Kat Says: “Justice And Massive Attack at the Same Festival?!”
Miami’s III Points just dropped phase 2 of its October lineup, and I’m about to chat with the founder :)
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Hey Friends,
Did you see the III Points lineup??
Miami’s annual October gathering of the Wynwood witches isn’t just an excuse to practice Santeria in Hialeah (although that surely is part of it). The homegrown music festival brings together a cross-genre exploration of all things cool, making sure to bring some hip-hop heavyweights, avant-pop princesses, an eye-watering amount of cutting edge electronic acts, and then it fills half the bill with local Miami musicians and DJs, so you can explore what the 305 has to offer.
This year marks the 11th edition, and seeing as 11 is a pretty powerful mystic number, the witchy-ass team made sure to go all out.
I mean, fucking christ. You had me at Justice, but then you’ve got MASSIVE ATTACK?! THE FUCK?
(If any new Banksys appear in Wynwood, well, we know what’s up.)
Also! Rick Ross, Yung Lean, Jungle, Disclosure, Jamie XX, Pinkpantheress, Parliament Funkadelic and George Clinton, Kaytranada, ISOXO, Bladee, Channtel Tres, DJ Koze, DJ Shadow, Mall Grab, Toro y Moi and Raekwon?!
And that’s just naming my personal favorites, not even all the acts that might be your personal favorites or highest billed.
I know I’m biased, this being my hometown fest thrown by one of my college friends and all, but I truly think III Points is one of the best music festival experiences I’ve ever had.
And I can say that, because I’ve been to every single one of them.
Here’s an art flyer I have hanging on my wall from the first III Points. Follow @upperhandart
DJ Shadow was actually at the first III Points ever. It was part of the whole marketing scheme, because it was just a year and a bit after the legendary beat juggler was infamously kicked off the decks at now-defunct South Beach megaclub Mansion for being “too future” (read: not playing enough Calvin Harris, probably).
Having the don back is a cool way to tie III Point’s present (and [too] future) with its past.
I keep making jokes about them being a professional coven, because it’s not a joke—haha! It’s true. There was a hurricane coming once that was supposed to cancel the fest, and they literally brought brujas from around town to come and do some shit.
The storm totally missed Miami and shit went off without a hitch. LCD Soundsystem was the only act that chickened out and didn’t come, but they came back a few years later and played the main stage. So that’s cool.
James Murphy was a headliner of the first III Points as well, and he’s been back a bunch, having brought Despacio, his sound installation collaboration (read: an insular dance floor) with Soulwax, to III Points for the last two years. That’s not returning this year, which is fine honestly. A lot of people are sad but like, Despacio is a privilege, not a right. Stop crying, deeweebs.
Photo by: Adi Adinayev
This is the stage Justice is going to play, under the giant disco ball. That shit is gonna be INSANE LOL WTF THE LIGHTS
I’ve seen some really spectacular sets at III Points throughout the years. I saw Khruangbin play a side stage to like 100 people. I saw Virtual Self play inside a giant sound studio. I saw Method Man and Red Man smoke a joint delivered by drone. Speaking of which, I saw Wu-Tang Clan perform literally every fucking song you love AND Method Man was there!
I’ve watched III Points grow from an idea to a corporate-funded behemoth, and I for one think it’s kept its soul throughout the whole journey.
So! Let me take this time to let you know I’ll be chatting with my friend David Sinopoli, III Points co-founder and co-owner of the legendary Club Space, on this week’s Kat Calls :)
It’s gonna be a real good one! Come through and ask your own Qs. If you wanna get to know him better so you can come correct, I highly recommend my buddy Zach Schlein’s fantastic feature on the man, the myth, the legend, published in the Miami New Times back in 2017.
Further Reading: III Points' Explosive Growth Transforms Miami Music (Zach Schlein, Miami New Times, 2017)
Go sub my YouTube page at the link below, mark your calendar, and join the ride! Oh, and buy tickets for III Points, coming to Wynwood October 18 and 19, at iiipoints.com. Tickets go on sale Friday at 1:11 p.m., because they’re witches.
Keep in mind, this is an all-night festival. It usually opens around 3 p.m. and parties until 5 a.m. The big headliners finish by 2 a.m. or so, but if you’re like, looking to rave forever, the party continues—and then you can go to Space lol. Psyhco!
Kat Calls: David Sinopoli
Thursday, June 13
7 pm ET / 4 pm PT
YouTube.com/@SuperKatWorld
Also…
YO! I made Super Kat World shirts in black. S/O all my inner goths. It says “Music Matters” on the front, and has the SKW logo on the back :) This joins the existing lineup of the signature SKW shirt in pink, a “music matters” hat in pink, and a “music matters” / logo coffee mug!
