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A weekend at Sasquatch 07.
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I ran into Cedric and Omar from The Mars Volta back stage. We caught up about the last time we spent time together in Los Angeles in 2005 doing a remix together of Gang of Four’s ‘To Hell With Poverty’ with Cedric laying down the vocals in some serious street Spanish way. Of course it never saw the light of day. Pity. Anyway here’s the video.
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Another quick video from Sasquatch. Here’s Kathleen Edwards on the Filter stage. 
Just a quick video grab of 65daysofstatic. Click image to play, right click to download. 
I’ll be posting some live video of the Blue Scholarsset, meanwhile here’s a chat with Geologic. Click image to play, right click to download.
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Well hell…this was the best yet, we waited all day but Clipse
finally brought what had been missing…authenticity, no BS straight
ahead good old fashioned rock the party…but still the white folks don’t
dance, I don’t get it. Still…the other great act on the bill today was Cut Copy and I have video of their show plus an interview with the boys to be posted soon…
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The fun part at SXSW is the BBQ and the music.
The not-so-fun part is this - the long lines to get to see and hear the bands….that line is for The Fader mag’s party and it stretched around an entire block. In fact people were still lined up around the block after The Kills had performed, I took the shot on my way out.
Check out The Kills, click the image to play..
And then I discovered the rock at the IODA party, Modey Lemon, click the image to play..
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Day 1 was spent in the hands of the incompetent American Airlines so
we start with Day 2 - Ok, yesterday you could tell which way the wind
was blowing as the geeks retreated and the “beautiful people,” you know
dressed upped to be dressed down, started to fill the blocks around the
convention center. Although technology will drive music’s future, the
next few days are going to be about partying hard as if nothing is
happening to the music business and for four days nothing will. I will
be documenting the excess.
Let’s be straight here, SXSW is a great convention and a great
gathering of talent (the artists) and minds but it feels like it needs
a firmer hand at the rudder. More on that later. Meanwhile here’s some
quick video out takes from my day wandering the halls.
Judge Dredd tells us what he’s doing in Austin then goes outside for a cigarette…click image to play.
Florence and the Machine tells us about her first visit to Austin and her manager tells us why it’s important…click image to play.
Billy Bob Thornton
interviews the audience and explains what he means when he says sorry
to a man of Scottish decent…click image to play. [Warning - this is an
m4v file which is great for the iPhone but may not work in your
browser. As with all of these movies you can right click to download it
if you prefer.]
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Ok, after starting out at 3PM Saturday afternoon I managed to roll around town catching the CD Forge party, the Music Millenium party and then meet Jenny Tatone and head off to see Ghostface Killah. Here’s where our day got weird….when did PDX import those giant paramilitary, black-clad security guys? What a buzz kill, and of course a sad commentary on how hip hop shows are viewed in Portland. As poster guru, Mike King said to me, “welcome to White Chocolate City, Dave”. Ouch!
Anyway, back to Ghostface. I suppose it was nice of Nike to help bring artists to town for the festival but it felt strange and Jenny and I couldn’t get into the vibe, boredom set in as well as heat exhaustion so we went for dinner. After food we went over to Towne Lounge to mellow out with electronic/analog composer Ethan Rose. Watch the video. Brilliant atmospherics. We caught some of the Jackie-O *** set and then went over to Satyricon to arrive at the end of Yacht’s set, damn. Hung out with Danny from Menomena and Maggie Vail and Portia from Kill Rock Stars. From there it was to the Roseland to catch the mayhem that is Girl Talk. I’m posting all of my MusicFestNW videos here on Brightcove and here on YouTube. Highlights - Girl Talk, Aesop Rock, The Blue Scholars, Sandpeople, Eskimo & Sons, Ethan Rose and Black Joe Lewis and the KEXP shows during the day at Doug Fir. Lowlights - Missing Spoon, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Yacht, Dirty Projectors and Okkervil River due to schedule conflicts, not being able to cover as many shows as I’d have liked due to pass restrictions and discovering that my press pass wasn’t of any use at a bunch of venues….and heavy-handed security folks…
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More fun with Aesop Rock.
