times buckled under the band's weight. The show as a whole teetered a bit uneasily between full rock band energy and something vibier, more meditative and knowing. If Djo has a preferred direction, it seems to the be the former, based on the 10-person finale with his opener, Post Animal, the Chicago psych-rock band with whom Keery used to play guitar; that song, Flash Mountain, burnt off all remaining hearing with a fireworks show of guitar shredding (complimentary). The torrent of pent-up musical energy felt earned – despite what people may assume to be a lark, Keery, his band and his former mates in Post Animal have been at this for a long, long time. 'This is really special for us,' Keery said mid-show, referring to the New York venue and, perhaps inadvertently, the mutating nature of Djo – once a solo project, now an entity, still stealthily absorbing the fame.
CBC
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Why Joe Keery wanted to separate Djo from Stranger Things
About a decade ago, Joe Keery landed his breakthrough role as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, which went on to become one of Netflix's biggest hits. At the same time, he started secretly making music on the side. In 2019, Keery independently released his debut album, Twenty Twenty, under the pseudonym Djo. He also donned a disguise at his shows to remain as anonymous as possible. But then something happened that he wasn't planning for: his song End of Beginning became a viral hit on TikTok, which completely blew his cover. In an interview with Q 's Tom Power, Keery says he opted to keep his identity a secret because he didn't want his music to be associated with his Stranger Things character. WATCH | Djo's full interview with Tom Power: "It was pretty much just to deflect from people being like, 'Hey, Steve!'" he says. "It was to, yes, try to have some sort of separation between the two so that somebody who wasn't a fan could just discover the music and listen to it without any preconceived idea of who did it or anything. Just to have a clean slate." I still want to be taken seriously as an artist. - Joe Keery Though End of Beginning came out in 2022, it was a sleeper hit that didn't blow up until two years later. "I guess that's the way that the music business works now," Keery says. "With TikTok, it's like, if something catches a wave and is in the right place at the right time, it can sort of surf this huge thing. So I think that's what happened. It was just the perfect circumstances for the song to do well." WATCH | Official video for End of Beginning: Now, at 33, Keery is back with his third studio album, The Crux. But despite his huge success in both TV and music, he still struggles with self-doubt sometimes. "No matter what you achieve, I feel, you're always still dealing with the same demons and you're always still fighting the same fight," he says. "I still want to be taken seriously as an artist. I still want to put out things that I'm proud of. I still want to live my life to its full potential. I don't want to be afraid socially. I don't know, it's like a big pot, I guess. And working through lyrics and writing these songs is like a way to just stir it up and not like fix the problem, but to vomit some of the problem out and hear it back."
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Utopia Launches ‘Pavements' On '90s Indie Band As Hybrid Music Doc/Satire Hits The Road
Utopia, which knows its way around a music documentary (Meet Me In The Bathroom, Crestone) opened Alex Ross Perry's at the Film Forum in NYC to $13.2k with sold-out Q&As and plans to roll the Venice-premiering satirical hybrid doc/mockumentary across key markets in May ahead of a national release June 6. It's sitting at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (31 reviews). Each stop of the road show from LA (sold out preview at Vidiots on the 8th) and Brooklyn next weekend (also holding at the Film Forum) to San Francisco, Nashville, Knoxville, Portland and Chicago — feature sold and selling-out sessions with directors and band members whose film is as much a satire of a music doc as the real thing. Actual archival footage and interviews alternate with a movie-within-a-movie that has actors playing band members (Joe Keery as Stephen Malkmus; Fred Hechinger as Bob Nastanovich; Natt Wolff as Scott Kannenberg) and Jason Schwartzman as Chris Lombardi, founder of the group's label Matador Records. There's a reimagining of an actual theatrical production called Slanted! Enchanted! and a museum memorabilia show. More from Deadline 'Rust', Western With A Tragic Past, Honors Work Of Slain Cinematographer, Proceeds Will Go To Her Family - Specialty Preview 'Pink Floyd at Pompeii - MCMLXXII' Remastered Concert Film Rocks Indie Weekend Faith-Based 'The King Of Kings', 'The Chosen' With Hatsune Miku Anime, 'Pride & Prejudice' Re-Release Indie Standouts Easter Weekend - Specialty Box Office The venerable slacker indie rock band came together in 1989 in Stockton, California. Utopia's head of marketing and distribution Kyle Greenberg says the Film Forum audience is multigenerational from Gen Z to boomers checking out the film with long lines and strong walk-up traffic. 