Not on the Guest List

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.

Chris Funk gets Flashy

A couple weeks ago I got an email from Chris Funk of the Decemberists mentioning his new music project Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble and noting they had an upcoming show at the Doug Fir. I said I was up for the show and we joked a bit about him having to put me on the guest list - only the reason this is called Not on the Guest List isn't because no one ever offers, it's mostly because of events similar to what happened when I arrived at the Doug Fir.
Scene: I present my ID.
"You're not on the guest list."
"Are you sure? I'm supposed to be."
"You're not on the guest list. Do you hear me?"
The Hot Knives and I joked about mutual not on the guest list experiences while boarding YACHT on a yacht and it pretty much defines my life as it did with Marcos dos Santos when he was hoofing it as a music photographer and would show up at venues and not be on the guest list even though he was supposed to be. And in the song, even though the door woman saw him all the time and knew he was supposed to be on the list, she wouldn't relent and let him in.
In Glasgow it got to the point where Brian, the Barfly's manager wouldn't even check the list when I'd appear in the doorway - he'd just wave me in as he knew I was supposed to be on it, but more often than not someone would space in adding my name.
So anyway, after a run around we got in and I went up and accosted Chris for failing to add my name. He insisted on giving me money for the hassle which was comical. I denied his first offer of ten dollars, but accepted the five when he said I could buy a drink with it. Good idea!
They took the stage after Horsefeathers full of strings and complete with a mini-gong! As it must be mentioned, onstage Decemberists participants included Jenny Conlee (who's in Flash Hawk full time) and Colin Meloy. There is also a Point Juncture WA member. (Side note: According to Cary of PDX Pop Now, who I chatted with this past First Thursday - a Point Juncture WA song was licensed just a little while ago after appearing on a PDX Pop Now compilation.)
What I remember most was the haphazard encore that almost didn't seem as though it'd happen, but then they trooped out onto the green lit stage and the focal point of the ensemble was definitely their gorilla mascot who took his place behind the drum kit. He was guided on and off stage by Chris with the help of other band mates too - it was almost like the blind leading the blind - that's how smooth sailing their entrance and exit were. He could barely stay upright while providing the backing beats.
Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble with their multitude of instruments and musicians are clearly about having fun and making music with friends, which is fun to feel apart of which one does in some sense when watching them live.

Their Radiohead Cover:
'Amnesiac' Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble MP3

Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble myspace

Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble are getting some great press! Check it on:
NME - Live review
Pitchfork - Album release item
Willamette Week - Preview

Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy Talk Books and Music

On Sunday I saw author Daniel Handler have a conversation with the Decemberists' Colin Meloy at Powell's to promote Daniel's quirky new novel for adults Adverbs dealing with the desperation that goes hand in hand with love. I took photos and recorded it, which follows below.

