Lollapalooza Pt. 2

Lollapalooza. For some, an awesome music festival bringing together tens of thousands of people to see their favorite bands all in one spot. For others, a corporate sell-out event bringing together sponsors and commercials in the form of indie and mainstream musicians. In this pro/con piece I will try to strike a balance between the two sides. It begins, now:

PRO: Nobody really went to go see Deerhunter, allowing me to get in the third row.

Apparently, people either A) Don't know who Deerhunter is or B) Don't like Deerhunter. Either way, this totally worked in my favor. This was easily my favorite set I saw during the festival. The music was the just the right volume so that I didn't have to put earplugs in. That plus Bradford Cox's druggy ramblings made for some good times.

PRO: The Benevolent Burrito

When the afternoon rolls around and your tummy is rumbling, almost anything sounds delicious. But one dish stood out amongst the grub as true festival treasure: The Benevolent Burrito. Offered by Crescent Foods, this burrito was pretty awesome. Black beans, rice, lettuce, plus some other extras (unfortunately no cat), made for an excellent meal. I recommend enjoying it in the shade while listening to the bluegrass stylings of The Greencards (which is what I did.)

PRO: Dan Deacon

Dan Deacon put on what was probably in the top 5, no, 3 shows at the festival. I praise Deacon for embracing his smaller club antics and crowd participation games and applying them to the 75,000 person crowd at Lollapalooza. Not only did he engage the entire crowd in an interpretive dance, but he also led one hell of a dance tunnel. Props to you Dan Deacon. Mad props.

And now, the cons(The cons, for some reason, all revolve around Animal Collective):

CON: Animal Collective decided to be "artsy and conceptual" instead of "decent".

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Animal Collective. I really like Animal Collective. But they made a stupid move in trying to indulge in their own artsy fantasies at the expense of concert goers. I believe this video sums it up nicely:

I know they've done awesome concerts before, but I'm not really sure what happened. Playing the 2nd part of Daily Routine for 20 minutes? Looping the same beat for 5 hours? What the fuck Animal Collective? Come on now. Just play Peacebone, Grass and Summertime Clothes and I'm good. But this? Really? Fail.

CON: The bitches at FYE

Animal Collective did autographs at the FYE tent. Awesome. Unfortunately, they decided that people were going to have to buy a cd in order to meet them. A $15 dollar cd....that I already own. But I still bought it because, hey, it's not like I'm ever going to see them again. So I go through and I meet them and they're like, nicest people ever. But instead of having them autograph the cd, I had them autograph my shirt so that I could just go return the cd. So I go up to the cashier to return it and she points me to another lady and all I get is attitude.

Ladybitch: So what's the story here?

Me: I'd just like to return this cd

LB: Why?

Me: I'm just not happy with my purchase. There's nothing wrong with it, I just want to return it.

LB: Well, we don't do returns.

Me: But it says on the receipt that all unopened merchandise can be returned.

LB: But we don't do returns on cds for the bands doing autographs.

Me: Is that posted somewhere?

LB: No, but....ugh. Did you meet the band?

Me: No I did not (ha).

LB: Ugh! Fine. But don't do this again.

In conclusion, FYE: Fail. Mega Fail. If I bring something unopened, just fucking do the return and don't give me any lip. Animal Collective: Weak. $15 to meet you? Totally weak.

CON: The Bros at Animal Collective

So, Bros apparently love Animal Collective. They love Peaceboning each other and tearing off each other's Summertime Clothes. Unfortunately, I had a group of Bros near me at the AC show. And they got really into it. Like, really. They started humping and grinding each other to their first two songs. But not with any sense of irony or faux homosexuality. No. They were just grunting and getting really into it. And they smelled terrible. What I'm trying to say is, I hated those Bros. I hated those Bros to the max. Especially that concert-ruining, pot-smoking, chilled-out species of Bro.

OVERALL LOLLAPALOOZA SCORE?

6.2/10

Lollapalooza!

