Not on the Guest List

Mystery (Jets) Solved by Q&A

Oh those Mystery Jets - oh so mysterious! Their new single "Young Love" is out today!! Pretty much the moment they sent out a myspace bulletin (the night before V-day) announcing the arrival of their music video for the tune, I was plagued by four questions, but before we get to those, let's have a quick chat with William (who handles lead vocals on the track) shall we? He brings up stalking by the second question. Out to steal my heart a little?

Was "Young Love" written in response to a specific situation or an ode to young love in general?

Written more in general really, although there are a number of different situations over the past years which the song draws from. I'll keep the details under wraps....

If literally all you had to go on was the girl's name, would you really go door to door? Or would you have to know the name and maybe a few of said girl's acquaintances and general area of residence before taking up the task?

Yes, I would go from door to door, we're not lying you know. Obviously postcode and address details would be greatly appreciated, but then we are getting into stalker territory aren't we?

What is currently the most perplexing question on your mind? Can be related to anything at all... 

What colour shall I paint my walls?

How important is your blog to you and why?

Really important; it's where all our little passions come out. All the things we love get a mention on it. It's good to write with an awareness of other people reading it. It's a discipline.

How many blogs do you subscribe to?

I subscribe to none, but read lots of music blogs.

Back to the video at hand for "Young Love":

My questions upon watching were:

1) Is it truly possible to love them more?

2) Are they themselves sure they've collaborated with Laura Marling and not say... Emmy the Great?*

3) Gasp!!! Has resident patriarch Henry left the band? He's noticeably absent from the video...

4) And who is the director?

For a few, the answers came to reveal themselves in a multitude of different ways:

1) Ummm.... apparently yes. Rather unsurprisingly enough. That was answered in the first second.

2) *=Not a serious question in the least... just a reference to being on the Patrick Wolf/Lightspeed Champion tour trail with Dev in November. Everyone got confused when it came to his Lavender Bridge collaborator. At one point in Bristol he took a quick call from Emma during a radio session. He then informed the DJs that he hadn't talked to her almost since their time in Omaha and that she was talking about their song "Everyone I Know is Listening to Crunk" during the short convo. Minutes later he was asked if Laura Marling had supplied the female vocals for his tracks. Weren't you just listening???

3) Henry's still in the band!!!! I guess I just don't brush up on their Wikipedia often enough, but some mysterious folk by the name of 9 & 12 supplied me with the positive answer. Just cutting down on live and press appearances, but very much still apart of the band!

4) Still unknown.... But as Scully and Mulder have taught me, the truth is out there...

Buy "Young Love" digitally today or pre-order the single in physical form. All 3 formats for only 4 pounds or 4 thousand USD (nah.. only a little more than eight dollars, but it feels like 4K). 2 x vinyl plus the CD single is out on March 10th.

I spent my Sunday dancing along to multiple versions of "Diamonds in the Dark" and Lykke Li's "Little Bit." You can too:

"Diamonds in the Dark (Dusty cabinets Remix)" Mystery Jets MP3

Linktime, linktime, linktime...

Mystery Jets Blogspot: Behind the Bunhouse - we may differ in opinion on MGMT (they like 'em, me...ehhh...) but have many other bands in common from Band of Horses to Arcade Fire in the live realm and they were one of the first to note the brilliance of Late of the Pier back in February 2007 and then revisit the band again in June talking up "The Bears Are Coming," which I got Late of the Pier themselves to talk up

Mystery Jets myspazz

They DJ!

I bumped into William at the Klaxons afterparty at Kitts in December in London

I filmed Mystery Jets doing a magical in-store at HMV in Glasgow back in March 2006. Watch it!

As for William's great paint dilemma, I'm thinking he should select a nice green tea shade of paint. It's proven the most calming plus it looks pretty cool and can accent nearly anything. Oh, and to avoid bright red at the very least...

To help:
Restful color schemes you'll just love waking up to

Let nature inspire colour choices

How many other music blogs are linking to paint selection articles today?

