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One Night in Manchester

Lightspeed Champion Theme Week Day 5

The printed itinerary from Dev's manager Rene alloted us two hours to make it to Manchester from London, but knowing better we arranged an earlier departure time the night before so that we'd make it to scheduled radio sessions in time and perhaps have time to shop - Footballer's Wives style as Fifi referred to it as. Since there had been a day off in the tour schedule, we'd all headed back to London. Originally Patrick was going to ride the rails up to Manchester, but opted to come along in the car with Dev, Fifi, driver Tom Page and I. Needless to say it was a full load when we eventually took off, however our take-off was hampered by an hour as Patrick was late arriving to Dev's flat. Already bringing along a dollhouse for all the tour dates, Patrick showed up with a menagerie of instruments and odd toys bought at Shepherds Bush Market including an unfortunately sized goldfish balloon that took up what free breathing space there was in the car.

We made it to the University of Manchester radio station early! A first! Fifteen minutes after our arrival the station attendees came out to meet us and take us down to their lier adorned with posters that decried songstress Kate Nash. A recording session ensued including Patrick joining in for a Lightspeed Champion rendition of Wolf's song "Souvenirs" after an interview.

Then we hopped it over to the venue - a proper venue and seated as Patrick had requested. Many of the venues were being upgraded to standing to allow for people to make more money which Patrick didn't like. The hall was actually located just on the fringes of Manchester and apparently designed by someone with an obsession with the color pink. Everything was pink! From all the seats to the walls.

The promoter was especially generous with Dev's rider for the night - setting out a sole bag of crisps (aka potato chips) on a plate in his mirrored dressing room while tables overflowed with food in Patrick's allotted space.

Dev filmed it as apart of his video clip of the day - it appears just a little more than half way through. Note all our disbelief as he pans his camera around haha:

(And of course the above clip was filmed via his Fuji camera. He got it cos both Fifi (see) and Patrick(see) are sponsored by Fuji - to the point where Patrick randomly sang "Fuji-la-la" - the the tune of the Fugee's "Fu-Gee-La" pretty much all the time)

A few seconds later in the video I'm going crazy with Patrick's children's "terrorist training toy." Seriously - it was the best thing EVER! He of course bought it at Shepherds Bush Market and was convinced of it being a terrorism tool as each button says something else and one says "war" repeatedly while another says "New York, New York" hahahahahaha. I used to be OBSESSED with found sounds and still carry an affinty, so I recorded some of it. I don't know if I'm convinced of it's message, but it sure is fun! Can anyone translate it?

Patrick Wolf's toy MP3 (1 min and 27 sec)

Dev took to his practically sold-out merch table as Fifi manned Patrick's. Two girls dressed in capes approached Dev. We couldn't decide whether they had simply chosen to dress up as casual super-heroes regardless of where they were going or if they'd dressed up in homage to Dev's frequent caped crusades on the many concert stages of the world.

The audience was rather subdued throughout both Lightspeed Champion's and Patrick Wolf's sets. During Patrick's encore the duo finally played their "Souvenirs" duet in the live setting in front of a crowd. Patrick messed up on the lyrics, but it was still a treat.

"Souvenirs" (Patrick Wolf Cover) Lightspeed Champion MP3

After the show we headed back to Patrick's hotel for a few drinks. While Dev is a teetotaler, he did take a tiny sip from Fifi's white Russian from a straw. An exposed nerve in his mouth has made it so that wherever he goes, so does a handful of straws should the occasion arise that he needs to drink. The bar just off the lobby closed soon after our arrival so within the hour we caught a black cab to our castle for the night - ie Travelodge - a rite of passage for any band touring in the UK and residence of Dev's so often that he recognizes the staff members now.

Yes - Manchester also brought about the first date on the tour in which there was a hotel room! Oh the luxury of Travelodge. No internet - unless you want to pay five pounds per hour (!), no TV, no microwave, wonky heating, but three beds - one in the form of a couch. Now that's accommodation.

