You Need to Listen to So Much Music and Do Literally Everything This Weekend

Looking for some stuff to catch up on this weekend? Whether it's TV, movies, books, or anything in between—VICE has you covered. Read on for our staff recommendations on what to take in during your downtime:

The 19-year-old Chicago native will be the next big thing in R&B, mark my words. I stumbled upon her fairly old single “Sticky” when YouTube automatically played it after I re-watched Kelela’s “LMK” video for the hundredth time. “Sticky”, which opens this EP, is a pleasant explosion—Ravyn Lenae’s voice is nothing like the soft, breathe-y vocals that dominate the charts today (I’m still incredibly pissed that Alessia Cara, instead of SZA, won Best New Artist at the Grammys…)

My favorite song from the EP is “Computer Luv”, which features The Internet’s Steve Lacy, my #1 celebrity crush and a genius who also produced the EP. The song talks about how frustrating it is when you can only communicate with your lover online (#relatable). Anyways, Crush is funky tease to Ravyn Lenae’s full-length debut, which hopefully comes out soon. —Alia Marsha

The weekend, at least for me, isn’t exactly stress-free. Between going to a party with friends, quality time with my partners and my family, and making sure I get some alone time, something’s gotta give. But sometimes when we get lucky, a national holiday falls on a Friday—which means: A LONG WEEKEND. (Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!)

Now tell me this doesn’t sound great: you can attend the family brunch/ lunch/ dinner (and “act like you’re a part of the family” for once), go crazy with your friends afterwards, spend a whole day with bae on the next day (maybe see an exhibition?), and still have another day for yourself to go grocery shopping, get a haircut, finish a book, or simply reflect on your #life. So my recommendation is that you do everything and meet everyone this weekend. Because Monday’s gonna be a bitch, as always, and it’s going to be a while (40 days to be exact) until the next long weekend. — Syarafina Vidyadhana

The music festival season is slowly creeping in, with big ones that are happening this summer already announcing flashy lineups. But equally important are community-based scenes that nurture young, local musicians. Berkumandang Vol.4 will give you an opportunity to take a peek into some of the most promising young bands in Jakarta and its surrounding areas. Among them are our favorite laid-back jangly poppers Secret Meadow, alternative unit Sugarsting, and Nahab, which I honestly know nothing about. To top if off is Odd Gesture who infuses pop music with punk attitude and is guaranteed to bring the mosh. So, see you at Borneo Beerhouse on Friday? —Yudhistira Agato

This Saturday, join Bandung's experimental rock band Polyester Embassy and other local acts at Spasial. The event, called “Tomorrow’s Comedy" will start at 6 PM. If that's not enough for you, stick around for the after party. See you there! —Ratih Putri

If you want to learn about Indonesian history but don't have the willpower to go through a textbook, you can always turn to the mini album Kebisingan Pancaroba Yang Merongrong by Jimi Jazz, which is Jimi Multazam’s solo project. You can sense the early ‘80s and ‘90s atmosphere in the album. It’s hardcore/crossover music with lyrics that talk about incidents that took place in the 80s and 90s. Here, Jimi sings briefly about the seeds of Jakarta indie music scene in “Gordanmosh” and a riot during Metallica concert in “Lebak Bulus ‘93”. My favorite is “Ada Petrus Semalam,” which talks about the government crackdown on preman in early 80s from the perspective of a bystander. It’s a short album, but you should listen to it over and over the long weekend. — Manan Rasudi