No posts this week because things have been hectic to say the least, very happy to have made the time to see Laura Barrett again during Ladyfest & especially pleased that she shared a bill with Julie Doiron - who always entertains with her somewhat awkward stilted banter and brilliant dissonant riffery. Doiron, like Barrett, started her set with 2-3 solo songs and then launched into a full unabashedly ballsly set with her band (in LB’s case, it was accompaniment w/ vocal & xylophone only….)…
Now i should capitalize on this free time & get out of the house - run some errands & finish some DRY reading for the crunchy workweek ahead - you know that those 4-day post-long-weekend work weeks are gonna be stumpy….
Last night’s Rilo Kiley show was phenomenal. I had some seriously low expectations after reading steamingly brutal reviews of the new album in MSM & blogs alike, but dammit if being catchy/a Rilo Kiley fan is wrong then I don’t want to be right. I am not going to be blogging as much because I am writing-exhausted after Predictor posts (avg. 2/day) & other random writing mumbo jumbo…I can pump out some heartfelt recommendations for Grand Ole Party (not to be confused with the Republicans, FYI) - WOW. What a beautiful lead singer/drummer they have in Kristin - sort fo a mashup of Ethel Merman & Shirley Bassey - capable of shriekingly powerful well-enunciated punctuated staccato-type lyric delivery - but without being abrasive or too nasal. Check out their MySpace to stream 2 great songs & buy that record already! Here’s some links to chew on in the meantime - photos I wish I’d taken at V-fest, of Bjork’s performance in GA Awesome news about FieldMusic’s triumphant return (in part at least) as School of Language (hurrah!) And yummy news about the new Beirut - who I’ll be checking out at the Danforth very, very soon…Ryan Adams on Friday & tonight is Bonde do Role - I have a feeling that it will be sweaty’n'dancey at this mystery venue….
So like all things hyped, there was the inevitable comedown after arriving at the Phoenix last night. The first two opening acts were entertaining – I especially enjoyed White Williams’ video montages in the background of their set. But by the way the crowd treated the (brave) Dan Deacon after he set up on the floor instead of on the stage; I was getting that lurchy (lost my wallet – or at least lost my $18.50) feeling in my stomach that the crowd would be more of a distraction than co-enjoyers.
By the time Girl Talk, a.k.a. Gregg Gillis took to the stage, the crowd was definitely hyped…he started mixing his first song, and within about 45 seconds people were crawling up on the stage & yanking their friends up with’em….At this point I was approaching unimpressed - after the way the first song went over with the on-stage audience (completely obscuring GT, stupid Electric Circus vampy poses from the girls and gauche sweaty shirtless writhing from the dudes) I was afraid that the entire night was a write-off and it would descend into hipster hell….but we stuck it out, stubbornly and maybe somewhat defiantly – trying to prove that the 25-year-old+ crew can still represent vs. those ironic-Days-of-Thunder-promo-shades kids in their retro/revival Versace gangsta pastiche of fashion ensembles.
I couldn’t help but think of recent discussions in the office about this phenomenon in communications at this ‘target demographic’ during the stage-swamped period of the show. (Our comms pros called their conversation - ‘the death of shame’, which has such a nice right to it, eh?) This is definitely Warhol 2.0 – everyone feels completely and unabashedly entitled to their 15 megs of fame instead of Warhol’s 15 minutes. An in this context, it was even more offensive, because the night started off as the absolute nadir of what original dance music used to be about – community. For all of it’s gag-inducing flower power idolatry, at least the d’n’b scenes and club culture used to be about respecting each other, laughing, dancing and engendering some sense of goodwill….it’s hard to see a germ of that with last night’s narcissistic generation on display (& this is a blogger writing about this – so I do recognize that there is an inherent hypocrisy – or fine line of irony - in online diary/public writing & what I am criticizing these concert-goers of doing….) – attendees vying for face time on the stage to populate their myspace profiles with cute pics of crashing the party, etc…When there’s more people scrambling over each other, pushing others around, generally being obnoxiously coked up trying to go on stage then actually enjoying the show on the floor - something’s off.
Anywhoo, I’ll end my old fogie rant. we ended up having a pretty decent time….sigh.
If our Facebook friendship means anything to you, then you will install this app. Immediately. We’ve been working super-hard on developing a Facebook-friendly platform for our popular Election Predictor site for this October’s provincial election here in Ontario. I think our amazing friends at Marsworks have done a pretty swell job. So please do download that, and if you are still resisting the whole FB scene, you can still play the old-fashioned way on the inter-web - via the H&K Election Predictor Homepage here.
Please do send this link (http://apps.facebook.com/hkontario/) around as we love to fill up that map of Ontario with lots of little thumbtacks! The campaign just officially started yesterday and things are heating up around here. Gotta love all the media coverage of political issues for provincial pundits. Good times, good times.
Speaking of good times and something relevant on an entirely different level - Magda & Josh have welcomed a happy, healthy, lovely little Leo into their family. Congrats!
Check out the YouTubes and Flickrs for V-Fest mementos, but they pale in comparison to Chromewaves-Frank’s brilliant roundup of the weekend here and here.
In sad music news, my cube-mates (via posted little ripped out magazine photo) SoundTeam broke up. The pride of ATX will be no more after ACL Fest this month. Sigh.
Interpol is sex. Last time I saw these suave NYC gentleman, it was the eve of the ‘04 American presidential election at stubb’s ampitheatre in ATX - celebrating the beau’s visit to the sweltering state of TX, and his b-day….different circumstances in ‘07 - chillin’ with a great group of gals working the media tent - but would’ve loved to have him here to see the new crop of songs! Damn, if I loved the new record any more I’d go dark futuristic 80s goth and not look back. After enduring a day of attitude and aggravation, what a beautiful zen moment of music, friends, a setting sun, great weather and fenced off peace. Can’t wait to show Amanda her Corgan king tomorrow night. Reunion schmeunion, we all know Billy recorded the records practically solo anyway, right?
So - It’s been over a week & maybe I should take Cory’s advice & work a bit harder to be a better blogger….:
Things have been cwazy wound hwere. Mini updates & links can be funneled through Facebook, but it’s no excuse for not being a more active blogger participant…
Had a ton of ideas running through my mind last night related to web 2.0, collaborate tools, especially since work just launched an internal wiki for group discussions…but I completely forgot what I was going to post about - foiled.
I do know that V-Fest will be brilliant this weekend - I’ll be working the better part of Saturday, but enjoying some reunion goodness w/ Amanda on Sunday. Please email or txt me to meet up on the island throughout the ‘fest.
On the music tip - be sure to vote for the Echo Prize for Canadian songwriting- & if you need some prompting - I’d strongly suggest supporting Besnard Lakes…. …if you have a minute, be sure to catch up on your NY Times arts section content with this Rick Rubin article & this MTV recap - interesting to see how traditional labels & the first music video channel are scrambling to reinvent themselves…by going back to the basics of producing, distributing & promoting good music. revolutionary. As for retails attempts to stay relevant - see what the Edmonton Journal thinks about HMV’s choice to slash prices
& speaking of ‘fests…dunno if I will be able to escape the city, but Pop Montreal is looking better & better every day. wow. what a beautiful organically growing organization - kudos to all the kids that’ve kept the Fest a vibrant part of the MTL scene throughout the year & who’ve built this fantastic site.
Hopefully I will remember to take as many photos & vids as I did last year - eyes peeled on the Flickr badge after this weekend….
big news (for me, at least) about a website launch on Monday, too….politickin’
peace meegs
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