PREVIEW: Waxahatchee @ 9:30 Club

BY: SYDNEY SPENCER

On Sunday, April 15th, 2018 I will be seeing my favorite artist in D.C. for the second time. Even with graduation around the corner, nothing else could make me more excited.  

Indie solo project, Waxahatchee, has humble beginnings in young Katie Crutchfield’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. In 2010, Katie recorded her first album, American Weekend, in her bedroom of her parent’s house. Its cassette-recorded tracks are laced with the intimacy of the young artist’s personal accounts of recklessness, finding love and losing it. With her honest lyrics and candid acoustic guitar, it’s hard not to feel connected to Katie in someway. The album was quickly discovered and praised by the indie community, its track “Be Good” was listed on NPR’s song of the day playlist and rated as one of the station’s top 50 songs in 2012.

In 2013, Katie released Waxahatchee’s second album – Cerulean Salt. The album (my personal favorite) is less melancholy and more reflective, focusing more on Katie’s experience growing up including insight into her relationship with her twin sister and moving across the country to New York City. I highly recommend checking out “Brother Bryan” or “Dixie Cups and Jars”.

Waxahatchee’s increasing popularity has been reflected her music career for in 2015, she signed a deal with Merge Records – who hold rights to other big-name indie groups such as Neutral Milk Hotel. In 2015 she released the album that would move her closer to indie’s more mainstream spotlight – Ivy Tripp (check out “Breathless” and “La Loose”). The album’s sound production is much more mature than her previous two and focuses primarily on her then long-term and serious relationship which ended soon after the album’s release.

As a tribute to her journey to finding herself again, Katie published her fourth album Out of the Storm. The album, which was recorded with renowned sound engineer John Agnello (famous for Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.) widely expanded her fan base. As of now, its most popular tracks include “Never Been Wrong” and “Silver”. Establishing herself as a veteran of the indie and D.I.Y. punk community, Waxahatchee will be co-headlining a tour with indie folk artist Hurray for the Riff Raff and in the fall, she will be playing at L.A.’s Hollywood Palladium to open for the Jawbreaker’s first tour in 22 years.

Do not miss Waxahatchee at the 9:30 Club on Sunday, April 15th, 2018. Buy your tickets here before they sell out! See you there!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *