Undercover X-MAN
Imagine musical artists as super heroes, each one blessed with their own special abilities and super powers. So your boy Kendrick Lamar, he’s like the Superman of rap right, Death From Above 1979 is all over that Wolverine punk vibe at the moment, and well, you get the picture. With that premise, the music industry is a vast comic world jam packed with a solid mix of shady and dope characters, icons and heroines. Allow me to introduce you to the newest member of music’s X-MEN – Mystique – K.Flay.
And like all the great super heroes, the work never stops. This especially goes for Mondays, where a large group of funked out humans gathered at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory to see what was up. Wearing a “you suck” shirt, she quickly clarified that was certainly not the case when it came to this crowd. A crowd I would find out as the night grew longer were no slouches when it came to Mystique’s empowering, ultra personal lyrics. Opening with “Everyone I No,” K.Flay and drummer Nicholas Suhr quickly brought New York into their wicked array of genre bending sound, as Monday night was spent with a Saturday feel.
Now off the bat I know what you comic book heads are thinking, “But Mystique was a Super Villain bro!” Not in this story friends, and what makes K.Flay an artist to keep your eye on, are her shape-shifting abilities. One moment she’s rocking out that crazy hip-hop element like in “No Duh” or “I”m good,” while the next she’s playing in the punk rock pool, jumping manically around the stage as she did for “Fever” and a number of other tracks. She’s got the verbal assault skills of an Atmosphere, the punk metal swag of Rage Against the Machine, while still managing to maintain modern with elecrto pop beats that blare reminders of Sleigh Bells or Santigold . It’s the combo of her hip-hop and metal game that will set her apart though.
Greatest Super Power: the fans. Her latest EP, Life as a Dog was funded be her people via the Pledge Music platform, and the love between them is totally apparent. Several times throughout the show she stopped to hear what the crowd had to say, and they sang back at her with full force, shouting “Can’t Sleep” sleep lyrics as if it was getting everyday radio play. And it is in their cars (click here for the video). K.Flay shut it down with “Turn it around,” a song that’s about exactly what you think it’s about. Living life, having fun, losing your shit and getting back up again. Who better to bring you that message than Mystique? She’s just like you and me, she’s the everyday super hero.
