Saturday, July 19, 2008

Curtains On does P4K Music Festival 2008, Day 1 - Fri Jul 18, 2008

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

I started listening to music in an intense way only some four years ago and what I have been doing since is to try to keep up with new music. Even only that gets very hard sometimes, especially when you are not in the music business, so you can easily guess I am not fully aware of all influential albums that that old bands have offered along their careers in music history. Day 1 at Pitchfork Music Festival 2008 consisted of three bands playing three influential albums, three albums that after time has passed they have supposedly proved to be an influence for new music these days and deserve to be remembered. Vs., by Mission of Burma, is one of those albums and the one in charge of opening the first of three days for the festival:


I love Yo La Tengo, and as a good fan, I had to get to know a little bit of Mission of Burma. I am not a big fan of MoB tho, but I can definitely appreciate their stuff. I am not surprised at how old time fans, and curious people like me or with a better taste in music, are coming out again to their shows. It's not only hype... the band is indeed sounding very tight. They reunited last year and put out a great album, The Obliteratti, and since then they have continued kicking ass. I heard for the third time in my life their (supposedly) influential album Vs. and even though I don't feel the amazingness of it yet, I can definitely say that it's growing on me. Sebadoh was next:


I even know less about this band and their album Bubble and Scrape. They told us they grew up listening to Mission of Burma and rightly so their music was very much in that vein, but unfortunately they were clearly less warmed up. At the beginning that was a let down, but it turned out to be cool at the end because they were very relaxed (perhaps way too much) and telling us jokes or having interludes singing cheesy songs. Like with Mission of Burma, guitars were really good here too, but I am not gonna lie to you... last night was all about Public Enemy:


Last week I was at a club in the city dancing to hip-hop and suddenly the DJ played a funny song that I hadn't heard before with so many lines and beats that I knew that I got confused. Everybody danced and sang the song. I was even more confused. I went to his booth and asked what that track was and he looked at me even more confused because I was supposed to know. That was the first full Public Enemy track I ever heard. I realized how many people in hip-hop to anything alike, from Jay-Z and Kanye to M.I.A., today recycle, sample and or transform Public Enemy's lines and beats. Dudes are seriously influential man, and with their set playing fully It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, that was absolutely proved.

Did I have a good time? Hell yes, and I had no hopes at all of having it from the first day. Now, day 2 and day 3 are gonna be seriously amazing (to me). [more photos]

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