Liars in Portlandia (and Polaroidia)

(Angus has a very funky wardrobe)

Liars came to Portland and rocked! Of course frontman (and Maps-maker) Angus was battling on with the tour despite throwing his back out just days prior. That meant that there were three chairs set up across the stage for him to crawl to and flail on in an effort to give his all to the audience by utilizing all angles.

During the show there was a song dedication to their touring guitarists' girlfriend, plus a shout-out to drummer Julian's parents (who were in the PDX audience) followed by a momentary debate over just how long they'd been married.

For the encore, Angus came out with a red balloon emblazoned with the message "Skip, Hop and dance!" across it's front tied around his waist. He proceeded to look as if he was being terrorized by it.

It was funny because at one point, pre-balloon, Blake (not Lively) gently elbowed me in the ribs to remark "Quite a character, isn't he?" in response to Angus' absolutely bizarre behavior that wasn't hampered in the least by his Hunchback of Notre Dame-ness.

They thanked openers No Age for 'taking them on tour' and making them "feel old" hahahahaha

Setlist:
Leather Prowler
Clear Island
Houseclouds
Kingdom
Beach Boy
Freak Out
Smail
There's Always Room On the Broom
Pure Unevil
Plaster Casts of Everything
BYS
Broken Witch
Movie

Understandably heavy with material from their latest self-titled album for Mute, they didn't play "It Fit When I was a Kid" from Drum's Not Dead during their set. Boo! That was even a single! And my favorite track... Liars aren't necessarily a band I engage with so much on record. In terms of my taste, I prefer taking in their tunes in the live setting. But I love love love that track and especially the CC remix.

"It Fit When I was a Kid" (Crystal Castles remix) Liars MP3

So danceably subversive!

Drummer Julian (who wore a T-shirt made by No Age for most of the night) is currently filming a haphazard-ish (a descriptor he alluded to) tour diary. He filmed me in night vision and instead of the green grain of Paris Hilton's adventure, I came out in a blue-ish hue, including my eyes which was a trip given my skin-tone. He filmed his mom chillaxing in the above polaroid.

While I had fun eating corn-chips, Aaron had fun with an apple from their rider. Entirely candid. Entirely. Hahaha

My Pitchfork photo post from the night

The rest of my live Liars photos on flickr

What's that you say? Not only do Liars have bad backs, but bad stomachs a plenty too?

 

Teenage Hotelcoming

So before the Teenagers kicked off their North American tour with a live show at 1/2ALIVE in Vancouver B.C., they'd previously been chillaxing and getting acquainted with the time zone shift in good ol' Vancouver for a few days. Day of the gig, Meg and I descended upon their hotel room for an interview and photoshoot for the next issue of URB magazine coming out in March - the "Next 100" issue.
In the lobby, their tour manager greeted us and we shuffled upstairs via the elevator. Who's their tour manager? Why only Kristin - she of Deerhunter tour management fame! Seriously - I was like "OMG - yr the one [frontman] Bradford [Cox] is always writing about on Deerhunter's blog (where she blogs too), yr the "den mother," you take photos of them with sunsets in the background." Indeed she was. She's also tour managed fellow Atlanta band Black Lips. So how did she get the Teenagers gig? Cos "they were looking for someone cool" and she was in XL's (the Teenagers' label) speed-dial for the description.
Oh and she gets some photo love from No Age in a post on their blog.

Moving along - she noted that the girls of the band are a bit press shy, so it'd be only the boys keeping us company.

The interview was one of my best ever! And by best ever, I mean seemingly lost in translation. Not only due to language, but in personality differences too. Once the piece runs, the audio is going up here. Quentin (who's lived in England longer than the other two by nearly 3 years) didn't want to do the chat and instead played Zelda on his bed. There were two beds in the room, so a mellow Michael and Dorian plus me hunkered down on the other to talk some Soko, street life and screaming. Awkwardness was abound! Crickets could occasionally be heard. A bit of interestingness - what blogs do the French expats read? I found out. While Quentin lingers regularly on Flou Kids, Dorian prefers Big Stereo! I wasn't expecting an American blog to top his list. Awesome times!

