The third annual Hangout Music Festival runs May 18-20th on Alabama’s Gulf Shores. As previously reported, Jack White will top this year’s lineup and he’ll joined by Dave Matthews Band and a soon-to-be-announced third headliner. Update: Red Hot Chili Peppers have been confirmed as the third main stage headliner.

Other heavyweights include Wilco, String Cheese Incident, The Flaming Lips, who will perform Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Chris Cornell, Skrillex, Dispatch, and Steve Winwood.

Also playing are Randy Newman, STS9, Coheed and Cambria, Flogging Molly, M. Ward, Dr. Dog, Alabama Shakes, Dawes, Cage the Elephant, Gogol Bordello, Young the Giant, Mavis Staples, Big Freedia, Shpongle, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Gary Clark Jr., G. Love and Special Sauce, Allen Stone, Zeds Dead, Paul Oakenfold, Yelawolf, Mac Miller, Hey Rosetta!, Paper Diamond, and Sleeper Agent. Additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks.

Three-day and VIP passes will be available starting Friday, February 10th at Noon ET. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

Yep, it’s Friday again. And you know what that means: 10 of the week’s bestest, freshest songs arranged for your listening pleasure in descending alphabetical order. Today, we’ve got new material on deck from Jack White, Orbital, and M. Ward among others. TGIF, indeed.

- Möhammad Choudhery
Staff Writer

Beach Fossils – “Shallow”

At the beginning of February, it seems strange to embrace the warm, sunny sounds of Beach Fossils, but that’s why it’s great! There’s a major shortage during this time of the year of jangly surf pop, which makes this track stick out all the more. There is no sophomore album announced at the moment, but the Shallow single will be out 2/24 via Captured Tracks. -WR

Beach Fossils – “Shallow”

Daniel Rossen – “Silent Song”

Grizzly Bear is one of the most fascinating acts today. Altogether, the dynamics of each individual member are barely noticeable, but when one steps away, you can immediately pick out what that person adds to Grizzly Bear. In Rossen’s case, it’s some twangy melody and a high, straining set of pipes. You gotta go to Rolling Stone to hear it, but I promise it’s worth the trip. The Grizzly Bear off-season has been very fruitful thus far. Rossen’s debut solo EP, Silent Hour/Golden Mile, arrives March 20th via Warp. -WR

Jack White – “Love Interruption”

This past Tuesday, Jack White finally announced the news we’ve been half-expecting for years now, detailing the release of his long-awaited debut solo record, Blunderbuss. The album’s spare lead single, “Love Interruption”, finds White in a surprisingly candid mood (sample lyric: “I want love to roll me over slowly, stick a knife inside me, and twist it all around.” And that’s only the first line.) over sparkling keys and backing vocals, courtesy of fellow Nashville singer-songwriter Ruby Amanfu. Blunderbuss is out April 24th on White’s own Third Man Records. -MC

M. Ward – “The First Time I Ran Away”

You know those rare mornings when you wake up and you’re just instantly and naturally ready to go? That’s exactly what the first offering from M. Ward’s upcoming Wasteland Companion (out 4/10 via Merge) feels like. It takes off at a sprint, like these songs are hankering for sunshine, as if they’ve been sitting in some dusty corner of M. Ward’s brain for far too long. Bodes well for the album, that much is certain. -WR

M.I.A. – “Bad Girls”

Just a few days off from her scheduled performance with Madonna at this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, M.I.A. dropped this gem of a track, the first she’s released in awhile. A Danja rework of the “Bad Girls” that appeared on her Vicki Leekx mixtape last year, it’s the first we’re hearing of her soon-to-be-released fourth LP, out this summer on Interscope Records.  -MC

Maffew Ragazino feat. Das Racist – “Jackson Pollock”

While he’s not the first MC to sample Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks”, that goes to Gambino, Maffew Ragazino brings a whole new swagger to the track, one that arguably blows Gambino’s track out of the water. And once Das Racist joins the party, it’s with more passion than their usual lazy, stoner mantra. It’s the kind of rapping, in fact, where you’re so riveted by the verses that it’s easy to forget you were listening to Grizzly Bear. - WR

Nite Jewel – “Visions” (Stevie Wonder cover)

Don’t be worried, you didn’t miss Nite Jewel’s new album, that’s still scheduled for a March 6th release. This track is just a one off, and for a good cause. The 7″ single is available now via Yours Truly’s Bandcamp and each order comes with a $1 donation to the Lauren Abramson Memorial Fund. Romona Gonzalez (aka Nite Jewel) sticks to the basics on this track resulting in a hollow, gorgeous cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Visions”. -WR

Nite Jewel – “Visions” (Stevie Wonder cover)

oOoOO – “NoWayBack (feat. Butterclock)”

Chris Greenspan’s debut EP as oOoOO last year was one of the best parts of Tri Angle Records’ hallmark 2011. Greenspan looks to follow it up this spring with another equally creepy-looking EP, Our Loving Is Hurting Us. The first single is “NoWayBack”, which features hazy guest vocals from Berlin up-and-comer Butterclock. It’s a striking first impression of Our Loving Is Hurting Us, out April 10th on Tri Angle Records. -MC

Orbital – “New France (feat. Zola Jesus)”

This year, British electro pioneers Orbital look to make their triumphant return with Wonky, their first album of new material in eight years. Produced by Flood (of Violator, Achtung Baby, Pretty Hate Machine fame) and featuring goth-pop standout Zola Jesus on vocals, “New France” is exactly the sort of huge, timelessly brilliant dance track we’ve come to expect from the brothers Harnoll. Wonky is out April 3rd. -MC

POND – “Moth Wings”

Better known as half of Aussie psychedelic-ists Tame Impala, Nick Albrook and James Watson have, to date, also cut three stellar records as POND. “Moth Wings” is the meaty, wah wah-ed out second single off of the pair’s forthcoming fourth full-length, Beard, Wives, Denim, out March 6th on Modular Records. Check out the track here. -MC

The 11th annual Sasquatch! Music Festival runs May 25-28th at the Gorge Ampitheatre in George, Washington. Topping this year’s lineup are Jack White, Beck, and Bon Iver, with Pretty Lights, Tenacious D, The Shins, Girl Talk, St. Vincent, Feist, and Silversun Pickups, among the other heavyweights.

Also playing are Spiritualized, Childish Gambino, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, M. Ward, tUnE-yArDs, Wild Flag, Mark Lanegan Band, Shabazz Palaces, The Walkmen, The Head and the Heart, Metric, The Joy Formidable, Little Dragon, SBTRKT, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Alabama Shakes, Kurt Vile, Zola Jesus, The War on Drugs, araabMUZIK, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

The bill also boasts Nero, Wolfgang Gartner, Deer Tick, Cass McCombs, Shearwater, The Helio Sequence, Gary Clark Jr., Apparat, THEESatisfaction, Dum Dum Girls, The Cave Singers, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Purity Ring, Active Child, Com Truise, Starfucker, Cloud Cult, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Grouplove, I Break Horses, Trampled By Turtles, Said The Whale, Hey Rosetta!, Gardens & Villa, and Craft Spells.

This year also marks the return of a comedy lineup with a live performance of Portlandia, in addition to Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Todd Barry, Beardyman, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, and Howard Kremer.

Check out the complete lineup at Festival Outlook.

Festival passes go on sale February 11th at 10:00 AM PT via the festival’s website.

“I’m looking for something that’ll…break through. You know?” James Woods’ Max Renn yearns in David Cronenberg’s 1983 cult classic Videodrome. Oh, how things have changed. In today’s day and age, we’ve already drowned in media. It’s swallowed us. We’re nothing but a bubble amidst one infinite, engulfing abyss. Intimidated? You should be. With each passing second, you’re losing opportunities to take advantage of a culture that’s moving ahead and at an exhausting rate. You could very well be alone…left behind…abandoned. Terrified yet? Yes? Well, that’s more like it.

-Michael Roffman
President/Editor-in-Chief

The Darkness – “Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us”

They say that anything is possible through the wonders of animation. Nothing could be more of a testament to that statement than this latest video from The Darkness. Exhibit A: the part at 2:05 where the guitar player’s arms, legs and head all transform into more guitars while he’s mid-solo. Come on, don’t pretend you didn’t miss them.

Die Antwoord – “I Fink U Freeky”

How did we last almost an entire year without a single music video from these South African rapping weirdos? This clip plays kind of like a much darker, more bizarre version of their “Enter The Ninja” video from 2010, and takes their brand of shock-rap to almost uncomfortable levels.

Feist – “The Bad In Each Other”

Martin de Turah must have just seen Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life before he directed this latest video for Ms. Leslie Feist. It’s a grand and poignant analysis of the human condition that manages to be gritty and pastoral at the same time.

Lil Wayne feat. Bruno Mars – “Mirror”

In this video, Weezy up and goes Jackson Pollock on us all. With the help of Bruno Mars, he literally paints a picture of his soul, his demons, and his regrets. The result is a vaguely sacrilegious self-portrait of himself as a Jesus-like martyr up on a cross. Funny, because it’s exactly what my own self-portrait would probably look like.

M. Ward – “The First Time I Ran Away”

This latest animated video from M. Ward is as whimsical as a young child’s imagination and will make you wish you had a pet llama to go on adventures with when you were a kid.

Mark Lanegan Band – “The Gravedigger’s Song”

In a mere three and a half minutes, Mark Lanegan manages to conjure up images of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho and The Grudge among other famous horror flicks. In other words, don’t watch this one before you go to bed.

Miracles of Modern Science – “Eating Me Alive”

Steps for making a decidedly low budget yet instantly charming indie music video: 1. Find an empty room. 2. Buy several rolls of Christmas lights. 3. Begin playing.

Pretty Lights – “We Must Go On”

A spacey montage of city life in all its grime and poverty puts an almost political spin on Pretty Lights’s down tempo R&B jam. It’s essentially a view of the proverbial “rat race” through the eyes of someone who has just taken ecstasy. Hey, whatever makes life in the concrete jungle easier.

The War on Drugs – “Brothers”

Who knew that the combination of kidnapping and cowboys would be so creepy?

As previously reported, M. Ward returns in April with A Wasteland Companion, his first solo album in three years. As an early taste, Pitchfork brings us an animated video for “The First Time I Ran Away”. Watch it below.

A Wasteland Companion is out April 10th via Merge. It features Zooey Deschanel, Mike Mogis, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, among others.

A Wasteland Companion Tracklist:
01. Clean Slate (For Alex & El Goodo)
02. Primitive Girl
03. Me and My Shadow
04. Sweetheart
05. I Get Ideas
06. The First Time I Ran Away
07. A Wasteland Companion
08. Watch the Show
09. There’s a Key
10. Crawl After You
11. Wild Goose
12. Pure Joy

M. Ward is back in April with his first solo album in three years, A Wasteland Companion. As Pitchfork reports, the album spans 12 tracks and features contributions the She in She & Him, Zooey Deschanel, as well as his Monster of Folk collaborator Mike Mogis, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb, and PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, among others.

In support of the release, Ward will hit the road this spring, splitting bills with Feist, the recently reunited fIREHOSE and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. Check out the album’s tracklist and Ward’s tour schedule below.

A Wasteland Companion is out April 10th via Merge.

A Wasteland Companion Tracklist:
01. Clean Slate (For Alex & El Goodo)
02. Primitive Girl
03. Me and My Shadow
04. Sweetheart
05. I Get Ideas
06. The First Time I Ran Away
07. A Wasteland Companion
08. Watch the Show
09. There’s a Key
10. Crawl After You
11. Wild Goose
12. Pure Joy

M. Ward Tour Dates:
03/21 – Paris, FR @ Le Zenith ^
03/22 – Lyon, FR @ Transbordeur ^
03/23 – Lille, FR @ Theatre Sebastopol ^
03/25 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall ^
03/26 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo ^
03/27 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall ^
04/11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore #
04/12 – Santa Cruz, CA The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom $
04/13 – Indio, CA @ Coachela Music Festival
04/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom $
04/18 – Flagstaff, AZ @ The Orpheum $
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
05/05 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre *
05/06 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground *
05/07 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place *
05/08 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues *
05/11 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
05/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
05/13 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club *
05/15 – Durham, NC @ Page Auditorium *
05/16 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre *
05/17 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre *
05/22 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre *
05/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue

^ = w/ Feist
# = w/ Jonathan Richman
$ = w/ fIREHOSE
* = w/ Lee Ranaldo

In support of the upcoming solo LP, Between The Times & The Tides, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo will be hitting the road this spring with some old friends and big names. In April, Ranaldo will play a pair of dates with Disappears, which features Sonic Youth drummer and Between The Times cohort Steve Shelley. Then in May, he’ll open a series of shows for folk singer-songwriter M. Ward.

For Ward’s part, he’ll be joining Ranaldo after spending time with Feist in Europe, followed by stateside shows with Jonathan Richman and the newly reunited fIREHOSE. See both Ranaldo and Ward’s tour schedules below.

Ranaldo’s Between The Times & The Tides is out March 20th via Matador. Ward is currently working on a new solo album, his first since 2009′s Hold Time.

Lee Ranaldo Tour Dates:
04/07 – Mexico City, MX @ Indie-O Fest
04/17 – Ithaca, NY @ The Haunt ^
04/18 – Albany, NY @ Valentines ^
05/05 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre *
05/06 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground *
05/07 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place *
05/08 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues *
05/11 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
05/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
05/13 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club *
05/15 – Durham, NC @ Page Auditorium *
05/16 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre *
05/17 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre *
05/22 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre *

^ = w/ Disappears
* = w/ M.Ward

M. Ward Tour Dates:
03/21 – Paris, FR @ Le Zenith ^
03/22 – Lyon, FR @ Transbordeur ^
03/23 – Lille, FR @ Theatre Sebastopol ^
03/25 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall ^
03/26 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo ^
03/27 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall ^
04/11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore #
04/12 – Santa Cruz, CA The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom $
04/13 – Indio, CA @ Coachela Music Festival
04/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom $
04/18 – Flagstaff, AZ @ The Orpheum $
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
05/05 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre *
05/06 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground *
05/07 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place *
05/08 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues *
05/11 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
05/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
05/13 – Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club *
05/15 – Durham, NC @ Page Auditorium *
05/16 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre *
05/17 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre *
05/22 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre *

^ = w/ Feist
# = w/ Jonathan Richman
$ = w/ fIREHOSE
* = w/ Lee Ranaldo

We’re still two months away from South by Southwest 2012, but today the schedule for the music portion went live, adding a slew of new names to the bill. Previously confirmed acts include Built to Spill, The Magnetic Fields, Talib Kweli, Against Me!, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Cloud Nothings, and a keynote speech by Bruce Springsteen.