We had until noon the next day to check-out, so Tom took off for a walk, Dev hunted down Subway, and I got lost looking for a bottle of water as the hotel's vending machines were throughly under-stocked.

Now it was off to satellite town of Leicester! To play the Y Club. Where does the name come from you ask?

Well, it was actually part of the YMCA - it's doorsteps decorated with kids in tracksuits and not looking especially welcoming i.e. chavs. Dev looked on with indifference, inside his head and with Lil' Wayne cranked to deafening levels.

My Tour Blog Round-up!

Lightspeed Champion Theme Week - Day 4

I've wanted to photograph a tour for a bit and finally had my chance with the joint Lightspeed Champion and Patrick Wolf UK tour in November. In the beginning of October I sent Dev a message and bada bing, bada bang, he was up for it. Note: I'd just been fired from my day job - what a great time for an expensive-ish trip overseas! Whoo! The possibility of self-imposed poverty rocks! Pitched it as a photo diary to Pfork who declined, so I pitched a few glossy magazines and URB was psyched for it. I blogged the tour for their site. Keep an eye out for the issue in January featuring my words and Dev's photos in a photo-essay profile of his project.
It's really funny cos I always want to be involved at a photo level in the projects Dev's involved in and that drive always nets me bylines in big places - first, my desire to shoot Test Icicles portraits led me to hunting down the editor of German Vice who bestowed me with the privilege. Now kinda with URB where I will now be contributing regularly (believe you me - I am trying to establish Portland's music scene even further in URB's Next 1000 issue out in March).

On with the tour...

First stop was Brighton. Because Dev's manager Rene couldn't find a driver, Dev had to take the train while I caught the bus, by way of National Express. At this point we assumed the entire tour would be by train. You can read about the whole Brighton adventure on Urb.com including a Test Icicles run in, Dev getting some prayers in, a tap dancing class and Patrick Wolf singing Britney Spears songs.

(I'd been looking forward to seeing Brighton's Pier. Saw it in the dark)

I came back to London as planned that night, only Dev did not, which I didn't learn of until after 1am. Due to Rene not transferring money into his bank account, Dev's phone bill did not get paid and he was levied a 300 pound fine and was no longer able to make outgoing calls. That caused a big kink in everything. Cue me outside his flat until near 4am (while hoards of foxes ran around having their fun) until I knocked on random doors at his direction on my mobile and ended up sleeping in the kitchen of Millers care of Pre and Comanechi's Akiko. That was sehr fun - she was recording, so we rewrote a song of hers, talked some Karen O solo material and had toast. Oh, and she cut her foot, but didn't feel it and thought she'd just stepped in ketchup so there was a trail of blood all over the floor.

In honor of riding the rails, a very appropriately covered person:

"Devil Inside Your Soul" (Train Chronicles Cover) Lightspeed Champion MP3

Next stop was Exeter. Dev got a driver! Patrick's van broke down! Interview cancelations! Spice Girls songs! Read on Urb.com about what happened on the cobblestone streets of Exeter and at the venue which had a metal horse outside of it causing me to sing the Simon Bookish song of the same name (complete with inflection).

Patrick Wolf's tour manager Stuart really wasn't nice to me. After the show I went into the dressing room to check on my recharging laptop where four boxes of pizza were stacked near the garbage containing about two slices each. Even though this was a "solo tour" Patrick had a large crew along for the ride including his hairdresser Harri who said I could have a piece. As I was going to take a bite, Stuart walked in and grabbed the slice out of my hand and said I wasn't allowed to have any (while every one else was). I looked at Patrick thinking he was joking. He wasn't. It was like that a lot.

