Hey all you wonderful people. I recently started a new blog called "Before The Culture Dies." It's dedicated to showing how apathy is growing and our rich American culture is slowly being destroyed.
Anyways, on my recent post I looked at the RIAA and their spinning ways of basically saying they just want to control what we listen to.
Check it out, it's long... but I think it's fairly eyeopening.
Before the Culture Dies
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wait... Radiohead?
So before we thought Radiohead would release their new album in November. Then they say that it won't be out until next year. Now we find out it's going to be released in TEN DAYS!!!!!!!
TEN
DAYS!!!!!
October Tenth!!!
It's called In Rainbows and you can pre-order this epic box set with the album, an extra cd, vinyl of the album w/ extra tracks and art & stuff as well as the download on the 10th (the package goes out December 3rd). Or you can just go for the download.
Ah Radiohead, I love when you surprise me.
Peace, Love and Keep Rock Alive
TEN
DAYS!!!!!
October Tenth!!!
It's called In Rainbows and you can pre-order this epic box set with the album, an extra cd, vinyl of the album w/ extra tracks and art & stuff as well as the download on the 10th (the package goes out December 3rd). Or you can just go for the download.
Ah Radiohead, I love when you surprise me.
Peace, Love and Keep Rock Alive
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Mark Lanegan: Genius in the Shadows
Many of you are probably somewhat familiar with Lanegan's first project, The Screaming Trees. As grungies on Sub Pop, Lanegan released his signature voice to the public. The Trees were a part of the "main grunge group," meaning they worked with Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney. Chris Cornell produced the Tree’s album, “Uncle Anesthesia”, and Lanegan was a member of the one time only super group of Mad Season with Layne Staley (Alice in Chains), Mike McCready (Temple of the Dog/Pearl Jam) and others.
What you MIGHT not know is that Lanegan has been making music since that grunge era. Since 1990, he has had 6 solo albums and even more collaborations. Some of his key partners have been Queens of the Stone Age, Hater (a project involving Soundgarden's Ben Shepard & Matt Cameron) and The Twilight Singers. Another very noteworthy collaboration is that of Lanegan and Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell. With out question, "Ballad of the Broken Seas" was one of 2006's best albums.
I'm here to say that Mark Lanegan has done it again. I haven't encountered too much talk about The Soulsaver's new album: "It's not how Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land." The Soulsavers are an English remix/production duo that recruited Lanegan to sing on 8 of 10 songs for their new album. The result is an epic, dark electronica sound with Lanegan's depressingly beautiful lamenting to support it. Both elements make it one of the most depressing albums I have ever heard; yet at the same time it is simply gorgeous.
I'm going to go ahead and call "I.N.H.F.Y.F, I.T.W.Y.L." this year's best album, although... that could change if the Gutter Twin's album is released. The Gutter Twins just signed to Sub Pop and announced their album is finished. Who are the Gutter Twins and how is this relevant? Well, the previously mentioned Twilight Singers' lead singer, Greg Dulli is one of the twins. The other? This millennium’s Man in Black, Mark Lanegan. Dulli and Lanegan have been contributing to each other’s projects for several years, so they decided to record an album together as The Gutter Twins.
The moral of this story is: Mark Lanegan is one of the best, hidden gems of American musicians. I almost feel guilty, because while we talk about the sub-par albums this year, we don't talk about how Mark Lanegan keeps making incredible music that goes relatively unnoticed.
Here's to you Mark Lanegan... Here's to you carrying on the tradition of Johnny Cash and Tom Waits... Here's to the man who walked from the land of grunge into the land of dark blues and rough Americana. Here's to your amazing music...
Peace, Love and Keep Rock Alive!
-DJ KRA
What you MIGHT not know is that Lanegan has been making music since that grunge era. Since 1990, he has had 6 solo albums and even more collaborations. Some of his key partners have been Queens of the Stone Age, Hater (a project involving Soundgarden's Ben Shepard & Matt Cameron) and The Twilight Singers. Another very noteworthy collaboration is that of Lanegan and Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell. With out question, "Ballad of the Broken Seas" was one of 2006's best albums.
I'm here to say that Mark Lanegan has done it again. I haven't encountered too much talk about The Soulsaver's new album: "It's not how Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land." The Soulsavers are an English remix/production duo that recruited Lanegan to sing on 8 of 10 songs for their new album. The result is an epic, dark electronica sound with Lanegan's depressingly beautiful lamenting to support it. Both elements make it one of the most depressing albums I have ever heard; yet at the same time it is simply gorgeous.