Update: As a number of readers have pointed out, several acts listed on the festival’s schedule yesterday have since disappeared, including Best Coast, ASAP Rocky, Dan Deacon, Zola Jesus, YACHT, Nicolas Jaar, Azari & III, Bear In Heaven, Caveman, Anika, Cerebal Ballzy, and Charlift. According to festival organizers, this is the result of a number of reasons, including incomplete paperwork. It’s also possible that an artist initially applied to play the festival, but has since changed its plans. As of now, it’s unclear which of the aforementioned acts will end up playing. Stay tuned to our Festival Outlook page for lineup additions and updates.

Now joining them are Best Coast, M. Ward, of Montreal, ASAP Rocky, Danny Brown, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, Dan Deacon, The Drums, Astronautalis, Bear In Heaven, Ceremony, Chairlift, Crystal Antlers, Little Boots, Deerhoof, Dragonette, Gossip, Matthew Dear, Miike Snow, SBTRKT, Sharon Van Etten, Zola Jesus, Nicolas Jaar, Oneohtrix Point Never, Thundercat, The War on Drugs, Youth Lagoon, and Tennis.

Also set to appear are Lana Del Rey, The Ting Tings, Action Bronson, Apparat, Buraka Som Sistema, Spank Rock, Corrosion of Conformity, Jimmy Cliff, Rye Rye, K’naan, YACHT, Band of Skulls, White Rabbits, Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny, Supreme Dicks, Caveman, Cerebral Ballzy, Freelance Whales, Here We Go Magic, Free Energy,  Eleanor Friedberger, The Black Angels, Blondes, Busdriver, Ezra Furman, Friends, Memoryhouse, Mikal Cronin, Miniature Tigers, Zechs Marquise, and Purity Ring.

The massive bill also includes Counting Crows, Tommy Stinson, The Wedding Present, Andrew WK, Brendan Benson, Hot Water Music, Gauntlet Hair, Grieves and Budo, Imogen Heap, Ingrid Michaelson, Michael Franti and Spearhead, The Henry Clay People, Justin Townes Earle, The Love Language, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Micachu & the Shapes, The Fresh & Onlys, Gardens & Villa, P.O.S., Anika, And So I Watch You From Afar, Fake Problems, Azari & III, Sleepy Sun, Bahamas, Japanther, The Knux, Carter Tanton, Cassettes Won’t Listen, Jacuzzi Boys, CHALI 2NA, Cities Aviv, Is Tropical, Javelin, Kids These Days, Living Things, Scattered Trees, and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

Update: Despite previously being on the lineup, The Polyphonic Spree are no longer slated to play the festival.

Check out the complete lineup at our Festival Outlook. And stay tuned for additional lineup news and updates — typically, the biggest acts are revealed until just days prior to the festival.

The music portion of South by Southwest 2012 runs March 13-18th in Austin Texas. Registration is now ongoing, with various types of badges to chose from. Click here for all the details.

Other notables include St. Vincent, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, Justice, Mazzy Star, M83, Explosions in the Sky, Childish Gambino, Flying Lotus, Destroyer, Cat Power, Madness, SBTRKT, Beirut, Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, fIREHOSE, Miike Snow, The Rapture, M. Ward, Jimmy Cliff with Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, The Horrors, Buzzcocks, James, EMA, Girls, tUnE-yArDs, and more.

The lineup also packs Wild Flag, ASAP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Neon Indian, Santigold, Modeselektor, The Big Pink, Wu Lyf, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, The Head and the Heart, Laura Marling, Company Flow, AraabMUZIK, Kaskade, Le Butcherettes, Real Estate, Wild Beasts, La Roux, Thundercat, Azealia Banks, Kasabian, Goyte, Manchester Orchestra, Black Lips, Atari Teenage Riot, and more. Check out the full lineup below or at our Festival Outlook.

Update: Tickets go on sale Friday, January 13th at 10:00 AM PT. According to Pop & Hiss, three-day passes are $285, three-day with shuttle are $335, and VIP are $665.

A number of familiar faces are in the running for Best Original Song at the 84th Academy Awards. Some 39 contenders have been shortlisted for the category, including The National for “Think You Can Wait” (Win Win), Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward for “So Long” (Winnie the Pooh), Jónsi for “Gathering Stories” (We Bought A Zoo), and OK Go for “The Greatest Song I Ever Heard” (POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold).

Also on the list are all the nominees (minus Madonna) from the same category at the Globes: Chris Cornell for “The Keeper” (Machine Gun Preacher); Mary J. Blige for “The Living Proof” (The Help); Sinead O’Connor, Brian Byrne and Glenn Close for “Lay Your Head Down” (Albert Nobbs); and Lady Gaga and Elton John for “Hello Hello” (Gnomeo and Juliet). John also go picked for “Love Builds a Garden” from the same film.

The 39 will be whittled down to three to five (it varies) on January 24th, with the award then handed out at the ceremony on February 26th. See the complete list of shortlisted songs and the films they’re from below.

“The World I Knew” from African Cats
“Lay Your Head Down” from Albert Nobbs
“Star Spangled Man” from Captain America: The First Avenger
“Collision of Worlds” from Cars 2
“Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu” from DAM999
“DAM999 Theme Song” from DAM999
“Mujhe Chod Ke” from DAM999
“Rainbird” from Dirty Girl
“Keep On Walking” from The First Grader
“Where the River Goes” from Footloose
“Hello Hello” from Gnomeo & Juliet
“Love Builds a Garden” from Gnomeo & Juliet
“Bridge of Light” from Happy Feet Two
“The Mighty Sven” from Happy Feet Two
“Never Be Daunted” from happythankyoumoreplease
“Hell and Back” from Hell and Back Again
“The Living Proof” from The Help
“Coeur Volant” from Hugo
“It’s How We Play” from I Don’t Know How She Does It
“When the Heart Dies” from In the Land of Blood and Honey
“Ja Nao Estar” from José and Pilar
“The Keeper” from Machine Gun Preacher
“Life’s a Happy Song” from The Muppets
“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets
“Pictures in My Head” from The Muppets
“Summer Song” from The Music Never Stopped
“Imaginary Friends” from Olive
“Sparkling Day” from One Day
“Taking You with Me” from Our Idiot Brother
“The Greatest Song I Ever Heard” from POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
“Hot Wings” from Rio
“Let Me Take You to Rio” from Rio
“Real in Rio” from Rio
“Shelter” from Take Shelter
“Gathering Stories” from We Bought a Zoo
“Pop” from White Irish Drinkers
“Think You Can Wait” from Win Win
“The Backson Song” from Winnie the Pooh
“So Long” from Winnie the Pooh

Gone are the more complex arrangements and lush production of Volume One and Volume Two, swapped here for sparse instrumentation and a focus on Deschanel’s vocals, a decision that yields mixed results. It is no secret that Deschanel’s talents as a vocalist are limited, but what she lacks in range she makes up for with abounding adorableness – a measurement that is not to be ignored when discussing Christmas music.

On tracks like opener “The Christmas Waltz” and “Christmas Day”, her vocal vulnerability lends an undeniable layer of sweetness, but on others such as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, her inability to belt it out leaves the listener unfilled. That song at least is salvaged by Ward’s precision guitar playing, which is tasteful and subtle throughout the record, almost to the point of being underused.

The album’s finest moment is the pair’s duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. The vocal interplay between Deschanel and Ward, the whistling bridge, and the brush-stroked snare make for an irresistible two minutes and 17 seconds, and it’s by far the band’s most successful attempt at making a retro Christmas album for hipsters.

Ultimately, A Very She & Him Christmas is an enjoyable if forgettable project that its creators probably had a very fun time making. It is background music for baking cookies and wrapping presents. Nothing more, nothing less.

Essential Tracks: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, “Silver Bells”

This year was no different. With a decorated and diverse lineup that included performances by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, and DeVotchka, this three-day assemblage was a welcoming ode to autumn. With sun-kissed weather accented by a brisk wind, all types of festivalgoers flocked to Golden Gate Park to make their pilgrimage. This is truly a festival for the intermingling of the old and the new: a time to appreciate seasoned veterans like Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Duchesses), John Prine, and Irma Thomas, while exploring new tastes with acts like Gomez, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Elbow. The crowd was a mix of the toothless and the homeless, the hipsters and the hippies, the yuppies and the socialites. To even begin to describe the range of cacophonous sounds, the ambiguous and perpetual haze that clouds one’s vision, the plethora of smells… all of these color every vein of San Franciscan life, and have come to be represented in this review through picture and word.

And rest assured, there were many priceless moments, the kind that only rock and roll — and San Francisco — can deliver. There was Devotchka’s Nick Urata chugging a bottle of red wine and then dousing the screaming crowd with it; thousands of people dropping to the ground and then jumping up simultaneously to the jarring sound of Fitz and the Tantrums; and time traveling backward into the ’60s during performances by Robert Plant & the Band of Joy and Dark Star Orchestra. The sort of feeling that comes with these experiences, that feeling that music is perhaps the only thing that can unite us and save us as human beings, is a memorable one. All idealism aside, each artist on the lineup delivered their best, and as CoS can duly attest to, the infamous adage rings true for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: “The best things in life are free.”

- Summer Dunsmore
Writer/Photographer

Friday, September 30th

Southern Culture on the Skids – Arrow Stage

Scrupulous in their live performance, Southern Culture on the Skids has labored long over streamlining every aspect of their set. It’s what rock and roll should be — calculated yet improvisational, evidencing clear skill and creativity, while also being rigorous and animated. Band members Rick Miller, Dave Hartman, and Mary Huff resonated and glowed with effortless style during the entirety of their performance. All husky seduction, Miller wailed and moaned into the microphone, picking fiercely at his electric guitar. His counterpart, Huff, is a red-haired raven who knows how to keep up with the boys; she seduced eardrums during her performance of “You’re a Star”. The band’s music live embodies southern soul mixed with touches of naughty fun; their rendition of “The Wet Spot” — which sounded like Middle Eastern music accentuated with a touch of The Beach Boys’ surfer sound — featured a barely clothed belly dancer. With calls to clap, sing, and dance, their live performance at HSB turned out to be one of the most rallying shows of Friday afternoon.

The Felice Brothers – Rooster Stage

The Felice Brothers — Farley, James, Christmas, and Ian — have the sort of chemistry you can only find with family. James Felice’s performance of “Got What I Need” was a soulful soliloquy set organically in the midst of Golden Gate Park’s towering trees. His voice vibrant and resonant, James truly connected with the audience during this song, even interjecting an ever appropriate accordion solo. The Felice Brothers exhibited an interesting assortment of instruments during their set, and they used the accordion and the fiddle indiscriminately to construct their modern bluegrass sound.

As the main singer of the band, James emerged as the band’s truly talented jewel; his performance had all of the sincere, aching loneliness that attracts listeners to this genre. One can tell that the Felice Brothers write and play their music as a means to relate, a way for the listener to finally come to terms with the sort of feelings that they cannot put into words. Likewise, during “Saint Stephen’s End”, the mood was slow, emotive, and charismatic; it resonated within its surroundings. It was romantic and piercing, like a lullaby to a loved one, a last glance as a train leaves the station, the sun in your eyelashes. The last song of the set was “Whiskey in My Whiskey”, an ode recounting love, loss, and, of course, whiskey. As James wails the line, “I put some whiskey in my whiskey,” all one can think is — we’ve all done this, right? And that’s the Felice Brothers for you — soothing, poignant, and as good as the comforts of your favorite liquor.

John Prine – Banjo Stage

Active as a folk singer since 1971, John Prine’s style is reminiscent of another time. The power of his performance on Friday was in its subtlety. Dressed like Johnny Cash, his voice husky with wisdom and cigarettes, he sang to the old sentiments of America. While listening to tracks like “Grandpa Was a Carpenter”, one envisioned rocking chairs and summers by the lake; through his knack for songwriting and gentle acoustic guitar strumming, Prine created truly vivid imagery onstage. Folk artists today should take their notes from Prine; his formula is composed of simplicity and talent. The audience came to see Prine’s performance for his old soul, the way his voice carried on the early autumn wind during tracks like “Fish and Whistle”. He left the crowd with the whims of nostalgia, of a time when all you needed to create great music was an acoustic guitar and a vision.

Chris Isaak – Star Stage

The essence of Chris Isaak lies in the art of seduction. His voice drips like caramel when he performs live and is even sweeter than the croon that classifies his recorded work. The highlight of his performance, however predictable, was “Wicked Game”. With its infamous guitar succession from the Bm to A to E chords, its performance live delivers all of the dark romanticism one would envision. His artful yodel reverberating through the crowd, he sang, “Oh, I don’t want to fall in love with you,” and yet every woman instantly and effortlessly fell in love with him. At the song’s end, he held an infinite last sigh, and the crowd went wild for this man who mesmerizes.

M. Ward – Rooster Stage

Matthew Steven Ward, or simply “M. Ward”, conducts a rambunctious live show. Originally arising out of the Portland music scene, he’s been making music since 1999, and his sound has evolved to integrate the grind of rock and roll with tender, folkish finger picking. His performance at HSB seemed to be emulating Elvis, and just like with the King of Rock and Roll, the crowd adored M. Ward. His rendition of “Chinese Translation” was thunderous, with kick-drum beats that were so loud they threatened to break the speakers and a thrilling ensemble of electric and acoustic guitars. The crowd loved him so much they demanded an encore, and he was the perfect precursor to Bright Eyes, the next act on the Rooster Stage.