While Dev packed up his merch inside, his driver Tom and I sat in the parking lot. Previous to this short tour, Tom has driven for many acts including those on Dev's label Domino and for Feist. He hadn't heard Test Icicles so I played him a few tracks. Soon Dev was approaching. We decided maybe we should stop listening to "Who Ate All the Offal" and "What's Michelle Like" cos that might be weird. hahahaha

Bristol was my favorite afternoon/night. It was the most fun and relaxed one - everyone was in a positive mood. I assumed that on this tour there'd be at least an hour of free time to experience the cities. Not so. Every minute for Dev was scheduled for press. The second he arrived into each city it was time for a radio session, then to the venue for soundcheck and as soon as that was completed (it typically only lasted for two songs since he only had a guitar) it was time for in person interviews until stage time.

We made it to Bristol about an hour late, but still with enough time for everything to be just dandy which you can see plenty of photos of and read about on Urb.com

Another concert-goer had fun at the show in Bristol too!

We had a day off in London on the 24th before continuing on so I used the time to go to a party in a warehouse. Next was Manchester and partially Leicester which never went up on Urb, so that full blog will be my conclusion to this theme week.

I will be uploading ALL of my photos from headdresses to hotel rooms from the tour onto my flickr as soon as the New Year kicks in so stay tuned to it come the beginning of January.

Hmm... I'm on tour

(Dev in Dalston yesterday by me, but I'm too lazy to run it through photoshop to add the credit)

So yeah - I'll do more once the tour blog starts running on Urb.com. I was in London. Right now I'm in Exeter taking photos of Lightspeed Champion/Patrick Wolf tour, which is...
Even though I have NO money whatsoever (I brought an entire duffle bag full of food because I could only afford food in USD as opposed to pounds and it's all locked away in Dev's flat right now), I had to buy a 14.99 bottle of tequila today because alcohol is the only way I'm going to survive and Dev's rider is non-existent. They're still soundchecking right now even though doors were supposed to open an hour ago. Patrick's van broke down outside of Brighton today which partially caused the delay. A 150 pound cab ride later, he's here. I think Dev is too (his driver and I came separate from him), but I left for food and am now in the venue's cafe using wifi. Anyway - yeah more to come. All I can say is thank god for Meg and Akiko last night.

"Stay The Fuck Away From Me" Lightspeed Champion MP3

Sasquatch Festival Day 1

After attending and experiencing the chaos that was last year, I had zero expectations for this year's Sasquatch. Once again I'd be working it - last year I was there under the 2:30 Publicity umbrella, this year I was there shooting it for Pitchfork. M.I.A. - my only real reason for going canceled a few days before, so my non-existant expectations were brought even lower, which is great because then they can only be exceeded.
My trek started at 7am when I missed my bus and caught a cab over to the Jupiter Hotel to meet up with my fellow travelers made up of Bill, Carrie, and Taylor and Rebecca of CMJ, though Rebecca was doing the words for the Pfork piece.
We headed out on the open road a little after 8 and guess what - we didn't make it there until 3:40! We went the wrong way for over an hour, so . . . yeah. . .
That means I totally missed the Hold Steady! When I started working for 2:30 in 2004, they were the first press kit I ever put together (followed by Les Savy Fav and Visqueen (who also played this year's fest)) - I still have a master copy in storage. Anyway - I have yet to see them! I am in love with their latest album and I am just so pissed I missed them! I'm also pissed I missed Blitzen Trapper as we listened to a track of theirs on the way there (along with "boner jams" as they referred to the the songs as - ie Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, and Billy Joel as well as Van Morrison).
And who else did I miss aside from those acts? - Viva Voce and The Blow! How I've been counting the minutes to see the Blow live, but it just wasn't fated.

I made it over to Electrelane and caught a bit of their set. Because I am "professional" (haha) I couldn't figure out why all of my photos of them were turning out like shit. It did not dawn on me until 3 hours and countless photos later that my white balance was still set on the Starfucker show I'd seen the night before.
Unfortunately I got zero cell phone service at the site, so I missed meeting up with Electrelane after their set which had been planned a few days previous.
Cue me approaching random people to use their phones. I traded a few people earplugs in return for the favor. So a lot of random people now have Aziz Ansari's phone number among others.

