Shock Mountain

Hey everyone, hope the internet is treating you well today. I just wanted to give a big shout out to DAYVAN ZOMBEAR  who hooked up Max and I with invites to Waffe.fm. If any of you viewers have an invite to either  What.cd or IndieTorrents and are willing to send them to Max or myself, we would be incredibly grateful. Our emails are listed to the right. Other than that, I’m seeing Conor Oberst at The Grog Shop tomorrow, which still seems pretty unreal considering how tiny the venue is. On Thursday, I’m headed to Chicago to hang out with friends and celebrate the 4th of July weekend. Unless I can figure out how to blog from Chicago, expect more posts coming from me sometime next week.

This blog is nearly 5 months old and the only reason it still exists is because of visitors like you.

Thank you.

- James

It’s a shame that it took me 18 years to hear this album. My first listen was rather pleasant, though not too engaging, but I decided to return after The Modern Electric covered “Cosmic Dancer” at the Waterloo Arts Fest this past Saturday. On this second run through, I realized how brilliant T. Rex leader Marc Bolan really is. Initially performing folk rock under the extended moniker Tyrannosaurus Rex for a handful of albums, Electric Warrior is the second album as T. Rex, also the second album in their iconic glam rock style. Now, “glam rock” doesn’t neccessarily mean big hair, tight pants and falsetto vocals, but rather, as my friend Daniel once put it, “mildly psychedelic, catchy-as-hell fucking rock and roll”. Much like “Get It On”, the one track here most of you have heard, this album is filled with cosmic blues, spaced out boogie and Marc Bolan’s freak folk-inspiring vocals. Seriously, has anyone else ever noticed how much Devendra Banhart sounds like Bolan? While David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars still remains king of all glam rock albums, Electric Warrior (released in 1971) slides in at a close second, though the album art definitely tops Bowie. This also includes the 30th anniversary special edition bonus tracks, which are basically the demos of many of the tracks.

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-Max

While I haven’t been huge on this whole beach/tropical pop trend as of late, this release has shocked me. The description had me expecting another Ducktails, but no, I was in for more of a treat. Combining elements of already mentioned beach/tropical pop, drone, ambient and even a little bit of tribal music, the gentlemen in Universal Studios Florida (and I thought Woods were hard to Google!) have created an album that isn’t too far off from one of the decade’s arguably best albums: Panda Bear’s Person Pitch. A vast array of sounds cascade upward, building a wall of sound, drifting the audience off into a sun-soaked outer space. I know that made no sense, but that’s the only way I can describe this album. Their MySpace describes their sound as “Dense tropical percussion with golden, shining synth lines in an ambient valley where big beat drops are just around every corner.” I know I say this a lot, but this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite albums of this year, wonderful for those who enjoy Panda Bear, High Places, Ducktails or music perfect for summer evenings.

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-Max

Official Website

- James

As I mentioned in the previous post, I bought this album off of Black Moth Super Rainbow because it had such amazing album art/vinyl pressing and it was only $10. Man, what a great decision. This is some really amazing experimental pop music that you need to check out ASAP. It’s being released by Graveface records who also just released the new Appleseed Cast album along with the new Black Moth Super Rainbow. If you’ve got some spare cash lying around and like cool vinyl, there really is no reason to NOT buy this. However, it is also available on cd. When I bought it on vinyl it came with a download code. When I opened the .zip, it also included a remix, which I have included here for your enjoyment.

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- James

At 9:08, The Grog Shop was empty. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest, but I did expect there to be a few more people hanging out earlier on. I was attending the show alone because I had already bought my ticket a week prior to the show and all of my friends had prior engagements or just didn’t feel like spending the cash. I stopped over at the merch table to see if Black Moth Super Rainbow had the new album on vinyl, but the girl in the band (I’m unsure of her moniker) told me that it wouldn’t be pressed until the fall. I did happen upon something that I would buy later on in the night though. The band’s name is The Lava Children and a mention of BMSR in the liners, the fact that BMSR was selling it for only $10, and the purple and green vinyl made it too good a deal to pass up. I told the girl in BMSR that I was surprised that they don’t come to Cleveland more often since they only loie 2.5 miles away in Pittsburgh. She told me that it was actually their first time ever playing in Cleveland, so it was a first for both of us. I sat alone in the front of the stage as I eagerly waited for the show to start. A girl in front of me yelled that she ‘got gum on [her] party pants!’ I suggested she find the nearest person with minty fresh breath and punch them.

Having had very little sleep over the past week, I had bought a large coffee before the show to keep my energy uyp, but I was crashing before it was even starting so I decided to get some fresh air outside to clear my head. I happened upon my friend Haley, who I hadn’t seen or heard from in about six months and we caught up as Jon walked outside to give me the aspirin I had asked him for. By the time I got back inside about 15 minutes later, the place was packed and I quickly got my spot back at the front of the stage. There were two girls sitting near me who were obnoxiously tripping on ecstasy who just ‘wanted to feel the music’. Their level-headed guy friend, who seemed pretty cool, was unsuccessfully trying to calm them down. The one kept on complaining that ‘X doesn’t work on some people. AND I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!’. Her friend assured her that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world that she couldn’t get roll properly, but I made sure to voice my strong opposition to his statement. Instrumental trip-hop played over the PA for far too long.