I'm going to go ahead and call "I.N.H.F.Y.F, I.T.W.Y.L." this year's best album, although... that could change if the Gutter Twin's album is released. The Gutter Twins just signed to Sub Pop and announced their album is finished. Who are the Gutter Twins and how is this relevant? Well, the previously mentioned Twilight Singers' lead singer, Greg Dulli is one of the twins. The other? This millennium’s Man in Black, Mark Lanegan. Dulli and Lanegan have been contributing to each other’s projects for several years, so they decided to record an album together as The Gutter Twins.
The moral of this story is: Mark Lanegan is one of the best, hidden gems of American musicians. I almost feel guilty, because while we talk about the sub-par albums this year, we don't talk about how Mark Lanegan keeps making incredible music that goes relatively unnoticed.
Here's to you Mark Lanegan... Here's to you carrying on the tradition of Johnny Cash and Tom Waits... Here's to the man who walked from the land of grunge into the land of dark blues and rough Americana. Here's to your amazing music...
Peace, Love and Keep Rock Alive!
-DJ KRA
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
A Great American Holiday
I had to go to classes on Labor Day this year for the second time in a row. I’m not one to despise college or anything like that, and I’m not saying that going to two classes on that Monday morning was the worst thing that I’ve ever had to endure. It wasn’t this year and it wasn’t last year. It did, however, get me to thinking about how the only reason any of us take the second-tier holidays seriously anymore is because we get the day off of work or school, because we walk out to the mailbox, open it up, and slap our foreheads for having forgotten that not even the postmen work on Federal holidays. Who actually spent a moment thinking about the struggles of laborers or appreciating those hard workers who make our product-laden society possible? Heck, I bet some folks think that Labor Day is some sort of sequel to Mother’s Day, a day spent in celebration of mothers giving birth or something like that.
So what’s the point of a holiday if no one really recognizes what the holiday is about? Arbor Day might have more cultural significance than Labor Day, despite the fact that Arbor Day is A: Lame and B: Not associated with days off or gifts. Labor Day isn’t of any importance because of what it’s supposed to be celebrating…it’s important because we get a day off, because for many it signifies that last day of summer before the dreaded school year begins. At least during Arbor Day, elementary school kids are dragged out of the classroom and forced to try and plant trees in the ground and are given a lecture on recycling that will eventually be forgotten when Jimmy Myers or some kid farts in class and the important ecological lesson is lost to the power of immaturity.
So what’s to stop this Sept. 25 from being a holiday? What’s the significance of Sept. 25? Well, any guy reading this will probably know, it’s a date that’s been etched into the 18-25 year old minds of America for about half a year now by relentless tie-ins and advertisements. Countless students, workers, and bums alike will be flocking to their closest retailer and circling around the electronics sections, zombie-like, reaching out and trying to grab the closest employee for a chance to seize that holy grail…a copy of Halo 3. Now, whether or not Halo is the end-all to video games (it’s not) and whether or not Halo 2 was the biggest nerd disappointment since Episode One (it wasn’t…but it was close) doesn’t matter. What matters is that the hype and buildup for Halo 3 is so immense, that millions of people will either be ridiculously preoccupied from their daily routine or just not bother to do anything at all but play Master Chief’s latest zany adventure.
More people will be religiously following Bill Gates’ favorite armor-clad hero than took Labor Day seriously, and Arbor Day doesn’t exactly spur the male youth of America into a buying spree. So why not just give us all the day off? Call it Master Chief Day, call it Halo Day, call it Microsoft’s Xbox Cash Cow Day, whatever the greeting card companies like the most. I’m not sure which is worse, the fact that the imaginary exploits of a space warrior against goofy-looking aliens means more to people than a Federally-supported holiday meant to give respect to our plentiful and deserving workers, or the fact that I’ll be one of those zombies playing Halo 3 as soon as class is over on the 25th.
So what’s the point of a holiday if no one really recognizes what the holiday is about? Arbor Day might have more cultural significance than Labor Day, despite the fact that Arbor Day is A: Lame and B: Not associated with days off or gifts. Labor Day isn’t of any importance because of what it’s supposed to be celebrating…it’s important because we get a day off, because for many it signifies that last day of summer before the dreaded school year begins. At least during Arbor Day, elementary school kids are dragged out of the classroom and forced to try and plant trees in the ground and are given a lecture on recycling that will eventually be forgotten when Jimmy Myers or some kid farts in class and the important ecological lesson is lost to the power of immaturity.
