New Pickwick!

I'll just leave this here . . . . 

Bumbershoot Retrospective Day 2

Damn, these retrospectives are getting labor intensive!  Once again, I'm going to have to let others who've already posted about this year's Bumbershoot do the heavy lifting, and see if I can't post this one more as a compilation or anthology than a purely original post.

MANATEE COMMUNE

According to Kyle Fleck of The Stranger, "The beatific beats 'n' synths of Manatee Commune were easy enough on the hungover noon peeps."  I wasn't hungover, but still enjoyed the ambient sounds of the day's opener at the indoor Pavilion Stage.

HOBOSEXUAL

On the other extreme. Seattle Weekly’s pick for best rock group of 2014, Hobosexual (above) rocked the outdoor Fountain Lawn Stage. Hobosexual is NOT the worst band name ever (that would be Nashville's Diarrhea Planet), and Seattle Weekly said the band "might just be the perfect act to get things going on the festival’s second day, because nothing says early Sunday like loud, irreverent, balls-out rock and fucking roll. Pink bathrobe not included."  Don't worry - I don't get the pink bathrobe reference either, although I did see one person in the audience wearing one, and noted this picture on the band's Facebook page:

GOLDEN GARDENS

Meanwhile, back at the Pavilion Stage, it was the dreamy and the ethereal once again, this time with the band Golden Gardens.  Dave Segal of The Stranger noted, "Led by the creamy, angelic singing of Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble, Golden Gardens proved themselves to be Seattle's premier goth-gaze-techno outfit at the Pavilion Stage, which couldn't be a more sterile environment for live music. The trio—all dressed in black—seemed to have been beamed in from a European metropolis circa 1989, blurring elements of Durutti Column, Cranes, and '90s German techno from the Tresor label."

SANDRIDER

Seattle Weekly promised that local trio Sandrider would be "full of melodic, heavy riffs and one of this town’s best rhythm sections."  Sandrider, they wrote, will pummel you in the best way possible. Dave Lake of Seattle Weekly reported that "Jon Weisnewski, singer-guitarist of Seattle stoner-rock trio Sandrider, said he grew up coming to Bumbershoot as a teenager and was humbled by playing the festival this year as an adult. The band, which has two records out on local indie Good to Die, doesn’t mess around much with dynamics, but that’s not the point. It focuses its energy instead on sludgy grooves and neck vein-bulging screams. The heavy, steady riffs were a full-frontal assault and as the sun began to move from behind the clouds, the fans closest to the stage gave way to a circle pit."

Kathleen Richards (The Stranger) wrote, "Seattle is a city known for its rock bands, but you wouldn't necessarily know that by this year's Bumbershoot lineup. Nonetheless, Seattle's own Sandrider handled the pressure of being one of the festival's few hard rock acts with pride, pounding out headbanging riffs and throat-bleeding screams with a ferocity that kept a kid in a Thou shirt pumping his fists while other youngsters attempted (but largely failed) to get a mosh pit going."

KISHI BASHI

According to my preview of the festival schedule, Sunday was supposed to be the "slow" day of the weekend, but I don't recall how I had figured that any day that had a set by Kishi Bashi in mid-afternoon would be a "slow" day.  In any event, K Ishibashi took the stage at 3:00 pm, and charmed the Seattle audience with his infectious brand of pop-rock.  Regarding his latest album Lighght, the festival Program noted "right and soaring avant-pop songs are prevalent, as are Eastern-tinged arrangements, gentle ballads, Phillip Glass-inspired improvisations, and more that a few moments that flirt with 70s prog-rock in the tradition of ELO or Yes."

This is more than a bit of a "Where's Waldo?" pic, but most of my head and face are visible in the picture below that Ishibashi took from the stage after the show.  Hint:  I'm about three or four rows back, and I'm wearing an Army-green,  long-sleeved t-shirt.

CRAFT SPELLS

I saw Seattle's Craft Spells at Bumbershoot in 2011, and although I was already familiar with their fine song After the Moment, that was about all that I knew about them.  However, I enjoyed that set, and was looking forward to seeing them again, even if they did play at the side stage in Memorial Stadium, the festival's main stage, to a small crowd.  According to the festival brochure, "Justin Vallesteros is back with the gorgeously ambitious Nausea.  Full of a newfound maturity in both songwriting and recording sophistication, it showcases a bold, beautiful, and lush new sound emphasizing Vallesteros' songwriting abilities."