It was now 10:30 and the first act was just setting up. It was at this point that the kid in the center of the crowd yelled that he was on acid and the girls contemplated going camping on mushrooms. Being a kind person, I helped them coin a phrase to describe such an activity and came up with Shroomping. They all repeated it about 6 times. It seems I was the one of the only people at this show who wasn’t under the influence of hallucinogens. The first act never addressed the crowd or even announced his name. He simply came on, played some drone guitar for about fifteen minutes, then messed around with a synth to make some space noises that his drowned out vocals struggled to explore. I asked him his name and he told me that it was Sam Goldberg and that he was from Cleveland, then smiled and asked me the same. Apparently, he works downstairs from The Grog Shop at B-Side and was headed there as soon as he packed up his equipment. He looked at the tripping girls and said “thanks for being so respectful during my set” in an obviously sarcastic manner, but the girls had a bit of trouble understanding this. They even asked their level headed friend if he was being sarcastic and, as he said ‘yeah, he was’, I snickered to myself as I jotted down some notes. Once the girls had finally realized what had just happened they decided “fuck him, he can’t even play an instrument.” One asked if the other cared and she replied, ‘of course not’. They then proceeded to repeatedly hi-five one another in a veritable display of how awesome they truly were.

The second act, Red Falcon Project came on stage decked out in 80’s gear, ties tied around their foreheads, and what I can only pray were fake mullets. A dancable beat filled the room with notes played on a synth that sounded like a lazer beam played to make way for low pitch-shifted vox that they sampled on their MacBook Pro. Slowly, but surely, the crowd started to loosen up. To accompany their music was a film montage of some of the creepiest stuff I have ever seen in my life. One moment, you were seeing a loop of someone being shot in the face and the next it was tripped out children’s television. The great contrast from lame stuff you would never watch to gory and disturbing images, from what had to have been dugg out of hundreds of lo-rate sci-fi movies, made for one of the creepiest sets I have ever been a part of. Local heroes, Big Chuck & Little Jon, made an appearance and everyone cheered. In the sketch, Little John is trying to hit a gong with a mallet and ends up hitting Big Chuck in the testicles who falls into the gong. OMG, THAT’S FUNNY! One of the last themes in the montage was dedicated to former Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura a.k.a. Jesse The Body Ventura. However, there were no quick clips of him supporting the legalization of prostitution, just him kickin’ ass and takin’ names in the ring.

When you go to as many shows as I have lately, it’s a good idea to bring ear plugs. They served a double purpose at this show though because I was able to ignore all of the obnoxious durggies surrounding me. A kid who was standing next to me asked me why I was writing in a notepad and I told him that I have a music blog and I was planning on writing something for the show. He asked “Oh, like you mean on myspace?”. His friend had pointed out that he had probably just insulted me and I laughed pretty hard. BMSR’s opening montage was as bizarre as the one that had preceded it. Photos of Juggalo’s filled the screen and then it cut to a fake vlogger who complained about how he ’saw MGMT and was subjected to the shittiest band ever that only douche-bags would like.’ Suddenly, one of my heroes appeared on the screen. Eric Wareheim appeared to comfort us. To tell us that we’re not “douche bags, not even d-bags”. He did point out that perhaps Black Moth Super Rainbow should shorten their name. He suggested ‘Black Rainbow because they’re so dark, like The Cure’. They could even do collaborations like ‘Black Rainbow feat. Super Moth’. He then told us to ‘put our hands together and enjoy the shoooooooooooooooooow!’

During their first song, people already started partaking in marijuana, which is admittedly dumb no matter what venue you’re at, but especially in Ohio since smoking of any kind is against the law. That didn’t seem to bother the people around me who smoked cigarettes without a care. Speaking of Tobacco, he was sitting on the floor on the other side of the stage throughout the show, so I didn’t really get a great look at him, but the sound was fine and the video playing in the background was more than enough visuals for me. A group of men and women who were wearing tu-tu’s and strange masks made out of water jugs with flashing lights came onto stage and then danced through the crowd. The kid in the center kept on grabbing my neck and screaming in my ear throughout the show, which was really starting to get on my nerves, but he was having a good time and seemed to be good natured so i tried to ignore it as best I could. Jon eventually found the kid smoking a cigarette and pulled him out of the crowd only to have him return moments later to say that he let him go. For some reason, he didn’t take his warning seriously and decided to light up another cigarette before one of his friends called him a dumbass and told him to put it out. The band was incredibly well synchronized and didn’t miss a beat, yet they still managed to get a good deal of jamming going on. I really wanted them to play Gold Splatter, my favorite song on the new album, and while they did play many new songs, that was not one of them. When it was time for the band to take their encore break, they didn’t. They congregated in one corner of the stage for about 20 seconds and then came back to finish it off with their hits.