So what’s to stop this Sept. 25 from being a holiday? What’s the significance of Sept. 25? Well, any guy reading this will probably know, it’s a date that’s been etched into the 18-25 year old minds of America for about half a year now by relentless tie-ins and advertisements. Countless students, workers, and bums alike will be flocking to their closest retailer and circling around the electronics sections, zombie-like, reaching out and trying to grab the closest employee for a chance to seize that holy grail…a copy of Halo 3. Now, whether or not Halo is the end-all to video games (it’s not) and whether or not Halo 2 was the biggest nerd disappointment since Episode One (it wasn’t…but it was close) doesn’t matter. What matters is that the hype and buildup for Halo 3 is so immense, that millions of people will either be ridiculously preoccupied from their daily routine or just not bother to do anything at all but play Master Chief’s latest zany adventure.
More people will be religiously following Bill Gates’ favorite armor-clad hero than took Labor Day seriously, and Arbor Day doesn’t exactly spur the male youth of America into a buying spree. So why not just give us all the day off? Call it Master Chief Day, call it Halo Day, call it Microsoft’s Xbox Cash Cow Day, whatever the greeting card companies like the most. I’m not sure which is worse, the fact that the imaginary exploits of a space warrior against goofy-looking aliens means more to people than a Federally-supported holiday meant to give respect to our plentiful and deserving workers, or the fact that I’ll be one of those zombies playing Halo 3 as soon as class is over on the 25th.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Disappointment is Only Relevant to Your Perspective
Devin Townsend is a name some people recognize. Depending on who you talk to, some know him from his vocal work with Steve Vai, others know him strictly from his over the top metal band Strapping Young Lad and another group recognizes him as one of the great minds in the music world. Morgan, you may not have heard any albums that "wowed" you yet, so I don't think you've heard Ziltoid The Omniscient.
Ziltoid the Omniscient is by far one of THE BEST albums to be released this year. Why? First of all, Devin is AMAZING (he released a fantastic album, Synchestra, just last year). There is plenty of humor and satire in his music, but it contains a beautiful element of professionalism. He uses music to conjure up imagery and he uses guitar solos only when truly necessary. So, Devin himself aside, Ziltoid is brilliant because of its concept. Never in my life have I heard a concept album so... out there, so... ...AWESOME!
I'll try to explain the premise without giving too much away. There's this alien dude, Ziltoid, who is a ruthless evil being with a desire for the worlds greatest cup of coffee: Black. He thinks this great cup of coffee can be found on earth, so he sends his minions to fetch him a cup in five minutes (and yes, real time is kept with this part, making it again... brilliant). The coffee is complete crap so he decides that earth should be blown up. There is a space chase between the human Captain Spectacular, and Ziltoid. Ziltoid then goes on a quest for the meaning of life and his role in the universe. The ending is great, so I won't give it away.
That's all good and well you say. Hell you might go check it out (you should), but that's not the reason why you need to give this album a listen. This album is one of my favorites simply because of what I hear in it. Not the music, but Hevy Devy ENJOYING HIMSELF! It's easy to hear Devin having FUN with this (he did everything himself on the album). Just listening it gives me chills, because of how rare it is to actually hear the artist loving the story he is telling. Usually it sounds so sterile, but not with Townsend.
So all of you 'umans need to give this album a spin, or else mighty Ziltoid will release the planet smasher; and you don't want to deal with that crap.
I'll agree with Morgan that there have been quite a few "meh" albums (with several exceptions)... but damn... Ziltoid is by far the best of the year.
Also, there are a bunch of puppet transmitions on youtube. Here is the first one:
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Where Did All The Music Go?
Alright, let me clarify here. Music hasn’t gone anywhere. If anything, there’s more music around today than ever before. Anyone can get an audience these days, whether you’re another bubblegum clone or some guy sitting at a computer idolizing Aphex Twin. A regular tsunami of tunes drenches me every time I pop open my laptop. I have over ten thousand songs without owning more than two hundred CDs. Every single step of the musical process has become so ridiculously easy…that is, every part of the commercial aspect. The production, selling, purchasing, and thievery of music are as simple as can be, thanks to those newfangled computers. You don’t need a label; just put your album on Myspace. You don’t need a record shop; just get a decent torrent site. And what’s the only thing that hasn’t gotten easier with this new wave of technology? The art of songwriting.
