New Colossus Week

The New Colossus Festival is in full swing this week, and we’re heading to the Lower East Side every day to see as many bands as we can.

For us, this year is more about new discoveries than catching up with old favorites, as it was last year. But like every year, we love to immerse ourselves in the music and soak up the spirit that drives glamglare.

I always feel uplifted by a live music festival like The New Colossus because it runs entirely on human energy, with little to no automation.

There is so much joy in the inconvenience: schlepping instruments into venues, setting up and breaking down often complex stage setups just to play a few songs. All of this happens in a supportive, friendly, and somewhat chaotic atmosphere. Every year, it feels tough on Sunday to return to the real world, though I’d argue about which world is truly more real.

If this interests you, most of the festival is still ahead. Get your badge here and come join the fun.

glamglare was born from a spark ignited by attending our first showcase festival, SXSW, in 2014. Since then, we have published 3,815 Song Pick of the Day features. You can see all of them by scrolling down our homepage infinitely – give it a try, it’s quite a calming experience.

Starting with this newsletter, we’ll also revisit the Song Picks from one, five, and ten years ago and see what memories and stories they bring back.

Cover Song of the Week: Bleach Lab - Losing My Favorite Game

Both the Swedish band The Cardigans and London-based Bleach Lab were formed by the guitarists and bassists after working in other projects. The Cardigans went on to dominate the airwaves in the 1990s with hits like “Lovefool” and “My Favorite Game.”

Bleach Lab covered the latter and turned it into a gentler version by taking the edge off the – some might say annoying – signature riff of the original.

Five Songs

Listen to glamglare five songs on Spotify, Apple Music, or below on YouTube.

Here are five artists from across Europe playing The New Colossus Festival this week that we’re excited to see live — two of them we already caught earlier this week.

1. From Norway: Sûn Byrd - “Dance in the Sun”
2. From the U.K.: The K’s - “Chancer”
3. From Sweden: Wolfschmidt - “You&I”
4. From the U.K.: Marketplace - “Edroom”
5. From Belgium: Tukan - “Layover”

Sûn Byrd - “Dance in the Sun”

This Week in glamglare History

1 Year: Miynt - Blu-ray Land

For the Swedish singer, songwriter, and producer Miynt, “it felt fun to make a theme song for a dead brand.” “Blu-ray Land” is the opener for her 2025 album Rain Money Dogs. It is also the latest in a long line of glamglare features since 2016.

5 Years: Olivia Morreale - Parasomnia

Olivia Morreale is a jazz singer from LA, and “Parasomnia” was her third single ever (according to Spotify). Wait for the bridge, “where it warps into a sort of nightmarish and dark space,” as she cannot let go of that person even in her sleep. Olivia released her latest EP last spring.

10 Years: Kyosi - Early Riser

“Early Riser” is a bright, uplifting pop song that captures the energy of a sunny morning. It was one of the tracks that helped define glamglare early on: a young female artist who writes and produces her own songs.

Kyosi later shifted from pop toward more experimental music and performed at a glamglare showcase in 2018, where she unfortunately wasn’t ready to play “Early Riser.” She hasn’t released new music since 2019, and her website doesn’t indicate whether she is still active, but we definitely hope to hear from her again.

Song Pick of the Day

Listen to all seven songs on YouTube, or follow our daily updated Song Pick playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify.

• Bea Elmy Martin - “Anouk”
• deary - “Alfie”
• Lilly Gitlitz - “Nineteen”
• ARK IDENTITY - “Fading Light”
• Mel Denisse - “aiming alone”
• Y - “May”
• Sub*T - “Overcomplicated”

We publish one Song Pick of the Day every day. You can subscribe to receive them by email.

Nine Photos: New Colossus Memories

The New Colossus Festival returned to the Lower East Side this week for its seventh edition since launching in 2019. The second installment in March 2020 quickly became the stuff of legend, arriving just before the world shut down, and in 2021, the festival understandably had to sit that year out. Since then, Steven, Mike, and Lio have continued to build something truly special: a week where new music takes over the neighborhood and artists, journalists, industry folks, and fans gather in venues just a few blocks apart.

For us, New Colossus has always been about more than the music. It’s about reconnecting with friends, meeting artists we previously only knew through their music, and making new friends along the way as we move between venues across the Lower East Side. That sense of community is part of what makes the festival feel so unique.

To celebrate the start of this year’s edition, I looked back through our archives. These nine photos capture a few of my favorite New Colossus moments over the years.

1. 2019: Penelope Isles from Brighton, signed to Bella Union at The Delancey
2. 2020: With Lukas Fendrich from the band Hunger. We ended up chatting and hanging out for quite a while that night.
3. 2020: Wyldest from London. One of our very last live shows before everything shut down for a long time. Luckily, we saw Zoe Mead again last year when she returned to New Colossus.
4. 2021: Back! After the forced break, it felt wonderful to return to the Lower East Side.
5. 2023: With our friend Ema Drei aka Giungla from Milano, Italy. She had just finished her set that day.
6. 2023: What a wonderful surprise! While attending Helen Ganya’s show, a fav musician was playing drums in her live set: Ed Riman aka Hilang Child
7. 2024: With Icelandic legend Siggy Baldursson (Sugarcubes).
8. 2025: Yndling
9. 2024: Oliver and me at New Colossus.