Music Festivals and Concerts

[lizbeth]

deleted

[tekla]

Leonard Cohen's recent shows have been getting rave reviews everywhere he has played. 

Last time I went was to see Madonna, Massive Attack and Tool.  For a festival, its a pretty good one, but I'm still a small club kind of person.

And I've been working with STS9 for nine years now, quite a unique bunch, but to call them a jam band is a huge mislabel, one that puzzels them to no end.

[lizbeth]

that's cool tekla, we should have hung out! lol
I really want to check out cohen, he's one of those legends that i've never really been familiar with even though I always see him listed as an influence in the liner notes. to me he seems like the anti-tom jones.   He goes up against Ghostland Observatory which will be a tough decision, but I"ve seen GO twice now, so I think I can skip them in favor of cohen.

I skipped madonna at coachella and saw Mogwai instead. I don't regret that decision at all!! mogwai is an incredible prog rock band, and they are LOUD and use feedback to their advantage. I've been wanting to see them ever since but can never get out to their shows when they are here.

I think STS9 gets lumped into the "jam scene" becuase they are always doing the same festivals as phish and umphrey's mcgee and others but I don't really consider them a jam band in the least. Michael Franti and Spearhead is the same way. sorry if it came across that way in my post, right after I mentioned STS9 I went into damien marley, and he's definately not a jam band, lol.

electronica and electronic are the same and that's a very broad category. I find this site helps a little (http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/) but I'm sorta anti label. I would hate it if some agency of record producers decided what little box to put art into since they have no clue usually what art is in the first place. that's why I prefer the indie and edm scene since it's much more free flowing from genre to genre without the boxes

Bryce, look into RATATAT. I can already tell that you will love it

[tekla]

I had worked Mogwai the week before (lots of bands play SF right before, or right after the big fest, its a routing deal) so I was in no hurry to see them again, and I'm not much on seeing people in a huge setting that I've seen in a club.

And the deal with STS9 (or Sound Tribe Section 8, as a lot of the people I work with not so lovingly call them) are not a jam band, because, well, they don't jam.  They are performing compositions note for note the way they were written to be done.  There is no 'jamming' about it.  It sounds free form, but its not.  They do have one of the best and most unique lighting persons currently working, very innovative stuff.

[tekla]

Are most of the musical artists that perform in these music festivals electronic, or some variation?

No, not in a straight sense.  Though almost all bands use some form of electronics (besides mikes and amps), with NORDS, and Tritons, and the use of ProTools is rising (get that great brass backup without having to haul a brass section around with you) they are not strictly electronic.  Few are, most of that stuff is done and released, and played at dance clubs, often there is no real band, or in the case of Kraftwerk (who I love by the way) when they leave the stage and put out the robots the level of stage presence rises.  Which is to say, they might make good music, but they make for crappy live performances.  There are exceptions, but few.

[lizbeth]

the genre really has evolved quite a bit in the last 15 years or so. speaking of industrial, are either of you familiar with Throbbing Gristle? they are pretty much the creators of industrial just like kraftwerk is the creater of electronic. it's a bit to experimental for me, but it might be worth checking out since the singe is tg.

speaking of tg performers, antony is performing at this years coachella too. hercules and love afair was going to be there, but dropped out just last week.

hahaha, you'd be fine and no one would even think twice. there really are all ages and people of all types there trust me. not to mention there is a high alcohol and drug consumption rate, so no one will even notice you, LOL. I talked to this one guy that was at 2 festivals i've been to. this guy has seen the beatles, been to woodstock and saw hendrix, you name it and he still goes to a festival every year. hopefully I'll still be going to shows well into my twighlight! i've been to raves and seen 65+ year old people raving harder than I ever did. LOL! honest!

i'm pretty sure Etienne is just the latest from teh french house scene. Daft Punk, Justice, and most of the Ed Banger records crew. Im just a sucker for that phat synthy bass, LOL.

i'm not full time yet, so FWIW, i'm going in drab mode. but next year for sure! woohoo!

[tekla]

You can jam (ie, play theme and variations) to any music, I know classical cats who can jam on Bach, jazz has tons of it where its called - more correctly, improvisation.  In rock it tends to be done mostly on blues riffs, but of course, rock is mostly blues at base.  Hell, I've seen DJ teams like the old Sasha and Digweed do it on the ones and twos.

In rock, to take the two most extreme examples, the Grateful Dead - which was five guys on rhythm and Jerry on lead (melody) could take a song and play it into the ground with the five keeping a basic structure and Jerry playing over, under and around it.  Most Jam Bands (Phish, Moe, and the rest) follow that basic structure.  On the other hand, you have Pink Floyd whose use of lighting, lasers, movies and flying objects including pigs and planes was programed down the micro second. 

So, if you had say three live recordings of the Dead doing Stella Blue, you could have three rather different versions, but three live bootlegs of Pink Floyd concerts are identical.  Which is why people collected Dead bootlegs, but one Pink Floyd concert per tour was enough.   

