Just like our Arcade and Film events, we wanted to put together a Music event with indie artists that have done things differently — musicians firmly at the intersection of art and technology, who are using the Internet in unique and interesting ways. 

We're ridiculously excited about the eclectic, genre-bending lineup we've pulled together. We hope you will be too, and will join us on Friday night from 7pm to midnight for some truly unique performances.

Like all of our evening fringe events, XOXO Music will be free and open to the public, with priority admission to XOXO badgeholders.

The Kleptones

For the last decade, The Kleptones have helped to define remix culture. A full year before Danger Mouse released The Grey Album, UK-based Eric Kleptone was already pioneering the rock/hip-hop full-album mashup with Yoshimi Battles the Hip-Hop Robots, an audio pastiche of The Flaming Lips, rap vocals, and film/TV soundbites. The following year, he released A Night at the Hip-Hopera, widely regarded as one of the best mashup albums ever made, a fluid blend of classic and modern hip-hop with Queen's epic catalog. Every album's released for free on his website and SoundCloud, though not without the occasional controversy.

We're thrilled that The Kleptones will be performing a full set at XOXO Music, and if we're really nice, warming up his remixing fingers at the opening party on Thursday night.

Julia Nunes

To keep in touch with friends back home, Julia Nunes started recording songs on her ukulele from her dorm room and sharing them with her friends in the easiest way she could — YouTube. Five years later, she has over 50 million video views, nearly 200,000 subscribers, and a legion of dedicated fans, who helped her independently self-publish four albums. Her most recent became one of Kickstarter's most-funded music projects, raising $77,000 from 1,685 fans. Among her fans: musician Ben Folds, who invited Julia to tour with him after she covered one of his songs, and Conan O'Brien, where she performed in January.

MC Frontalot

Not everyone gets the opportunity to coin their own genre. In 2000, MC Frontalot released the song "Nerdcore Hiphop," instantly naming the budding genre of rap about traditionally geeky subjects. On his last five albums, Front's covered everything from Dungeons & Dragons, text adventure games, 0-day exploits, and annoying bloggers. He's an artist that's born of the web, getting his start on the music community Songfight, incorporating insanely complex Easter eggs into his albums, and raising over $30k on Kickstarter to release three new music videos. Straight off their yearly PAX appearance, MC Frontalot and his talented band come to Portland to front, a lot.

The Limousines

Indietronica duo The Limousines self-released their first album in 2010, scraping the money to make a big budget music video for "Internet Killed the Video Star" with a cast of 50 zombies... for $500, attracting attention and airplay from MTV and over a million views on YouTube. When they signed a record deal, they were surprised by how frustrating record labels could be — limiting their reach, creating unnecessary paperwork, and taking ownership over their work for the next 14 years. They decided to go completely independent, leaving their label and using Kickstarter to fund their new album, hitting their goal just this week. The Limousines are coming up from San Francisco to attend XOXO, and perform on Friday night!

Holy crap!  So excited!  Even more news coming tomorrow!  See you in TEN DAYS!