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Day 2 and Friday night kicked off in exactly the laid-back-kind-of way I liked it too. Eskimo & Sons played the opening set at the Towne Lounge offering up their multi-layered compositions that seem to totter on the edge of collapse. The saving grace, as always, is the inter-play between vocalists Dhani and Danielle which truly is the icing on the cake. Ths is how rock music ought to be. Watch the video here. [The Towne Lounge apparently has no lighting so things are grainy but worth it just to listen.] 
Although I’m very familiar with Jenny Lewis [does that sound wrong?] as I’ve spent plenty of time with her last solo album where she paired up with the Watson Twins, I have to confess to not having heard Rilo Kiley [clearly I’ve moved further away from alt rock than I thought.] after tonight’s set I can see why. Without the magnetic personality of Jenny Lewis this band would be nowhere; rather plodding, pedestrian songs ably performed sure, but again, take away Jenny and there’s nothing there. The crowd loved it though, of course. I just longed for the energy from Thursday night’s hip hop outing but never mind. And as if to cement the dullness of this evening for me anyway, Jonathan Rice [boyfriend to Jenny apparently] played a rather mundane set too. Rilo Kiley video | Rilo Kiley video number 2 | Jonathan Rice video
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This festival is rocking and it’s just beginning to dawn on me how hard it is for one person to cover this much music. Adam Bagerski from Nemo Design is my sidekick in all of this. Having been in the right place at the right time he was enrolled by KEXP to be the official KEXP blog photographer. Last night kicked off with a great party at the Ace Hotel after the Cat Power show. I spent some time chatting with Portland’s TV glamour girl Storm Large and other local luminaries before heading up to the Crystal Ballroom to catch part of Black Joe Lewis‘ set. If you haven’t come across this Austin TX-based bluesman you are missing out. Completely amazing. Here’s the Video.
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MusicFestNW is officially under way and The Moose has been asked by KEXP to blog furiously from Portland and upload as much as humanly possible over the next 4 days. We kicked things off with a special show at the Doug Fir with Aesop Rock. Given that I am a huge fan I couldn’t think of a better way to get things started. Underground hip hop has overtaken rock in so many areas and it was interesting to me to hear Aesop talk about all of his adventures outside of music. Click here to watch the interview video. Click here to watch Aesop perform.
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“We’re an American music band..” click to play.
A year ago, at Pickathon year 8, The Avett Brothers were relatively unknown. So it’s hard to believe that one year later they returned to Pickathon as bonafide stars, rock stars even. There’s something going on. They are touring with Langhorne Slim in tow - [see what Jenny T thinks of them here], and tonight the crowd went nuts. This is not roots or bluegrass, alt country etc, this is where American music should be going. It’s time to drop the pigeon-holing of bands as this isn’t indie or rock or alternative anything, it is music stripped down to the barest of essentials (not even a drummer) and delivered with the ferocity of punk. Remember, the USA invented jazz, now there’s a chance to get beyond the clichés of ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’ and realize that bands like the Avetts are repurposing American country music. Johnny Cash would have been proud of ‘em. If you want to see another video go here.
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“This here is my festival” click to play.
At every festival talent is abundance and yet there are always one or two stand out artists. This year for me it’s been Alela Diane on two stages, Horse Feathers in the barn on Saturday afternoon and discovering the genius that is Langhorne Slim. But, and here’s the big but, however amazing they all were they pale when compared to the genius that is Dale Watson. It’s hard to explain what an electric and dynamic performer this man is and I’d be throwing out clichés if I were to try and describe it. On the main stage late Saturday afternoon he was amazing but much later in the night, in an absolutely packed barn, he completely destroyed. A man of his age in complete control showing the kids how it’s done. The video captures some of the energy but I recommend seeking out a show if he comes your way. Brilliant. And the Johnny Knoxville/Jackass connection? Apparently Jonny directed the video for Dale’s new single Hollywood Hillbilly which he wrote about Johnny. And Portland you are in luck - Dale plays the White Eagle on Monday night August 6th, be there.
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