Festivals Festivals Festivals

With the summer approaching us sooner than we think, festivals are on my mind. Actually, when are festivals not on my mind? Hmm, anyways, I’ve been doing my research and I’m most likely going to be attending Summer Camp Festival and All Good Festival. Summer Camp is located in Chillicothe, IL, and All Good Fest is located in Masontown, WV. The initial lineup for All Good Fest includes: Furthur (featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh formerly of The Grateful Dead), Widespread Panic, Umphrey’s Mcgee, Yonder Mountain String Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Lotus, Perpetual Groove, the New Deal, and George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic. Summer Camp Fest lineup includes: moe., Umphrey’s Mcgee, STS9, Gov’t Mule, Keller Williams, EOTO, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, Steel Pulse, and Victor Wooten. I was pretty impressed with both of these lineups. More than the other festivals I have seen thus far. For All Good fest I was happy to see Furthur as the headliner. Being a Grateful Dead fan, I love seeing any original members play live music, it truly is a spectacle to see. Always love seeing Lotus on any lineup. Such happy instrumental music, highly recommend taking a listen to them when your bored or something. Never seen Perpetual Groove before, but ever since taking a listen to some of their live CD’s, I would love to see what they got going live. For Summer Camp Fest, I was glad to see Umphrey’s, STS9, Keller, Pretty Lights, EOTO, and Victor Wooten to say a few. I know Umphrey’s will kill it, considering their playing 3 days. Pretty Lights will bring the late night dance party, also playing a set with STS9, which should be unreal. Honestly cannot wait for festival season to be upon us. If anybody is reading this, do yourself a favor and check out some of these great musicians.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) Concert Review

So yesterday I took a trip up to Tempe to see Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) at the Marquee Theatre. Sound Tribe is an instrumental band known for their live performances. Influenced by genres such as funk, jazz, drum and bass, psychedelic, and hip-hop. I’ve seen them twice; once at Rothbury and once at Lollapalooza. I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I tend to think that Arizona’s “jam band” scene isn’t quite as big as other places around the country; with that said, I’m always rather tentative about going to these types of concerts in Arizona. Arrived at the venue moderately early, and there were literally about 20-30 people in the whole place. Not that I was shocked to see this but still a little disappointed. Then the opener, Emancipator, came onto the stage. At this point, the crowd started to fill in and the vibes were as well. Emancipator surprised me, never heard him before but he was pretty good. Just had a laptop set up with what looked like some sort of midi controllers. Also, he played some electric guitar over the beats he played. It was real mellow electronic music, which personally I believe to be great live. More and more people flooded into the venue as the night grew later and later. Sound Tribe finally came on at around 10:30 p.m. or so. Couldn’t have been more excited. Front row, center, can’t get much better than that. With the lights blaring and psychedelic visuals in the background, the mood changed with every beat of the drum. At points the crowd would be raging and dancing, and then at other points the crowd would groove to the slow bass line. Not only did Sound Tribe rip apart the show, but also the crowd was pretty good. Everyone seemed into the music, everyone seemed to be having a great time, dancing, feeling the vibes. For what seemed like 15 minutes, turned into me checking my phone and seeing 11:30 p.m. Sound Tribe took a quick break and then got right back into it with a second set. As the sweat dripped down the faces of the crowd, the music blared until 1:00 a.m. Overall, had a great time, one of the better concerts I have been to in Arizona. If any of you guys get the chance to see them, I say cough up the 20 or 30 bucks and see some live music.

Listening to...

So in a couple of weeks I am going to see the band Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9), in Tempe. I’ve seen them twice already, but its definitely a concert I will not get sick and tired of. They have been put into the electronic jam genre, but it’s a sound that’s hard to describe really. No vocals or anything, but with groovy enough instrumentals it works. The band is really known for their live performances; the live recordings do not do them justice at all.
They recently came out with a new album, titled Ad Explorata. Haven’t really listened to the whole album yet, but from what I’ve heard from it sounds what I’ve come to expect from Sound Tribe.
Animal Collective, is another one of my favorite “newer” bands. I think its their psychedelic influence that drew me in. I started listening to them around 2 years ago. I was working here at the radio station, KAMP student radio, and I had to review one of their CD’s. It was the CD of theirs entitled Strawberry Jam. At first I thought the music sounded a little too strange to me, but with a couple more listens to them I fell in love with their creativity and originality. There really is no one like them.
One of Animal Collective’s members, Noah Lennox, or known as Panda Bear to his fans, also has his own original tunes. I really dig Panda Bear’s music. So mellow and creative I fell in love. Take a listen to Comfy in Nautica.

