Killer Whales

it's still like 80k no?

 

just the idea of all day out in the sun watching bands play often abbreviated sets (at least Bonnaroo gives the headliners long sets) and the fact that so many bands that i wanna see often overlap, among other things (sweatty hippies, etc.), just not my idea of fun.

I went last year and it was a really great time. It's not corporate at all, and there's so many stages with so many different styles going on, it's easy to find something good. Also, Bonnaroo usually has pretty long sets. Afternoon bands get 1:15 to 1:45 which for most mid-level bands, is the same as doing a regular show (sometimes minus an encore). Then the headliners get 3 hours and the late night acts often get more time than that.

Yeah, there's certainly passed out hippies everywhere, and really obnoxious things concerning their culture there, but when it comes to festivals, it doesn't get much better and diverse than Bonnaroo. Plus, when you've got Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket, Sigur Ros, Broken Social Scene, as well as some of the finest hip hop, bluegrass, blues, soul, indie rock, and jazz artists (the blue note jazz tent artists still hasn't been announced!), it turns into quite the weekend... unbearable weather or not

I've never been wild about fake encores at all. I saw the White Stripes at Bonnaroo this past summer, and about 55 minutes into their set, they just said "goodnight!" and walked off stage. The crowd was pretty bewildered and wasn't exactly calling for an encore, but then the stripes came back out 2 minutes later to play for 30-40 more minutes. On the flip side, when Guster played with the Boston Pops a while back (2003? 2004?) the applause was so enthusiastic after they finished, that despite not having any more music prepared with the pops, they needed to play another song. They then launched into the 2nd half of their song Come Downstairs and Say Hello, which was by far the high-point of the set.

As someone in a band however, there are some definite problems with unplanned encores. I've been on stage when it's pretty clear that an unplanned encore is necessary, and in that case, it's usually pretty sloppy. It ruins the flow of the show, and at times gives you a less spectacular ending than what's hoped for. You end up having to pull out covers or older tunes which don't sound nearly as good and rehearsed as the rest of the material. So naturally, despite being extremely cliche and lame, I can absolutely understand bands planning their encores

Kind of a rough order:

1. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

2. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

3. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

4. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

5. Joni Mitchell - Blue

6. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

7. Radiohead - Kid A

8. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

9. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

10. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

Hmm, Soul Meets Body, Different Names, and Heart is an Empty Room were all great tracks for me. The only songs I had problems with on the album were Summer Skin (oh so boring), and Someday You Will Be Loved. Other than that, I thought it was great, and I'd rank it just below Transatlanticism and Photo Album. I'm really looking forward to the new album.

If you like Magnolia Electric Co. then you might want to get the Songs: Ohia albums. It's the same songwriter... good stuff

Okkervil River is one of my favorite bands and they kind of go along with the alt-country influenced rock you listed. I suggest their album Black Sheep Boy

1. - Until someone comes along to knock it off the lofty pedestal I

1. The National - Boxer

2. Radiohead - In Rainbows

3. Okkervil River - The Stage Names

4. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

5. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

6. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

7. St. Vincent - Marry Me

8. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

9. Iron and Wine - Shepherd's Dog

10. Feist - The Reminder

The order kind of shuffles a bit occasionally, but those are definitely my top 10 of the year

4:18 to 4:22 in Misunderstood - That snare fill, then that huge chord

also, "I'm working on my abs"

Boy, I love his explaination of You Are My Face. It also really impresses me when a band uses the music as a way to express the lyrics rather than just support them. He describes the droning past (very simple musically with a monotonous vocal melody), the kinetic present (the drums kick in, a guitar solo, and passionate vocals), and the ambiguous future (the noise at the end of the song). It just really amazed me

I had the fortune of seeing Tori on her 2005 Beekeeper tour in Boston and it was one of the great pleasures of my life. 2 hours of solo music including many of my favorite songs of hers (Winter, Playboy Mommy, Pretty Good Year, Caught a Lite Sneeze, an amazing cover of Dream On). In my opinion her first 4 albums are incredible (Under the Pink and Boys for Pele being my favorites), Venus and Back isnt really my bag, and Scarlet's Walk was a little too adult contemp, but has some INCREDIBLE moments such as I Can't See New York and Your Cloud . However, Beekeeper and American Doll Posse have about 12 good songs between them... certainly not both worth their exhausting lengths. It's just very difficult to watch her slowly drift into musical insanity

Besides Heartbreaker (undoubtedly his best), Love is Hell is my favorite Ryan Adams album, so don't ignore that one either. Cold Roses and Stranger's Almanac are great as well. I find Gold to be really overrated and uneven, but as with all RA albums, theres some amazing tracks on it

Mainstream country seems to have adopted a new patron saint in recent years. Seems like every country dude has traded in his neon-colored rodeo outfit (too Garth Brooks, I guess) for sandals and a straw hat and songs about tequila that come out sounding like watered-down Jimmy Buffett.

