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Indie rock is not for the weak. While Chicago welcomed Pitchfork for a mere 3 days, this past weekend was a 4 day marathon of free, outdoors shows, just in time for a heat wave. Ted Leo, the Fiery Furnaces, and Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow all played on Thursday night, with Deerhoof the next day, and the Liars, Fuck Buttons, and Team Robespierre rocking out in the sweltering Sunday heat. But the crown jewel of the weekend was Saturday’s Siren Fest, the annual migration of hipsters from Wililamsburg and outside of the city to Coney Island.
There is an annual tradition of complaining about how this year’s lineup sucks, and goddamn the Village Voice for not exhuming the Beatles and letting us see them for free. Usually, this looks somewhat foolish by the end of the night, as most people who go have a good time, especially considering they get to eat from the original Nathan’s. This year was different, though. Headliners Broken Social Scene delivered the goods, even bringing up some random girl they had met an hour before to be a substitute Feist. They were outdone, however, by Brooklyn’s own Parts and Labor. Maybe because they sounded better because they played at 2, before anyone was drenched with sweat, but Parts and Labor played a spazzy, but accessible, raucous set that impressed everyone around me (”that was fucking ace!”) (”who are these guys?”). Unfortunately, they were followed by the Dodos, who were really, really boring.
The Parts and Labor/Dodos dichotomy exposed the key to throwing summer concerts. If it’s going to be during the day, it has to be loud, and people can’t just stand still the whole time (this was proven by the great Liars/Team Robespierre show the following day). If you’re going to be watching music, and it’s 95 degrees outside, you don’t want to just stand there, wondering if you’re about to melt. If the concert were indoors, or if it was a little cooler, the Dodos may have very well stolen the show. But given the heat, it was a lot more fun to grab a hot dog and beer and wait for Times New Viking.
It would appear as if Times New Viking would be the perfect remedy for the Dodos folkish stylings. While they weren’t bad, they fell victim to Siren’s notoriously bad sound system. They were just too loud for Siren, and it was hard to really stay into the show the whole time. But when the sound system accomodated them, they were pretty great. Harkening back to bands like the Dead Boys, they were punishing - but in a way that was a hell of a lot better than feeling like you were baking. And, best of all, afterwards, it was a good excuse to get more beer and switch to the second stage.
Over at the second stage, it was time for the New York debut of Jaguar Love. They weren’t ready to come out yet. They’re actually a trio of former members of the Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves, but they sounded more like a really bad Rage Against the Machne ripoff. After a few songs, I cut my losses, and headed to the beach. Seeing how this is far too long already, and you don’t need to hear more about Stephen Malkmus or Broken Social Scene, I’ll cut my losses here too. After all, pretty much anything beats roasting in the heat without good music to listen to. Maybe next year, they won’t book Siren the same weekend as Pitchfork.
I don’t really get it. I grew up in New York. Not just New York, but Brooklyn. That’s where all the cool kids are, right? But I’ve never been profoundly influenced by African music the same way that all the new New York-based internet sensations have. Maybe that’s why I’m not in a band (my lack of musical talent has nothing to do with it, I guarantee you).
Following in the heels of bands like Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut was officially released today (in actuality, it is the same thing that made the rounds last summer, just with strings now). The Columbia grads classify their music as “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Upper West Side Soweto,” and are undeniably preppy. As such, Vampire Weekend tells us that they “don’t give a fuck about an Oxford comma,” and that they think “Hyannisport is a ghetto.” Certainly, that’s not what the indie rock landscape is used to. But while its probably impossible for Vampire Weekend to match the hype ascribed to them, the album certainly shows why there is so much hype in the first place.
Every song on the album, from opener “Mansard Roof” to closer “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” is ridiculously catchy, and with the possible exception of “M79,” every song is too much fun not to listen to. They brush up against jam band territory, but stray away just enough with an Afro-beat influence to make them pretty damn irresistible. The standouts on Vampire Weekend are “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” “Campus,” and “Walcott.” None of these songs do anything particularly different from the others (except for maybe Walcott, which relies more on a piano than the rest of the songs), they’re just the catchiest. If you are looking for some variation, “A-Punk” is, as the name implies, a little faster, and has a slight punk edge to it, and “I Stand Corrected” is slower, building up to the loud “I…Stand…Corrected” chorus. But picking just one song to listen to is a fool’s errand; you really can’t go wrong with any of them (again, except maybe “M79″).
The album is ripe with the opportunity to be overly pretentious, but it really doesn’t get there. Instead, it’s just an album that’s a whole lot of fun. With all the hype though, a backlash is inevitable. After all, how long can a bunch of hipsters listen to music that proudly calls itself preppy?
Label: XL Recordings
Release Date: January 29, 2008
Rating: 8.5/10
Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. There are many tour diaries, but this one is mine. Thanks to the SSC gang for asking us to do it here.