Seattle Weekly wrote "Craft Spells is back with dreamy pop grooves on their sophomore album, Nausea. The name’s ironic, of course, with its beautiful, melodic sounds and feel-good vibes."

THE DREAM SYNDICATE

I got back from Craft Spells in time to catch the reunion tour of 80s psych-rock legends The Dream Syndicate at the Starbucks Stage.  Dave Segal wrote in The Stranger, "The Dream Syndicate's dual-guitar attack from original member Steve Wynn and new guitarist Jason Victor was as tight, vicious, and loud as Contortions', the Pop Group's or the Velvet Underground's circa I Heard Her Call My Name. They focused on the best cuts from the immortal debut LP, The Days of Wine and Roses, but also threw in a raging cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's blues standard, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.  This fiery set was a total Wynn/win scenario."

Saw these old geezers backstage during The Dream Syndicate set:

NEGATIVLAND

I don't even know what to say about the Negativland set or how to describe it.  Seattle Weekly wrote, "For more than 30 years, subversive culture jammers Negativland have charmed your trademarked socks off your copyrighted feet with witty, sample-heavy beats and satirical jams. Its live shows are always weird and memorable; therefore, you will go see them and love them."

Dave Segal wrote in The Starnger, "Negativland's subtlety is too humorous for a festival crowd, and it sent the jackass kids who were yelling 'Drop a beat!' and 'Let's get it!' scattering after 10 minutes. This set was as hallucinogenic as hyperreality, unspooling an eerie, absurd concatenation of officious and oleaginous media pronouncements and a menagerie of left-field electronic sounds that ranged from tranquil to unsettling. Sensory-overloaded culture jamming at its smartest."

Dave Lake wrote in Seattle Weekly, "Negativland were definitely not what the EDM kids were expecting. The experimental San Francisco sound collagists don’t make music as much as sonic mayhem: audio think pieces that are subversive and enlightening, vexing and revelatory. The foundation for most of its work is some kind of monologue, be it news clip, found dialogue, or, in the case of the opening track, an excerpt from a Marc Maron podcast accompanied by squeals, squelches, and sound effects. Dressed in matching grey and black button-up shirts, the band’s three primary members sat behind a long table covered in a tangle of cords, effects boxes, mixers, and more, tweaking knobs like mad scientists, while a laptop-working fourth member controlled the video screen behind them. Negativland are political to the core and even Bumbershoot wasn’t off limits. Between songs came a sponsorship message accompanied by a giant Chipotle logo, a nose-thumbing message to the festival for including corporate food sponsors amongst their vendors.

PICKWICK

According to The Seattle Times' Joseph Sutton-Holcomb, "Pickwick frontman Galen Diston is a lead singer of the very highest caliber. The intensity of his screams, the soulfulness of his falsetto, and even the way his hands gesticulate while singing make him engrossingly sincere. Like Allen Stone with more emotional intelligence and grit, the band, tightly orchestrated with lots of keys and organ high in the mix, backs up the vocals with what can be vaguely summarized as pop rock. However, their musical influences clearly also include '70s soul, and blues. Pickwick is not an easy band to simplify, but they are easy to dance to. Especially toward the end of the group's set where a horn section (tuba, trombone, trumpet, and no fewer than three saxophones)  joined them on stage."

My two cents:  Best Pickwick show ever.

BOOTSY COLLINS

So much for the "slow" day.  Great sets by favorites Kishi Bashi and Pickwick, a mind-blowing spectacle by Negativland, a nice set by Craft Spells, and the reunion of The Dream Syndicate all served to distinguish the day from the ordinary, not to mention the early-day dream-pop and ambient (Manatee Commune, Golden Gardens) and metal (Hobosexual, Sandrider) sets.  My plan at that point of the day was just to go home (Pickwick didn't wrap up until 9:15 pm), but I realized that since I had the rail for Pickwick, all I had to do was just stay right where I was to have a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance to see funk legend Bootsy Collins from the front row.   