Had you talked to me last year, I would have said that in August, I would have listened to more excellent albums that I could have gotten my hands on. Sometimes it kills to be an optimist. But just looking at the lineup this year…Arcade Fire, the National, Wilco, Dinosaur Jr, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Smashing Pumpkins, Bloc Party, Spoon, the New Pornographers, Queens of the Stoneage, White Stripes, Porcupine Tree, Stars, Arctic Monkeys, the list seems endless. And some of those albums were excellent (Arcade Fire, the National, Dinosaur Jr, Spoon) but the rest? They ranged from good to bland.
Criticisms aside, with so much music floating around these days and the ease with which such music can float from the creator to the listener, why is it that I can’t honestly say that there’s been one record this year that’s blown my mind? Where’s this year’s Return to Cookie Mountain, Boys and Girls in America, or Come On! Feel the Illinoise? For that matter, where’s this generation’s Nevermind, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Zeppelin IV, Dark Side of the Moon, or Revolver, where is that brilliant album that nearly everyone can toss into their stereo and feel as if they’re experiencing not just music but something with a greater feel and scope than ears and speakers? The album that hits at the hearts and minds of not just the hardcore who lurk around music blogs waiting for the latest leaks, but the mainstream as well? It might be ridiculous to expect something remarkable to come out in the first eight months of the year, but did you see the lineup hat was in the previous paragraph? One would have been foolish not to expect a masterpiece.
Perhaps, because indie has become so big, with Modest Mouse and the Shins debuting at number one on the charts (despite the dying CD format, it’s still something) and with so many artists latching onto major labels nowadays maybe it’s just the hype machine that has led me to such disappointment this summer. When you’re going to stereogum every day, when you go to hype machine and can’t help but grabbing that leaked track off of so and so’s newest album, when the album itself has become a disjointed assortment of tracks rarely held together by a singular emotion or theme (just because the songs sound similar doesn’t mean they’re necessarily ‘together’), isn’t a bit of the magic lost?
Not to be an old sentimentalist, since I’m not particularly old or sentimental, but there’s still something to be said for going to an old music shop and sifting through dozens of CDs trying to find that long-forgotten EP that you just have to own, or that out-of-print classic that everyone has recommended to you. Sure, going on iTunes and buying an album certainly makes you a customer and a purchaser of music, but do you down the music? There’s nothing physical there, you can’t hold mp4s and admire the album art. Buying the actual album as opposed to downloading it brings a certain amount of risk to it. In fact, for many, it contains too much risk. Much of the appeal for me lies not in having the album spoiled, instead, it’s like a virgin tomb, the legacy of a forgotten Pharaoh, and you’re either rewarded with a ridiculous amount of gold, or some sort of curse. A friend of mine and I once made a habit of going to Borders (the only place nearby that sold music that wasn’t Wal-Mart) every Tuesday or so to actually purchase an album. One week, he bought Stadium Arcadium and I bought St. Elsewhere. Of course, we all know who got the better album (Chili Pepper fans can leave at this point) but we still laugh about it until this day. Listening to Stadium Arcadium during the car ride, not knowing a single track off of the album save for Dani California, it gave the mediocre, bloated, and often stupid misstep a sort of bizarre charm, a charm that wouldn’t have existed if I had just nabbed it off of some illegitimate website. When you buy an album, you invest in the album, and if it’s good, you appreciate it more…if it’s bad, you appreciate those good discs in your collection with all that much more intensity. Everyone remembers the first album they bought…no one remembers the first album they downloaded.
I guess it’s those albums you discover with little to no hype, which completely blindside you, which have the greatest effect nowadays, since there really isn’t a such thing as an ‘event’ album that gets huge media coverage anymore, and since many of the artists that were once at the cutting edge of creativity have lost some of their luster with few artists genius enough to step up and take their place (Jack White? Rock god? Please) it’s those albums that you go into with no pretenses that are the ones that please the most. When I first listened to the National, Hold Steady, and Sufjan Stevens, I knew next to nothing about any of them, just that there was some buzz attached to them and there was a vague memory of someone I knew speaking well about them.
But nothing like that has happened so far this year. The closest thing to that has been Blitzen Trapper’s latest. If anything, this year has been one filled with disappointments both in regards to a lack of quality and a deceptive illusion of quality. Zeitgeist? Mediocre, a commercial album with no soul. An album that was mostly panned. But Feist and Of Montreal? Two acts whose albums were nearly unanimously praised to high heaven? Neither were anything groundbreaking. Feist’s voice isn’t even all that good, whose best song is only great when mixed with Daft Punk, and Of Montreal is a band that tosses out two or three songs on each album that are brilliant, but the rest are just a mishmash of eccentric pretension that blogs and message board goons gobble up.