After 20 minutes of conversation it was time for photos and boy can those boys turn it on! I have wanted to have a band pose with heart shaped twisted balloons 4eva - since hearing the song "Lust In The Movies" by The Long Blondes. The chorus refrain includes "I just want to be a sweetheart! I just want to be a sweetheart!" I visualize EVERYTHING and set about trying to figure out how I'd visualize that and those balloons that clowns twist into animals and swords was what I came up with. Many girls that I shoot don't want to appear too feminine, so using the balloons with the Teenagers seemed perfect, especially given their semi-heart throb status of late... kinda like in the Kinga Burza directed video for "Homecoming."

During the photos, we also shot them eating cupcakes as I'd had the idea for them to have a cupcake food-fight. That concept didn't quite materialize, but Quentin did get a brutal sugar rush.

Quentin:

What else came of our hour in the Teenagers' lair? The knowledge that Dorian films his life in great detail. Not only the still style which is showcased on his flickr, but video style ala Dev aka Lightspeed Champion. He was unaware of Dev's documentary dalliances, so I quickly informed him of them. Then we got to chatting about youtube comments and such and the fact that as of now, Dorian is unlikely to make his live-action reels available to the general public. I got some brief screen time hahahaha

Dorian:

We also talked about the fervent reaction that they sometimes is produce in their crowds unintentionally i.e. - when I saw them in London with No Age at Amersham Arms in December. It was semi-miserable because girls behind me were screaming at me, hitting me and pulling my hair because I was closer to the band then them in terms of rows inside the audience (I had to be close to the stage, I was taking pics... that I never posted). Both Dorian and Michael said they didn't notice that mania.

Michael:

Anyway, when we were packing up they asked to keep the heart balloons which was enjoyable :) What a task it was to track those down! Meg's mom saved the day after I was unsuccessful. Our scavenger hunt ended on Granville island at a gag store in a children's emporium that I'd last visited on an 8th grade border-crossing class field trip.

"Homecoming" The Teenagers MP3

I would hope this track is already in yr itunes. SO BRILLIANT! Am I going to admit something? Yes. I was so turned off by the first few lines the first time I listened to it in the beginning of 2007 that I didn't make it much further. So I didn't quite understand why girls were getting up on stage to sing at the concert  - I'd never made it far enough to know they trade vocals with a girl, a vocalist who I can absolutely not track down. Anyway - this song is a masterpiece. Later that night Meg and I are sitting there and I'm making comments such as "So deep, so smart, so true." It is. SO honest! Not just about boys vs. girls, but the witticisms including the "massive car"/"SUV." Cue my itunes up to repeat for this track and my day is made. Especially when I'm singing (or rather talking) along. I find a way to weave it into any conversation I have with people lately. Slices of pizza on Hawthorne? Let me bring my laptop and play it for you hahahaha. True story... that actually happened this Saturday hahahaha. I also sent it to someone on myspace last week. I think it scared them away, but when have I ever not in their case? hahaha

Teenagers Myspazz

Bumbershoot Day 1

In the weeks leading up to the fest we tried as hard as we could to get my mom in for free - even applying for credentials for her under Not on the Guest List.  The request was unsurprisingly denied, especially given that I submitted it past the deadline...  After waiting in line behind Smoosh for my ticket we discovered that I'd received two tickets for all three days!  Score!  We promptly sold her ticket she'd bought for Saturday and booked it in.  We got to Bumbershoot on Saturday as the Shins were taking the stage.  We ran over to Menomena for a brief candid photo shoot, who even with phone calls to Justin and Brent, were nowhere to be found, so we high-tailed it over to mainstage to catch what was remaining of the Shins' set as I was supposed to shoot their last few songs side of the stage as arranged prior.  Only no media escort could be found and they finished early, so that didn't happen.  They did their Pink Floyd cover again - like they did at the Crystal Ballroom in February!
I have wanted to take candid photos of the Shins forever!  Specifically eating strawberry poptarts as an ode to my favorite movie Can't Hardly Wait (Preston: "...the very same breakfast pastry I was consuming at that very moment.  What was I to do?  How was I to proceed?")  And I finally did!

