as ive mentioned before, this year really opened my eyes to the wonder that is yeasayer. it wasnt until this past spring that i realy dove into “all hour cymbals” head first and realized how truly unique this group is even though i first listened to the album quite some time before that. and after seeing them at a few fests this summer, it was clear to me that their new album would be much more rhytmic than the first album. and after giving the album a few listens (for some reason i feel extremely guilty about this, moreso than with any other album leak), this is clearly the case. my initial reaction after completing the first listen was “im not quite sure what just happened, but i think i liked it”. the album is completely upbeat the entire time. theyve really got a knack for producing songs that sound unlike anything else. i like to call it “weird but awesome” — which is a play on my life motto “stupid but fun”. so far im a big fan but we’ll see what happens after a few more listens. i think there will be many mixed reactions, so im curious to hear what others think.
there really isnt a dull moment on this album. its kind of like going to a phish concert and having them NOT play a super slow song just when you think theyre going to take it to the next level right after a raging 15 minute jam that you hoped would never end . refreshing. while there were some great slower tunes on the first album, i think the upbeat is where yeasayer really excels, so im glad they went with that. there are a few tracks im loving on the album so far — ambling alp, madder red, love me girl, and ONE. ONE is probably the most accessible of the tracks on the album (i would say off the bat that “the children” is the least, with its modified vocals that remind me of a much weirder version of the vocals in the knifes “silent shout”. but i am gravitated towards the weird.) and i love how the melody that comes in around 1:15 just fills up the song.
this past friday marked the long awaited camera obscura show at the crofoot out in pontiac. it seemed like we bought our tickets years ago but the time had arrived at last. i started out the night at redcoat tavern for a delicious burger and somehow was able to get a table and eat in a matter of an hour and a half while some people had been waiting two hours just to be seated, and thanks to beth and jenny learned the importance of adding guacamole to that burger.
i finally arrived a little before 9pm and after a blustery wait in line i was in the door, camera in tow. it was nice to not have to worry about the overbearing camera police that were present the last time i was at a show here. i met up with the crew and we found our spot on the main floor. opening act was papercuts out of san francisco and they were very low key but enjoyable. i guess when my last exposure to live music was deadmau5 less than a week before, my energy expectations were through the roof, so it wasnt really fair, but i did like them. i ventured up to the front for a second to snap a few shots which were way too dark and unsalvagable and i met camera girl who was there with presumably her boyfriend also snapping some shots.
next up was the main event and almost as soon as they began playing, i felt a tap on my shoulder. it was camera girl again and she dragged me with her right up to the front where she and her boyfriend had carved out a spot. after taking whatever i can in the less than ideal lighting (i guess everything will always be less than ideal after the lighting juggernaut that was phish), i went up to the balcony to get what i could get.
camera obscuras performance was great in my opinion. they were a bit more upbeat than the papercuts (thats not a knock on the papercuts, for the record) and had some nice local onstage banter, talking about how they arrived in pontiac earlier and didnt see anyone around, and how they heard that tiki bobs cantina is the place to go if youre looking to get laid. apparently it doesnt take too long for the sometimes seedy bars in pontiac to make their impression on out of towners. tracyanne (who seemed to resemble zooey deschanel more than i remembered) had a few self proclaimed wardrobe malfunctions which she handled with poise and a sense of humor (one captured below — dont get too excited, there were no janet jackson impressions) and they bustled through their set to a gracious crowd. the set ended with perhaps their most energetic songs, “lloyd im ready to be heartbroken” and “french navy” and the crowd responded appropriately. the group thanked us with a three song encore, including their newly released track “the blizzard”.
some salvageable pics are below, and as usual you can check them out in a bit better quality on the dailybeatz flickr page but to be quite honest they look a lot nicer at this smaller size. it does give the pics a more intimate feel though.
and of course, a camera obscura track to whet your appetite. and its none other than one of everyones favorite camera obscura tracks, the aforementioned “lloyd im ready to be heartbroken”. its the first camera obscura track i ever heard and i think it pretty well sums up their sound.
before i begin, i could be wrong, but i think i completely forgot to mention that last week marked the 6 month anniversary of this little project i began. things have already been pretty awesome and ive been busier and busier, and there have been some haters as of late. which i guess is a sign of success, if anyone wants to take the time to do so. heres to many more months!
last wednesday was a pretty exciting day for me for a multitude of reasons. first, it marked the opening of the fall phish tour. as many of you may know, i have a nice little history with this band and was really looking forward to seeing them at the legendary cobo arena in my hometown of (metro) detroit. every time ive seen them, it has involved a 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 24 hour road trip, so the fact that i was able to go to work and drive 20 minutes was pretty effing sweet. my friend doug and i checked into the greektown casino hotel (along with the multitude of phish fans that did the same) and headed out to the old shillelagh for a drink. since there was a red wings game that night as well, downtown was abuzz with excitement.