Seattle Weekly wrote that  "Bootsy Collins is a bass-playing god from outer space (also from Parliament/Funkadelic) who founded an online 'Funk University' because he basically invented the whole goddamned genre. He is an interstellar gift to Earth." Josh Bis wrote in The Stranger, "More than a decade ago, the EMP put its beloved/ridiculous 'Funk Blast'—a simulated roller coaster that taught the masses (and Rufio from Hook) about how to keep it funky by STAYING ON THE ONE —into hibernation to make way for the Science Fiction Museum (and Hall of Fame). Tonight, a crack in the space time continuum brought some of that spirit and more back to the heart of Seattle Center through the miraculous talents of Bootsy Collins and his amazingly funkadelic crew."

Mike Ramos wrote in The Seattle Times that "The Cincinatti-born bass legend came out with a full band and in full glittery superstar attire, and played one of the most cohesive, completely funked-out sets of the entire festival. Though a ripe 62 years old, Bootsy and company put on a musical clinic, playing Parliament favorites like Give Up the Funk, Mothership Connection, Flashlight, along with covers of funk standards like Yarbrough & Peoples Don’t Stop the Music, and basically every original version of every West Coast rap song ever written — making sure to take time for quick bass solos just to remind everyone of how filthy he actually is. Everybody’s got a little light under the sun.

So that was it for Day Two of Bumbershoot.  The so-called "slow" day, but about as much fun as either Days One and Three.

Bumbershoot, Day Two

Today, Sunday, was supposed to be the slow day for me at Bumbershoot, the day I just had to exercise a little patience and endurance to get from Saturday to Monday, although I kept wondering how a day that featured both Kishi Bashi and Pickwick could ever be considered "dull."  But as it turns out, the weather held up (mostly sunny, no rain), and the music, after a slow start, was terrific. Here's a recap:

MANATEE COMMUNE

To be honest, I never really gave this guy much of a chance, just stuck my head in the Pavillion Stage for a minute or two, and then wandered off to go see Hobosexual.

HOBOSEXUAL

A drum-and-guitar duo, the unfortunately named Hobosexual played loud, crunching rock with long hair flying and metal influences clearly displayed, but it was hard to figure how seriously they were taking themselves, and how seriously we needed to take them.

GOLDEN GARDENS

Far better than the first two bands of the day, Golden Gardens trafficked in ethereal, slightly gothic, electronic soundscapes, with spacey vocals floating over the wash of sound.  They kept asking us to dance, but we didn't. Welcome to Seattle, folks.

SANDRIDER

Loud.  Metal. Ignorable.

KISHI BASHI

Kishi Bashi didn't start until 3:00, and at one point this morning I thought about staying away from the festival until then, but I'm glad I got there early enough to catch those initial bands and to get a good position one row off the rail for Kishi Bashi.  The people around me didn't seem to know him or what he does, and it was fun watching them discover as he unpacked his bag of tricks.

CRAFT SPELLS

After a slow start, the festival schedulers put me through the paces for the next several hours.  After K. Ishibashi's set ended at 4:00, I had to rush over to the Endzone Stage in Memorial Coliseum to catch Craft Spells, who started promptly at 4:00.  I missed their first song (After The Moment?) or two, and got there as they were already playing, but I stayed for the rest of their short, 30-minute set.

DREAM SYNDICATE

80s faves The Dream Syndicate started at 4:30 just as Craft Spells finished, so I had to hustle from the Endzone Stage in Memorial Coliseum to the Starbucks Stage by the mural for their set.  Bonus points for an extended John Coltrane Stereo Blues full of squealing guitar dissonance, and for getting to see Mike Mills Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey watching the set from backstage.

NEGATIVLAND

Negativland's set overlapped with The Dream Syndicate's, so when it sounded like the latter was wrapping it up, I bolted over to the Pavilion Stage to catch Negativland's set in progress. Much to my surprise, there was a long line to get in (I apparently underestimated Negativland's popularity with the Seattle audience), but once inside, I was treated to their caustic wit, righteous indignation, and bizarre mix of sampled sounds, highjacked video, and electronic music.