 

That's right, I said watered-down Jimmy Buffett. Wrap your head around that for a second. (full disclosure: I don't mind some JB, but it takes some doing to make him sound hardcore and authentic)

That's funny, because I always said that the reason I don't like most pop-country is because it takes my least favorite parts of Garth Brooks, and my least favorite parts of Jimmy Buffett, and puts them together.

an ounce and a half??!!??

A guy I met on Friday night claimed he had 5 ounces. We also saw a guy getting arrested going into the festival Thursday morning with 3 enormous bags on his hood

Also, what the hell is a dose? Everyone was asking me if I had any doses and I had no idea what the hell they were talking about...

I missed so many of the Jazz artists I wanted to see because of scheduling conflicts. I really wanted to see Ornette Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, and the Philadelphia Experiment and didn't get to see any of them. I did catch some acts that were good, as well as the discussion on friday afternoon that was very interesting.

I actually only got to catch 3 jazz shows (philly, ravi, and lionel loueke), because of the lines and the fact that you could only see 1 show at a time. I was really looking forward to those double-bill late night shows but oh well. I heard Ornette passed out or had to stop early because the heat, which sucks for those that were there. I was at the White Stripes/Wilco at the time of his set.

1. The Philadelphia Experiment - I missed the lips for this, but christ was it worth it. For those that don't know, it's ?uestlove, Christian Mcbride, as well as a keyboardist and a sax player all doing jazzy funk in a MMW style (more grounded though). It was just one of the best shows I've ever seen.

2. The Hold Steady - Like said before, it was just so much fun. Everyone was rocking their hardest and the setlist was perfect.

3. Gillian Welch - I was simply blown away. Her and David Rawlings were amazing nonstop. John Paul Jones played mandolin and sang harmonies on 3 songs, and they also covered Black Star by Radiohead and To Be Young by Ryan Adams. Great set.

4. Wilco - The setlist was very typical, but I expected it since it was a festival. However, it was easily the best they've sounded of the 4 shows I've seen. All the new songs sounded outstanding (everyone I was around was blown away by IG), and stuff like Via Chicago and Spiders were the best I've heard.

5. The Slip - I had never heard of them before, but they kicked ASS. The live show was sort of a combination of Broken Social Scene and MMJ (the studio cd i bought had a lot less energy... still good though), except they were a trio. They closed with a spot-on cover of Heartbreaker by Zeppelin. They were really great.

Also great were The Roots, New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Ravi Coltrane, The White Stripes, and The Police

"A ghost is born"

"Something in my veins bloodier than blood"

"I've got reservations about so many things but not about you" the second time

I wasn't immensly impressed by the schedual at first (I still got a ticket), but I've since checked out bands I didn't know but now really dig and with the addition of the Somethin' Else tent, I am now psyched out of my mind to be going! Besides the beginning of the day on Saturday and Sunday, there are bands I really want to see at all times, so there's no point where I'll really have to worry about bad music.

Also, I was a little bummed out about how stacked the end of Sunday is and how much I'll be missing. I'll probably do exactly what the other poster said (See the first half hour of Decemberists, see Wilco, and then run over to White Stripes... with a shitty spot all 3 sets), and I'll still be missing Ornette Coleman and Feist! Whatever though... the Medeski Martin and Philadelphia Experiment latenight sets will easily make up for it!

1. Airline to Heaven

2. Monday

3. Remeber the Mountain Bed

4. Jesus, etc

5. A Shot in the Arm

6. Pot Kettle Black

7. Thirteen

8. I'm the Man Who Loves You

9. Someday Soon

10. Sunken Treasure (IATTBYH version)

11. Hummingbird

12. Theologians

13. New Madrid

14. One By One

15. War on War

16. On and On and On

I feel like that's listener friendly, diverse, and has a good flow. Also, ITMWLY has to be put in the middle. It's a great middle-of-the-mix pick me up track, and it would be lame to open the mix with such a lyrically direct track.

Now I'm gonna go listen to that mix!

Not in any sort of order:

Via Chicago (ESPECIALLY live)

Remember the Mountain Bed

Sunken Treasure (Acoustic Arrangement with the Full Band)

Misunderstood

She's a Jar

Jesus, etc.

Pot Kettle Black

At Least That's What You Said

Theologians

Sky Blue Sky

I am working on my abs

I hate to be another newbie asking for a PM, but I missed the webcast last night because I was playing a gig, and I would just love to have the album

Thanks!

I refuse to accept Michael Bolton as a Wilco fan. It's just wrong.

Sorry to say, but it's true. When a Man Loves a Woman was actually inspired by She's a Jar.

I've heard Hummingbird, Heavy Metal Drummer (In several stores too), Hoodoo Voodoo (Some Candy Shop had it on a work cd too), Box Full of Letters, and Outtasite. All of those induce those jumping in the air "yes! i love this song!" moments.

It just has to be YHF for me. After all the hype, and all the praise that's always surrounds it, I still hear Jesus, etc, Pot Kettle Black, and Reservations and think "could it get any better than this? no, it can't "