After that I walked to catch a little Neko Case and then back up to Yeti stage and asked myself - "What is that sound?"

It was Ghostland Observatory! My oh my - had never heard of them - but WOW!

'Silver City' Ghostland Observatory MP3

Sadly a few songs in I had to depart to happily run to meet up with Khaela aka the Blow.

Khaela was decked out in a fanny pack and pink visor. I LOVE HER! She is so awesome! So open, honest, and neat. I didn't ask about Grey's Anatomy, but after meeting her I understand why she said no and I'm happy she did. We had a chillaxin' story-telling good time for about an hour, discussing everything from castles to zits - seriously I think the only letters we didn't cover were A and B - no actually, I mentioned Belmont, so only A.
She assured me that she's playing PDX Pop Now too - so I will finally get to see her live.
Somehow we ended up on the fact that I find it funny that some people think I've just moved back to Portland, when I've actually been back since mid-March 2006. I call from that to March of this year my year of being dead as I didn't have a phone, I was always moving so I didn't have an address, I didn't even have a bank account - it was arranged so I was paid cash or on prepaid debit cards. I just existed on the outskirts of a life after being trapped in Glasgow Scotland for a year and a half. She totally understood that.

So amid our bonding she said she wanted the photos we were taking as her new publicity shots! I then told her how I actually had a million and ten concepts in mind already for her publicity shots, so we might be doing a location shoot at Chuck E Cheese's. Stay tuned.
Then it was down to the Easy Street signing booth at 6pm to meet up with Kevin as I was taking photos of him and Anita.

It was fun finally making the accquaintance of the Robinsons, but I had to dash to see Grizzly Bear, so we only chatted for a minute and took a few photos.  I'm so glad I finally got to see them live when they opened for the Shins in February, which I never blogged about here, but did a post on Pitchfork about.
I mentioned that my first exposure to them was through the Portland Music Liberation magazine and we talked about our mutual love of that periodical for a while - discussing our favorite issues that were printed before it sadly folded.  Then we talked about 2005's Lowlands Festival, which we were both at, but missed each other.

(Viva Voce Warrior Woundz - it's brutal being in a band yo)

So onto Grizzly Bear.  Oh how I love my boys. 

And if you read this blog way back when, you'd know that maybe I love them too much.  Maybe to the point where I think they should file a restraining order against me.  Their publicist Frank put me on the list for their late PDX show at McMenamin's Mission Theatre this past February, but I flew in from New York that same night and my flight was a bit late, so even in trying to get to the venue with all my luggage, I missed their set.
My love of Grizzly Bear was actually the subject on my very first post on this blog and last year's Sasquatch was my introduction to them.  I went to the 2006 fest with Frank and in his apartment, in the car, and in the hotel room he played nothing but Grizzly Bear to the point where my dreams were probably sound-tracked to 'The Knife' and 'Colorado' .  I love when people working with/for a band love the band that much - that's how it should always be!
So I sat up front shooting their set and it was during theirs that I finally noticed and adjusted my camera's white-balance.  I sang along to every song which Throw Me the Statue's girlfriend totally noticed and mentioned to me once they finished.

(TMTS+gf)

As I was packing my crap up (my laptop, camera, viewmaster (?), . . .) I saw Frank and he waved me back.  Patrick Wolf was chillaxin' with the Grizzly Bear crew. 

It was dead enjoyable - I mean one of my favorite bands and my favorite solo artist (he's tied with Britney Spears circa everything until 2004).  It was then that I met Throw Me the Statue and he lives only three blocks away from my mom in Seattle! 
Frank is going to be working his record and they're shopping around for a label right now.  I'm gonna be doing his publicity shots as soon as I get his music and can dream up some concepts.
A photographer from some skate mag wanted to do a proper photo-shoot with them, only one member of GB was missing, so Patrick got drafted in and they became Grizzly Wolf. 

