Bonnaroo 2009: Wrap-Up And Final Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally gotten over my Bonna-flu, here’s one last post to talk about what I took from this year’s shenanigans. The Bonnaroo guide book talked about the weird familiarity that Bonnaroo becomes after several years of attending, and that definitely struck me this year. The place now certainly feels “like going back to the neighborhood where you grew up as a kid”. But this installment still managed to be a unique experience from every other. Outside of the hurricanes Thursday night, I think this was the best weather this festival has ever seen, and I feel the constant cloud cover really helped the energy overall stay strong through the last night. The vibe is always fun at the ‘roo, but I felt like this year there was a little extra electricity in the air with the crowd. Having Radiohead on a lineup is pretty awesome, but I think in the end this year’s event will be most remembered for having the strongest top to bottom lineup.

I think you could find a rather large collection of music journalist/blogger types that would agree that Animal Collective‘s Merriweather Post Pavilion, Grizzly Bear‘s Veckatimest, Dirty Projectors‘ Bitte Orca, and St. Vincent‘s Actor are all legitimate contenders for album of the year and Bonnaroo showcased all four artists within a matter of hours. This lead me to ponder some things and I came up with a few observations. First, Brooklyn, New York is the undisputed new music mecca right now. Atlanta has some cool stuff going on, but Brooklyn is the center of the universe. Also, I think harmony, particularly vocal harmonies, is a musical concept that is going to be on a hott trend for the years to come. Complexity, nuance and classical notions of musicianship are also concepts that I believe to be on the upward swing right now in the direction indie pop music is taking. There are plenty of exceptions and even healthy pushback against these trends in this “any flavour you like” internet world, but there is a renaissance going on and Bonnaroo is one of the best places to get a real glimpse at it.

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Bonnaroo 2009: The Female Festival

***Note From The Editor: Our newest guest contributor, Hannah Palmer, decided to do a little something experimental in her Bonnaroo experience this year and share it with us. If you are one our many Atlanta readers, I highly suggest checking out her blog Slumptown, Ga. Enjoy:

The Experiment:

I’m always whining about the lack of women performers included at big festivals. I attended Bonnaroo in 2007 and 2008 and I think the only chicks I saw onstage were Cat Power and Feist.

As soon as I saw the 2009 Bonnaroo lineup it occured to me: this could be an All Girl Bonnaroo. It seemed possible to curate my own personal Lilith Fair, in part thanks to David Byrne‘s practically “all estrogen” stage. As I planned a 4-day itinerary including as many girlie acts as possible, I wondered… would this be really lame? would it feel one-sided and sexist? what difference do female performers make anyways?

Field Observations:

So apparently there’s no more day parking on Thursday. I found this out the hard way and spent the first few precious hours of Bonnaroo driving around Manchester backroads and waiting in lines while Atlanta darling Janelle Monae took the stage. We got to Centeroo in time to catch Those Darlins (from Murfreesboro, TN) in the nicely upgraded Troo Music Lounge. My spirits lifted at the sight of 3 honky tonk babes taking turns doing punky covers of Wanda Jackson while spitting beer on the crowd. Then the tornado warning rain started pelting us and I missed Chairlift (with Solange Knowles??) while trying to track down one of those free XBox ponchos. So I had a sorry first night– whether that was bad planning or overplanning, I don’t know.


St. Vincent

Friday restored my faith in girls with guitars with back-to-back scary-good performances by Kaki King and St. Vincent. From there, I found myself torn between some killer women performers – sacrificing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for Santigold, Ani DiFranco for Lucinda Williams. As my friends split to see Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, I felt somewhat relieved to have my little assignment, otherwise the decisions would’ve been even tougher.

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Bonnaroo 2009: Saturday & Sunday (Days 3 & 4): So Much To Roo, So Little Time

Saturday began with hot and sunny conditions, and after hanging at camp and doing some blogging, I went to go see Bon Iver. I arrived late so I couldn’t get inside the packed out This Tent, but listening to them from far away didn’t work out so well for me. The distance from a stage has a large affect on how one experiences a show, especially at a festival. Bon Iver has too many quiet parts for a huge, boisterous crowd and competing stages blasting bass, but the band did do a good set from what I could hear. He even did a Yo La Tengo cover, which was my favourite part of the show.


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A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Bon Iver, My Brightest Diamond, AC Newman

I think this new EP from Bon Iver called Blood Bank is good, but I think it is definitely several notches below the quality of For Emma. It feels like the songs are b-sides that didn’t make it on the album. Well, all of the songs except the last one, “Woods”. I know I have been bemoaning the use of the vocoder autotuner vocal trick constantly, but I actually enjoy its implementation here. Rather than someone with a lack of vocal talents using it to make up for their inability, here Justin Vernon is doing interesting things with it that accentuate his skills. Make sure to jam this one on headphones because the panning is the best part:

Bon Iver : Woods

Buy Blood Bank

Bon Iver myspace





photo by Chad Wadsworth

Most remixes of songs usually involve simply putting a danceable backbeat behind the track and a lack of imagination (ie all of the remixes I’ve heard of Animal Collective‘s “My Girls”), but this new collection of songs from My Brightest Diamond‘s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth reworked by Son Lux is the polar opposite to the typical, boring remix. The songs are entirely transformed, and the results are both artful and booty shaking. This is truly one of the best remix EPs I have ever heard.

