The Usual Suspects
Day 1 was ok, but the real fun for me started on Day 2. My initial idea for this festival was to check out as many bands I hadn't seen live before, but soon I realize that I have seen most of the bands that are playing this festival, so I ended up seeing the usual (good) suspects. I am not complaining at all... some of these bands are some of my favorite bands these days and I don't mind seeing them over and over again. But the day started with a newbie to my ears: Jay Reatard,
The hype is deserved. Jay Reatard is great punk/rock. Not my thing tho, but the guy rocks hard. He barely stopped to tune his guitar in between songs, and all his interaction with us, besides giving us a middle finger when he was done, was to tell us really fast and shouting the name of the next song he was about to play. No time for breathing.
Caribou, aka the best drums around, were next,
Seriously. You want to see the best drums live? Go to see these guys right now. This was my third time with them and I don't mind getting together with them again. After some ten minutes of technical problems with a keyboard, Dan Snaith took us into his very alive pop/rock showing off his talents: on drums, guitar, flute and keyboard (plus being a Mathematician!)... what else do you want?
Have you heard of this very hyped new band Fleet Foxes? If you read Pitchfork, of course you have. This is what they look like:
A very positive (and overrated I think) review on Pitchfork of their debut album must have been the reason for a big crowd to be checking out a band at an early 3pm. Unfortunately that time slot was not the right one for them. Fleet Foxes have pretty nice tunes, and really pretty, but that was not the kind of music I wanted to hear outdoors, sweating and under the sun. I thought FF sounded like somewhere between My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, but after yesterday I am gonna have to add one more band to the mix: Grizzly Bear. As of now, I love all those three bands, and instead of being a good thing to hear them so much in Fleet Foxes music, it actually annoys me. Maybe we can have a good time another day, foxes.
Well, time for lunch and then back to the party... I was blown away by Dizzee Rascal:
I have the good Boy in da Corner, but I need to get his new album in one of the many tents the festival has selling CDs and vinyls asap. Yesterday's awesomeness taught me the new material has a lot of fun in it and that I should not miss him next time he comes to play a small venue around NYC. I had missed Dizzee Rascal's live shows in the city way too many times that it was fair I finally gave him a chance. It actually worked the other way around... He finally gave me the chance of seeing him live and I still can't thank him enough. I know what to play in my next party in my apartment.
Next, I overheard Vampire Weekend's set from very very far, and then heard the goodness of !!! off Myth Takes plus some new boring songs they were trying on us:
After deciding that !!! not only recently lost one key member but the soulness he brought along to the band, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Bradford Cox with his solo project: Atlas Sound,
Last time I saw Atlas Sound, Bradford was on stage with four more people, giving a full body to the music on his debut album as a solo project, Let the Blind Lead (...), and making its songs sound way less ambient. I told the friends I was with that what they were going to hear was good but nothing like what they had heard on record already, and I ended up being wrong. Bradford got on stage solo, and only with his mic and some electronic stuff sounded very much like his album does. As Atlas Sound, Bradford played several songs I hadn't heard before that he might have posted on his blog recently, plus some three key tracks from Let the Blid Lead (...). He made us wish we must had been on something...
... and if we had, it would have been perfect because Animal Collective's subliminal live experience was next:
I don't think I need to say anything else about this band... having called them one of my very favorite and very representative bands of this decade should be more than enough to give you an idea. Ok, maybe I should say that they are still playing Panda Bear's Comfty in Nautica and insist one more time that their new songs are seriously out of this planet. [more photos]
Day 1 was ok, but the real fun for me started on Day 2. My initial idea for this festival was to check out as many bands I hadn't seen live before, but soon I realize that I have seen most of the bands that are playing this festival, so I ended up seeing the usual (good) suspects. I am not complaining at all... some of these bands are some of my favorite bands these days and I don't mind seeing them over and over again. But the day started with a newbie to my ears: Jay Reatard,
The hype is deserved. Jay Reatard is great punk/rock. Not my thing tho, but the guy rocks hard. He barely stopped to tune his guitar in between songs, and all his interaction with us, besides giving us a middle finger when he was done, was to tell us really fast and shouting the name of the next song he was about to play. No time for breathing.
Caribou, aka the best drums around, were next,
Seriously. You want to see the best drums live? Go to see these guys right now. This was my third time with them and I don't mind getting together with them again. After some ten minutes of technical problems with a keyboard, Dan Snaith took us into his very alive pop/rock showing off his talents: on drums, guitar, flute and keyboard (plus being a Mathematician!)... what else do you want?
Have you heard of this very hyped new band Fleet Foxes? If you read Pitchfork, of course you have. This is what they look like:
A very positive (and overrated I think) review on Pitchfork of their debut album must have been the reason for a big crowd to be checking out a band at an early 3pm. Unfortunately that time slot was not the right one for them. Fleet Foxes have pretty nice tunes, and really pretty, but that was not the kind of music I wanted to hear outdoors, sweating and under the sun. I thought FF sounded like somewhere between My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, but after yesterday I am gonna have to add one more band to the mix: Grizzly Bear. As of now, I love all those three bands, and instead of being a good thing to hear them so much in Fleet Foxes music, it actually annoys me. Maybe we can have a good time another day, foxes.
Well, time for lunch and then back to the party... I was blown away by Dizzee Rascal:
I have the good Boy in da Corner, but I need to get his new album in one of the many tents the festival has selling CDs and vinyls asap. Yesterday's awesomeness taught me the new material has a lot of fun in it and that I should not miss him next time he comes to play a small venue around NYC. I had missed Dizzee Rascal's live shows in the city way too many times that it was fair I finally gave him a chance. It actually worked the other way around... He finally gave me the chance of seeing him live and I still can't thank him enough. I know what to play in my next party in my apartment.
Next, I overheard Vampire Weekend's set from very very far, and then heard the goodness of !!! off Myth Takes plus some new boring songs they were trying on us:
After deciding that !!! not only recently lost one key member but the soulness he brought along to the band, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Bradford Cox with his solo project: Atlas Sound,
Last time I saw Atlas Sound, Bradford was on stage with four more people, giving a full body to the music on his debut album as a solo project, Let the Blind Lead (...), and making its songs sound way less ambient. I told the friends I was with that what they were going to hear was good but nothing like what they had heard on record already, and I ended up being wrong. Bradford got on stage solo, and only with his mic and some electronic stuff sounded very much like his album does. As Atlas Sound, Bradford played several songs I hadn't heard before that he might have posted on his blog recently, plus some three key tracks from Let the Blid Lead (...). He made us wish we must had been on something...
... and if we had, it would have been perfect because Animal Collective's subliminal live experience was next:
I don't think I need to say anything else about this band... having called them one of my very favorite and very representative bands of this decade should be more than enough to give you an idea. Ok, maybe I should say that they are still playing Panda Bear's Comfty in Nautica and insist one more time that their new songs are seriously out of this planet. [more photos]