Robert Plant and the Band of Joy- Banjo Stage

Friday night at the Banjo Stage, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy were like the release of a long-held breath; there, before a crowd of thousands, was one of the greatest figures in rock and roll history. Plant formed his Band of Joy in 2010 in the pursuit of “something trippy, something far out” in which to sink his teeth into. Following a series of successful collaborations with Jimmy Page and Allison Krauss, Plant’s latest endeavor with the Band of Joy has led him around the United States in the past year to promote the band’s eponymous debut. Given his legacy as the lead singer for Led Zeppelin, one can tell from original tracks like “I Can’t Quit You Baby”, “Gallows Pole”, and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” that a blues influence has always existed in Plant’s creative musings, and has since framed the bluegrass sound for his modern Band of Joy.

Covering Zeppelin songs like “Black Dog” during their performance, the Band of Joy put their distinct twist on the classics. And though Plant is 63 years old, with a long history of infamous nights raging and ravaging the music world, his live performance at HSB proved that true talent never dies. He visibly felt every note, every wail of the guitar. He is music; he was effeminate and exaggerated, moving like a sphinx, twisting and twirling and clapping along with the beats. The Band of Joy’s performance of “House of Cards” was a jewel, with long, trailing guitar wails matched perfectly to the resonance of Plant’s high-pitched exultations.

Bright Eyes – Rooster Stage

Clamorous and willing, the crowd collected in a small corner of Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadow to see Bright Eyes. The California sun setting behind them, the crowd instead faced east, allured by the promise of seeing Conor Oberst live. As one of the headlining acts of Friday evening, the band delivered all of its hooks masterfully, with Oberst’s voice exhibiting its uniquely raw and reverberating sound. The two best songs of the set were some of Bright Eyes’ classics, “First Day of My Life” and “Lover I Don’t Have to Love”. “First” was played with Oberst set on center stage in a vulnerable and poignant position; a pipe organ traced the song’s beat behind him. “Lover” followed directly after and is often considered a stark contrast in sound and style to many of Bright Eyes’ songs. Extremely stylistic when performed live, it was flavored with a sweeping electric guitar, as well as the keyboard and drum succession that make it such a strong piece. It was a dramatic example of Oberst’s talent and vision, and on Friday night he proved that he truly deserves to be called one of the most influential artists of the indie music scene.

Saturday, October 1st

Broken Social Scene – Towers of Gold Stage

Photo by Marcus Gedai

On this hazy Saturday afternoon, with the intermingling of dust and pot smoke, the ambiance for the evening was set when Broken Social Scene came onstage. Their performance of “Sweetest Kill” radiated outward from all directions, a mellow ode, a welcomed difference given the other “strictly bluegrass” bands on this day’s lineup. This stage was where the hipsters languished and descended for the day to listen to the orchestral music that Broken Social Scene so effortlessly produced. There was a desire to close your eyes, vibe, and listen; their performance packed punch, as if it were meant for an amphitheater, and they seemed to take notes from purely instrumentalist bands like Explosions in the Sky.

Irma Thomas – Star Stage

Irma Thomas is a goddess. With a voice that communicates every emotion, every tribulation, her performance was one of the weekend’s best. Performing such hits as “Time Is on My Side” and a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, her voice ripped and roared through the evening. She was a robust, animated performer, an obvious queen of her trade. More than that, she knew how to catapult the audience into a frenzy; people sang and swayed, their souls filled with the sweet sounds of the 60s. The performance was practiced, clean, concise — truly the depiction of talent at its best.

Robert Earl Keen – Rooster Stage

Robert Earl Keen is a country songwriter from Texas. His music, likewise, comes from the American South; it’s all about the acoustic guitar solos, the subtle bass, and the simple drum line. His performance was a fun one, filled with hits like “Feelin’ Good Again” and “Gringo Honeymoon”. His best track was “I Gotta Go”, where he integrated his uniquely stylized and meticulous finger picking. He lent the essence of bluegrass back to the festival, with a performance as charming as his silk, three-piece suit.

The Flatlanders feat. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock – Arrow Stage

Photo by Marcus Gedai

The Flatlanders’ performance was like the golden rays of the California sun; the lyrics and sound of singers Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock are warm and nostalgic. The Flatlanders originally formed in 1972, but after a year decided to disband; they then resumed performing in 1998 to much critic acclaim. These Texan mavericks made the Lone Star State proud on Saturday, channeling the soul and vivacity that makes Texas such a pivotal influence on the American music scene. Performing such songs as “Homeland Refugee”, the three sang about “leaving California for the Dust Bowl”, and the trio’s combination of voices came out sounding like a lullaby. There was an obvious camaraderie between the members onstage, making their performance an enjoyable one to watch.

Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Duchesses) featuring Allison Moorer – Banjo Stage

Steve Earle, his team of Dukes and Duchesses, and Allison Moorer performed the best set of Saturday. The relationship between Steve Earle and Allison Moorer on stage is reminiscent of Robert Plant and Allison Krauss; it’s a duet written in the stars. During Earle’s solo performance of “Meet Me in the Alleyway”, voice synthesizer and harmonica in hand, he played blues as blues is meant to played — vivid, husky, dark. It was all about him in this moment, about his talent, his knack for improvisation. He connected well with the audience; they were receptive to every slide of the harmonica, and there was a clear leeway, a union, as he and the audience tossed vibes back and forth. It was clear in this moment how music is felt so integrally, so innately.

At the end of a brilliant set, Earle and the Gang performed a cover of The Animals’ “San Francisco Nights”. With Allison Moorer’s first lyric sung, her voice lingering on the edges of San Francisco’s misty sunset, the crowd was united in the tone of the song. Could a moment ever be as perfectly picturesque as this: San Francisco, the crescent moon lingering in the sky, a place the hippies never left. It was metaphysical, transcendent, and it was clear that what defines San Francisco in the past and the present is its people. The music and the crowd were one, and this “warm San Francisco night” ended with one of the best performances of the weekend.

Sunday, October 2nd

DeVotchKa – Star Stage

DeVotchKa embodies the art of performance and rock & roll. Not only is Nick Urata an incredible singer, one who sings with all levels of emotion and can carry his note for more than 30 seconds, but he can play the banjo like the Devil’s right hand. The wallowing cry of his voice on Sunday could be heard for miles, as Urata and band rocked “How It Ends” and “You Love Me”. Jeanie Schroder played in incredible form, balancing the likes of a cello, and then a trombone, on her feminine frame. At the end of the set, Urata let out a last tribal cry, erupting eardrums all around, and then beat fervently at his banjo. He then grabbed a bottle of red wine set nearby, chugged it, and then swung the contents viciously at the crowd. I was doused completely, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. Urata is a master onstage, all art, style, and soul, and him and the rest of DeVotchKa delivered one of the best performances I have ever seen.

Fitz and the Tantrums – Towers of Gold Stage

Fitz and the Tantrums followed DeVotchKa and also played one of the most energetic shows of the weekend. The coursing heart of the group lies in Noelle Scaggs, who pranced around the stage during the band’s performance of “Pickin’ Up the Pieces”, beating her tambourine. She screamed, jumped, threw up the middle finger; never before have I seen a performer with so much sincerely energetic vigor. Her and Michael Fitzpatrick strike a charming dualism and effectively bring back the 1950s duet. Their voices were sweet together, rejoicing, nostalgic. Because of their animated way of performing, you can tell that the band operates under an element of perfectionism; they wanted that performance, that day, to be the best they had ever done. And they were certainly successful; every ounce of energy, talent, and improvisation visibly went into this effort.

Fitz and band followed with a cover of The Raconteurs’ “Steady, As She Goes”, which didn’t have the same resonance of Jack White, but it definitely had its own twist. Nonetheless, the crowd loved it, and they also went crazy for a cover of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams”. Next was “L.O.V.”, which featured a rampant pipe organ (including a solo), drums, and keyboard. The crowd continued dancing wildly, and it was clear that this soulful style of music resonates with our generation as well. Their last song, “Moneygrabber”, was a more modern piece compared to the other cuts. Fitzpatrick and Scaggs yelled into the microphone, “Everyone, drop it like it’s hot!”; in sync, everyone shimmied down to the ground, then at the climax of the song and on Scaggs’ cue, the thousands of people in the crowd jumped up simultaneously and began a crazy dance party under the gaze of the Sunday sun.

Elbow – Star Stage

Elbow is a band that typifies modern alternative music. Led by the charismatic Guy Garvey, the band utilizes clear, acoustic strokes and strong kick-drum accents in their songs, creating an almost Middle Eastern, arabic tone. This was evident in their performance of “The Bones of You”; during the entirety of the song, Garvey reached out to the crowd, needing their participation, their approval, their love. The mood continued with “Mirrorball”, which featured an interesting mix of electric guitar and delicate vocalization. The performance was tender and sentimental; there was a moment where Garvey looked backward at the band members and smiled, and they each smiled back. You can tell there’s love amongst them, infused in every vein of their music, and that Garvey is the creative drive that keeps the band together. For him, synchronization, dutifulness, and practice are key, and what enveloped on Sunday was an ambiatic, well-performed set.

Dark Star Orchestra – Arrow Stage

Making my way to see Dark Star Orchestra’s performance, a concoction of smells enveloped me. Had I suddenly landed in the 60′s? Hippies of every size and shape wriggled and warped time with their free love and free drugs.

As one of the most acclaimed tribute bands to the Grateful Dead, Dark Star Orchestra has been performing since 1997 and has performed more than 2,000 shows. In the style of Jerry Garcia and his companions, they specialize in improvisational rock. Befitted in tie-dye tees, hair long and flowing, they entranced festivalgoers on Sunday with a dominant mix of electric guitar, bass guitar, and keyboard. The highlight of their performance was “The Music Never Stopped”, and I know that many people hoped it never would.

The Jayhawks – Rooster Stage

Unfortunately, The Jayhawks’ performance was the weakest of any I witnessed over the weekend. Coming off their recently released album, Mockingbird Time, the performance felt listless, as if playing live was a laborous task. Band members Gary Louris and Mark Olson did not express much enthusiasm while onstage, pausing at times to elicit a laugh from the crowd, but then resuming their rather stagnant performances. This is when I realized that not every set is golden and does not always proceed on the best note; these men are required to play, whether they are in the mood or not, and at the end of the day, they are simply human. The audience was receptive to this sentiment and likewise stood there barely moving, nodding their heads slightly. They played a track off their new album, “High Water Blues”, but altogether the performance was boring.

Gomez – Towers of Gold Stage

At the start of the set, lead singer Ian Ball yelled, “The sun’s going down, and we’re coming up!” And that’s exactly what happened. Gomez is a band that produces solid indie, exalting in their shows a youthful, enthusiastic energy. Their performance was providential, a truly human experience; it is with music, more than any other medium, that we learn the most about ourselves. And this was Gomez — raw, with Ball demanding that the audience dance like “crazy natives”, like they’re “lost in the middle of the woods and don’t know what the hell is going on.” And with the crescent moon arched visibly in the sky, these Sunday headliners said good-bye to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

The Culture of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Gallery by Summer Dunsmore

[nggallery id=276]

Ben Gibbard threw a monkey wretch into anyone and everyone’s dreams of spending Christmas morning fireside with Zooey Deschanel, but all is not lost. Thanks to the October 25th release of a new holiday themed album from She & Him, we’ll all able to jimmy jangle along to the indie-pop princess this holiday season. The 12-track compilation, titled A Very She & Him Christmas, sees Deschanel and cohort M. Ward taking on such classics as “Blue Christmas”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. ‘

Right below, we have She & Him’s cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. The album’s entire tracklist is after that.

A Very She & Him Christmas Tracklist:
01. The Christmas Waltz
02. Christmas Day
03. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
04. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
05. Christmas Wish
06. Sleigh Ride
07. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
08. Silver Bells
09. Baby, It’s Cold Outside
10. Blue Christmas
11. Little Saint Nick
12. The Christmas Song

Other notable acts include John Prine, Bill Kirchen, Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard, Gomez, DeVotchKa, Gillian Welch, Dr. John & the Lower 911, Earl Scruggs, Patty Griffin, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle and the Dukes (and Duchesses) featuring Allison Moorer, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Justin Townes Earle, The Jayhawks, Abigail Washburn, and Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses.

There are a bunch of indie favorites, too, including Thurston Moore, Robyn Hitchcock, M. Ward, Fitz & the Tantrums, The Low Anthem, Elbow, Kurt Vile & the Violators, Woods, Cass McCombs, A.A. Bondy, and The Band of Heathens.

Rounding out the bill are names like Buddy Miller, The Del McCoury Band & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Charlie Musselwhite, Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer, The Felice Brothers, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, The Belle Brigade, Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Civil Wars, Dark Star Orchestra, and, yes, MC Hammer.

Once again, the festival is free to attend. So, you really have no excuse.

This year had particular significance. Narrowly avoiding cancellation when sponsors walked away from the 2009 50th anniversary celebration (the number is a bit disingenuous; the festival took a hiatus between 1971 and 1985), the festival returned to non-profit status this year under the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc. banner. In addition, now in its “52nd” year, the festival experienced its first-ever complete sellout. 10,000 hungry folk fans took the water taxi across the harbor or wound around Harrison Avenue to attend each day.

Under nearly cloudless blue skies and despite the cruel heat doing its best to boil the good out of you, the venue really seemed to bring the best out of everyone. Whether contemporary risers or established legends, musicians brought their finest to the Fort. They couldn’t escape the magic of the place, love and passion flowing through every note sung or strummed. Covers and cameos were standard, tributes to music’s past, present and future.

The crowd’s appreciation and respect weren’t reserved for the performers, though it surely washed over them in waves. I’ve never seen a venue left cleaner at the end of the day, nor so many smiles and hugs shared by complete strangers – I myself partook in more than a few. Despite the odd segregation of the split main (Fort) stage crowd, with its square standing section on the right roped-off from the sea of beach chairs and blankets on the left, the sold-out crowd commingled as much as the bands. Indie-leaning youth danced with old-fashioned maturity to Emmylou Harris and Delta Spirit alike.

