On The Road: Chicago

The midwest has been very kind to us so far. In St. Louis, TPPI played with a band called Target Market, who not only turned out to be the best band they’ve played with so far, but they were really cool, hospitable dudes that even coincidentally happened to be friends with So Many Dynamos (who I blogged about last time). We had a mini-rager at their house in southern Illinois.

Target Market : Highways
Target Market myspace

Chicago was also a very fun time. Birthday celebrations, family of the band coming out, and some old friends from the ATL made the night a serious party. We ended up camping on a rooftop overlooking the city and then having our tent destroyed at five in the morning by a hurricane strength thunderstorm. So far, I’m barely getting five hours of sleep a night and fatigue is starting to set in a little bit, but we’re all pushing hard and everyone is in great spirits still. We are about to take it to Michigan shortly, but for now, here is a mini-mix of Chicago artists:

Anathallo : Noni’s Field
Tortoise : Gigantes
Wilco : I’ll Fight
The Fiery Furnaces : The End Is Near
Andrew Bird : Anonanimal

A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Jeffrey Lewis, Tortoise, White Denim


Jeffrey Lewis @ SXSW 2008

The phenomenal anti-folk lyricist Jeffrey Lewis was one of the best discoveries I made during the 2008 blogging season. This newest release with a backing band going by the name of The Junkyard sees him continuing to move away from the increasingly overcrowded lo-fi world and learning to get more multi-dimensional. There are a few oldies repackaged, but there are plenty of new gems as well that I am loving. I think this is a perfect entry point for someone new to Lewis, so if you haven’t hipped to him yet, now is the time:

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard : Roll Bus Roll

Buy ‘Em Are I

Jeffrey Lewis myspace







Tortoise @ ATP NY 2008

Tortoise‘s new album called Beacons Of Ancestorship comes out June 23rd. Stereogum premiered the first track from it today and if it is representative of the entire album, this thing is going to be fabulous.. The song starts out as a nice, laid back chiller and then picks up the momentum about halfway through. You never know what to expect when a band takes five years to produce another album, but I’ve got a feeling we’re going to hear one of the greatest bands of the last two decades revitalized and reinvigorated. Check it out:

Tortoise : High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In

Tortoise myspace







White Denim @ SXSW 2009

I noticed when I caught White Denim live at SXSW earlier this year that they were farther towards the psychedelic jambandish side of things than their previous studio work would suggest. I had assumed they let the songs loose more in the live setting, but maybe the band has just moved in that direction as the first single from their next album feels similarly sprawling. Bands like White Denim, Akron/Family, and Crystal Antlers are doing a really great job of finding some weird nexus point between hippie and hipster, and I really dig it. White Denim are looking for a US label right but the new record, Fits, comes out overseas next month:

White Denim : Mirrored And Reversed

Buy Exposion (2008)

White Denim myspace

Live Show: Tortoise (9/27/2008) (New Songs!)


Tortoise @ ATP NY

Tortoise
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Madison WI USA
UW Memorial Union Terrace
2nd annual Snake On The Lake Fest

Setlist:

Coffin *
Eros
I Turn My Face to the Hillside
Unknown
Dot/Eyes
Monica >
In Sarah, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Women and Men
Salt the Skies
Glowstick *
Blackjack
Seneca
Crest
Korg *
Ten-Day Interval/Swung From the Gutters

* New songs

Download Lossless Torrent Here

Photos: ATP New York – Day 1 (9-19-08) in Monticello, NY

Tortoise performing Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Thurston Moore performing Psychic Hearts


Click here to read the entire post…

All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 1 (Friday): Don’t Look Back, There are 3000 Hipsters Standing Behind You

After a great week in NYC (of which I will have more reports on when I get back), we headed to the Catskills for ATP. The event is taking place at a resort called Kutshers, but we were staying at the other official resort called The Raleigh. I overheard someone describe The Raleigh as “straight out of The Shining”, and that pretty much nailed it. This has got to be the weirdest place I have ever stayed.

We then headed up to the festival after checking in and had to wait in a very long line to exchange our tickets for wristbands. Festivals being marred in logistics issues always seems to be the case, and ATP was no exception, but nothing I haven’t come to expect. After getting my press pass secured and grabbing some grub from their “food court” consisting of two food booths, we headed right down in front of the main stage, and Atlanta’s greatest music fan, Kenny Crucial, was holding down the rail right next to us most of the night. I made it down there a few songs into the Meat Puppets doing their II album just in time to hear one of my favs, “Plateau”. The Meat Puppets were really good, and since this was pretty much their only album that I knew well, it was a greatest hits show for me. The guitarist was shredding hard and their bassist had such a goofy on stage persona.