Through a confusing series of events, I found myself in possession of a Saturday-only ticket to Lollapalooza. Stealing from my local paper, here are my hearts and darts for the day:

Hearts to Beer Girl. She kept that can there for at least twenty minutes during the Arctic Monkeys set. This is a girl who clearly cares about her beer but knows how to stay just sober enough to keep it balanced. Go you!

Darts to those damn cheapskates running the Rock & Recycle Center. The idea is to get people to fill a bag of recyclables in exchange for a free shirt. What they don't tell you when you you pick up a bag is that you're expected to fill the entire giant bag, a task that is impossible unless you steal bottles and cans from the recycle bins. The bag in the picture is only half full! To make things worse, the friendly hippies at another tent told me that all those cans and bottles are just going to be turned in for more money than the shirt costs! They're profiting off of my dumpster diving!
Hearts to Santigold. This is a gal who knows how to put on a show. Probably my favorite performance, the Santigold show was enhanced by a friendly crowd, kickass backup dancers, and the hip old lady signing the concert for the deaf.

Hearts to the food, especially the watermelon. A giant, cold, delicious, $2 slice of watermelon was the best investment I had made in a long, long time.

Darts to Animal Collective. I don't care if you like them. Their show sucked. In fact, it was the only show I didn't enjoy. Their music is not that bad, but the choices they made for their Lollapalooza set were BORING, SO INCREDIBLY BORING. Most of the people around us were high as a kite and even they didn't seem to be enjoying the show very much. Shame on you Animal Collective. Shame.

Distance to Stage: ~1/3 of a mile

Hearts to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were still able to put on an awesome, crowd-pleasing show even though I was so far from the stage that I had to squint just to see the big screens.

Expect more pictures and more feedback from Chicago. Plus, spiritspine has his take on all three days of the festival.

Mos Def

The Ecstatic

Until now, my only experience with Mos Def has been seeing him as that supporting black guy in films. In each movie (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Italian Job, Be Kind Rewind, etc.) I have been 100% satisfied with his performance. His ability to satisfy remains strong in his music as well. While I have no desire to go buy the rest of his albums or join the Mos Def fan club I still enjoyed listening to his performance. My only problem is his voice. When rapping, A-OK. When he has to hit any note outside of his speaking range, ARRGH! It's bad. Thankfully he sticks mostly to the spoken word and lets other contributing artists handle the singing. Rap and Hip-hop fans: Go buy now. Other music fans: Go borrow now.

Bran Flakes

I Have Hands

This album is like that one odd friend that you love because he's so weird but that the rest of your friends can't stand. There are a lot of fun gems on the album and a fan of mash-up artists should definitely pick up a copy. However, an average listener may be a bit annoyed by some of the more repetitive or experimentally quirky tracks. I liked it for its upbeat and catchy mood, but don't want to put my full stamp of approval on something that I know isn't for everyone. I can say with confidence that I would love to see more from The Bran Flakes in the future.

Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton)

Recently (a couple weeks ago?) some new images came out of Tim Burton's take on the Lewis Carroll classic "Alice in Wonderland" (see here: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=56475). Many, upon seeing these pictures, lost their shit and prematurely hailed it as the best movie of 2010.

Hey look! It's Johnny Depp! I've never seen him before in a Tim Burton movie...Oh look how dark and whimsical and kooky he looks! What a twisted take on a children's fairy tale character! Tim Burton has never done that before...

Oh wait! Who's this? It's Helena Bonham Carter! I sure am glad that Tim Burton likes to cast newcomers in his films, people who have never worked with him before in any other remotely similar film. Wow, look how dark and victorian and creepy she looks! Tim Burton has never done that before...

And look at those pictures of the landscape! See how everything is dark and curly? I'm glad that Tim Burton enjoys challenging himself stylistically in each of his films. Why look at those giant flowers! They have faces in them and they're giant! How creepy and kooky! Tim Burton has never made anything look so...so...kooky before! And all of the characters look so pale...I wonder if pale skin is going to be a new thing that Tim Burton likes to give his characters...