After the show was over, I went back to the merch table and waited in line to buy the vinyl i had mentioned earlier. The kid in front of me bought every single cd they had on sale and they threw in a t-shirt for free, but damn, $80 is a lot of money to drop on merch. After buying the vinyl, I left and walked next door to grab a beer with some friends before my girlfriend came to pick me up and I realized that I didn’t have my wallet. I sprinted back inside The Grog and when I got to the merch table and the girl from BMSR had my wallet in her hand, she looked just as relieved as I was. All of them seemed to be really nice and approachable people, which greatly surprised me due to their image of being enigmatic.

- James

I saw Heathers last night for the first time with Ghost Mice and they sang their songs while facing each other, almost oblivious to the fact that there was a crowd watching while catering to our every need at the same time. The twin sisters are Dublin residents and appear to be Ireland’s answer to Tegan & Sara. Their beautiful voices battle it out here on their debut album, which was released last year on Plan-It-X records in the US and Hide Away Records in Ireland. I bought their album for 5 bucks and uploaded it in VBR. If you like it, please buy it because touring abroad in the Mid-West D.I.Y. circut is straining to say the least.

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- James

First things first: yes, that is the name of this band and no, it is no a soundtrack to some new pornographic film. Instead, this is the second album from Seattle-based collective, which features members/collaborators of Sun City Girls, Earth, Sunn O))), Secret Chiefs 3 and Grails. This albu, definitely comes across as a clusterfuck of the styles of the mentioned acts, mixing psych-rock, drone and tribal world music, this sounds like the peyote-fueled ragas of a scuzzy desert cult searching for water and the Fountain of Youth. Seriously, if you are a fan of psychedelic rock, drone or anything with a tribal atmosphere, this very well may be your album of the year.

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-Max

Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to see the movie Wild Zero, a Japanese rock ‘n roll zombie movie starring the band Guitar Wolf. Not only did I love the absolutely ridiculous movie, but I kept noticing how great the music was. The next morning, I downloaded this album, 43 minutes of Japanese garage rock, covered in so much distortion and feedback that it sounds almost like noise rock at times. Guitar Wolf really define rock ‘n roll here, in a leather jacket, motorcycle-riding fashion. Although they are known for their mindblowing live shows featuring flaming microphones, nonstop sets and wild stage antics, their studio work has an abundance of energy and a rock ‘n roll sneer that harkens back to my favorite rock phrase ever: “Kick out the jams, motherfucker!”

Wild Zero

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-Max

I had been looking forward to seeing Dan Deacon at The Cleveland Museum of Art since it was first announced on Pitchfork a few weeks ago. The concert was to commemorate the opening of the new east wing of the museum, which has been under construction for four years. Now, as you may have guessed, the event was packed with rich philanthropists. In fact, if you wanted to go to the event earlier on in the night, you had to pay over $100! Luckily, showing up at 10 to catch Dan Deacon only cost $15. Because of this, there was an interesting mix of hipsters and finely dressed individuals giving disapproving looks. I especially felt unwelcome because I was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of tight shorts.  I was a bit disappointed that Dan was playing a solo set because I was hoping to catch his ensemble, but seeing him play on the ground outside was a welcomed  alternative.  Dan opened his set by having us all raise our arms and repeat after him as he pleaded to the heavens for the rain to go away. As the initial bleeps filled our ears, Dan told us to ‘look to the east’ and this is what we saw:

That’s right, The Cleveland Museum of Art set up fireworks for Dan Deacon. Now, I’m sure that many people have memorable Dan Deacon stories, but how many can say that they saw him with fireworks? As soon as Dan started playing, I busted out into frantic dancing as the jubilant tones echoed through my ears. Everyone around me was going nuts and I was no exception. I was pretty much screaming in the guy’s ear. Now, despite Dan’s heartfelt plea to the God of rain, it started to drizzle a bit and somehow a tarp found it’s way over our heads.

lolwut

We danced under the tarp for a bit before Dan discarded it since it stopped raining. He then tried to do one of his famous crowd participation activities for ‘Of The Mountains’ in which on person sat at the center of a gaping circle in the crowd and slowly moved her arms from side to side. The first person to attempt this was the girl in the photo above, but she failed at it so another girl tried to get it going to no avail. After what was less than a minute, everyone just crowded around Dan again and danced away. I felt bad that Clevelanders couldn’t follow such simple directions, but it’s probably just because everyone was so incredibly excited to see him. The next activity was the sassy dance contest. Someone wearing a tweety bird mask danced with the girl who failed to do the first group participation to ‘Snake Mistakes’. This time, everyone managed to keep the circle formation, but only 6 people participated, which was sort of lame because when I saw him at The Grog Shop in January of 2008 we got a pretty fluid rotation of people in. Next, Dan played ‘Baltihorse’ and asked us to form our hands in a bridge, then have someone run through and start another link in the chain. I shot a short video of my running through for your enjoyment. Someone shouted my name halfway through, but I have no idea who it was. At the end, some jokers tried to turn it into red rover, but my catlike reflexes allowed me to limbo underneath quickly.