Next up was Tortoise doing Millions Now Living Will Never Die. I made a point to not really listen to any of these albums before heading up here so they would feel fresh, and for some reason I hadn’t really listened to any Tortoise in forever despite them being one of my “entry bands” into good music so long ago. As they did their set beautifully, I realized that I still knew this album frontwards and back, and it was so enjoyable to listen to. I know I haven’t really mentioned this band much around Ohmpark since I started it, but there is no doubt in mind that these guys are some of the best of the best.

After that it was time for Thurston Moore doing his Psychic Hearts album. As much as I am obsessed with Sonic Youth, I really never got into this album the few times I had listened to it before. Now, I will take listening to Thurston any time, any day, and the set was great, with Steve Shelley on drums again, but I have to say that Psychic Hearts is not exactly in my upper stratosphere of SY related music. But regardless of my hang ups, it was certainly a crowd pleaser with the older hipster crowd that populated this thing. While there were a few “pubesters” rolling around, the audience for this festival has been pretty damn cool so far.

Finally, it was time for the event I was most excited about, Built To Spill performing Perfect From Now On. There is probably no album that has more personal meaning to me than this one, and my highest of expectations were not disappointed. I had seen them play abridged versions of songs from PFNO many times, but for this one, they played the most loyal versions of the songs I have ever heard, only adding a few extended jams here and there. After they finished out the album, they did a stunning rendition of “Goin’ Against Your Mind” to close out the set. They did an encore consisting of one my favs, “Stab” and closed with “Car” complete with a 15 minute jammout at the end. There is just no way i can describe accurately how great this set was for me.

Anyways, I have to run and catch some more music. More updates coming, and Biggie C is taking some gorgeous photos we will have for you next week.

Live Review: Bonnaroo 2007

We took a 16 car envoy from Atlanta to the event. We had some issues keeping everyone together, but at the end of about a 4 hour wait to get in early Thursday afternoon, we somehow managed to get everyone at the same camp. After setting up in Camp Han Solo, we got to drinking pretty hard and exploring the campgrounds before heading to see the music of the night. Upon entering Centeroo, we were held up in an extremely slow moving line to get in through security. The security didn’t really seem to be checking people particularly hard, but they were very slow. Complaints about security would be a theme shared by many people over the weekend, but everyone in our entourage would only be minorly inconvenienced by it. I started out the night checking out the NBA Finals in the Cinema Tent, and then going to see The National. I have to say I thought they were downright awful. We stuck around for about half of it, and it got a big thumbs down from me. Next we watched Dubconscious in the Troo Music Lounge, which was pretty good but not really my bag. The best show of the night we caught would be Rodrigo y Gabriela. Really cool acoustic guitar stuff. On my way back to my camp to do more drinking, I checked out the Yard Dogs Road Show at the Bonna Rouge tent and I thought that was really interesting.

Friday started off with me checking out Tortoise. I thought this was a really solid set from them and enjoyed it a lot, especially them doing Seneca, my favourite tune of theirs, for the encore. This is one of the few sets that have already emerged on the torrents and you can download it here:

Tortoise 2007-06-15 Bonnaroo Music Festival. This Tent. (FLAC)

I stayed at the stage and managed to get front row for Hot Chip. This was one of my favourite shows of the weekend. They did really different renditions of stuff off of The Warning. I’m a big fan of organic dance music, and these guys are on top of that game. Some phlogs:

I briefly checked out the beginning of The Roots and then went to pregame for what would be the best show of the weekend, Tool. Unfortunately for me, I ended up getting too blotto and I blacked out halfway through the already legendary set complete with crazy visuals and a guest appearance jamout with Tom Morello. Hopefully one of the other Ohmpark folks who actually saw the entire thing will do a review for it later this week as I don’t really have much to offer except it blew my mind. After regaining consciousness later on in the night, I went to see DJ Shadow. He was good but was the same exact thing I had seen recently in Atlanta and it seemed to pale in comparison to the Tool show. Plus Lateef The Truthspeaker is horrible and I had to leave when he came on. I caught the STS9 encore before heading back to the campgrounds and staying up until sunrise.