what was even more exciting for me is that i was able to obtain a press pass for the show. while i had done so already for a number of smaller acts, it seemed completely implausible that little old me would be able to take on such a feat for a band as huge and legendary as phish at somewhere as huge and legendary as cobo arena. but alas, i did. we arrived at the arena a bit after 7 where i met up with the contacts that would walk us into the pit. i finally met abby in person — she was the one that helped me in getting the pass and it was great to meet face to face rather than over email and/or twitter. we waited anxiously as it seemed the two of us were the only ones who happened to be there for both business and pleasure. and finally, they walked us into the arena past the crowd and into the pit.
when i saw how close i would be to the group, i tried my best to maintain composure and a professional demeanor, but you better believe i was grinning from ear to ear. i took a few test shots and tweaked my settings a bit, and just like that the lights went down and the fearsome foursome took the stage. after the sunday night show at bonnaroo, i was sort of hoping for another ac/dc bag opener because it set the tone so well, and sure enough i got it! although i was so frantically trying to get as many pictures as possible that i dont even remember hearing the song. the same goes for the second track, foam. i think they sounded good but i really have no idea.
for better quality versions of these pictures as well as LOTS more that i didnt even post here, check out the dailybeatz flickr page. it was tough to get page/fishman shots on account of the pianos and drums.
and then, just like that, we were told we had to leave the pit as our 15 minutes was up. it seriously felt like about 2 minutes, but we were almost into the third song so i knew our time was up. i wasnt sure what the protocol was on whether or not we could continue shooting from our seats so i quickly headed up there, security checked my bags and said “oh, you just have that camera equipment? youre all set” and then i was on my way. heres the whole setlist to be used for reference before i give my 2 cents on what i remember. even though im finally listening to the recording now, im going to try to do this from what i remember and not what im hearing right now.
Set 1: AC/DC Bag, Foam, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, Bouncing Around The Room, Sample In A Jar, Kill Devil Falls, It’s Ice, Horn. Mountains In The Mist, Poor Heart, 46 Days, David Bowie
Set 2: Runaway Jim, Down With Disease -> Free, Waste, Taste, Bug, Wading In The Velvet Sea, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Cavern
ac/dc bag and foam – like i said, dont really remember this as i was in a photo-induced mental haze. when we walked away i felt a little like will ferrell in old school. “what just happened? i blacked out.” i think i missed all of stealing time and bouncing while i was heading to my seats and finally met up with doug during sample in a jar. all pretty standard.
kill devil falls was pretty driving and the jam seemed to get everyone going a little. i actually didnt even know what that song was (im a little out of the loop these days) but i really liked it and the jam that went with it. its ice and horn were also pretty standard but enjoyable. i dont think id ever heard its ice live before so that was nice. mountains in the mist was not the break i was looking for, but it was fine. poor heart is always pretty fun, and i dont know if id heard that one live either. maybe once.
then 46 days. this isnt really my favorite song, but i do like how they tend to jam it out and its usually pretty funky. a little through the jam was my favorite part of the show, at least visually. for those who havent been to cobo, the stage is surrounded by these huge white walls on either side. since chris kuroda is a lighting genius, he realized that he could essentially project onto these walls on either side to create a really neat effect. combine it with a dark 46 days jam and you get the awesomeness seen in the video/pictures below.
they closed out the first set (which clocked in at about 90 minutes) with david bowie. ive seen this song quite a few times live, but this one was my favorite. im not quite sure what it was, but somewhere in the middle of the jam, there was about a minute that was just so over the top beautiful, and simultaneously extremely subtle. it reminded me of how i feel during the pretty part of the 7.10.99 chalkdust torture, just that same sense of “wow, how did they get to this place?” i havent really heard anyone mention the bowie, but it definitely stuck with me for some reason or another.
setbreak was pretty short at only a half hour but we were able to meet up with some other friends just in time for it to start in the C level so that i could take some shots with a straight on view of the stage (which came out lovely i might add). we almost didnt make it thanks to the super old school ramps of cobo arena. we began on the right side of the stage and thought we were zig-zagging our way up, but ended up on the complete opposite end of the stage when we finally made it to the top.
the second set opened with runaway jim which was fun. i always love hearing down with disease, and i seem to hear it quite a bit, which i am more than ok with. but this one was just totally different. super experimental and way way out there, in a GREAT way. segue it into free, and even better. free has i think one of my favorite phish guitar riffs ever, just pure joy. the only one i think of off the top of my head that brings an even bigger smile to my face is the big in the first half of divided sky, the riff with the huge bend to start out, i think you know which one i mean.