Dan ended his set with Wham City and everyone was going insane. I can honestly say that he puts on a better live show than every other band I have ever seen, with the exception of Radiohead. If you ever get a chance to see this man play live, there is absolutely no excuse for missing it. In fact, I’m seeing him with Deerhunter and No Age three times within the course of a week in August. After he was finished dismantling his pedal boards and equipment, I walked up to him and told him such. He gave me a big hug and informed me that he is playing a secret show Sunday night of Lollapalooza at Logan Square Auditorium.

After Dan’s set, I was a bit disoriented and lost track of my friends. I wandered around the art museum trying to find them and stumbled upon the east wing that had just opened. As I walked around the exhibits from varying time periods and styles, I saw one of the most iconic pieces of art of the past 50 years.

Dj Rekha played some boring middle eastern dance music for far too long and her stage presence was as lackluster as her musical ability. She didn’t even really do anything. She basically just picked  songs from a playlist, dropped the melody, let the drums chill for a minute, added an incredibly similar sitar melody, then added a new drum beat. Man, that sure screams talent to me. All of the hammered aging yuppies seemed to enjoy it though, so I suppose she served some sort of purpose. My friend Terry later commented that she was basically the tolken ethnic artist that was necessary at such an event. At the end of her set she felt the need to inform us that she ‘was on shitter and myspace.’ She even spelled out her name for us to make sure that none of us misspelled it when we didn’t google her. Another great quote from her was that she’s “not an Indian who is good at spelling bee’s or math” It turns out she’s also not an Indian who is good at being a DJ.

The last band we saw was the awesome local band Emeralds who play some amazing electronic drone music. The word soundscapes gets thrown around a lot nowadays by blogs to describe bands that play songs that build into a dense amorphous collage, and I myself and guilty of such, but there truly is no band I have seen or heard that the term so accurately describes. I saw them for the first time with Wolf Eyes a few months ago with Max and they totally killed it then. This time was no different as the three men tweaked knobs to make space noises as guitarist Mark McGuire created delay patterns filled with reverb and feedback. About ten minutes into their set, some douchbags ran across the stage flailing their arms in an attempt to be funny, but everyone just scoffed at their immaturity and disrespect for an art form at an art museum. Emeralds seemed to pay them no mention though and continued to play with as much deep concentration as the people they were playing for who closed their eyes and let the music paint a picture in their mind.

Near the end of Emerald’s set, I saw Dan Deacon hanging out in the tent on the side of the stage. I walked over to him and called out his name making the shape of a record with my hands and asking if he had any vinyl because I wanted to pick up Bromst. He replied “I don’t have any merch on me, sorry man. Want some chips?” I declined on his chips, but man, what an awesome guy.

- James

Ghost Mice is Chris Johnston, founder of Plan-It-X records, and Hannah Jones. The two musicians who have played together for years now in various bands including Disarm, The Devil is Electric, and Operation: Cliff Clavin. This album was released in 2004, but the political lyrical content is just as relevant in today’s climate. This is great folk music infused with the Punk Rock ethos and very worth your time. I’m seeing the band this coming Wednesday at The Soggy Dog House in Lakewood. If you’re a Cleveland resident, there is no reason to go becasue shows at the Soggy Dog are free, but you really should throw anything you can towards these musicians who tour the country in basements and backyards.

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- James

Halo Fauna is the venue for singer songwriter Eric Ayotte to play songs with a full band. This album was released by the great Plan It X records in early 2008. This is a prime example of an album that I slept on for way too long. They can most accurately be described as an early version of The Shins with balls and passion. The band is a bit of a cluster-fuck of different styles. You can even pick up some Cap’n Jazz sensibilities with vocals that don’t subscribe to the rythm of the drums. Instead, Eric’s voice moreso just floats over the guitar melodies to anxiously be heard by anyone with the time and interest to listen. Also, in case you weren’t aware, drummer Dave Garwacke runs an incredibly awesome website called If You Make It, which showcases up an coming artists in the D.I.Y. scene primarilly from the midwest.

