🎸 Lolla Lineup, LP - LP & a Lazy Quiz

Music chatter, cool songs, and 10 quiz questions to spark your Sunday // Brainfueled 90

Aug 31, 2025

A weekly newsletter: I cover my occasional musings, what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to, with 10 quiz questions and a bunch of cool links; sent out every Sunday at noon.

Last week’s edition is here.

Listening

The Smashing Pumpkins

The concert season has started and is at its peak this time around. Small and big, all while me missing out on the bands and acts I want to see not lining up with my travel plans. TSP will be performing in Mumbai and BLR, and I’ll be missing their gig while I’ll be in Delhi. But I started exploring them after being highly recommended by a bunch of folks, and they are good.

Thoughts on Lolla Lineup

I am realising how every time a festival drops their lineup, a set of people start whining. There’s literally tonnes of music out there that you can never finish listening to in your lifetime and oh, do they not have your fav pop-punk hard rock indie band from rural Texas in the lineup, or a massive headliner along with an already big headliner? Absolute idiotic arguments.

This subreddit has been blowing up like anything; good thing I no longer spend much time on Reddit. I also do not understand how people have purchased tickets this week and are already selling them with the fest still 5 months away :P (this is not scalping, they are selling at the price they purchased).

It was all तबाही this week with the rumors of Linkin Park - that came true! I am actually happy with the lineup, and every time there are 8+ acts, it is rare that you will be disappointed. I don’t think Lolla has ever disappointed. I am optimistic in that sense and booked the cheapest tickets early. Also, this whole lineup, lineup discussion, checking out who is performing - took up the whole week and will take up more time as I start listening to everything by everyone.

Rolling Stone Ind has done a detailed story about the lineup. Bloodywood will be performing again. I’ve seen Pacifist (metal) and Sijya (electronic), and they are quite nice. Looking forward to seeing Yungblud, LP of course, The Midnight, Hot Milk, Zokova, Sunflower Tape Machine (I had recommended his song a couple of weeks ago), and Excise Dept. There will be more additions to this list as I start listening to everyone.

An unofficial lineup poster (do we call this fan-made?) included Fred again, The 1975, SZA, Rufus Du Sol, The Local Train (they don’t even perform anymore), Twenty One Pilots, Calvin Harris, Charlie Puth, Sammy Virji (this turned out to be true!) and ofc LP. I mean, this is something - but getting all of them to perform in a single fest at this price is next to impossible.

Some new music this week

Thanks to Sairaj for some compiling this week’s releases, I also recommend following him on IG for all music news and he also runs a podcast around music.

A visual interactive song - I know you’re here with me by philtersoupmusic; have seen him live, great stuff
simplemanradio - Beware
one track mind by Tarang Joseph

Quiz Questions

You may comment with your answers on the Substack post or reply via email. Answers will be shared next week.

See last week’s answers here.

Lazy format this week: simply identify what connects the five items in each of the questions. All, except one, are non-exhaustive.

Eg. AskDISHA, Rufus, Gemini, Claude, Grok
Ans. AI chatbots: IRCTC, Amazon, Google, Anthropic, xAI

Cygnus, Leo, Centaurus, Canis Major, Lyra
OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, Meetic, OurTime, Pairs
Enter Sandman, One, Master of Puppets, Fad to Black, The Ecstasy of Gold
Shashikala Kakodkar, J. Jayalalithaa, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Anandiben Patel, Rekha Gupta
East Coast, South East Central, West Central, Northeast Frontier, North Western
Play Books, Trends, Scholar, Wave, Wear OS
Charcoal, Olive, Onyx, Licorice, Jet, Asphalt
Mahabalipuram, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Bharatnatyam, Kanchipuram silk sarees, Chettinadu cuisine
Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Elephanta Caves, the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, Maratha Military Landscapes of India (11/12)
5/7 in this list: Qila Rai Pithora, Mehrauli, Siri Fort, Tughlaqabad, Firozabad

Bonus

(IG post) ranking all the trains i took to see charli xcx in budapest
(IG reel) Weatherman Adam doing a (now engaged) Taylor Love Story version
(watch) Ariana Grande Hide and Seek, so Imogen Heap, the original singer of Hide and Seek, developed a set of tech gloves that can create voice effects using gestures while singing. Ariana tries to make them work, such a hearty watch.
(listen) Flight To The Summer Sky - Agam

Before you go…