then began the “all the songs my friends loved in college”. first up was waste which, despite being a slower song, didnt bring me down too much, especially at the end when i swear i heard tela teases, but i was probably just tricking myself into thinking that. next up was taste. ive always loved this song with its complicated rhythms and quick playing and chromatic rises, and it was great to see it live. i think id only seen it once before. bug and wading in the velvet sea would have normally made me do a big “bleh” if i saw the setlist, but in person i did not really have many complaints because they were both pretty rockin versions. mikes groove was pretty killer in my opinion too. i love the contrast between all three songs right in a row. closed out with a standard cavern, and the crowd went nuts forever before the band came out for a character zero encore.
then the show was over, the crowd dispersed, and we walked back to the hotel, taking a few pictures on the way. i was hoping to get a picture of the hundreds of empty balloons strewn about the sidewalk from the far end of cobo arena all the way to the end of cobo hall, but my camera decided to malfunction at that point and i wasnt able to do so.
all in all, i had a complete blast. i was a little in shock to read the reviews of all the haters the following day because im not sure if those people were in the same arena feeling all of the same energy that i was. im not one of those people that listens to shows over and over again, but i do know that in the moment everything was pretty spectacular, and that even a bad phish show is better than most other live shows, but i think this was still a great one. im not as lucky as some people who can go to every single show, so every chance i get to see them is a great one.
again, a reminder that high quality verisons of all of these pics, plus many many more, are available on the dailybeatz flickr page. for todays track, im giving up the studio version of “taste”, cuz i like it so very much. enjoy.
before we begin, lets talk about how excited i am to see phish at cobo arena tonight. they havent played in michigan since 1999 and havent played in detroit since 1992 or something crazy like that. the show would be much more enjoyable if i wasnt going to be eating the 4 extra tickets that i was unable to practically give away, much less get the money back that i paid for them. disasterous.
anyway, todays tune is by washed out is the relatively new musical project of ernest greene, who now resides in jawja. his digital EP “life of leisure” was released a few months back and hes been all the rage around the interwebs. and just like the name implies, a lot of the music sounds a bit washed out, but i think thats what gives it its ear catching sound. greene says that hes been making music for a while, but that he just kind of whipped up these songs and recorded them in a month or two after moving back in with his parentals. his music is much in the same vein of neon indian, part of what is being called “glo-fi” or “no-fi”, among many other things, but i like the retro sound of these artists. “feel it all around” just makes you want to sit back and chill the f out. it kind of reminds me of something that could be played in an 80s teen drama, big hair and all, during one of those montages where it just shows a bunch of people sitting by themselves thinking about things. i think you know what im talking about.
todays tune is “golden phone” by micachu. its pretty much the exact opposite of the old-timey folkiness that you listened to yesterday. micachu (born mica levi) is one of those people whos been playing music her whole life. she considers her music to be pop, even though thats the last way most people would describe it. in my opinion, its simple and catchy and experimental all at the same time. the key to her unique sound is that she plays tons of homemade instruments, many made from objects found around the house. apparently the “chu” is a type of guitar, and presumably her stage name comes from that plus her real name — mica + chu. but who knows for sure?
“golden phone” is one of the most accessible tracks from the 2009 debut album “jewellery” with her band the shapes. the album is definitely a little daunting to listen to at first, but it definitely grows on you with multiple listens. this track imparticular grew on me pretty quickly. the music itself doesnt really have a melody until the chorus kicks in with a few subtle jazzy sounds. she’ll be playing a few shows in the states in the next month or two, and id be really curious to check her out live, especially after reading about her collection of homemade instruments made out of things like cd racks. she is also the second person i know of to use a vacuum cleaner as an instrument. the other, of course, is phish drummer jon fishman. you havent lived until youve witnessed “dust in the wind” played live on a vacuum cleaner. true story. if youve listened to jewellery and just want some more, be sure to check out micachus mix tape thats posted on her myspace page. i havent done that yet, but i will one day soon. i expect to get the most mixed reaction ever from this song.
now that im finally back to some sense of normalcy after a weekend of insanity and sleeplessness, its time to present this years bonnaroo lineup with some awards:
best show of the weekend – tie between wilco and phishs second performance
sweatiest performer with tightest clothing – bruce springsteen
best performance i didnt want to go to that turned out to be awesome – amadou and mariam
performance that was as eerie and unique as i hoped for and lived up to all my expectations – yeasayer
biggest disappointment – mgmt. im sure the show was great in the tent but we were so far back and there was some malfunction with the second set of speakers so we couldnt hear any bass. all the people in the tent looked like they were having fun and i heard it sounded great in there.
favorite bar of the weekend – the fruit bar. we subsisted mostly on bars for the weekend. granola bars, fruit bars, all bran bars, etc. but the fruit bar is ridiculously good. its basically a really soft fruit roll up thats about an inch thick. i need to find out if its available in america.
best footwear for the weekend – sanuks – wore them all 3 days with no problems whatsoever.
favorite vendor food – the chicken kabobs from the areppa stands.