Photo by Nate Slevin

And there was still so much I missed. I’ve heard tales of Trampled by Turtles doing incredible things on the Quad Stage (I caught their encore cover of “Where Is My Mind?”), and The Devil Makes Three was a highlight for many. The story of John McCauley leading a score of artists through an amalgamation of “Goodnight Irene”, “La Bamba”, “Twist & Shout”, and “I Wanna Be Sedated” at the Backstage Benefit BBQ on Saturday night is already mythical. I never even made it to the newly added Lego DUPLO Kid’s Stage.

Yet it doesn’t bother me. The festival provided more than a fair share of fulfilling experiences. As Taylor Goldsmith said amidst Middle Brother’s set, “It’s not about what’s new or what’s different – it’s about what’s good, and folk music.” There was plenty of both to go around, and anyone in attendance should feel lucky to have witnessed what they did. I know I do.

-Benjamin Kaye
News Writer

Saturday, July 30th

PS22 Chorus – Alex and Ani Harbor Stage – 11:30 a.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

When people say the festival is getting younger, they’re usually referring to the audience, not the musicians. The inverse was true as the first notes of 2011 came from the voices of some of the youngest performers ever to take a Newport stage: a group of 11-to-12-year-olds from Staten Island. The PS 22 Chorus, an ever-graduating group of youth led by one Mr. B on keyboard, performed strong renditions of songs the typical middle-schooler wouldn’t even recognize. The audience was enthralled by the kiddy karaoke. Opener “Energy” by Austra roused true emotion, Mr. B pointing to one crowd member and ribbing, “No crying. I see you.” Soloists shined, like Roseli confidently tackling Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”, generating applause at every big note. Of course, they’re still just kids, often looking like another bored choir practice, some lazily half-doing hand choreography or omitting it entirely. But by the time they closed with Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”, the crowd was on its feet, showing the blooming performers a lot of love. Hopefully, some of these kids keep it up after graduation, because there’s certainly something special in the mix here.

Wailin’ Jennys – Fort Stage – 11:40 a.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

I initially had no intention of catching Wailin’ Jennys‘ set, but after hearing them do a stirring soundcheck of Gershwin’s “Summertime”, I wanted more of those lush harmonies. The trio of ladies didn’t disappoint, providing warm, perfectly keyed notes to the first main stage crowd of the festival. They also proved to be not just great vocalists but great performers, passing instruments back and forth between songs and telling tales to the obliging audience. Before gutsily covering headliner Emmylou Harris’s “Deeper Well”, Nicky Mehta told of how she mixed parenting and practice by playing for her twin boys in their Johnny Jump Ups, the bouncing babies acting as a barometer for a song’s success. “This next song is a winner for them, inspired much height in the bouncing,” she said. “Occasional impact.” Helped out by the fierce viola of a “male Jenny”, band member Ruth Moody’s brother Richard, the group played a sweet set of resplendent folk tunes, dropping a fair amount of reverential covers amongst their own catalog.

Typhoon – Alex and Ani Harbor Stage – 12:35 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

By noon, it was so hot that you would sweat sitting still, so I was relieved to find seating up front under the tent for the indie musical storm of Typhoon. After forming a hands-in pep-circle onstage as they were introduced, 13 band members took up 13 instruments and went into a cacophonous rendition of “White Lies”. At first the sound was overwhelming, but once it leveled out, the performance was commanding. Kyle Morton led the collective with a powerful voice and confidence that added miles to his stature. Songs like “The Honest Truth” and new number “The Common Sentiment” took full advantage of the mighty orchestration such a large band can bring to a performance when properly utilized. As the final notes of the last song faded, they realized they had more time, and without a word, they all jumped into “Down, Cowboy” with a boisterous breakdown befitting their name. Adding to the enumerable reasons this band separates from the congested Northwest indie-folk scene, I’m pretty sure they’re the only group around that could give emotional resonance to a refrain of the words “kitchen tile.”

Freelance Whales – Quad Stage – 1:40 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Yes, Freelance Whales have many “folk” instruments in their arsenal, and many of their songs distinctly tilt in that direction. Still, while their synth-pop sounds were more evidence of Newport’s modern proclivities, something didn’t settle in properly at their set. “Elevator, First Floor” (which they later encored at the LEGO Duplo Kid’s Stage with the PS22 Chorus) rang true enough, but others, like “Kilojoules”, felt out of place and, worse, just strange. Part of this is the band’s seeming inability to reproduce live some of the more complicated vocal layers of their debut, Weathervanes. One of that album’s standouts, “Starring”, came off as haphazard, off-timed, and all around weak. This young, buzzing band has some work to do before they come together as a live unit.

Gogol Bordello - Fort Stage - 2:00 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

“I warn you, this band is not for the faint of heart” was the introduction given to one of the most anomalous bands on the lineup, Gogol Bordello. The stage was sparse for a Gogol set: Only five members of the normally nine-piece band sat on chairs. No chair can hold what this band brings, though, even in acoustic form. Frontman Eugene Hütz was up on his feet by the second number, “Wanderlust King”, and shirtless by “Tribal Connection”. They didn’t bound about stage like they would at a plugged-in show or even at other unplugged shows they’ve played. Instead, the set showed respectful understanding of the setting. Their energy remained high, playing their hearts out for what at times felt like a private concert for the packed dance section. “I’m sorry, people over here,” Hütz addressed the lawn chair and blanket crowd on the left. “This music is not really for laying down type of purposes.” After a set consisting of hits from their wealthy repertoire plus new track “General Amnesty”, even the older crowd was out of their chairs and swaying about. “They’re getting the message,” Hütz said. We all did by the end: No matter the venue, these guys put on an incredible show.

Delta Spirit - Quad Stage - 2:55 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

A packed Quad proved I wasn’t the only one anticipating a killer set from Matthew Vasquez and his Long Beach crew, aka Delta Spirit, and it’s safe to say no one left disappointed. “Come on, you can get up!” Vasquez beckoned as they took the stage, and within half a second every chair was vacated. The band ripped through “Bushwick Blues”, “White Table”, and even furiously tore down the end of “Ransom Man”. Their fans loved them through and through, dancing about and singing to every song from “St. Francis” to older numbers like “People C’mon”, though there were understandably no crowd vocals for new track “Empty House”. The love was returned with an earnest, impassioned performance song after song. While Vasquez has mesmerizing energy as a frontman, guitarist William McLaren plays his axe to bits, and Jon Jameson is one of the most fun-to-watch bassists I’ve seen in a while, multi-instrumentalist Kelly Winrich may be the unsung hero of the group, bouncing between keys and percussion even in the middle of songs. Together, the band provided one of the brightest highlights of the weekend.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Tegan and Sara - Quad Stage - 4:25 p.m.

Given an acoustic set, Tegan and Sara had a chance to let their folk-side shine, but it was a show that might not have panned out as they’d hoped. Though they played hits like “Back Into Your Head” and “Nineteen”, a lot of it sounded similar in the stripped-down setting. Slipups and restarts were near constants; Sara stopped “Alligator” abruptly saying, “I fucked up, that’s me, that’s on me.” But what kept the show from awkward nonsuccess was the constant banter. “No? Not again?” Sara asked her sister. “Yeah, no, do it again,” Tegan quipped back. “Do it by yourself, in fact.” Despite the flaws, the packed Quad loved it, prompting Sara to satirically remark, “It’s so hard to start a song when everyone keeps yelling that they love you.” It wasn’t a standout set, but the intimacy they created with their adoring audience was commendable. As was Tegan’s time spent signing every article fans threw over the backstage fence. Their fans honestly love them, and it’s nice to see that love returned with equal sincerity.

Mavis Staples - Quad Stage - 5:35 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Full disclosure: I wasn’t actually at most of this set. I walked by, planning on just catching a song before moving on. Then Ms. Staples announced a special guest, and out came The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy, and this happened. It was one of those great moments that only happens at Newport, and watching the 72-year-old Staples literally punch out the end of “The Weight” till she was breathless was inspiring. After the song, Meloy wished Staples a happy birthday (it was July 10th) and gave her a warm hug before heading off to his own headlining set.

The Decemberists - Fort Stage - 6:05 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

With a new number-one record nestled firmly in folk stylings, The Decemberists were poised for a triumphant return to Newport, this time as headliners. Colin Meloy led his troupe onstage with a glass of wine held high to the applauding crowd. “Some of you look like you may be over-folked,” he remarked on the sunbaked lot. “But for those of you who are under-folked, we will try to folk you right now.” The joke garnered as many groans as laughs and set the stage for what I’ve come to expect is a typical Decemberists outing.

As always, the music sounded fine–great, even. These guys can play exquisitely, there’s no doubt. The setlist was nothing unexpected, relying heavily on The King Is Dead tracks like “Rise to Me” and “Rox in the Box”. They did sneak Meloy’s purposefully dreadful “Dracula’s Daughter” into the middle of “O Valencia!” but quickly abandoned it. “That was a bad detour,” Meloy laughed slightly. “Forget it.” The biggest problem here is that while everything sounds wonderful, it doesn’t sound like a great live show. Little is unpredictable, and nothing really pops with stage presence. “The Rake’s Song” came close with its powerful drumming and refrain and Meloy managing to get just the seated section to clap along was amusing. “Won’t Want for Love” also showed signs of life, but while Sara Watkins has settled into her role standing in for the ailing (and much missed) Jenny Conlee, her voice lacked the haunting quality that makes the track so affecting, and Meloy’s voice doesn’t play off hers as well.

Photo by Nate Slevin

For the second time this summer, I walked away from a Decemberists show with more memories of their repartee than their songs. Meloy dedicating “This Is Why We Fight” to festival founders Pete Seeger and George Wein for “teaching us that the ‘S’ word, socialism, isn’t a bad word and that we’re all in this together.” Calling “The Soldiering Life” a song about “homoerotic love between sailors” and dedicating it to “that flotilla of yachts over there. Hope you’re having fun and keeping the rosé chilled, because Lord knows mine isn’t.” The stage-farce that was closer “The Mariner’s Revenge”, complete with Chris Funk climbing down the stage rigging to get that one woman who wasn’t doing the moaning and groaning of being devoured by a whale to stand up and go “argh.” While Gillian Welch and David Rawlings coming out for an encore of “All Arise!” and “June Hymn” was a delight, even that was predictable and overshadowed by the tongue-in-cheek performance. In truth, this talented band shines in their humor, and it was an altogether fun show. However, I expect something more than sit-com entertainment from a live show, especially a headlining one in front of a sold-out festival crowd. Entertain me, sure, but put some energy into more than just cheekiness.

Sunday, July 31st

David Wax Museum - Fort Stage - 11:40 a.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

A year after winning a spot on the festival’s smallest stage, David Wax Museum was opening the main stage on Sunday. The band owned the promotion with a truly rousing set of their particular blend of Mexo-Americana. David Wax was a The Warriors look-alike with his red bandana and vest, hunched over his guitar like he was protecting the sound during “Look What You’ve Done to Me” with guest vocalist Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops. Suze Slezak was charming and elegant in her specially designed Lily Brush dress, even as she stomped about, creating unique vibrating and ratcheting sounds by playing, of all things, a donkey jawbone on “Yes, Maria, Yes” and “Chuchumbe” (roughly translated as “belly button”). As Wax explained, it’s a song rediscovered in archives 20 years ago after being banned by the Church in Mexico for inciting belly-to-belly dancing. The duo showed endless appreciation for their strong horn section and dancing percussionist Julia del Palacio, eliciting applause at every solo. Both smiled ceaselessly, and their sheer joy was contagious. “Can you feel what an honor it is for us to be here?” Slezak asked. Yes, the crowd answered, and it’s an honor to have you.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Mountain Man - Alex and Ani Harbor Stage - 12:30 p.m.

Where the Wailin’ Jennys impress with musicianship as well as vocals, Mountain Man are all about harmony. True, those harmonies are damn near perfect, but with nothing else but a subtle guitar, the show is far less interesting. The trio of ladies still haunted with their vocals on the likes of “Mouthwings” and the Kate Bush cover “Rivers of Babylon”. What was most surprising about the serious-sounding group is that they’re kind of dorks, though maybe the ironic band name should’ve given that away. Amelia Meath told a story of dreaming she was in love with and spooning Marilyn Manson. After one song, they remarked how sometimes howling like wolves was a suitable replacement for applause. The next song, which Amelia explained was a cover of someone she’d met online (“I’ve never met anyone on the Internet,” said Alexandra Sauser-Monnig. “You’ve never played World of Warcraft,” Meath replied), received a chorus of howls from the crowd. “This is great,” Meath said through laughter and baying. “We sound totally insane!” They sort of did, but when they were singing, they also sounded downright bewitching.

Cave Singers - Alex and Ani Harbor Stage - 1:40 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Pete Quirk doesn’t look like a lead singer. With his trucker hat, tank top, and full beard, he looked more like the roadie behind the wheel of the equipment truck. Then he gave a holler before the first notes of “At the Cut” came out in his distinctively pinched voice, and you couldn’t picture him behind anything but a mic, even if it was sometimes hard to pick out lyrics. His neck vanes popped like Macho Man Randy Savage during “Beach House”, stark proof of how much he was putting into the performance. He couldn’t have a more appropriate name than “Quirk”, with his constant blinking, head scratching, and jerky hand gestures. Seated, guitarist Derek Fudesco rocked back and forth like he was having a musical fit, and the sound he created with drummer Marty Lund was rowdier than many larger bands could muster. Straightforward and hard, when they were told they had 10 more minutes left, Quirk panted, “We’re done.” They ended early, but they left a lot of sweat and a great set behind them.

Amos Lee - Fort Stage - 3:25 p.m.