PICKWICK

Things slowed down after the Negativland set, and I was finally able to get some dinner, and I met Tomo Nakayama walking through the crowd with his new puppy (he was kind enough to gracefully acknowledge my recognition).  After eating, I had to choose between watching the band Pickwick (the best band you never heard of), hear an all-star, Big Star tribute, or catch San Fermin, all scheduled to play at the same time (why couldn't the organizers put any of these bands on before 3:00, when I would have appreciated their presence?).  I eventually moseyed over to the Fisher Green Stage where Pickwick was scheduled to start in about 45 minutes, and surprisingly was able to get a spot right on the rail at center stage, a rare feat for a crowded, evening set.  I almost didn't recognize lead singer Galen Disston due to his new haircut (the former, Dylanesque look is gone), but Pickwick was on fire and played unquestionably the best set I've heard from them yet, and they even trotted a six-man horn section out onto the stage to accompany them on their final three or four songs.  A special night by the band, and I knew that I had made the right choice.

BOOTSY COLLINS

My original plan had been to leave after Pickwick, but since I got the center stage rail, I realized that all I had to do was stay right where I was to get the same spot to see funk legend Bootsy Collins from a once-in-a-lifetime vantage point at the front of the stage, a nearly impossible feat for a Bumbershoot headliner (and I can honestly say I don't expect to ever see Bootsy from that spot again).  Bootsy is a natural entertainer and showman, and his set was fun, exhilarating, thoroughly entertaining, and, well, funky.  I'm glad that I stayed.

So that was the "slow" day. I didn't expect to be rushing around so much from one stage to the next on the "slow" day, nor to have heard so much terrific music.  A slow start to be sure, but once it going, wow.  And Monday looks to be every bit as special. 

White Laces

Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, the new Portland, holds a lot more potential than Bumbershoot.  Day One of Hopscotch (Thursday, September 4), will include the band White Laces sandwiched somewhere in between hip-hop pioneers De La Soul and Philadelphia stalwarts The War On Drugs (who'll be playing in Atlanta during Rocktober on the same night as Courtney Barnett and San Fermin (who will be playing Bumbershoot at the same time as Pickwick)).

Pickwick

Brass band arrangement of Halls of Columbia by Pickwick, the greatest band you've never heard of.

Top 10 Albums of 2013

I'm well aware that nobody cares what an old man thinks the best albums released in 2013 are - I'm not exactly any band's target audience or some sort of taste-maker - but 'tis the season for year-end lists and all that, so here I go anyway.  It may be self-indulgent, but it's certainly better than listing other people's favorite songs, n'est-ce pas?

All things taken into consideration, 2013 wasn't really all that great a year for album releases in my humble opinion, which isn't to say it was a bad year for music, it's just that so much amazing material was released the past couple of years and many bands spent much of this year still touring behind those previous releases. Some other bands put out some perfectly fine new albums this year that sounded perfectly in keeping with their prior output - no loss of quality at all, but didn't break any new ground or otherwise become the singular recording by which the bands will come to be identified by, which is fine - a band doesn't have to and shouldn't redefine itself with every new album, but those status quo releases, while still quite good, weren't satisfying enough to make a Top 10 list.  Or at least my Top 10 list.

It was a great year for concerts, so I'm not saying the year was without its merits, it's just that you might not know it from the recorded output.  Still, having said all that, there still were several great releases, both from new artists (Savages, Courtney Barnett) and established masters (Yo La Tengo, Joseph Arthur), and much in between.  

So here's my Top 10 list, presented in alphabetical order (it's really impossible for me to say any one of these is better or worse than any other).  It's a pretty predictable list and I don't think there's any surprises here, but here you go anyway:

C Is For Courtney Barnett - A Sea of Split Peas




F Is For Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors




J Is For Joseph Arthur - The Ballad of Boogie Christ




L Is For Local Natives - Hummingbird

M (or O) Is For of Montreal - Lousy with Sylvianbriar

P Is For Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold



P Is Also For Pickwick - Can't Talk Medicine




S Is For Savages - Silence Yourself

U Is For Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Y Is For Yo La Tengo - Fade

Hope you enjoy, and please don't be offended if I left out your favorite - it's not that I didn't like it, it's probably that I just forgot to include it! 

Pickwick

Pickwick at The Earl (with  Basia Bulat), April 30, 2013

Oh, look.  Our old friends Pickwick, the best band you've never heard of, just recorded a Daytrotter session, which you can listen to or download if you're a member.

Enjoy.

MFNW, Day Six Summary

This was it - the last and final day of MFNW.  No KEXP daytime performances at the Doug Fir, no free-beer-and-food parties to attend during the day.  The events were pretty much limited to the Pioneer Courthouse Square  performances, starting off with the Washington state band The Moondoggies.