I dreamed that there was a gigantic alien spaceship destroying the planet, giant destructive beams levelling cities, forests, townships, mini-malls, everything. Whenever another city would explode in shattering glass and fire, I would stir a little bit, until finally I woke up and realized that there was a garbage truck right next to my head and that dudes were emptying cans into it. Tour had invaded even the deepest part of my distopian dreams. This wasn’t half as good as looking around bleary eyed from the bench seat of the Supernaut to see a well dressed man in a suit and tie with a briefcase giving me a horrified and disgusted look at the realization that the van near his place had held a sleeping rock and roll type person with colored hair. Ahh yes, good times.
This, folks… is the rock and roll lifestyle.
We were ready to leave DC almost immediately. I really didn’t want to miss seeing ANYTHING in DC for the second time in a row, but it was starting to look like that was going to be the case. We had to get the new t-shirt design out to Chris from hifi so that we can have a new set of tshirts in time for the leg of the tour with them. Soooo… again it looked like I was going to be in our nations capital and not able to actually see anything. Total drag, but that’s the thing with tour. A lot of people, non band people anyway, always say: “oh cool! you’re going on a vacation/roadtrip”, yes, but the thing is on vacations and roadtrips you generally get to see the city instead of the venue, where ever you are staying and where you eat. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great, but it’s not a vacation, not at all.
Anyway, we did at least get to drive by the Washington Monument, Capital building, and the Asshole in Chief’s pad , which is more then I had seen before… so there you go.
We drove for awhile through Maryland, and up the Jersey turnpike, which… incidentally is very recognizable from the Sopranos, then into New York City. One of the best and at the same time overrated cities in the world.
check out below the fold for an explanation of that statement.
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Replicator tour diary 2007.
Hi everybody, i’m Conan Neutron, I play in the band Replicator from Oakland, CA. This is our tour diary, thanks to the SSC for asking us to do it here.
We’ve been around making crazy artynoisyrock music since late 99’-early 2000. Chances are you haven’t heard of us (although Joie did see us play in Denver, Colorado with two other paying customers at 6:30 at night in 2002, and we’ve played with the super excellent Ifihadahifi many, many times, of which Dj is a member). Patton Oswalt kinda likes us, Warren Ellis wrote some nice stuff about us once, and we were once featured on an Awesome TV show with Les Savy Fav.
We’ve played with bands you probably know, Trans Am, Melt Banana, Big Business, Blood Brothers, Oxes, Rye Coalition, BABYLAND, Hella, Akimbo.. etc. Etc.
But when it comes down to it, we’re just another band out there. We do this because it’s an honest expression of what we are trying to achieve creatively and… when it all comes together it gives us a lot of enjoyment, sometimes other people enjoy it too, that rules. We like to think we put our all into this thing and never give anything less then 100%. The idea is we try to return the asskicking that music has given us, plain and simple, we want to add to the greater whole and give something back. Also we want to be given bowls of only red M&MS and have nobody look us in the eye at the venue. Read more »
According to some junk e-mail I recently got from Live Nation, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are playing a show on New Year’s Eve in New York at the Hammerstein Ballroom. But get this: they’re playing “w/ Bob Mould Band.”
Damn hipsters, ruining my life. I mean, I like CYHSY, but does anyone else think it’s wrong that Bob.Freaking.Mould is OPENING for a bunch of Pitchforkmedia darlings?? that CYHSY didn’t prostrate themselves and say, “um, you’re the düde from Hüsker Dü and Sugar, we’ll open for YOU”?
On second thought: knowing CYHSY, the request may well have sounded like ” you’re the ravaged cabbage düde from Hüsker drips on the wet sky Dü oh it looks so nice and oh it looks so Sugar nice, we’ll in this home on open for YOU ice” and was therefore unintelligible to Mr. Mould, who (in slight fear) politely declined. Yeah… that’s what I’m going to keeping telling myself.
So here’s a more intelligible request: come to MY house for New Year’s, Bob. There’s a bunch of us in Boston who’d like to see you, and we’ve got a fireplace and cookies.
If you live in the Big Apple and clubbing is your thing, today’s your lucky day. popscene nyc, an East Coast spinoff of San Francisco’s decade-old Britpop/indie dance night popscene, is making its debut at 11 p.m. tonight (that would be Thursday, December 7, 2006) at Club Midway. Former popscene DJ Jeremy Goldstein is in charge of the new club night.
For those of you NYC folks who can’t make it out tonight (or are getting the news late), no worries–popscene nyc is slated to continue on the first and third Thursday of every month. Check the website for details about guest DJs and special events.
And for those in California, San Francisco’s popscene–this writer’s erstwhile hangout–is still happening every Thursday at 330 Ritch Street.