Saturday day seemed to be a ton of mediocre shows for me. I bounced around from Dr. Dog, to The Slip, to Regina Spektor, to Gogol Bordello, to Damien Rice, to Fountains Of Wayne. None of them were bad, but none of them really drew me in. The Warren Haynes interview at the Sonic Stage was pretty cool as you got to listen to him talk about the history of him and the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule. After all of that though, it was time for Ween. I’ve seen these guys many times and have never really loved them hardcore, but for this show they just brought it, and the crowd for the show was going insane. I would have never expected it at the beginning of the weekend, but I think this ended up being my favourite show of the ‘roo. Saturday night we went to see The Police, like just about every single person at the festival, and it was a bit of a let down for me. I don’t know if maybe my expectations were too high or what, but it just seemed really underwhelming. I’m glad i got to see them, but I definitely wouldn’t go see them again. Late night, I opted to check out Girl Talk over the Flaming Lips extravaganza that most everyone else caught. The Girl Talk show was a great dance party with a stage full of random folks getting down. After that I saw some of the Gov’t Mule set, but my memory is pretty hazy at this point so I don’t have a lot to say about it. Although I did not go see them, the Sasha and Digweed set would be the only late night set of the weekend that would creep into dawn.

On Sunday, we went extremely early to catch the Flight Of The Conchords. The 2 hours sitting in the hot sun were a high price to pay, but I’m glad to have seen these guys. Demetri Martin opened for them in the Comedy Tent. He was ok, but he seemed to be trying out a lot of new stuff, and not all of it was that great. The FOTC took the stage, they did a set consisting of older tunes, a couple off of the first HBO episode, and a few I didn’t recognize. They were good, but it was hard to hear what they were saying at times, and the songs i didn’t already know didn’t seem as good to me as the others. They ended with a version of Albi the Racist Dragon featuring Demetri Martin on harmonica that was pretty cool.

After that i was off to catch the extremely jazzy Ratdog set. Always good stuff. Next up was The Decemberists show. I had been wanting to catch these guys forever and they were impressive. A heavy dose of The Crane Wife plus some other great gems. After that I went to see Wilco, and they did one of the best sets I’ve ever see them do. You can tell now that the nu-Wilco line-up has finally come into their own and they were on fire. If you get a chance to check them out tonight in the ATL, I highly recommend you do so. My final show of the weekend would be the White Stripes, who were good but seemed a little stale to me. They just seem to lacking something and i’m not sure what. Maybe it had to do with the extremely packed crowd and me being so far away, but it didn’t impress me. Check it out for yourself:

The White Stripes 2007-06-17 Bonnaroo Which Stage

Overall, 2007 ranked fairly low among the other years for me personally, but that’s not to say it wasn’t unbelievably awesome, because it always is. I think I’m still coughing up dust. I feel like despite the move away from the Jamband heavy line-ups of the early days, they still don’t have the quantity of this decades best artists that Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Pitchforkfest boast. The biggest change this year would be the absolute clamp down on non-official vendors and the banning of sales of glass pieces. i have to say I do not like this development and I believe it was the final nail in the coffin of this festival being significantly married to the Jamband community. I knew from the first year on that eventually Bonnaroo would either get shut down or get more controlled, and so I do not dismay as much as the Bonnaroo haters out there on the mainstreaming of the fest, but the old days are officially gone. On the bright side, I would not expect Bonnaroo to get much worse in this way and so if this is what Bonnaroo now is, then I have no problem with it and will continue to attend as long as they keep putting together great line-ups, but I’m gonna have to go check out another hippie fest once in a while to get that part of the experience that is almost completely gone at the ‘roo. Here’s some facts and figures from the weekend:

Ornette Coleman suffered a heat stroke while on stage.

One man died this year bringing the alltime Bonnaroo death count to 6.

The Coffee County Sheriffs reported 47 arrests over the weekend.

Bonnaroo grossed an estimated $17 million, breaking it’s own record from last year as the highest grossing festival in the world.

Setlists of the weekend are being compiled here.

Bonnaroo Preview: Tortoise

The first time I ever saw Tortoise was at Bonnaroo and it was amazing. Before Post-Rock had a name, these guys were mastering it. Here’s a live show to listen to:

Tortoise
taktlos-tonart bern
Bern (CH), Dampfzentrale
November 17, 2006

Dan Bitney – bass, guitar, percussion, vibes, marimba, keys, barisax
John McEntire – drums, modular synth, ring modulator guitar, electric harpsichord, keys
John Hemdon – drums, vibes, keys, sequencing
Doug McCombs – bass, guitar, lap steel
Jeff Parker – guitar, bass

FM intro (1:19)
1. (10:16)
2. (4:16)
3. (6:05)
4. (9:04)
5. (8:19)
FM talk (0:21)
6. (6:09)
7. (5:12)
8. (6:11)
9. (6:36)
10. (4:40)
11. (4:31)
12. (5:13)
FM outro (0:23)

Download Lossless Torrent Of This Show Here

Check Out Tortoise Myspace Page