The Moondoggies had a pleasant enough country rock sound and were generally inoffensive to the ears, but one had to wonder with all of the terrific bands that participated in MFNW this year, what this band was doing on the showcase stage of the final night of the festival.

The next act was more appropriate, IMHO - Seattle's Pickwick, the best band you've never heard of, continuing to bring their soulful sound to wider audiences.

The headlining act was Neko Case, who kicked off her set with This Tornado Loves You and played songs from her new album as well as favorites from the past.  It was also her birthday, and the audience broke into a spontaneous singing of Happy Birthday To You without any prompting from the stage. She later admitted that she turned 43 today.

In previous years, the end of the headlining act concluded MFNW.  This year, however, the organizers added an after-party at the Crystal Ballroom, which featured EDM producer, singer, and DJ Ill-Esha. 

The main attraction for the after-party, though, was EDM band Big Gigantic.  Unlike most other EDM bands, they didn't rely solely on laptops and synths, but consisted of two members - interestingly, a live drummer and a saxophonist, both of who also added the prerequisite samples and recorded beats.  

Big Gigantic's set consisted of nothing but climaxes from the very start, without any build-up or relief.  True to their name, everything was big and everything was gigantic, and even though every song sounded pretty much the same to me - a tenor sax riff repeated over and over while the drums crashed in a continuous crescendo - I can't deny the excitement they created or the enthusiasm of the young audience, who danced non-stop to the music.  Every note was accompanied by lasers and light projections, and I was curious to see how they'd end their set, when each bar of music already sounded like a grand finale.  They seemed unsure themselves on how to end, and the set went well past the one-hour mark. After repeating a riff a number of times, the sax player would pick up the mic to shout "We got one more for you," and them play what sounded to me just like what he had just been playing before.  Each "song" was a little shorter toward the end of their set, as they simultaneously whipped the audience into even more of a frenzy while also getting them used to the idea that this was soon going to end.  They finally threw a sample of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Can't Hold Us into the mix and after a few more calls of "thank you and goodnight," interspersed with that same sax riff again, they finally ended their set with an even faster set of beats and a final crashing crescendo.  The crowd went wild, and I left even as they were being called back for an encore.

And that's it for MFNW 2013.  I fly back home tomorrow.  I'm in no state right now to identify best (or worst) moments, and will probably be revisiting the sets of the past 6 days - as well as the 3 days of Bumbershoot before that - in the coming days.  A little distance might help give me a little perspective.

More Pickwick

The good news:  Pickwick, the best band you've never heard of, have released another new video, this time for their song Hacienda Hotel, a favorite here at MDW.

The bad news: their tour plans, which include several dates with Neko Case, don't include anything in the American South.  

Pickwick

Pickwick, the greatest band you've never heard of, have released a very special video for their song Santa Rosa.  I'm won't discuss it further because words simply aren't adequate to describe this.

I'll be seeing Pickwick on September 8, just a little over a month from now, opening for Neko Case at Portland's beautiful Pioneer Courthouse Square (aka Portland's Living Room) as part of MFNW.  They're on tour later this month and into the autumn, but so far don't have any plans to perform any closer to Atlanta than Washington, DC, so in the meantime we just have to content ourselves with this performance at Lawrence (Kansas) High School.

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.

Announcements

If you line in the Greater Atlanta Region, you better dust off your credit cards and make sure your credit's worthy, as there are a couple of tickets that you have to buy.

First is the inaugural Shaky Knees Festival which will be held at the godforsaken Masquerade and right next door at Atlanta's brand-spanking-new Historic Fourth Ward Park.  It's an interesting mix of performers, and while all aren't necessarily my favorites, there's certainly no one I don't like in the line-up.  Overall, though, it's as strong a lineup as I've seen in Georgia and any festival that takes place just a couple of miles from my house that features The Antlers, The Joy Formidable, The Black Angels, Oberhofer, and Hanni El Khatib will get my attention every time.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, February 7.  Don't miss this.

Meanwhile, the redoubtable Earl just announced the first Atlanta appearance (at least as far as I know) by Seattle's Pickwick, the best band you've never heard of.  Damien Jurado's a fan, and I saw him at a Pickwick concert in Portland during MFNW 2011.  

Tickets for this one go on sale Friday, February 8.  You'll be doing yourself a huge favor by going.