Uber blurry Marty (it was my first shot with my new polaroid and I'm used to my old one's focus abilities):

So yeah - it actually worked to my benefit I didn't get to shoot side of the stage and their exit to their dressing room as now I was able to shoot them chillaxing and beyond.

I am socially incompetent.  Dave went to shake my hand and I screamed: "I love your wife!"  Because I do, but I didn't need to literally scream it at him and a "hi" would've been sufficient.  I spent their entire show at the Crystal talking to her - they live in Capitol Hill kinda by my mom in Seattle and previously lived in San Francisco, so we had chatted at length about that.
Jesse who self-admittedly mumbles and Marty were on the couch and GREAT company!  We went on and on and on exclaiming the virtues of Alberta.  I love when bands are unguarded, which based on the emails I traded with their publicist about their management days before, I wasn't assuming they'd be, but they were.  In two minutes they had each told me unprompted, their addresses and where I can find them when not at home -- NE Portland-ers - think Alberta and think chicken wings, and no - Popeyes is on MLK.
We hung out for a bit with me snapping away then they got in a golf cart to go sign some autographs. 

I thought we'd be disbanding, but their fangirl worthy tour manager Dave expected me to jump on and come along for the ride, so I did.  They taped a segment for Fye TV.  If you're familiar with the Shins' brand of humor, you can only imagine the fun they had with playing off of "fye."

I met my mom over at Bert Jansch's acoustic show in the Music Lounge where I gave him a copy of Jonathan Byerley's CD that I had ordered multiple copies of a couple days before through CD Baby.  My mom thinks they sound similar, so I used the opportunity to pass it along and to take a photo to pass along to Jonathan, which I finally got around to doing a day ago. 

I'm kind of in love with Jonathan Byerley's music.  I want to marry it.

And speaking of "Marry Me," I cut some clothing silhouettes out of colored paper and booked it over to shoot some candids of St. Vincent.  I had a very specific vision for the photos, so much so that I brought along clothing pins and a clothing line.

As we - my mom, her, and me - hung everything up we talked about Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Sasquatch, the fact that she really has eight other siblings which she attributed to her parents being uber Catholic, and Glasgow, where she'd be playing next.  I kept skipping from topic to topic and back again.  She is entirely too cute!  I just love how fragile and delicate she looks.

'Paris Is Burning' St. Vincent MP3

Now it was time for Menomena to hit the stage.  They had a choir!  With brown burlap-esque robes!

Their publicist Ever told me the next day when I asked where the choir came from that is was comprised of Portland-ers.  I had thought some looked familiar!  Alicia J. Rose was one of them, and he started telling me about her before I cut him off with: "The booker for Doug Fir!  And she did their publicity shots!  And she plays accordion too!"  He seemed somewhere between amused and maybe scared that I enthusiastically knew all this info at the drop of a hat.

Later we caught an acoustic Gogol Bordello performance at the Music Lounge.  I wondered how the set would be seeing as it'd be taking place in a seated theatre.  How would they dance on drums on top of the audience?  They didn't, but that didn't take anything away from their set.  They are like authentic! 

I mean I knew they were of foreign origin, collected into a troupe in the US, but I thought all their soviet gypsy ties had faded away, alive on in their music and image.  Not so.  When speaking to each other, they don't speak English which I was happy to overhear them doing while waiting for them to start, I sat on my knees in front of the stage adjusting my camera.

Gogol's Eugene:

If I ever get married - you know - to Jonathan Byerley's music and all, I want Gogol Bordello to play the reception!

Gogol Bordello myspazz

I don't and have never listened to Denver's Devotchka, but they're number 1 in Jonathan Byerley's Top 8 and they share a manager, so I arranged to do candid photos with them in the hopes that we'd be able to gush about an assumed mutual love of him.  It was kind of uncomfortable taking photos of them, which I very very rarely encounter.  And our brief sentences about Jonathan Byerley didn't yield the results I wanted, such as the lead passing along a message: "There's a girl in Seattle who actually lives in Portland who is OBSESSED with you," ie judging by his demeanor he didn't seem like he'd be down for that so I kept myself in check.