'As we find on many releases, bands that might be a bit older, because of discoverability these days, there is a chance … for these bigger acts' to find new audiences. The indie film scene is a tough one and the overall marketplace crowded with new studio fare barreling into theaters at its fastest pace in months. Pavements' marketing, Greenberg says, will be 'hyper-localized' to the road show and mostly driven by social with paid picking up as word-of-mouth builds. The film will play a single screen in each market this month, leaning into its arthouse partners and activations around each theater, some of which will play bonus music videos before and after screenings. Others are creating Pavement museums and artifacts, 'having fun with the meta aspects of the film.' Before the real trailer hit (watch it here), Utopia released a fake teaser for the fake movie-within-the-movie. Other indie openings: Greenwich Entertainment's , a new adaptation of Françoise Sagan's coming-of-age novel, had a terrific debut with $102.6k on 228 screens. , a difficult movie to release, grossed $25k at 115 theaters, presented by Falling Forward Films. from Big World Pictures opened to $8.1k at the Film Forum. Oscilloscope's debuted at $5.2k. Joel Potrykus's fifth feature is a NYT Critics Pick and 98% with critics on RT. expands to additional screenings in NY and Los Angeles next weekend. Wide/moderate release indies include no. 7, Angel Studios' animated , which is sticking around in week 4 with $1.8 million on 2,035 screens. Closing on a $57.7 million cume. A24 is no. 8 with Warfare in week 4 on 1,315 screens for a $1.27 milion weekend and a $24 million cume. Sailesh Kolanu's Telugu breakout from Prathyangira debuted at no. 9 with $870k weekend on 590 screens, for a $2.1 million cume, as per Comscore. And from Roadside Attractions starring Nicolas Cage rounded out the top ten at $675k on 884 screens. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Coachella 2025 highlights: a sweaty, star-packed year with thrills for all ages
Despite its reputation for bohemian escape – a music Disneyland for adults in the desert – Coachella can often feel like a gauntlet. The drive from Los Angeles to Indio will set you back anywhere from three to five hours, the lines even more; some campers endured 12-hour lines to access the site. A three-day general admissions pass went for a whopping $649 this year, $220 more than just five years ago, and that's not counting money spent on lodging, food and outfits suitable for 40-degree temp swings. No wonder over half of attendees this year were on payment plans. Unless Revolve is footing your bill, what 20-something can afford Coachella? Such was the latest strain of bad press for North America's largest music festival, which – depending on who you talk to – is recovering from its flop year of depressed ticket sales in 2024. Whether the inflammatory headlines comparing it to Fyre Festival (wrong) or questioning Gen Z's financial literacy (fair) are out of genuine concern or FOMO-laced schadenfreude, Coachella is certainly in some form of identity shift, with the question of who it's for, who attends and what it represents in palpable flux over the course of its first 2025 weekend. On the one hand, the festival draws a more international lineup and diverse crowd than its flower-crown reputation suggests; though it of course skews young, there were plenty of middle-aged adults (with, presumably, more robust bank accounts) mixed in with high schoolers, gaggles of shirtless men, college kids on drugs and the occasional baby with headphones on. On the other, well, it's hard to walk more than a few feet in the rapidly browning grass without either interrupting a photo or being asked to take one, the festival's appearance-oriented clientele still hopelessly tied to the 'gram and the game of envy. But those who did make it were rewarded by solid sets and deep dehydration – temperatures reached a scorching 102 on Friday, making 2025 the hottest festival on record. 