(Patrick decided he needed "a veil" to cover his face, but everything but that was done with it)

She didn't seem to thrilled about the collaboration.  Especially when Daniel Rossen eventually turned up, but Chris Bear decided he needed an impromptu counseling session haha

After that I spied some Beastie Boys also backstage preparing for their instrumental set on the same stage. 

They may have spied me too.

So I sat in the grass and uploaded the photos onto my Macbook that I had just shot when Ed came over to shake my hand.  Before we'd just been casually talking about YACHT/David Shrigley/Tomlab without any introductions, but he'd just found out I was Nilina and came over to shake my hand and do a proper introduction.  Do you even know how cool that was/is!!???!!!  We've never properly met before and it was super sweet that he knew who I was.
Khaela also knew my first and last name even though we've never met - remembered from a blog collaboration.  That was very neat.
And you know what's funny!!?!!???  Ed, Frank, and I stood/sat around discussing what a bummer it was that Pfork wouldn't be using any of the shots of them and P Wolf.  Ed was like "You never actually worked on our campaign -- right?"  So true - when at 2:30 this past summer and fall I only dealt with the PDX repped bands ie Hold Steady, Thunderbirds Are Now! and a couple others, but none from the NYC office ie M.I.A., Be Your Own Pet, and Decemberists or Frank's Seattle HQ - ie Of Montreal and Grizzly Bear.  Still Scott was concerned about the conflict of interest so it was understood none of my shots of 2:30 artists would appear.
So I posted the shot to my flickr.  And Brooklyn Vegan ran it, which was an immediate thrill until it caused some MAJOR DRAMA with me and Pfork as they ended up running it as well - which was unexpected.  I sent the shots in just in case - as we (Ed and I) came to the conclusion that since they had Patrick in them, maybe Pfork would use them, but I wasn't betting on it.
Yeah.
Anyway, in a more sunnier spot, I am just so proud of Grizzly Bear and Frank.  He's already done working their Feist dates and is now onto Maximo Park!  So happy Warp is showing him further love - he deserves it - he is damn good.
After that I took off to have some food.  Some members of the media got catered dinner this time (last year it was just water and potato chips), but when I got there the vegetarian option was all gone.
I then went to watch Arcade Fire who I was super super super looking forward to as I haven't seen them live in two years.

I hadn't been all that interested in them until I read the reviews of their ground-breaking Coachella 2005 set.  I couldn't get into their album, but I was determined to check out their show.  Finally I got the chance while at Lowlands August 2005.  Oh my god!  Oh my god!  Oh my god!  They blew all of my super high expectations out of the water just by stepping on stage and playing the first few bars of a song.  I couldn't pull away even though I was getting calls from Art Brut's tour manager that I could shoot their set side of stage.
I then saw them the very next week when they supported Franz Ferdinand at the gardens in Edinburgh.  Winn equated playing Reading Festival to playing an ashtray.
Seeing them live is like an awakening. 
Do you even know how special it feels to watch people love what they're doing as much as you love it if not even more?

This set was just as fervent, though no helmets to protect against drumming on the head were worn.

They opened their set with grainy footage from a religious TV program and then they all took to the stage launching into 'No Cars Go'.  Lucky for me, the third song they played was 'Haiti' which is one of my absolute favorites!  It was thrilling being up front in the photo pit for that!
They rotated instruments at lightning speed and at one point one of them fell off the stage.  God I love them!  To be that into it - it really feels like a privilege to watch them live and it is just so amazing that they seem to treat playing live as a privilege the audience has given them.