If You Make It

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- James

Let’s face it, nearly everyone uses twitter nowadays. Both Max and I have personal ones, but I’ve made one for the site and I plan on adding a tweet after every post, which will be it’s only use. This way, you can get twitter updates about new posts so that you don’t feel like you wasted your time by checking the site only to find that we haven’t updated. Plus, it’s just a great way to view our posts as an archive, so that you can quickly browse every post made past this point. To get a start, I added a bunch of people who were following other blog’s twitter’s. I apologize to anyone I may have bothered by my following, but at least I added people who would actually be interested.

http://twitter.com/shockmountain

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the excellent 12″ by these guys put out by my new favorite label, Woodsist, and was blown away. Coming home from Bonnaroo, I was delighted to find that their full length was finally on the internet, so I snatched it up immediately. Once again, Ganglians have proven to be one of this year’s best new groups, with a sound drawing from psychedelic freak folk, lo-fi noise pop and sunny Beach Boys-esque pop. This is already one of my favorite albums of this year, reminding me of labelmates Woods and Kurt Vile, as well as last year’s Women. Ganglians have very fittingly described this album as pure naive headphone acid pop to drive to”.

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-Max

Well, the middle of June has come and gone once again, with my 5^th trip down to the farm in Manchester, Tennessee  for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. As usual, I had a great time, saw plenty of great music, spent a lot of my money and got lost trying to find our camp. Anyhow, here is what I saw from Thursday evening to Sunday night, with pictures! Enjoy!

Thursday, June 11

After driving down to Nashville on Wednesday, my friends and I arrived in Manchester at about 11:30 AM. In past years, we have waited no more than an hour and a half, but this year had a mammoth wait in store for us: 7 hours and 30 minutes. Yes, we didn’t arrive at our campsite until 7PM, giving us just enough time to set up camp, run in to Centeroo (the area with the stages) and  catch the end of what I’m assuming was a phenomenal Portugal. The Man set. We arrived just in time to see the final three songs, all of which were phenomenal. I’m not a huge fan of these guys, but after seeing part of their set, I can see how people love them so much. Were I there longer, it could have been one of my favorite shows of the weekend.

After PTM ended, the gang headed over to watch Chairlift, who I figured my friends would enjoy. I’ve had their album for a while, but only listened to a few unimpressive songs. I was going to see them live with YACHT a few months back, but it never worked out, leaving this to be my first time hearing the group.  What I was expecting to sound similar to YACHT came out sounding like M83 or early 4AD favoring big hip-hop booty bass. Although it was nice for a few minutes, I ended up being very bored by the time we all decided to head out.

We eventually made our way over to The Other Tent, which was where I had hoped to spend my night, with sets from Janelle Monaé and Murs. We arrived too late for those 2, but we were able to catch People Under the Stairs. Now, I only know a handful of PUTS songs, but the ones I know I love, so I was excited to see these guys. Both MC’s had fantastic stage presence and it was one of the few quality hip-hop shows I’ve seen with just a DJ rather than a live backing band. Overall, this was a solid show and I definitely hope to see them again in the future.

To close out the night, we made our way over to catch Passion Pit. I had seen them back in January down in Columbus and it was a little underwhelming. Well, this show followed in that trend. In the live setting, they definitely lose a little bit of their magic and our group found ourselves conversing by the end, rather than paying attention to the lackluster tunes. Not the best way to close the night.

Friday ,June 12

Today was the day I was most excited for, with sets from Animal Collective, David Byrne, the Dirty Projectors, Femi Kuti and many more. After hanging out around our campsite all morning, a few of us finally made our way in to Centeroo in time to catch the Dirty Projectors. For some reason, I wasn’t expecting too much from Dave Longstreth and Co. but boy, was I wrong! They opened with the beautiful but not-too-exciting-live track “Two Doves” and I was getting worried, but then they turned on their wizard switches and rocked us all. The entire set I was reminded of shouts during The Octopus Project’s Lollapalooza set: “You’re a fucking wizard!” Dave Longstreth was pulling off all kinds of ridiculous sounds with his guitar that would make those mathcore kids blush. Plus, the girls in the band really are as gorgeous as everyone says, and their harmonies sounded perfect. Although I wasn’t blown away, this was a very enjoyable, fulfilling set which was definitely a highlight of the weekend. Also, it was pretty cool when afterwards, as I’m leaving, I ran into my friend Bucky, who I was hoping to meet up with at some point over the weekend. It was definitely a cool surprise.

Because Bonnaroo thought it would be funny to schedule Vieux Farka Touré overlapping with both The Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, I had to skip that set since I had to get a good spot for my 2^nd favorite band, behind Radiohead. Anyways, about Animal Collective. My opinion about the show is going to sound incredibly contradictory, but here goes: I loved it, but it was the biggest disappointment of the weekend. Yes, I thought they played a great set, but I was expecting so much more. It seemed as if there was no substance behind the tunes, that the songs were just being played through crappy speakers. There was no bass, the set was very quiet and they sounded a little bit uninspired. Plus, they aren’t well-suited for a daytime set, especially with the blazing sun at its strongest. That being said, I still loved the set, which consisted mostly of MPP tunes, though they did through in “Comfy In Nautica” and one of my favorites, “Slippi” from Here Comes The Indian. Had this set taken place late-night or at least at a time when we could enjoy their light show, I’m sure this would have been one of my favorites.