And, not to be outdone, SF has the Outside Lands deal in Golden Gate Park, where this year the headliners are The Beastie Boys, Dave Mathews Band and Pearl Jam for the three nights, and so far these other fine acts:
INCUBUS • BLACK EYED PEAS • M.I.A. • JASON MRAZ • WEEN
THE MARS VOLTA • THIEVERY CORPORATION • MODEST MOUSE
BAND OF HORSES • TV ON THE RADIO • THE DEAD WEATHER • ATMOSPHERE
TOM JONES • SILVERSUN PICKUPS • ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND
THE NATIONAL • Q-TIP • BRETT DENNEN • BUILT TO SPILL • MASTODON
RAPHAEL SAADIQ • CALEXICO • OS MUTANTES • MIDNITE • JJ GREY & MOFRO
KINKY • DEERHUNTER • LILA DOWNS • TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE
THE DODOS • BETTYE LAVETTE • DENGUE FEVER • HEARTLESS BASTARDS
THE DIRTBOMBS • LENKA • AKRON/FAMILY • JOHN VANDERSLICE
MATT & KIM • PORTUGAL. THE MAN • THE MORNING BENDERS
THE DUKE SPIRIT • ZEE AVI • BLIND PILOT • SAMBADA
RYAN BINGHAM • WEST INDIAN GIRL • EXTRA GOLDEN

[lizbeth]

heh, lots of posts deleted in this thread. tekla and I look like we are talking nonsense hahaha

anyways....   Coachella was a BLAST!!!

Mccartney was really good. it was the aniversary if Linda's death and he played a big tribute to her. then he also did a tribute to george and john. played for about 3 hours or so.

The cure played 3 hours too. they did 3 encores and during the 4th song of the 3rd encore they Indio police dept pulled the plug on teh main stage speakers, but that didn't stop the cure! nope, they went on to play jumping someone elses train with only the monitors and the remaining people in the crowd rushed to the front. when Robert's mic was unplugged, the crowd sang along. then they killed simon's bass, and it was just drums and the crowd. as the crowd left we all sang boys don't cry    it was awsome!

my bloody valentine was awesome too. I knew they were loud but OMG!!!  the end of their set was a 17 minute sonic assualt of the loudest noise you could hear. your body was vibrating from teh bass. they did that for 17 minutes straight!!!!

Beirut was easily a favorite of the weekend. as a former horn player I was so happy that when ever they began playing their horns that the crowd litterally erupted.


anyways. pics here http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=434062242&albumId=980515
vids here http://www.youtube.com/user/g0k1ngsg0
Post Merge: April 20, 2009, 07:33:40 PM
some of my favs...


fleet foxes - White Winter Hymnal / Ragged Wood (live from coachella)

beirut - postcards from italy (live from coachella)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero (live from coachella)

paul mccartney - jet/drive my car

paul mccartney - day in the life/give peace a chance

band of horses - 2


Post Merge: April 20, 2009, 08:35:50 PM
my pics: http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/rjl420/Coachella/09/

Michael Franti


TVotR


Fleet Foxes




Antony


Yeah Yeah Yeahs




MBV


Murder City Devils:



The Cure

Post Merge: April 20, 2009, 09:36:20 PM
Ting Tings

[lizbeth]

I'm super excited about seeing the Flaming Lips again, going to see them on august 18 along with ghostland observatory. I've seen both bands before and they are great live acts.

this month I'm also going to Street-Scene in San Diego. the lineup isn't the best, but it's sorta in my back yard so I try to make it. Beatie Boys were the original headliner, but they cancelled their tour due to MCA's cancer.




Friday, I'm looking forward to Modest Mouse, Cake, Band of Horses, Girl Talk, Devendra Banhart, calexico, nortec collective, cage the elephant and deerhunter and matt and kim but I know i'm going to have to skip some due to conflits.

Saturday I"m lookng forward to Theivery Corporation, Dead Weather (jack white's new band), silversun pickups, of montreal, the faint, sharon jones, ted leo, west indian girl, ra ra riot and ozomatli.


this october, I'm going to try and make treasure Island festival in San Fransisco. this one is up in the air, but I miss having a festival in october and the massives around here have been a let down (monster massive, mostly)



the Saturday lineup is sorta weak, but I'd like to see MGMT again along with MSTRKRFT, Passion Pit and Federico Aubele. it's really al about Sunday for me, the Flaming Lips, Beirut, Decemberists and Grizzly Bear and the bob mould band, thao and the get down stay down?  nice


anyone else go to any festivals this summer?

[tekla]

I might work the TI gig, we'll see, but for sure I'll be at Outsides Lands deal for at least a few days, I have a Warfield show (marylin manson) in there so I will not be able to do the complete run.  Third headliner is still up in the air after the Beastie Boys canceled all their gigs due to one of the boys having cancer.

[lizbeth]

the third headliner for outside lands is "the greatest band in the world" AKA tenacious D.   (actually, I checked their site, and they are billed as tenacious D now).

I wanted to go to outside lands, but it's the same weekend as street scene, and for almost the same undercard I figured i'd stay closer to home.

[tekla]

Harley a replacement for the Beasties, on the other hand, it will be easier to deal with as a lot of people will not stay to the bitter end, as they would have for the BBs.