My Brightest Diamond : Apples

Buy Shark Remixes Vol. 2: Son Lux

My Brightest Diamond myspace




Every time I have given a listen to The New Pornographers, it had be a casual affair like hearing a few tracks in a friend’s car. And every time I had heard it, it just didn’t impress me enough to really dig in. So I decided with this new solo record from Pornographers‘ AC Newman that i would give it a lot of listens and try to get into his stuff more, and the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I don’t know if it will be a top 50 or anything, but there are some really good songs on this thing, especially the closer:

A.C. Newman : All of My Days and All of My Days Off

Buy Get Guilty

A.C. Newman myspace

My Favourite Songs of 2008: Ohmpark Mixtape #6

So here is a playlist comprised of many of my favourite songs from the year. Not all of my favs are here, but I think all of the essentials are in it. I tried my best to build this as a flowing playlist more than just a collection of songs, so the order and even some of the selections reflect that. I really need to do more mixtapes. Based on Hypemachine/elbow popularity, I know everyone loves that Fleet Foxes song, but I decided instead to treat you to a better song from one of the bands that FF is ripping off. Anyways, here is an hour and half of the best songs of 2008. Jam them hard while you can, because in about 3 days they aren’t hip anymore:

Islands : The Arm
Sigur Ros : Gobbledigook
Atlas Sound : Recent Bedroom
Kaki King : Life Being What it Is
MGMT : Weekend Wars
Department of Eagles : No One Does It Like You
Animal Collective : Water Curses
Antony And The Johnsons : Another World
Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire : Voice In Headphones
My Morning Jacket : Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 1
Beach House : Used To Be
Portishead : The Rip
Summerbirds In The Cellar : Now We Are Ugly Inside
Hot Chip : One Pure Thought
M83 : Kim & Jesse
Bon Iver : For Emma
Plants And Animals : Guru
Destroyer : Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night’s Ape)
Deerhunter : Nothing Ever Happened
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead : The Betrayal Of Roger Casement And The Irish Brigade

Live Show: Bon Iver (8/8/2008)


Bon Iver @ SXSW

This one sounds great:

Bon Iver
08/08/08
Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary, NC

Source: Neumann ak40 > lc3 > ka100 > km100 (FOB, 5′ LOC, 8′ up, DIN) > Lunatec V3 > Microtrack II (24/48)
Transfer: Microtrack II > PC > Wavelab 5 (Fades, 48k>44k, MBIT+ Dither) > CD Wave > FLAC
Taped and Transfered by: Brian Hadella

Opening for Wilco

One Set:

01. Flume
02. Lump Sum
03. Blood Bank
04. I Believe In You
05. Skinny Love
06. Creature Fear
07. For Emma

Note: Bon Iver plays with tons of dynamics, the first songs are quiet (and the audience was very respectful) while the final songs are very powerful. I’ve preserved the recording just as how the band performed. Enjoy!

Download Lossless Torrent Here

Monday Mash-Up

Sigur Ros had a teaser video rolling around the Internet last week:

Listen to a new CocoRosie song here.

The 2008 version of Ozzfest has them abandoning the touring festival format for a one day event in Dallas, TX with Metallica and Ozzy headlining. I guess that Ozzfest for free last year didn’t work out so well.

Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg quit his keyboarding spot in Okkervil River to focus on Shearwater full time.

The Big Boi solo album is coming along nicely.

The Hold Steady will be at The 40 Watt in Athens, Ga August 9th, but is not coming to Atlanta.

Hot Chip will be at The Variety Playhouse on October 9th.

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What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

SXSW Bands are invading my Ipod and CD players now that I am back. There are so many to look into, but a few albums from the bands I managed to catch have stood out as some of the best of 2008 so far:

Kaki King

Originally from Atlanta, Kaki King is singer/songwriter/guitar player Katherine Elizabeth King. Her guitar work is an interesting style that is very percussive using slaps and taps. Her newest album, Dreaming Of Revenge, has been in my heaviest of rotations since catching her in Austin. It is about half instrumental ethereal post-rocky stuff, half fascinating and alluring pop songs. This release seems to be a little under the radar right now in hype-land, but it is too good to stay that way for long:

Life Being What It Is

So Much For So Little

Buy Dreaming Of Revenge here

Kaki King Myspace

Plants And Animals


photo by: Caroline Desilets

While doing my 2007 year end research and digging, Plants And Animal‘s With/Avec EP was one of the best discoveries I came across. One of the things I love about this band is they attempt to make each and every song a monumental event. Their debut LP, Parc Avenue, takes everything great about their short release and expands it on this tremendous album.

Mercy

Good Friend

Buy Parc Avenue Here

Plants And Animals Myspace

Bon Iver

Since everyone on the Internet has rightfully fallen for this album and sung its praises for ages now, I won’t go on a tirade about, but just make sure to check it out if you haven’t because it lives up to the hype:

Flume

Lump Sum

Buy For Emma, Forever Ago here

Bon Iver Myspace

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