There was no introduction to Amos Lee as he took the stage–just the first notes of the title track to Mission Bell, gentle and subtle like the man himself. Chatter was minimal, though he echoed a sentiment many other acts shared about the strange crowd setup: “The beach chair people, while I know you’re enjoying it, it’s just a very strange thing to look at.” Seated or not, his voice demanded the fullest attention of the Fort Stage crowd, heartfelt and pure as it poured out through the thick air. A well-constructed set found him grouping rockier and bluesier songs like a slightly faster take on “Truth” and “Low Down Life” between soulful numbers like “Loose Tight” and “The Wind”. What it boils down to with Lee, as always, is that he can sing the hell out of a song. His voice is just undeniable, and when he was helped out by Secret Sisters on “Clear Blue Eyes”, it was even better.

Middle Brother/Dawes - Quad Stage - 4:20 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Another Matthew Vasquez set, another massive highlight. There’s not enough space to detail how truly awesome this set was. A notification sent through the festival’s app said it best: “If you’re not @Middle_Brother, you should be.” No band had more fun on stage the whole weekend than they did: Vasquez, his garb far less formal than the previous day, bounding about, sharing his mic with his bandmates during “Someday”; Taylor Goldsmith getting the crowd to sing on “Thanks for Nothing” and the bloodiest, gutsiest rendition of “Blood and Guts”; John McCauley sharing the stage with Mountain Man for “Daydreaming”, the girls visibly touched by the large, sublime harmonies provided by the crowd. “We haven’t even practiced!” Vasquez whooped at one point. “We haven’t even seen each other since North Carolina!” They had every right to be impressed with themselves. No band played as hard as they did that weekend, and no crowd was more responsive, hands constantly up, voices ringing out, bodies moving.

Photo by Nate Slevin

While I missed a Jonny Corndawg appearance (the honorary fourth middle brother), a text from my trusty photographer Nate had me rushing from Elvis Costello to catch an impromptu set by Goldsmith’s other band, Dawes. The mini-set opened with “Fire Away” and closed with “When My Time Comes”. For the latter number, the other brothers returned to take a few verses, appearing equally as enamored with their bandmate’s music as their own. One of the most lasting moments of the festival came when McCauley held his mic stand out over the crowd, the music cut away, and the Quad was reduced to rubble by the hundreds of voices belting the final chorus. Magic, plain and simple.

Elvis Costello - Fort Stage - 4:45 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

While it was hard to split time between a legend and a supergroup whose time together may well be limited, I somehow found a way to catch the majority of both sets. Billed as a solo, acoustic set, it was a welcome surprise to turn the corner and find Elvis Costello backed by The Impostors, though their presence could have been the result of his voice being too weak to hold the Fort down alone. He had a lot more help, though, as Secret Sisters came out for “A Slow Drag With Josephine” and a cover of Hank Williams’ “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?”. Chris Thile appeared on mandolin for “Brilliant Mistake” and stuck around for the next number, too, as Costello giddily proclaimed, “Please welcome to the stage–I always like saying this–Ms. Emmylou Harris.” Applause resounded as the headliner entered for “Scarlet Tide”, and on the eve of a debt crisis, the line “No more money left to spend” was especially poignant.

Closing with “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” was equally fitting and a spirited way to finish his set. Steve Nieve worked the theremin, possibly a first for the festival, like a magician, awing many. Saying how pleased they were to end their tour at Newport, Costello remarked, “You know you’ve come to the right place when you’re standing side-stage behind Pete Seeger watching Wanda Jackson.” Newport was even happier to have them, and for the first time the chair and blanket crowd was mostly on their feet. In fact, many of them stayed that way and walked towards the exits when Costello left the stage. While his voice was clearly fatigued, he never let up once, a showman to the end, and a headliner in many hearts.

M. Ward - Quad Stage 5:40 p.m.

Photo by Nate Slevin

Simple and cool, M. Ward started his set solo. Most of his time was spent making gorgeous tones come from his acoustic guitar, like slowing down “Chinese Translation” and making it pretty as hell. On two occasions he sat at a piano, his posture like he was playing a dive bar, to perform some covers. First was David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, almost unrecognizable as a near ballad. The second was of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist”, the lyrics of which Ward delivered with such a faux-deadpan expression and mocking tone that chuckles speckled the audience. Immediately after that, the mood shifted entirely as Dawes provided rocking back up for the remainder of the set, including a ridiculously fun delivery of “Roll Over Beethoven”. After an encore of “Ferry Boat”, Secret Sisters came out for “Something Stupid”, putting two of the most cameoed bands on one stage with the great Mr. Ward–a perfect way to close the Quad on the final day.

Emmylou Harris - Fort Stage - 6:05 p.m.

Though many left the Fort after Costello had finished, the remaining folks packed the main stage area full for the monument of grace that is Emmylou Harris. With her silvery white hair kept from her eyes with a black headband, a black leather bracelet, and a flowing black dress with white pill-stripes, she was a half step away from punk. At 64 years old, she stood tall and confident in the setting summer sun, glorious and classic all at once. When she introduced “The Road”, the ever-present sadness at the loss of her late mentor and partner Graham Parsons could be felt in the quivers of her voice. After “Get Up John” and some spot on a cappella harmonizing with her band for “Calling My Children Home”, she returned to some melancholy. “Okay,” she said, “I gotta get back to the sad stuff before people think I’ve been taken over by some jovial person.” It wasn’t her own sorrow that came next, but Steve Earle’s in the form of “Goodbye”.

Photo by Nate Slevin

A gentle country set isn’t exactly my cup of tea as a headliner, but Ms. Harris still did an applaudable job in the spot. It was the very essence of the modern Newport Folk Festival to see so many people, varied greatly in age, race, and background, shuffling their feet and swinging their arms to tunes like “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight”. Present and past sensibilities met onstage, as well, when the duo of The Civil Wars came out for Harris’s encore (well, she called it an encore, but she never actually left the stage). Dancing happily and singing for “Evangeline”, Joy Williams looked pleased as could be to be sharing the legendary Newport Fort stage with the equally legendary Harris.

Photo by Nate Slevin

That was it for Harris’s set, but the true closer of the festivities was something even grander. Out walked Pete Seeger, the eternal Newport icon, even at 92, guitar in hand. Then Middle Brother and Dawes walked out with Jonny Corndawg and Mountain Man. The Secret Sisters returned, David Wax Museum led out Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Brown Bird and M. Ward joined Emmylou Harris and The Civil Wars–a truly impressive array of artists. Even festival founder George Wein stepped onto the stage. As the crowd gathered closer to lend their voices, Seeger led the bevy of talent in “Turn! Turn! Turn!”. When he slung on his banjo, even the musicians on stage applauded and smiled. Calling out the lyrics for the unaware, Seeger paced us all through “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”. It was felicitous, moving, and immutably beautiful. It was the Newport Folk Festival summed up in a single, neatly wrapped performance.

Photography by Nate Slevin.

The Culture of Newport Folk Festival

Gallery by Nate Slevin

[nggallery id=246]

Winnie The Pooh is back on the big screen, five years after something to do with Heffalumps, and what seems like ages since anyone cared (though author A. A. Milne would have likely preferred this version of his honey fiend forgotten). In our music circles, the news has nothing to do with bouncing tigers, emo donkeys, and pigs who look more like pink beehives with rabbit ears, and more about Deschanel and the guy who brought you “The Internet Is For Porn” working on family film soundtracks.

Winnie The Pooh as a She & Him project works about as well as Yellow Submarine worked for The Beatles, because, if you’re going into this thinking “Oh, B-sides!”, you’re sorely mistaken. Composer Henry Jackman helms over half of the album, a whimsical score that should only interest fans of film’s orchestral compositions, while the rest is divided between original, charming-as-can-be kiddie tunes by Lopez, and repeatedly-reprised Deschanel/Ward covers of the Pooh theme (plus one original song, “So Long”).

Three-fourths of this record could be lopped off for the sake of its purpose here, rounding down to a few choice tracks like “So Long”, “Woods And Words/The Backson Song”, and Jim Cummings showing off his Tigger voice on “It’s Gonna Be Great”. For what Winnie The Pooh represents to many a childhood, the movie will no doubt not sell as well as it deserves to, and the soundtrack will most likely be completely overshadowed by the compilation for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In the end, though, you get drawn in by the indie artists, a Tony Award winner, and the man of a thousand voices coming together to bring out your inner Christopher Robin, only to get sucked dry by overzealous scoring that really brings nothing new to the table.

It’s difficult to say who this album caters to. Maybe it holds appeal with the parents of kids who are just now getting their proper introduction to the living stuffed animals of yore. However, fans of Deschanel and Ward won’t likely find this worth listening to.

Admittedly, there’s probably no act as bright and bubbly as M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, collectively known as She & Him. They’re so wuvvy duvvy that it it made perfect sense that the duo were tapped to provide three songs for the upcoming soundtrack to the Winnie the Pooh reboot. With the theme song already so adowable that we want to squeeze a box of kittens, another sample drops in the form of “So Long” (which was previewed during the initial announcement.) To almost no one’s surprise, this offering is quite possibly more cutesy than the first track; so much so, in fact, that we’d like to rip a rainbow from the sky, bake into little cakes, and hand them out to every pudgy faced child in the world.

Check out the track at Some Kind Of Awesome. The OST drops July 12th, with the movie hitting theaters July 15th.

Primavera Sound has expanded from a small gathering at the intimate Poble Espanyol to a world-class event and the 11th edition was bigger than ever. The average attendance of its three main days at the Parc del Forum exceeded 40,000 attendees from across the globe, with two additional days at the original festival site, and intimate pre and post-parties scattered throughout the city. Despite the unavoidable presence of sponsorship, Primavera never comes across as a corporate cash grab thanks to a lineup that remains decidedly left-of-center. Yes, there are plenty of proven, reliable acts such as The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, and The National, but it’s the more adventurous and less universal bookings of odd and obscure acts and cult bands performing their seminal albums that set Primavera apart from the average corporate affair. Primavera Sound is living proof that the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten and Suicide need not be restricted to ATP events.

Primavera’s eight stages include ones curated by Pitchfork and All Tomorrow’s Parties, and a limited capacity, indoor seated theater. The Rockdelux Auditori offers a relaxed atmosphere for the likes of John Cale and Mercury Rev and makes it possible for the festival to have performances that cannot be done outdoors, such as the intricate Sufjan Stevens production. Camping is nonexistent, with everyone staying in apartments and hostels throughout Barcelona, but the availability of beds and showers does not guarantee a full night’s sleep. The party never stops in Barcelona, with the main festivities beginning at 4:00 p.m. and ending at 6:00 a.m. every day, plus daytime performances in a nearby park and all the irresistible sightseeing the city has to offer.

Photo by Frank Mojica

New in 2011 was the Primavera Portal, a system that allowed the festival’s access card to double as a debit card that can be recharged online or at booths situated by the main concession area. Unfortunately, the problem with the digitalization of festival commerce is that things often go wrong, and in this case, something did and the whole system crashed. After waiting in hour-long queues for recharges on Thursday, because the Primavera Portal site crashed, attendees found that all the drink vendors could not sell any water or alcohol because they did not have the necessary scanning devices. Food stands accepted cash, but only the drink vendors could sell alcohol or water, and the festival was without any sort of liquid refreshment available for purchase for several hours, and the street vendors offering cheap beer and water outside the gates only appeared at night. A major hiccup in an otherwise smooth festival experience, yes, but when seeing the likes of Grinderman and Sufjan Stevens, a day of stress and dehydration was a price well worth paying.

-Frank Mojica
Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 25th

Nisennenmondai - Poble Espanyol - 5:00 p.m.

Photo by Frank Mojica

Primavera Sound’s choice of Nisennenmondai to open their main festivities says quite a lot about the heart of the festival. In the festival world, the instrumental Japanese noise band has only performed at smaller fests and the 2010 edition of Roskilde, but their experimental sound was a perfect match for the discriminating tastes of Primavera goers. As the sun scorched the crowd that left the refuge of the shade to get a closer look, Nisennenmondai unleashed unrelentingly pulsating bass lines, and a pummeling rhythm so frantic that some casual observers debated if drummer Sayaka Himeno was possessed by a demon. Spinning together traces of Krautrock, no wave, and math rock, Nisennenmondai proved to be a captivating festival opener as they turned their repetitions into something strangely danceable that won over a largely unfamiliar crowd. American festival promoters would do well to introduce their audiences to this inventive, thrilling trio next year.

Echo & the Bunnymen - Poble Espanyol - 8:45 p.m.

Photo by Frank Mojica

Watching a band perform a favorite album in its entirety is a special treat, but two albums back to back? That’s what Echo & the Bunnymen brought to Poble Espanyol, performing Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here along with an encore of a few more recent favorites, although a gander at “The Killing Moon” was not on the agenda for this trip down memory lane. While seemingly in good spirits, the post-punk legends sounded more and more as if they were merely going through the motions as the set progressed.

Thursday, May 26th

Sufjan Stevens - Auditori - 8:30 p.m. (5:00 p.m. on Friday)

Photo by Frank Mojica

If Harold Camping had not been wrong yet again about the impending rapture, then it would have surely played out like a Sufjan Stevens performance. Specifically, set opener “Seven Swans” was the sound of the end of days commencing, as heavenly as it was commanding, and the winged Stevens and company served as the rapture’s archangels. Next, the ultimate ironic dance party to ring in the forthcoming apocalypse came in the form of “Too Much”, leading into a journey through the madness of Armageddon during “Age of Adz”. After the destruction of all existence, what followed was a 100 minute journey through the rebuilding of reality and its various ups and downs and creations and destructions. Along the way, Sufjan Stevens took a break from cosmic folk and performed a rare cover of R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” at the Thursday performance and treated the Friday crowd to “Sister”, with valuable singing lessons preceding the latter. Existence finally rebuilt itself back to normal during the rejuvenating 25-minute set climax “Impossible Soul”, where fans rushed the stage at both shows after Stevens asked, “Do you want to dance?”

Photo by Frank Mojica

Throughout what was more of an experience than a concert, Sufjan Stevens donned feathered wings, chimp masks, space capes, and a spinning disco ball chest piece, backup singers twirled ribbons and performed choreographed dance numbers, while animated imagery inspired by the prophetic visions of Royal Robertson flashed on the screen and an extra layer of visuals appeared occasionally on a scrim in front of the stage. But are the costumes, confetti, and multi-screen visuals excessive, if not unnecessary? Yes, he does not need an elaborate display and his songs are powerful enough to stand on their own, but this Knife-meets-Flaming Lips live spectacle makes the playful voyage through the end of the world all the more powerful.

