Laptops go Live

Check out this article about laptops and how they're utilized by some of our finest performers.  I especially enjoyed the bit about the Battles bank of sounds (probably because I had no idea what was REALLY making their music at their recent show at MFNW.) 

Craigslist browsing will never be the same

Check it out! Hey... some people use their bandwidth for gaming, I prefer to shop. Will this impede my reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy?

Ideas on dating

This is sooo 2001, but the idea is not lost upon me. At least not on a Wednesday night.

MFNW: Music Festival North West 2008

With my slip on bright red wristband, I fit right into the crowd that started off MFNW week at the Roseland. I was surprised by the number of young kids raring to go on a school night, but then I guess it was a school night for me as well. I never really did care much about school. So here goes nothing, a terse yet verbose listing of the concerts I was lucky enough to attend at MFNW oh 8 and the reactions each experience evoked.

Wednesday:

Fuck Buttons: too loud, sounds didn't coalesce , not to mention the Roseland one of least favorite venues

Mogwai: no lyrics?! Can't hold my attention with the droning alternative rock and monotonous three chord progressions

Langhorn Slim: fantastic, so much fun more to come!

Thursday:

No Age: dude threw his guitar on the drum set - the drummer moves the guitar off to the side of the drum and continues to wail - guitarist proceeds to play the pedals hooked up to the guitar ... unbelievable, and it sounded fantastic! Kids these days, what will they come up with next?

Battles: four solos performers come together to make an incredible sound. The guitarist appears to be conducting the band by slowing the internal metronomes, creating a feeling of lethargy that helps us come down from the crazed high energy battling beats. The conductor raises his hand the drummer responds with the resounding crash of the high hat arm distance above his head.

The Blakes: heard one song, heard them all. Bri likened them to the replacements, perhaps the strokes. A few goodies in here, but the performance was tamer than I expected from other reviews.

The Whigs: wow, that is one ripped guitarist. Unfortunately, he only showed off his arms. At 1 am, I expected more of a show. The guitars of this band produced more varied riffs than the Blakes, and Bri said the drummer was better (I'm just learning about drums...)

Friday:

Britt Daniels: what it must be like to be in front of a microphone with just you and your guitar and sound fabulous. Colin thought he was looking around for his band members, force of habit? I wondered if he had to redo his guitar work to accommodate a solo act, and how difficult it might be to get into that groove after performing one for so long. Half way through the set, he brought out a drummer and fed us some new material. Some of the lyrics seemed questionable, but as with much of Spoon's work, I find it takes a few listens before the love sets in.

Built To Spill: I don't remember three guitars, one bassist, one cellist/keyboardist, and one drummer last time I heard bts, however; the fuller band didn't let me down. I guess they played the album in order, I didn't realize this until viewing the set-list after the fact, which speaks to my knowledge of this particular album, and my attention span. I wasn't introduced to them until Keep It Like a Secret, and so my night was made complete by the last encore of "You Were Right". Ah, the sound of satiation.

Langhorn Slim (part deux): yep, back for more, and well worth the performance as well as the music. The lead singer had a hat that moved from head, to floor, to microphone stand; it became a central focus of the act, where the hell is that hat? The standup bass rocked the party, almost made me want to two step.

Builders and the Butchers: with megaphones of varying sizes the lead singer made some interesting lyrics louder yet farther away, fun incorporation into an already visibly titillating spectacle: see guitarist wearing a butterfly shirt and sporting a handlebar mustache... need I say more.

Saturday:

Ratatat: enjoyable, but very similar sounding songs. I do love any band that incorporates a tiger roar.

Les Savy Fav: dude comes out with what looks like a broken arm and what is definitely a tie dye shirt. He mentions something about this not being your regular run of the mill show, but using hipper verbage. He gets his start on, yells a few lines, the guitars rail a few licks, and he unwraps from what turns out to be toilet paper wrapped around his arm and throws it into the crowd, et voila! the toilet papering begins. Rolls into the crowd later, the guy disappears into the volatile throng. He crowd surfs on ladder, jumps off, runs up to the balcony and takes off a guys shirt, runs back down, yells: "shutup", "who rocks the party", does the robot, pours water down crotch during the "sweat descends", rolls his belly, takes off his pants, puts on a hoodie, spits water on the crowd, jumps on the drummer, throws more toilet paper which now drapes from the ceiling. Phew! I think he wanted to be at the concert, not "the concert". Me too, man. Good work.