Devotchka live:

"Let's get these teen hearts beating faster, faster..."

When people asked who I was most excited to see, I replied Panic! at the Disco.  When people heard this, they assumed I was joking.  Ummm... if you see me on the street on any given day, I often am wearing a Fall Out Boy T-shirt.  I'm kind of in love with Fueled by Ramen.  It was my third time seeing the Las Vegas quartet.  My boyfriend Ryan Rossy Dust didn't wear any makeup, but was rocking a headband like he did a few days prior at Pete Wentz's bar when he turned 21.  There were no dancing girls.  And seriously - I LOVE them - I sing along with their songs at full volume, but their new songs did not solicit the same excitement from me.  Is Brendan Urie writing the lyrics?  I REFUSE to believe they're Ryan's!  I went on about this on Monday to Barsuk's Ever.  Where was the trademark wit?  The ahead of their time hit-the-nail-on-the-head observations?
"Your eyes are as wide as the moon when it's nine in the afternoon."
Come now... really?
And the sound of them too - they were less cabaret - more barely-practiced-in-a-garage type sounding.  They sounded like the songs you'd assume a band would release on their debut and the songs from their first album sounded like the songs they'd progress to on their second disc.  Panic! notoriously suffer from bad sound live, but this was inexcusable.
My head hurts in fear for them.

Oh and I saw quite a few other bands I haven't bothered to mention in this post, but here's a pic of Gym Class Heroes who I last saw open for Fall Out Boy in January 2006 in Glasgow:

Damn you MusicfestNW!

and your little dog too!

MusicFest NW - why did you have to be so amazing!?!  Why!?!  Seriously - ten times more than I ever expected.
First you made me resentful - I mean you took Justin Timberlake away from me!  Seriously - I had been counting on going to that concert since at least May, gabbed about it to my friends, and then - poof, you make him disappear by having Grizzly Bear, Starfucker, Dan Deacon, and Rilo Kiley all on the same night.
But you redeemed yourself with what made me resentful in the first place.  I don't care how many times I've seen Grizzly Bear, it's never enough.

Ed after the show:

Live at the Doug Fir:

(Drummer Christopher Bear was rocking a brand-spanking new Deerhunter T)

Still, why Justin couldn't you have postponed Portland too?

But - oh the lack of sleep!  Never fully expected it to the extent it existed, but now I know not to have a day job during all the days of the fest and schedule myself to participate in Crafty Wonderland on my only day off my day job but still on a MFNW day.
But still I stayed out until 2, then stayed up even later uploading photos when I had to be at work at 9:30 the next day.
Oh MusicFest NW - why do you only have to last four days!?!
I now can't wait for SXSW!  I think I'm really gonna try for 2008, even though I already know I have a conflict with the dates in March.

Girl Talk and Dan Deacon were my favorite sets of the fest. 

I have tried and tried again to listen to 'Crystal Cat', but accepted that Dan Deacon was not my bag.  When assigned to turn up to his gig I did so with curiosity only emboldened by the fact that when I turned up, Justin Kent was there after having just put his camera equipment away - there was no way to shoot it apparently - the strobe lights breaking three minutes of just a blackened room completely packed with people like a gas chamber.  Oh how that made me want to witness it all the more.  I came for a concert, what I got was a cult. 

He had lyrics sheets for 'Wham City':

People sang from them covered in sweat:

(It was SERIOUSLY hot in there!  People's sweat was dripping in actual drops onto my camera)

It's so funny too, because I am like the most drug-free person - I mean I've never even smoked a cigarette or drank coffee, yet I found myself gleefully chanting along with everyone in attendance - "Harry Potter, Book 6!  Smoke weed everyday!"  In fact, I'm still chanting it.  Seriously - as I bounced around between sets of Swim Swam Swum, Holy Fuck, and Wolf Parade two days later on Sunday night, that chant and talking about Lorin of the Thermals was all that occupied my time.
I heard from two people - Cary Clarke and Jason Simms that Dirty Projectors was their favorite set of the fest.  Wish I could've been in two places at once, but I was over onstage shooting and dancing at Girl Talk.