Grinderman - San Miguel - 11:00 p.m.

Photo by Frank Mojica

Let’s just get this out of the way now: Nick Cave is currently rock & roll’s number one devil. At Primavera, Cave’s Grinderman exhilarated a large festival crowd with their darkly humored brand of sleazy, feral rock that put all those garage revivalists with a fetish for the blues to shame. Ever the magnetic frontman, Nick Cave didn’t walk across the stage so much as he swaggered and thrusted, and spent much of the set in the photo pit cavorting with fans that desperately grabbed at their idol and surfed to get closer. For an hour that passed far too quickly, Grinderman dementedly tore into tracks from both albums with the sort of furor that consumed the songs and spat them back out with new layers of filth and extended jams.

Suicide - Ray-Ban - 12:45 a.m.

Photo by Frank Mojica

Less than an hour before show time, Nick Cave implored the Grinderman crowd to watch Suicide, and quite a few punters took his words to heart. Suicide is definitely not a crowd-pleasing band that appeals to everybody, not even when performing their first LP, and not even at Primavera, but such challenging acts are what make the festival and its lineup so refreshing. Perhaps the ear-splitting and unsettling nature of the duo’s discordant beats and noise was too much to bear, or maybe people just wanted to hear “Ghost Rider” and call it a night, but the surprisingly sizable crowd left in droves. Fans that were up to the challenge were rewarded with a set that contained the crucial element missing from most of those “so and so performing some album” gigs: surprise. Despite the age of their debut album, Suicide transformed it into something fresh by applying new ways to confound and deafen.

The Flaming Lips - San Miguel - 2:15 a.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

At one point during the set, Wayne Coyne expressed his love for Primavera, declaring it to be one of his best festival days ever. Coyne sure has had a lot of them, considering their years of festival ubiquity, so it’s no empty platitude. Giant hamster balls, confetti cannons, costumed dancers, laser hands, and the rest of The Flaming Lips’ bag of tricks have been getting a lot usage over the years, but considering the crowd’s ecstatic reception, it might as well have been the first time. It was impossible to feel anything but the purest bliss during a life-affirming set full of sing-alongs accompanied by one hell of a spectacle.

Friday, May 27th

M. Ward - San Miguel - 8:00 p.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Performing on the same stage as the long awaited Pulp reunion is unenviable in the sense that for the fans camped along the front of the stage, watching M. Ward was just something to watch during a painfully long wait. Luckily Matt Ward and his band proved to be capable of capturing even the most distant and distracted Pulp fans with an hour of jaunty rock, blues, and country revivalism. The setlist favored the boisterous over the heartbreaking, most memorably a romping cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven”.

Belle & Sebastian - San Miguel - 10:45pm

Photo by Frank Mojica

After “Stars of Track and Field”, Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch realized the lyrical link shared between his song and the next band’s biggest hit, and acknowledged that it would not be the first time we heard “college” and “knowledge” within the same sentence that night and expressed his own anticipation of the reunion. As Murdoch later went to the crowd in search of dancers during “Legal Man”, Stevie Jackson performed a brief cover of “Common People”, giving all in attendance an opportunity to warm up for the imminent sing-along of the year. The dancers remained for crowd pleaser “The Boy with the Arab Strap”, after which they were awarded medals for their efforts. Putting forth a solid mix of new material and old favorites from their extensive back catalog with an infectious charisma, Belle and Sebastian were nothing less than charming at Primavera.

Pulp - San Miguel - 1:45 a.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Half an hour before show time, the hardcore fans crowding the San Miguel stage were treated to some pre-show entertainment consisting of laser projections across a curtain obscuring the San Miguel stage asking questions from the official website such as “Do you remember the first time?” and “Is this a hoax” in both English and Catalan and always in the Different Class font. Most randomly, green lasers inquired “Do you want to see a dolphin?” before a green dolphin of light appeared and swam across a sea of black. The laser show increased the excitement and tension to unbearable levels, and just as the anticipation became too much to bear, the lights went out, and a neon pink and blue P was illuminated, followed by the rest of the letters in their name one by one as the B.A.N.D.C.A.DOUBLE L.E.D.P.U.L.P. finally took the stage.

Pulp’s headlining set at Primavera was the first reunion performance announced, which was a chief factor in the decision to attend for many in the considerably international crowd, so anything less than a rapturous response to the band would have been a surprising letdown. As the curtain finally dropped during the first chorus of opener “Do You Remember the First Time?”, the crowd responded to the unveiling by screaming along to all the words at the top of their lungs and jumping along to the beat as if their lives depended on it. This level of energetic enthusiasm persisted throughout the entire set and peaked, predictably, during “Common People”, which Jarvis Cocker dedicated to the protesters in Plaça de Catalunya.

Photo by Frank Mojica

It may have been a Pulp reunion, but Jarvis Cocker was still the star of the show, delighting the crowd with his all-over-the-stage trademark dances, climbing, leaps, suggestive gesturing, and general refusal to stand still, while the rest of the band stayed in the back and on the sidelines. The peerless showmanship exhibited in his recent solo tours was retained, as was the bookish look of a professor that has seduced many a coed during office hours. After what might have been the sleaziest rendition of “I Spy” yet, Cocker stepped down to the photo pit, where he asked a couple from Athens, GA to introduce themselves and then told the woman that her boyfriend had something to ask her, setting the stage for a marriage proposal and then commenting on the niceness of the ring. Cynicism and biting spitefulness are often found in Pulp lyrics, but the source of them just might be a romantic at heart.

The setlist focused almost entirely on the era of the band’s commercial peak, with nine songs from Different Class, three from His & Hers, plus encore “Razzmatazz”, with “This Is Hardcore” and “Sunrise” as the only songs released after Russell Senior’s departure to be performed. Why does Pulp get a pass for churning out the hits at their reunion, while other bands get derided as shameless panderers? For starters, they were performed as if it were still 1995; it was as if the band had not abandoned us for nine years. More importantly, the music of Pulp has survived the ravages of time remarkably well, because they were never a true Britpop band in the first place. “Common People” has achieved a new identity as a vitriolic anthem against hipsterism, and at Primavera it was appropriated as a rallying cry for the local protestors, or at least the ones in the crowd that waved a giant banner stating “#Spanish Revolution Sing Along with the Common People”. The Primavera comeback was an explosive set that cemented Pulp’s status as the essential festival band of 2011 and will be remembered as fondly and regarded as definitive as their Glastonbury 1995 performance.

Saturday, May 28th

Yuck - ATP - 6:00 p.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Ideally, every festival would start out with a bang by having a great set early in the day to reward attendees that stumbled out of bed in time to attend the full schedule, with these early birds catching a quite special worm. Only at Primavera is 6:00 p.m. widely considered not just early but excessively so, but the ATP area still managed to fill just in time for recent indie darlings Yuck. The London-based quartet loudly revisited the sounds of the late 80’s and early 90’s indie greats, but made them sound fresh. Their performance revealed a genuine excitement to be playing the festival, and guitarist/vocalist Max Bloom gave shoutouts to both Pulp and Shellac before tearing into a new song entitled “Milkshake”. Yuck hasn’t even been around for two years yet, but their live sound implies a band that’s been going at it for far longer.

Warpaint - Llevant - 6:45 p.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Sometimes the stars align and a band gets a festival timeslot so perfect that the setting actually enhances the performance. After witnessing Warpaint perform on the beach of the new Llevant stage as the day finally began to cool, it’s difficult to imagine watching the Los Angeles band in any other setting. As clouds obscured the sun and the cool Mediterranean breeze rolled in, the charismatic all-girl quartet appeared confident before the large crowd as they intricately layered vocals and guitars to dreamy effect, peaking with the gorgeously transcendent pop of “Undertow”. Ubiquitous buzz bands are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Warpaint proved to be one that fully lives up to the hype surrounding them.

Gang Gang Dance - Pitchfork - 9:45 p.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Eye Contact, the latest album from Gang Gang Dance, is their most danceable release to date, and its tribal beats and psychedelic synth freak-outs gained an extra degree of intensity on the Pitchfork stage. Accompanying the band were an interpretive dancer and a flag waver throughout the set. The band sounded more urgently fantastic than ever, and frontwoman Lizzi Bougatsos hypnotized with her dances and soaring yelps, so leaving early enough to make the steep uphill climb to the San Miguel stage in time for the start of PJ Harvey was one of the biggest challenges of the weekend.

PJ Harvey - San Miguel - 10:30 p.m.

Photo by Colin Athens

Clad in a white dress and feathered headdress and surrounded by near-total darkness, Polly Jean Harvey looked as angelic as she sounded. Half of her 20 song set consisted of songs from the stellar Let England Shake that favored the jangly strum of the Autoharp over the guitar, with older favorites getting a subdued makeover. As stunning of an album as Let England Shake is and despite sounding especially gorgeous live, the noise of the massive crowd often overpowered the delicate beauty of the music. The new PJ Harvey tour is a delight, but is ideally enjoyed in a more intimate environment.

Animal Collective - San Miguel - 2:00 a.m.

Photo by Frank Mojica

Neo-psychedelic weirdsters Animal Collective have jumped from mid-tier to headliner since their last batch of festival touring three years ago thanks to the success of their latest and greatest full length, 2009′s Merriweather Post Pavillion. In contrast to the two previous headliners, Animal Collective was far less of a crowd pleaser, only performing a handful of “hits” in a set filled with almost entirely unreleased material. Evolving new music in a live setting is how their albums have always developed, so it’s refreshing to see a band that stays true to their roots despite a sudden surge in popularity. Typically atypical Animal Collective sets might seem like an awkward match for a festival’s main stage, since the crowd is guaranteed not to be full of fans that know what to expect, and at Primavera, some in the crowd declared the performance too self-indulgent and without “proper songs” and left early. However, the majority remained, and they were treated to some new songs that not just showed a lot of promise and even outshone the older selections. In contrast to the light cubes and Creators Project collaboration at Coachella, the visual element of Animal Collective’s set at Primavera was more mysterious and less elaborate, with only moderate usage of house lights and some trippy, colorful animations projected on the screens that never flashed any footage of the band or crowd. If their Primavera headlining set is any indication, their polarizing nature will not lose all the Merriweather Post Pavillion bandwagon-jumpers and continue to draw more followers because of it.

Gallery by Colin Athens

[nggallery id=216]

Gallery by Frank Mojica

[nggallery id=217]

