John Cage: complete fuckhead

Written by avant-garde classical composer John Cage in 1951, I present you the unparalleled "4'33""

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJagb7hL0E

For more on this masterpiece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″

Sound of Silver (turns to Gold)

LCD Soundsystem -- "Sound of Silver"

I don't pretend to understand where the music comes from or who James Murphy is. I'm not hip, as the Lumberjack is quick to point out. But I do know I freaking love good electronic music, when its not Techno, and it hooks you in for about 5-7 minutes of mesmerizing fun.

This album does exactly that. Some of their previous stuff is clearly worth checking out, but I jumped on for this album and fell in love immediately. The first time I heard the music was on my local Communist outpost WNKU, which had a feature listening party and agonizingly picked apart the lyrics and the musical syncopations (not that I know whether or not they were used) for their significance, something I'll try to avoid here.

So I heard the music, thought it was interesting, listened to the album a few times on their MySpace page (still there if you want a sample of the full tracks), downloaded it up and plugged it into the iPod. That is the power of MySpace, I was hooked, but wanted the songs so I went out and got them. Brilliance. This is my driving soundtrack, my late night fix, my help me wake up in the morning, everything music.

The best songs are clearly "Someone Great" and "All My Friends". These are more the storytelling variety with beautiful instruments leading the way. But the rhythmic and repetitive "Get Innocuous" and "Time to Get Away" are unforgettable as well. Another favorite because of my near obsession with the Talking Heads is "Us v Them", think "What a Day that Was".

This album works well together from beginning to end and its final track, "New York I Love You" is a sarcasm-filled jab at the NYC life, which I'm sure confused the hipsters.

As for its staying power, it has the capability to be on my most played list for many years. "Someone Great" is one of my favorite new songs and will always hold a special spot in my listening pantheon. Creativity is key, and James Murphy is one great creator.

Bonnaroo Continued

Since my previous post was so long, I split it up.

After the rush of The Police, it may have been wise for me to leave and keep only that concert in my head, but I was determined to check out some more music.

I was blessed with the opportunity to catch the Flaming Lips who are less musicians than entertainers nowadays. This is not to say they still don't make some great music and really rock out with some type of hyped up acid rock genre that the critics tout them as. I personally love them, but to understand the antics surrounding this show, my words might not be enough.

I arrived early, thanks to the Police pulling a fast exit. Wayne realized that we were gonna get bored if they didn't do anything so he went uber-political on us and played a rousing version of "War Pigs". In the background their screen which often displayed a rainbow had a nice slideshow of Bush and his cabinet (these guys are nothing if not political). Of course the slideshow included Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, so I think they need to do some updating.

Sadly that was the only song they played at the time, religiously adhering to the schedule, only to return an hour later. What a return it was though!!! If you are not familiar with a recent Lips show, I'll try to set the stage with a list:
1. Roadies were superhero costumes.
2. Dancing hot alien chicks line stage right.
3. Dancing fat Santas line stage left.
4. Wayne is pretty much a normal guy from Oklahoma.
5. The bassist or who I thought was the bassist wears a black skeleton costume.
6. The band hands out stuff for people to toss around and shine at the band during shows. This time it was laser pointers which made for a cool ambient experience.

To the entrance: The band enters on a large spaceship looking light fixture, descending to the electronic discord that opens RFTP. As the spaceship lit up the crowd, and smoke filled the stage, Wayne ascended to the top of the ship in his gerbil ball. Instead of taking the stairs, Wayne walked down the ship, slipped into the crowd and frolicked around for a few minutes before starting up a spectacular show that lasted well into the night.


Hopefully I did that entrance some justice. It was truly spectacular and one of the best parts of Bonnaroo. These guys are so concerned with entertaining the fans that the music almost becomes secondary, but their setlists never disappoint.

I headed over to Galactic for a bit and heard some pretty good tunes with Charlie2na, that band can really merge genres.

But by that time my Bonnaroo experience had worn me out and I needed a vacation. So I headed home early, hoping to catch the webcasts of Wolfmother, Wilco, and the White Stripes ("W" alliteration at its finest).
Wolfmother seriously is Black Sabbath. I can't be convinced otherwise. The coolest part is the lead singer's crazy fro, and the keyboardists desire to treat his instrument like a pinball machine. They rock, and are unique for our age, but I don't believe they are original at all.

Wilco, who has forcefully taken a prime spot among my list of favorite bands, played a great set that effortlessly encapsulated their new material from "Sky Blue Sky". A testament to their talents, the crowd was just as enthused for the new material as the classics. Serious guitar troubles during "War On War", 3 changes, barely fazed Jeff. These guys use so many guitars its almost overkill. Jeff needs to work on addressing the crowd, he's often so awkward, but people want to hear him talk so he presses on. My favorite song of the show had to be "Impossible Germany", this new song is really excellent, and is a quintessential defintion of Tweedy's geographical rock.

White Stripes bore me. Do I have to say anything else? I don't get it, are they playing a joke on us?

Well Bonnaroo 2008 should be just as good if not better. I hope they have more international acts, which was lacking this week, and part of the festival that makes it unique. Lollapalooza 2007 should be spectacular, but I won't be there. Do it, go check out the lineup. Pearl Jam plus about 25 bands I would die to see and who rarely tour through my neck of the woods. Hopefully it's not tremendously double booked, cause that is the only drawback of a festival like that.