shows i most wanted to see but missed because of exhaustion/conflicts – band of horses, phoenix, crystal castles, paul oakenfold, yeah yeah yeahs, grizzly bear.
any other categories youre curious about?
so that about sums it up. the rain was pretty bad on the drive down on thursday but after that it didnt rain again the whole weekend and the mud was minimal and very avoidable which made things about a zillion times better than they would have been. now that bonnaroo is over, you can get excited to hear me talk nonstop about my next getaway to pitchfork festival in chicago for my second year there.
back to the music. todays track is no ones gonna miss me by minneapolis band these modern socks. this group is pretty much electro-pop goodness. i especially like the spaceyness (fake word alert), the the unassuming drumbeat, and the bass explosion near the end of the song. its kind of a pretty sad song, both pretty and sad. kind of like my return home after bonnaroo. pretty because i get to take showers and sleep in beds now, but sad because the excitement is over and im going back to work tomorrow.
well, here we are at the final day of bonnaroo. its been pretty crazy so far and we’ve done a lot of things we never thought we would do and seen a lot of things we. again this is all based on assumptions and expectations, but i hope it was all awesome. what i do know for sure that this excellent weekend will be closed out with a second performance by phish. ive seen phish probably about 10 times total over the past several years including the mud-laden coventry festival, which im praying has not been repeated these past few days. while im partially talking about the music and the performance, im mostly referring to the ridiculous insane crazy quicksand mud that seemed to engulf everything and everyone in its path. while it sucks being all muddy, the real problem i have is that youre already completely exhausted from walking, standing and dancing all day at these fests, and to have to trudge through the mud the entire day only saps away lots of that precious festival energy that youve been stocking up on for the last few weeks. it definitely wouldnt ruin my time there, but id really prefer it to not even have the chance.
phishs time slot tonight is 8pm-12am and then im sure there will be some crazy partying and then we will pass out forever and have to drive home 10 hours tomorrow. im hoping theyll be in top form after playing a few shows in the week before but anythings possible really. im looking forward to their famous light show, which you get a glimpse of above. the shot at the top of this post was my computer background for quite some time back in the day and one of my favorites, but there are a multitude of moments like this in the course of any show of theirs.
ironically, the phish track im bringing you today isnt a phish track at all. its a cover of frank zappas “peaches en regalia”. they used to play it all the time, but the legend goes that zappas family asked the quartet to refrain from performing the song in the future. im not sure why, but supposedly they did, and i dont think theyve played it since. trey has been quoted as saying that he drew a lot of inspiration from frank zappa. namely in that he inspired him to use instruments in ways they arent typically used (on a side note, i believe st. vincent aka annie clark has said the same thing about all the instrumentation on her latest album “actor”). for example, in one of his recent solo tours, he performed “sultans of swing” by dire straits regularly. instead of playing the crazy guitar solo himself, however, it was played note for note by an entire brass section. its pretty cool to hear. anyway, enjoy the track below. and dont ask what show this is from because i have no idea. i think theres also a little blip in the middle, so please ignore that.
BONUS!!!! since phish played twice at bonnaroo, im providing you with another track thats pretty neato. its called talk from the billy breathes album. soft chromatic descending baselines overlayed with jazzed up piano chords? youll like it. and it will quietly close out the weekend just as our exhausted drive home will close out our weekend. have no fear, i will spend all of tuesday at rest.
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day 2. but really its day 1 for us because based on the time we’re planning on leaving, by the time you read this we will probably have already missed all the musics from day 1. but thats ok because i didnt really really want to see anyone on day 1 except passion pit, and theres still a glimmer of hope that we made it in time for them. either way we probably had an awesome time last night because if we missed the music that means we were maybe slightly mad about it and that we probably partied really hard to make it up. maybe thats why my stomach hurts right now.
todays problem of the day is two-fold. fold 1 is that phish is playing at the same time as crystal castles, one of my “bands i really wanted to see”. the second fold is that phish is playing at the same time as phoenix, one of my “bands i really wanted to see”. but i suspect i will have many opportunities in the future to see aforementioned “bands i really wanted to see” so im quasi ok with it all.
since i will not be hearing any music by phoenix today, i decided that you probably should. ive just recently become a fan of this uber-french uber-fun uber-pop group and planned on posting 1901, a great ditty from their latest album “wolfgang amadeus phoenix”, but then i decided to post this song instead because it shows how versatile they can be even though at first glance and first listen you would think that they are straight up pop. this post is bad because i have tons of errands to run and packing to do. but enjoy the track anyway in all of its obscurity. its a 7:39 cloudy day turned dark dreary thunderstorm turned pretty excellent sunny day at the beach. i urge you to listen all the way through to the sunny day and reward yourself. if you want the straight up pop, check out “lasso” or “consolation prize”.
buy this track on itunes