]]> Photo by Frank Mojica New in 2011 was the Primavera Portal, a system that allowed the festival’s access card to double as a debit card that can be recharged online or at booths situated by the main concession area. Unfortunately, the problem with the digitalization of festival commerce is that things often go wrong, and in this case, something did and the whole system crashed. After waiting in hour-long queues for recharges on Thursday, because the Primavera Portal site crashed, attendees found that all the drink vendors could not sell any water or alcohol because they did not have the necessary scanning devices. Food stands accepted cash, but only the drink vendors could sell alcohol or water, and the festival was without any sort of liquid refreshment available for purchase for several hours, and the street vendors offering cheap beer and water outside the gates only appeared at night. A major hiccup in an otherwise smooth festival experience, yes, but when seeing the likes of Grinderman and Sufjan Stevens, a day of stress and dehydration was a price well worth paying. -Frank Mojica Staff Writer Wednesday, May 25th Nisennenmondai - Poble Espanyol - 5:00 p.m. Photo by Frank Mojica Primavera Sound’s choice of Nisennenmondai to open their main festivities says quite a lot about the heart of the festival. In the festival world, the instrumental Japanese noise band has only performed at smaller fests and the 2010 edition of Roskilde, but their experimental sound was a perfect match for the discriminating tastes of Primavera goers. As the sun scorched the crowd that left the refuge of the shade to get a closer look, Nisennenmondai unleashed unrelentingly pulsating bass lines, and a pummeling rhythm so frantic that some casual observers debated if drummer Sayaka Himeno was possessed by a demon. Spinning together traces of Krautrock, no wave, and math rock, Nisennenmondai proved to be a captivating festival opener as they turned their repetitions into something strangely danceable that won over a largely unfamiliar crowd. American festival promoters would do well to introduce their audiences to this inventive, thrilling trio next year. Echo & the Bunnymen - Poble Espanyol - 8:45 p.m. Photo by Frank Mojica Watching a band perform a favorite album in its entirety is a special treat, but two albums back to back? That’s what Echo & the Bunnymen brought to Poble Espanyol, performing Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here along with an encore of a few more recent favorites, although a gander at “The Killing Moon” was not on the agenda for this trip down memory lane. While seemingly in good spirits, the post-punk legends sounded more and more as if they were merely going through the motions as the set progressed. Thursday, May 26th Sufjan Stevens - Auditori - 8:30 p.m. (5:00 p.m. on Friday) Photo by Frank Mojica If Harold Camping had not been wrong yet again about the impending rapture, then it would have surely played out like a Sufjan Stevens performance. Specifically, set opener “Seven Swans” was the sound of the end of days commencing, as heavenly as it was commanding, and the winged Stevens and company served as the rapture’s archangels. Next, the ultimate ironic dance party to ring in the forthcoming apocalypse came in the form of “Too Much”, leading into a journey through the madness of Armageddon during “Age of Adz”. After the destruction of all existence, what followed was a 100 minute journey through the rebuilding of reality and its various ups and downs and creations and destructions. Along the way, Sufjan Stevens took a break from cosmic folk and performed a rare cover of R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” at the Thursday performance and treated the Friday crowd to “Sister”, with valuable singing lessons preceding the latter. Existence finally rebuilt itself back to normal during the rejuvenating 25-minute set climax “Impossible Soul”, where fans rushed the stage at both shows after Stevens asked, “Do you want to dance?” Photo by Frank Mojica Throughout what was more of an experience than a concert, Sufjan Stevens donned feathered wings, chimp masks, space capes, and a spinning disco ball chest piece, backup singers twirled ribbons and performed choreographed dance numbers, while animated imagery inspired by the prophetic visions of Royal Robertson flashed on the screen and an extra layer of visuals appeared occasionally on a scrim in front of the stage. But are the costumes, confetti, and multi-screen visuals excessive, if not unnecessary? Yes, he does not need an elaborate display and his songs are powerful enough to stand on their own, but this Knife-meets-Flaming Lips live spectacle makes the playful voyage through the end of the world all the more powerful. Grinderman - San Miguel - 11:00 p.m. Photo by Frank Mojica Let’s just get this out of the way now: Nick Cave is currently rock & roll’s number one devil. At Primavera, Cave’s Grinderman exhilarated a large festival crowd with their darkly humored brand of sleazy, feral rock that put all those garage revivalists with a fetish for the blues to shame. Ever the magnetic frontman, Nick Cave didn’t walk across the stage so much as he swaggered and thrusted, and spent much of the set in the photo pit cavorting with fans that desperately grabbed at their idol and surfed to get closer. For an hour that passed far too quickly, Grinderman dementedly tore into tracks from both albums with the sort of furor that consumed the songs and spat them back out with new layers of filth and extended jams. Suicide - Ray-Ban - 12:45 a.m. Photo by Frank Mojica Less than an hour before show time, Nick Cave implored the Grinderman crowd to watch Suicide, and quite a few punters took his words to heart. Suicide is definitely not a crowd-pleasing band that appeals to everybody, not even when performing their first LP, and not even at Primavera, but such challenging acts are what make the festival and its lineup so refreshing. Perhaps the ear-splitting and unsettling nature of the duo’s discordant beats and noise was too much to bear, or maybe people just wanted to hear “Ghost Rider” and call it a night, but the surprisingly sizable crowd left in droves. Fans that were up to the challenge were rewarded with a set that contained the crucial element missing from most of those “so and so performing some album” gigs: surprise. Despite the age of their debut album, Suicide transformed it into something fresh by applying new ways to confound and deafen. The Flaming Lips - San Miguel - 2:15 a.m. Photo by Colin Athens At one point during the set, Wayne Coyne expressed his love for Primavera, declaring it to be one of his best festival days ever. Coyne sure has had a lot of them, considering their years of festival ubiquity, so it’s no empty platitude. Giant hamster balls, confetti cannons, costumed dancers, laser hands, and the rest of The Flaming Lips’ bag of tricks have been getting a lot usage over the years, but considering the crowd’s ecstatic reception, it might as well have been the first time. It was impossible to feel anything but the purest bliss during a life-affirming set full of sing-alongs accompanied by one hell of a spectacle. Friday, May 27th M. Ward - San Miguel - 8:00 p.m. Photo by Colin Athens Performing on the same stage as the long awaited Pulp reunion is unenviable in the sense that for the fans camped along the front of the stage, watching M. Ward was just something to watch during a painfully long wait. Luckily Matt Ward and his band proved to be capable of capturing even the most distant and distracted Pulp fans with an hour of jaunty rock, blues, and country revivalism. The setlist favored the boisterous over the heartbreaking, most memorably a romping cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven”. Belle & Sebastian - San Miguel - 10:45pm Photo by Frank Mojica After “Stars of Track and Field”, Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch realized the lyrical link shared between his song and the next band’s biggest hit, and acknowledged that it would not be the first time we heard “college” and “knowledge” within the same sentence that night and expressed his own anticipation of the reunion. As Murdoch later went to the crowd in search of dancers during “Legal Man”, Stevie Jackson performed a brief cover of “Common People”, giving all in attendance an opportunity to warm up for the imminent sing-along of the year. The dancers remained for crowd pleaser “The Boy with the Arab Strap”, after which they were awarded medals for their efforts. Putting forth a solid mix of new material and old favorites from their extensive back catalog with an infectious charisma, Belle and Sebastian were nothing less than charming at Primavera. Pulp - San Miguel - 1:45 a.m. Photo by Colin Athens Half an hour before show time, the hardcore fans crowding the San Miguel stage were treated to some pre-show entertainment consisting of laser projections across a curtain obscuring the San Miguel stage asking questions from the official website such as “Do you remember the first time?” and “Is this a hoax” in both English and Catalan and always in the Different Class font. Most randomly, green lasers inquired “Do you want to see a dolphin?” before a green dolphin of light appeared and swam across a sea of black. The laser show increased the excitement and tension to unbearable levels, and just as the anticipation became too much to bear, the lights went out, and a neon pink and blue P was illuminated, followed by the rest of the letters in their name one by one as the B.A.N.D.C.A.DOUBLE L.E.D.P.U.L.P. finally took the stage. Pulp’s headlining set at Primavera was the first reunion performance announced, which was a chief factor in the decision to attend for many in the considerably international crowd, so anything less than a rapturous response to the band would have been a surprising letdown. As the curtain finally dropped during the first chorus of opener “Do You Remember the First Time?”, the crowd responded to the unveiling by screaming along to all the words at the top of their lungs and jumping along to the beat as if their lives depended on it. This level of energetic enthusiasm persisted throughout the entire set and peaked, predictably, during “Common People”, which Jarvis Cocker dedicated to the protesters in Plaça de Catalunya. Photo by Frank Mojica It may have been a Pulp reunion, but Jarvis Cocker was still the star of the show, delighting the crowd with his all-over-the-stage trademark dances, climbing, leaps, suggestive gesturing, and general refusal to stand still, while the rest of the band stayed in the back and on the sidelines. The peerless showmanship exhibited in his recent solo tours was retained, as was the bookish look of a professor that has seduced many a coed during office hours. After what might have been the sleaziest rendition of “I Spy” yet, Cocker stepped down to the photo pit, where he asked a couple from Athens, GA to introduce themselves and then told the woman that her boyfriend had something to ask her, setting the stage for a marriage proposal and then commenting on the niceness of the ring. Cynicism and biting spitefulness are often found in Pulp lyrics, but the source of them just might be a romantic at heart. The setlist focused almost entirely on the era of the band’s commercial peak, with nine songs from Different Class, three from His & Hers, plus encore “Razzmatazz”, with “This Is Hardcore” and “Sunrise” as the only songs released after Russell Senior’s departure to be performed. Why does Pulp get a pass for churning out the hits at their reunion, while other bands get derided as shameless panderers? For starters, they were performed as if it were still 1995; it was as if the band had not abandoned us for nine years. More importantly, the music of Pulp has survived the ravages of time remarkably well, because they were never a true Britpop band in the first place. “Common People” has achieved a new identity as a vitriolic anthem against hipsterism, and at Primavera it was appropriated as a rallying cry for the local protestors, or at least the ones in the crowd that waved a giant banner stating “#Spanish Revolution Sing Along with the Common People”. The Primavera comeback was an explosive set that cemented Pulp’s status as the essential festival band of 2011 and will be remembered as fondly and regarded as definitive as their Glastonbury 1995 performance. Saturday, May 28th Yuck - ATP - 6:00 p.m. Photo by Colin Athens Ideally, every festival would start out with a bang by having a great set early in the day to reward attendees that stumbled out of bed in time to attend the full schedule, with these early birds catching a quite special worm. Only at Primavera is 6:00 p.m. widely considered not just early but excessively so, but the ATP area still managed to fill just in time for recent indie darlings Yuck. The London-based quartet loudly revisited the sounds of the late 80’s and early 90’s indie greats, but made them sound fresh. Their performance revealed a genuine excitement to be playing the festival, and guitarist/vocalist Max Bloom gave shoutouts to both Pulp and Shellac before tearing into a new song entitled “Milkshake”. Yuck hasn’t even been around for two years yet, but their live sound implies a band that’s been going at it for far longer. Warpaint - Llevant - 6:45 p.m. Photo by Colin Athens Sometimes the stars align and a band gets a festival timeslot so perfect that the setting actually enhances the performance. After witnessing Warpaint perform on the beach of the new Llevant stage as the day finally began to cool, it’s difficult to imagine watching the Los Angeles band in any other setting. As clouds obscured the sun and the cool Mediterranean breeze rolled in, the charismatic all-girl quartet appeared confident before the large crowd as they intricately layered vocals and guitars to dreamy effect, peaking with the gorgeously transcendent pop of “Undertow”. Ubiquitous buzz bands are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Warpaint proved to be one that fully lives up to the hype surrounding them. Gang Gang Dance - Pitchfork - 9:45 p.m. Photo by Colin Athens Eye Contact, the latest album from Gang Gang Dance, is their most danceable release to date, and its tribal beats and psychedelic synth freak-outs gained an extra degree of intensity on the Pitchfork stage. Accompanying the band were an interpretive dancer and a flag waver throughout the set. The band sounded more urgently fantastic than ever, and frontwoman Lizzi Bougatsos hypnotized with her dances and soaring yelps, so leaving early enough to make the steep uphill climb to the San Miguel stage in time for the start of PJ Harvey was one of the biggest challenges of the weekend. PJ Harvey - San Miguel - 10:30 p.m. Photo by Colin Athens Clad in a white dress and feathered headdress and surrounded by near-total darkness, Polly Jean Harvey looked as angelic as she sounded. Half of her 20 song set consisted of songs from the stellar Let England Shake that favored the jangly strum of the Autoharp over the guitar, with older favorites getting a subdued makeover. As stunning of an album as Let England Shake is and despite sounding especially gorgeous live, the noise of the massive crowd often overpowered the delicate beauty of the music. The new PJ Harvey tour is a delight, but is ideally enjoyed in a more intimate environment. Animal Collective - San Miguel - 2:00 a.m. Photo by Frank Mojica Neo-psychedelic weirdsters Animal Collective have jumped from mid-tier to headliner since their last batch of festival touring three years ago thanks to the success of their latest and greatest full length, 2009's Merriweather Post Pavillion. In contrast to the two previous headliners, Animal Collective was far less of a crowd pleaser, only performing a handful of “hits” in a set filled with almost entirely unreleased material. Evolving new music in a live setting is how their albums have always developed, so it’s refreshing to see a band that stays true to their roots despite a sudden surge in popularity. Typically atypical Animal Collective sets might seem like an awkward match for a festival’s main stage, since the crowd is guaranteed not to be full of fans that know what to expect, and at Primavera, some in the crowd declared the performance too self-indulgent and without “proper songs” and left early. However, the majority remained, and they were treated to some new songs that not just showed a lot of promise and even outshone the older selections. In contrast to the light cubes and Creators Project collaboration at Coachella, the visual element of Animal Collective’s set at Primavera was more mysterious and less elaborate, with only moderate usage of house lights and some trippy, colorful animations projected on the screens that never flashed any footage of the band or crowd. If their Primavera headlining set is any indication, their polarizing nature will not lose all the Merriweather Post Pavillion bandwagon-jumpers and continue to draw more followers because of it. Gallery by Colin Athens [nggallery id=216] Gallery by Frank Mojica [nggallery id=217] ]]> http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/05/festival-review-cos-at-primavera-sound-11/feed/ 2 http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/05/vampire-weekend-bright-eyes-head-inaugural-mtk-festival/ http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/05/vampire-weekend-bright-eyes-head-inaugural-mtk-festival/#comments http://c438342.r42.cf2.rackcdn.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mtx-festival.jpg Tue, 10 May 2011 19:33:46 +0000 Alex Young http://consequenceofsound.net/?p=120276 The United States East coast and multi-day music events don’t have the best history together. Just ask All Points West… or Vineland… or M.I.A.. But this August, the MTK Festival will look to change that with an inaugural billed topped by indie heavyweights Vampire Weekend and Bright Eyes.

Set for August 13-14 in East Hampton, New York, the festival — known properly as the Music to Know Festival — will also feature Matt & Kim, Cold War Kids, Chromeo, Tame Impala, M. Ward, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Dawes.

Rounding out the bill are Ra Ra Riot, Tom Tom Club, We Are Scientists, The Limousines, The Naked and Famous, Francis and the Lights, Suddyn, Nicos Gun, and Young Empires.

Two-day passes go on sale Tuesday, May 10th to the general public for $195. Two Day VIP passes can be purchased for $645. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

For the 2011 edition, set to take place July 7-17 across various indoor and outdoor venues in downtown Quebec City, festival organizers have tapped Metallica, Elton John, The Black Keys, Ben Harper, Girl Talk, Death From Above 1979, and John Fogerty.

Other confirmed notables include Dropkick Murphys, Omar Souleyman, Cut Copy, M. Ward, Cage the Elephant, Dawes, The Low Anthem, Marie-Mai, Wanda Jackson, An Horse, Duchess Says, Karkwa, Nortec Collective, Mexican Institute of Sound, and Buck 65.

Additional acts will be revealed in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, you can view all the currently confirmed acts on our Festival Outlook.

Advance sales of the festival’s Hydro-Québec pass will go on sale tomorrow for an early-bird price of $55 at greater Quebec City area Metro supermarkets. (Buy me some peas while you’re there.) Starting at noon on Saturday, April 30th, passes can be purchased online at the regular price of $65 (taxes and service included) on the festival’s website. Single-evening tickets are also available at $30 – taxes and service included – except for the Elton John and Metallica concerts.

As previously reported, Zooey Deschanel made time between baking a chocolate cake for @gibstack and starring in Your Highness to compose music for the forthcoming Winnie the Pooh reboot. The soundtrack doesn’t arrive until July 12th (with the film following three days later on the 15th), but thanks to Covering the Mouse, you can now hear one of Deschanel’s three contributions — her take on the film’s classic theme song. Though it’s not billed as a She & Him production, the track also features M. Ward, who provides the musical support. Hat tip to Largehearted Boy for the find.

On July 25th, 1965, one of the most fabled concert moments in history occurred when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI. In homage to that man’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” this year’s George Wein’s Newport Folk Festival line-up was revealed with the help of fans turning over cards displaying the artists’ names. And like years past, those names make one hell of a lineup.

The Decemberists, Emmylou Harris, and Elvis Costello (solo acoustic) will all make return appearances, this time as headliners. Other familiar faces making a repeat showing at Fort Adams Park include Gillian Welch, Amos Lee, Earl Scruggs, M. Ward (with special guests), The Felice Brothers, and David Wax Museum, who won a spot on last year’s lineup.

The acts only get bigger from there: Gogol Bordello (acoustic), Wanda Jackson, Mavis Staples, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Tegan & Sara, and Carolina Chocolate Drops will also perform. Plus, after bowing out last year with an injured hand, Justin Townes Earle will be in triumphant attendance.

If that weren’t enough, Delta Spirit is on the bill, as is lead singer Matthew Vasquez’s super-group side-project Middle Brother. The Wailin’ Jennys, Freelance Whales, The Secret Sisters, Trampled by Turtles, The Civil Wars, The Head & The Heart, Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three, The Cave Singers, and Mountain Man add to the mix.

Filling out the roster are What Cheer? Brigade, Devil Makes Three, Typhoon, The Ebony Hillbillies, Brownbird, River City Extension, and even the PS 22 chorus (really). Finally, two unexplained but mega-intriguing inclusions are listed: Song Circle with Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, John Gorka & Liz Queler; and The Seeger Clogging All-Stars. Be excited.

Recent years have featured a special Friday night show, but this year it is apparently “under consideration” [sic]. More artist announcements are promised, however.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 31st at 10 AM EST and can be ordered online, by phone, or by mail. Single-day GA passes can be purchased at the Newport Visitor Information Center, and a festival office in the Newport area will open at a later date. More information can be found at the festival’s website, as can the announcement video (psst! That’s yours truly holding the Pokey LeFarge sign). See you at the Fort!

Front page photo by Nate Slevin

There’s been quite a few tributes to the legendary Big Star in the past year, especially given the passing of two of the band’s members. Back in December, a bevy of artists joined together to play Big Star’s Third (their critically successful, oft-bootlegged “lost” album that’s getting the RSD treatment), for the first time recreating the original recording live with the complete wind and string orchestrations. Those two concerts sparked something in the performers, as a repeat is scheduled in just two days.

The March 26th tribute show is being held at Mason Hall at Baruch Performing Arts Center in NYC, and the full set-list with specified performers has just been released (via BrooklynVegan). R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe joins a group of previously announced indie heavyweights including Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Stipe’s band-mate Mike Mills, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, and drummer Jody Stephens, the only surviving current and original Big Star member. Chapel Hill, NC natives Lost in the Trees will provide the orchestral pieces needed to fully realize Third.

Some names that had been previously announced for the show are noticeably absent. M. Ward (Bright Eyes, She & Him) and Chris Stamey and Will Rigby of The dB’s are on multiple posters for the event, but not this schedule. There are some TBD/“Various” spots, so don’t rule out their presences yet.

You can find the complete details/setlist for the performance below. Tickets are still available through TicketWeb.

BIG STAR THIRD TRIBUTE SHOW SONGS/PERFORMERS:
01. “Kizza Me” – Matt McMichaels (from Mayflies USA)
02. “O Dana” – Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo)
03. “For You” – Jody Stephens (Big Star)
04. “Nighttime” – Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub)
05. “Jesus Christ” – Mike Mills (R.E.M.)
06. “Take Care” – Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo)
07. “Big Black Car” – Matthew Sweet
08. “Stroke It, Noel” – Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub)
09. “Blue Moon” – Jody Stephens (Big Star)
10. “Femme Fatale” – TBD
11. “Downs” – Various
12. “Dream Lover” – Tift Merrit
13. “Holocaust” – Django Haskins (The Old Ceremony)
14. “You Can’t Have Me” – Tift Merrit
15. “Kanga Roo” – Michael Stipe (R.E.M.)
16. “Thank You, Friends” – Various

Plus a rich encores list featuring the above plus Brett Harris and Fan Modine.

While some musicians are calling it quits, others are embarking on weird-ass side-projects. Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich is now a horse racing reporter and two members of Monsters of Folk have just started a blog about… crème brûlée.

Per The Daily Swarm, M. Ward and Jim James have once again joined forces, this time to start creme-bru-log. Billed as an “online resource for critique and tastings of crème brûlée from around the world,” the duo has posted three reviews since the blog’s January 13th launch, including one by James about “the fabulous creation of pastry chef angela reynolds at nashville’s miel restaurant.”

i am in a forest of cream. my feet sink into sopping wet puddles of deliciousness with every step forward…all around me are trees of sugared caramel all covered in sweet lace burnt amber leaves…i see a volcano explode from afar-at first i am frozen with terror but then i remember that i am a magic child and i have the ability to freeze the lava flames and turn them into sugar! i walk across the creamy forest up to the frozen lava flame and crack off a piece, popping it onto my tongue- sublime! i notice at the bottom of the sugar flame a melted pool of caramel connects it to the earth…i dip my finger in for a taste and i am at the county fair now eating the greatest caramel apple on a stick- perfection!

M. Ward’s reviews are a little less vivid, but just as fun:

FEB 7, 2008 – omaha, NE – dario’s brasserie\
probably the best CB ive had in the USA so far (we will talk about the cb they serve up in france at some other junctrue but in the meantime…) dario’s  cb is crusty on the outside but not charred. perfectly warm on the inside, not too cold. this is highly recommended brulee. youd have to be an idiot or lactose intolerant to not order 2. 94325u8425823 logs

James and Ward accompany their entries with photos, like the one you see above. They also have a pretty detailed rating system:

-each brulee reviewed will recieve a certain amount of “logs.” think of these logs as “stars,” “points,” or “thumbs” in other reviews you may read. for instance- “joe so and so gave this new film 4 stars.” there is no finite number to the ammount of logs that can be given, with infinite logs being the highest rating possible.

-here at cremebrulog we want to give our readers a voice too, therefor the ammount of logs can be subdivided, added to, or subtracted from by readers until the end of time, or the internet, whichever happens first. at that point god hisself will do the math to determine the true winner of all time creme brulee championship 96! for example:

1.lets say m. ward reviews a brulee and gives it 135700655789 logs. then lets say some reader disagree’s and decides they want to subtract 27638490 logs from m’s review. the log score would then be 135673017299. but if the reader agreed with m’s review they could add logs as well, thus making it a higher overall log score.

2.this will go on thruout the ages- until the end of time, or the end of the internet, whichever should happen first.

3.THEN as the world is ending god will tally up the total points- thus giving us the true champion brulee of all time!

As my colleague Ray Roa so perfectly summed it up: “What a life.  Can you imagine the shit that sits inside their heads all day?”

For one, Primavera has brought Sufjan Stevens out of his long-perceived anti-music festival shell. They’ve also added the equally stellar likes of PJ Harvey, Interpol, Big Boi, Battles, Public Image, LTD, Simian Mobile Disco, of Montreal, and The Tallest Man on Earth.

Set to run from May 26-28, the festival will also feature Explosions in the Sky, Girl Talk, The Black Angels, The Monochrome Set, DJ Shadow, Kurt Vile, M. Ward, James Blake, Smith Westerns, Warpaint, Matthew Dear, Avi Buffalo, and Odd Future. Plus, London DJ Kode9 will play two sets, including one with the acclaimed Burial. For a full list of all Primavera’s confirmed acts, click here.

Festival passes are priced at 155 €, but will rise to 170 € on February 5th. Visit the festival’s website for complete details.

She & Him are just so gosh darn cute. Zooey Deschanel’s bangs aside, proof of said adorableness can be found in their videos. Whether it’s the cupie doll winks and hula hoops of “In The Sun” or the foreign flick directed by toddlers that is “Thieves”, it’s hard not to ohhh and awww a bit when the duo show up in an embedded box. For their new “Don’t Look Back” clip, Mrs. Ben Gibbard and M. Ward continue the trend with another psuedo ’50s-inspired round of cheek-pinching cuteness, this time with cloning (multiple Zooey Deschanels are called Deschaneli), plastic furniture, holograms, robotic keyboard players, BBQs, and, of course, mass choreographed dance parties. Check out the video above and try not to pass out from the sugar rush.

Yes, Joanna Newsom has a tribute album and thanks to the wonders of online streaming, you can sample all 21 of the album’s tracks in the Soundcloud widget below. As previously reported, Versions of Johanna features contributions from the likes of M. Ward, Billy Bragg, Owen Pallett, and Ben Sollee, and all profits from the sale of the album benefit Oxfam. They’re asking for $10 or more for a digitial copy and you can buy it right now at this link.

In keeping with the Bob Dylan references, for those of you who can’t quite hop the hurdle that is Newsom’s unique voice, this album might be a great way in to her exceptional songwriting.

Check out the alphabetical song list and roster below.

Versions of Joanna:
Francesco Santocono: “’81″
A Voice Heard on Baer Mountain: “Autumn”
Sarah Katheryn: “Baby Birch”
Joel Cathey: “Book of Right-On”
Guy Buttery: “Book of Right-On” (instrumental)
Josh Mann: “Bridges & Balloons”
Chris Leeds: “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie”
Ian Cooke: “Colleen”
This Is Deer Country: “Easy”
Doublewuzzy: “Flying a Kite”
Rosa Hinksman: “In California”
White Elephant Gift Exchange: “Inflammatory Writ”
Ian Cooke: “Monkey & Bear”
Billy Bragg: “On a Good Day”
Kristina Forrer: “On a Good Day”
Owen Pallett: “Peach, Plum, Pear”
M. Ward: “Sadie”
Ben Sollee: “Sawdust & Diamonds”
David Miele: “Soft as Chalk”
The Moscow Coup Attempt: “Sprout and the Bean”
Melissa Stylianou: “Swansea”
Jennifer Schmitt: “This Side of the Blue”

Quite honestly, we don’t blame you. A lot can happen in a given week that consumes the better part of your attention.

We’re back once again to fill you in on all things music. Think of it as a temporary break from the daily grind. Or at least a fabulous procrastination tool if you’re an overworked college student. So enjoy the following recap, no matter who you are or what you’ve got on your plate.

– Remember when we told you that Panda Bear would release Tomboy this month? Well, we were lying.

– We might have lied about Daft Punk‘s massive tour next year, too.

But everything else that follows is totally true. Honest!

– Amy Winehouse is still alive and making music. Find out more here.

– The Rolling Stones are retiring.

– Harvest of Hope got axed.

– Freebass broke up.

– Bonnaroo is already shaping up to be epic.

– Amazon purchased the digital music site Amie Street.

– A track from Kings on Leon‘s forthcoming LP surfaced.

– There’s plenty of other new material to hear as well. Sufjan Stevens put a new song. And The Decemberists put out three.

– As if The xx couldn’t get any bigger, they won the 2010 Mercury Prize.

– The Dresden Dolls announced a brief reunion tour.

– M. Ward and Chris Walla, among others, will participate in a Led Zeppelin tribute.

– Massive Attack have a new EP in the works. So does Metallica.

– Squarepusher detailed his forthcoming LP.

– Soundgarden shed some light their upcoming plans.

– N.E.R.D. and a bunch of other special guests will join Gorillaz on tour.

– Michael Roffman dissected the new Weezer album.

– Adam Kivel shared his thoughts on The Thermals‘ latest effort.

– Chris Coplan reviewed Body Talk Pt. 2, the second of Robyn‘s three planned albums for this year.

– Drew Litowitz told us about Cotton Jones‘ new gem.

– We posted our report on the inaugural North Coast Music Fest

– Philip Cosores covered FYF  ’10.

– And as if we don’t post enough festival-related material on this site, Karina Halle took on Bumbershoot.

These independent musicians and more — including The Long Winters, Loch Lomond, Laura Viers, Portland Cello Project, and Nick Jaina — have covered Led Zeppelin classics for an upcoming tribute album titled From The Land of Ice And Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin. So, for example, Mr. Ward tackled “Bron-Yr-Aur”, while Walla did “In The Evening”.  And for those wondering, Kelly Blair Bauman handled “Stairway to Heaven”.

The 33-track, 2-disc set will arrive starting October 12th and will be available on a double gatefold CD. Also included will be artwork created by Carson Ellis of The Decemberists. You can find the complete tracklist below and artwork to your top right.

What’s more, a percentage of proceeds from sales of the compilation will go to First Octave, a music education-based organization that believes that consistent music education fosters creative as well as intellectual values and is essential to a balanced core curriculum in schools.

From The Land of Ice And Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin Tracklist:
Disc 1:
01. Kind of Like Spitting: “Good Times Bad Times”
02. The Clampitt Family: “Babe, I’m Going To Leave You”
03. Portland Cello Project: “Dazed and Confused”
04. Nick Jaina: “Your Time Is Gonna Come”
05. Fuck’d upright: “Whole Lotta Love”
06. Adam Selzer: “Poor Tom”
07. Carcrashlander: “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
08. Kaia: “Fool In The Rain”
09. Dan Jones: “Thank You”
10. Lackthereof feat. Pete McCracken: “Heartbreaker”
11. Knock Knock: “Moby Dick”
12. Super XX Man: “Out on the Tiles”
13. Amy Annelle & The Shishi Mountain Boys: “Friends”
14. Jeff London: “Tangerine”
15. Arch Cape: “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”
16. Weinland: “Hey Hey What Can I Do”
17. Chris Walla: “In The Evening”

Disc 2:
18. Lana Rebel: “Black Dog”
19. Pellet Gun: “Rock and Roll”
20. Tu Fawning: “The Battle of Evermore”
21. Kelly Blair Bauman: “Stairway To Heaven”
22. Buellton: “Misty Mountain Top”
23. Rebecca Gates and the Consortium: “Four Sticks”
24. Johanna Kunin and Yikes Mountain: “Over The Hills and Far Away”
25. Testface: “No Quarter”
26. Laura Viers and Mount Analog: “The Ocean”
27. Beltdine: “Houses of the Holy”
28. Loch Lomond: “Kashmir”
29. The Long Winters: “In The Light”
30. M. Ward: “Bron-Yr-Aur”
31. Power of Country: “Down By The Seaside”
32. Parks and Recreation: “All My Love”
33. Dave Depper: “I’m Gonna Crawl”