Where's Waldo Girl Talk?

Can you find him?

With Girl Talk I got exactly what I expected - times ten!  I wondered with the Roseland's security as notorious as they are with a seemingly "no fun" policy - how would my man Gregg Gillis' set look without people clogging the stage alongside him?  Well, one - he didn't perform on the stage.  He performed in the barrier between the stage and the crowd - until he actually started performing because as soon as his beats began, people were hopping the barrier too fast to time.  And security was game with it!  They stood on the stage in protection of all of the fancy/swish/expensive hip-hop/rap/DJ equipment and let the crowd go WILD!!!!!!!!!!  He had a pretty copy of Finder besides his laptop.  He played Grizzly Bear's 'Knife' minus Clipse's vocals proclaiming "Wamp, Wamp, what it do, what it do?"
Oh Gregg!  You finally got to steal my heart live!  If you (actually you, not Gregg :) read this blog in November, I was actually scheduled to do a photo shoot with him and attend his show at Holocene, but he still had his day job at the time and didn't get into Portland until WAY LATE crushing our previously scheduled commitments.
And oh my god - did he look like Garrett or did he look like Garrett!?!:

My biggest upset was missing Typhoon.  Enough said... oh how I tried!
Eugene Mirman = super super crafty/clever/funny.

I accidentally spit what I had in my mouth on someone due to uncontrollable laughter.  Ten minutes later, someone spit a mouthful of beer on me for the same reasons, for which I could forgive him.  If you do not know him, I am NOT exaggerating - he is TOO funny.  Even when I think something is funny, I typically don't laugh out loud.  This was not the case with him.  Tokyo Police Club were trying so hard to see him at Bumbershoot.  I now know why.  Wolfcats forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was there any gig that the Mercury's Rob Simonsen wasn't at?  I ran into him without actually talking to him too many times to count.
Oh and Fist Fite - "Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby.  Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby"!  Perhaps my favorite Portland band.  Perhaps hands down. 

I was really scared they'd start evolving into a more normal band - ie more normal antics, maybe become predictable, but they haven't at all.  They remain at the top of their game - you can guess, but you don't truly know what's coming next with them.  They owned the stage at the Doug Fir. 

It was great to see them again after months and months of not doing so.  Jonnie threw glitter all over us in the very front and her glitter remained there long after.  I spied it on the monitors during Deerhunter and then when I was selling bobby pins and scarves at Crafty Wonderland the next morning, my table was directly over a patch of glitter on the floor.
Prepare yourself for what I'm about to type.  I d-o n-o-t g-e-t D-e-e-r-h-u-n-t-e-r.
Yeah, I just wrote that.
Let's leave it at that, but still talk about them.

They were seated on the sidewalk outside of their label mate White Rainbow's gig on Saturday at Satyricon.
I wanted to take (scheduled) portraits of them minus Colin who quit last week, but it didn't happen.  I will next time though.  I have two specifically generated ideas for them and they are entirely too fun.
So what were my other highlights?  Even with my anti-social self that was surprisingly social after laying low and working six-days a week during August, my highlights centered around interaction.  I met Erik and we talked endlessly about the goddess that is Beth Ditto, Britney Spears, and Perez Hilton as well as sang Yo majesty songs at each other after he yelled "I love your blog," as I walked by trying to make it to the last four minutes of YACHT's gig.  His friend looked like Corbin Bleu from High School Musical.  My favorite quote of the weekend stems from this.
"Do people say that to you all the time?"
"All the time.  Mostly homeless people."
I met Max at the Crystal before Thermals who I ended up missing to shoot Clipse.  All of drummer Lorin Coleman's brothers were in attendance helping erect giant trees onstage.
Oh god - and Starfucker.  Can we talk about how much more he continues to rock with each gig!!? 