This movie is going to be a big jump for Tim Burton both artistically and musically (I heard he's collaborating with Danny Elfman or something. I don't know how the critics are going to react to that combination!). I just think it's going to be tough for Burton since he's never really done this kind of thing with his films...nope...never...

Grizzly Bear

Veckatimest

Here's a little trivia: Did you know that Veckatimest is not a word? Of course you did! You would think, however, that if a band was going to make up a word for themselves, a totally acceptable practice, they would at least make up a word that is easier to pronounce.

That being said, my quest to find a definition for Veckatimest was far more interesting than the album. I call it "sleepy rock." Not everything was bad, just really, really boring. Even the decent tracks weren't enjoyable enough to grab my attention. Don't you dare buy it. Hopefully slow sales will teach them to be more interesting.

It was terribly difficult to make it through the whole thing so I eased my boredom by exploring a much better use of my time: http://osocio.org/ Check it out. Socially conscious advertising that makes you feel good about yourself just for looking at it!

Major Lazer

Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do

Ugh, my very first attempt and that bastard makes me do a track-by-track review. At least each track is unique enough to warrant such a tedious job. I've been told the story of Major Lazer at least three times, but I forget it. Oh well!

1. Hold the Line feat. Mr. Lex and Santigold -
Why so many sound effects? It's just silly. Decent, but not very memorable dance tune.

2. When You Hear the Bassline - I can't understand more than two words in a row at any point in this song but that doesn't really bother me because it's still really catchy albeit repetitive.

3. Can't Stop Now - Even if I could stand the woman's voice in this song it's still just a little too boring for my taste. Peaceful Jamaican background music.

4. Lazer Theme - It's straight-up Jamaican rap which sounds awesome on paper but isn't worth more than a "hmm... interesting..."

5. Anything Goes - The title refers to the composition technique. Strings? Chanting? Beeping? Rapping? Sure, why not? Anything goes after all! The hodgepodge of noise still works pretty well though. The only one so far to be worth a second listen.

6. Cash Flow - I just kinda spaced out during this generic reggae tune.

7. Mary Jane - Silly, Fun, Awesome. My favorite even though it doesn't fit in with the rest.

8. Bruk Out - I don't know about this one. I like it but there's no reason to love it. Next!

9. What U Like - Yawn... It's just crude rap. If this is what U like, U kinda suck.

10. Keep It Goin' Louder - Great dance music. Turn that shit up.

11. Pon de Floor - Fans of obnoxious noise will love this gem. It sucks!

12. Baby - Take some really cool baby crying noises and mix with clever lyrics. Now ignore the lyrics because they're delivered in the style of a god-awful poetry slam.

13. Jump Up - Fun dance music. A good way to end it.

In one sentence: It's worth a listen but not worth buying unless you love raggae/dance/electronic/rap music and tired sound effects.

Baseline

Just as I can't stand to leave dirty dishes sitting out, I can't stand to know that there is a blog out there with no posts. So, for my own comfort, here's a little something to get this underway:

I am at the mercy of my fellow contributor, Spiritspine. I'll be listening to his recommendations and passing my own judgment on some of the newest albums on the music scene and some of the classics that I've probably never heard.

Here's the music I AM familiar with:

Oldies - My radio is frequently set to 101.9, hands down the best station in Indianapolis if only for its lack of commercials. They play all the standards of the 60's and 70's.

Soundtracks - For whatever reason people love getting rid of old soundtracks at garage sales. And, since I'm a cheap bastard who love a good deal, that's where most of my music comes from. Right now I've got 14 soundtracks in my library (About 30% of my music). The best? The Royal Tenenbaums and Forrest Gump.

Beck - For ages Guero was my only real album. I have no idea why. But I've taking a liking to the weird little guy and now own most of his albums.

The Shins - I have no idea how I started listening to the Shins. But for a while in my younger years it was all I listened to.

Random Ass Music - The rest of my unique collection includes a lot of music I don't even listen to. From standards like the Beatles and Sinatra to weird electronic music from the Mexican Institute of Sound (I found it on the ground).

There you have it. The extent of my listening. Let's hope this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship.