Pilcrow

I think that, as with the Concerts at the Mural, I'll just do a single summary post for Bumbershoot 2011 rather than break it up across the three days. I didn't take lots of notes, partly as I spent half my time there running about the Bumbershoot Music Lounge to take photos and upload them to Facebook and Twitter for KEXP, just as I had been doing for the Concerts at the Mural. I think I took the most notes for Bumbershoot After Dark, as I had some intentions of writing a proper post for the KEXP Blog about it, and indeed ended up doing so.

For all of the Bumbershoot Music Lounge sets, I tended to miss out on the middle two or three songs, as I had to run into the green room to upload a photo to Facebook and Twitter. In some cases I wasn't interested enough in the artist to go back into the theater and listen to the rest, in others I did.

Saturday, September 3
Bumbershoot Music Lounge

• Shabazz Palaces—I'd never paid that much attention to them, but I liked them a lot more seeing them play live; I think it was the percussionist playing a thumb piano that won me over, but really they had an interesting style that I liked a lot.
• Vetiver—Folky rock, I didn't stay to listen to the whole set, so that I could see Craft Spells instead.
• Vusi Mahlasela—A solo artist on acoustic guitar, singing at least in Zulu and English, and maybe other languages; some of it sounded like scat singing rather than actual words. He's from South Africa, and seemed to be singing mainly political/social songs; I actually recognized "Say Africa", which I guess made him an "oh these guys" musician. I missed the middle few songs, but caught the last one which got upbeat and dancey, fun stuff.
• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue—Hot stuff! Really good New Orleans soul/jazz combo, one of the highlights of the weekend. I'd meant to see Nortec Collective, but stayed for all of Trombone Shorty's set first.
• Starfucker (STRFKR)—I didn't really stay to listen.

Outside the Lounge

• Craft Spells—One of the bands outside the Lounge I really wanted to see, and I was able to leave the Vetiver set in order to catch them. I really liked their bright summery pop with ringing guitar. They're a step above "oh these guys"—I knew I liked them and wanted to see them, but still didn't remember a specific song until they started "After the Moment"; I also recognized "Party Talk" and another.
• Nortec Collective presents: Bostich & Fussible—Another band I knew I wanted to see, but couldn't name anything in particular they do. I caught the second half of their set, as they overlapped with Trombone Shorty; it was fun techno-Mexican music.
• Little Dragon—I recognized the name and knew I'd heard and liked some of their music, but didn't remember anything about it; I wasn't sure whether I was confusing this band's name with another one. I ended up catching about half the set, and I was kind of too far away outside too big and noisy a crowd for me to really get into it, but they played a kind of electro dance music that I think I'd really like.
• Bumbershoot After Dark: The Dowlz, Jokers of the Scene, DJ Craze (plus Claude VonStroke, whom I missed)—I liked the Dowlz the most this evening, and didn't care much for the little I heard of Craze, but I had to leave very shortly after his set began in order to catch the bus. See my post on the KEXP Blog.

Sunday, September 4
Bumbershoot Music Lounge

• Mad Rad—Again, damn these guys are good! They had a cellist and guitarist in addition to synths and drums, which filled out their sound well. Despite playing first thing at noon to a relatively small audience, they had lots of energy and didn't hold back. This was the set of the afternoon for me.
• Tennis—Pleasant pop, singer had a really sweet voice although it was actually sweeter when she was warming up quietly backstage.
• Shelby Earl—Seemed to be pretty straight-up country, I didn't stay to listen.
• Davila 666—In contrast to Shelby Earl were very raucous rock, again I didn't stay for all of it as I was still updating the photosets on Flickr for KEXP.
• Pickwick—Good modern prog-folk-rock, I liked them.

Outside the Lounge

• Warpaint—New song! It sounded lovely, but I do hope to hear them change things up a bit. They had a nice (if easy) segue from "Composure" to "Undertow". I was amused that they introduced one song by saying "this one can be kind of angsty"—umm, have you listened to yourselves? Also, it felt more angry than angsty. Also amusingly, in contrast to the musical style, they were clearly having a great time onstage, with the drummer and bassist cracking each other up. Unfortunately I missed the last two songs in the mistaken belief that School of Seven Bells were starting at 7:30 and I had to get over to the EMP.
• Tycho—However, thanks to my mistake and to my press pass allowing me to skip the long line of waiting people, I did catch last couple songs by Tycho as a result. Good trippy dance music, though the crowd was mostly chilling to it.
• School of Seven Bells—With the departure of Claudia, they're a duo now, but had a bass and drums backing duo too. They played a brand new song that was pretty rocking. "Half Asleep" was definitely lacking the dual vocal harmonies—given the contrast with the following song "Jovian", I'd guess Claudia did lead on "Half Asleep"—as were a couple others, and they'll have to do some more adjusting to make up for it. But they finished with the epic "Sempiternal-Amaranth", which sounded fine.
• The Kills—I half-heard the beginning of their set, as I was wandering about while eating some pizza. I'd wanted to see more of their set, but they were up against Lusine, and I just wasn't feeling it. 
• Lusine—I caught the last 20 minutes and wish I'd seen it all but I really needed food. I was also glad I chose this over the Kills, as I needed something relaxing and groovy which he delivered.
• Bumbershoot After Dark: Dam-Funk, DJ Z-Trip (plus Four Tet, whom I missed)—Dam-Funk was pretty great, spinning groovy electro-funk and disco from the early '80s, singing along, and playing a couple of his own originals on keytar. What I heard of Z-Trip involved heavier hiphop beats than I usually care for, but I liked the different things he was mixing in, including the Godzilla theme. I suspect Four Tet would've been my favorite but unfortunately couldn't stay that late. Again, see my post on the KEXP Blog.

Monday, September 5
Bumbershoot Music Lounge

• Urge Overkill—Driving rock, a bit Southern. "That was the title track to our new album 'Rock n Roll Submarine'. It wasn't so much 'Can we name it that?' as 'How could we not name it that?'"
• Charles Bradley—Old-school funk and soul, walking in James Brown's shoes. It sounded good but I didn't stay for the whole set.
• Fitz & the Tantrums—High energy soul, they were pretty awesome, and definitely had the most packed and excited audience of the weekend. They were right in the middle of Head Like A Kite's set, which I'd really wanted to see, but I had no choice other than to stay for Fitz & the Tantrums, it was that hot.
• Phantogram—Led with "As Far as I Can See", played a couple new ones from an upcoming EP, and finished with "When I'm Small". A good if short set, but in this case I wish I had skipped out to catch the rest of YACHT, which I think I would've enjoyed more.
• Grant Lee Buffalo—I was surprised by how many songs I recognized; I've never really been into them but they're quite good. Grant Lee Phillips was amusingly affable.

Outside the Lounge

• Head Like A Kite—I caught their first couple songs, went back to the Lounge for Fitz & the Tantrums, and then ran back for last 15 minutes of HLAK. It didn't look like they had too much of a crazy show, although they did have a panda onstage. I caught a few new ones with Asya as the Daydream Vacation project, though officially they were performing as HLAK. Sadly, Trent Moorman is no longer playing with HLAK due to some dispute; the new drummer was fine, though no Moorman. I didn't see any other guests besides the rapper Tilson, who came out for the last song, "Diamond Paint", which Einmo said had been the inspiration for the Daydream Vacation project.
• YACHT—Their set overlapped with Phantogram's Music Lounge set; I caught the first couple songs, including a new one and "Summer Song", before I had to run back to the Lounge to get photos of Phantogram's soundcheck. I wish I'd been able to see more, but by the time I'd covered Phantogram, it was too late to run back.
• LAKE—I caught just the last couple songs of their set, and didn't have time to get into them, but I'd still like to see them again another time, as I did really like them at the Capitol Hill Block Party.
• Ill Cosby—I ran downstairs from the EMP Level 3 stage back into the Skychurch only to catch the very last couple minutes of Ill Cosby's set, which is too bad as that was enough to tell me I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot and should've skipped Lake.
• 214—However, I then stayed for 214, which I hadn't planned on seeing, and I found his cool, deep house music good for relaxing and dancing.
• Phantogram—The other reason I should've skipped out on Phantogram's Music Lounge set to see YACHT is that I knew I'd be seeing at least some of this set, but then I also knew it'd be crowded and harder to enjoy. But it was still a really good set. They played a few new ones in addition to a good chunk of their first album. I was actually leaving early, about halfway through, to go see Hall & Oates when I ran into David and Alethea from Beehive, so I ended up staying through the whole thing while talking to them.
• Hall & Oates—I convinced David and Alethea (and their friend Joy) to join me for Hall & Oates; we entered about halfway through, and I could overhear them playing "Adult Education" as we were walking the outer hall heading for seats. Unfortunately we were just in time for a set of slower sentimental ones, such as "She's Gone" and "Sara Smiles", which even I didn't care for so much. But everyone gamely sat through them, and we were rewarded with a great final set of songs: "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" closing the main set, "Rich Girl" and "You Make My Dreams" as a first encore, and "Kiss On My List" and "Private Eyes" as the second encore. (I figure they must've played "Maneater" early in the set.) They did a neat slow intro and extended version of "I Can't Go For That" to close the main set, featuring long-haired "Ben Franklin" on sax solos. (Seriously, that's who he looked like.) I'd been really looking forward to "Kiss On My List" and was afriad they'd played it earlier, and was ecstatic that I hadn't missed it. Scoffers can scoff, scorners can scorn, but Hall & Oates put on a great show and have some damn fine pop songs—that was totally worth it, and I probably should've caught the whole thing. 

And that was Bumbershoot 2011! I took over 700 photos throughout the weekend (in part because of having to cover the Bumbershoot Music Lounge), and haven't yet taken the time to go through them and upload them to Flickr, which is going to take literally hours and hours thanks to my pitifully slow upload speeds. I'm planning to go through at least some of them tonight and start uploading, I'll have to do another post once they're all done.

September 2010 was a very busy month for me, musically. I started the month by attending Bumbershoot 2010 all three days, doing scheduled shifts for KEXP on two of them  and just helping out a bit on the other. Not only did I take notes, but also I actually posted about each day as it happened, a rarity for my music blogging in the past couple years. You can read about Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at Bumbershoot in the linked posts, and see a few photos here on Flickr.

Last summer was the time of falling in love with the Redwood Plan. I'd seen at least part of a set they played at the Comet Tavern some time in 2009—actually no, I know it was on a lineup with Hotels, so it was probably in January 2010—but their performance at the Capitol Hill Block Party was the first time I'd seen a full set and I immediately became a big fan. Besides seeing them again at Bumbershoot, I went to the Crocodile on Thursday September 16 to see them yet a third time, performing with Jupe Jupe and Fading Collection (who officially dropped the "the" from their name). I didn't take very many notes at this show. Jupe Jupe had a New Romantics vibe and gave a solid performance. Fading Collection played some songs from their then-new EP Attakk, which didn't grab me strongly but sounded okay, and their older songs of course still sounded great. They finished with an unlikely cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry", featuring a pretty powerful duet between lead singer Sarah McGuinn and live-show backup singer Tavia Kachell. Finally, I wrote just one note about the Redwood Plan—undoubtedly because I was too busy rocking out and dancing—which was that my only complaint was that some of the vocals were getting lost. That seems surprising now, given that Lesli Wood is certainly a strong singer, but if I recall correctly she may have been rocking out too much at times to stay close enough to the mic. Regardless, it was a good show. Check out some photos from the show here on Flickr. 

I then finished the month with a solid week of shows, starting with the five days of Decibel Festival from Wednesday September 22 to Sunday September 26. Once again I had the pleasure of covering the festival for the KEXP Blog, and you can find links to all my posts there in my wrap-up post here on my journal. (My photos are linked there, too.)

The next day, Monday September 27, I was back at Neumos to see School of Seven Bells. I missed most of the set by opening band Active Child, but arrived in time to hear them do a good New Order cover (unfortunately I didn't note down which song) and their final song, which was also good enough to make me wish I'd been in time for their whole set. After five days at Decibel Festival, it felt very grounding to listen to School of Seven Bells' shoegaze-dreampop blend. I noted during their newer song "Bye Bye Bye" that the sound wasn't that great right up front by the stage, but I couldn't tell whether it was just due to my wearing earplugs or the speaker placement or some other factor. Still, it was great to see them again and I enjoyed the show very much. I stubbornly took a few photos, even though the lighting was terrible for my iPhone, and you can see them here on Flickr.

I had a choice of good shows for that Monday, but obviously could only attend one. Fortunately, I had a second chance at another: although I couldn't see Freezepop in Seattle that night, the next night I headed down to Portland to catch them at the Fez Ballroom, playing with Aerodrone and Ming & Ping. Judging by its looks, the Fez apparently really was an old ballroom converted over to a rock club, and I thought it was a pretty cool space, with big comfy chairs and sofas on the sides of the room. Aerodrone were a cute couple of young musicians who were probably born after New Wave ended, but were clearly going for that look. One played synths and they shared vocals on a short set of fairly lightweight sugary sexy dance/party tunes. They had a lot of enthusiasm, though sometimes it felt like they were trying a bit too hard; still, it was fun. Ming & Ping was easily the weirdest and most unexpectedly awesome act I saw all year. Ming was the lead singer, appearing live on stage; he was backed via video projection by "Ping", his supposed twin. Music was provided by a combination of pre-recorded original tracks and a live drummer, and two dancers completed the scene. All the performers were dressed in elaborate Chinese opera costumes, with the whole effect being kind of surreal. But it was crazy good! The music was very polished, and Ming (and Ping) was an excellent singer. I made sure to pick up their latest album, Ming & Ping, and I hope to see them again some time. Finally, Freezepop were on tour for the first time since the Duke's departure with their new four-member lineup, including original members Liz Enthusiasm and The Other Sean T. Drinkwater as well as Robert John "Bananas" Foster on drums and Christmas Disco-Marie Sagan on synths and backing vocals. The new lineup worked well, although I found it hard to hear Sagan's vocals. Continuing in the general theme of my recent archive summaries, I was much too busy dancing to the music of one of my favorite bands to take many notes; this time, I didn't even jot down the set list as they played, which I've done in the past. They did play a few new songs from their then-forthcoming album Imaginary Friends, which sounded good. For the finale they brought the other bands out onstage to help with a cover of Europe's hit "The Final Countdown", a song which frankly I've never liked and don't find any better even when Freezepop's playing it, but it was an effective way to bring down the house. Ming & Ping may have been the surprise discovery that by itself was worth the drive down to Portland, but I made the trek for Freezepop in the first place and I was very glad I did as—"Final Countdown" dislike notwithstanding—it was a great performance. I have lots of photos from this show, some of them are even fairly decent, and you can see them here on Flickr.

And then three weeks later I was in a serious car crash that means it'll be quite a while before I could do such a trek again, but that's another story.

Almost two months after the event, I'm finally finishing this summary... In late May, I was invited on short notice to attend the 2009 Sasquatch Music Festival, a three-day event happening over Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington state. My role for the weekend was to post updates to KEXP's Facebook account about all the great bands I was seeing; naturally, I also took notes to write up a review of the weekend. With so many bands to cover, I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.

Read about Saturday at Sasquatch.

Read about Sunday at Sasquatch.

Monday

Monday was the day I finally spent a substantial amount of time at the Mainstage, starting with Deerhoof's early afternoon set. Deerhoof were last-minute replacements for another act that had to cancel, and they're offbeat enough that if they'd been scheduled normally, they'd probably have been on the Yeti or maybe the Wookie Stage. Still, although their edgy post-punk rock is quirky enough that they'll probably always be something of an underground act, they're quite good and the audience was very appreciative.

After Deerhoof, I had something of a dilemma, as the next two bands I wanted to see had overlapping sets. I headed back to the Wookie Stage to give the first band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, a try. They are a heavy synthrock band, but featured live bass and drums in the set. Their music sounded laid-back and psychedelic, and they accompanied it with videos of over-the-top gory horror and time-lapse decay, all of which is to be expected at times in a nighttime club setting but which felt very out-of-place in a field on a bright sunny afternoon. Although I liked the music, I wasn't feeling the vibe and really didn't care to watch the video, so after ten minutes I headed back to the Mainstage to catch the other band I'd wanted to see.

That band was Grizzly Bear, and while M83's set on Sunday may have been the performance of the weekend for me, Grizzly Bear proved to be the sound of the Gorge. Their expansive, open style was evocative of the Columbia River Gorge behind them and captured the grandeur of the setting. Where some music sounds urban, Grizzly Bear's music sounds like the wilderness, vast and gorgeous. They were a much better fit for the hot afternoon than Black Moth Super Rainbow, and I was pleased I hadn't missed them. I also thought it was a nice touch when at one point between songs they stated, "It's an honor to follow Deerhoof."

Over the whole weekend, I stayed through only one whole set at the Yeti Stage, but it was one of the best sets of the weekend: School of Seven Bells. This trio combines electronic dance beats, glam guitars, and ethereal vocals into modern goth/dreampop electronica, with some shoegaze touches as well. Their sound is dark but sweet—not quite dark enough to be darkwave—and sometimes cool, often warm. As their set went on, I felt the shoegaze influence more strongly, to the point that I felt with solid bands like this still around, it's not such a big deal that My Bloody Valentine were inactive for the past 18 years.

After a short break, it was back to the Mainstage for Fleet Foxes. They made an interesting contrast to Grizzly Bear: similar in style, with that "open West" spirit, but more folk-sounding. Whereas Grizzly Bear felt like the music of the wilderness, Fleet Foxes felt like the music of the pioneers in the Western frontier. Their sound was still as big as the Gorge but the scale felt human. They were almost more orchestral in a way: chamber music, for a very large value of "chamber". Fleet Foxes were a little less satisfying to me than Grizzly Bear, as their music never really built to a climax, but they made a beautiful finale to the afternoon.

As with the previous two evenings, I finished my day in the Comedy/Dance Tent, this time to see electronic musician Tobacco. I'd only learned that day that he's also a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow, and like them he played psychedelic techno, but this time the music fit the hour and venue. The music reminded me more of Meat Beat Manifesto, though it was mostly laid-back and groovy, not as hard-edged as MBM. Also like both MBM and BMSR, Tobacco used the requisite weird film loops made from old films and video, but without the emphasis on gore and horror. Although none of the music really stood out more than "Hairy Candy", the single KEXP had been playing, it was still good stuff and a decent end to the festival.

Somehow, after a very long three days, I still had enough energy left to want to stay and dance for the final set of the evening by DJ Chromeo, which was rocking, but I only listened to a little before I had to catch my ride home.

See my Sasquatch Music Festival 2009: Monday photo set on Flickr.