After being annihilated by the sun during AnCo, I really just wanted to sit down and eat, so I headed back to the tent, where the guys were making hot dogs. Sadly, this flush of energy meant missing Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate as well as Santigold and Grizzly Bear. After regaining some energy, I made it back to the stages to catch the final few songs of Al Green while waiting in line for water. Al Green was one of those acts that I had to see, so it was even better when, even in his old age, still performed with a fiery passion of a revved up preacher. Much like Portugal. The Man, the few songs I saw of Al Green were incredible, I just wish I could have seen more. Tunde was dancing around while singing with more heart than many of the weekend’s performers and they sounded tight, yet they also seemed to extend the songs a bit to fit the festival’s jam band roots. To make things better, they ended with two songs from their early work, “Young Liars” and “Satellite”, two of my favorite songs of theirs. Overall, I was very pleased with their set, though there were definitely better shows over the weekend.

We then walked back over to the What Stage to catch the evening’s headliners, the Beastie Boys, a band who I had grown up loving, so naturally I was excited to see them. I left about halfway through to go see David Byrne, but at least I was able to hear my favorite song “Paul Revere”. Not only did they come out and get the whole crowd moving, they definitely woke people up with their palpable energy. To make things even better, they brought out fellow New Yorker Nas for a few songs, showing some love to their favorite city. To make things even better once again, they played a few songs reminiscent of their days as a hardcore punk group. This was definitely one of my favorite shows of the weekend.

There are very few people I would leave a show of that quality to go see. David Byrne is one of them. The Talking Heads are one of my favorite bands, just behind Animal Collective and Radiohead. Unlike AnCo, my only disappointment with this show was the he performed “I Zimbra”, one of my favorite Heads songs, before I arrived. But upon my arrival, I was fortunate enough to hear him play several tracks from my favorite Talking Heads album, Remain In Light, including my favorite “Born Under Punches”. Sure, these songs lacked the art-funk jerkiness of their originals, but the smoother, aged versions were complete knockouts. Music aside, the stage show was phenomenal, with gospel backup singers and a group of 3 dancers, choreographed perfectly for the music. I never wanted this set to end, but when it did, I knew that it was one of my favorites of the weekend.

After David Byrne ended at 10:45, I honestly don’t remember at all what I did for next hour and 15 minutes until Femi Kuti started. I think I got some food and fell asleep under a tree? Anyways, I woke up and headed over to The Other Tent to catch Femi Kuti, son of afrobeat legend and one of my favorite musicians, Fela Kuti. I danced to Femi’s afrobeat for about 30 minutes or so, having an awesome time, before falling asleep/passing out under a different tree. When I woke up, I was too exhausted to do anything, so I wandered back to the campsite, getting lost and missing Public Enemy and Girl Talk. At least I ended my night with a fun, energetic set.

Saturday, June 13

Early in the day today, there wasn’t anything I was really too excited to see, so we just kinda hung around our campsite with our neighbors, who were really awesome guys. I finally made it to Centeroo in time to catch the latter half of Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3. I’ve been interested in his music for a while, but hadn’t really listened much. What I had heard seemed to be the bridge between The Beatles and Guided By Voices, so I thought it was pretty neat. When I arrived, I was greeted with some pleasant psychedelic Beatles-esque pop, which sounded perfect for the warm, sunny afternoon. It was an enjoyable set, nothing to write home about, but definitely something to keep my checking him out.

With time to spare before I had to decide between Rodrigo y Gabriella and Bon Iver, I realized I could go see another musical legend over on the Which Stage: Booker T. Instead of playing with the MGs, his usual backing band, he was playing with southern rockers Drive-By Truckers, a band who I don’t really like, but at least they put on a good live show.  Together, these folks put on a quality show, one that I would consider seeing if they came to town. Right as I was leaving, they broke into “Green Onions”, Booker T’s landmark tune, ending my time at the show perfectly.

After seeing some crazy organ playing, I witnessed some mindblowing guitar playing over at Rodrigo y Gabriella. These two Mexicans living in Ireland make incredible flamenco music with just the two guitars. Gabriella plays what you could call “rhythm guitar”, though she also utilizes it is a percussion tool as well while Rodrigo does the “shredding”. Sure, they may not masturbate their guitars like they are a prostitute trying to make her rent (via metalcore bands) but their tasteful shredding will blow your mind. I was very sad to find that their crowd was so small that I was able to walk all the way up to the front, with a clear vision of the duo. While I knew the music would be great, I was unsure about their stage presence. They ended up having great stage presence, moving around the stage and getting the crowd into the music. All of this together resulted in another one of the weekend’s finest shows.

Determined to see both acts, I left Rod y Gab a little early and ran back to see Bon Iver. While there,  I heard at least 5 different pronounciations of his name, which had me a little lost going into the show. Anyway, it was a little boring, hard to see and very crowded, so I ended up just sitting on the lawn, observing what I believe was the largest gathering of good looking girls of the weekend. Now, I know I’ve sounded a little negative toward Bon Iver, but in his favor, he was much better and energetic live than I would have ever imagined, it just wasn’t holding my attention in the heat of the day. And I wasn’t excited enough to force my way into the crowd to get a quality spot.