'It's hottttttttt … but it's nice' rasped Djo, aka Stranger Things' Joe Keery, on Friday afternoon in a sweltering Mojave cool kids' tent, attendees bopping to chill songs of existential ennui and anxiety while sweating through their shirts. 'The weather's not like this in England, I can tell you that,' lamented a miserable looking beabadoobee in the Sunday glare; the Filipino-British singer nonetheless turned out a winsome set of alt-rock shredding that recalled both Liz Phair and Michelle Branch. Good luck to anyone performing before 7pm, though the heat lent the whole affair a sense of survivors' bonding – the sight of drummer Tré Cool sweating off his glitter eye shadow during Green Day's Saturday night set, long after the sun went down, was perhaps the most representative image of a weekend that had many melting face. Rising temps met simmering discontent. Recession indicators abounded, from screaming to Green Day's American Idiot ('I'm not part of a Maga agenda,' singer Billie Joe Armstrong ad-libbed), to Jimmy Eat World drenching the main stage in sweat and what is now dad rock, to Charli xcx's unofficial headliner set of pure indie sleaze. Brat green outpaced crochet on Saturday, with the British artist drawing one of the biggest crowds of the weekend to watch her stunt through bangers only with Billie Eilish, Lorde and Troye Sivan, along with numerous celebrity fans; videos circulated of Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner canoodling in the VIP area. Jenner's ex Travis Scott served as the semi-billed fourth headliner of the weekend, with a late Saturday set that several people I met planned to cautiously attend, citing fears about the Astroworld disaster that went unmentioned. Styled as a modern-day gladiator, attacking the beat while nearly obscured by smoke, Scott's set projected aggression without incident. Like last year, female artists saved Coachella from flopping, providing some of the biggest highs of the weekend. Charli's party girl energy gave way to party politics, with Clairo bringing out Bernie Sanders, fresh off a Fighting Oligarchy rally in LA, as a surprise guest. Sanders called on a queer-leaning Gen Z crowd to 'lead in the fight to combat climate change, protect women's rights, and build an economy that works for all, not just the few' – at a festival whose CEO has donated extensively to Republican campaigns and anti-LGBTQ+ organizations. The Go-Go's kicked off the festival with a set celebrating their 40+ years as punk leaders, proving youth is a mindset. And Lady Gaga's instantly canonical set was worth the price of admission alone, once again demonstrating Coachella's long transition into a major pop star festival in the wake of Beychella. I left my body at the sight of Gaga, haughty in queenly garb, transitioning from 2025 smash Abracadabra to 2011 hit Judas from on high. A year after Chappell Roan rocketed into the mainstream from the small Gobi stage, South African star Tyla appeared ascendant on the Outdoor stage, holding the crowd's focus with some of the loosest hips I've ever seen. The popheads then hustled across the grounds to Lisa – aka Blackpink's Lalisa Manobal – at Sahara, where she cemented her solo career with a slickly produced, eardrum-puncturing set that recalled Blackpink's maximally hype headlining appearance two years ago. Her bandmate Jennie put an exclamation point on K-Pop's inroads at Coachella on Sunday, all crisp choreography and heavy beats with a cowboy hat. Megan Thee Stallion, too, went cowgirl with boots, hat and leather for indisputably the hottest dancing of the weekend. Her set delivered some of the heaviest nostalgia hits as well – during Plan B, she brought out Queen Latifah to perform U.N.I.T.Y, her 1993 track also confronting disrespect of women's bodies and choices, and Ciara to twerk for Goodies. Both incited massive crowd freak-outs, only slightly dampened by the festival cutting Megan's mic for time. And Missy Elliott melted time for her festival debut with a set that, a few technical issues aside, appealed to the past and the future at once; Get Ur Freak On and bug glasses have confirmed made it to Gen Z. Nostalgia, of course, powered a good portion of a festival that depends as much on drawing the veterans as the festival bros tripping at Sahara. 