Buying SKW merch is an amazing way to support me and my vision, and share your love of DIY music journalism with the world <3 Also, it’s cute!
The Chemical Brothers released a book! I got a copy for review, and I’m going to hit you with my thoughts soon, but you can go all Reading Rainbow and “but don’t take my word for it” read it yourself. It’s full of great photos, stories and more, as told by the guys themselves and the friends and colleagues that surround them.
Absolutely Necessary
(This is the part where I share songs that are so good, they’re absolutely necessary to listen to. That’s it. That’s the bar.)
I made two Spotify playlists for this section that you can follow: one weekly playlist updated with just the new stuff every week, and one cumulative playlist that will host every song I pick ever (until Spotify tells me it’s full). Check them out! I made them for you—and me, but mostly you.
Here are this week’s five highlights:
Charli XCX - “365”
Flash warning!!!! This lyric video will ruin your life! I love it! This is the (original) album closer, before Charli added three other songs to her recently-released Brat. I’m obsessed with it. Listening to this song is what it felt like to drink $5 4Lokos at Neon Liger. This song is unabashedly about doing cocaine, and I love that for us. It goes so fuckin’ hard, it makes me wish I was still 31 and doing drugs, but I’m 36 and I am fully asleep before 10 p.m. on weekdays. At least I can listen to “365” and go for a run before eating my salad! You can take the girl out of the parties, but you can’t take the party out of the girl (and I still go to parties, obviously, but wow, this song really is like that).
Thys - “Right Here (In Your Mind)” Feat. A-Trak
Yoooo, this tune is crazy. Thys is one-third of the celebrated and legendary, now-defunct electronic trio Noisia, and he just released an incredible six-track EP called Eigenwise, each distinctly unique track of which features a dope collaboration with a wild lineup of artists, including Machine Drum and Holly, Nikki Nair and more. I particularly love this tune with A-Trak, because it infuses so much of the latter’s love of disco funk into Thys’ masterful style. Here’s what Thys had to say about the EP on IG:
“I don’t think music has to be “about” something to mean something. This EP isn’t ‘about’ finding fun and purpose in club music and dancefloors, but: in making this music I did have fun and by sharing that joy I do find some purpose. It was very fun to write these tunes with all my lovely friends who put little bits of their hearts into it too. Thank you so much Chloe, Alex, Alain, Travis, Miguel, Logan, Nikki, and Eric and everyone at Fool’s Gold to help bring this together. Eigen-wijs in Dutch means self-wise: it translates as ‘stubborn,’ but it’s a bit more innocent than the English translation. They used to call me ‘Thijs Eigenwijs’ in elementary school, and I’ve been told I’m still pretty eigenwijs these days.”
Confidence Man - “I Can’t Lose You”
What’s that? You want more disco funk? Pas de probleme! Austalian duo Confidence Man just dropped a level 9000 bander called "I Can't Lose You" that's serving Eurodance energy with a side of mid-2000s cuteness. It’s a single from the band’s forthcoming third album 3AM (LA LA LA). “It’s a fucked up sort of world,” the group’s Sugar Bones is quoted in the press release. “It's 3am, it’s never not 3am, and we party all the time.” Okay! Yes! “365!” Let’s go!
KAYTRANADA - “Do 2 Me” Feat. Anderson .Paak, SiR
Good god, this song is sexual. Not only because Anderson .Paak is talking about being so obsessed with some woman’s pussy that he might kidnap her (uh, hot?), but because Kaytranada just BEASTED on this beat. It’s so smooth and soulful and yet hyphy and erotic. Like, you know the sweating emoji? Yeah, it’s big this: 🥵
camoufly - “Intuition” Feat. SHIMA
I don’t know about camoufly, which seems to be purposeful as the artist covers their face in this adorable knit rabbit ear mask thingy that’s super ‘90s rave meets Y2K-afied Gen Z, but what I do know is every god damn song camoufly drops is a banger. That’s saying a lot because, as the artist says in the comment section of this song on YouTube, “i dropped like 48 songs in 2024 only bro im a musical sweatshop.” Lolz, keep ‘em coming! Ey, they will, because the YouTube description for this song says “first single of my upcoming project. two years in the making.” Can’t wait!
There are even more songs on the full Spotify playlists that you should hear, including really wonderful tunes from Porrter Robinson, [Kyle Davis], Gilligan Moss, Gus Dapperton, Ben Bohmer, Alex Chapman (and Uffie!), and L’Imperatice.
Ey, it’s a good playlist! Why you outta (listen to it).
Alright, another Kat Scrawls in the books. I’m out of here. Thanks so much for all your support. Come say hi in the Discord maybe xoxo.
Until next time, see you on the Internet!
Thanks for tuning into my newsletter. Listen to the playlists on Spotify. One is updated weekly with all the songs from each edition. The other is cumulative with all the updates ever!