After wandering around for a while, I met up with friends and ventured back to This Tent to see Of Montreal. Much like Bon Iver, it was way too crowded and I wasn’t super excited to see them since I kinda burned out on them a while back. They started out playing a few songs I didn’t really recognize and didn’t really care about. Where we were, we could not really see the stage, but upon catching a glimpse, I noticed that there seemed to be monsters dancing on stage with trippy visuals projected on the screen behind.  The funk bass really sounded great, but other than that, I wasn’t too impressed nor interested, so we left. Later on in the weekend, I heard that it was a phenomenal show, so maybe I just left early or was in a bad spot.

When I finally made my way over to Wilco, one of the few bands of the day I was really excited for, I was blown away for the first time all festival. Last time Wilco played Bonnaroo, I almost didn’t go see them, thinking they would be boring, but they fucking rocked. This time was no exception, Jeff Tweedy & Co. really kicked major ass up there, playing songs spanning their entire catalogue, jamming on most of them and really rocking out on nearly every one. Relatively recent addition Nels Cline definitely has proven to a key asset to their live show, as he seemed to lead most of “rocking out”. When the time came to head out halfway through their 2 hour set, I decided to stay for another 45 minutes before heading over to Elvis Costello.

Elvis Costello is one of the few people I would leave such a good Wilco show for, but I’d say it was worth it. I felt like I was taking a bit of a risk, praying that he wouldn’t play any of the folk stuff he was doing for a while. Fortunately, I arrived at the end of an acoustic duet with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, which actually wasn’t bad. After this, Costello declared that it was time for some rock n’ roll and busted out some power pop jams that make me love his tunes so much. Ending with (I think it was the last song?) “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?” Costello showed a ton of energy, despite his age, and it proved why I love Elvis Costello so much.

Feeling a little bad about skipping the incredibly fun-in-a-live-setting Decemberists, I ventured over to the Which Stage to catch everyone’s least favorite band: The Mars Volta. Seriously, I don’t understand why everyone shits on them so much? Sure, the new album sucks majorly, but other than that, I thought all of their albums have been good. And while I have never heard more hatred for a live show than for The Mars Volta’s, I’ve found them to be a great live act, maybe it has something to do with my love of psychedelic noise freakouts. I showed up as they were finishing a song from the new album, which was not too good, but at least they made a good performance out of a bad song. Then, singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala said something along the lines of “We are going to play some old songs, since everyone hates our new stuff and says we peaked after our first two albums” and thus, TMV launched into some older favorites, ending with my favorite Frances The Mute track “Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus”. With an explosive stage presence and an interesting light show, this was a highlight of the weekend.

After heading back to the tent and relaxing for a while, it was finally time for The Boss. I was expecting one of two paths with Bruce: it would either be fucking epic or fucking awful. Actually, it was alright, but not what I expected. We arrived an hour late, around 10:30 or so and watched for about an hour, leaving with a whole hour left in his set, but not too early to miss the one Bruce song I really love: “Born To Run”. It was a little embarrassing singing along, since I’m more familiar with the Paul Baribeau cover, so my cadence was thrown off. During the time watching, I noticed a few other songs I recognized from the Baribeau covers, but I was too busy laying down, staring at the stars, feeling good. I’m glad I went, but it wasn’t something I would write home about. I felt a little bit un-American the next morning when I responded to my dad’s text of “Word on the street is that Bruce was incredible” with “Ehh, it was good, not great. I wasn’t too impressed”

For reasons I won’t explain here, everything was just “Feels good man”, so we headed over to the Xbox Arcade, where some DJ was blasting some bass-heavy dance music which felt amazing as I sat on a comfy couch. I had a great time dancing in my seat and watching the obviously-inebriated hippies and hipsters dance, but it was time to move on. We then headed over to the Silent Disco, which is a dance music tent where everyone wears headphones, leaving spectators to only see people dancing without hearing the music. The Hood Internet were the DJs, so we tried to get in line, but it would have been hours before getting in, so we just watched. Finally, we made our way over to That Tent to see Yeasayer, which was absolutely incredible. Seeing them at Lollapalooza was a bit disappointing, but damn, have they upped their live show! With an intense light show, beautiful stage setup and energetic tribal drumming, Yeasayer was 45 minutes of pure, “Feels Good Man” bliss, where they added an electronic/dance sound to their songs, which definitely made their songs much more suitable for a late night live show. When they ended, I was devastated that it had to end so quickly. If only they could have played for a few more hours…

Off in the distance, the Nine Inch Nails light show already had me hooked. Unable to see the lights, all I could see was what looked like constant lightning flashes against the stormy clouds. We headed over there to hear a few slower songs that I didn’t recognize, which sounded great, but I was too distracted by how phenomenal the light show was. I don’t know how to describe it, but whatever Trent Reznor had going on topped Radiohead’s lights. Basically, the time we spent there was just a constant ocular orgasm. I was majorly disappointed when my friends insisted that we go see MGMT, since I knew they would suck, but I went anyways, not wanting to be alone/having Bucky and his friend James have to “babysit” me.