Bonnaroo Bonanza

As the only one of these pitiful bloggers who would dare frequent a festival, I had the privilege of attending my 6th Bonnaroo. It was an abbreviated journey, but well worth the music I checked out.
Due to my late arrival and desire to avoid Tool, which I am told by many of my Roo compatriots was a mistake, the only shows I scoped on Friday were of the late night variety. Arguably my favorite part of Bonnaroo, the late night shows really capture the out of control energy of the festival goers.

On to the music. I began with STS9 (Sound Tribe) playing a lively set that got the crowd moving pretty well, but I quickly moved on to Super Jam because I looked forward to hearing what Ben Harper, ?uestove, and John Paul Jones (of Zeppelin fame) had to offer. Let me tell you it was brilliant. If I had been soberer (or less inebriated, your call) I may have been able to tell you all about the jams, but basically it was Dazed and Confused, jammed in with some other riffs and an amazing jam for over half an hour, hence the name SuperJam. So a great start to my festival weekend. And for the record, don't let anyone tell you Ben Harper isn't one of the most versatile and genuinely likeable artists around. He always puts on a great show and can belt out some serious harmonies.

Saturday held the big ticket items for me (minus Wilco), starting with Old Crow Medicine show playing one of my favorite country/rock hits "Wagon Wheel". This band's Confederate creativity and homage to Country Western music with a dash of Rock makes them a fun show to investigate if you have the chance.

But my visit with OCMS was cut short due to a desire to catch the Slip peform "Even Rats". That song rocks and the Slip have an ability to get the crowd going, but they were unable to really rock the house due to a poor showing from festival goers. A surpise since I remember a previous Slip show there that was highly popular. But I digress, the festival has changed a lot and people were here for bands like Tool and the White Stripes, drastically altering the mood.

Slinked by Hot Tuna for a bit, pretty well unimpressed, with a band that lives in the 60's, but who am I, I just listen to the music. Then Regina Spektor bored med for about 15 minutes. At that point I wanted a quiet place to sit down, because festivals are hard work.

I move on to some artists I genuinely enjoy, Ziggy Marley played a nice lively set of his wonderfully upbeat music. "Tomorrow People" got me dancing around. Watching Ziggy makes me wonder how spectacular watching Bob really was. He is the closest thing we have.

I skipped Fountains of Wayne and Damien Rice, so sue me. I wanted to see my favorite Aussie tooting on his didgeridoo, the one and only Xavier Rudd. He plays off the crowd so nicely, and wows you with his ability to amp it up at the right moments. He's very earthy so dealing with some of his grass roots story telling is a bit much sometimes, but he tells a solid story and involves the crowd that much more. Something about the Cree Indian nation showed his homage to Native peoples and their love of music.

A dollop of The Hold Steady for good measure. This band is utterly old and so unhip they've become cool. Their songs must have been written when they were in high school, but now they're old and sound kind of funny. I'll give you this, their lead singer has a unique voice that plays well into their genre and makes them much more interesting.

I took a break, regrouped, rested my feet, pounded some H2O, because Saturday night was why I came to this place -- THE POLICE!!!! First I had to rein in my excitement as Ben Harper was playing first on the big stage. Excellent show, and I love Ben Harper (two guests John Paul Jones and Ziggy Marley helped out with some excellent material), but I'm too excited about what came next to write anything more.

So I moved in close, tired to get a good spot. I did alright, not as well as I would have hoped. Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, and Sting arrived on stage to a rousing ovation. One of the best I've seen at the Roo. Quickly sensing that we wanted the hits, boom, "Message in a Bottle". Yes, that is correct, well done Sting. "Syncronicity II" hit the spot. "So Lonely" might have been my favorite of the night. An obligatory "Roxanne" was a crowd favorite, but Sting can't sing it anymore, so the fun is lost on me.

Sting was brilliant, seemed less ticked offed than Paul Simon was during his "Old Friends" Tour with Garfunkel, which I appreciated. Of course reunion shows get a little weird, because these guys broke up for a reason, and Sting went in a totally different direction than his band mates. Nonethless, they gelled, they jammed, and quickly vaulted to the top of the list of my favorite shows of all time. A perfect blend of Reggae, Jamming, and 80s cannot be topped by anyone of this era.

A note on the musical prowess of Copeland and Summers: Summers can shred. He drives the riffs hard and completely overpowers Sting musically. Copeland can do anything and always looks shocked banging out some serious percussion. I know I used driving before but that is the only way to describe his talents. He seriously dictates the whole show and if he is on he is on. You could sense if he didn't have the energy the show screech to a halt.

Random notes:
- Andy Summers looks like Dr. Kelso from Scrubs.
- Sting is in love with himself.
- Stewart Copeland wears golf gloves.
- Worth mentioning, The Police ripped us off, and played 45 minutes less than scheduled. I won't bemoan the point, but at a festival that I pay good money for I expect the band that I come to see to rip it up for their entire allotted time. usually you only get a snippet of a band, but with a headliner, they have got to fill it up.

I'll have more about the late night Saturday and Sunday shows I watched from home in a second installment.