Shaky Knees, Day Two

Ho, hey! It's The Lumineers!

Any day hearing The Antlers is a good day, but on this day, between the short rainfalls, they sound particularly nice.

Walkin' on a pretty daze with Kurt Vile on an unexpectedly pretty afternoon

Skies are getting darker, but Delta Spirit appear undaunted.

Heartless Bastards rocking out the North Avenue Stage while a few small, fluffy clouds rock out the blue sky.

Shovels & Ropes kicking things off with a country twang on a much sunnier day.

Shaky Knees, Day One

Band of Horses closing out this diluvian day with a 75-minute set in an unrelenting downpour.

At this point, I'm soaking wet, borderline hypothermic, and caked with mud, but Jim James' amazing set made me forget all that and took me to another dimension.

Gary Clark, Jr. The Blues. Yeah!

Rain not only let up, but the sun actually came out for a nanosecond during The Joy Formidable.

LA's Hanni El Khatib rocking in the rain.

Nothing like a little old school funk and r&b to make you forget about the rain. Vintage Trouble playing through the weather.

Roadkill Ghost Choir just finished their set at Shaky Legs. It's raining steadily, but people don't seem to mind and I'm staying dry (so far).

The Dreary South

If anything, the forecast's been downgraded and it now looks like the entire weekend will be a wash-out.  I'm wearing my Patagonia water-resistant hiking pants and not one but two raincoats over two Capilene t-shirts (one short- and one long-sleeved), with a baseball cap under a hood to keep my head dry. I took my ensemble outside for a little test walk in the pouring rain this morning and remained dry.  I may not look glamorous and may not be entirely waterproof, but it's the best I can do.  We'll see how this works out.

The irony here is that over the past two years, I've spent a total of 20 days at outdoor music festivals in the notoriously rainy Pacific Northwest and not only didn't get rained on but had nothing but sunny skies.  Now, here we are in the so-called Sun Belt facing a forecast of up to 4 inches of rain during this weekend's Shaky Knees festival.

I could look at this as a test run for the rain that I will inevitably encounter sooner of later if I keep going up to Seattle and Portland for music fests.  On the positive side, the weather will probably keep the crowds down during this weekend's festival.

Bumbershoot & Shaky Knees

I like Death Cab For Cutie.  A lot.  They write good pop songs and 2011's Codes and Keys made it onto my Top 10 list of albums of that year.  So it was not disappointing to see that they've been named as the headliners for this year's Bumbershoot festival in Seattle on August 31 through September 2, and will be performing their break-out album, 2003's Transatlanticism, in its entirety.  That's a hell of a lot better than last year's announced headliner, Tony Bennett, or the previous year's Hall & Oates.

The problem is that after Death Cab for Cutie, the other marquee names include 70s embarrassments Heart, teen favorites like fun., Bassnectar, Sara & Tegan, and MGMT, or bands that I've already seen before (Alt-J, Ra Ra Riot, Deerhunter, Charles Bradley, David Bazan, Mates of State, and Ramona Falls), in some cases multiple times (The Joy Formidable, Thao, and Sallie Field).

But, hey, a festival that includes Death Cab, Alt-J, Deerhunter, Thao, and Sallie Field is nothing to sneeze at, and the lineup also includes several bands I've been wanting to see for a while now, like Crystal Castles, !!!, Washed Out, The Men, Matt Pond, Lissie, Diamond Rings, Tamaryn, and Cascadia 10, an afro-pop outfit that were scheduled to play Bumbershoot last year but had to cancel.  With any luck, all of these bands won't be playing at the exact same time.

The full schedule for Portland's MFNW (Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Austra have already been announced), which immediately follows Bumbershoot, will be released May 28.

Meanwhile, The Joy Formidable, who seem to enjoy playing festivals (we saw them in 2011 at MFNW and Music Midtown), will be playing tomorrow at Atlanta's inaugural Shaky Knees Festival.  This is kind of a big deal for Atlanta - the first major, non-EDM or hip-hop music festival other than the crassly commercial Music Midtown that I'm aware of (there is the Atlanta Jazz Festival, but that's of an entirely different nature as well as genre).  

I will be there and posting remote updates here and on my Facebook page, but I already have some grave misgivings about this event.  First of all, there's a 100% chance of showers Saturday (90% Saturday night), dropping to 60% Sunday and Sunday night.  And this is an outdoor festival. 