Blah

So I’ve been listening to a lot of Bon Iver recently. For those who don’t know Bon Iver is a band founded by Justin Vernon and is considered indie folk singer/songwriter. Hailing from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Bon Iver also consists of Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. With an EP released and one full length album titled, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver has already become popular. Playing at prestigious festivals such as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, and Bonnaroo. Take a listen if you haven’t heard him before. Skinny love and flume are some of my favorite songs to play on guitar. I love some of his guitar tuning on his songs; it gives him such an interesting sound.
MGMT recently announced the date for their next album release. The release is set for Tuesday, April 13. It is one of the most eagerly anticipated new releases of 2010. With already 2 years gone past their last album, Oracular Spectacular, this is an album I personally have been waiting for. MGMT is one of my new favorite bands out. Something about their electronic psychedelic sound appeals so much to me. Also, their music video and whole approach to their music is what I’m all about. Some songs have been leaked on youtube from live concerts where the band is playing the new material, so I have heard them, but I still can’t wait for the mastered versions. For the songs I have heard, it seems that they have changed their sound a little bit, but who wants to write the same record twice in a row right?

Random

So I was thinking today, I’m glad that in this day and age of crappy radio music, there are still groups out there that are still rocking. Listening to some old Kings of Leon today is what sparked this thought in my head. Kings of Leon is a band that just got the recognition they deserved here in America. Yes, their new album is definitely more mainstream for our radio over here in the States, but it’s their old stuff that really got me hooked. Their first album, Youth and Young Manhood, is one of my favorite albums. It’s like at that time, they probably were thinking about how no one really has the soul or feel to rock music. I think it’s something about the southern twang in their music that really appeals to me. They started off getting really popular in England and over in Europe. It makes sense, I feel English and European radio is vastly different then radio here. In my opinion probably a lot better. I used to listen to the radio when I was a kid; I feel I didn’t know much more than that. But now days I can’t even do it. I swear if I hear another new song with the T-pain voice over I might go crazy. All those songs sound the same to me. I feel like I’m constantly asking people who the artist is when I know the song, but it’s always someone different. I don’t know where I’m going with this blog entry, it ended up going in a direction I did not think it was going haha. Anways, yeah, I think this is about 250 words…

Badfish (Sublime Cover Band) Concert Review

This Wednesday, I saw a band called Badfish. A Sublime cover band, with their original band opening, Scotty Don’t. I was surprised on how similar the band sounded to Subime. It was a three-piece band, like the original Sublime, but at some points a fourth member would come out to play keyboards and such. They played most of the classics. You know, Santeria, April 29th 1992, Scarlet Begonias (originally from the Grateful Dead), Seed, and tons more. There was a rather good show up at the concert too, which I was very happy to see. It was held at the Rialto Theatre in downtown Tucson. To be honest, I’ve been pretty upset with the recent shows in Tucson, but not that night. People were actually into the music, with a good crowd comes a good concert in my mind. Not only does the crowd get excited but also the band feeds off the energy in the room. With such classic songs, everyone in the room pretty much knew all the tunes. The lead vocals had the Bradley Nowell sound down. Yes, it’s hard to sound exactly like the originals, but overall the guitar riffs and vocals went well with the rest of the band. I just appreciate how Badfish is keeping around Sublime’s music. I never got the chance to see Sublime live, which is unfortunate, but when I realized these guys were coming around I knew I needed to see them. Some people say they shouldn’t be making money off Sublime’s songs, but I say their just keeping the music ‘round.