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Tuesday night (May 15), English singer/songwriter Ella Mai brought her impressive, vintage style to New York City's SOBs venue. Along with the 23-year-old's electrifying vocals and time-honored presence, the Instagram sensation-turned-rising R&B crooner delivered an important message to black women about embracing their flaws. But before the Interscope signee unloaded her refreshing ideas of feminism—or womanism—onto the eager NYC crowd, the London-bred artist ran through her lyrical gamut of love and break-up songs.
As the lights dimmed and her live band made their presence known by prepping their respective instruments, Mai's chilled, yet mellifluous voice magically filled the room. "New York City, what up," she mouthed into the microphone, which was followed by thunderous cheers from concert-goers.
The musical spectacle commenced with the upbeat, body-shaking record "Who Knew," as Mai sashayed on stage rocking an oversized green army jacket; she looked like she was from the fashion pages of New York City in the '90s. In fact, Mai later revealed that she went to high school in the City of Dreams, which explains her Empire State swag.
As shots of liquor settled into the systems of the venue's patrons, Mai ran through her cuddly (and somewhat seductive) record, "Breakfast in Bed." Women mouthed every word, while the fellas kept their poker faces intact, and semi-shoulder leaned to the bedroom medley. The mood shifted with jams "She Don't," "Anymore," and the Malcolm Gladwell-inspired "10,000 Hours." Here, with a slew of librettos meshed into themes of break-ups between former lovers, concert-goers were moved to think back on their exes, only to quickly dismiss them.
"Honestly, before I do this song, I cannot do it without saying, 'Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, DJ Mustard," Mai said to resounding cheers. The god-like energy that filled the shoulder-room only venue as the Troubled singer ran through the DJ Mustard-produced "Boo'd Up," was so spiritual that the musical gods had to spin it back.
However, the best moment of the night came when the rising R&B star reached into her own bag of thought to unearth words of encouragement unifying women of every color, shape and political ideals. "This is all because of you guys, and I can't thank you enough," Mai said. "It's a message that doesn't get put out enough, especially as a young black woman in this industry. We need more messages like this for the younger generation who is very influenced by social media. It's okay to wake up and look however you look. You are beautiful regardless." These supporting words were followed by the groovy record, "Naked," which the charming crooner performed with finesse.
This night was special because Ella Mai shed light on one of the most important, and often overlooked, lessons of feminism, or womanism: sisterhood and women embracing life's contradictions and flaws to discover their superwoman abilities.
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Pixies have unveiled four previously unheard tracks, all written during the period when the band were putting together ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
The four recordings come from between 1987 and 1991 and are now available across all digital streaming services for the first time. They originally appeared as two bonus 7” singles included with the limited-edition remastered pressings of ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
Among the tracks is the Steve Albini version of ‘Dig For Fire’, recorded in late 1987 while the band were working on ‘Surfer Rosa’. The song was later reworked before appearing on ‘Bossanova’ almost three years later.
The collection also features ‘Punk Loop’, an unreleased jam recorded during the 1991 sessions for ‘Trompe le Monde’ and originally labelled ‘Punk Loop’ MSTR. Another addition is ‘Brackish Boy’, a track first written with Pixies before being rerecorded by Black Francis for his self-titled solo debut in 1993. The newly released version was mastered directly from the original album session tape, without any additional post-production.
The fourth track is ‘Go Man Go’, written by Black Francis and Kim Deal while the band were recording ‘Bossanova’ and The Breeders were working on ‘Last Splash’. The song did not make the final tracklist of either album, although The Breeders performed it live on a few occasions in the years that followed.
The track made another appearance in 2023 when The Breeders included it in the 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Last Splash’.
Pixies have marked their 40th anniversary throughout this year, including a UK and European tour over the summer. During a conversation with NME at Mad Cool Festival earlier this year, guitarist Joey Santiago revealed that the band were still making progress on new material.
“We’re always in the works. Same formula,” he said. “We have a break coming up in October and we’re gonna get together and piece more songs together.”
The band's latest studio release is 2024’s ‘The Night The Zombies Came’, which marked their first album featuring bassist Emma Richardson. They are also scheduled to tour the US with Queens Of The Stone Age in 2027 as part of the upcoming tour.