They closed with 'Wake Up', but another definite highlight was 'Black Wave/Bad Vibrations'.
I bumped into Patrick Wolf again who had just gotten stung/bitten by some sort of bug.  I kept swatting his hand away as he continued to pick at it.  We had a bit of a gossip fest, but he swore me to secrecy back at Grizzly Bear in regards to the topic. 
After that I became Patrick's keeper of sorts for a bit as his band-mates Nick and Marcello later viewed me as the Patrick compass asking "where's Patrick?" To which I'd reply, "With Jess," or "Getting CDs out of the van."
I then skipped down and got some Ice Cream Man ice-cream and then down to the photo pit for Bjork's set.
I have never been a Bjork fan.  I've listened to at most 3.5 or her songs - nothing ever really grabbed me.  The Sugarcubes - that's a different matter.  I was in Echo park in LA when I first heard their song overhead at a TV on the Radio concert, but Bjork, not so much.
Well - when she took the stage to 'Earth Intruders' I knew that was gonna change.

To make it short, I am in love.
I LOVE some of the lyrics she has going on.  In fact I recited a few of them to my mom just last night - specifically 'Wanderlust'.

'I Miss You' could easily be a personal anthem of mine, and I also really got 'All is Full of Love'.

Her Icelandic girl's choir was decked out in neon with orange flags attached to them and it was a set of sound and bouncy energy on behalf of all on stage.

She closed with 'Declare Independence' which was TOO good!
After that I trekked it to the campsite. I had the cash on me to pay for camping, but no one was checking so I moseyed on in and set up my tent and got cell phone service for the first time!  Hells yes!  I got a text from my mom so I called her and we chatted and then I turned on Starfucker before falling asleep to the most subdued festival campsite I have ever slept at!  I remember my first festival was Roskilde in Denmark and it was during the Euro championships of '04 so at all hours of the night people would start shouting drawn out "Goooooaaaaalllllll"s which others would join in on and it'd pretty much be thousands of people yelling that all night long.
The music and chit-chatting at Sasquatch really didn't even contend.
Saturday was a very beautiful day in my life.  It felt like the culmination of everything I have been working towards for the past six years since I got my first pass at 15.
I got a good night's sleep of four hours before I was back up and ready to tackle Sunday, but not before listening to some more Starfucker :)

I'll eventually get around to blogging about Sunday which was fairly epic as well.

My million-and-one photos from the fest can be found in this flickr set and I still have tons of photos to add to it, which I'll continue to do.

My (and Matthew Solarski's :) Day One Pitchfork Post

Sound on the Sound's thoughts

Let's go on a myspace field trip!

Electrelane myspace

Ghostland Observatory myspace

The Blow myspace

Viva Voce myspace

Grizzly Bear myspace

Patrick Wolf myspace

Arcade Fire myspace

Bjork myspace

Knitting with Grizzly Bear and Patrick Wolf

Last Saturday I spent the day listening to Grizzly Bear and knitting. My idea of the perfect day (now only if it was in London or Paris. . .)
Anyway, much in the words of Grizzly Bear's 'Shift', I wouldn't have it any other way.

'Shift' Grizzly Bear Acoustic MP3

Watch the magic as it unfolded while being recorded

And actually, I would have it another way-Grizzly Bear wouldn't have been looted in Belgium.

And for a more literal take on "knitting with," here is Patrick Wolf knitting with friends on the London tube back when he was still in his Lycanthropy phase

My current knitting project is to raise capital for starting my clothing line of screen printed shirts and zip-up hoodies. More info hopefully soon. . .

Patrick Wolf tie in

Here is Patrick Wolf, in a clip for Channel 4, playing the song 'Bluebells' off his forth-coming album The Magic Position. The clip sings for itself.

And ties into yesterday's post on Lightspeed Champion, Klaxons, and Acid Slutz through the photo below

And ties into the post the day before because Patrick is singing with sister Jo Apps in the clip above who gets love from Grizzly Bear on their blog (coincidentlly alongside Jitset-member of Acid Slutz).

The tie in comes full circle

Go listen to a clip of Patrick's latest single 'Accidents and Emergencies'
As a fan, I was a bit paranoid after hearing it that everything on the new album would be happy and he's oh so good when not always happy, but after hearing 'Bluebells' it has made it even easier to embrace 'Accidents and Emergencies'.