'As an old person I love to see how much love these old bands are getting,' said a woman who appeared to be (gasp) 35 at an over-capacity crowd for Weezer's Saturday set. Basement Jaxx and Kraftwerk, both running far behind schedule at an otherwise typically tight festival, reminded why they've long been on the Coachella lineup, back when the festival skewed heavily rock and electronic. T-Pain took attendees back to 2007 with an electrified version of Buy U a Drank that made walking through the crowd a battle against flailing limbs. Zedd portaled to 2013 with an extended version of Clarity, the high point of millennial-leaning set that brought out Maren Morris, John Mayer and Julia Michaels. Benson Boone, 22, explicitly channeling Freddie Mercury, brought out 77-year-old Queen drummer Brian May for Bohemian Rhapsody. And Post Malone and Shaboozey leaned into the nostalgia inherent in a country twang; the latter's voice, rich and honeyed, drew a strikingly diverse crowd for a full sing-along to A Bar Song (Tipsy), which he premiered at Coachella last year to far fewer people. For a festival that often feels too slick for its own good, there were still some surprises. The little monsters of erstwhile Nickelodeon kids' show Yo Gabba Gabba! delivered one of the most unexpectedly joyous and strange hours of the weekend – pure mascot mayhem, Duolingo owl included, for silly songs like Yummy In My Tummy, plus Weird Al and Flavor Flav for a ridiculously catchy number called I Love Bugs. That moment, vibing out to children's song about centipedes and spiders, unlocked the secret of Coachella – find whatever escape hits enough to forget the enormous start-up costs and tiers of people getting better access than you, and it's all worth it. That it took a children's show performing to a room at least 50% on drugs to find it is as good an indicator as any that Coachella is in its quarter-life crisis era, trying a little of everything, cartoon monsters to Little Monsters, to see what sticks.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pavement's Hybrid Doc-Biopic Gets Official Trailer: Watch
The post Pavement's Hybrid Doc-Biopic Gets Official Trailer: Watch appeared first on Consequence. Pavements, Alex Ross Perry's experimental biopic-documentary on the band Pavement, has received its first official trailer. Arriving in theaters around the US on June 6th, Pavements combines elements of the traditional musical biopic with that of a rock documentary. The film captures all five members of Pavement in 2022 as they launched their reunion tour, their own museum, and a musical based on their catalogue. All the while, Joe Keery stars as frontman Stephen Malkmus in a fictitious documenting of the band's history, alongside fellow actor/musician performers Jason Schwartzman, Nat Wolff, Tim Heidecker, Zoe Lister-Jones, and more. This biopic-style presentation of the band's origins story was captured as Range Life: A Pavement Story, which is both its own separate companion movie as well as the 'film within a film' portion of Pavements. Range Life received its first trailer earlier this month, though it does not have a confirmed release date; the trailer ends suggesting that Range Life will be released on its own around Christmas 2025. True to Pavement's lore-heavy exploration of satire, meta-humor, and subversive aesthetics, Pavements advances upon the traditional rock-doc format through its hybrid musical/biopic/documentary style, seemingly parodying all three styles of filmmaking. Initially, Malkmus requested that a Pavement film be made not by a documentarian, but a 'screenwriter who would not write a screenplay.' Perry then signed on to craft Pavements, attempting to make something 'legitimate, ridiculous, real, fake, idiotic, cliché, and illogical.' After two years of post-production, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and New York Film Festival in 2024. Pavement have teased a new song arriving as part of the film's official soundtrack, marking the band's first new music offering in over 20 years — though the band's Scott Kannberg described it as 'not a big deal.' Revisit our list of the band's 10 best songs. Pavement's Hybrid Doc-Biopic Gets Official Trailer: Watch Paolo Ragusa Popular Posts Members of British Punk Band UK Subs Detained and Denied Entry into US Dolly Parton Gave Rules to Sabrina Carpenter for "Please Please Please" Rework Documentary Claims Jim Morrison Is Alive, Living in Syracuse Drake's Lawyers Say "Millions of People" Believe Kendrick Lamar's Pedophile Claim In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good A Definitive Ranking of Every Disney Live-Action Remake Subscribe to Consequence's email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.