SEE HIM if you can cos he's gonna stop playing local shows too soon.  I have 30 Starfucker tracks because that was all that'd fit on the disc he gave me back in June-ish, but the absolute best of the night was his unrecorded ode to the Mariners' 'Ichiro'. SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!  We were texting back and forth before his set because I wanted him to save 'German Love' for me since I'd be shooting the first few minutes of Tiny Vipers' set at Doug Fir then high-tailing it across the bridge (with the Burnside bridge inconveniently closed) for his set that also started at 10 and he typically whips that one out early.  He assured that he wouldn't be playing it too early and when we arrived at Towne Lounge he was mid-way through.  Perfect timing!  And he had another drummer with him too!  And not his Sexton Blake co-patriot.  He briefly drummed with a juice bottle.
I ran into a lot of people from high school who I haven't seen for at least a year each.  It was weird/cool/surreal.
So yeah - Bobby Bare is fun.
I was gonna do a Bobby Bare/Cat power specific post, but not anymore.  Here is some of what I wrote:

Bobby Bare Jr. arrived in Portland via Nashville to open for Cat Power care of an earned free flight on Southwest Airlines and to an awaiting free pair of orange Nikes - not that he needed them.  When he took to the stage at Audio Cinema, he did so in stocking feet with an acoustic guitar and the Decemberists' Chris Funk in toe.  Together they rolled through half of the set -- Bobby Bare Jr.'s country sound made complete with his Hank Williams-esque yelps and Funk's guitar picking and mandeolin playing.  Mid-way through, the tempo turned rock at which point several more Decemberists made their way onto the stage, minus Colin Meloy who joked beforehand that he was an employee of Adidas and that's what prevented his partcipation.
What is a Cat Power show minus the breakdowns she seems to have left behind a couple tours ago and the seemingly mindless chatter that can plague her sets?

A kinda normal one, still uniquely Cat Power.  She performed quite a different set to her last Portland showing that included two shows in one day without accompaniment at the Aladdin.  This time around Chan's only duties were that of singing and hoofing it around the stage while her Philadelphia hailing companion commanded both the piano and guitar.
Masked in an unchanging blue light, she shook her hands, tapped her white shoes like a pony, and sang with very little interaction with the audience other than a brief comment about her "skinny jeans," passed off a lit cigarette after one drag, and admitted to being nervous, but that did not detract.
It was a set of covers including her Cat Stevens cover that appears in the Debeers commercial plus 'The Tracks of My Tears' originally by the Miracles.  Absent were her typical cover of the Rolling Stones and even Velvet Underground, or 'Freebird' as she played upon request at the Aladdin.
She closed her set with two originals - 'The Greatest' which drew cheers from the audience for the song itself and to finally be hearing something more familiar and 'Lived in Bars'.

Oh and I spied Quasi's Janet Weiss backstage at Spoon.

MusicfestNW started with a bang for me when I came from Seattle day of to catch Cat Power - literally went straight from Greyhound, into a taxi, over the river to Audio Cinema with 7 minutes to spare before Bare hit the stage and shot some candids of him and the Decemberists.

(He's managed by Trevor, who is the director of MFNW)

My weekend came to a very sad end both before and after Wolf Parade when Britney Spears failed to nail her VMA performance.  Can we cry collectively?  And you know, I realize that people's hopes should not be hinged on one human being - there is no way she can support all of the weight of that many expectations, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed and that I'm not going to cry or that I haven't already... multiple times... once while watching Holy Fuck tear up the stage with distorted casio rocking crap-pop.

My MusicfestNW experiences over the internets:

My Pitchfork photo expose

I blogged MFNW Day 2 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 3 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 4 at LocalCut

And you can pick up this week's edition of Willamette Week to see seven of my observations in print from Fist Fite to Deerhunter's dress sense plus a bit about Wolf Parade's set and spy three of my photos!!!!!!!

And my mini photo story of the fest: I typically don't LOVE my photos.  In fact I have such a hard time looking at them after I've taken them that I can sometimes be kinda late on deadlines because I don't want to look at them and see how close they could've been to being one step better, but the photo at the top of the post I immediately fell in actual love with.  I originally submitted it to the MFNW invite only flickr group for editors to browse through as I was submitting some of my top tier photos there, but then I realized that even though I loved it, some other editors might not and I didn't want to risk it not running, because I wanted other people to see it, so I removed it and sent it to Pitchfork where I knew it'd appear.
Today I got an email from the editor of the Bend Bulletin saying how much he in all-caps LOVED the photo and how he was happy to use my other Girl Talk shots he had access to in the MusicfestNW flickr, but that's the one he really wanted.  Since the exclusivity has expired now, I sent it his way.
I almost feel like a real photographer lately.  Keyword: almost.

