Bonnaroo 2009: Friday (Day 2): Oh So Harmonious

Friday morning started with some nice cloud cover that made it easy to sleep in a little while. After hanging out at camp, I headed for the press area to work and sit through an orientation, and then I went to see some tunes. I caught the last half of Katzenjammer‘s set, and it was really good. The Norwegian 4-piece was comprised completely of ladies and they put on a damn good show. They would all be switching instruments between every song and had a striking sense of showmanship to match their musical prowess. At one point they did an a cappella number with everyone singing that was impressive, and this would seem to be the theme for most of the day: Stunning vocal harmonies.

After that I managed to get one person back from the front for Dirty Projectors on That Tent, and they totally brought it as per usual. I’m still blown away by the vocal tricks they employ. They opened with a slow jam in duet form, and then brought the rest of the band in for the second tune as they would continue changing their on-stage configuration for different sections of the show. They rocked some older jams this time in addition to all the best stuff from Bitte Orca. Pretty much everyone expected a David Byrne & Dirty Projectors team up on “Knotty Pine”, and when they closed with just that, the crowd went nuts.


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What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

Two albums from artists I just saw at SXSW:

DM Stith

David Michael Stith was discovered by Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and signed to Asthmatic Kitty, and he fits right into what you would expect from an artist on this label. It is lovely music utilizing modern pop sensibilities with a more classical ethos, and a slight touch of psychedelia. While I enjoy listening to modern singer/songwriters like M Ward and Andrew Bird, I always feel like their stuff is just a little too vanilla and plain to really dig into. DM Stith adds just enough spice to make this sort of thing alluring to me:

DM Stith : Thanksgiving Moon

DM Stith : Morning Glory Cloud

Buy Heavy Ghost

DM Stith myspace




Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

This band is an interesting test case in an attempt to find something new that can be both successful in mainstream radioland and everyone-is-a-critic blogland. It straddles the line between the two well, relying on a heavy dose of steady driving, upbeat melodies broken up by some weirder, riskier moments to catch your breath, like ending the record with their longest, quietest, slowest piece. It’s sort of like if The Strokes didn’t suck or Bloc Party before they sucked. Of course, this exercise in trying to make everyone happy will probably result in more backlash than hype in this day and age, as evidenced by P4K’s thumbs down earlier this week, but regardless, I think it is a great record, and their live show was just as striking. Bonus, the drummer is like 13 years old or something:

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band : Albatross, Albatross, Albatross

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band : En Fuego

Buy Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band myspace

SXSW Day 2 (Thursday): I Guess I’m Gloating


All Photos by Clint Miller

We started day two with a mad dash through traffic to make it to the I Guess I’m Floating day party in time to catch Oh No Oh My. We made it moments after they began their set, and they went on to play all my favourites off of Dmitrij Dmitrij plus a new one. It was a really good first set of the day.

Next up was a band called Arizona. I have no idea how I have heard of this band, but for some reason the name sticks out to me. They turned out to be great, with some serious guitar jams. The lead singer had a really unique, weird voice that added an interesting dimension to their sound. Check it:


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