Secondly, there's no parking anywhere near or around the festival.  What was once a perfectly suitable parking lot next to the god-forsaken Masquerade has been transformed into the Historic Fourth Ward Park, the site of most of the festival, and a third stage will be at the Masquerade's outdoor (naturally) Music Park, which is the current parking lot for regular Masquerade events ever since the park opened.  The nearest MARTA station is over a mile away, and although the festival will be running a shuttle, they're only promising one per hour, so fans may have to wait up to 59 minutes to catch a bus.  The festival promoters have also made a few parking lots for other facilities available for the event for an undisclosed fee, but they're also quite a walk away from the festival (although there will reportedly be shuttles running from the parking lots at some undisclosed frequency).  The promoters' solution to the inaccessibility of their event is to advertise that there will be a free bicycle valet, which is great for those who live close enough to bicycle to the event and willing to ride in 100% chance of rain, but doesn't do much for the other 99% of us.  I might wind up just taking a cab (hopefully not a Death Cab).

My final misgiving concerns the way the event has been managed so far.  I bought tickets well in advance, only to discover that they didn't include the "special" late-night (and indoor) performance by the two bands I most wanted to see (The Black Angels and GOAT).  Further, they had to send out an email this week to correct the confusion from their own prior announcements that suggested that one had to exchange the purchased tickets for a wristband prior to the event in order to gain admission to the festival (why not just let them in with a ticket, like at Bumbershoot, but if wristbands are needed for admission, then why not just send out wristbands like MFNW does and not make the fans have to wait in an otherwise unnecessary line?).

That leaves the schedule, which admittedly does include a few good bands (The Joy Formidable, Hanni El Khatib, and Band of Horses) and at least one excellent band (The Antlers, but whom we're seen three time already).  I'm looking forward to Jim James' set, but the schedule is forcing me to have to choose between Kurt Vile and Oberhofer (I'll go with Vile on general principal, plus I've already seen Oberhofer at Bumbershoot 2012).  After The Antlers, the weather will determine if I'll stay to hear the over-played Lumineers, or head back home to watch Game of Thrones.

MFNW - Second Announcement

Austra ("OH-stra") have released the official video to go with their song Home, but YouTube won't let me post it here due to some sort of copyright issue (why put up an embed code, then?), so here's a live version:

It's nice to see the Tasseomancy twins playing with her at SXSW (they weren't along when she opened for The xx at The Tabernacle).  In any event, we might get to see the full Austra band, including Tasseomancy, as MFNW just announced that Austa will be playing there this year.  This is the second line-up announcement for the Portland festival, following the prior news that Godspeed You! Black Emperor will be performing for two consecutive nights.

For those staying closer to home (and if your home is Atlanta), and/or if my MFNW plans fall through, Austra will be coming to The Earl on September 17, 2013.  

Pickwick and Basia Bulat at The Earl, April 30, 2013

Seattle's Pickwick played their first-ever Atlanta show last night at The Earl, with the adorable Basia Bulat opening.

Basia is a great musician, playing at various times what looked like a twelve-string uke, an electric piano, a guitar, and an autoharp, all while singing with a terrific, strong voice to her own well-written songs.  It was also her first Atlanta show, and she was a bit of a revelation - what little I'd seen and heard from her didn't prepare me for what a complete performer she is.  

We've seen Pickwick before, at Bumbershoot 2011 in their hometown of Seattle and then MFNW in Portland that same year (same week, actually).  It's been a long wait to have them come South, but touring in support of their debut album, Can't Talk Medicine, they've finally come down.  

They sounded more energized than before, possibly due to the addition of a new drummer and possibly a new guitarist (I couldn't tell for sure - it's been over two years) and they put on a great show for a small but wildly enthusiastic audience.

Pickwick's sound revolves around the soulful singing of frontman Galen Disston.  He was in fine form last night, bringing equal parts Stax-style R&B and old-time revival fervor to the songs.  Considering the roots of the music he's singing, it's rather surprising that they haven't come South before.

Basia Bulat joined Pickwick on stage to sing the Sharon Van Etten part of their song Lady Luck.

In gratitude, Pickwick performed two covers by her apparently favorite musician, Elvis Costello, including Pump It Up for their encore.  Basia came out from backstage to listen, shouting out "Thank you!" after the song.

FWIW, here's a little video-clip digest my camera prepared last night without my even knowing it, presented in all of its unedited, random, and jumpy glory.  It still gives a fair idea of what last night was like

Pickwick

Pickwick, the greatest band you've never heard of, are playing this evening at The Earl.  They once described themselves as "a bluegrass band that heard a Sam Cooke record" and were never the same again.  Damien Jurado's a fan, and you should be too.  These guys are great.

The adorable Basia Bulat, who you would go to see on her own anyway, opens.

Vampire Weekend

So here's the Steve-Buscemi-directed Vampire Weekend webcast in its entirety.