Here's to next year!

(And no, I was not wearing a backpack even though it looks like it)

Now I'm sick, but it was worth it!

'Wham City' Dan Deacon MP3

'Knife' Grizzly Bear Girl Talk remix MP3

'How Can I Tell You' Cat Power clip MP3

PS - I'll be uploading ten million more photos that have yet to appear anywhere to my flickr within the next week.  So bookmark it if you wanna see them/yourself in the crowd at Girl Talk.

On this day: Islands at Loveland

So I was too busy (read: lazy) to do this yesterday ie I put it off to the last second, then decided I was still going to head down to the Tube at midnight to go get Sweaty Wet/Dirty Damp, and I did - to a soundtrack of 'Blow the Whistle', 'Pop the Glock' and some Justice with my alcohol on the house (thank you considerate unknown bartender!)
So I'll back date this later on to read like it was actually written yesterday. Back-dated.

On this day. . . May 8th 2006.

My friend Ted and I met up with Sam and Renee at the door to Loveland on May 8th 2006.  Islands hadn't brought their guest list down yet, and even though Sam is way better friends with the band (having toured with them and roomed with them in London once) I was the only one permited to go upstairs to rip it out of their hands.  One of the Chow brothers was finishing it up - scrawling my name on a luggage tag - oh how thrifty.  Jamie was so cute when he found out Sam was waiting at door - running down with unbridled enthusiasm.  Cue hugs.
We went upstairs, opened beers and had a fake dance off.
Here is Jamie doing his best Savion Glover:

Patrick laughs in the background

For the photos, they made Sam and Busdriver honorary members.  For the polaroids, Jamie didn't have one taken.  His excuse was, "I'm not in the band."
I brushed it off as a joke, but a few days later it was announced he was leaving the band.

So of the tiny polaroids that grace this site's header, now you know when the Islands ones were taken.

I am in lust with the Lloyd Center dollar store!! - where I scored the goggles.

Jim and I spent the entirety of Cadence Weapon's set upstairs talking about the UK and the "no future" reality that plagues a lot of the cities.  A couple weeks later it was announced he wouldn't be joining them on their Euro jaunt.

Island's set was amazing!  A huge heckling situation broke out when Nick chose the wrong head to snatch a hat off of.  For eight songs, they yelled back and forth at each other, until Nick bargained with him that he would give back the hat if the guy left.  Agreed.

Busdriver, Cadence Weapon (decked out in a Test Icicles T-shirt and who I mentioned in my April podcast) guested along with another MC on 'Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone'.

'The Gorilla Is For Sand Racing' Cadence Weapon MP3

*Note that this track doesn't feature his rhyming, but is a super cool mix - especially with one minute left to go.

Then bass from another concert going on overpowered their set entirely, so they just improvised/jammed over the bass lines for a few songs.  Yes!!!!

I wrote out their set list for the night.  Ooohh and ahhh at my clear and concise hand-writing:

After the show when we were all deciding what to do after, Nick asked me and Sam how we met and I was too wimpy to admit it was through shooting them for German Vice (how chic is the photo credit? "Von" :).  I hated bringing up Test Icicles since the experience seemed to have destroyed Sam, so I was like "London?  Berlin?" I think it was obvious that I knew, but I couldn't drop the guessing game.  Geek!

Ted took this polaroid of me that night holding the polaroids I had just taken of Islands.

Grant couldn't believe it was me because I uh, look like a "normal" person for once.  You know, as opposed to the over-enthusiastic obsessive Winco lover type of person I typically am - Example 1, or someone who occassionally carries on conversation with photos on the wall at Jack in the Box.

Anyway, one of the photos I shot that night went on to run as a preview of their next PDX show in November in the Mercury - thanks to Ezra AC!