Maybe my standards are set too high. I am, after all, the guy who came out of The Bourne Ultimatum thinking, “Meh…it could have been better.” And I was honestly ridiculously excited about this year’s musical possibilities. I’m not quite sure whether or not it has to do with artistic difficulties, heightened expectations, a general weariness, the declining bee population, alterations to the arctic ice caps, I dunno what it is. All I know is that I can’t help but look at a 2007 playlist and think, in a monotone, “Oh…that’s nice.” Well, maybe not that bad. But when one expects perfection, anything less is a bummer.
-Morgan
Had you talked to me last year, I would have said that in August, I would have listened to more excellent albums that I could have gotten my hands on. Sometimes it kills to be an optimist. But just looking at the lineup this year…Arcade Fire, the National, Wilco, Dinosaur Jr, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Smashing Pumpkins, Bloc Party, Spoon, the New Pornographers, Queens of the Stoneage, White Stripes, Porcupine Tree, Stars, Arctic Monkeys, the list seems endless. And some of those albums were excellent (Arcade Fire, the National, Dinosaur Jr, Spoon) but the rest? They ranged from good to bland.
Criticisms aside, with so much music floating around these days and the ease with which such music can float from the creator to the listener, why is it that I can’t honestly say that there’s been one record this year that’s blown my mind? Where’s this year’s Return to Cookie Mountain, Boys and Girls in America, or Come On! Feel the Illinoise? For that matter, where’s this generation’s Nevermind, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Zeppelin IV, Dark Side of the Moon, or Revolver, where is that brilliant album that nearly everyone can toss into their stereo and feel as if they’re experiencing not just music but something with a greater feel and scope than ears and speakers? The album that hits at the hearts and minds of not just the hardcore who lurk around music blogs waiting for the latest leaks, but the mainstream as well? It might be ridiculous to expect something remarkable to come out in the first eight months of the year, but did you see the lineup hat was in the previous paragraph? One would have been foolish not to expect a masterpiece.
Perhaps, because indie has become so big, with Modest Mouse and the Shins debuting at number one on the charts (despite the dying CD format, it’s still something) and with so many artists latching onto major labels nowadays maybe it’s just the hype machine that has led me to such disappointment this summer. When you’re going to stereogum every day, when you go to hype machine and can’t help but grabbing that leaked track off of so and so’s newest album, when the album itself has become a disjointed assortment of tracks rarely held together by a singular emotion or theme (just because the songs sound similar doesn’t mean they’re necessarily ‘together’), isn’t a bit of the magic lost?
Not to be an old sentimentalist, since I’m not particularly old or sentimental, but there’s still something to be said for going to an old music shop and sifting through dozens of CDs trying to find that long-forgotten EP that you just have to own, or that out-of-print classic that everyone has recommended to you. Sure, going on iTunes and buying an album certainly makes you a customer and a purchaser of music, but do you down the music? There’s nothing physical there, you can’t hold mp4s and admire the album art. Buying the actual album as opposed to downloading it brings a certain amount of risk to it. In fact, for many, it contains too much risk. Much of the appeal for me lies not in having the album spoiled, instead, it’s like a virgin tomb, the legacy of a forgotten Pharaoh, and you’re either rewarded with a ridiculous amount of gold, or some sort of curse. A friend of mine and I once made a habit of going to Borders (the only place nearby that sold music that wasn’t Wal-Mart) every Tuesday or so to actually purchase an album. One week, he bought Stadium Arcadium and I bought St. Elsewhere. Of course, we all know who got the better album (Chili Pepper fans can leave at this point) but we still laugh about it until this day. Listening to Stadium Arcadium during the car ride, not knowing a single track off of the album save for Dani California, it gave the mediocre, bloated, and often stupid misstep a sort of bizarre charm, a charm that wouldn’t have existed if I had just nabbed it off of some illegitimate website. When you buy an album, you invest in the album, and if it’s good, you appreciate it more…if it’s bad, you appreciate those good discs in your collection with all that much more intensity. Everyone remembers the first album they bought…no one remembers the first album they downloaded.