MGMT was, once again, so fucking terrible that I will speak no more of their immense failure in a live setting.

Sunday, June 14

In recent years, Bonnaroo has been host to a handful of metal bands each year, though I’ve never made it around to catch one of their sets. This year, there were 2 metal bands playing who I really wanted to see: Dillinger Escape Plan and High on Fire. Dillinger Escape Plan was the first to play and they definitely jump-started my day with the most explosive, energetic set of the weekend. Bodies were flailed, amps were climbed, heads were banging and rock fists were in the air for DEP’s spastic clusterfuck of metal genres. I was ecstatic and sad when they ended with 2 of my favorite songs of theirs: “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things” and their cover of Aphex Twin’s “Come To Daddy”. I was happy because those songs are so badass, but disappointed because Mike Patton was not the one singing them. Although DEP’s singer did an adequate job filling the songs’ vocal duties, it just wasn’t the same without Mike Patton. Note: I didn’t have my camera for this one, so no pictures

After the show, I met up with some of my group and watched Citizen Cope from afar, laying on the grass and soaking up his mellow, blues-meets-reggae-meets-hip-hop tunes which were great for the warm summer afternoon. Upon leaving to watch Eryka Badu, I decided to make a pit-stop back at That Tent to see High on Fire. It wasn’t even because I’m a big fan, but rather simply because they spawned from the ashes of doom-metal legends (and one of my favorite metal groups) Sleep. More extreme than Sleep’s Black Sabbath riffing, High On Fire pretty much just melted the small, but devoted crowd’s collective face. They played exactly how I like some of my metal: loud, dirty and heavy as fuck. The band defined what it means to “rock” with their high energy shredding and earth-shattering drumming. My least favorite part of their music is the vocals, which were now hidden beneath the onslaught of guitar, bass and drums. When I finally made my way out, I could barely even hear and that definitely made the show worth it.

I had great expectations for Eryka Badu, who made last year’s best Parliament-Funkadelic album. Sadly, what I saw of her show was a huge letdown, with her playing more neo-soul than dirty funk. She did more sing-speaking than actually bringing the funk and I left after being bored for long enough.

Now comes the highlight of the weekend: Okkervil River. To be honest, I wasn’t even expecting to see them this weekend, partially because I forgot they were playing and partially because I figured they wouldn’t be very good, especially against Eryka Badu. After our neighbor informed us that his sister was in the band, he strongly recommended seeing the show, so I met up with my group, who had never heard Okkervil, and headed over and found a good spot. Immediately we were greeted by a high energy performance, with Will Sheff and the entire band putting their heart and soul into the music. They jumped around the stage, shouted until their lungs gave out, nearly broke their instruments playing so hard and Will Sheff’s already-phenomenal lyrics shone through with an intense passion. I had decided that it was already one of the best shows even before they played the songs I wanted to hear: “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe”, “Black” and “For Real”. As soon as they ended, I knew it would not be topped.

There are not many people who can follow a show of the quality of the previous one and Snoop Dogg is not one of them. Making our way back to the main stage, we sat through the mandatory “hip-hop delay” before he finally took the stage, starting out actually very enjoyable. After his two or three opening songs, the show pretty much died. He played a few of the songs people wanted to hear, especially “Gin and Juice” and “Bitches Aint Shit” as well as recent hits “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Sexual Seduction”, but in between and after all of these, there wasn’t really anything else for him to do except praise Tupac and perform fractions of songs. Although he had good energy and stage presence, they couldn’t save what ended up a rather boring set.

Leaving his set, we stopped by to see Band of Horses, who were just ending as we walked up. We were able to hear “Ode to the LRC” but that’s it. Good song, but not enough to really review. Anyway, here’s a picture:

After hanging around our campsite, I realized that I still had to see the band most people were most excited to see: Phish. Now, back in the day, I was a Phish-head and a Deadhead, and although those days are long gone, I still wanted to at least see Phish, mostly out of nostalgia and since it might be my only chance to see the musical legends. After some delays at a friend’s campsite, I missed it when they brought out Bruce Springsteen for a few songs, but when I made it in, I didn’t stay long. Although they were jamming very well, I was exhausted and their noodle-y jams just weren’t holding my attention. After about 45 minutes, I called it a night and said goodbye to Centeroo, ready for the next day’s 10 hour drive home.

Favorite Shows of the Weekend:

1. Okkervil River
2. Yeasayer
3. Wilco
4. David Byrne
5. TIE: Beastie Boys, Femi Kuti, High on Fire or The Mars Volta

-Max