Blitzen Trapper: we got the treat of a double sound check for this show, lots of mariachis appearing at this festival. They played a couple new ones, which unfortunately to my ear included many a sha na na plus a bop bop ba, and the addition of a synth.... pee u. The lead singer pillaged directly from Bob Dylan replete with harmonica, but lacking in poetic lyrics.

Fleet Foxes: ethereal, indian drumming style, rich organ, and a bow on the guitar provided a steely sound. The high pitch vocals sound lovely with the band's other high tones. This performance didn't come close to that of the Doug Fir a few months ago, but they were still nice to listen to above the din of the crowd.

Ferando: that's one shiny guitar

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: love her. Didn't stay too long as I've seen her four times this year, but just long enough to get a bag of hammers in.

Helio Sequence: caught the last couple of songs from these guys including my favorite: Hallelujah. and hallelujah what a fantasmic week it's been!

AFTERPARTY! Including dj (what music do you play for a bunch of musicians?), montage eats, and free music-themed drinks. The stir-mix-a-lot reminded me of the shows I missed along the way, but I think I packed in all that was necessary to make this experience a success.

Bumbershoot '08

Fletch and I started out the day with Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.  I've seen this tight group twice this year at the Someday Lounge and then Holocene; both venues filled with the large sound of Thao's lead guitar strumming, beat boxing, and entertaining antics.  Unfortunately, her sound was lost upon the lawn in the outdoor indie stage and her vocals screeched out in an abnormal scratchy cry for throat coat.  I hope her voice was racked from previous performances and not indicative a new style.  The good news for us was the announcement of a private showing of !!! later that day for which we snagged tickets.  

!!! was fanfunktastic.  In a room of approximately 150 people and the backdrop of a small but cozy stage, the members of !!! danced around somewhat awkwardly in that "yeah, I know I'm a dork, but that's hip" fashion.  They combined electronic, guitar, multiple drummers, and both male and female vocals (the chick of chk (!) has a phenomenal voice) for a huge cohesive/balanced sound and lots of visual stimulation.  They played mainly new songs leaving the hits for the night time performance, but as the lead male vocalist pointed out, most of the people in our audience would be watching Beck at the !!! main performance time slot.

Next off to the main stage to wait for Band of Horses (BOH).  Twenty rows back, I sat in the middle of the crowd with

 my monster burrito and waited out the encroaching darkness. A perfect soundtrack for a richly colo

red sunset.  The swooning sounds of BOH melted the night, as the lead singer (Bridwell) continually said whooo! with gusto.  After a few songs, Bridwell made an announcement that his friend had a special question to ask his girlfriend, whereby a guy a couple rows in front of me got down on his knee and proposed.  With the following acceptance, BOH played marry song as the happy couple embraced in a slow dance.  Pretty fucking sweet, don't you think?  The mood changed a few songs later when the drummer got up and broke a beer bottle over the head of one of the guitarists and proceeded to flip him off.  This seemed strange until that guitarist broke a bottle over the basists' head.  This stunt continued until everyone in the band had been properly flogged, at which point Bidwell took a piece of broken bottle, put it in his mouth, and proclaimed: schnozberries taste like schnozberries!  I was a little put off by the stunts, but overall the concert was enjoyable. The addition of Armone really rounds out their sound allowing for more organ forward and funk laced new tracks, but maintaing sweet country musings.

Next, Beck.  Wow.  Beck.  He played the usual tracks, opened with Loser and then turned to some new tracks of which

 I'm less familiar. I was starting to get a little bored until he came out with a rendition of Bob Dylan's Leapord Print Pill box = fantastic, Guero, and Nicotine and Gravy (yum.)  The band put down their instruments and huddled up front with some drum machine like boxes.  I have no idea what these things were, but a beat based version of Hell Yes and Black Tambouring were fun and mixed up the alternative groove.  The band took it down a notch with some Sea Change while a camera projected onto the stage background light backdrop providing a pixelated image of Beck's face and guitar.  The camera then turned on the crowd with the Chemtrails lyrics "so many people, so many people, where do they go?", good work, good times.  What an experience.  He wrapped it a

ll up with a bow and two turn tables and a microphone.  It amazes me how diverse his tracks can feel, when the underlying chords, progressions and instruments are so similar.  He's an alternative rock mainstay and a genius from 20 rows back.