(INSANELY LONG) FOREWORD:
Sitting in Polly's flat in Glasgow with a group who were visiting from Munich for the weekend, I settled down to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events without any knowledge of what it was about other than that it was a children's film. Imagine my surprise.
I sat there, staring at the screen in confusion, while the Germans both watched the action and read the English subtitles in a better attempt to understand what was going on.
This was a kids film?
He locks the three children in a car on train tracks with a train approaching in an attempt to kill them. He tries to kill their aunt and writes a fake suicide letter so that they'll believe she committed suicide rather than suspect him. And then they have to watch as she's eaten alive, but can do nothing to help her. And then when he realizes it's too hard to kill them, he forces the 14 year old to marry him to get their money.
And this is for kids?
We kind of sat there in shock once it finished.
Then this past summer I got serious about writing my children's book The Legend of Laurence Swindon. I went to the library to check out books and came across The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket. And again, I couldn't believe it was for kids, but in a much different way. Inside of the run on sentences was a humor so subtle and off-kilter I was sure it would go over the heads of the kids reading it and that was the best part. It was laugh out loud funny for the audacity of the humor! Seriously - it almost seems as though it was written for adults. I instantly recommended it to my mom and I'm recommending it here - you wouldn't think it'd be so appealing, but seriously - it will surprise you!
About a year and a half from my original encounter later it was time for the release of the final book in the series #13 titled The End on the very appropriate September Friday the 13th 2006. Since I had never gone to see the mania that accompanies the release of Harry Potter, I went to the party Powell's was throwing at 2pm. At 20, I was the oldest in attendance. The next oldest was a boy who was maybe 13 and that could be a stretch. Yeah. . . this is my life.
And it was so much fun! Maybe too much fun as I got swept up in the atmosphere of it all and ended up spending $10 that I really didn't have on the book.
There was a cake walk, parsley soda, treats from the Salmonella Cafe, stickers, and mask coloring.
So I then decided to go to the event Barnes and Noble was throwing later that night at 7pm. I ran into a lot of the kids that were at the Powell's party earlier. And again, yeah. . . this is my life. . .
B&N's wasn't as spectacular, but still a worthy distraction with a scavenger hunt and rice crispies treats.
So I read the book and I'm so glad I did. It mirrored a lot of what I was going through in my life right then. So then I NEEDED to see him when he came on his tour only I couldn't get to Seattle where the nearest reading was occurring. My mom tried to make me feel better by sending me a link to an article detailing that Lemony Snicket never showed and that Daniel Handler read in his place alongside a performance from Magnetic Fields. But that's the thing - Lemony Snicket would of course never show, for he does not exist. Lemony Snicket is Daniel Handler.
I love Daniel Handler. I love that he always finds ways to collaborate with musicians. The last tour he did was with the exceedingly prolific Domino Recording artist Magnetic Fields. He also participated in a benefit for Rouge Wave.
So when I saw he was coming to promote his latest adult novel and would be joined by Colin Meloy, I was as good as there.

THE PLOT:

The first chapter is insanely funny in an offbeat way. It totally sold me on the book.
If you hear faint swishing on the recording, it's the people that walked by periodically.

Listen: Daniel Handler reads the first chapter of his novel Adverbs entitled Immediately (MP3) (13:18)

What's the worst Decemberists song ever written? Well Colin had a pretty good idea so he announced at a show that he was about to play the worst song he's ever written. That's when the audience in attendance that night took it upon themselves unprompted to shout out their guesses what it could be. Can you imagine how humiliating that would be? And funny?
More ancedotes like this float on through out their conversation.
I love how un-PC Daniel is. You will too. No topic is left untouched - from terrorism, to dreaming of killing another well known author who recently died, to Daniel's Portland and it's laugh out loud funny, or at least snicker-out loud :)

Listen: Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy conversing (MP3) (24:44)

How did Daniel pick the name Lemony Snicket? Even if you don't think it'd be of interest, trust me -- it is! He reveals it's origin in the first few minutes of this segment. It involves letters of outrage to editors of neighborhood newspapers, but specifically picking the most harmless story. Who wants to form a club and do the same thing?!
And remember the shred-off the Decemberists had with my boyfriend Stephen Colbert (who I saw in New York!)? Well Colin reveals a lot about what went on behind the scenes.

Listen: The audience inquisition of Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy (MP3) (14:08)

Then they signed things. Colin was presented with a pack of hand-made Decemberists cards, so a card playing break/photo-op was taken:

Here is Daniel asking among another question:
"Is this your husband?"
To an eight year old girl and her 50+ year old father.

"No - it's my dad!"
"You married your father? That's gross."

My alliterated inscription!

He didn't "want to be seen endorsing" my personality, hence the word "allegedly", but he could "tell" I was neurotic.

And the jacket art for Adverbs is by Dan Clowes!!! In related/unrelated, Nick Swardson who played my favorite character in Dan Clowes' Art School Confidential is currently on tour. I'm hoping to see him at the Crystal Ballroom on June 16th.

AFTERWORD:

So basically I now have the intention to harass Colin Meloy into participating in a new photography project I have dreamed up with him in mind. His use of his hands as he speaks is notable, so I'm thinking of doing a sign language chart of certain words in Decemberists songs and using him as the model. If I ever had a reason to go to Edgefield, this is it. . . And no, there is absolutely no point to the project - which has become the point itself.

'The Landlord's Daughter' The Decemberists MP3