I guess it’s those albums you discover with little to no hype, which completely blindside you, which have the greatest effect nowadays, since there really isn’t a such thing as an ‘event’ album that gets huge media coverage anymore, and since many of the artists that were once at the cutting edge of creativity have lost some of their luster with few artists genius enough to step up and take their place (Jack White? Rock god? Please) it’s those albums that you go into with no pretenses that are the ones that please the most. When I first listened to the National, Hold Steady, and Sufjan Stevens, I knew next to nothing about any of them, just that there was some buzz attached to them and there was a vague memory of someone I knew speaking well about them.
But nothing like that has happened so far this year. The closest thing to that has been Blitzen Trapper’s latest. If anything, this year has been one filled with disappointments both in regards to a lack of quality and a deceptive illusion of quality. Zeitgeist? Mediocre, a commercial album with no soul. An album that was mostly panned. But Feist and Of Montreal? Two acts whose albums were nearly unanimously praised to high heaven? Neither were anything groundbreaking. Feist’s voice isn’t even all that good, whose best song is only great when mixed with Daft Punk, and Of Montreal is a band that tosses out two or three songs on each album that are brilliant, but the rest are just a mishmash of eccentric pretension that blogs and message board goons gobble up.
Maybe my standards are set too high. I am, after all, the guy who came out of The Bourne Ultimatum thinking, “Meh…it could have been better.” And I was honestly ridiculously excited about this year’s musical possibilities. I’m not quite sure whether or not it has to do with artistic difficulties, heightened expectations, a general weariness, the declining bee population, alterations to the arctic ice caps, I dunno what it is. All I know is that I can’t help but look at a 2007 playlist and think, in a monotone, “Oh…that’s nice.” Well, maybe not that bad. But when one expects perfection, anything less is a bummer.
-Morgan
Monday, August 20, 2007
Wolves and Horses and Mice (Oh, My!)
Hey folks, Clang here. Saturday marked the Download Festival in my hometown of Mansfield, Massachusetts. The all day concert featured sets from the aforementioned Wolf Parade, Band of Horses, and Modest Mouse, as well as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Guster, Neko Case, Apollo Sunshine, Bang Camaro, and the Adam Ezra band. All day is a long time to be at any concert and by the end I was quite exhausted. In between sets, naps, and trying to find free food (which was nearly impossible - nearly), I organized a series of Download Festival awards that I will give out at this time.
Best Set:
Easily Modest Mouse, who closed out the festival and are all kinds of awesome. The perfect blend of old and new songs. Honorable mention goes to Neko Case, whos voice sounded amazing and could relax me on day of the week.
Biggest Disappointment:
Guster, who appeared to be sleepwalking through their set of new crappy songs and didn't play any of their older more awesome songs. Honorable mention: Wolf Parade, who despite sounding fantastic, had a set that consisted of songs off of their upcoming album that the public hasn't heard yet.
Biggest Surprise: (Tie)
1. When Bang Camaro's set began, I thought that I had magically been transported back to 1984, and they were the opening act for a Quiet Riot/Warrant double bill. Then the band's twenty (yes, twenty) or so 'lead singers' took the stage. By the time their last song came, which happened to be "Push, Push, Lady Lightning" from Guitar Hero II, I was hooked.
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Usually, I am not a fan. But Karen O. and company actually put on a very theatrical show that the crowd really got into. They closed out with a melodic (?!) acoustic rendtion of "Maps" that made me rethink my opinions about them.
Best Set:
Easily Modest Mouse, who closed out the festival and are all kinds of awesome. The perfect blend of old and new songs. Honorable mention goes to Neko Case, whos voice sounded amazing and could relax me on day of the week.
Biggest Disappointment:
Guster, who appeared to be sleepwalking through their set of new crappy songs and didn't play any of their older more awesome songs. Honorable mention: Wolf Parade, who despite sounding fantastic, had a set that consisted of songs off of their upcoming album that the public hasn't heard yet.
Biggest Surprise: (Tie)
1. When Bang Camaro's set began, I thought that I had magically been transported back to 1984, and they were the opening act for a Quiet Riot/Warrant double bill. Then the band's twenty (yes, twenty) or so 'lead singers' took the stage. By the time their last song came, which happened to be "Push, Push, Lady Lightning" from Guitar Hero II, I was hooked.
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Usually, I am not a fan. But Karen O. and company actually put on a very theatrical show that the crowd really got into. They closed out with a melodic (?!) acoustic rendtion of "Maps" that made me rethink my opinions about them.
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